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Scripture Reading: 1 Thes. 5:17-18; 2 Tim. 2:2; 3:14
The building up of the church is absolutely a matter in our spirit. Whether we are an elder, a co-worker, or a responsible brother or sister in a district, if we do not live in our spirit and do not bring the saints into their spirit, there will be no building. Genuine spiritual building does not mean that we have the same goal or even that we are in agreement in our opinions or views. Genuine spiritual building is the result of receiving the Lord’s grace and exercising our spirit to the extent that we are persons who live in spirit. Being in the spirit, living in our spirit, is the only thing that matters; everything else is secondary. Being in the spirit satisfies the Lord’s heart, and it delivers us from the old creation and dead doctrine. When we truly live in our spirit, we will experience Christ and live by Him.
Being in spirit is the practical reality of being in Christ. Our experience of Christ is absolutely a matter in the spirit. If we do not touch the spirit and are not in the spirit, all our talk about Christ is just doctrine. We can touch Christ practically only when we are in the spirit. God’s essence is Spirit; everything of God is in the Spirit. If we are not in our spirit, we will never touch God. We can live in God, experience Christ, and be in the building only when we touch the Spirit in our spirit.
The oneness of the church is the genuine building, and this oneness is the oneness of the Spirit (Eph. 4:3). The oneness of the Spirit is in our spirit. Many times our “oneness” only reflects our agreement related to certain items of the truth; it does not manifest the genuine oneness in our spirit, much less the oneness of the Spirit. In order to have the oneness of the Spirit, we must be led by God to the extent that we live in our mingled spirit. Being in spirit is the genuine oneness, and it produces the genuine building. If we have not received the Lord’s mercy to this extent, we are still short in the matter of building.
If we cannot bring the saints into the spirit, we cannot lead them to be built up. The most important matter is to bring them into the spirit. We may lead the saints to attend meetings and read the Bible, we may fellowship with them, and we may invite them to our home for a meal, but these are only means and procedures to bring them into the spirit. Even when we lead the saints to consecrate themselves to the Lord, to pursue spiritual knowledge, and to deal with sins, these matters are procedures; they are not the ultimate goal. If we lead the saints to consecrate themselves without bringing them into their spirit, we have not reached the goal. If we lead the saints to read and study the Bible without bringing them to their spirit to contact the Lord, we have not reached the goal. Similarly, if we lead the saints to deal with their sins in order to remove the barriers and hindrances to their fellowship with the Lord, we must lead them further to enter into the spirit to fellowship with the Lord. Our only goal should be to bring the saints into the spirit.
In the past we did not pay adequate attention to this matter. Although we led the saints to deal with their sins, we did not emphasize that the purpose of dealing with sins is to enter into the spirit to have fellowship with the Lord. Similarly, we led the saints to attend meetings, but we did not emphasize that the meetings are for entering into the spirit to serve God as priests. We led the saints to consecrate themselves, but we did not show them that the purpose of consecration is to let God occupy their whole being so that they may have more fellowship with Him in spirit. In short, we led the saints in numerous spiritual matters, but our goal was not clear and definite; that is, we did not emphasize the need to contact the Lord in our spirit.
The work that we have done is not without value and benefit; however, our work has not reached the goal. We lead people to salvation, but we do not bring them into the spirit to contact the Lord. We lead the saints to attend meetings, but we do not lead them to serve in spirit. We lead them to read the Bible, but we do not lead them to contact the Lord through the words of the Bible or to use their spirit to turn the words of the Bible into prayer. We lead them to consecrate themselves, but we do not tell them that consecration separates them from everything of themselves so that they can turn to the spirit to contact the Lord and to let the Lord gain them more. We lead them to love the Lord fervently and to receive the Lord’s dealings, but we do not show them that loving the Lord and receiving His dealings enable them to be more intimate with Him in spirit and to live more deeply in the spirit. Since we do not have a strong focus on the saints being in spirit, the saints have not gained something solid or seen this matter clearly.
All the elders, co-workers, and responsible ones in the districts must see that our labor, whether in preaching the gospel, helping the brothers and sisters, edifying the saints, or administrating in the church, has only one goal—to bring people into God, that is, to bring them into the spirit to live in spirit. When we reach this stage, the church will be manifested. The reality of the church is manifested and the church is built up only to the extent that we are in the spirit. If we have deep and extensive experiences of being in the spirit, the building up of the church will be deep and extensive. However, if we have only shallow and limited experiences, the building up among us will be shallow and limited.
Prayer is the only way to help a person to turn to the spirit. No one can turn to the spirit without praying. Even when we are doing a small task, we must do it in the spirit. We must pray in order to turn to our spirit. Without praying, it is impossible for us to turn to our spirit. For example, if we are going to visit a brother and fellowship with him, we must turn to our spirit to pray so that we can fellowship with him. The Bible rarely speaks of doing something unceasingly, but it says that we must pray unceasingly (1 Thes. 5:17). The thought of waiting to be led to pray is a wrong concept. There is no ground for waiting if we are to pray without ceasing. Just as we breathe without ceasing, we should pray without ceasing. A saint should not say, “I do not have the leading to pray now.” We do not have the ground to say that we cannot pray, nor do we have an excuse to say that there is nothing to pray about. Every moment is a moment for prayer; nothing should prevent us from praying.
Some saints say, “As we are learning to be priests, we need to pray, but we have run out of topics for prayer, and we often use the same words.” Actually, there are many topics of prayer. Paul says, “In everything give thanks” (v. 18). This means that we should pray and give thanks in everything. If we truly understand the meaning of giving thanks in everything, everything will become a topic for prayer. Everything in our daily living can be a topic for prayer. Wherever we are, whatever we encounter, and whatever we do can be topics of prayer.
Shortly after I was saved, I was taught that in order to pray, I needed to shut the door to my room and set aside a period of time to be quiet before the Lord. This concept influenced me greatly. For quite a while I believed that I had to dedicate time and be quiet in a room by myself in order to pray. However, this concept restricted my experience of prayer too much. If God arranges our circumstances so that we can set aside some time and shut the door to pray, this is very good. However, prayer does not depend on this kind of arrangement. This is especially true in this day and age. Most of the houses in Taiwan are small, and it may not be possible for a person to find a quiet room in which to pray. Some saints have large families living in about one hundred square feet of space. If they depended upon having a quiet room in order to pray, they would not be able to pray at all.
I have learned many lessons, and I realize that prayer should not be limited to specific times and circumstances. On one hand, if time allows and circumstances permit, we should set aside time and pray in a quiet place, just as the Lord Jesus sometimes went up to the mountain and spent the night in prayer (Luke 6:12). On the other hand, we should also pray even in the midst of our busy schedules. Since we do not have much practice of praying at every time, the exercise of our spirit is limited and weak. If we began to pray during our busy schedules, the exercise of our spirit would be strengthened. We would also not be short of topics, because every point in our daily life can bring out a topic for prayer. For example, when a relative calls and expresses the desire to come and see us, we should look to the Lord and say, “Lord, lead me in my speaking to him.” Such a prayer will bring us into the exercise of our spirit. I am concerned that even the co-workers are lacking in the exercise of the spirit because they do not have a habit of praying at every time in every place.
My spirit was very strong when I was in the hands of the military police during the Japanese occupation of China; it was even stronger than when I was holding a conference or conducting a training. I was in prison for thirty days, and, other than eating and sleeping, I could only pray. Although I was the primary target, six other brothers were in the prison with me because of their association with me. I was separated from the other Chinese prisoners and put in a cell with a Greek national. At that time my spirit was very strong, because I was praying at every moment, and I experienced the Lord’s instant answer to my prayers. Even though the seven of us were not in the same jail cell, we could see one another. When a brother was taken for interrogation, I would pray continually during his interrogation. When we received any news, I would pray. I prayed for every situation that I saw, and my spirit was very strong during this time. I prayed constantly, and my prayers were very spontaneous.
When it was my turn to be interrogated, the interrogation would typically last for three hours, and my experience was fully according to Matthew 10:19, which says, “When they deliver you up, do not be anxious about how or what you should speak, for it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak.” I could not prepare any answers in advance. I could only look to the Lord and answer according to the Spirit’s instant leading. When I was being escorted to the interrogation room, I would pray because I did not know what they would do. One time I was asked about the location of a certain brother, who had moved with the national government to an inland area. I immediately prayed and asked the Lord what I should say. If I claimed ignorance, I would surely be beaten, because they would accuse me of lying, since they already knew that the brother had moved to the inland area. I could only look to the Lord for an answer. The Japanese also knew that we financed his trip; consequently, they also asked where he got the money for the trip. Again I looked to the Lord, but just as I was about to answer, they suddenly changed subjects, dropping the matter of his location and the money. I really worshipped the Lord, seeing His instant answer to my prayer. At that time my spirit was very strong, and I did not have any opinions.
If we use the circumstances in our life as topics for prayer, we will not run out of topics. For example, when we come to a meeting and encounter a brother who is about to give the message, we can pray, “O Lord, give the brother the utterance, and strengthen his spirit!” When we see the brothers and sisters, we can pray, “O Lord, cause every brother and every sister to have an open spirit.” If we see a brother who has not been in the meeting for a while, we can utter a prayer, saying, “O Lord, speak a word specifically for him tonight so that he can touch You in his spirit.”
When we pray in this way, an answer to our prayers is a secondary matter; the primary matter is to exercise our spirit. Not long ago, I would feel tired after walking for only twenty minutes. I realized that this was because I traveled everywhere by car and would sit down as soon as I reached my destination. It was difficult to walk a long distance, because my legs lacked exercise. Today I try to walk as much as possible. The primary point concerning prayer is the need for our spirit to be exercised so that it becomes living and strong. Some brothers and sisters have not prayed for a long time, and even when they are in a dire situation, they still cannot pray. This can be likened to a person whose legs are weak because he has not exercised them through walking. Our spirit should be strengthened to the extent that we can pray a simple prayer no matter what we encounter, even if the prayer is only to ask the Lord for mercy. Even when we take the bus or cross the street, we can pray for the Lord’s covering. In this way our spirit will be strong, fresh, and living. This is the primary point.
Our prayer should not be limited to just confessing our sins. Some people say, “I do not need to pray right now because I have confessed my sins already.” Our prayers, however, should not be focused on just our sins; we should also consider the Lord’s glory, greatness, virtues, kindness, mercy, faithfulness, and power, and offer praises to Him. We may not be able to praise the Lord seven times a day as David did (Psa. 119:164), but we can praise Him at least once a day. When we consider our vast and unlimited Lord, how can we be without topics for prayer? Each of His attributes can be a topic of our prayer, including His holiness, righteousness, light, and life. He is worthy of our praise.
If we do not have words of praise for Him, it is only because of our lack of exercise. When we are first learning how to do anything, we need to practice. For example, it is rather easy to ride a bicycle, but it is not easy if we have never been on a bicycle. If we want to learn how to ride a bicycle, we must practice. If we are short in our exercise of praising, extolling, and giving thanks to the Lord, no words will come forth when we want to praise. Some brothers and sisters can only say, “Praise and thank the Lord,” or “Thank and praise the Lord,” because they do not practice regularly. We can practice praising by turning the content of the Psalms into praises. We do not need to recite them methodically; we can simply turn the verses into praises. With practice we will be able to turn to our spirit and praise God like the psalmists.
When we read the Bible, we should turn the words in the Bible into prayer. According to my experience, we should pray more than we read the Bible. When I was young, I spent too much time reading the Bible and not enough time praying. Sometimes I would spend eight hours a day to read the Bible but not even eight minutes to pray. I cultivated a habit of reading the Bible; I especially enjoyed studying the numbers in the Bible. Although I liked to study the numbers in the Bible, as soon as I began to speak about them, an inner voice would stop me. Studying numbers in the Bible nurtured my mentality, but it did not strengthen my spirit. Even though I went through several copies of the Bible, my spirit was not strong, and when I prayed, my spirit could not come forth.
I hope that the young saints would devote the same amount of time to prayer as they do to reading the Bible. Every sentence and every word should be turned into prayer. Every verse that touches us should be turned into prayer. Even if only a few verses touch us when we read a chapter, we should turn these into prayer. Every verse in the Bible is able to touch me. When we are willing to turn every verse into prayer, every verse will be an inspiration to us. As soon as we turn a verse into prayer, inspiration will come. For example, when we read Matthew 1:1, which says, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham,” we may not have much feeling related to it, but when we turn the verse into prayer, inspiration will come. It is hard to know how the Spirit will use this verse to inspire us, but the Spirit will be able to speak when we pray. The inspiration that the Spirit gives to one brother may be different from what is given to another brother, but the Spirit will be able to inspire everyone.
Similarly, after listening to a message, we must pray. If we do not turn the content of the message into prayer, we are like a person who sees food but does not eat it. No matter how many gospel messages a person hears, he must pray in order to be saved. This is an irrefutable law. The gospel is useless to a person who does not pray, no matter how well the gospel is preached or how much a person is touched by it. Not praying after hearing the gospel is like not eating food that has been presented to us. This also is the case with listening to messages. If we hear a message and are touched, we need to pray in order to receive the edification. If we do not pray, the messages will not be received in a deep way or leave much of an impression in us.
For example, when we attend a meeting and see that the subject is “The Importance of the Spirit,” we can immediately turn this subject into prayer, saying, “Lord, thank You for the importance of the spirit; show me this matter more fully.” Even with such a short prayer, there will be a sense of the Spirit’s moving in us. This kind of inspiration cannot come from just listening to a message.
We should pray when we listen to a message, when we read the Bible, and when we are in a meeting. There are too many items for which we can pray. When we help the young saints to learn to pray, we should teach them to use the words of the Bible. If they feel that they do not have words for prayer, we can read the Bible with them, musing and chewing on the words of the Bible and turning the words into prayer. Gradually, they will have more utterance in their prayers. The Bible contains all the subjects that we need for prayer. If we practice praying with the words of the Bible, I believe that the brothers and sisters will be strengthened in their spirit. Whenever we come together to meet, we should not wait for others to pray; every saint should be a person of prayer. The reasons that we wait are because our spirits are not connected, and we are not skilled in prayer. We all must use our spirit to pray.
Many people think that if they are not led, they do not have to pray; but if we are waiting to be led, we will not have any leading. I hope all the brothers and sisters will see that we need to exercise to pray, and we need to use our spirit when we pray. Instead of waiting to be led, we should actively exercise to pray with our spirit. If we do this, we will progress. Our ears and eyes are well coordinated in their function because we have used our ears to hear and our eyes to see from when we were young. Our eyes and ears are quite skilled because of much exercise. Our spirit needs to be exercised in this same way.
With the fall of man, the spirit in man ceased to function according to its intended use. Man’s sense of intuition and fellowship with God was lost because of sin. When we were saved, our spirit was enlivened, but even though we can exercise our spirit, we do not have much experience of exercising our spirit. Even after some brothers become elders or co-workers, they do not exercise their spirit regularly. This is also true of brothers bearing responsibility in the districts. Our mind may be sharp, our hands and feet may be quick, and our eyes and ears may be keen, but our spirit can still be sluggish. Without exercise our spirit is the weakest part of our whole being. Hence, we need to pray more. The more we pray, the more we will enter into our spirit. When we first begin to pray, we may not necessarily be in spirit; but as we pray, we will be in spirit more and more. We should pray for big things as well as small things. We should pray at every time, in every place, and for everything; this is more important than setting aside a time for prayer. As we enter into this practice, our spirit will become living and strong.
If we learn to pray in spirit, we will have a strong sense that our opinions are worthless. We will come to despise our opinions and will no longer have a high regard for them. If anyone asks us for our opinion, we will feel that our opinion is meaningless and worthless, and we will not quickly utter it; rather, we will have a strong desire to pray with the person who is asking for our opinion and touch the spirit together with him. How we respond to requests for our opinions is a strong indication of whether we value our opinions more than prayer. In the spirit there are not many opinions and not many things to discuss and debate; the primary sense in our spirit relates to our need to touch God. In the spirit, matters related to biblical exposition, doctrines, opinions, and methods are not central. The only indispensable matter is to touch God.
This is a law. Someone who prays has far fewer opinions than a person who prays very little. A person who has many opinions prays very little. A saint who prays before the Lord does not feel the need to express the opinions that he may have. If a certain matter is mentioned to him, he is often unwilling to discuss it too much, because his way is to pray. As soon as something is mentioned, he will begin to inwardly pray. There are no opinions to discuss and no matters to study and decide; there is only prayer. Such a saint can touch his spirit in any environment and in any situation. Today the building up of the church depends upon saints who are exercised to pray in spirit.
In order to build up the church, we must be in our spirit. As we are learning to turn to our spirit, we also need to learn how to lead others into the exercise of the spirit. All the elders, co-workers, and responsible ones in the districts should learn how to lead, and there are many lessons to learn. For example, when a person hears the gospel, we should lead him to pray and receive the Lord. We cannot merely bring a person to hear the gospel and let him just sit and listen. We must learn how to lead him to pray and receive the Lord. If we do not know how to lead him to pray to touch the Lord, he will not be saved.
Flowers often die when I plant them, but they thrive when someone else plants them. Flowers do not bloom when they are in my hand, but they bloom in another’s hand. This is a matter of knowledge. We need to learn how to lead others. After a person is saved, baptized, and begins to meet, we should be able to lead him to fellowship with the Lord, to touch the spirit when he reads the Word, to consecrate himself to the Lord, to live a life of consecration, to receive the Lord’s leading, and to live in the fellowship. In this way he will be built in the church.
We should also learn how to lead in the prayer meeting and bread-breaking meeting. For example, we should keep a good record of how many people are in the meeting and how many are absent. We should also find out why people are absent. If it is related to us or to the meeting, we should correct it so that these ones will come back. If it relates to a personal matter, we should help them to resolve it if possible. We should even endeavor to render some special leading and teaching to those who attend the meetings regularly so that their functions may be manifested.
All the elders, co-workers, and responsible ones in a district should come together to pray and seek the Lord concerning the brothers and sisters whom they should visit, concerning which co-workers should assist in solving the problems of the saints, and concerning who is able to deal with the needs of the sisters. We should take care of these matters in a thorough way. We must know the condition of the saints, because they are a flock of sheep under our care. A shepherd knows thoroughly the condition of his flock (cf. Jer. 31:10; Ezek. 34:12). We should know which ones urgently need to be flocked together, who needs to be restored, comforted, and helped, and even who has special needs financially. We should handle all these situations in a fine and proper way, looking to the Lord even for the financial help.
If we do not know how to lead the saints, we will do great harm to the church. For example, in one district there are more than eighty sisters and about one hundred brothers. Eight sisters and twenty brothers will come one week for the prayer meeting, and five sisters and thirty brothers will come the next week. No one, however, seems to have any feeling about these fluctuating numbers. Although the attendance at the bread-breaking meeting is about the same from week to week, there is still a gradual decline. Nevertheless, there seems to be no sense of concern about this. This shows that we do not know how to lead.
We should not let matters in the church simply run their course. There is a need for leading. We should consider why the saints are not released in their spirit in the meeting. For example, it may sometimes be related to the singing of the hymns. If this is the case, we should find a way to correct the singing. There is always a way. Even people in the world say, “Where there is a will, there is a way.” We should surely have a higher expectation, because we have the Lord. We serve the Lord, we worship Him, and we labor in His work. How can He not help us? Singing hymns is not a simple matter. Some hymns should be sung a little faster; if we sing them too slowly, our spirit will become sluggish. If the spirits of the saints are not released, the meeting cannot go on. Furthermore, we need to find out why many saints do not come to the prayer meeting. We must study the situation so that we can render a certain amount of leading to them.
God created us as living human beings with a spirit. Since we are human, we have to take care of our human conduct; for this we need to have much learning and teaching. In 2 Timothy 3:14 Paul says, “Continue in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing from which ones you have learned them,” and in 2:2 he says, “The things which you have heard from me through many witnesses, these commit to faithful men, who will be competent to teach others also.” After Timothy heard Paul’s teachings, he was exhorted by Paul to commit these teachings, that is, to teach Paul’s teachings, to those who were competent to teach others. We should learn, and we should teach others. Our teaching is our leading. The brothers and sisters have a heart and love for the Lord, and they are willing to enlarge His kingdom and spread the gospel so that the Lord may deliver more people, gain more glory, and build up the church in a real way.
We must learn every day because there is no time for us to learn later; we must learn while doing. If we pay special attention to exercising our spirit, we can be learning and leading at the same time, and the church will have a way to be built up. If, however, we neglect the spirit and allow the meetings to just run their course, the building up of the church will be nothing more than empty talk. On one hand, all the saints must be in the spirit, and on the other hand, the elders, co-workers, and responsible ones in the districts must endeavor to learn. We can lead others only with what we have learned. All the matters related to service require learning because they cannot be carried out by our natural ability. Without learning spiritual lessons, we will not be able to build up the church, because our natural ability has no place in the building. We cannot serve with our natural ability, thinking that it is enough to follow the Lord according to our own ideas. Since we love the Lord, we have to learn how to lead the brothers and sisters in the meetings and how to care for them.
God in His mercy has placed us in the church in a certain place to care for the brothers and sisters; therefore, we have to bear this responsibility. We should diligently learn and continually learn; the more we learn, the more we will be able to teach others and lead others. The building of the church depends on the exercise of the spirit by all the saints, and it depends on the elders, co-workers, and responsible ones in the districts to endeavor to learn and to endeavor to lead. If this is our situation, the road ahead in regard to the building will be open before us and promising.
