Search
Scripture Reading: Prov. 4:18; Judg. 5:31; Lam. 3:22-23; Psa. 119:147-148; 2 Cor. 4:16; Titus 3:5-6
We all know that in God’s creation and arrangement everything has its law and principles. The center of all things is life. If our universe today has only the heavens and the earth but does not have plant life, animal life, or human life, then the universe is void and desolate. Although mankind’s living together invariably brings in friction and arguments, where life is, there is joy, and there is pleasantness. The greatest characteristic of life is metabolism. The flowers bloom during the flowering season, and the fruit trees bear fruit during the fruit season. The plant life behaves differently according to the four seasons of the year. Likewise, the animal life has different characteristics for the four seasons of the year. In winter many animals enter into hibernation. But when spring comes, they begin to propagate again. The human life is much higher than the plant life. It is even much higher than the animal life. Hence, according to God’s law of metabolism in creation, man’s life cannot be monotonous, having no change whatsoever from day to day.
We can discover one law from man’s physical life. The human body needs a revival every morning. After we rise up in the morning, our whole body needs a revival. We need to wash our face. After that, all our sluggish feeling is washed away. After we wash our face and our mouth, and cleanse our lungs through deep breathing, our whole being is renewed. This proves that every morning the human body needs a renewal. The morning hour flies by quickly. One hour is over in no time. This is why the Word of the Lord says, “Redeeming the time” (Eph. 5:16). The period of time that needs to be redeemed the most is six to seven o’clock in the morning. During this hour, every minute is precious. We have to redeem this time.
If you are really busy, I would rather see you sacrifice part of your time of physical exercise and use it for spiritual benefit. When Paul wrote the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, he had the thought of the exercise of the spirit. He says in 1 Timothy 4:7, “Exercise yourself unto godliness.” The exercise here is like some kind of gymnastics. We have to exercise our spirits and to live out Christ in our daily lives. Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:7, “God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power and of love and of sobermindedness.” All the parts of our spirit are like the parts of our body; they need exercise. There are many ways to exercise. Some Chinese like the “Eight Section Brocade” exercise, whereas others like the “Tai-chi” boxing. The Westerners have aerobic exercise, golf, and jogging. But the simplest way to exercise the spirit is to call on the name of the Lord. During the past twenty years or longer, we have learned to call “O Lord Jesus!” Everyone among us knows how to call on the name of the Lord. This kind of calling is very good. But this is not the main body of our prayer; it is only the prelude to our prayer. When we call “O Lord Jesus,” what follows? We cannot simply call on the Lord without praying. There must not be a prelude without the main theme. After we call on the Lord, we have to go on to speak to the Lord. We can say to the Lord, “Lord Jesus, I love You! I want to live for You!” The first step in the exercise of the spirit is to pray, which is to speak to the Lord.
Many people pray with their mentality, in their mind. To speak to the Lord in the mind, to pray in the mind, is to exercise one’s mentality. The prayer that comes from the exercise of the spirit is different from the prayer that comes from the exercise of the mentality. When you call on the Lord Jesus and say to Him that you would love Him more and would live to Him, this is a prayer that stirs up your spirit. The more you speak this way, the higher your spirit becomes. However, you must be careful not to turn back to your mind after a while. Once you turn back to your mind, you should have a warning sign that goes up like the red signal light at the crossroad. At this time you must immediately call on the Lord Jesus and turn to the spirit to speak in the spirit. Hence, to pray is the first step in the exercise of the spirit.
Not only do the New Testament saints call on the name of the Lord. Even the ancient psalmists in the Old Testament called on the Lord as well. David says in Psalm 119:147, “I anticipated the dawn and cried out; / I hoped in Your words.” The crying here is to call by saying “O Lord!” It is also to pray and to speak to the Lord. To cry unto the Lord is to call on Him and to speak to Him. We cannot call on Him without praying to Him, and we cannot say His name without speaking to Him. The longer we speak to the Lord, the better it is. The calling plus the speaking to the Lord is like a man’s deep breathing. When you speak out all that you have, you are breathing out. When you take in the grace of the Lord, you are breathing in. We breathe out carbon dioxide, and we breathe in the oxygen from God. In this cycle we are spontaneously cleansed within, and our whole being becomes healthy.
After this crying, David says that he “hoped in Your words.” In hoping in the Lord’s words, it is better that we do not speak, lest we interrupt the Lord’s speaking. David says again, “My eyes anticipated the night watches, / That I might muse upon Your word” (v. 148). This shows us that in the experience of the Old Testament saints, there was the prayer, the hoping in the Lord’s word, and the musing upon the Lord’s word. Today for us, the New Testament believers, the quickest way to receive the Lord’s word is not to muse upon His word; rather, it is to pray-read His word. It is easy for the mind to receive the Lord’s word with its mental faculty. But in pray-reading the Lord’s word, there is the crying and the calling, and it will be spontaneous and natural to turn the Lord’s word into prayer.
For example, you may have read Genesis 1:1 in the morning: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” If you consider these ten words, you may wonder what is the beginning. The beginning is surely the start. But it is the start of what? For you to do this is to muse upon the Lord’s word. If you would turn these ten words into pray-reading, you would say, “Lord, in the beginning. Lord, in the beginning. Without You there is no beginning. With You there is the beginning.” When you speak to the Lord this way, your spirit will be full of feeling. Perhaps you will say, “Lord, may my wedding engagement have You as the beginning, and may my wedding have You as the beginning. May my future home have You as the beginning, and may my childbearing also have You as the beginning.” Following that, you will pray-read, “God created.” You may say to the Lord, “God, it is not by imagination or by illusion but by creation. Only You can create. We cannot create. The most we can do is but to manufacture.”
If we have tasted the pray-reading, we will treasure every word of the Bible. If I had the time, I could pray-read Genesis 1:1 for a whole day. The more we pray, the tastier it becomes. “O God, You have created the heavens. We cannot create the heavens. Today we can only enjoy the heavens. You have done too marvelous a work in creating the moon, the stars, and the sun in the heavens. Not only have You created the heavens; You have created the earth as well. All things on earth are created by You!” This kind of pray-reading will fully mingle the Lord’s word with our spirit. It will give our spirit the greatest exercise.
When you have thoroughly pray-read the Lord’s word in the morning, during the day this word will speak and work within you, and your spirit will spontaneously be strengthened. In the evening you will be filled with the Lord’s word, and when you come into the meeting hall, you will spontaneously cry, “Hallelujah! In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” There will be no need for anyone to remind you. You will spontaneously stand up in the meeting to speak. The reason there is nothing to say in the meeting is that there is not enough pray-reading in our daily life. If a saint has pray-read enough, he will surely have a lot to speak when he comes to the meetings, because there is too much to speak about. The twenty-seven books of the New Testament alone provide us with enough to pray-read. If we would call on the Lord and pray-read His word every morning, our whole being will be filled with the Lord’s word spontaneously throughout the day.
Hence, our time in the morning is most precious. It is best for us to spend as little time as possible on other things and to spend this time instead on pray-reading. In order to save time, when I am dressing in the morning, I begin to call on the Lord and pray-read His Word. If your wife is not awake yet, you should not shout and cry aloud. You can pray from within. While you are putting on your shirt, you can pray-read the verse you read yesterday: “In the beginning...God...created...the heavens...and the earth.” While you are washing up, you can also pray-read. You can do two things at one time. Perhaps at the beginning you do not feel comfortable doing it. But after a while, you will feel comfortable. If you would spend half an hour or even fifty minutes there praying and reading the Lord’s Word, and finally mingling the praying with the reading, your spirit will be enlivened. With such a morning your whole being will have a revival.
The Christian revival does not occur in the afternoon or at sunset. Rather, it occurs in the morning. The Christian life is not a sunset. Rather, it is a dawning of the sun. In fact, we ourselves are the sun. Judges 5:31 says, “May those who love Him be like the sun / When it rises in its might.” Proverbs 4:18 says, “The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, / Which shines brighter and brighter until the full day.” A Christian’s life should be one that follows the moving of the sun. When the sun rises, we should rise with it. We keep rising until the full day, which is noon. The Christian life does not have afternoons. Whether we are among the worldly people or in the church meetings, we should bring the shining light to others. For this reason it does not matter how busy we are; we have to spend some time to exercise our spirit.
In today’s world there is no one who is not busy. We have to use our time just as we use our money. There must first be a budget. We have to devote the first part of our time to the Lord. The first thing we do every morning when we rise up is to exercise our spirit, because today the Lord is in our spirit. For us to enjoy the Lord, to receive Him, to gain Him, and to experience Him are altogether a matter of the spirit. If our spirit is not functioning today, our relationship with the Lord is through. For this reason every morning when we wake up, the first thing we must do is exercise our spirit. We have to call on the Lord. If circumstances permit, we have to take up the Bible and pray-read. If it is inconvenient to do so, we have to pull out some verses from our memory and pray-read with them. Whatever we do, we have to spend some time pray-reading. This way of exercise is like having a thorough bath from inside out in the Lord’s word. It is like taking a spiritual shower; we are washed from head to toe in the Lord’s word, and our whole being is fully refreshed.
Paul says in Titus 3 that our salvation today is through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit (v. 5). The salvation here does not refer to salvation from hell. Rather, it is a daily salvation, being delivered daily from all kinds of difficulties, temptations, entanglements, and every weakness, frustration, and lust. We are those who need salvation daily. Every day we need to be saved by the Lord. This salvation is first through the washing of regeneration and then through the renewing of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a divine person. He washes and renews us with the divine elements. When God comes into us and is mingled with our life, His life in us brings in washing. When we eat, drink, exercise, and bathe in God, our whole being is enlivened.
When the Holy Spirit washes us within, it brings in a renewing. This is the first lesson early in the morning for every Christian. I myself exercise this way. In the morning when I wake up, I do not speak to man first. Rather, I speak first to God. I would not open my mouth to any man before I open my mouth to God. I would say, “O Lord, I love You! Lord Jesus, I am coming to You!” Every morning all I do are these two things: calling on the name of the Lord and pray-reading His Word. These two things are the morning exercises for a Christian. If you would exercise yourself in these two things every morning, you will surely be revived. You will become the rising sun, with the shining, dawning light that shines brighter and brighter until the full day. Fifty years ago I read the verse in Judges 5 which says that those who love the Lord are like the sun when it rises in its might, and I told the Lord, “O God, I love You. May I be like the sun that rises in its might before You.” May this verse also become your aspiration and your daily prayer.
I have said all this to show you that we Christians are different from the people in the world. The worldly people at most meditate or contemplate in the morning. But what we are doing is not meditation. We are calling on the Lord and pray-reading His Word. This fills us up with the Lord and refreshes us from within. At the same time, when we call on the Lord, the Holy Spirit comes, because today the Lord Jesus is the Holy Spirit. When we call on the Lord every morning, there is a deep realization within that the Lord Jesus has come. We have really found Him. In the end our whole person will be changed. This is what is meant by a revival.
This revival is like our washing ourselves daily; one does not do it once for all. There must be a daily washing. According to the law of nature, the sun rises once every twenty-four hours. When we move with the sun, we should also have a rising up once every twenty-four hours. Moreover, we have to be as bright as the sun shining in its might. If we are like this spiritually, every day we will surely live a renewed life. In the words of Paul, our inner man will be renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16). The inner man signifies our regenerated spirit within. This spirit, together with all the inward parts, is being renewed by the daily metabolism that comes about through the supply of the resurrection life.
These days we have been talking about all kinds of practices in the new way: the preaching of the gospel by knocking on doors, the home meetings, the small group meetings, and prophesying in the meetings. All these are but outward ways and activities. The new way is actually a way of life. Today all of us have to live a life of touching the Lord every morning to be revived every day. Every morning we need a new beginning. To us every day should be new. In this revived and renewed living, we will spontaneously care for others, and we will spontaneously share with others the Christ whom we enjoy and the Savior whom we have received. In this way others will be able to enjoy with us the portion that God has given to us. God has not given the privilege of preaching the gospel to the angels. Rather He has given this utmost honor to us. Therefore, in our daily life we spontaneously go out to visit people. This visitation is to bear gifts to others’ homes. We politely offer the Christ whom we enjoy throughout the day as a gift to others. This is our duty. It is also our honor.
We do not necessarily need to knock on new doors. Rather, we can first go to the people whom we are acquainted with. For example, we can go to the houses of our cousins and in-laws. Then there are the neighbors, colleagues, classmates, and friends. Surely you will be able to open the doors of these ones. You can go through these doors one by one. This is something that you should do. You should bring people to the Lord with joy, baptizing them into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit so that they may receive the Triune God as their life. After a person is saved, you have to feed him as you feed a newborn baby with water and milk. This work of caring and feeding is a great job and a glorious one. When a person is barren, he needs to study how he can beget children. When some children are born, there is the need to study how to have the birth control, and how to take care of the feeding. In the same way, after you beget people with the gospel, you have the responsibility to feed them and to care for them.
You cannot care for too many people all at once. It is enough to have three to five. At least you should go to the new ones’ homes once a week. The home meeting is a part of a Christian’s life of revival and renewal. When you go, you can begin by singing on the way. When you arrive at others’ homes, you can knock at the door with singing. When others hear you from inside the door, they will come to the door singing also. The meeting will begin right there. When you go to the new ones’ homes, do not hold up the Bible in a religious way, or invite others to read with you, as if you are holding a family worship. You should not bring a religious ceremony with you. Instead, you should follow the Lord’s leading and should answer the new ones’ questions. You can read the Bible a little with them, and you can explain to them a little to solve their problems. By such a way their understanding will be opened.
When you nourish the new ones in this way once or twice a week, week after week, in half a year the new ones will be greatly helped by you, and they will be established. By that time, you can tell them that the life of a Christian is a communal one. All Christians like to be with other Christians. We are God’s sheep. We do not like to live alone away from the flock. We should meet with the brothers and sisters who live close to us. In this way you bring them to the small group meetings. Soon after this they will become a member of the small group. Our small group meetings do not have any set program or procedures. In these meetings we can sing, pray, or speak. You can fellowship a little about the verses that you pray-read in the morning. When everyone hears this, some may spontaneously begin to pray. Perhaps one would say that today he has a certain burden. Everyone will then pray for this burden. Hence, in the small group meeting there is fellowship, there is mutual intercession, and there is mutual care, including shepherding and help. Among us there are no pastors or preachers. Every one of us, whether young or old, male or female, is a priest and can serve God.
Paul said in Romans 15 that he was a priest of the gospel offering up gospel sacrifices. The priests in the Old Testament offered up bulls and goats for offerings. The priests of the New Testament offer up souls. Paul offered up the Gentiles as gospel sacrifices (v. 16). When we meet in the small group meetings, everyone is a priest. Everyone can speak. If anyone asks a question, it is best if everyone can say something, rather than nominating one to give the answer. After the first one finishes, the second one can add a little. Then the third one can add more words. If seven or eight people would all speak for a minute or two concerning what they know and experience, the result will be most beneficial to the listeners. This will make the group meeting living and rich. Every attendant becomes a speaker, and every speaker is a listener. In this way everyone speaks. Everyone listens. Everyone learns, and everyone teaches. Those who have been saved for thirty years can speak something deeper. But those who have been saved for three months can also speak a few words from their experience, that is, from what they know in their elementary stage. Everyone is a teacher, and everyone is a student.
When the new ones see this in the small group meetings, their eyes will be very much opened. In half a year they will pick up all these matters related to the feeding, the care, the questions, and the answers. By that time, the small group meeting will have over twenty people. You can then divide the group into two and encourage them, saying, “Now we have to bring others to salvation. We do not need to get help from others. And we do not need to hold any big meetings. The simplest way is to go out to visit people. Earlier, we knocked on your doors and helped you to be saved. In the same way now you need to knock on others’ doors and help them to be saved.” There may be some older ones in the group who cannot go out. They can stay at home to pray. After you go out to visit people for three or four weeks, every group can bring in three or four people. Then you can start another cycle. Begin by nourishing the new ones in their homes. Then bring these new ones to the small group meetings to equip and perfect them. In half a year the small group will reach thirty in number again, and you can divide into two groups again. No one takes the lead in the small groups. Every attendant in the small group is a leader. In this way the church will have the increase and the spread.
Thank the Lord. After four and a half years of studying, we have found the way for believers to be revived every morning and to be renewed every day. In our daily lives we have the gospel preaching, the home meetings, the small group meetings, and the Lord’s Day morning meetings. In the past the big meeting on Lord’s Day was for one person to speak and all the others to listen. Now the brothers and sisters are divided up into districts. Every district has about fifty people. Every one of these fifty can speak. Everyone can pray. Everyone can call a hymn, and everyone can say something. We do not encourage too many testimonies. Testimonies often become story-tellings, and the time is wasted. We hope that those who want to testify would speak for half a minute only and would put emphasis on the words they have pray-read in the morning and the experience they have had from them. When everyone speaks something, spontaneously it will become a message that speaks forth the word of God. In a meeting of fifty people, at least twenty can stand up to prophesy. There is no gossiping. There is no opinion. There are no arguments. Everyone speaks the Lord’s word and expresses the Lord’s riches. Such a meeting is an exhibition of Christ.
In the meeting some may speak about one aspect of Christ. Another may speak about another aspect of Christ. This kind of meeting will supply, enlighten, comfort, and perfect all the attendants. The result is that the riches of Christ will be dispensed into all the members of the Body. These members will then become the materials for the building, and the church will be built up. This is the Christian life. The Lord’s recovery on earth must arrive at this goal. If we would live this way every day, going out to visit people, bringing others to salvation, attending the small group meetings, enlightening others, and functioning in the Lord’s Day meeting by presenting the riches, the church will be built up.
