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Acts 5:20; John 15:2, 6; Eph. 5:4; Col. 3:8; Eph. 4:29; 1 Cor. 12:2, 3; Eph. 5:18-19; 2 Cor. 4:13; Rom. 10:14, 17; 4-5, 12, 1 Cor. 14:26, 31
I. Being channels of life
II. Living organs to speak Christ
III. Speaking for the dispensing of life
IV. Speaking in the Holy Spirit
V. Speaking by the spirit of faith
VI. Speaking at every time and in every place to every person
VII. Speaking in the meetings
After our regenerated spirit is strengthened by calling on the name of the Lord and by praying to contact God, to enjoy God, to fellowship with God, and to absorb God, as well as to bind the devil and loose people and situations for God’s economy; after we are enriched and equipped with the Word by means of pray-reading, reading, studying, and memorizing, we have to learn to speak the word of Christ in spirit. In previous lessons we have seen that life is God the Father in Christ Jesus the Son as the Spirit flowing into, through, and out of us. By calling, praying, and handling the word we receive God as life into our being. By speaking the word of Christ, we allow God to flow through us and out of us to be life to others. We are channels of life for God’s economy. In Acts 5:20 we are charged to go “and speak to the people all the words of this life.’’ On the receiving side, we need to be open to receive the Lord through His Word; on the dispensing side, we need to speak to dispense the Lord in our speaking. To bear fruit of people is to receive the life supply from the Lord through abiding in Him and to dispense the life through speaking the gospel to our friends. If we do not speak, we will stagnate like the dead sea. Therefore, in John 15, after the Lord charged His disciples to bear fruit, He warned them that they would be cut off from the enjoyment of life if they did not abide in Him and did not bear fruit (vv. 2, 6). We must be faithful enjoyers of God as our life and dispensers of God as life to others around us.
God created wonderful living organs for us to speak to dispense God as life to others. [God created us with vocal chords, a tongue, lips, and teeth that we may be filled with Christ who is the Word of God. When we are filled with Christ as the Word of God, we speak. We speak Christ in a language such as Chinese, English, Greek, or Hebrew, not in nonsensical utterances. We speak Christ in our mother tongue. We speak Christ in our borrowed tongue. All the denotations of our speaking concentrate on one Person, Christ.] We should not use our God-created organs to speak nonsensical speech such as foolish talking, coarse jesting, and foul abusive language (Eph. 5:4; Col. 3:8). Ephesians 4:29 says, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but only that which is good for needful building up, that it may give grace to those who hear.’’ We should use our speaking ability to speak the words of Christ to minister life to people that they may be built up into the Body of Christ.
For you to be filled in spirit with the Word [is not only for your nourishment, it is for you to dispense. It is for you to generate. Every human being is made by God to propagate, to generate. Therefore, everybody has to bring forth children! Now we all have to learn how to generate, how to dispense, how to impart into others what we have received into our being. This is to reproduce, this is to generate, this is to bring forth new Christians by speaking. Therefore, speaking is generating, speaking is imparting, speaking is dispensing.]
[In 1 Corinthians chapter twelve, Paul refers to the matter of speaking in the meetings. In verse 2 he reminds the Corinthians, “You know that when you were of the nations, you were led away to dumb idols, however you were led.’’ The worship of dumb idols had made them a dumb people. Because the object of their worship was a dumb idol, their worshipping made them a dumb people. But now the Corinthian brothers were different. They were not worshipping the dumb idols any more. They were worshipping the living God, who is the speaking God. This speaking God is just the speaking Spirit, who is the Spirit of God, who is also the Holy Spirit. Therefore, in verse 3 Paul says, “No one speaking in the Spirit of God says, Jesus is accursed; and no one can say, Lord Jesus, except in the Holy Spirit.’’]
Because of our background, the tradition of Christianity, and our old habits, we do not speak for Christ. We may speak many other things, but we do not have the habit of speaking the word of Christ in the Holy Spirit. We are all like the dumb idols who have mouths but cannot speak. We need a break-through. We need to repent to the Lord, exercise our spirit, and boldly speak forth the word of Christ we have received. This is the way to be in the Holy Spirit. Because He is living and speaking, whenever we speak His word, His Spirit fills us within (Eph. 5:18-19), and we are in the Holy Spirit. Inward filling is essential for life. Being in the Holy Spirit implies that we are clothed economically with the Holy Spirit of power for God’s economy. Therefore, when we speak the word of Christ, we have the authority and power to overcome the evil one.
Second Corinthians 4:13 says, “Having the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written, I believed, therefore I spoke; we also believe, therefore also we speak.’’ [Speaking by the spirit of faith in our practical life is a great, crucial point. This very particular expression is used only once in the entire Bible. The spirit of faith is a mingling of the Holy Spirit with our spirit. The phrase “spirit of faith’’ places the spirit in apposition to faith. Faith is of the spirit. Therefore, the spirit of faith is faith. Our faith is just the mingled spirit. Furthermore, faith comes from hearing and hearing comes from the preaching of the Word (Rom. 10:14, 17). This is why we must get into the Word. The more we get into the Word, the more we will have faith, and this faith is the spirit. Now by such a spirit you may speak the Word which is the source of your faith. Here is a cycle. The Word produces faith, faith is the spirit, and by this spirit you speak the Word. Your speaking will become the source of faith in others. The faith in them then becomes the spirit by which they speak.]
As we are speaking to our friends, we must exercise our spirit of faith to impart faith, which is the spirit, which is life imparted into our friends. They may not have faith in the beginning of the conversation. But by hearing the word of Christ from your wonderful mouth, faith is generated in them. Romans chapter ten tells us that this kind of speaking puts the word of faith into your friends’ mouths and hearts. Therefore, we do not have to worry about whether our friends believe or not. We speak by the spirit of faith to impart the believing ability, faith, into them. Their response to our speaking in the spirit of faith is their faith Their salvation does not depend on them, but it depends on our speaking.
Since our God is a living God, He is a speaking God. He speaks all the time, because He has a lot to say. The more we are in spirit and are enriched with the Word of God, the more we want to speak. Actually, we need to speak at every time and in every place to every person. All the time we have is for us to speak Christ. From morning to evening, we can speak Christ and we should speak Christ. Every place is for speaking Christ. We are not restricted to the meeting hall. We can speak in the meetings as well as on the way to and from the meetings, at home, in school, on the way to and from school, in the parks, etc. Every place is our meeting and speaking place. We can and should speak to every person we see every day. Every person needs to hear the word of Christ. Speak to your parents as well as your brothers and sisters. Your speaking to them becomes a fellowship of the Triune God. You need to speak to your unbelieving friends so that they may receive the gospel of God. All the speaking will minister Christ as life to the hearers, will cause you to enjoy Him as life, and to grow in life.
[We all have to desperately endeavor to build up a habit of speaking in any meeting (4-5, 12, 1 Cor. 14:26, 31). We must be desperate to build up a habit to speak. This habit has to be built up universally in the Lord’s recovery. We do not have such a habit due to the background of Christianity, and our function has been killed because of this background. Many Chinese people do not speak English well because they did not have the habit of speaking English when they grew up, and they still do not have this habit. I did not pick up the habit of speaking English until I began to minister the word in the United States in 1962. It was hard for me to acquire this habit, but for my grandchildren it was easy because they grew up in an English-speaking environment. If we learn to build up a habit of speaking in any meeting, our children, the new ones, will spontaneously become speaking ones. The new ones will follow the trend and the atmosphere in the meeting. They will pick up the habit of speaking easily. We must endeavor to do this because it is not just for ourselves but for the benefit of the Lord’s recovery.]
You may say that you do not know what to say in the meetings. That is easy to overcome. You simply pray-read some verses every morning, and read or study the Bible every day. Write down what you see in the verses or what you enjoyed the most. You may write a few words, a sentence, or a short paragraph on what impressed you. On Saturday, you can write a composition according to the notes you wrote during the week. In the Lord’s day morning meeting, you will be prepared to speak with some rich content. Then you speak your composition with the spirit of faith boldly to the saints to minister life in the meeting. Never speak in a monotone without the exercise of the spirit. By speaking in the Holy Spirit this way, the church will be built up.
We, the children of God, must be like our Father, the speaking One. We should speak the word of Christ all the time, speaking everywhere and to everybody. Thus, we will experience life, grow in life, and dispense life to others. The end results will be the bearing of fruit and the building up of the church.
