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We have seen that the first mention of the meeting of believers in the New Testament is in Matthew 18:20. The Lord Jesus told us here that where two or three are gathered together in His name, there He will be in the midst. It seems that most Christians know this. Many Christians today say they are meeting in the name of the Lord Jesus, but what does this mean? What does it mean practically? What does it mean actually? What is the reality of meeting in the name of the Lord Jesus? We Christians are familiar with so many biblical terms, but when we are checked as to the real meaning of these terms, we cannot answer. We know the terms by reading the Bible, by reading so many scriptural and spiritual books, and by listening to so many messages, but if we are asked to define these terms, we cannot. If you asked me what it means to meet in the name of the Lord Jesus twenty-five years ago, I would have to answer, I do not know, I cannot tell.
There is a principle concerning all the revelations in the Bible: first we have the seed of that revelation, then the growth, and then the harvest. The revelation concerning the truth of Christian meetings has its seed in Matthew 18:20. This is the seed — to meet in the name of the Lord Jesus. But what does this mean? We cannot find the answer in the four Gospels; we must go on to the book of Acts.
In the book of Acts we see two vital matters. One is the name. When Peter on the day of Pentecost addressed the people, he told them that they must be baptized in the name of Jesus. If they would be baptized in His name, they would receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). So, the name of the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit are the two matters that we see brought together in the book of Acts. If we go on to chapter 19 of this book, we find a handful of believers meeting in the city of Ephesus. They had not been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and Paul instructed them to be baptized in His name. When they were, they received the Holy Spirit. The name and the Spirit go together in this book time after time.
Now we will pass from the book of Acts to the Epistles. In all the Epistles we cannot find a verse telling us that we must meet in the name of the Lord Jesus, because to meet in His name is but the seed of meeting. In the book of Acts we have the growth of meeting, and in the Epistles we have the harvest. First Corinthians 14 is almost the only chapter in all the Epistles dealing with the way for Christians to meet. What is stressed in this chapter is not the name but the Spirit. Concerning the truth of Christian meetings, to be in the name of the Lord Jesus is the seed, to be in the name of the Lord to receive the Holy Spirit is the growth, and to be in the Spirit is the harvest. Thus, we see that the name of the Lord Jesus is very much linked with the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit there is no reality of the name of the Lord Jesus. We say that the name of Jesus is powerful. But what is the power of the name of Jesus? The Holy Spirit. All the power and reality of the name of Jesus is in the Holy Spirit and is the Holy Spirit.
Now let us see a few more verses which prove that the Holy Spirit is vitally related to the name of Jesus. John 14:13-17 says, “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you.” By reading these verses together, we obtain the context of all these words, and we see that the reality of the Lord’s name is in the Spirit and is the Spirit. The Lord Jesus for the first time told us to ask for something in His name. Following this, He told us that for this purpose He would ask the Father to give us the Spirit. Without the Spirit we could never ask in the name of the Lord Jesus. Thus, the reality of the Lord’s name is the Spirit. The reality of anyone’s name is his person. The person of the Lord Jesus is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is just the Lord Himself (2 Cor. 3:17). He Himself is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). So, the Holy Spirit, as the person of the Lord, is the reality of the Lord’s name. Therefore, to meet in the name of the Lord means to meet in the Holy Spirit.
In the Gospels we have the matter of meeting in the name, but in the Epistles it seems that the apostles forgot all about the name. But no, they did not forget. They knew, but they were in the harvest, they were in the Spirit, the reality of the name. Therefore, in the Epistles the apostles tell us that we must meet in the Spirit. Between the Gospels and the Epistles, we have the book of Acts. In the Acts we see how this matter has progressed from the seed to the harvest; therefore, the name and the Spirit are brought together.
Now let us read John 14:26: “The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name...” The Lord tells us here that the Holy Spirit will be sent in His name. What does this mean? Suppose I promise to give you some money, but eventually I just give you a check. You will realize, of course, that this check is the reality of the money I promised you. The Lord Jesus promised to give us something in His name, and what He gave us was the Spirit. The Spirit is the reality of His name. He did not say that He would leave His name with us, a name just in word, just as a term. If so, there would be no reality, no power. Jesus is an English name with five letters. Are these five letters powerful? No. Then what is the power of Jesus’ name? The Spirit. If you do not touch the Spirit, you can never touch the power of His name. If you are not in the Spirit, you are not in His name; you are not in the reality of the Lord Jesus. This is why, when we come to the harvest of the truth in the Epistles, we come to the Spirit. There is no need to speak about the name, because this is not the stage of the seed but the stage of the harvest. Now we have the Spirit, so we meet in the Spirit. When you put my check in the bank, immediately you get the money.
In 1 Corinthians 12:3 we read, “No one can say, Jesus is Lord! except in the Holy Spirit.” When you say, “Jesus is Lord,” then you are in the Spirit. When you call on the name of Jesus, you are in the Spirit. You call “Lord Jesus” and you get the Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is the reality of Jesus. If you called, “John,” you would not get me, because I am not John. John and I are not one, and I am not the reality of John. But now the Holy Spirit is the reality of Jesus; so whenever you call “Jesus,” Hallelujah, you get the Spirit. Do you see? The reality of meeting in the name of the Lord Jesus is meeting in the Spirit. The name is just the seed in the earth, but now we have the harvest because we have the Spirit. We must all realize that the real meaning of meeting in the name of the Lord Jesus is to meet in the Spirit. When we are in the Spirit, we are in the name. In 1 Corinthians 14 the apostle Paul said not a word about the name, but just the Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is the very reality, power, and essence of the name of Jesus. We must be in the Holy Spirit in order to be in the name of Christ. This is quite clear.
Now let me ask another question. Where is the Spirit today? Hallelujah! The reality of the name is the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit today is in our spirit. This is why we must exercise our spirit. It is very difficult to say whether the word spiritual in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 refers to something of the Holy Spirit or our regenerated human spirit. First Corinthians 12:1 says, “Now concerning spiritual gifts,” and 14:1 says, “Pursue love, and desire earnestly spiritual gifts.” The word gifts, if you noticed, is in italics. It means that it is not in the original text; in the Greek there is not such a word. In other words, it just says, “Now concerning spiritual,” and “Pursue love, and desire earnestly spiritual...” Of course, there is no need that the Holy Spirit be spiritual. Those who need to be spiritual are you and I. The word spiritual refers to us; we must learn to be spiritual. I do believe it really means that we must be in the spirit. It is rather difficult for anyone to decide whether the s of this spirit should be capitalized or not. We could translate 1 Corinthians 12:1 in such a way: “Now concerning being in the spirit, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.” Verse 1 of chapter 14, likewise, can be translated as, “Pursue love, and desire earnestly to be in the spirit.” I prefer not to capitalize the word spirit in these verses. If you read chapter 14, you will see how many times the word spirit has been used with small letter s. Eventually, when you come to verse 32, you read concerning “the spirits of prophets,” the spirits being in plural number because the prophets are in plural number, and the spirits are the spirits of the prophets. It is exceedingly easy for anyone to see that this does not refer to the Holy Spirit, but to the human spirits of the prophets.
Now, I believe, you have the secret of how to meet. First, it is to meet in the name. Second, to meet in the name means to meet in the Spirit, and third, to meet in the Spirit means to exercise our spirit. This is the way for us to attend the meetings. The way for Christians to meet is not to have forms, regulations, programs, and so forth, but just to exercise the spirit. The Holy Spirit is mingled with our spirit; therefore, when we exercise our spirit, the Holy Spirit moves with us. When the Holy Spirit moves with our spirit, we have the reality of the name. We are meeting not only by exercising our spirit but also by being in the Spirit and thus also in the name.
The key, the secret of our meeting together, is the exercise of our regenerated human spirit. How can we prove this? First Corinthians 14:32 is the strongest proof. Verse 31 tells us that we “can all prophesy.” Then verse 32 follows by telling us that prophesying is just the exercise of our spirit. It is not to wait until the Spirit pushes us, because the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets. As the prophet, if we do not take the initiative, if our spirit would not move, then the Holy Spirit has no way out. We must take the initiative and exercise our spirit. If our spirit moves, the Holy Spirit who is within our spirit will move with us and bring in the reality of the name of Jesus. Therefore, the proper way for us as Christians to meet is to exercise our spirit. This is no small thing.
You do not know how much time we have spent searching the Bible, especially the New Testament, and reading many other writings to discover the way of meeting. By the Lord’s mercy He showed us that the secret of meeting together is to exercise the spirit, because the reality of the name of the Lord is in the Spirit, and His Spirit is mingled with our spirit. The secret of our meeting today is the exercise of our spirit.
In today’s Christianity there is much talk about the Spirit in meetings. The so-called Pentecostal people say that we must have the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the meeting. That means, according to their teaching, that we must pray, that we must confess our sins, that we must wait and pray with fasting for a certain time, and then suddenly in one of the meetings the Holy Spirit will descend upon us, and we will have the manifestation of speaking in tongues. With them, it is quite difficult. I was in this kind of movement for some time more than thirty years ago. I spent much time praying, fasting, confessing all my sins, and so forth. I am not criticizing but just presenting the real situation of today’s Christianity.
Then there is the other extreme. In so-called fundamental Christianity we are told that we must follow the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In all the meetings we must wait and not act if we do not have inspiration. If you read all the fundamental writings regarding the inspiration of the Spirit in meetings, they all say the same thing. You must confess your sins and consecrate yourself, you must pray more, and you must wait more upon the Lord; then you will feel the Holy Spirit inspiring you, and you need only follow His inspiration. Let me check with you: Can you find such a verse in the Bible? Is there a verse telling us that we must meet in this way? No, there is not.
Read 1 Corinthians 12 and 14: you will see that we must desire to be in the spirit; we must desire to prophesy. To prophesy is not to wait until we are inspired. Read the context. To prophesy means to take the initiative to exercise our spirit. It seems that we take the lead, but when we do, the Spirit of God follows and flows out, because today the Holy Spirit is mingled with our spirit. With Him there is no problem. He is always waiting for us; the problem is with us. If we would just cooperate with Him, if we would take the lead, He would follow and come forth. He would work together with us. It is not a case of us waiting for Him; it is He who is continually waiting for us. Since the time He came into us and mingled Himself with us, He has been waiting for us all the time. He has taken the initiative already; He is waiting now for us.
I do believe that if you read all these passages to which we have referred, and not only read them but pray-read them again and again, your eyes will be opened. Praise the Lord, there is no need for us to wait for any kind of manifestation or any kind of inspiration. We need only to exercise our spirit and open our mouth to say, “O Lord, O Lord!” Do you see the point? Read the context of all these passages, and you will get the proper meaning. Just exercise your spirit and say, “Lord Jesus!” Exercise something deep within you to speak for the Lord Jesus. This is the exercise of the spirit. It seems that it is out from you, but it is really something of God, because the very Spirit of God today is mingled with your spirit.
When I was a child, I participated with the other children in a certain kind of race. We divided into pairs, and two of our feet were bound together so that each pair was forced to run with three feet. I believe that in America it is called a three-legged race. When I ran this race, the other one, my mate, was always waiting for me. Eventually, I would rise and get ready to run the race. Now tell me, who was the initiator, he or I? Apparently it was I, but in fact he was the real initiator. Now we are bound together with the Holy Spirit, and not only bound together but mingled with Him. But we are so slow and slothful; He has been waiting for us all the time. When we become aware of Him, we are still ignorant, for we say, “Lord Jesus, I have been waiting for You in my spirit. I have been praying for three days, and I do not have the inspiration.” Dear ones have come to me and said, “How is it that you have such inspiration, but it is so difficult for us to obtain it? It seems so easy for you to be inspired, but so difficult for us. Why?” The answer is that they have been carried away by the fundamental teachings. Read 1 Corinthians 14 again and again. It does not say that we must wait; it does not say that we must pray; it does not say that we must fast. It says that we must take the initiative; our human spirit must take action. It seems that we are always waiting, but actually the Holy Spirit has been waiting for us all the time.
By what way, then, can we take the action and initiative in our spirit? Praise the Lord, in these two chapters we have two ways. Just by saying, “Lord Jesus!” “No one can say, Jesus is Lord! except in the Holy Spirit” (12:3). In other words, whenever you say, “Lord Jesus” in a real way, it means that you are in the Spirit. Some versions translate 1 Corinthians 12:3 in this way: “No one can say Lord Jesus except by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.” Other versions give this rendering: “No one can say Lord Jesus but in the power of the Holy Spirit.” Though such words as inspiration and power in this verse are not in the original Greek, this is the real meaning. To be in the Spirit really means to be in the power and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. When you say “Lord Jesus,” you are in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. There is no need for you to wait for inspiration; you are already in it. We all have to learn to say “Lord Jesus” in the meeting, in our home, and a thousand times a day. I hope that the sisters while they are shopping in the supermarket will say “Lord Jesus” many times. While they are walking down the aisles and considering what to buy, they must say “Lord Jesus.” We all must say this. If we are going to lose our temper, we must say, “O Lord Jesus!” Then our temper will be gone. There is no need for us to read so many books to become holy. I tell you, you can become holy just by saying “Lord Jesus.” Whenever you say “Lord Jesus,” you are in the Holy Spirit. It is wonderful.
Then in the meetings, the second way to keep yourself in the Holy Spirit is to prophesy. To be in the Holy Spirit means to prophesy. But we must realize that to prophesy not only means to foretell. Altogether, to prophesy has three meanings: (1) to foretell, meaning to predict or to speak beforehand; (2) to tell for, or to say something on the behalf of others; and (3) to tell forth, or to proclaim and declare. These are the three meanings of this one word prophesy in the New Testament. In Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 14, to prophesy means “to tell for” more than the other two meanings. It means to say something for Christ, to say something for the Lord — this is real prophecy. You may not be able to speak in tongues, but you can prophesy; you can say something for the Lord in the meetings. Everyone can. First Corinthians 14:31 says, “You can all prophesy.” We all can prophesy; we all can say something for Jesus. I tell you the truth, I cannot sing well at all, but I can say so many things for Christ. Sisters, you can say something for the Lord. Praise the Lord, you can prophesy. I can say something all the time for the Lord Jesus. As long as I have breath, I can say something for Him. This is real prophecy. Read 1 Corinthians 14 again and again, and see if this is not the meaning.
The way to meet, therefore, is to be in the name of the Lord Jesus, and the way to be in the reality of the name of the Lord Jesus is to be in the Spirit. The way to be in the Spirit is to exercise our spirit, because the Holy Spirit is one with our spirit, and the way to exercise our spirit in the meetings is to call, “Lord Jesus!” and to prophesy, to speak for Christ the Lord.
