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Scripture Reading: Rom. 8:26-27; Jude 20; 2 Cor. 3:17
In these messages we would like to fellowship regarding the release of the Spirit. We must realize that the relationship between God and us is a relationship in the spirit, because the Spirit of God dwells in our spirit, works together with our spirit, and is even joined and mingled together with our spirit. Romans 8:16 says that the Holy Spirit witnesses with our spirit, and 1 Corinthians 6:17 tells us that we are one spirit with the Lord. These verses prove that the divine Spirit and our human spirit have been mingled together to be one spirit.
The Spirit in our spirit is constantly moving, working, and acting in us in a positive way. First John 2:27 says that the anointing which we have received from the Lord abides in us. This verse does not use the word ointment but the word anointing, which implies the movement or application of the ointment. The ointment is the Spirit, and the anointing is the action or movement of the Spirit. Thus, this verse proves that the Holy Spirit, who is within us today as the ointment, is constantly moving, working, and acting in us in a positive way. This is similar to the electricity in a house, which continually circulates throughout the house as a current. If there is no current, practically speaking, there is no electricity. Thus, in order for there to be a current of electricity in the house, the electricity must constantly move, circulate, and flow throughout the house. Likewise, the Holy Spirit within us is always moving.
However, the problem today is that much of the time we limit, frustrate, and hinder the moving, working, and acting of the Spirit. The problem is not that the Spirit is not working in us. On the contrary, the Spirit is always working. The problem is that we do not cooperate with the Spirit enough. We may illustrate this by using the example of marriage. A marriage is a union of two persons as one, but if the wife never cooperates whenever her husband acts, the husband can do nothing. This is like our relationship with the Lord. The Lord has mingled Himself with us and is now working within us, but we do not cooperate with Him that much. We often pray for the Lord to work, saying, “Lord, we are waiting for You to work,” but we do not realize that He is waiting for us to cooperate with Him. He may be saying to us, “I have been waiting a long time for you to cooperate.” The problem is not with the Lord but with us. This basic principle of the need for our cooperation must be very clear to us.
We can confirm this principle by our experience. When we do not exercise our spirit, we choke off the Spirit. This is like closing the flue in a fireplace. When we close the flue and choke off the source of air, there is no draft or air current for the fire to burn. Many times we choke off the moving, anointing, and burning of the Spirit in a similar way. We do not cooperate with the Spirit and instead quench the fire of the Spirit (cf. 1 Thes. 5:19; 2 Tim. 1:6).
The Spirit is waiting for an opportunity to burn. If we would simply give the Spirit a chance to burn, He would burn. Thus, the responsibility is on us. If we wanted to start a fire, it would be ridiculous for us to pray to the fire, saying, “Fire, please burn.” If the fire could speak, it might answer, saying, “You must first cooperate with me. You must apply me to something so that I can burn.” There is no need to pray to the fire. The fire is ready and waiting for a chance to burn, and if we would simply cooperate by opening the flue, bringing some wood, and adding some oil, the fire would burn. It is the same with the Spirit. In the past I saw many people pray, “Lord, fill us with the Holy Spirit. We are waiting for the outpouring of Pentecost.” Most of the time this kind of prayer did not work. However, we know by experience that whenever we cooperate with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit is released.
We must be clear that the problem regarding the filling or working of the Holy Spirit is not a problem with the Holy Spirit. Rather, the problem is with us. If we do not cooperate with the Spirit or are not willing or ready, the Spirit can do nothing. All He can do is wait until we are willing and ready.
Also, if we want to be ready and willing for the filling of the Spirit, we must pray (Acts 1:14). When we pray for this matter, we must forget about our circumstances, our memories, and all the thoughts in our mind. Instead, we must take care of the sense, feeling, or consciousness in the innermost part of our being. This sense is the anointing of the Holy Spirit within us (1 John 2:20, 27). When we pray for this matter, we must take care of this feeling and utter what we sense in our innermost part. We must not be bothered by our needs or circumstances. Instead, we must go to the Lord and take care of the feeling in the innermost part of our being.
For instance, suppose there is a brother whose wife is seriously ill. If you were this brother, and you were going to the Lord to pray, could you forget about your wife’s illness? This would not be easy. Surely your wife’s illness would be on your mind. However, if you want to learn how to pray, you must exercise to forget about everything when you go to the Lord. Even if your wife is seriously ill, you must forget about that and take care of the innermost sense. You must not pray according to your circumstances, needs, memory, or what others have requested; rather, you must pray according to what you sense in your innermost being.
When you go to the Lord in this way, even though you may be unable to forget your wife’s illness, you may have a deep sense to pray concerning something else. You may kneel down and cry, “Lord, I am so sinful. Lord, I have been wrong with my wife.” You will simply forget about your wife’s illness and utter what is within the innermost part of your being. By praying in this way, you exercise your spirit to release the Spirit who is in your spirit. It is even possible that your wife will be healed by this kind of prayer. I am not saying that if your wife is ill, you should not pray for her to be healed. Rather, I am saying that when you go to the Lord, you must take care of the deep sense within you. You must utter what is in the innermost part of your being.
If we go to the Lord to pray in this way, the first thing the Holy Spirit will do is to purge and purify us. If we forget about our circumstances, the outward requests from others, and even our own thoughts and simply pray according to our inner sense, the Holy Spirit will purge and purify us. We may tell the Lord, “Lord, I am so sinful and dirty in many matters. My motives are wrong, and my intentions are not pure. I am always seeking something for myself.” This is real prayer. If we pray in this way, we may be assured that we are in the spirit. The more we pray according to our innermost feeling, the more we will be in the spirit, and the more the Spirit will fill us. Ultimately, we will be filled with the Spirit.
Our problem today is not with teaching or knowledge but with the exercise of our spirit. How often during the day do we exercise our spirit to release the Holy Spirit? I am afraid that a number of us may not even know how to exercise our spirit. We know how to exercise our arms and legs, but we do not know how to exercise and use our spirit. The best way to exercise our legs and feet is to walk or run, and the best way to exercise our spirit is to pray. However, when we pray, we often exercise our mind instead of exercising our spirit. Thus, in order to exercise our spirit, we must forget all our thoughts and outward circumstances and take care of our inner sense.
Sometimes while we pray, we simultaneously consider and think about various matters in our mind. Outwardly, we may be praying, but inwardly, we are absolutely in our mind and not in our spirit. This is not real prayer; rather, it is somewhat artificial. An artificial prayer is one in which we do not care for the inner sense and simply pray according to the considerations and thoughts in our mind. Real prayer is when we do not care about our circumstances or about who is around us and simply utter what is in our spirit, praying from our innermost part. Many times when others are praying, we have the sense that their prayers are from the mind and not the spirit. We do not sense the anointing within; there is no echo within us. However, sometimes we hear someone pray, and there is an anointing or response within us. That kind of prayer touches our innermost being because it is from the spirit, not the mind.
We must learn to pray real prayers, prayers that are uttered from our innermost part. Some may say that they do not have any feeling in their innermost part or that they do not sense the moving or inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This may be true, but this does not mean that we should wait for the inspiration of the Spirit. When we want to start a car, we do not wait for the car to start itself. We simply start the car ourselves. In the same sense, we should not wait for the Spirit to inspire us. The Spirit, like the car, is waiting for us. It is our responsibility to exercise our spirit to release the Spirit.
If we exercise and release our spirit, the Spirit in our spirit will be released. However, in order to release our spirit, we must open ourselves. Many times we are closed because of our emotions. Perhaps we may have trouble with our spouse, or we may receive some bad news during the day that makes us unhappy. Thus, when we come to the meeting, we come depressed and suppressed. We come to the meeting with our spirit bound by our emotions and become a burden to the meeting. If all the brothers came to the meeting with such a spirit, the atmosphere of the meeting would be very heavy, and no one would want to stay in the meeting. Thus, we must learn to allow our emotions to be broken, to forget about our emotions. We must learn to go along not with our emotions but with our spirit. If we allow our emotions to be broken and learn to release our spirit, the Spirit in our spirit will automatically be released.
This does not mean that we must condemn our emotions. Actually, the more spiritual a person is, the more emotional he will be. The Spirit cannot fill someone who is emotionless. Thus, you should not be afraid of being emotional. However, it is wrong to be emotional simply in yourself. To be emotional in the spirit is right. This word may seem quite contradictory; on the one hand, we must learn to deny our emotions, and on the other hand, we must learn how to be emotional. However, I believe we can understand this word.
Some people are bound not by their emotions but by their mind. When they come to the meetings, they come with many thoughts and considerations, and these thoughts and considerations put their spirit in bondage. Thus, they must be broken so that they may know how to exercise their spirit and so that the Spirit within them may be released. Then there will be a current, a flow, that will refresh, strengthen, and renew others and that will bring life into the meeting. If a few saints came to the meeting with a released spirit, denying their mind, emotion, and will and exercising their spirit, the rest of the saints would be encouraged to also release their spirit.
Our meetings need to be living and full of the moving, burning, and flowing of the Holy Spirit. This kind of meeting will meet many people’s needs. Some of us may despise the brothers and sisters who do not come to the meetings. Of course, it is not proper for these saints to neglect the meetings, but we should not despise them. Rather, we must ask why they are not coming to the meetings and also consider what the condition of our meetings is. If our meetings are not living, burning, refreshing, satisfying, and supplying, the saints who are cold or backslidden will not come, because they cannot be helped in such meetings. However, if the meetings are burning, living, and refreshing, people will be attracted, and the people who come will receive the help that they need.
The vitality of the meetings depends on the exercise of the spirit. To have a living meeting, we all must learn how to exercise our spirit. When we come to the meeting, we should be like the members of a basketball team; we should come not to sit around but to exercise and to “pass the ball.” However, many times when we come to the meetings, we merely sit, listen, watch, and criticize inwardly. This kind of attitude brings in death. Instead, our attitude should be, “I came to the meeting to exercise my spirit. I do not care whether or not others come. I came here to practice ‘playing ball.’” We should all exercise our spirit, and we should follow and cooperate with one another, just like the players on a team. This will release the Spirit, release others, and become a great help to everyone.
Our thought is that in the meetings we must advise people, admonish them, and warn them. However, none of this works unless the Holy Spirit is moving. A little moving of the Spirit in the meetings will subdue people, convince them, bring them through their situations, and settle and solve their problems. In a sense, we do not need teachings and knowledge. Today we Christians have much knowledge but not much reality. For instance, we know that we must love others, yet we do not truly love others. This is because we are not in the current of the Spirit and do not give the Spirit a chance to move in us. What we need is the current, the moving, and the flowing of the Spirit through us and from within us. Teachings are useful but only when they are given in the flow and current of the Holy Spirit. Without the flow of the Holy Spirit, teachings are dead and useless.
There is no need to be formal in the meetings. Formality in the meetings brings in death and kills the meetings. When our meetings are too formal, those who come to our meetings sense that something is binding them. Sometimes when the saints come to the meeting early, they wait, looking at the clock until one of the responsible brothers stands up to formally begin the meeting. However, if we all came in with a released spirit, denying our mind, emotion, and will, we would begin to pray regardless of what time it was. We would simply pray to release our spirit, and the Holy Spirit would be released. If more saints came to the meeting, their spirits would also be released, and they would be burned because there would already be something burning in the meeting. Perhaps there would not even be the need for someone to announce a hymn or share a message. I am not saying that we should be without order. There must be a proper order, but this does not mean that we must be formal. To be proper is one thing, and to be formal is another. If we would simply release our spirit and give the Holy Spirit the opportunity to be released, the Spirit would have the freedom and the liberty in the meeting, and the spirits of the saints would be strengthened, refreshed, renewed, nourished, and satisfied.
This is what is on my heart. Our meetings need the release of the Spirit. We must break through all the barriers and bonds of our emotions, our mind, our will, and our forms. We must all exercise our spirit to overcome and conquer this kind of situation. When we come to the meetings, we should simply release our spirit. If the Spirit is released in our meetings, our meetings will always be rich. People will be attracted and drawn to the meetings, and the size of the meetings will constantly increase. We each must bear the burden and responsibility for this matter. It is not the responsibility of any one person but of everyone. If we do not take up this responsibility, it is meaningless for us to come together, because the purpose of our coming together is to exercise our spirit that the Spirit would be released and that the Lord would be exalted, magnified, exhibited, and glorified. When the Spirit is bound and suppressed, the Lord is very much limited and hindered. The devil, God’s enemy, is the source of death, and his wish and desire is to bring death into the meetings. When there is death in the meetings, he is happy. Therefore, we must fight the battle against the devil. We must tell the Lord, “Lord, we do not agree with death in the meetings. We do not agree that death would be so prevailing in our meetings.” We must fight the battle with the help of the Spirit.
Question: Should we use our mind to think before we begin to pray?
Answer: Many times when we go to the Lord, we are thinking. However, there is no need to think before we go to the Lord and pray. When we go to the Lord, we must forget about everything and simply go to Him to contact and deal with Him in a real way. We must learn to know nothing except that we are contacting the Lord in the spirit. Then when we come to the meetings, we must be active, positive, and living, and our spirit must be released. When our spirit is released, the Holy Spirit within us will automatically be released, and there will be a current flowing in the meeting. This will be a great help to all those in the meeting. This is what a Christian meeting must be like.
Question: How is the filling of the Holy Spirit that you are speaking of different from what people experience in the Pentecostal movement?
Answer: This matter is absolutely different from the experience in the Pentecostal movement. People in the Pentecostal movement do not actually care about the Holy Spirit. Instead, they are concerned with manufacturing and creating a certain kind of atmosphere in their meetings, which is wrong. Thus, we should not justify the Pentecostal way of meeting. However, neither should we justify the so-called fundamental meetings, which are utterly dead. We should not be like those who criticize the Pentecostal movement yet do not say anything to condemn the condition of the fundamental meetings. The Pentecostal meetings are too much to one extreme, and the fundamental meetings are too much to the other extreme. Many fundamental meetings are dead; there is hardly anything in them but death. We should not follow that way of meeting, nor should we pick up the Pentecostal way of meeting.
In God’s eyes, death is much more defiling than sin. There are many types in the Old Testament that prove this (Lev. 11:39; 17:15; Num. 19:11, 13). Whenever someone in the Old Testament touched something that was dead, he had to be kept away from the sanctuary of the Lord for a certain number of days. However, although death is more defiling than sin, we are more sensitive to sin than to death. When we commit a sin, we immediately sense that we are wrong, but when we bring death into the meetings, we do not have the same sense. We must realize that God hates death and that death is the last enemy that the Lord must conquer (1 Cor. 15:26).
We do not agree with the Pentecostal way of maneuvering, manufacturing, and creating an atmosphere in a natural way. However, we must condemn even more the deadness of the fundamental way of meeting. We do not want to go along with either of these ways. Rather, we want to go along with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is living, moving, and acting all the time. Thus, when we come to the meeting, we must exercise our spirit to cooperate with Him.
Those in the Pentecostal movement do not take care of others’ feelings when they meet together. They simply act according to what they like and do not consider what others may think. This spoils the meeting. When we meet together, we must forget about everything and exercise our spirit. However, when we exercise our spirit and take care of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will automatically guide us to be considerate of others. This does not mean that we must be silent in the meetings; rather, we must be even more exercised in being considerate of others. We need to be flexible in order to have a proper Christian meeting.
According to the fundamental way of meeting, when we come to the meeting, we must wait for a certain time until we can begin the meeting. This is too formal and traditional. I believe that when the Christians met in the early days of the apostles, they also designated a certain time to meet together, but their meetings were not so formal. I believe that they met in a living way. We do not need to wait until the exact time to begin the meeting. We should simply come and exercise our spirit. If we arrive early, we should not sit and wait for the meeting to begin. Rather, we should exercise our spirit, and then the meeting will start in a spontaneous way, not a formal way. If a meeting is scheduled for eight o’clock, we should arrive fifteen minutes early so that we can exercise our spirit and help others to do the same. Then the meeting will be living and not so formal and dead.
Question: Should we exercise our spirit by praying audibly, or should we exercise our spirit inwardly?
Answer: In the meetings it is better to pray audibly. However, this is not something legal. You may feel that you should pray quietly or silently, or you may feel that you should pray audibly so that others can hear. There should be nothing legal about the way we exercise our spirit.
For many years I have considered and studied the way in which Christians should meet. Several years ago I came to the conclusion that the so-called fundamental way of meeting is absolutely traditional and that the Pentecostal way is absolutely extreme. Thirty years ago I spent much time with those in the Pentecostal movement in order to study their way of meeting. I discovered that they were too extreme and that this hurts and damages the spirit. This way of meeting does not build up.
In the early days of the apostles the Christians did not meet together in the Pentecostal way or the fundamental way but in a flexible way. There were no forms or regulations, yet the meetings were very proper, orderly, living, and free. There was no program, formality, or bondage, and nothing was forced, such as performing emotional activities. Rather, the believers came together and exercised their spirit. The meetings were very living; everyone had the freedom and liberty to release his or her spirit by singing a hymn, praying, reading a verse, or giving a short testimony. I believe that this is the way the early Christians met and that this is the proper way. If we would practice to meet in this way, our meetings would be uplifted.
The next time we go to a meeting, we should go with the sole purpose of exercising our spirit to worship and exhibit the Lord. We should forget about what time the meeting is supposed to begin and simply exercise our spirit. If we have the sense to pray silently, we should pray silently. If others have the sense to pray audibly, even loudly, we should exercise not to be bothered by that. This is the proper way to meet. We should even be familiar with many of the hymns so that there would be no need for someone to formally announce a hymn. If everyone knows a chorus, someone can lead everyone to sing it at the proper time. This breaks down the barriers and paves the way for the Holy Spirit to go on and have a free way to move. In such a situation everyone is very orderly and well behaved and yet very living.
We must have a fire burning in our meetings so that when people come, they will be burned and will burn others. We should not have a meeting in which people merely come together, sit, and look at or listen to something. This is not the building up. We must have a meeting in which the Holy Spirit is released and in which we can be released. This kind of meeting will refresh, renew, release, and satisfy both others and ourselves. This is what the Lord needs, and this is what we need.
When I go to the meetings today, I do not focus on teachings, because what I need is something living. When you invite me to a meal, what I care about is not the menu that you give me but the food and drink that you serve. What we should care about is giving others something to eat and drink. Whenever we come together to meet, our meeting should be living, a meeting in which the Holy Spirit moves and is released. This kind of meeting will bring others to the Lord. The unbelievers will be saved, the believers will be edified, nourished, strengthened, delivered, and enlightened, and the Spirit will be released. The Spirit is so rich; He will meet every need, even if there is no formal teaching. We must believe more in what the Holy Spirit can do than in what doctrinal teachings can do.
