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Scripture Reading: Eph. 5:18-20; Acts 13:52; 2:46; Rom. 14:17; Eph. 3:14, 16-19
According to our study, experience, and observation, I would say that we have found that the home meetings are the unique way for the increase and building up of the church. There are many positive things that come out of the home meetings. In the home meetings everyone becomes a seeking one, a serving one, a preaching one, a teaching one, and one that spontaneously witnesses for the Lord. We hope to encourage all the saints in the Lord’s recovery to have meetings in their homes.
The Greek phrase in Acts 5:42 from house to house indicates that not one house was missed. They met from house to house. We should not take the way of selecting some promising homes and then having the meetings in those promising homes. This is wrong. Every home of the believers is promising. We need to open up our home. First, we can meet with our folks. We do not need to meet with others first. We can initiate our home meeting by meeting with our family members. We who have wives and children all can have a home meeting. We just meet with our folks, with our wife, and with our little children. To set up a meeting will stir up our heart and will fan the flame in our heart and in our spirit. First of all, we will be burned, and then our family will be burned. To set up a home meeting will keep out many evil things from our homes.
Do not say that you are weak, that you cannot overcome your self, that you cannot overcome your temper, that you cannot control yourself, that you cannot do this or that. Just set up a home meeting in your home. I have seen in many cases that when you set up a meeting in your home, the Holy Spirit brings people to you. Gradually people will come. I would say that if you are a Christian, yet you do not have a home meeting, you are not up to the standard. You may know the Bible, be spiritual, be seeking, love the Lord, and so forth, but if you do not open your home, you are not up to the standard. Even a single sister could open her apartment for meetings. Every lodging of the saints, whether single or with a family, should be opened up for meeting. You may say, “With whom do we meet?” First, with the angels, then with a believer, then with a neighbor. You must pray, endeavor, and even fast until you get a neighbor to come to meet with you. If you determine to have some meeting with you in your home, surely there is a way. A lot of persons are around you every day. You have a lot of relatives and friends.
Are you going to be holy? Set up a home meeting. Are you going to be spiritual? Set up a home meeting. Are you going to know the Bible? Nothing will force you to seek the knowledge of the Bible more than setting up a home meeting. The home meetings will force you to seek after the proper, spiritual knowledge, and while you are seeking the knowledge for teaching others, you yourself will be taught, enlightened, and nourished. I can recall my own history. When I was trying to teach others, I began to realize that I needed to be taught. The definite, single, and sole step for the Lord’s recovery to take today is to promote the home meetings. This is the unique way.
In one sense, for everyone to come together to have home meetings is an easy thing, but in another sense, it is the hardest thing. The most difficult thing is to have the home meetings. Why? Because for Christians to gather together is not a natural thing. It should not be done in a natural way but rather in the spiritual way. We studied much concerning this matter, and thus far, we are still not so sure what is the best way to build up the home meetings. We are trying our best to read, to study, to check out, and even to examine and determine the best way to have the home meetings. At this point, I can tell you that to have the home meetings depends altogether upon our spirit.
Those who are too much for the Pentecostal movement would say, “Well, if you don’t have the Holy Ghost, you just cannot have any kind of meeting. A Christian meeting depends upon the Holy Ghost.” But I was in such meetings for some time, and I did not see that those meetings were so good in the most proper way. After reading the Scriptures again and again and checking with our experiences, we realized that for Christians to meet is altogether a matter of our spirit.
If you are going to play a certain sport, you have to use the right members of your body. To use your ears, nose, lips, or teeth to play football would be nonsensical. You may say that you depend upon the Holy Ghost, but to depend upon the Holy Ghost, you need the proper organ. You cannot depend upon the Holy Ghost by your mind; the mind is not the right organ to touch the Holy Spirit. There is only one organ created by God for you to touch the Holy Spirit — your human spirit. Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit.” It is the Spirit with your spirit. The Spirit works, yet He works by a certain organ.
For example, all the appliances in this building are operated by electricity. But electricity operates only by a definite means, that is, by the wire and the switch. If you do not install wire into this building with a switch, the electricity will not work. The problem today is not with the Holy Spirit, because according to the entire New Testament revelation, the Holy Spirit has been given and has also been poured out. The Holy Spirit today is the very consummation of the Triune God. He has gone through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. Now He is the life-giving Spirit as the consummation of the Triune God. In John 16:15 the Lord Jesus told us that all that the Father has, has been given to Him. Now all that He is and has is fully realized in the Spirit. Hence, the Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God, and this consummated Holy Spirit is ready. Today in the whole universe this consummated Holy Spirit is ready for God’s seekers to open up and receive Him. By what organ do we receive Him? By our spirit!
Today, when we preach the gospel to sinners, mainly we have to approach their conscience. If we only teach their mind to know God, to understand the Bible, and to understand the gospel, that is not adequate. The best and most effective way to preach the gospel is to touch a sinner’s conscience, for the conscience is the main part of the human spirit. When we touch a person’s conscience, we touch their spirit. This is why when we preach the gospel, we must do it with the convicting power to convince them and to convict them in their conscience. Then, when their conscience is touched, they begin to repent, to weep, and sometimes even to cry. We cannot teach people’s minds to weep; we have to touch their conscience. The conscience is the main working part of our human spirit, and when we exercise our conscience, we exercise our spirit. When we pray and repent and speak to the Lord, we exercise our spirit. When we do this, right away the Holy Spirit gets into us. This is the only way for us to touch the Holy Spirit, the consummated Spirit as the very consummation of the Triune God. But this principle has been very much neglected and even missed by today’s Christians.
Some think that the best way to get the Spirit is to pray and pray. That is right. The best way to touch the Spirit is to pray, but you have to pray with a right understanding. The ones in the Pentecostal movement always teach people that they have to fast, to pray, and to wait on God until suddenly something happens to them. Then you get the Holy Ghost. They say that the best way to receive the Holy Ghost is to turn your jaw and turn your tongue to utter something in a strange voice, that is, to speak in tongues. I tried many different ways, but I must tell you that the biblical way is to pray in your spirit. You do not need to wait, you do not need to turn your jaw, and you do not need to turn your tongue; you just need to pray from within your spirit. If you will do this for just a minute, you will touch the Holy Spirit.
To touch the electricity in this building is easy; just go to the switch. Suppose you kneel down, begging and praying, “Dear electricity, please come to me. I’m waiting on you. Don’t you know this? Answer me. Please come!” If the electricity could speak, it would say, “Stupid man, why don’t you touch the switch?” Every morning you have to pray, not just to ask the Lord to give you a good day but to open yourself up again in your spirit. Open up your spirit to the Lord: “Lord, thank You.” Sometimes you only need to say, “Lord, thank You. Thank You that I can contact You here.” You can say, “Lord, thank You. Thank You that Your blood cleanses me. Thank You, Lord, that You are with me.” When you do this, you have the sense that deep within you, that is, in your spirit, you are touching the Lord, you are touching the Spirit. We all know this, but too many times we pray so many things that distract us from touching the Spirit.
The Christian meeting is altogether a matter of our spirit. Concerning this, there are two very strategic points. First, if you are going to get yourself equipped so that you may be used by the Lord to bless the home meetings, you have to be filled in your spirit. Ephesians 5 shows us such an excellent revelation concerning God’s economy of Christ and the church. It seems strange that all of a sudden it says, “Do not be drunk with wine” (v. 18). We know that to be drunk with wine is to be filled in our body with the physical wine. Do not go that way, but be filled not in your body nor in your mind but in your spirit. Be filled in your spirit. The King James and some other versions render this verse wrongly. Their translators thought that the spirit here refers to the Holy Spirit. According to the context, if you read the entire chapter, you can see that the spirit here does not refer to the Holy Spirit. It refers rather to your regenerated spirit, which is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. As a seeking Christian, you should not be filled in your body with some physical thing; you should be filled in your spirit.
God made our spirit in a unique way so that it could never be invaded by anything other than God. The Bible implies that God created one organ in our being to be the very central organ, which is our human spirit. This is an extraordinary organ in our human being. It is hard to find a verse indicating that our human spirit could be occupied by anything other than God. Even the unbeliever’s spirit is kept by God purposely for Himself.
This is why Ephesians 5:18 says to be filled in this organ. Be filled in your spirit with what? Ephesians does not say, nor does it need to say. When it says, “Be filled in spirit,” surely it means be filled in your spirit with God. How can we know this? To know the Bible is not by our imagination but always by its context. I do not think many among us have ever paid adequate attention to the context of Ephesians 5:18. Verse 13 says, “All things which are reproved are made manifest by the light; for everything that makes manifest is light.” This word brings us into light. Then it continues from verse 14: “Therefore He says, Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Look therefore carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And...” And here means that after all this, in addition to all this, you add something: “Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissoluteness, but be filled in spirit.” The next verse says, “Speaking to one another.” Right after be filled in spirit you have the word speaking. This kind of phrase could be considered as a modifier. Speaking to one another modifies be filled. How could you be filled? It is by speaking. By speaking, you will be filled in your spirit. But is it by speaking to one another in murmuring or gossip? Should we speak to one another about the world news, America today, school, family, computers? What should we speak in? We should speak in psalms, such as Psalm 119, a long piece that has one hundred seventy-six verses of twenty-two sections according to the Hebrew alphabet.
Verses 19 and 20 say, “Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and psalming with your heart to the Lord, giving thanks at all times for all things.” Four things are mentioned here: speaking, singing, psalming with your heart to the Lord, and giving thanks at all times for all things. Give thanks not only at the time when you gain some profit but also at the time when you suffer a loss, not only at the time when your wife gives you a happy face but also when she gives you a long face. When she drops her face, you have to say, “Lord, thank You,” even the more. When you have a car accident, you have to say, “Thank You, Lord.” You have to give thanks at all times for all things, bad or good.
In these verses there are four modifiers: speaking, singing, psalming, and giving thanks. All these modify be filled. Strictly speaking, I am not a light person who is easily excited, so it is hard for me to be rejoicing or to be joyful. But a number of times when I read a hymn and spoke the hymn to another person, I got excited. For instance, you just speak that hymn, “Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace!” (Hymns, #499). You may think that this has nothing to do with the meeting, but speaking to one another indicates a kind of meeting. If you speak to your wife, it means that you are meeting with your wife. That is the initiation, or start, of your home meeting. Speaking to one another indicates a kind of meeting. In today’s Christianity have you ever found a place where people meet together to speak the hymns? It is easy for people to sing the hymns but not to speak the hymns. We have to practice this. Speaking the hymns is not my invention. This is clearly mentioned here by Paul: “Be filled in spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and psalming with your heart to the Lord.” However, we are not used to doing this.
Now we are going to have home meetings. We all know the problem. Suppose six to eight of us come together. You look at me, and I nod to you. We just do not know what to do. First, we Christians should be people who are all the time filled in our spirit, not just at the time of worship, not just at the time of prayer, not just at the time of morning watch, and not just at the time of the meeting. All the time we must be persons filled in our spirit. We must practice this. Do not practice this just whenever you come to the small meeting. Practice this in your home, in your daily life, from morning to evening. Practice being filled in your spirit with God, with Christ, with the Spirit, with all His praises. The best way to help us do this is to speak the hymns. If you do not have any persons to speak to, you had better speak to the air, to the window, toward the lawn, the trees, the flowers, and sometimes to the cats, dogs, or birds. Speak to your wife, and let your wife speak to you. Do not speak ordinary words; speak psalms and hymns. Hymns, #501 is a good hymn for speaking: “O glorious Christ, Savior mine, / Thou art truly radiance divine.” Speak to one another. Practice this, and you will be equipped for the home meeting. Then when you come in, you need not wait, and you need not look at others. You just say, “Brothers, may we speak a hymn?” Sometimes if you ask to sing a hymn, the answer may be that no one knows the melody and that no one can lead the singing. But everybody can speak. Yet to speak from the spirit requires exercise. You need to exercise to speak, to speak with your spirit.
Ephesians 5:18b says, “Be filled in spirit,” and 19a says, “Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” I believe that this could be done mainly in the home meetings. It is hard for us to do this in a big meeting, but it is very good to do this with five, six, seven, or eight. When six or eight come together, one says, “Brothers, let us speak Hymns, #501.” You speak from the spirit, and the others follow in the spirit. If you speak from your natural voice, the others would follow in the same way. If you open in the right way to speak, “Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace!” (Hymns, #499), others will follow. Right away the meeting begins in a living way. This kind of speaking inspires people, stirs people up, and quite often nourishes people.
Acts 13:52 says, “The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.” The verse is translated in this way because Acts uses two words for filling, and it is hard to find equivalents for these two words in the English language. One is pletho, to fill outwardly; the other is pleroo, to fill inwardly. On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came down upon the disciples, and they were filled outwardly (pletho, 2:4). At the same time the wind filled the house inwardly (pleroo, v. 2). The second word, pleroo, is used again in Acts 13:52. The disciples were filled within. This verse says that they were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Whenever you are filled within with the Spirit, you are also full of joy. This is why the kingdom of God, the church life in Romans 14, is “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (v. 17). You have to exercise righteousness for yourself, and you have to exercise peace with others. Then you must have joy in the Holy Spirit with God all the time. You must be a joyful person. You must be a person of joy. You could be this kind of person only by being filled with the Holy Spirit. This is not the tongue-speaking; this is not the outpouring of the Spirit upon you. This is the infilling, the inward filling, of the Holy Spirit within you.
In Acts 13:52 the believers were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. I do believe that this was not only in their daily life. At that time their meeting life was a great part of their daily life because every day they met from house to house. They were joyful people. In Acts 2:46 they broke bread from house to house, and they ate food with exultation. Exultation is rejoicing, a crazy joy, a kind of ecstasy. You are so happy, so joyful, that you are crazy; you are a drunkard. That was the way they met in the homes, and that attracted people. Those whom the Lord added were attracted by their exultation.
Suppose you had six brothers and sisters meeting together and you brought in two or three new ones. If all six of you were so sad, not doing anything but just expressing yourselves in this way, every new one would go away. The husband would say, “We have tasted this kind of atmosphere enough already. In my home I saw my wife’s face like this.” Or the wife would say, “In my home I saw my husband’s long face for quite a long time. I don’t like to see this kind of face anymore. I don’t like to taste this.” But suppose all six of the brothers and sisters were excited, not performing but filled with joy, eating food with exultation. Every new one would be inspired and attracted. In Acts this eating food with exultation was related to the home meetings. Every day the believers broke bread from house to house, and they ate food with exultation, praising God.
If your spirit is not filled with the Holy Spirit, how could you be joyful? How could you be exultant? So we all have to see this. We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit all the time, every day. When we come together, the only way that could help us to be so full of the Holy Spirit is to speak, first to speak a psalm, to speak a hymn, and even to speak a song. Then we sing the short pieces and psalm the long pieces. We all need to practice this. Then we will be persons equipped for the home meetings.
Second, to be equipped for the home meetings, we must be strengthened into our inner man. Paul prayed for this in Ephesians 3:14-19. Bowing his knees unto the Father, he prayed that the Father would grant the believers to be strengthened into the inner man. Paul uses several phrases to modify this strengthening. He prayed that the Father would grant you to be strengthened according to the riches of His glory, with power, and through His Spirit. God would strengthen you according to the riches of His glory. It is not a small thing for God to do this. God would strengthen you into the inner man, not according to the scarcity of His strength but according to the riches of His glory with power through the Holy Spirit.
Let me illustrate in this way. Suppose a working brother works the whole day in the office under a lot of pressure and returns home fully exhausted. At home he is offended by some member of his family, perhaps his wife or his mother-in-law. Regardless of how tired he is, he will be so strong in losing his temper. Before this, if you were to ask him to read a page of a Life-study, he would say, “No, I can’t do it. I’m tired out.” Then you may say, “Okay, let us pray about it.” But he would reply, “No, I can’t do it. I can’t. I am dying.” But when his mother-in-law provoked him, he got strengthened into his temper with the riches of the devil’s subtlety. His entire being enters into his temper. When you come back home from your tiring job, you must pray, “Father, grant me according to the riches of Your glory, with power, through Your Spirit to be strengthened into my inner man.” Then your entire being will be concentrated into the inner man, which is your human spirit. Here you can be fully strengthened, you can pray, and you can come to the meeting.
I believe that quite often when the saints come to the home meeting, a number of them are tired, especially in the evening. That is the right time for you to be strengthened into the inner man. Do not remain in your tired, worn-out body. Do not remain in your mind. Do not remain in your soul. You should pray, “Lord, strengthen me into my spirit.” Then by being strengthened into your spirit, you can overcome the tiredness of your body and the tedious feeling in your soul. In the following verses we see that our being strengthened relates to the meeting life. After being strengthened into our inner man, verses 17 through 19 continue, “That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints what the breadth and length and height and depth are, and to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.” With all the saints indicates some kind of meeting. To be strengthened that you may be strong to apprehend the measurement, the dimensions of Christ, with all the saints indicates meeting. Even the fullness of God here means the church life, the expression of God. I believe that this is related to the meeting.
We all need these two things: to be filled in our spirit with the Holy Spirit and to be strengthened into our spirit. Then we will come to the meeting with our spirit filled, just like the four tires on a car. Too many times when we come to the meeting, we come flat. We need to come to the meeting full of air, filled with air, full of the “pum, pum, pum.” Even though we may be tired and even worn out by the day, we must be strong in our spirit.
This is not a matter of doctrine. What is needed is much practice. We all need to practice the filling of our spirit and the strengthening of our spirit. We need to practice this if we mean business with the Lord for His recovery. We need this. If we would neglect the home meetings and care only for the big meetings, we would not need much practice. One or two leading ones would do everything for us. They would become the clergy, and everyone else would become laymen. That is not the church life. There would be no way for the Lord to build up His Body. The building up all depends upon the home meetings. So all of us have to practice the filling of our spirit and the strengthening into our inner man. Then we will be full of the Triune God, full of His attributes, and we will be strengthened in our spirit. Then when we come together, everyone will be equipped to carry the home meeting on. This is the way. I hope that this would not be just a message to you but rather a kind of instruction that you would practice. Practice daily to be filled in your spirit and to be strengthened into your inner man.
