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The book of 1 Corinthians tells us that Christ became a life-giving Spirit. This is wonderful! If He were not such a life-giving Spirit, all that He is would just be objective to us. But now He is the Spirit dwelling within our spirit so that we can be one with Him in spirit. By taking Christ as everything in our spirit, we can have a proper life; we can enjoy Him all the day. This life is for the meeting, and the meeting is for the building up of the church.
In today’s Christianity the concept regarding Christian meetings is that they are to worship God. I do not say that this is wrong; I admit that there is a sense in which Christian meetings are to worship God. But we must realize that the best worship we can render to God is to build up the church. The real worship that God desires is the building up of the church. This is the main purpose of the meetings.
Since the meetings are for the building up of the church, what must we do in the meetings? If we read through 1 Corinthians, which is practically the only book in the New Testament that deals with the matter of meetings, we will come to the conclusion that to build up the church we must prophesy. For us to prophesy as Christians is so easy. But do not use the dictionary of today’s Christianity. By seeing the context of the entire book of 1 Corinthians, we realize what it means to prophesy. Yes, it does mean to predict something in a miraculous way, but this is not the main, primary meaning of the word prophesy in this book. In 1 Corinthians to prophesy means to speak something for Christ. If to prophesy means only to predict some future occurrence, how could this build up the church? But in chapter 14 of this book, we see repeatedly that prophesying is a matter of building up the church. Therefore, it must not be a kind of prediction, but a kind of ministry of Christ. We must take the context of the whole book. Paul said in chapter 2, “When I came to you,...I did not determine to know anything among you except Jesus Christ” (vv. 1-2). In other words, Paul, in order to build up the church in Corinth, determined not to know anything among them but Christ. Paul, so that the church in Corinth might be built up, admonished them to prophesy (14:1, 5, 24, 31). By putting these two points together, we get the right meaning of prophesying in this book. It is simply to minister Christ to others so that the church might be built up.
If in the meeting I predict that in 1970 certain things will happen, in 1971 certain other things will happen, and then in 1972, etc., etc., could this kind of prophecy edify the church? It would simply create gossip, and there would be no life in the church. That kind of prophecy does not build up the church. You cannot pluck the word prophesy from 1 Corinthians and say that it means to predict. You must read the whole book. Consider the entire ministry of the apostle Paul. How much predicting did he do? Did he prophesy? Yes, he prophesied very much. His prophecy was mainly the ministry of Christ. He told the Corinthians in effect, “When I come to you, I determine not to know anything but Christ; now you must follow me; you must follow me to prophesy in this way, not in a miraculous way but in the way of ministering Christ to others so that the church may be built up.”
We all need a proper dictionary. I have just shown you the dictionary composed by the apostle Paul. We all can (v. 31) and we all must prophesy in the meetings by speaking something for Christ. Do not say that you are “chicken.” We all must be “lions” in prophesying for Christ. It is rather difficult for me to gossip, but it is so easy to say something for Christ my Lord. “O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus, how good You are. Hallelujah! Amen!”
Now we must see that whatever we speak for Christ, whatever we do in the meeting, must be a demonstration of the spirit. This is quite important. Christ can never be ministered to others without the demonstration of our spirit. I am sorry to say that when some dear ones rise to speak in the meetings, there is no ministry of Christ because there is no demonstration of the spirit. That kind of speaking kills the meeting. When I see dear ones like that standing up, I am really frightened.
The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:1-4 that when he came to the Corinthians, his speech and his proclamation “were not in persuasive words of wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” This means that when he came to the Corinthians to minister Christ to them, by his speaking, by his preaching, he did not exercise his mind to use excellent words in an enticing way; rather, he exercised his spirit. His speaking was a real demonstration of his spirit. You may say that this kind of demonstration must be miraculous. But read 14:6: “Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what will I profit you, unless I speak to you either in revelation or in knowledge or in prophecy or in teaching?” This means that he did not come to them to speak in tongues, but to speak with clear, understandable words, in an ordinary way. He came to speak just the knowledge, just the doctrine, just the prophesying; yet with this ordinary speaking there was the demonstration of the spirit. We need to put these two verses together: 2:4 and 14:6. By linking these two verses and indeed the whole book, we see what the apostle Paul means by the demonstration of the spirit. Verse 4 of chapter 2 with verse 6 of chapter 14 proves that it does not mean something miraculous and supernatural. Paul did not preach in that way; he preached in an ordinary way with ordinary words; yet his speaking was the demonstration of the spirit.
We all must learn to say something for Christ in the meeting with a demonstration of the spirit. We have to exercise this; we have to do this. There is no excuse. We cannot say that we were born timid, that we do not have a loud voice, or that we are not so eloquent. Second Timothy 1:7 says that God has not given us a “spirit of cowardice.” God has given us a spirit “of power.” Do not say that you do not have a loud voice — everyone has a loud voice. I do not believe that when your house is on fire, you will announce quietly to the neighbors that your house is burning down. You will cry, Fire! fire!” Then we will see what kind of a voice you have. Do not say anything about eloquence — we do not need eloquence. We can say much for Christ without eloquence.
The proper way to meet together is this: We must take Christ as our everything, realizing that He is the life-giving Spirit today in our spirit; therefore, we must be in the spirit, exercising our spirit continuously. Then we will experience Christ, partake of Christ, and enjoy Christ in a wonderful way. As such persons, when we come together, we will not meet for the religious worship of today’s Christianity, but for the building up of the church by ministering Christ one to another with demonstration of the spirit. In this way, there can be no system of clergy or laity. Are you a clergyman or a layman? You should be neither. Praise the Lord, we are simply members of the Body and parts of the priesthood. This means that we must all prophesy. When the whole church comes together, all can prophesy one by one (1 Cor. 14:23-24, 31), because everyone has something of Christ to share with the others.
I have been much exercised in recent days to find a way whereby all the Lord’s children may function one by one in the meetings. To the present day in the local churches, the brothers and sisters are not all functioning among us. So many are still taking advantage of others. So many are still spectators and not participators. This troubles me greatly. If we do not come to the meeting, that is another thing. But if we do come, we must function one by one. If we are not functioning, we are not scriptural. “You can all prophesy one by one” (v. 31). There is no escape; there is no exception; all must take part. Whenever anyone stands to prophesy, there should be a demonstration of the spirit. This is the proper way to meet.
This is not a matter of learning methods — methods do not work. In a certain place in this country I heard the following: “When we first began to meet together, all the people in the meeting were seated in one direction. Then we learned that the church in Los Angeles seated the people in four directions, so we changed the arrangement of our chairs accordingly. We learned, however, that when the people were seated in one direction, there was only one direction of death in the meetings; then, after we changed the seating to four directions, there were four directions of death in the meetings. Therefore, do not follow Los Angeles.” They are right. Do not follow the method — the method does not work. If we are going to speak something for Christ, we must live by Christ. The meeting life depends upon this.
In the early years of my Christian life, I was in a group, the dear ones of which knew nothing else but studying the Bible in a literal way. I cannot tell you how much time they spent studying the Scriptures just according to the letter of the Word. Whenever they came together, it was just to discuss the letter of the Word. Suppose that we are this kind of people; do you think that when we come together we could speak something for Christ? It is impossible. If we have nothing of Christ, how can we say something for Christ? We can only speak the letters of the Bible. I knew another group of Christians, the members of which were exceedingly clever in fighting one another with Bible verses. They beat and accused one another by using the Scriptures themselves. How can such people speak something of Christ and for Christ?
The Christian meeting is not a kind of performance but a demonstration. To perform as an actor is simply a pretense. The Christian meeting must be an exhibition of what we are in Christ, not a performance of what we are not. Of course, if I just speak in tongues day by day, I will not be able to exhibit anything but tongues. If I am just studying the Word according to the letter, I will not be able to demonstrate anything but this. If I walk in the soul and live according to the flesh, when I come to the meeting to function, what can I demonstrate? Nothing but my soulish life, my fleshly daily walk. We cannot perform in the church; we can only demonstrate what we are. The meeting is the demonstration of what we experience of Christ, so we must have the proper walk in our daily life as a base for the meeting.
We all must practice one thing in our daily life: to exercise our spirit to contact the Lord. In my early ministry I advised people to read through the Bible once a year, to be faithful in the morning watch, to pray at least ten minutes daily, etc. That was my teaching. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that. But now, my ministry has changed greatly. The most important thing for you and me in our daily life is to continually exercise our spirit to touch the Lord. How? Just by this simple way of calling on His name. “O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus!” Say it loudly. Do not say there is no one listening to you — there are many listening; at least the angels and the demons are listening. The more you practice in this way, the more you will be nourished. The more you speak, the more you will be inspired. The angels will listen to you, the evil spirits will also listen to you, and it will be a good exercise for your spirit.
Sisters, sometimes you must speak in your kitchen. Do not say there is nobody there. You have to say, “Jesus is the Lord! Christ is my life!” Just speak it out — you will see what victory you will have. Brothers, while you are gardening, you have to say something for Christ. You can speak to the birds: “Little bird, I want to tell you that Christ is my life. My life is better than yours. I am so proud of Him.” Tell the creatures something about Christ. I am not joking. You will learn how to function. Then, when you come to the meeting, it will be easy for you to say something.
Brothers and sisters, we all must speak for Christ. We should not be dumb people; we do not worship dumb idols, but a living, speaking God. We all can speak — Hallelujah, praise the Lord!
We are now living in the age of the book of Revelation. In this book we read a number of times of a loud voice, a voice like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunders (7:10; 14:2; 19:1, 6). We must have a loud voice for Christ. We should not be so dumb; we must learn to say something all the time for the Lord, regardless of whether we have a visible audience or not. Wherever we are, we can tell the angels and the demons, “Jesus is the Lord; Christ is my life. I am not here for myself, for my job, for my schooling; I am for Christ.” We are not speaking just to the air. We are speaking to the principalities, the powers in the heavenlies. This is the way to exercise and strengthen our spirit. We need practice to speak for the Lord, and we have many opportunities every day. By such continual exercise, it will not be difficult to speak for Christ in the meetings.
Everything we learn requires practice. At the beginning we make many mistakes, but eventually we become experts. It is the same with the matter of demonstrating our spirit. Again I say, we have many opportunities every day to practice. We may not have a human audience, but we can always speak to the beings in the air. When we speak to human beings, there may not be so much need of exercising the spirit, but when we speak to the beings in the air, the mind does not work. To exercise the mind to speak to the angels is useless; we must exercise our spirit to speak to them.
We all must learn to continually say something for Christ in our daily life. Why are you so defeated? It is because you are so silent. The subtlety of the enemy is to keep your mouth shut. Speak something for Christ to the people in your office. The more you speak, the more victorious you will be. Learn to sing the hymns wherever you are. You may say that you are not a good singer, but there is no need for anyone to be a good singer. Everyone can sing. These two things — speaking and singing — will help you be so living, active, and aggressive in functioning in the meetings.
Then when you come to the meeting, you must not come late. All late-comers are meeting-killers. If you mean business with the Lord for the meeting, you must be punctual. If it is not possible for you to come before the hour, at least you should come on time. If the meeting is due to start by 7:30, and at that time we just have a few gathered, the rest gradually trickling in thereafter, the meeting is greatly weakened. We must do our best to avoid being late to the meetings. Suppose we are a basketball team with five members, but when the time comes to play there are only two of us. After five minutes another two come, and after half an hour the fifth member arrives. What a poor game that would be! If we would play a good game, we must all be present before the time and prepare ourselves. Then when the time comes to play, we will be so alert and mutually encouraged. When we are all together and arrive on time for the meeting, this greatly encourages the function of the spirit. On the contrary, what a discouragement and shame it is when many come late. Furthermore, it is rather difficult for all the late-comers to function in the meetings. By coming late, you are out of the functioning spirit. Punctuality, however, is not a strictly legal matter: if sometimes it is really impossible for us to be on time, the Lord knows. In any case, we must do our best to avoid being late to the meetings. This will help greatly.
Another practical matter relating to the meetings is this — always come to the front. The common way is for the people to find their seats in the back rows. We hate to see this. Try to come to the front; it helps you, and it helps the meeting. This is not a small matter. We should fill up the front seats first. Whoever comes first, sits foremost. It is blessed to sit in the front.
Finally, whenever you enter the meeting, learn never to be silent. You must oppose yourself; you must stand against your natural disposition. Never excuse yourself by saying that you are not an outspoken type of person. At least you can say, “O Lord Jesus! Jesus is my Lord!” Just say it; you can. Then we have a few at the other extreme. Their disposition is to be so loud. They must stand against their natural disposition to be loud and active so that others can have an opportunity to participate. We all must be different in the spirit than we are according to our natural make-up. If I am one who is not disposed to speak in public, I must continually take the initiative to speak in the meetings for Christ; I must build up another kind of disposition. If I am one, on the other hand, for whom it is so easy to speak, I must oppose myself. It is good for me to be quiet for awhile until another disposition has been built up in me; then I will function in a proper way.
If we all learn these lessons, the meetings will be uplifted, enriched, and empowered. This kind of meetings will build up the church, edify people, and attract many newcomers. Let us forget our background and have a new start. Let us all come to the pure Word of God and learn a new way in the spirit. Perhaps by next month, the Lord will show us something newer than this; then we will go along with that. Let us drop the old ways and concepts and have an altogether new beginning in our meetings for the ministering of Christ to build up the church.
