«　WEEK 5　DAY 2　»

　　Eph. 4:3 Being diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.

　　Acts 4:24 And when they heard this, they lifted up their voice with one accord to God and said, Sovereign Master, You are the One who has made heaven and earth and the sea and all things in them.

　　The proper one accord in the church is the practice of the genuine oneness of the Body…. In Matthew 18:19, before the Lord prayed for the oneness in John 17, He trained His disciples to practice the one accord…. To be in the one accord is to practice the oneness. A little more than forty days after the Lord’s prayer in John 17, the one hundred twenty disciples practiced the Lord’s direction in Matthew 18 by praying together in one accord (Acts 1:14). (CWWL, 1989, vol. 4, “Elders’ Training, Book 10: The Eldership and the God-ordained Way (2),” p. 375)

　　To build up the vital groups, we need to keep the oneness of the Spirit, that is, the oneness of the Body, in the one accord according to the Lord’s desire with much and thorough prayer (Eph. 4:3; Acts 1:14; 4:24). Without the one accord we cannot keep the oneness. The one accord is the heart, the kernel, of the oneness. If we do not have the one accord, God cannot answer our prayer, because we do not practice the Body. Our not being in one accord means that we do not practice the Body. According to the proper interpretation of the New Testament, the one accord is the one Body. We must practice the principle of the Body; then we will have the one accord. Although we may not fight with one another, we still may not have the one accord. Because we have remained together, we have seen the Lord’s blessing but only in a limited way. Therefore, we need to have the one accord to practice the Body.

　　If among those in a group there is no one accord, what can the Lord do with them? This is why my burden concerning the vital groups is so heavy. I am very clear that we do not have the full and complete one accord among us. Therefore, in a sense it is hard for the Lord to move freely among us. If we are not in one accord, God has no way to answer our prayer. If God does not have a way to answer our prayer, what can He do with us? Without the one accord, it is difficult to get people saved, converted, and regenerated by the dynamic salvation of God. Thus, our inadequacy in the one accord is a sickness that is more than serious. We have been sick for years, yet we might have been unconscious of our sickness. We may come to the meetings, praise the Lord, and prophesy, but we may do all these things without being conscious of the fact that we do not have the adequate one accord.

　　Although I have studied the Bible for many years, I did not see until recently that oneness is like the body, and one accord is like the heart within the body. Our sickness is not just like a sickness in the outward, physical body; our sickness is like a sickness in the heart within the body…. We need to know what our sickness is. The sickness among us is that we do not have the one accord adequately. Therefore, we maintain only a oneness with a sick “heart.”…We are still here for the oneness, yet within us there is an inadequacy in the one accord. Because of this, it is hard for the Lord to answer our prayer, especially in the matter of fruit-bearing for the increase of the Lord’s recovery. For this, surely we need to humble ourselves before Him.

　　The grouping of the saints together in the vital groups is to recover us, and to recover us means to heal us, to cure us. We have become sick; thus, we need the healing. The healing that we need is to be grouped together in the adequate accord. The way to touch the sickness that is among us is to have the vital groups. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 3, “Fellowship concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups,” pp. 437-438, 441, 431-432)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 3, “Fellowship concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups,” chs. 7, 9-10, 12