I.　The way the early disciples took to carry out God's move on this earth to fulfill His New Testament economy was entirely by three main sub-stances—prayer, the Spirit, and the Word:

A.　Prayer, the Spirit, and the Word are the three substances of the power in the Lord's recovery—Acts 1:8, 14; 4:31; 6:4, 7; 12:24; 19:20.

B.　The early disciples could not have maintained the one accord if they had different ways, means, agents, or substances for them to carry out the Lord's move on this earth; in order to maintain the unique one accord we all have to learn to do the same thing by the same way—1:14; 4:31.

C.　Do not think of taking a way other than prayer, the Spirit, and the Word; any other way will cause dissension and division.

D.　We should pray that we may have the Spirit as the power to spread the Word—6:7; 12:24; 19:20.

E.　The book of Acts shows us that the apostles never initiated any work without prayer; this is the prayer that we need for the move of the acting God:

1.　The prayer that we need is the prayer that brought in the outpouring of the Spirit—1:14; 2:1-4, 16-17a.

2.　The prayer that we need is the prayer that shook the earth and empowered the disciples with the Holy Spirit for the speaking of the word of God with boldness—4:24-31.

3.　The prayer that we need is the prayer of the apostles to match the ministry of the word—6:4.

4.　The prayer that we need is the prayer that brought Peter into a trance and brought a heavenly vision to him—10:9-16.

5.　The prayer that we need is the prayer that opened the prison gate for Peter—12:4-14.

6.　The prayer that we need is the prayer that brought the five prophets and teachers into the Lord's commission—13:1-4.

7.　The prayer that we need is the prayer that brought in a great earthquake and shook the foundation of the prison—16:23-26.

8.　The prayer that we need is the prayer that brought Paul into a trance and into the Lord's speaking to him—22:17-21.

F.　We need to devote ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word—6:4:

1.　To pray is not only to entreat the Lord to do things for His move but also to cause our spirit to be exercised and strengthened; hence, prayer should precede the ministry of the word, just as the apostles practiced.

2.　Without such prayer the ministry of the word will not be enlivened and empowered.

G.　We need to toil in the Word, labor in prayer, and be diligent in dealing with the Holy Spirit—cf. 1 Tim. 5:17-18:

1.　We have to get ourselves saturated, constituted, and even soaked with the holy Word; if you are burdened to preach the gospel, you must get into the Word and be one who knows the Word—Col. 3:16.

2.　We should ask the Lord to bring our entire being into the light and be dealt with by Him to become a person of power, full of the Spirit within and without, essentially and economically—Eph. 5:18; Acts 4:8:

a.　We should ask the Lord to bring our entire being into the light for a full exposure of our real condition so that we may be purified and cleansed by Him; the power comes from this kind of prayer—1 John 1:9.

b.　Prayer makes you another person, a person of power, full of the Spirit within and without.

3.　We need to be men of God with the breath of God—2 Tim. 3:15-17:

a.　The Bible is God's breath, this breath is the Spirit, and the Spirit gives life—v. 16; John 20:22; 2 Cor. 3:6.

b.　Our reading of the Bible should be a kind of inhaling, and our teaching of the Bible should be a kind of exhaling; by exercising our spirit to pray over the Word, we inhale God, and by exercising our spirit to minister the Word we exhale God into others—Eph. 6:17-18; Acts 6:4.

II.　The picture of Lot's family and his seed by incest shows that when God's people lose the proper function in life, they use ugly and worldly means for securing the increase—Gen. 19:30-38:

A.　Desiring to have seed regardless of the means, Lot's daughters bore sons out of their father by incest, thus breaking the governing principle ordained by God.

B.　In principle, to use any kind of sinful or worldly methods to secure increase for our success in the Christian work is to break God's governing principle and thus to commit spiritual incest—cf. Matt. 7:21-23:

1.　Some groups use rock music, dancing, drama, movies, and games to satisfy their desire of securing the increase; in the eyes of God this is spiritual incest, which brings forth "Moabites" and "Ammonites."

2.　It is possible for God's people to be drugged with the wicked current of the evil world and care only for success, not for the means; they care for soul-winning, but they do not care for the proper way of doing it.

3.　We need a governing principle for our spiritual activity; it is not a matter of prophesying, casting out demons, or working miracles but a matter of the Father's will—vv. 21-23.

4.　Our spiritual activities must be the doing of the Father's will; if we do things without this assurance, we shall break the governing principle and commit spiritual incest, being workers of lawlessness.

C.　Ishmael, brought forth by fleshly effort, was rejected by God (Gen. 21:10-12); Moab and Ben-ammi, brought forth by incest, were a shame in history; only Isaac, brought forth by God's grace, was used to fulfill God's purpose.

D.　In order to bear fruit we should live by Christ, live out Christ, pray, and help people to receive the living word of God so that they might be reborn; this is the way to bring forth the proper fruit to be the "Isaac" for the fulfilling of God's purpose—Gal. 4:28.