It is good that while you are young you see the vision concerning the church and are developing a burden to build up the church. After seeing the vision of the church, we all have the feeling that we want to give ourselves to the Lord to build up the most wonderful thing in the universe—His church.

Some may see this vision when they are older. The older one is, the less time he has to build. You have time because you are young. Be careful, your time may run out like everyone else if you do not set your heart on the Lord’s building today. You should do everything possible, including studying hard, reading the Word, praying, learning to preach, being in the meetings, and offering to the Lord, to prepare yourselves for the work of the ministry and for the building up of the church.

I. God Calling the Young People for His Move

It is so good to have the young person in the Lord’s recovery. In every age and generation God has come to the young people for the carrying out of His move. Both the Bible and church history show us that God wants to use the young people.

Adam: We may say that Adam was very young when God was with him because he had just been created.
Abel: The second generation of man in the line of life, was probably also young when he offered sacrifices to the Lord (Gen. 4:2, 4).
Enoch: Enoch was young when he began to walk in God’s presence. He was sixty-five years old when he began to walk with God, but at his time a man who was sixty-five years old was still young. He walked with God for three hundred years, and God took him at the age of three hundred sixty-five (Gen. 5:21-22).
Abraham: The first time God called Abraham, he was in Mesopotamia. At that time he was very young.
Moses: Moses was called by God and began to serve Him when he was eighty years old, but his preparation for service began when he was a small boy being nursed by his mother.
Samuel, David & Daniel: Samuel was a very young boy when he was caught by God (1 Sam. 2:18). David also was a young man when he was anointed to be king (1 Sam. 16:11-13). Likewise, Daniel was young when he was an overcomer in the palace of the king of Babylon (Dan. 1:4, 17).

Young People in the New Testament

In the New Testament, none of the apostles whom Jesus called was an old man. They all were young people. When the Lord walked along the shore of the sea of Galilee, He called the young people. Zebedee was with his two sons, John and James, but the Lord called only the sons and not Zebedee (Matt. 4:21-22). It was God’s divine way and economy to call the sons and not the father. The elders in the first church on the earth, the church in Jerusalem, were young people.

The Bible also tells us that Timothy became an apostle (1 Thes. 1:1 cf. 2:6) as a young man to carry on the Lord’s testimony. In 2 Timothy 2:22 Paul wrote, "Flee youthful lusts." This indicates that the receiver of that Epistle was still a young man.

"You should not consider yourself too young to be serious with the Lord. You are at the right age to be called for the Lord’s move in His recovery of the building up of His church."

I am happy that I was called by God when I was a teenager. All those who were in the initial stage of the Lord’s recovery of the proper church life over fifty years ago were young people in their twenties. Very few were over twenty-five. Most were either in high school or in college. Therefore, set your heart on the Lord's building today.

Recent Writings

Voices Behind the Journal