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Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 14:1, 3, 24, 31-32; 12:7-8; Gen. 20:7; Neh. 8:9; 2 Sam. 12:1
It seems as if all of us have nothing else to do besides hurrying to meetings, busily going to meetings, and attending meetings. Actually, it is not that we have nothing else to do. Rather, we are those who have been called by the Lord Jesus out of all our busy engagements to meet together. The Lord has not called us to meet together in the meeting hall. Instead, He calls us to meet together into His name, that is, into Himself. We worship and enjoy Him together by meeting in Him.
The hymn that we sang tonight, Hymns, #791, shows us that in the Old Testament the priests had to do three things: burn the incense, light the lamps, and sing. For us today, to burn the incense is to pray. Our praying is our burning of the incense. For us today, to light the lamp is to read the Word. By this, the light of God shines in us. And for us today, to sing is just to sing hymns.
Although I do not know much about music, and I do not have a good voice or an ear for music, I do love to sing. Both Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3 say that when you are filled within, you will be full of grace to sing with your hearts and speak to one another. You will be speaking the word and singing the word. This is why I urge you young people to learn to sing the hymns. You have to practice singing in a harmonious way and to exercise your throats. Even you older ones have to do the same. It does not matter if you sing out of tune. You have to have a singing that is full of the Lord, full of the Spirit, and full of life. You must sing out the feeling in the spirit. All of us must be like the Old Testament priests. We must have a three-in-one living: burning the incense, lighting the lamps, and singing. Every day we must pray, read the Word, and sing.
Recently, in all of our speaking we have not left this one subject: the home meetings. I am not only talking about the home meetings here; I am talking about them in the United States also. I spoke about them in the Chinese-speaking meeting, and I also spoke about them in the English-speaking meeting. I did not talk about the big meetings. All I talked about was the home meetings. Even in my dreams I am still shouting about the home meetings. I will never forget about the home meetings. The burden for the home meetings in me has not diminished; rather, it has increased. I am very glad to see all of you here again, because I can discharge my burden to you once again. I hope that after these few meetings in this conference, all my burden will be passed on to you. For this reason, I beg you to share somewhat in my burden.
Tonight we want to talk about the key to the home meetings. What is the key to the home meetings? It is difficult to state it in one word. But I believe that after the past eight or nine months all the brothers and sisters have come to realize the importance of the home meetings. Regardless of how many thousands and tens of thousands of messages you have heard, they can never replace the home meetings. The big meetings can never replace the home meetings, because the home meetings afford people the opportunity to speak. At the beginning of October we had three conferences. In them we spoke concerning “The Full Knowledge of the Word of God,” “Everyone Speaking the Word of God,” and “Meeting to Speak the Word of God.” I believe we all saw that God desires very much that all His children would speak.
All the mothers know that as soon as a child is born, the thing she is most anxious about is to hear the child’s voice. If after six months the child would still not utter any sound, the mother would be very anxious. But one day, if the child suddenly opens his mouth and says, “Mama,” the mother will be beside herself with joy. She will go around to tell people that her child can now say “Mama.” Every mother just loves to hear her child speak. It does not matter if the words are all nonsense; they will still be music to the mother’s ears. This is a very good illustration.
We have been regenerated to become the children of God. But if we would not speak for a year, two years, eight years, or even twenty years, would that not be a strange thing? What is happening to you? Forgive me for saying this. We have been talking about the home meetings for a year already. The main purpose of the home meetings is to promote speaking by everyone. Yet there are still many who would not speak. They are the “dumb old babes.”
These dear brothers and sisters are not only reluctant to speak; they simply cannot understand what I have been doing, saying, “Since the end of last year when he came back to us, he has changed around our perfectly good big meetings. It is so comfortable to sit in a big meeting to listen to a message. But now he has divided us up and has put eight or nine of us into a home. At the same time he repeatedly exhorts us and forces us to speak. I am not interested in the home meetings. I just wish that we could go back to the big meetings.” Are these not words that are in your hearts? I am very sympathetic toward all of you. I know that you are all either very busy with your jobs, pressed by obligations, or entangled in household affairs. You are tied up from Monday until Saturday. Finally the long awaited Sunday is here, and all you want to do is relax a little bit in the meetings. You like to listen leisurely to others singing, praying, and reading the Bible to you followed by having a good message delivered to you. How comfortable this is!
You may say, “But now, Brother Lee has changed our meetings around. Now we have to go to the home meetings. There is no one there who can pray. There is no one there who can give a message. When we read, we have to pray-read, repeat-read, explain-read, and a lot of other things. On top of that we still have to speak. I am not a professional preacher. I have never been to a seminary. This is killing me!” Although such words have not yet come out of your mouth, I am not a dumb man; I have been a doctor in this line for fifty-nine years. I have much bedside experience. When I look at your faces and check around a little bit, I know immediately where your sickness lies. I do not believe too many of you would say, “We agree wholeheartedly with the way of the home meetings. We are for speaking in the home meetings. Even if I cannot speak, I will still learn to speak and to sing.”
Dear brothers and sisters, let me say this to you: The age has changed. The Lord is going on. Today this is the way that the Lord has taken. The Bible shows us clearly that at Pentecost, immediately after the Holy Spirit was poured out, when men were saved and the church was established, the home meetings were there. Every one of them preached Jesus, spoke about Jesus, and taught others concerning Jesus. The book of Acts tells us that the word of the Lord grew and was victorious. The situation then was different from what we have today. We have been preaching the word in Taiwan for thirty-six years. But the word of the Lord is still not prospering here in Taiwan. This is because there are few who speak; there is not much speaking. Now we all have to rise up to speak. Everyone must come to speak the word of the Lord. This is the characteristic of the home meeting.
In Numbers 11:29 Moses said, “Oh that all Jehovah’s people were prophets!” Not only did Moses say this in the Old Testament; in the New Testament Paul gives a clearer word: “You can all prophesy one by one” (1 Cor. 14:31). To the Corinthians Paul says, “Pursue love, and desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy” (v. 1). Here it says we have to pursue love and to desire earnestly spiritual gifts. But more than that, we have to desire to prophesy. Do you realize that you must speak? It is a big loss not to be able to speak. The home meeting is to afford you an opportunity to speak.
All the mothers know that no child is born with the ability to give a long speech. A child learns to speak by practicing every day. After a few years he will speak properly and will be able to express himself adequately. Speaking is just like writing; if you do not practice it, you will forget it as time goes by. Do not think that because you cannot speak, you should not speak. Even if we cannot speak, we should still keep on talking. The more we speak, the more we will be able to speak. You have to realize that there is a big difference between speaking and not speaking in the meetings. If you are under a powerful speaking ministry that ministers the Lord’s word to you, and you are being moved and edified, your experience tells you that even to say a small Amen from your heart will make a big difference.
Some brothers and sisters may have been meeting with us for ten, fifteen, or even twenty years. Not only do they refuse to speak; they would not even say an Amen. Once these perpetually silent ones open their mouths and say an Amen, they will be nourished and edified; they will sense something special. If they would go further to stand up in the meeting to speak a few words, their speaking will give them immediate comfort, joy, nourishment, and strength. This will be much better than listening to a few messages. I believe that many of you here have this experience. This proves that to speak in the meetings is a way of blessing.
Man is communal. Christians are all the more communal. None of us would like to live by himself on a high mountain. We like to see people and to speak to people. Once we have the life of God within us, we spontaneously love other Christians. We cannot explain why this is so, but it is a fact. It does not matter what color skin they have, whether they are black, white, red, brown, or yellow. As long as they are brothers, we love them. Some have asked me, “Brother Lee, how many brothers and sisters do you have?” How should I answer? How many brothers and sisters do I really have? More than hundreds of thousands! They are countless! Wherever I go today, I have brothers and sisters!
Christianity has robbed the Christians of this great blessing. When they go to the worship service, even those sitting beside them would not acknowledge them. After the service is over, everyone goes home. I attended a worship service for two years in a denomination. Besides the pastor, I did not talk to anyone. I was not the only one who was like that. All the others were the same. In that kind of setting, no one needs to speak to another. But if you come to a home meeting with eight brothers sitting in a brother’s living room, it would be impossible for you not to speak. At least you have to greet each other. Once you greet each other, the blessing comes. In time you begin to know me, and I begin to know you, and we become acquainted with each other’s condition and difficulties. Spontaneously a mutual love and care will be developed.
But this is not all. There are many things that you can practice in the home meetings. In the big meetings you cannot pray, but in the home meetings you can pray. In the big meetings you cannot speak, but in the home meetings you can speak. In the big meetings you cannot sing, but in the home meetings you can sing. All these are functions that cannot be fulfilled by the big meetings. For this reason I advise you to not despise the home meetings. Since we are saved and have become the children of God, we should not give up this blessing. I know that you are all very busy. According to the present arrangement of the church in Taipei, there are not too many meetings. On the Lord’s Day morning there is a meeting to learn the truth; we must all go there to learn the truth. Besides that, we have the Lord’s table meeting on the Lord’s Day evening; this is a meeting to remember the Lord, and it is very proper for us to attend that meeting. Other than these two meetings we have a home meeting once a week. This is a must for all of us. Attending such home meetings will refresh us all the time.
For me to go now to a service to listen to a pastor speak for an hour is a punishment. But if I go to the home meeting, where I meet the brothers and sisters, where we pray, sing, and fellowship together, there is much refreshment, enjoyment, and satisfaction. I hope that all the brothers and sisters would attend these three important meetings. We should learn the truths, remember the Lord, and build up one another through the home meetings.
If anyone does not love the home meetings, he must forgive me to say that he must have a problem with his love toward the Lord. I am afraid such a one does not really love the Lord. I am not condemning you, picking on you, or exposing your shortcomings. I admit that you do love the Lord, but your love today is not fresh. I honestly believe that if your love toward the Lord is still fresh, you will surely love the home meetings. I myself have the same experience. For a while I did not like to see the brothers and sisters. I became tired of meetings. Invariably my love toward the Lord was not fresh at such times. However, once I would pray a little, be enlightened a little in my prayer, and confess my sins and plead for the cleansing of the blood, I immediately would be refreshed. The first thing that comes to me after I am refreshed is that I want to go to the meetings. This is why I say that to be tired of the home meetings shows that our love toward the Lord is no longer fresh.
In the Christian’s experience, if there is a problem with one’s daily life, his love toward the Lord will not be fresh. This is a symptom of a disease. When your love toward the Lord is fresh, when you have such a sweet fellowship with Him in the morning, you wish that the evening would come sooner so that you may go to the meeting. It seems as if you cannot wait until the evening. As soon as you finish with your business in the afternoon, you rush through your dinner so that you can make it to the meeting. But sometimes the situation is exactly the opposite. We are afraid of the meetings. We do not want to see the faces of the brothers and sisters. This is a symptom. It means that you are spiritually sick. Sometimes, by the Lord’s mercy, the sickness is over in three or five days. But if the sickness persists, then you must beware. If you are weak and underweight for a long time, and you cannot diagnose the problem, perhaps you have developed spiritual cancer.
The best way is to go to the Lord to contact Him. Once you contact Him, you will discover your sins. Even our reluctance to go to meetings is a sin. We will see that even our lack of prayer and our not walking according to the Spirit are sins. If we would confess our sins before the Lord, we will be forgiven, and there will be an immediate revival within. Once we are revived, we will want to come to the meetings. In simple terms, the key to the home meetings is a fresh love toward the Lord. Whenever we feel that we are not fresh, we must contact the Lord and confess our sins. His blood will cleanse us. This cleansing is always effective; it is an instant cure. Nothing will annul this law. If we would do this, we will live daily in the fellowship with the Lord.
Whether young or old, all of us must exercise to do one thing: from the time we wake up in the morning until we go to bed at night, as long as we are awake and breathing, we must set our mind on the Lord. Perhaps you would say, “I want to do this. But whenever I become busy, I forget about this.” I admit that sometimes I forget the Lord also. But one thing that I have learned makes it hard for me to forget the Lord: I always call on the Lord. If you would call O Lord all the time, you will be reminded of Him. Sometimes you also have to learn to say Amen. Many times we become busy with something. While we are busy with that thing, we become buried in it for two or three hours. The Lord is gone, and we are lost in that thing. I have learned a secret: no matter how busy I am, I would learn always to say O Lord, Amen. This kind of calling brings me into fellowship with the Lord.
Some of you drive to work. While you are driving, you can call on the Lord. Sometimes the road is too congested. The cars ahead of you are moving too slowly. At such times you have to exercise yourself to say O Lord, Amen. You may even joke a little: “O Lord, the cars are slow. But You are not slow.” The Lord is indeed not slow. He never fails us. If your mind is turned, the songs will come: “He faileth not, for He is God; He faileth not, His grace how good!” If you have such a good enjoyment during the day, you will surely love to come to the meetings. If all the brothers and sisters would live such a life, everyone would surely love the home meetings.
When we attend the home meetings, we have to be ready to speak. We all know that in the home meetings we cannot talk about the things of the world. If you speak about such things, no one would say Amen to you. But to speak spiritual things is difficult for us, because we have not learned to speak this way, and we cannot speak this way. Herein lies the key: when we come to the home meetings, everyone must learn to speak God’s word.
There is another key to the home meeting: we must be persons who read the Bible. An illiterate person cannot speak very well. Only those who are learned can speak well. A Christian’s speaking depends on his reading of the Bible. I am not asking you to read a lot. Every saved person should spend at least ten minutes a day to read the Bible. You cannot spend less than ten minutes. I advise you that the best time to read is the morning. Allocate at least ten minutes a day to read the Bible. Take all of God’s words into your being. Be filled with His word to such an extent that it is no longer you reading the Bible but the Bible reading itself to you from within you.
If we love the Lord, we have to go to bed as early as possible. I discovered the same thing with both Chinese and American children: they do not like to go to bed. Not only do the children not like to go to bed; both young people and old folks alike do not like to go to bed early. In the evening they always want to drag on longer. In order to be able to wake up in the morning, I suggest that you go to bed early. As soon as you wake up, the first thing to do is to go to the Word. This will make a great difference. If you read ten minutes a day, you may not notice much difference; you may have only three or five verses a day. But as the months go by, there will be more of a deposit in you, and the Bible will open itself to you in a wonderful way.
Your reading of the Bible the first time will lay a foundation for you. Later when someone expounds that verse in the meeting, your impression will be much deeper. When you come to the same passage the second time, there will be more of God’s word in you. If you would do this for ten minutes a day, in ten years how rich a person you will be! The deposited word in you will make you a scholar. For example, born of a woman is a biblical expression. If you would read the Bible every day, terms such as incarnation, mingling, and other biblical expressions will be constituted into you. When you need them, they will all come back. It is correct to say that reading the Bible is a difficult thing. It is equally correct to say that reading the Bible is an easy thing. All you have to do is go and read.
When you go to the home meeting, you must go with a spirit of prayer. Whether anyone arrives before you at the meeting and regardless of how many people there are in the meeting, as soon as you arrive, you should begin to pray. We have to speak in the home meetings. But the first speaking is not to man but to God. The minute you enter the place, start praying. When all seven or eight eventually arrive, they will spontaneously pray. In this way the home meeting becomes a prayer meeting. At least for ten to fifteen minutes, everyone will enter into this kind of prayer.
Again, the key to the home meetings is in singing the hymns. We all have to learn to sing. It would be good if after this week’s home meeting, an announcement would be made for next week’s reading. There is no need to use a whole Life-study message; we may pick out just two paragraphs. Everyone would then go home and prepare themselves in the assigned portions by pray-reading and praying. Some related hymns can be selected, and one can practice singing them first at home. When you are thus prepared, you can come to the home meeting praying, singing, and speaking. When you come to a point or a sentence in the message that touches you, you can start singing. Your singing must bring everyone into the enjoyment. Still, you must learn to go along with the weaker ones. You must also learn to relate to the lowly ones. This is a key.
If you would take all the points I have just mentioned and put them into practice, your home meeting will surely be living. This will fulfill the leading that the Lord has given us. There will be no leader, no chairman, and no one to give orders. There will be no more forms, such as singing first, reading later, then preaching last, or anything like that. Praise the Lord that He has opened every book of the New Testament to us! How I wish that we could go over these books one by one! Do not be afraid that you will lose something by skipping over portions of the Life-study messages. Our storehouse is filled with chicken, duck, rice, and flour. You cannot swallow them all at once. All you need to do is to select a portion as a meal. Feast on that portion with ample reading, singing, praying, and testifying. This will give you the adequate satisfaction.
Brothers and sisters, you have heard so much now about the home meetings. Would you now consider the home meetings to be easy or not? If you still consider them a difficult thing to do, then I do not know what else I can say to you. We all have to dive into the home meetings. It does not matter whether we can play ball or not. When we are watching others play, we will surely have a lot of criticisms. To us this player is bad at shooting, and that one is awkward in running. But once we get onto the field, not only will our criticisms be gone; we will actually begin to enjoy the game. The same is true with everything else. In a concert, if I am one of the players, or if I have any part in the performance, I will enjoy it much more.
Although there is only one home meeting a week, there are fifty-two weeks in a year. Every week you have such an opportunity to breathe some fresh air and bask a little in the warm sun. Here you can sit down and have a cup of tea. Before the Lord, you can be refreshed, renewed, supplied, and comforted every week. Here you can share your burden with the brothers and sisters. You can all pray together, trust in the Lord together, and fellowship in the spirit together. This is truly the greatest enjoyment and the greatest blessing that the Lord has ordained for His people here on earth.
Those in the world do not have the Lord. They do not have truth or light or the word of life. They indulge themselves in card games and dancing. But we have the Lord, we have life, and we have the Lord’s word. We live a communal life. We fellowship together, and we know how to pray. This is the greatest blessing. I hope that we can all lay hold of these few points. In this way it is easy to conduct a home meeting.
I have told you before that the home meetings should not have any leader. Now I would add that there should not even be any so-called core members. Everyone should be a capable member. Every one of us loves the Lord. Everyone has fellowship with the Lord and receives enlightenment from the Lord. If there is sin, we ask for forgiveness. Constantly we maintain a fellowship with the Lord and always exercise ourselves to say O Lord, Amen. In this way we remain fresh within. The Lord is calling us every day. Daily He is calling us out from all the things other than Himself. He is gathering us into Himself. All that is needed are two or three who are gathered into His name. The Lord is longing for us to come constantly to Him and to fellowship with Him.
Besides this, the Lord has given us a Bible. We should spend ten minutes a day to read it. In time we will experience an inward renewal and transformation, and we will have an unveiled face, beholding the Lord’s glory. We will then be transformed into His image, from glory to glory. Then when you come to the meeting, you will not be without words. You will surely have songs to sing, words to speak, Bible verses to share, and testimonies to give.
Last, I want to add one more point. Every home meeting should have one or two persons to give a conclusion, summarizing that portion of the Scripture or Life-study message. This conclusion does not have to be long. At most it should take ten minutes, but it should not be less than five minutes. This kind of summary is like cream on the pie. When we invite others for a meal, after everyone is filled, we serve them some pudding or a cup of almond tea. This will top off their satisfaction. If our home meeting is like this, it would be impossible for people not to be attracted. Please take my word. If we come to the home meetings in this way, our number will surely increase.
Dear brothers and sisters, you must change your concept. The home meeting is not difficult at all. I have thoroughly considered this matter. I have also practiced this way again and again. In the end I have to say that it is easy to have the home meetings. We are all Chinese here. Please tell me, is there anyone among us who ever complains that it is difficult to learn Chinese? As long as you are willing, and as long as you would put into practice in your daily life all the key points concerning the home meetings, you will not sense any difficulty. Please remember these words: “Heaven can be annulled, and the earth can pass away, but the home meeting must not be forsaken.”
God desires that there be three kinds of ministries among His people. The first is the priesthood, the second is the kingship, and the third is the prophethood. In the Bible we see that both the priests and the kings require the prophets. If a priest cannot speak, he will be a weak priest. Who was the first prophet in the Bible? It was Abraham. Genesis 20:7 tells us that Abraham was a prophet. Hence, he could pray for the household of Abimelech. The emphasis with the prophets is not to speak prophecy but to speak for God.
In Exodus 7:1 God said to Moses, “See, I have made you God to Pharaoh; and Aaron your brother will be your prophet.” The definition of a prophet is a spokesman, one who speaks for another. Since we are God’s people, we are the descendants of Abraham. As such, we should be prophets. If in our meeting no one speaks, how can we say that we are priests? The first thing for the priests to do is to pray before God. This is the burning of the incense.
The second thing that the priests do is to light the lamp. After the lamp has burned for a while, the wick becomes black, and the light does not shine so brightly. Hence, there is the need to trim the burned wick and to add more oil. The oil is the Holy Spirit. Daily we need to burn the incense by praying, and daily we need to trim our lamp by reading the Lord’s Word.
The third thing that the priests do is to sing praises. In stanzas 4, 5, and 6 of Hymns, #791, these three things are put together:
I’ll offer prayers as incense burns,
Christ’s resurrection bring therein,
God’s wish thus meet, His heart give joy,
And I’ll rejoice with Him.
I’ll read His Word, His light receive,
E’en as the lamp before Him lit,
His holy light illum’ning me
To others I’ll transmit.
Unto the Lord His praise I’ll sing
As holy priests their songs did raise;
O may my heart be filled with Him
His love and grace to praise.
The first priest in the Bible was Abraham. Ezra was another priest. Ezra 7:11 says, “Ezra the priest, the scribe.” In chapter 8 of Nehemiah he read God’s law to God’s people and led everyone back to the Old Testament. He was a priest, and he was also a scribe who spoke for God.
In 2 Samuel 12 we see that Nathan was a prophet. King David became weak and sinned. Hence, he needed a prophet to come and help him. God sent Nathan the prophet to rebuke him. Being enlightened by Nathan’s rebuke, David repented. All these verses show us that today we are priests and we are kings. If we do not speak, our priestly service will be very weak. When we are a prophet, it helps us to be a priest and a king. This is why the Bible says, “Oh that all Jehovah’s people were prophets!”
Paul also says that we can all prophesy one by one (1 Cor. 14:31), and 1 Corinthians 12 says that the Holy Spirit operating in each person has a manifestation. The first manifestation is the word of wisdom. The second is the word of knowledge (vv. 7-8). If I can speak a word of wisdom and a word of knowledge, this proves that I have the Spirit. We have to exercise to speak. We also have to exercise to read the Bible. After much reading, the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge will come. We will all become priests and kings. If we are not prophets, we can never be priests or kings properly. The latter two ministries are based upon our being prophets.
