Search
We all know that to do anything requires real power. When we go to perfect a home meeting, the real power lies in our being joined to the Lord as one spirit. Whether or not we are joined to the Lord as one spirit is spontaneously revealed in our living in several ways. First, we must be people who always pray and fellowship with the Lord. This does not mean we need to pray for many things. Often when we have too many things to pray for, they become a distraction to our being joined to the Lord. According to the New Testament, to pray unceasingly means that we are always joined to the Lord and that we keep contacting the Lord in our inner being. As a result, our entire being is filled with and occupied by the Lord inwardly, and our outward, spontaneous expression is thanksgiving and praises.
In Ephesians 5 Paul charges the believers to not be drunk with wine. Then he says, “But be filled in spirit” (v. 18). The result of being filled in spirit is to be filled with the word of the Lord. Our mouths not only speak and sing the word of the Lord unceasingly, but they are also full of thanksgiving and praises (vv. 19-20). This requires us to be people who live in the Lord and are joined to the Lord continually.
If we are too formal and rigid when we lead a home meeting, we will definitely kill the meeting. These formal and rigid ways may not be wrong, but they do not issue in the living out of the divine life. We must be people who are joined to the Lord in our spirit. This kind of joining to the Lord will make our expression fresh, living, and touching, and our expression will cause others to feel that we are people full of vitality. If a person weeps in front of us, even though we may not weep, we will still feel a certain sorrow. When a weeping person comes to us, he makes us want to weep. On the contrary, if a joyful person comes to us, even though we may not want to laugh, we still will laugh. A laughing person, one who brings laughter with him, causes us to respond with laughter. The kind of person we are determines the kind of response we produce.
When we go to perfect a home meeting, we need to bring the Lord with us. The Lord is lively, fresh, full of vitality, and always joyful. Of course, the Bible tells us that the Lord Jesus had times of grief and sorrow, and in Genesis 6:6, when man was corrupted to the uttermost, God grieved and repented that He had made man on the earth. It is true that God has times of sorrow, but we do not see many instances in the Bible in which God grieves. Rather, God is continually joyful. God is not a sorrowful God but a joyful God. Today since we are joined to God and are one spirit with the Lord, we should be a joyful and released people.
It is right for us to be proper, but we should not be too restrained. If we are released, joyful, lively, and fresh, when we go to a home meeting, we will bring with us these sweet qualities. A Japanese has the look of a Japanese; when he goes to a home meeting, he brings the Japanese culture and atmosphere with him. Likewise, when an American goes to a home meeting, he brings an American atmosphere, and if a five-year-old child goes there, he brings a naughty atmosphere. Therefore, when we go to perfect a home meeting, the most important key is the kind of person we are. A Japanese will “perfect” a Japanese home meeting, an American will create an American home meeting, and a joking person will produce a joking home meeting. Similarly, a formal and rigid person will produce a dead and cold home meeting. We cannot pretend. The kind of person we are is the kind of home meeting we will produce. How useful we are in the Lord’s hand and the kind of home meeting we can produce all depend on the extent, the degree, and the condition of our joining to the Lord. If the extent of our joining to the Lord is great, the degree is high, and the condition is good, the home meeting we lead will certainly be a good one.
We all know that to do a certain thing requires a certain kind of person. When a surgeon is about to operate, he must be completely sterile, and his hair and body must be covered. Only then can he perform the surgery. If a surgeon does not cleanse his hands and cover his head, he will unconsciously spread the bacteria on his body to the patient. When we go to perfect a home meeting, we often unintentionally bring our old man to the saints. Our original intention is to bring the Lord Jesus to them, but often the Lord Jesus does not come. Instead, a Japanese, an American, or a joking person comes. Although we intend to bring the Lord, it is questionable who eventually comes.
It is certainly easy to change outward things. It is easy to ask a surgeon to wash his hands and to sterilize and cover his whole body. However, it is very difficult for a person to change his nature. There is a proverb that says, “Changing one’s nature is more difficult than moving mountains and rivers.” Some co-workers who were trained more than thirty years ago still do not have much change. Even up until today they are what they were. When a person has been molded into a certain form, he cannot be changed when the east wind comes, nor can he be changed when the west wind comes. He is the same way in the summer, and he is still the same way in the winter. When others feel cold, he is not cold; when others feel hot, he is not hot. When others weep, he has almost no feeling; when others laugh, he does not laugh. When you lift your hands to sing hymns and be joyful with this kind of person, he does not respond, and when you want to pray aloud with him, he does not make a sound. No matter how one may rebuke this kind of person, he does not become angry. With great strength he seems as invincible and stable as a great mountain; he cannot be moved.
If this kind of person goes to lead a home meeting or a church meeting, the whole meeting will be as dead and rigid as he is. Not a single person in the church under his leading will be beside himself for the Lord. Since such a one is not beside himself, he certainly cannot lead a “crazy” meeting or perfect others to be beside themselves. However hard one tries, he cannot ignite a fire in this kind of person. It seems he is fireproof, even fire extinguishing. This shows us that in the matter of perfecting a home meeting, the most difficult one to deal with is ourselves.
We have to be adjusted before the Lord and not remain in our old nature. Whether we are Shantungese, Cantonese, Japanese, or American, we have to remember this principle: We saved ones have “moved our home” from Adam into Christ. The phrase in Christ is a great one, but few people have the actual experience of being in Christ in their practice. This experience is in the spirit. The Bible does not say that he who is joined to the Lord is one Christ with Him but that he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). This is altogether a matter of the spirit. Therefore, we must learn not to stay in our own person but to enter into the spirit and be joined to the Lord in spirit. In the past we used only our mind to think, our emotion to manage things, and our strong will to decide. This demonstrates that we were people who stayed in our soul and remained in our self. We must learn to walk not by the parts of our soul but by our spirit, always turning back to our spirit. Once we turn to our spirit, we contact the Lord, and our spirit is fanned into flame and burning.
In the New Testament there are two passages that speak of being burning and fervent in spirit. One is in Romans 12:11: “Be burning in spirit, serving the Lord.” The other is in Acts 18:25, which speaks of Apollos. Although he had little revelation and did not know much truth, he was fervent in spirit. In common speech there is no such expression as being fervent in spirit; we mainly speak of emotional impulses. However, if a Christian is emotionally impulsive, he will fail, because to be emotionally impulsive is in the self, the natural man, and even the flesh. Therefore, we must be ones who are fervent in spirit.
Before going to perfect a home meeting, we ourselves must first have a transfer from our soul — our mind, emotion, and will — into our spirit. This requires our exercise. We need to go out and labor, but we should never forget that before we go to a home, we must first have a transfer. This transfer is to move quickly from our mind into our spirit. We may be in our spirit one moment, but in the next moment we may run to our mind. Therefore, we have to move back. We must resolve not to go to perfect a home meeting before we turn back to our spirit. Every time we go to a home meeting, we have to be in our spirit. Moreover, when we go to the home meeting to fellowship and speak with others, we need to be careful, because it is easy for us to unconsciously move back to our “old home,” our soul. This is the way we need to exercise.
Second, we must be proficient in the word of the Lord. Being proficient implies not only being experienced but also being familiar with and skilled in a certain thing. The word of the Lord is the word of life. Not only should we understand it, but we also need to enter into it. When we enter into the word of the Lord and experience this word, we will be proficient in the word. For this purpose, we need to read more of the Bible and the spiritual publications. The more we read the word of the Lord, the more we will experience the Lord’s word and the more proficient and skillful we will be. Then when we go to perfect a home meeting, the element of the Lord’s word will come out whenever we open our mouth. The Lord’s word is the expression of the Lord. The coming out of the element of the Lord’s word is the Lord in us being expressed through our speaking. This is not our own speaking but the spontaneous flow of the Lord’s word.
We may illustrate this with a person’s education. If a person has graduated only from elementary school, his manner of speaking will give him away. If he has graduated from high school, his manner of speaking will certainly be different. If he continues his studies through college, his speaking will be even more different. Such a person will have been educated for many years and saturated with the words of his learning throughout these years. Moreover, he will have continually practiced these words and become familiar with them. As a result, he will be skillful and proficient in these words. A person simply needs to open his mouth to speak, and others will know the kind of education he has received. Those who are not educated scold others in a certain way, and those who are educated scold others in a different way. A person cannot pretend; one person’s constitution is not the same as another’s.
We must be continually exercised in the word of the Lord. In Hebrews 5:13 Paul mentions the word of righteousness, and in Hebrews 6:5 he speaks of the good word. The good word is the word of grace. The word of the Lord in the New Testament is of two categories: the good word, that is, the word of grace, and the word of righteousness. The good word, the word of grace, is easy to understand. According to Hebrews, it refers to the word of the Lord’s earthly ministry, which is recorded in the four Gospels. Today most Christians treasure only the word in the four Gospels. The word in the four Gospels is truly good, but it is only the good word, the word of grace, and is still not the word of righteousness. When Paul wrote Hebrews, he spoke about the word of the Lord’s heavenly ministry, which is excellent, deep, and mysterious; this is the word of righteousness. When we go to perfect a home meeting, we need to be familiar with these two kinds of words.
To apply for a good job in any field today generally requires a person to be at least a college graduate. If a person has not graduated from college, it is usually not easy for him to find a good job because his practical knowledge is not adequate. He must pass through certain courses in order to be fitted for his job. At the same time his mind will become skillful. In this way, regardless of the circumstances he is put into, whatever he does will be done well. Sixty years ago we might have looked down on an electrician who digs through walls, pulls cables, and repairs wires. Not everyone may realize that in America a person needs to graduate at least from high school and then receive specialized training for two years to do this work, because this job is technically and scientifically specialized. Likewise, some people may think that serving the Lord is an easy matter. Little do they know that serving the Lord requires us to be skillful in all things.
Everyone who has the heart to love and serve the Lord must spend time in His word. When I first started to serve the Lord, I spent more than half my time each day in studying the word of the Lord. I spent more than half of each day to study, search, record, and copy the word, and this became a great help to me in my later days. Therefore, apart from the necessary time for working, eating, sleeping, and exercising, the remainder of our time should be spent diligently reading the Bible and the spiritual publications. If we want to be skillful in this aspect, we need to exercise ourselves. This is not the work of a day, nor the work of a year; it is the work of a lifetime. Whenever we have time, we need to seize the opportunity to study the Bible. We have to read through the Bible at least once in a year. In addition, we should read all of our spiritual publications once. We must be ones who are equipped with the truth. Then when we go out, we will spontaneously have the strength to perfect others.
Third, when we go to perfect a home meeting, we must be burning in spirit. Being burning in spirit is the morale among us. If a brother and a sister in the training get married, for example, we will all be joyful. However, we need to consider practically whether it is appropriate for trainees to get married during the term of training. Will this affect the morale? The training is to ignite and fan the flame within us. We are fanning every day. Just when the fire is fanned into flame, a marriage may be “cold water” poured on us, and our morale will diminish. Then when we go door-knocking, we may have no power because we are not burning in spirit.
We hope that all the trainees will delay their marriage plans until their training is over so that they can consecrate all their time for the training, and the morale of the training will not be affected. In the age of the judges in the Old Testament, there were more than thirty thousand who heard the trumpets of Gideon and came to join the army, but God said that there were too many, and He tested them by the way they drank water. Those who knelt down to drink the water, God rejected. Instead, God accepted those who remained ready to fight as they lapped the water. He needed that kind of people. Although there were only three hundred of these, they were able to fight (Judg. 7:2-7). This was their morale. When we go to perfect a home meeting, we must have such a morale.
When many newly saved young people see the trainees serving full time while they are so young, they have the same desire within them. This is the morale that compels others to be the same way. The traditional work of preaching in Christianity has no effect, because it does not have any morale. Those who become preachers think that to take up a career of preaching is simply to bring a few people to the Sunday service; if they can do this, their mission is fulfilled. There is no morale in this practice. Today we who serve the Lord are not only volunteer soldiers but also desperate fighters who serve at the risk of our lives. In this way the morale is generated among us.
However, this kind of morale cannot be pretended. If we are not this kind of people, we will not have much impact when we go to perfect a home meeting. However, if we are this kind of people, every member of the family will be perfected when we go to perfect a home meeting. A certain elderly grandmother who had worshipped Buddha for her whole life never expected that her granddaughter would believe in the Lord and be saved. Although she loved this granddaughter, it was not easy for such an elderly person to leave the idols she worshipped. This granddaughter had a fiancé who was burning in spirit, and he talked to the grandmother about believing in the Lord. After a short while she also believed in the Lord and was baptized in the bathtub in her home. Then right away she burned all her idols, which she had worshipped for decades. This demonstrates our morale. When we go to someone’s home to perfect the meeting there, we need to have this kind of morale by which others can see that we belong to Jesus, that for us to live is Jesus, and that all we think and everything within us are nothing but Jesus. Once we have such a morale, even though we may not speak much, others will be benefited. This is the morale we need to have.
The three foregoing matters are for our fanning people into flame, causing them to be burning in spirit. However, when we are zealous, it is easy to be frivolous. The Bible tells us that we need to be soberminded. Those who serve the Lord should not be frivolous. When we go to perfect a home meeting, although we should not be rigid, neither should we be playful. Rather, we should be dignified. The term soberminded is difficult to explain. In Titus 1:8 the Chinese Union Version translates this phrase as “grave,” while the Recovery Version translates it as “of a sober mind,” meaning having a mind of soberness, being sober and self-disciplined. A person who is muddled cannot be grave. If a person is casual and muddled, laughing when he should not laugh and crying when he should not cry, he is frivolous and not soberminded. We need to be clear in our mind and of a sober mind.
We may illustrate sobermindedness in the following way. If you are in your own room, you can lie on your bed. However, when you come to someone else’s living room, you may find the couch comfortable and lie down. Then when he comes and sees you, you may still not get up. Rather, you may say, “Brother, I am so joyful that the grace of the Lord is sufficient.” Acting in this way will surely make others think you are abnormal. If we are dignified and of a sober mind, we will behave properly and sobermindedly, having a proper expression in every aspect. Hence, the term soberminded has the meaning of soberness, self-control, and self-discipline. When we are alone in our room, whether or not we have self-control may not be apparent, but when we are in someone’s living room, we should behave in a soberminded way.
After speaking of being soberminded, Titus 1:8 says, “Righteous, holy, self-controlled.” In actuality, all these matters are related to being “of a sober mind.” For us to have righteousness, holiness, and self-control, we must be people of a sober mind who can control ourselves, restrain ourselves, and give ourselves no ground to be loose. This should be so not only in big matters but even in small matters. To scratch our feet carelessly while we speak in a home meeting is to not behave out of a sober mind. A person of a sober mind should have righteousness, holiness, and self-control. A person who is soberminded and grave is a person who is not frivolous.
Not only so, a person who is grave and soberminded is clear in his mind and sharp in his vision. He perceives when he should laugh and when he should cry. He contacts elderly people in one way and young people in another way. He has one way towards men and another way towards women. When sisters go out to contact people and the host of a house turns out to be a man, they should keep a certain separation when they shake his hand. They should shake hands with a person of the same sex in one way and shake hands with a person of the opposite sex in another. This is to be grave. If someone contacts everyone in the same way with no difference at all, he is frivolous, not discerning the actual situation.
In your practice you should not pretend to be grave simply for the sake of a home meeting. Rather, you should exercise to be grave in your daily living. You should not pretend or be a muddled person. Instead, you should have a clear view, a sober mind, and a proper measure. To be of a sober mind means to have self-discipline, to be self-restrained, and to have self-control in everything. However, this is not to put on a lofty appearance, making people feel that we who serve the Lord are special. This is absolutely not true. We have to be weighty people who do not speak thoughtlessly, express our opinion casually, or convey our attitude lightly. Rather, we are fresh, living, and spontaneous. We stay within our limit and measure, our manner is appropriate, and our speaking and behavior are grave and fitting.
In practicing the new way, the breaking of bread is also an important issue. In the matter of bread-breaking, we have always been very cautious. In the past few decades we never would hastily begin to break the bread in any place. However, because of the rigidity in certain areas of our former practice, the function of many saints has been annulled. Hence, we do not want to entirely follow our former old practice. Instead, we want to follow what the Bible says, allowing the church life to be practically carried out and built up in the homes of the newly saved ones. This will then bring in the breaking of bread, because bread-breaking is the most basic practice in the church life.
We still should be cautious in establishing the meeting for breaking bread. First, we should not be hasty to break bread in the home of a newly saved one. We must have much fellowship with him to understand his living, his environment, and his relationships with his relatives, friends, and neighbors. In this way we will know whether or not he has evil companions, such as companions in gambling, or whether he has other relationships that are unclean in his family life or with his neighbors, relatives, friends, and colleagues. A person may be saved and baptized, but his old living may not be cleared up, and there may be many matters that are wrong not only in the eyes of Christians but also in the eyes of the world. Before we have this kind of understanding, it is too hasty and absolutely not appropriate to establish a bread-breaking meeting in his home. We must know a person’s situation and go to have fellowship with him week by week, leading him in a spontaneous way so that he can have the opportunity to clear up his old living.
Next, if there are still unclean things in his home, such as idols or a mah-jongg table, we need to help him clear those up. It is a terrible thing to establish a meeting for breaking bread in a person’s home without first dealing with these matters. It may be that the table used for breaking the bread in the morning becomes a mah-jongg table in the evening. This would be a great loss to the Lord’s testimony. Therefore, in such cases we need to have a careful observation and lead people to have a thorough clearance. Being influenced by the Ching Dynasty, Chinese people like to have dragons in their homes. In the Bible the dragon signifies Satan, but in Chinese society the dragon is regarded as something good. This is the stratagem of the evil one, and we need to pay attention to this.
After people are saved, they will spontaneously abhor unclean and sinful things because of Christ’s life in them. However, we still must help them gradually to have the proper knowledge concerning a thorough clearance of their living. In this way we can begin breaking bread in their homes at the appropriate time. If at the beginning the number in a home is too small for bread-breaking, we can combine two to three neighboring homes for this meeting.
Furthermore, before breaking bread, we need to have fellowship with the new ones once or twice on the significance of bread-breaking. The first meaning of bread-breaking is the remembrance of the Lord. In 1 Corinthians 11:24-25 the Lord said, “This is My body, which is given for you; this do unto the remembrance of Me...This cup is the new covenant established in My blood; this do, as often as you drink it, unto the remembrance of Me.” This clearly indicates the meaning of bread-breaking. It is not a religious ritual; rather, it is wholly for the remembrance of the Lord. Remembrance implies love, because we remember only those whom we love. It is precisely because we love the Lord that we consider Him and remember Him. According to the historical record, in the early days shortly after the Lord died, the believers broke bread on the Lord’s Day every week for the remembrance of the Lord, as Acts 20:7 says, “On the first day of the week, when we gathered together to break bread.” Likewise, we need to break bread at least once a week for the remembrance of the Lord.
How do we remember the Lord? To speak simply, to remember the Lord is to eat and drink Him. To eat the bread is to eat the Lord, and to drink the cup is to drink the Lord. Whom are we drinking? We are drinking the Lord who has dispensed Himself into us through the cross. How did He dispense Himself into us? He gave His body and shed His blood for us. Shedding His blood was for redeeming us, and giving His body was for dispensing His life so that He could enter into us. Our remembrance of Him today is our reviewing once again how He shed His blood for us so that our sins would be forgiven and how He gave His body on the cross so that we could gain Him. Now we have Him within us as our life. Our eating the bread and drinking the cup are to review and be reminded of the story of this salvation. We remember Him by eating, drinking, and enjoying Him.
At the same time, this kind of remembrance is the testimony of our daily lives. We testify that there is nothing in our daily lives but eating and drinking the Lord. Our daily lives are lives of enjoying the Lord, the Savior who gave His body and shed His blood for us. Moreover, we live out this One, testifying that for us to live is Christ. On the first day of the week our coming together to break the bread unto the remembrance of the Lord is a declaration and a testimony in the universe that we belong to Christ. We have the Lord in us, and we enjoy Him every day. Every Lord’s Day our coming together is to have a declaration, a remembrance, a display in the universe, and at the same time we remind ourselves that we love Him, we consider Him, and we are waiting for His coming back. This is the first significance of breaking the bread.
The second significance of bread-breaking is that we break the same bread and drink the same cup, implying that we have fellowship with one another. After being passed around, this one bread and one wine enter into each believer. One portion of the bread enters into me, and another portion enters into another. I take one drink of this cup, and another brother takes another drink. Each attendant partakes of the bread and the cup, taking the bread and wine into him. This proves that we are one and that we have fellowship with one another. We not only remember and enjoy the Lord, but through partaking of the bread and the cup, we testify that we are one and that we are in one Body. In the oneness of the Body we have mutual fellowship and enjoyment together.
For this reason, before we remember the Lord and come together for this fellowship, we need to examine ourselves and ask for the Lord’s shining. We need to confess our sins thoroughly, ask for the cleansing of the Lord’s blood for our filthiness, and carefully deal with any hindrance before the Lord so that we have no barriers between us and Him or problems with one another. In this way we can sit at the Lord’s table to eat Him, drink Him, enjoy Him, and have fellowship together.
Before we break bread in a home meeting, we need to lead the meeting gradually. We should not rush; we should make our practice lasting and stable. If a meeting for the breaking of bread cannot be established in three months, this is all right. We can wait until the fourth month, and if it still cannot be established, we can wait until the fifth month. We must always see how the Lord wants to lead the new ones and how they can follow the Lord to go on. If we wait until the situation is ready, we can establish the breaking of bread in one place after another. These are issues we should not ignore. We must never work too fast; rather, we should lead the new ones in life and help them in their living. From the beginning we should help them to have a serious attitude and pay attention to all these things so that they can take the right way and not damage their testimony in the future.
