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Scripture Reading: John 21:15-17
This chapter begins with a continuation of the last two chapters. We will continue to consider the matter of the exercise and use of our spirit.
Our spirit is the organ for us to contact God. For this reason we need to use our spirit to touch, worship, and enjoy God. Seemingly, the spirit has nothing to do with our outward walk. But whether we are proper or not in our walk has much to do with our spirit. Even the Chinese Confucianists say that “the way of the Great Learning lies in the development of the bright virtue.” This bright virtue is part of the spirit. If a man is not strong in his spirit, it will be easy for him to be loose and unrestricted. But if his spirit is strong, the whole person will be restricted, and it will be easy for him to be strict. For example, when a person is angry, others would advise him to be more sensible and less emotional. The reason that there is the need for such advice is that the person is no longer restricted and has lost his sense. In Chinese, sensibleness is a term that is difficult to explain. It means both reasonableness as well as wisdom. Reason is of the mind, and wisdom is of the spirit. Hence, to be sensible has something to do with man’s mind as well as his spirit.
When we go out for the spread of the gospel and while we are talking or conversing with others, it will be very easy for us to get into trouble unless we are in the spirit. We easily lose our bearings and are either too much or not enough. But if we live in the spirit, we will be sober and weighty, and we will be proper in our speaking. Do not think that our ordinary walk in our daily life, seemingly being a matter totally unrelated to the worship of God, has nothing to do with the spirit. We have to know that the spirit is the central part of our whole being. If this central part is not functioning properly, the outward person will consequently be affected. Take for example the matter of eating. Both in the East as well as in the West, there are proper table manners to be observed. If we are persons living in the spirit, there will not be the need for outward restrictions. Spontaneously, we will act properly and politely. Although we may not be very expressive, we will nevertheless behave weightily.
We are not here for a mental education or a physical education. We are here for a spiritual education. This is absolutely a matter in the spirit. When we contact people and talk with them, there will be no way for us to touch others’ spirits unless we use our spirit. It is a very interesting phenomenon that when I come to you smiling, it spontaneously stirs up your smiling capacity; you will smile along with me. If I come to you crying, it will easily stir up your crying capacity, and you will feel sorrowful along with me. In the same way, only when we exercise our spirit will others’ spirits be quickened.
When we go out to preach the gospel by knocking on doors, there are two ways to preach with The Mystery of Human Life. The first is to speak from the spirit. Perhaps the first two sentences will not touch others’ spirits. But if you continue in the spirit, you will touch others’ spirits, and their spirits will be quickened. The other way is to speak from the mind. When you exercise the mind, others will exercise their minds also. In the end there will be a debate. Man has been exercising his mind long enough. What you have to do is to bring him out of his mind so that he will use his spirit and will fear God’s word. You should not try to subdue him by many arguments. This requires that you continue to practice speaking with the spirit so that others would feel that your speaking is not common in spite of your age. Your speaking will not be something out of your mind but will be something out of your depth. When you exercise your spirit this way, you will touch others’ spirits.
Recently, I fellowshipped about four points in the messages concerning living and serving in the new way. The first is that we need a revival every morning to live an overcoming life every day. The second is to contact people and to have home meetings with them. The third is to have small group meetings. The fourth is to prophesy in the district meetings. Today you are being trained in these things. You have to be revived and ascended in your daily living. You have to contact people and meet with them in the homes. You have to have small group meetings in the spirit. You also have to prophesy in the church meetings.
In John 21 the Lord asked Simon Peter three times if he loved Him. When Peter answered that he did, the Lord charged him, “Feed My lambs...Shepherd My sheep...Feed My sheep” (vv. 15-17). Many people confuse these three charges of the Lord. The first time the Lord said to feed. The lambs here refer to the young, newborn sheep. They do not need the shepherding yet. They need only the feeding, which is to put the grass by their mouth. When the lambs are grown up, they can be in the flock, and there is the need of shepherding. Hence, in 1 Peter 5:2 Peter says, “Shepherd the flock of God.” The third time the Lord mentioned feeding again. This shows us that the sheep in the flock have not graduated from feeding; they still need the feeding and the supply of the grass. Our home meetings and small group meetings are related to the feeding and the shepherding of the Lord’s sheep.
It is not too difficult for you to be revived every morning and to be overcoming every day. As long as you have the heart and are willing to sacrifice a little of your time, you can make it. But the other three things — the home meetings, the group meetings, and the preparation for prophesying — are not that easy. They require much practice.
It is quite inappropriate in the home meetings for us to try to help the newly baptized ones to live a revived and overcoming life immediately after salvation. This is like teaching kindergarten children with university material. The new ones are newborn babes and know nothing about revival and overcoming. Therefore, we have to exercise our spirit to speak something suitable to them. There is much to learn here. If we are not proper in our speaking, we will cause problems. Hence, we have to pay close attention to this matter.
Both the home meetings and the group meetings have their difficulties. But one principle is the same: it is impossible to set down rigid rules. However, you cannot come without any preparation. It is like a cable car. There may be no track, but the cable car cannot go where it pleases; above it there is still the cable to which it is joined. You cannot speak whatever you want to a newly baptized one. This will only stir up his curiosity, and it will not help him much in his Christian life.
Basically, what a newborn baby needs the most is feeding. From experience we know that after a person is baptized, he may, experientially speaking, be only half saved. We need to help him to be fully saved. For example, after we preach to a person with the booklet The Mystery of Human Life, and the person has prayed and received the Lord, we may perceive that he is ready for baptism. Subsequently, we baptize him. But it is possible that the person has not touched the Lord within yet. This is like having the lamps, the electric wires, and the bulbs all installed, but the electricity is not yet connected. For this reason the key point in our bringing people to salvation is to help them to make the “connection” with the Lord. They have to be quickened by the Lord within. Some of us have had this kind of experience. A person has heard the gospel. He is baptized and can pray. He comes to the meetings and even reads the Bible, yet you still feel that such a one might not have been quickened yet. He does not yet seem to have touched the Spirit of God. Hence, outwardly speaking, his salvation is clear, but inwardly speaking, his salvation is vague. The reason for this is that he is not yet clearly enlivened within. I speak all these things from my experience. When I was in Shanghai, I knew a brother. During the years that I was acquainted with him, I never touched his spirit. One time I asked Brother Nee why this was so. He answered jokingly, “This person might have been saved without being regenerated!” As far as the truth is concerned, he who believes and is baptized is saved (Mark 16:16), but for all the time that I was with that brother, I never touched his spirit. This is why Brother Nee joked that he “might have been saved without being regenerated.”
Since 1943 when I saw the light concerning the tree of life, my messages and writings have never departed from the matters of life and spirit. Hymns, #11, a hymn written by me, mentions the word spirit nineteen times. Many preachers in Christianity give many messages, but none of them mentions the spirit. However, we have to know that the spirit of a man must come in contact with God the Spirit before he can be genuinely saved. If he has never touched Him, there is a problem. We must have a touch with God the Spirit. This is the basic element in our going to the home meetings.
Every time we meet with the newly baptized brothers and sisters, we have to touch their spirits. We should render them help according to this point. Life Lessons can be used as a means, but they cannot be applied in a rigid way. We have to consider carefully if a point or a passage will touch others’ spirits or not. If others’ spirits are touched, we have to give them some further enlightening and revelation. After a person is saved, we have to have long conversations with him. During the conversation you have to tell him, “We have a spirit within us. The Lord has died on the cross for us to be our Savior. He has resurrected from the dead to become a life-giving Spirit to live in our spirit. These two spirits are now mingled to become one spirit.” You must explain to him this crucial point. At the beginning he may be listening with his mind. But after you talk for a while, he will be led to touch his spirit. This kind of fellowship must also be based on your experience. If you have no experience of touching the Spirit, you will not be able to do this. But if you have this experience, he will understand immediately after you explain to him. Based on this principle, when we go to the home meetings, we have to touch others’ spirits. We must open them up and enliven their spirits.
Following this, we must open these new believers up further by telling them that we need to call on the Lord and to pray. To pray is not just to beg the Lord to do something for us. Prayer is a kind of calling on the Lord Jesus. This kind of calling is not just from our mouth but from the depth of our being, our spirit. Our spirit is the source of our calling on the Lord. We have to call from our spirit, “O Lord Jesus!” In this way we will have a certain sensation; we will feel different within. In this calling we touch our spirit, and we exercise our spirit.
After a few days you should go see the new ones again to ask if they have called on the Lord and if they have had any feeling after calling on Him. Then you should go on to touch their living. Take for example the playing of mah-jongg. You can ask if they liked playing mah-jongg before they were saved. What is their experience now after they are saved? If they say that the interest seems to have waned, you should ask them why this is so. If they say that they do not know, you should tell them that when they call on the Lord all the time, the Lord gives them the proper feeling that takes away their love for the game of mah-jongg. This is not all. The more they call on the Lord, the more the Lord will touch them about the game. They will feel sinful and filthy when they touch the game again. We have to help others according to this principle. This is what we mean by feeding. When we go to the home meetings, the only way to render a proper feeding to the new ones is to do it on the basis of the experience of life, which we have after salvation, corresponding to the word of the truth in the Bible.
Next January we will begin the work of gospelizing Taiwan. We believe that preaching the gospel by visiting people in their homes will surely succeed. But when we baptize people, we have to be careful that we do it neither too fast nor too slow. Nevertheless, we have to be fast in setting up home meetings with them after baptism, the sooner and the more frequent the better. It would be the best if we could do it once today, once tomorrow, and once the third day. If we feed them continually this way, they will surely grow in life.
The small group meetings are for the shepherding of the Lord’s sheep. Hence, in the small group meetings not only must there be the feeding; there must also be the shepherding. First, you have to gather three or four families together. You will not be speaking to one person but to a group of brothers and sisters. This is no longer just feeding but shepherding, leading, and teaching as well. All these are based upon our experience of life.
In the small group meetings, not only can you help others to call on the name of the Lord; you can also help them to pray. You can lead them to confess their sins according to the inner sense. This is not just a kind of feeding but a kind of shepherding as well. Perhaps while a brother prays, the Lord will enlighten him, showing him that his attitude toward his wife is poor. At that time you have to help him to confess his sin to the Lord immediately. Following that, you have to help him further to find a chance to apologize to his wife. He may feel awkward doing that. There is then the need of shepherding. You have to help him with some words. You can say, “By ourselves it is surely rather awkward to apologize. But we are all saved now and are all brothers and sisters in the Lord. We are also the Lord’s sheep. We are different from those in the world. For them, they would put anything aside that would make them feel awkward. But for us the saved ones, even if we feel awkward, we still have to apologize. We should not care too much for our face.” In this way you will be shepherding him and will be helping him to grow in life.
Hence, the shepherding in the small group meetings does not necessarily follow the sequence of Life Lessons or Truth Lessons. Rather, it is according to our experience after salvation in how we meet the Lord and how in everything we are led by the Lord. These are the materials we use for our small group meetings. We have the experience of life, and when we match with this the expression in truth, we have our own kind of “Truth Lesson” for the shepherding in the small group meetings.
However, neither the feeding nor the shepherding is an easy matter. It is like learning to play the violin; there is the need for a long time of practice before one becomes skillful. Therefore, every day we have to learn the proper way to take care of the home meetings and the group meetings, and we have to study with all the brothers and sisters how to touch others’ spirits when contacting people and how to help others use their spirits to touch God. All these will be useful not only when we go out for the spread of the gospel, but they will be a tremendous help to us throughout our lifetime of service. I hope that we can all learn together.
In addition to these matters, we have to practice prophesying in the district meetings. Some saints in some districts have the practice of laboring on the Lord’s word during the week to prepare a three-minute script for their prophesying on the Lord’s Day. This is not a bad practice. We have to know that we are not God. God works by creation; He calls things into being from nothing. With Him there is no need for improvement. But man learns. There is therefore the need for improvement and progress. For example, in order for us to graduate from the university, we have to pass through at least sixteen years of learning from elementary school through junior high school, high school, and then the university. For the same reason, in speaking the Lord’s word, there is the need for learning and practice.
As early as 1937, Brother Nee saw that the Lord’s Day morning meeting where one speaks and the rest listen is a practice according to the customs of the nations. He hoped very much to do away with this Lord’s Day morning message meeting. But at that time he could not think of anything to replace it. He suggested that the brothers and sisters use the Lord’s Day morning for preaching the gospel. In the evening everyone could gather together for the Lord’s table. However, everyone was already accustomed to listening to messages. If they were asked to preach the gospel, they had neither the burden nor the interest to do it. For that reason this practice was not carried out then. Ten years later in 1948, while Brother Nee was conducting a training on Kuling Mountain, he mentioned this matter again, as printed in the book Church Affairs. However, there was still no way to carry it out.
Now we are setting aside all difficulties to carry out the new way. I feel that sooner or later we have to do this. If we do not pay the price in this generation, we will have to pay the price in the next. But I am very cautious, like one walking on thin ice. I have not hastily asked the church in Taipei to close the doors of its halls. Rather, I waited thirty-seven months from October 1984 to October 1987 before we closed down the big meetings on the Lord’s Day morning. We did this after the festival last November. We did it after we had some assurance that there was a practice that could replace the big meetings. After this I now have a heavier burden. What will happen if the replacement does not turn out well? Over the last ten or so months, while we went through a process of temporary replacements, I discovered that we have to strengthen the prophesying. Without prophesying, the meetings will be empty. Emptiness will mean failure, and the new way will not be successful anymore.
First Corinthians 14:26 was first pointed out by Brother Nee. At that time he was very strong in pointing out that the meetings with one speaking and the rest listening should be annulled. There ought to be the meetings of mutuality where everyone speaks to one another and listens to one another. However, this matter is easy to say. Many have attempted to do this throughout the ages, but none have succeeded. I do not know how many times I have read 1 Corinthians 14. Gradually the light came. Verse 1 says, “Pursue love, and desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.” To desire is not just an aspiration of the heart but a pursuit in action. This is like desiring to have a doctoral degree. If you have only the aspiration without the action, you will not attain to your goal even if you aspire for a few decades. If you desire to have a doctoral degree, you have to study hard. Studying is a kind of exercise that enables us to pass the examination. Hence, to desire is a motive. It makes us willing to pay the price to study. It is the same with prophesying. Formerly, we thought that prophesying, like tongue-speaking, was a kind of gift that falls from heaven. But from our experience we see that prophesying can be learned through practice. Through practice we can supply Christ to others when we open our mouth to speak for the Lord and to speak Him forth.
When we prophesy, we have to exercise our spirit. Only then can we enliven others’ spirits. We must also pay attention to the pitch in our speaking. Those who are too high in pitch should lower it a little. Those who are too fast should slow down a little. And those who are too soft should raise their voice a little. Others have to hear you clearly. Do not love your throat and your face too much. Otherwise, others will not be able to hear you clearly. It would not be a bad idea for a few of you to come together and to take turns speaking while the others criticize. Practice having a proper pitch, tone, and speed in your speaking. At the same time practice speaking from your spirit every time you open your mouth.
Concerning the content for prophesying, all the meeting halls in Taipei are having the proper response. For example, for every week hall one has compiled six portions of the text from the Gospel of John, together with the footnotes and the Life-study messages for its spiritual pursuit. For six days the brothers and sisters study these portions. On Saturday they condense these materials into a three-minute script for prophesying. Then in the Lord’s Day meeting, everyone exercises to prophesy a portion. This kind of exercise may not be an instant success at the beginning. But after two months, by the time all of you go out to the villages, your prophesying will be greatly improved.
When you go out for the spread of the gospel, you must be able to do these four things. The first is to preach the gospel by knocking on doors. This will surely save people and bring them in. After a person is saved, the second thing is to have home meetings with him. The third thing is to have small group meetings. When the number grows to over thirty, there is the possibility of having church meetings. In such meetings we have to exercise to prophesy together. If there is the gospel preaching by door-knocking, the home meetings, the group meetings, and the practice of prophesying, the spread of the gospel will surely be successful, and the church life will be raised up in different localities. After this the older and more mature co-workers can go to these places every month and can gather together the four or five churches around the area for a conference. They can do this once a month. In twelve months there will be twelve conferences. I believe that a church produced through this kind of nourishing will surely be fresh, living, and quick in growth. The key lies in how well you practice these four things when you go out for the spread of the gospel. For this reason, in these days you have to be more aggressive and strict in your exercise.
