Search
Let us read some verses in Psalms that describe the children of Israel on their way to worship God in Jerusalem. “We walked with the throng in the house of God” (55:14). “I rejoiced when they said to me, / Let us go to the house of Jehovah” (122:1). “I passed through with the throng; / I led them to the house of God / With the voice of a joyous shout and praise, / The festal multitude” (42:4). “Make a joyful noise to Jehovah, all the earth. / Serve Jehovah with rejoicing; / Come before His presence with joyful singing. / ...Enter His gates with thanksgiving, / His courts with praise; / Give thanks to Him; bless His name” (100:1-2, 4). “I will come into Your house with burnt offerings; / I will pay my vows to You” (66:13). “Bring an offering, and come into His courts” (96:8). The condition of the children of Israel in the Psalms was better than the condition of our meetings. We must confess that we are in degradation because the condition of our meetings is not as good as that of the children of Israel on their way to worship God in the holy temple.
While the children of Israel were on their way to keep the feasts and worship God, they were not silent. They were rejoicing, shouting, and praising. They went up in throngs, rejoicing and praising all the way. “I led them to the house of God / With the voice of a joyous shout and praise” (42:4). That was a joyous situation. Hence, while we are on our way to the meetings, we should sing hymns or call on the Lord’s name. We should not be silent and wait to begin our “performance” in the meeting hall. We must have a living in which we sing in our homes, sing on the way to the meeting, and sing while we enter the meeting hall. If the children of Israel worshipped God in this way, we should do the same, if not more. Otherwise, we have fallen from God’s standard. There are many Christians in Taipei who attend meetings or services on the Lord’s Day. But none sing joyfully on the street or call on the Lord’s name. This is a fallen situation.
The children of Israel rejoiced to go to the temple of Jehovah. They went up in throngs, and some would lead with shouts of joy and praise. Psalm 100:2 says that we should “serve Jehovah with rejoicing; / Come before His presence with joyful singing.” Joyful singing implies singing with exultation. As they were going toward Mount Zion in Jerusalem, the children of Israel were exulting, rejoicing, shouting, and singing; they were beside themselves. In the church in Taipei there are at least two to three thousand saints who meet on the Lord’s Day. It would be wonderful if these two to three thousand saints were rejoicing and singing on their way to the meeting. When only one person is singing, the sound is not loud, and the effect is minimal. However, it would be glorious for throngs of saints to call, “Jesus is Lord!” and “O Lord Jesus! Visit the people in Taipei!” and to sing, “It’s the life, life, life that makes us want to shout, / Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!” As we are on our way to the meeting, we should be praising and exulting. Then there would be no need for us to follow any methods in the meetings, because everyone’s spirit would come forth.
We cannot say that the children of Israel received more grace than we have. We have received much grace. Therefore, as Psalm 100:4 says, we should “enter His gates with thanksgiving, / His courts with praise.” The Israelites went in throngs to the house of God, and some led with shouts of praise. They rejoiced and entered into the presence of God with singing. When we compare our situation with theirs, we are short of such praising.
Psalm 66:13 says, “I will come into Your house with burnt offerings; / I will pay my vows to You,” and Psalm 96:8 says, “Bring an offering, and come into His courts.” According to these verses, the Israelites were not empty-handed when they worshipped God. They brought an offering with them. We also should bring an offering with us to the meetings. Our offering is Christ. We should bring Christ with us to the meetings. We should ask ourselves whether this is our situation. Subconsciously, we feel that our going to a meeting is for the purpose of listening to a sermon. Hence, we do not practice living in our spirit, nor do we express the spirit on our way to the meeting. As a result, we have no choice but to do things according to a method. The old method was to be silent, and the new method is to either call a hymn or call on the Lord. Whatever method we follow, however, is merely a performance because it is not the move of the Spirit.
We are attending these meetings in order to be trained. However, I am afraid that some saints merely want to hear some messages and learn a method. My method is to cause the saints to go before the Lord. The co-workers and elders need to go to the Lord and ask for His mercy. We have many methods, but our spirit does not move. We say that we have changed, but only our method has changed; we have not changed. We do not know how to use our spirit. May the Lord have mercy on us.
The Lord has revealed His way to us. We need to be rescued out of Christianity and out of our old ways. The Lord wants us to take the way of daily living in our spirit so that we enjoy and experience all the riches of Christ. Then we will become normal people who live a proper life, and our meetings will be the outflow of our living; there will be no ordinances, methods, rituals, or rules in our meetings; our spirit will be strong and living; and we will have the riches of Christ. Furthermore, instead of waiting until we are in the meeting hall to begin the meeting, we will begin meeting while we are still at home. When we arrive at the meeting hall, we will still be in our spirit. We will display Christ by offering Him to God and supplying Him to others, and we will also enjoy Him. This is our way, and this is the real worship in spirit and in reality. This is what it means to worship in our spirit and in Christ as the reality (John 4:24). When we exercise our spirit to bring Christ as an offering to God and as a supply to others, we will be full of enjoyment. This is the worship that God desires. This is the purpose of our meetings.
