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According to the statistics, there are 500,000 households in all of Taipei. In this past year we have knocked on the doors of 150,000 households, and the number of people baptized through door-knocking is more than 5,700. We rejoice because the more we go out door-knocking, the more effective we are. For example, in the most recent time of door-knocking, there were 321 people who went out, and the result was that 157 were saved and baptized.
Going out to knock on doors to bring people to salvation, establishing home meetings in the homes of the new ones, and teaching them to read the Bible and pray are just the initial steps. In the same way, a baby still needs a lot of nourishment and care after its birth. We all know that if a child is to grow up to maturity, after it is born, it needs to be nourished and taught. It is easy to give birth, but it is not so easy to nourish, and it is even more difficult to teach. Therefore, we must look at these things point by point to see how to carry out the proper nourishing and teaching. We will begin with the homes as a starting point.
We need to come back to the Scriptures to see the matter of meeting in the homes. For more than fifty years I have been studying the practices recorded in the Bible concerning the way for Christians to meet. The Bible does not have a clear word concerning this point; it shows us only a few patterns. Concerning the meetings, Hebrews 10:25 says that we should not abandon our own assembling together, and 1 Corinthians 14:26 tells us what things we should do when the whole church comes together, but it does not explain how to do them. These two passages are both words of teaching. The patterns given to us in the Bible are mainly in the book of Acts. Acts tells us that the early church met in the homes, from house to house (2:46; 5:42; 12:12).
Thus, according to this small but penetrating light in the Bible, the earliest church life was entirely carried out in the homes. It was altogether not like the situation today. Today there are a great many church buildings everywhere but few proper, living home meetings. I dare not say that they are absolutely nonexistent, but I can say that there is nothing concrete. In the age of the apostles, as soon as the church was formed, several thousand people were immediately brought to salvation. One time there were about three thousand, and another time there were about five thousand (2:41; 4:4). Then they simply met from house to house. When they met, they did mainly four things: preach the gospel, teach the truth, pray, and break bread. This is the light of revelation in the Bible, the clear leading of the Holy Spirit, and even more, the proper practice ordained by God.
Due to the degradation of the church, this kind of condition was gradually lost. As a result, organized Christianity was formed. Once there was organization, the result was the establishing of large corporate meetings, followed by the need for preachers. After the organization, the officers, and the preachers were brought forth, the clergy was produced. Once there was the clergy, the believers were divided into classes. Those belonging to the clergy were the speakers, and those belonging to the non-clergy were the listeners. Thus, Christian service and functioning in the meetings were completely taken over by a small number of people. Even today this kind of situation still exists everywhere, especially in Catholicism. Most Catholics know only to go to mass, but they are not able to perform any function as members. The situation in Protestantism is also like this.
As far as we are concerned, the situation in Taipei a few years ago was just about the same. We frequently had large meetings with just a few people doing everything. This kind of condition made me very concerned. Therefore, I received a burden from the Lord and saw that we must overturn these things. The first thing we must do is to overturn the big meetings.
However, I do not have the intention of entirely stopping the big meetings. Changing the system should not be like jumping from the seventh floor straight to the ground floor without using stairs at all; that is to commit suicide. Rather, for the past two years we have been changing the system and simultaneously building a staircase on which all the saints can walk down properly instead of lingering on the seventh floor with a wait-and-see attitude. What we have seen before the Lord is that one day in the Lord’s recovery there will be mostly home meetings and not many big meetings. Perhaps once or twice a month the whole church will come together for a meeting like the one mentioned in 1 Corinthians 14. That will be such a glorious situation!
In the past we had a meeting at a big stadium with ten thousand people, which was marvelous and impressive. However, if there were no home meetings as supporting pillars, that kind of big meeting would not be a glory but a deformity. We must have home meetings before we can have big meetings. Our labor is not in the big meetings but in the home meetings. It is only after we have constantly labored in the home meetings that one day we can have a big meeting as a harvest. This is the same as the children of Israel celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles after laboring throughout the entire year to obtain a harvest, which they enjoyed as a feast before God when they came together. It is also like the American Thanksgiving Day, which was originally celebrated after the harvest was taken in; the families gathered together to enjoy the fresh produce in their homes. Perhaps we could follow the children of Israel to have three big meetings in each year of labor and work. These would be times of joy and exultation.
This is why we must change our concepts. I say again that we are not jumping off a building and committing suicide; rather, we are willing to turn around and walk down the stairs. Instead of finding excuses for yourself, you should follow everyone else down the stairs. The Chinese all used to wear long gowns, but today it is difficult to find anyone in a gown, because everyone is now wearing Western clothes. This proves that people can change. Even though it is difficult to come down the stairs, as long as we are willing to walk, we will be able to slowly get down to the ground floor.
If we are to walk, however, we must change our concept. In the past our Lord’s Day meetings had two or three hundred people, and the speakers were all experienced and spoke every sentence well and in a touching way so that even the gospel friends were helped. Now as we are changing the system, the big meetings have become small, and the saints are scattered. Moreover, our baptisms are not what they used to be, with baptism interviews to determine if the candidates are clearly saved before we baptize them. Now we just need to preach The Mystery of Human Life to them, lead them in prayer, and baptize them in the bathtub after they have believed. It seems that the change in system is turning the church into a mess. Please do not be worried. Instead, you must wait patiently. I believe that after three to five years many homes will have been raised up as the supporting pillars of the church.
Things in the physical world are symbols of things in the spiritual realm. A country’s strength and a society’s health are entirely determined by the strength and health of the families. According to the Chinese tradition, the children are raised by the parents in the homes; they are taught, they live, and they grow up at home. Then after they are married, they do not need to ask an expert on “family-forming” for guidance. They know spontaneously how to form a family and build up a career. This is because they have been with their parents since they were small and therefore have a thorough understanding of what a family is all about. This is just what we have seen before the Lord. The Christian “society” — the church — is not composed of church buildings. Rather, it is constituted with households. The household is the basic unit of salvation and service, and it is the constituting element of the church.
We can bring everyone into function by taking the home as the center. According to the modern way of life, no household hires a cook to do all the cooking for the family. If there are such households, they are a small minority. More than thirty years ago, it was very easy to hire servants to keep house and do the cooking. Now, due to the increase in the cost of labor, almost every household cooks for itself and does all the housework itself. The result is that the households are becoming stronger and stronger. Today when Christians consider spiritual devotion and edification, they have to hire a speaker to hold an edification meeting or they do not know how to go on. We hope that after going through a thorough change of system, we will no longer have the thought of hiring a speaker, because everyone will be able to speak and carry out all the service in the meetings. This kind of meeting will certainly be strong and rich. If the saints are willing to change their concept and receive the practice of changing the system, I believe that after just a few years all will be drawn by the home meetings. Moreover, everyone will feel that a large meeting in which one person speaks and everyone else listens has lost its flavor. In the past we listened to one person speaking in the meeting hall. After listening for all those years, even though we cannot say that the messages we heard were the conventional sermons of ordinary Christianity, we can say that they were the “conventional” teachings of the local churches. In a few years, however, I believe that in Taipei we will have several thousand homes in which there are meetings and activities. The participants in these meetings will all be able to speak and function, and even their children will be able to lead others to sing hymns.
In order for us to arrive at the glorious future we are describing, we must spend our time and energy. Up to the present, everyone has learned well how to go out door-knocking and lead people to be baptized. In ten minutes you can bring a person to be saved, and in fifteen minutes you can get him baptized. In the past even I would not have believed that this was possible, and probably you would not either. Doctrinally speaking, we always feel that baptism should not be so fast. In the Bible, however, there definitely is the clear revelation that no person after believing in the Lord has to wait and attend gospel-truth meetings, then pass through a baptism interview in which he has to be absolutely clear about salvation before getting baptized. The only person who was delayed in getting baptized was Paul; in this he was a special case. Therefore, when Ananias was sent by the Lord to carry out the baptism, he said to Paul, “Why do you delay? Rise up and be baptized...calling on His name” (Acts 22:16). This is why we should no longer ask people to wait. If a person believes but then wants to wait, we should point this verse out to him and tell him that he should not delay but should be baptized immediately. This is the first step for the success of the new way.
Moreover, most people have the concept that baptism is a very solemn matter that should be carried out at the meeting hall. Acts 8 gives a very clear example about the Ethiopian eunuch, a person who greatly desired to understand the Word and who after hearing the gospel, immediately requested to be baptized when he saw a place with water. He was not even baptized in a bathtub; it was perhaps just a pool, a puddle, or a stream of water on the roadside (vv. 36-38). You should not think that a person baptized in this way is probably not reliable. This eunuch is the best testimony.
The second step of the new way is leading the home meetings. It is very simple for someone to lead a large meeting, because he just has to follow a certain procedure step by step and everything will go well. It is not so simple, however, to lead a home meeting. We must be properly equipped if we desire to take the lead in a home meeting. First, we must be those who love the Lord to such an extent that like Mary we are willing to break our flask of alabaster for the Lord.
Next, we must be those who pray and fellowship with the Lord. Loving the Lord is not a slogan; it must be expressed in a practical way. If we really love the Lord, we will certainly have fellowship and be in union with Him every day. We will tell Him, “Lord, I belong to You. I love You.” Inwardly, we will always have a feeling that although our body is in the world, we are neither of the world nor for the world. Although I am an old man, I still frequently say, “Lord Jesus, I love You.” Every time I think of Him and call His name, I am so rapturous, as if I am flying in the air, and I feel sweet and refreshed. This is the spontaneous living of one who loves the Lord. Even though we might still go to work, do our business, or study as usual, we are different from others because inwardly we have nothing but the Lord Jesus. The only things we think about and care for are the Lord and His interests.
Next, we must be those who read the Lord’s Word. In order to lead the home meetings, we must be equipped with the Lord’s Word. It should not be that we read it only when we are interested, and if we are not interested, we do not touch it for three months. Instead, we must read it regularly every day to enjoy the Spirit and life in the Lord’s Word daily. Inwardly, we all hate sin and desire to be freed from sin. We were born in sin, our nature is sin, and the environment around us is sin, so it is not easy for us to be completely delivered from sin. However, because of the Lord’s love, we desire to be freed from sin. When we feel that we have been contaminated, we can apply the Lord’s precious blood and ask God to forgive and wash away our sins based on our confession and according to His faithfulness and righteousness (1 John 1:7, 9). Thus, we live before the Lord and are joined to Him every day by loving Him, fellowshipping with Him, praying to Him, reading His Word, hating sin, and confessing our sins with repentance.
In this way the Lord’s presence in us will be rich and increasing, and the Lord will give us a burden to love the brothers and sisters and the people in the world. This is like the call that the Lord gave at the Sea of Tiberias: “Do you love Me more than these?...Feed My lambs...Shepherd My sheep” (John 21:15-17). Do we love the Lord? If we really love Him, we should go to our friends’ and neighbors’ homes and minister Him to them. There are so many people in the world who have not heard the gospel. We must preach the Lord Jesus to them. This is the burden given to us by the Lord, and we must receive it.
After we have been equipped in the matters mentioned above, we will be qualified to go out door-knocking. In addition, there is one thing that we must pay attention to; we must learn from those who know how to go out door-knocking. Everything has its technique or secret, so we must learn. The Bible also tells us to learn. Paul reminded Timothy that he should know from whom he had learned things (2 Tim. 3:14). He also exhorted Timothy to take the things he had heard from Paul and commit them to faithful men, who would be competent to teach others also (2:2). However, if we do not first have the proper equipping mentioned above, even if we learn all the techniques, it will be useless. We will be like monkeys imitating humans, having only an outward show but no life, and therefore will not be able to truly minister to people.
The Chinese say, “There are no teachers of great masters, only students of great masters.” If we want to be like “students of the great masters,” besides loving the Lord, being joined to Him, and fellowshipping with Him, we must daily read the Word, pray, hate sin, confess our sins, and deal with sins. We must also receive a burden from the Lord to preach the gospel and be willing to learn from those who know.
From my youth I studied in American schools and learned the customs of my teachers, but in my hometown I did not dare speak English or wear Western clothes for fear of being criticized. More than thirty years ago I came to Taiwan to begin the Lord’s work. When I gave messages on the platform, I still wore the Chinese long gown and short jacket. Now, however, those who criticized others have also changed and are all wearing Western clothes. They have received the new things. In the same way, I believe that in thirty years Taipei will be filled with home meetings, and all will be functioning, all will open their mouth, and all will be able to do these things that we are now doing. They will be born into this way and will be raised up and grow in this way, so they will be able to do the same things.
There are some saints who are unable to go out door-knocking because they are elderly, but they are concerned about the effectiveness of practicing the new way. They are worried that the young people will be too careless when they go to people’s homes to baptize them. However, the Lord’s blessing surpasses whatever we can ask or think. I have the assurance and faith that this is definitely the proper, God-ordained way of blessing. As long as we are certain of our goal to evangelize the world by first evangelizing Taiwan, which means first evangelizing Taipei, and as long as our way is proper, then I deeply believe that the goal of God’s economy will be realized by us one day in the near future.
For this reason the full-time trainees must learn foreign languages, especially English and Greek. English is the international language of the world, and Greek is the original language of the New Testament. These are two required courses for anyone who would serve the Lord. Other languages, such as German, French, Spanish, and Japanese, should be electives. These are a preparation for the evangelization and “truthizing” of the entire world.
At present, our greatest need is to learn how to lead the home meetings. The first step — door-knocking, leading people to believe, and baptizing them — is being adeptly and properly done by the trainees. But they are still searching for the way to lead the home meetings. According to my study, no matter what we do, we must have the proper tools and methods. We cannot lack either of these things. Our “tools” clearly consist of two items: the Word of God — the Bible — and the Spirit of God. The Chinese have a saying, “Good tools are a prerequisite to the successful execution of a job.” If we are to lead the home meetings, we first need to be equipped with a store of the Lord’s word. Not only should we read the Bible, but we should also read the spiritual books in the Lord’s recovery to help us know such things as God’s economy, the dispensing of the Triune God, and the mystery of human life.
Studying depends on our heart. If we want to know the truth, we must set our hearts on the truth and spend much time in thorough study. Even though most people say that they do not have enough time to read, I would still suggest that you learn to grasp the odd moments throughout the day. You should place books like the Bible, the Life-studies, and Truth Lessons all over your house so that you can use your time well by reading at any time in any place. There is a saying, “Whenever you open a book, you will be benefited.” If you read much, you will spontaneously love to read. I hope that we all could read the Bible and the ministry books to such an extent that we would read only the headlines of the newspapers and not be interested in watching television; instead, we would read the Lord’s word with great relish. Although we have to work, eat, and carry on our daily routine as usual, we can still do our best to grasp each extra moment and diligently read the Word. This will help us to have intimate fellowship with the Lord and to obtain a good supply from the Lord. In this way the Lord’s word will be gradually deposited into our inward parts until it saturates our being so that all we think about is just His word, and all we speak will spontaneously also be just His word. When we go out to knock on doors or to lead a home meeting, we will be able to boldly speak and minister the Lord’s word.
The second “tool” for leading the home meetings is the Holy Spirit, who is the Lord Himself. Today the worldly religion either has the demonic spirits or is without any spirit, but we have the Holy Spirit. God is Spirit, and the third of the Divine Trinity is the Spirit. The Lord Jesus as the Son also passed through death and resurrection to be transfigured into the Spirit. Consummately, God leads us by being such a Spirit who indwells us. I am more than eighty years old, and I am still here laboring with all my strength. The saints often worry about me, and my wife especially is afraid that I will be too tired. Instead of feeling tired, however, I have been strengthened by working more because I have the covering and supply of the Lord’s Spirit.
When we love the Lord, are joined to the Lord, draw near to Him, fellowship with Him, read His Word, hate sins, and confess our sins as soon as we have been contaminated, then this pneumatic Lord is with us in our experience. He is one with us and He is in us, speaking and acting together with us. Thus, when we go out to knock on doors and lead the home meetings, we must first believe that He speaks when we speak, and He moves when we minister to others. At the same time, we must also pray and ask the Lord to speak in our speaking, telling the Lord that we would speak only when He speaks.
Many times when we speak for the Lord, we are not so eloquent, but people truly are supplied. Actually, this is not our doing but the working of the Word and the Spirit within us. When we speak God’s word, the word of God, which is spirit and life, supplies people with the Spirit and life. As a result, when people hear it, they are infused with the divine element. The Word and the Spirit are our “tools.” For this reason the full-timers must confess their sins daily in order to be filled with the Holy Spirit. If we confess thoroughly to the Lord, the Holy Spirit will definitely fill us. Do not think that being filled with the Holy Spirit just means speaking in tongues. Rather, being filled with the Holy Spirit will give us faith and make us able to minister to others. Maybe we are not perfect, but we believe and we are able. In saying this, we are not deceiving ourselves and others. Rather, this is based on fact. When we have thoroughly confessed our sins and emptied ourselves completely, the Lord is surely with us, and the Holy Spirit surely fills us. Consequently, we will have the Word and the Spirit.
There are two “tools” for leading a home meeting: the Word and the Spirit. There are also two ways for leading a home meeting: praying and singing. Concerning praying, we should pray as soon as we enter the meeting and also lead others to pray; however, we should not pray in a routine or perfunctory way. Concerning singing, we may not have any musical ability and may be out of tune when we sing, but this is not important. What is important is that we must sing. Praying and singing are two ways necessary for leading the home meetings.
There is a secret to these two ways. The secret is that we must be “crazy” in our spirit (cf. 2 Cor. 5:13; Acts 26:24-25). We must be “crazy” when we pray and “crazy” when we sing. When we go out to lead the home meetings, we must be a “crazy” person. Like someone who is drunk, we are full of new wine and filled with the Holy Spirit. This requires us to be those who pray and praise all the time. Do not care about or be limited by the circumstances. For example, sometimes when we visit a home, there are only little children there. This is not a problem. We can lead them to sing, “Since Jesus came into my heart,” while we wait for the mother to come home. If her face is not too happy when she returns, we should not be affected. On the contrary, we should be filled in spirit and sing, “O let us rejoice in the Lord evermore.” Thus, we will be able to minister to them through singing.
You should know that a person with the leading and presence of the Holy Spirit is like “one who is beside himself.” When we are “crazy” and “drunk” in spirit, the Holy Spirit will be with us. If we are not at all filled with the Holy Spirit and are like old men sitting as stable as a great mountain, then the Holy Spirit will have no way to do anything. The Holy Spirit has no way to move those who are immovable and rigid. Only those who are open can be moved by the Holy Spirit. Whether a meeting is living or dead totally depends on whether we are living or dead. If we are living and beside ourselves, even a dead meeting will become living because of us.
We must be those who are “crazy” in spirit in order to lead others to be “crazy” in spirit. If we want to help people not to be formal in prayer, then we must pray “crazy” prayers instead of conventional prayers. We must be like Paul, who was like a “pest” and a “plague” and was able to stir people up and “infect” them (24:5). Our whole being must be full of “germs,” so that when we contact people, we immediately “infect” them with the “germs” and make them “crazy” too. If we are this kind of person, when we lead the home meetings, we will make others this kind of person also. This is to escape from the degradation of Christianity and to completely repudiate the degraded customs of Christianity. In this way the home meetings will be full of the enjoyment of God and the presence of the Lord.
God gave the natural world a law of each “according to its kind” (cf. Gen. 1:11-25). If we are white, our children will look like us, and if we are black, our children will also look like us. It is unusual for parents to give birth to a child that does not look like them. If we possess certain characteristics, then we cannot avoid passing them on to our children. In the same principle, we will cause the people whom we are caring for to be the same as we are. If we love the Lord and His Word, if we are always filled with the Holy Spirit — praying and singing livingly and crazily — then when we go to lead the home meetings, we will certainly cause people to be supplied and to love the Lord. As a result, the world will spontaneously fall away from them, and they will not want anything other than the Lord and His Word.
Therefore, when we go to lead a home meeting, we should have these four items — the Lord’s Word, the Holy Spirit, praying, and singing — as our foundation. We should be acquainted with the Word, be rich in the Word, and have a thorough understanding of the Word. We should be constantly, richly filled and overflowing with the Spirit. We should pray and sing in a crazy and living way. The Word, the Spirit, praying, and singing are four keys to leading the home meetings. The Word and the Spirit are “tools,” and praying and singing are ways. The Word and the Spirit are the base, and praying and singing are the expression.
However, we do not only emphasize ways and techniques; rather, through these ways and techniques we are overturning everyone’s concepts to rid ourselves of all that is old, even old feelings, flavors, and thoughts, until we are inwardly filled with the home meetings. We use home meetings to preach the gospel, speak the truth, and feed others. We pray and break bread in the homes in order to make the home meetings the practical church life. If our concept is completely changed, if, according to the principle we set forth, we produce a full-timer for every twenty saints and a weekly door-knocker for every four saints, and if all the saints continue to support and give their all to preach the gospel from house to house, then I believe that within three to five years we can produce a completely new generation. This could comprise more than ten thousand households and sixty or seventy thousand new ones who meet regularly and who go everywhere preaching the gospel and teaching the truth. This will bring in a genuine great revival.
Door-knocking to preach the gospel is not only the God-ordained way but also the best way according to the needs of human society. Man is a social creature, and every human being likes to be part of a group, but it is not easy to find a good and proper social group. The church is the best “society” because we give people salvation and the Lord as life. This brings great blessing to a person’s family. Today one of the greatest problems in American families is that many of the young people, including junior-high and elementary-school students, take drugs. However, by the Lord’s preserving, this problem is almost non-existent among the children of our brothers and sisters in the church because they receive the protection of the truth. The Chinese proverb says, “He who nears vermilion becomes red; he who nears ink becomes black.” This is a natural outcome. This is also why we continually emphasize that the household is the unit for receiving blessings. We must stress the home meetings.
I believe that the day will come when the gospel will not be preached just by those of us who are here; instead, it will be preached by all the brothers and sisters because everyone will be able to preach effectively, and the rate of increase will be high. In the meetings it will not be just a few people who are functioning, but everyone will be full of the Lord’s Word and the Spirit and will function in a living and fresh way. This is true evangelization.
