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Scripture Reading: Luke 5:27-29; Acts 5:42; 10:24
Hymn #212 in the Chinese hymnal may be translated literally as follows:
Twenty-three years ago when I was giving the life-study of Ezekiel in Taipei, I wrote this hymn concerning the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum based on the vision revealed in Ezekiel 1. Strictly speaking, wind is not good, a cloud is not very welcome, and fire is even worse. In Ezekiel 1, however, the wind, the cloud, and the fire all signify the Holy Spirit.
The coming of wind and a cloud indicates the outbreak of war and troubles. Once the Holy Spirit comes, there is also trouble. The Holy Spirit comes first as a storm wind and then as a great cloud, bringing war. This war first starts within you, causing you to war against yourself. The believers in the Lord all had this experience at the time they heard the gospel. When you hear the gospel and the Holy Spirit starts to work, your inner being is in turmoil as you struggle with whether or not to receive the gospel. This is the wind with the cloud stirring in you. Simultaneously, a great fire is kindled to burn away all the negative things in you. Eventually, the electrum is produced.
Electrum is an alloy of silver and gold. Gold, signifying the nature of God, is the base of the New Jerusalem. Without gold as the base, the city cannot be built. The Christian life is a life based upon the golden nature of God. If we do not have God as our golden base, our Christian life is a mess, and we are not able to be built up as part of God’s building.
What this hymn describes is the work of the Holy Spirit. The first stanza says that the Holy Spirit as a storm wind blows not from the four corners of the earth but from heaven, that is, from God. When this wind blows upon us, we hear the gospel, and there is a strong stirring within us. The blowing eventually softens our hardened heart and enlivens our entire being so that we are completely renewed and altogether freed from our sins. In Genesis 1, at the beginning of God’s creation, His Spirit brooded like a hen over her chicks. Similarly, stanza 2 says that when the Spirit as a great cloud covers and overshadows us, it broods over us to regenerate us, sanctify us, and make us spiritual so that we may be the dwelling place of God.
Stanza 3 says that the Holy Spirit as the fire comes also to burn within us. Once we believe in the Lord, our first experience is a battle, a warring within. We were once wicked, filthy, and fond of worldly entertainment. But now that we have believed in the Lord, the Holy Spirit begins to rule within us, and there is conflict. From the time that the conflict starts, the fire comes forth, spreading intensely to every corner to consume all the things that displease God. The fire burns away all defilements and all common things, thereby purifying us so that we may be exactly like God, holy and without blemish. Stanza 4 says that the glowing electrum is manifested and shines into our heart so that we may partake of God’s nature. The result is that divinity is mingled with humanity, and the human spirit is joined to the divine Spirit; thus, God’s life is expressed through us.
This is the story of Ezekiel 1. When the Holy Spirit blows, He is like a great wind and a cloud coming to brood and to hatch. He is also like the burning fire that burns away everything other than God; this burning produces God. Ultimately, what comes out of the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum is a person—the Lord Jesus sitting on the throne as the One who expresses God in His humanity, as seen by Ezekiel in 1:26. The four Gospels in the New Testament describe the Lord Jesus from four angles. The Gospel of Luke shows us that the Lord Jesus was a man in whose human virtues the divine attributes were expressed. That was divinity mingled with humanity and the human spirit joined to the divine Spirit so that God’s life could be expressed in the form of man, which is divinity expressed through humanity.
To many in the Pentecostal movement, the power of the gospel is related mostly to speaking in tongues, divine healing, and casting out demons. However, the Bible does not say this. In 1932 I began to pay attention to the matter of speaking in tongues. Then in 1936 I personally attended Pentecostal meetings for over a year and spoke in tongues with them. Afterward, I felt that I had no taste for this, and I did not know what to think about it. I went back to the Bible and spent more time to study this matter of speaking in tongues. I discovered that the Bible does not say that speaking in tongues, divine healing, and the casting out of demons are the power of the gospel. The book of Acts specifically shows us that when the apostles preached the gospel, they drew their power from the Spirit of God and the word of God through their prayer and their speaking of God’s word. I have studied this book for many years, and it is more and more clear to me that the power of the gospel lies in two items—God’s Spirit and God’s word—and it also lies in two matters—prayer and the speaking of God’s word.
The book of Acts mentions three times that the word of God “grew” (6:7; 12:24; 19:20). The Bible reveals that God’s word is the seed of life (1 Pet. 1:23-25). Because this seed is living, once it is planted, it grows, increases, and spreads.
Essentially speaking, the power of the gospel is God’s Spirit and God’s word. On our side, however, we need to do something to cooperate. Today God’s Spirit is upon us, and God’s word is within us. What we should do is pray that God’s Spirit will be our power. God’s Spirit is like the air, and our prayer is our spiritual breathing. The air is here, but if we do not breathe, we do not receive the sustenance. God’s Spirit is here, but we still need to breathe by prayer. Acts 1 says that the Holy Spirit would come upon the disciples, but they had to pray first. To this end, one hundred twenty saints prayed in one accord for ten days, and the Holy Spirit was poured out. The Holy Spirit has been ultimately consummated, but prayer is still needed to receive the Holy Spirit.
As for God’s word, in Acts 6:4 Peter said, “We will continue steadfastly in prayer and in the ministry of the word.” This indicates that the word of God needs to be preached. On the one hand, if we do not properly read the Word of God, we cannot preach it. On the other hand, if we do not preach the word of God, we cannot properly read it. We may illustrate this with teaching. On the one hand, a person cannot be a teacher unless he is first a student. On the other hand, those who are teachers know that regardless of how well they study from books, mere studying cannot be compared to teaching, because the need to teach forces them to read thoroughly. Therefore, in order to preach, one must read, and when one reads, he must preach.
In Greek continue steadfastly implies continuing without ceasing. When we pray, we pray with the Spirit; when we preach, we preach the word. Whether praying or preaching, we need to do it continually. The Spirit is already here, but if we do not pray, He will not move; once we pray, He moves. Prayer is to move the Spirit. The Pentecostals say that only by speaking in tongues, receiving spiritual baptism, and rolling on the floor or jumping can a person receive the Spirit. Do not listen to their wrong teachings. I did some of those things, and after being in the Lord’s work for more than fifty years, I can testify that what they claim is altogether not true.
Our Triune God today has passed through all the processes and has completed everything that needed to be done. He completed creation, and He also passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection to become the consummated life-giving Spirit. He is the essential Spirit and also the economical Spirit. He is within us as the Spirit of life, and He is also outside of us as the Spirit of power. This all-inclusive immeasurable Spirit is our Triune God. Much of Christianity believes that the Father is on the throne, the Son is sitting at His right hand, and only the Holy Spirit comes to us. Even though doctrinally it seems this way, actually in our experience the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are the one Spirit. He is our Redeemer and our Savior; He is the consummated all-inclusive Spirit. He is right here, and He is within us.
You young people are so blessed to get to know these truths. Today the Triune God is the all-inclusive Spirit dwelling in you. You can pray to Him and contact Him. He is the wonderful Spirit. The more you read His Word, consider His works, and preach His word, the more you will believe into Him. It is by praying sincerely that you can contact the wonderful Triune God who dwells in you. Once you pray, the wind will blow upon you. Then when the wind comes, it becomes the cloud to brood over you like a brooding hen, hatching its chicks. Once the cloud broods over you, you will have the burning within. You may often think of yourself as very clever and rational, but once the fire starts to burn, you will be fervent and will become “crazy.”
The burning of the fire will purify you from sins, causing you to confess, to admit, that you are truly corrupt because you do things such as talk back to your parents, throw your chopsticks in anger, and lose your temper. Once you confess, more and more exposure will come. We may use cleaning your house as an illustration. You may think that the house is clean, but once you start cleaning, you discover dust everywhere, and it seems impossible to completely clean it. Maybe you do not sin, but since you live in a world that is filled with evil and filth, you cannot help but be defiled. Regardless of how often you have washed your hands, when you wipe them with a handkerchief, the handkerchief is dirty. You did not touch any coal, but when you wipe your hands with the handkerchief a few times, they become black. Therefore, do not think that you have no sin. In fact, your sins are as many as the grains of sand on the seashore. One time I confessed in this way; the more I confessed, the more confession I had to make. I confessed that everyone I contacted was offended by me, and everything I did was wrong. That confession took one hour.
Nevertheless, while you are confessing, you are breathing in the Spirit. This Spirit comes to you both as the essential Spirit and the economical Spirit. He fills you inwardly and is upon you to be your power. You can receive power without having to speak in tongues. This power comes from the wind, the cloud, and the fire. The wind, the cloud, and the fire come from your prayer and your enjoyment. In every meeting we have to pray with our spirit and enjoy the Lord. This will produce the wind, the cloud, and the fire. The more we are exercised in our spirit, the more we will ignite the fire. The result will be that both our college campuses and our neighbors will be stirred up by us.
Forty years ago, I often led the church to preach the gospel in Chefoo. Many times when we preached, there was an “ocean of fire”; the ball of fire burned everywhere. It burned to a point that the outsiders said to one another, “You had better not go to the upper floor where they meet. Once you go up there, you will not be able to withstand the fire. It will surely engulf you.” There was a power, a ball of strong fire, that was burning. This burning came from the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is already here, but we need to ignite Him by our enjoyment and prayer. Therefore, instead of listening to the wrong teachings of Christianity, we should come back to the Bible. The Bible shows us that the Spirit has already come; on the night of the Lord’s resurrection He was breathed into the disciples, and on the day of Pentecost He came upon them. Therefore, there is no need for us to beg for the Spirit to come today. Rather, we should pray that the Spirit would burn within us, causing us to deal with all our sins so that He may move and operate within us.
A certain co-worker once testified that I do not have eloquence, but if you listen to my preaching, you will be subdued. It is true that I do not have eloquence, but you cannot withstand my speaking. I simply speak, and you give in. My secret is this: Every time before I release a message, if I do not pray first, I feel incapable and powerless, but once I pray, the fire is ignited in only ten minutes. As soon as the fire starts to burn within me, I become crazy, and I have to burn you too. Therefore, the power of the gospel is the moving of the Spirit. For the Spirit to move, we need to pray and have enjoyment. If we do not pray, the Spirit will have no way to move.
God’s word is also the power of the gospel. God’s word needs us to speak it forth. However, if we have not learned to properly study the Word of God, we will have no way to speak it. Fifty-five years ago I was called by the Lord. I had the burden to minister the word for the Lord. However, as soon as I opened my mouth, I felt my lack of words. I could speak no more than two sentences. I could only say that it is wonderful to believe in Jesus; I did not know what else to say. This forced me to diligently read through the Bible. I read more and more, and as a result, I have a more thorough understanding of the Word, and I also have more to speak.
The publications in the Lord’s recovery today are not poor as were publications sixty years ago. Moreover, they have already been translated into many different languages. There are enough messages for you to read for many years. Therefore, you cannot make the excuse that you do not understand or do not know how to speak. If you want to understand, you need to go read. Once you read, you have to speak; and the more you speak, the clearer it will be. Every time I have released a message, it has been the case that the more I spoke, the clearer it got. It is the same with writing the footnotes of the Recovery Version; the more I write, the more light I receive. As spirit and life, the Lord’s word is power. The Bible says that no word from God shall be void of power (Luke 1:37 ASV), and those who hear the word of the Lord will live (John 5:25). When you preach the gospel, you have to preach the Lord’s word. You cannot merely tell people that it is wonderful to believe in Jesus and that our church is very good. The more you say that, the less interested they will be. You have to give the Lord’s word to them to convince them. Therefore, you have to learn to speak the Lord’s word.
The Lord has truly given us great mercy by unveiling His word completely to us and allowing us to publish what we have seen so that we can study it. Therefore, today the Spirit is here, and the word is also here. We need to pray with the Spirit, and we also need to preach the word. If we continue to pray with the Spirit and preach the word, we will become “crazy.” Reading books on philosophy can never cause us to be crazy, but as soon as we read God’s Word, we will become crazy from within. I have read the writings of Confucius, and I did not become crazy. While reading the Lord’s Word, however, I have often become abundantly excited with an indescribable joy. This is because there is no spirit in Confucius’s books, but there is spirit in the Lord’s word. The Lord said that the words which He has spoken to us are spirit and are life (John 6:63). If we do not read the Lord’s Word, His word will be stationary, not “moving” or “jumping.” However, as soon as we read the Lord’s Word, it will start to move within us, causing us to start moving as well.
There was a co-worker among us named Luan Hong-bin, who was from Manchuria. Formerly, he was involved in politics and therefore greatly despised and opposed Christianity. He thought that only those Chinese who could not support themselves would turn to a Western religion for help and that any Chinese with integrity would not believe it. One day while he was on a hill, he entered into a temple and saw an open Bible on the table of sacrifice. Even though he did not like Christianity, he was still curious to find out what the Bible says. He looked, and it was open to Psalm 1: “Blessed is the man / Who does not walk / In the counsel of the wicked, / Nor stand on the path of sinners, / Nor sit in the seat of mockers” (v. 1). He thought this was interesting, so he read on. Eventually, he was captured by the Lord’s word. He rolled on the floor, cried in confession, repented, and was saved. Later on, he became a good co-worker and changed his name to Philip Luan. One time when I was in Brother Nee’s training in Shanghai, I stayed in the same room with him, and he told me this story in person.
There is another story that I can never forget. There was once an American who went to Africa on business. He saw a local African sitting beneath a tree reading the Bible. This American man thought of himself as one who was modern and understood science, so he despised religion and considered it superstition. He said to the man in a disdaining tone, “Do you still read the Bible?” The man answered, “Sir, if I had not been reading the Bible and if the words of the Bible had not entered into me, I would have eaten you, and you would right now be in my stomach.” This illustrates the power of the Bible.
I studied the matter of speaking in tongues fifty years ago, and I also joined that kind of activity for more than a year. Later, I did not speak in tongues anymore, and I advised others not to practice this. After a few years, when I was in my hometown, Chefoo, not far from the meeting hall there was a Pentecostal church. The responsible brother there had a good relationship with me. One day that brother came to visit me. He wanted me to speak in tongues again, to be in the same flow with him. I asked him to sit down, and with a very serious tone I said to him, “Brother, I do not speak in tongues now, and I will not take that way of practice. Today I will speak to you openly. Is your preaching more powerful, or is mine? We have been working here for many years. Who is making the greater profit? Is it you or I? The more you preach, the fewer people you have there. The more I preach, the more people we have here. Where is your power?” He said, “Brother Lee, if you put it this way, I have nothing to say. I admit I have not been as successful as you. Yet I have to speak in tongues because if I do not speak in tongues, I have no power.” I then said, “If this is the case, then go and speak in tongues. The more you speak, the less powerful you will be. However, I will not speak in tongues, and the more I will not speak, the more powerful I will become.”
I spoke such words not only to this person but also to others. Later on, I spoke the same words in Taiwan and in America. Sometimes I would say, “You speak in tongues, but where is the fruit of your work? Where is the effectiveness of your work? I dare not say that I have much fruit for my work, but my fruit is at least more than yours. Therefore, speaking in tongues does not work. I do not speak a single phrase of tongues, but I have gained a great number of people.” At the end, many who spoke in tongues had to concede defeat. The secret of my work is not in speaking in tongues but in praying with the Spirit and preaching the word.
In Taiwan I tried to teach the saints to stir up their spirit, but I was not clear about how to do it. Later, when I came to America, I saw clearly that to stir up the spirit is to call on the name of the Lord. In Acts 2 Peter said that when the Holy Spirit is outpoured, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved (v. 21). Normally we understand salvation in a shallow way. However, when people asked Peter what they should do, Peter said, “Repent and each one of you be baptized upon the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (v. 38). This indicates that the blessing of salvation begins with the forgiveness of sins and consummates with the receiving of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Forgiveness is the initiation, and receiving the Holy Spirit is the consummation. The consummation of our salvation is to receive the Holy Spirit. If we have not received the Spirit, our salvation is not complete. Once we are saved today, we receive the Spirit. However, we need to fan our spirit into flame (2 Tim. 1:6-7). The way to fan our spirit into flame is to pray, to call on the name of the Lord.
It is strange that although we have already received the Spirit, if we do not avail ourselves of the Spirit, everything we do will be to no avail. Without the Spirit our prophesying will be of no avail. Likewise, without the Spirit our gospel preaching will be of no avail. In order to have the Spirit we have to pray, and in our prayer we have to call on the name of the Lord. There is no need to be very proper when we pray; rather, we should be crazy. Fifty years ago, I was taught to be proper when I prayed. I was taught to be sincere when I knelt down, then to pray by the Spirit in the name of the Son to the Holy Father, asking for His grace and blessing. Later on, I realized that this is dead prayer. In His prayer and preaching, the Lord Jesus did not keep any regulation or formality. When He preached, He had no podium or time schedule, and there was no program to His speaking. However, there was the power. We also should pray like this, not paying any attention to regulations but rather calling on the name of the Lord unceasingly.
In 1968 we began in America to exercise to call on the name of the Lord. In one meeting I said to the saints, “In your daily life try to forget everything and just call on the Lord’s name for ten minutes. Forget about your status and your work; just call on the Lord’s name. If you do not become burning, come and see me.” I still have the assurance today that if you call on the name of the Lord for only ten minutes, you will be burning. Young people who are on the campuses, if you are burned like this every morning, you will burn others when you are at school. Once the gospel is spoken or preached, there will be the Spirit.
Once when I was in elementary school, the teacher wanted us all to give a speech. I was so frightened that I was shaking and perspiring and did not know what I would say on the platform. Later, when I was saved and called by the Lord, I was clear that one day I would have to minister and speak for Him. Therefore, I tried to think of ways to prepare myself. At that time I worked by the sea, and there was a mountain nearby. Behind the mountain it was very quiet. Every day, during my lunch break at noon, I would go to the back of the mountain to practice speaking to the sea. The result was that the more I practiced speaking, the better I became. However, one day a denominational group invited me to speak on the Lord’s Day. That was my first time to speak on the podium, so I prepared much at home before going. I spoke on “Behold, the Lamb of God!” At that time, facing more than three hundred people, I was very frightened. Moreover, as no one had ever taught me to use my spirit, when I spoke, I did not use my spirit, so my speaking was to no avail. Later, I became clear that in order to exercise the spirit, there is the need of praying, calling on the name of the Lord, and reading the Word. These are the sources of the power of the gospel.
Now we want to see what the mouthpiece and the outlet for the gospel are. The mouthpiece for the gospel is man. Moreover, the outlet for the gospel is the homes. We are the mouthpieces for the gospel, and our homes are the outlets for the gospel. If your home is not given for the Lord’s use, and you preach the gospel only individually, then there will be a mouthpiece but no outlet. Acts shows us that at the time of Peter, the disciples not only broke bread “from house to house” (2:46) but also announced Jesus Christ as the gospel “from house to house” (5:42). In Greek the word announce is the verb form of the word gospel, meaning that they announced the gospel of Jesus as the Christ. If we announce the gospel of Jesus as the Christ from house to house, then all our houses will be speaking Christ. Hence, we should not only preach the gospel but also open our homes.
Luke 5 gives us an excellent example. The Lord Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi, who was a slave to money, and He called him to follow Him. Upon hearing the Lord’s calling, Levi left all, rose up, and followed the Lord. In this way he was saved. Once he was saved, he gave a great reception for the Lord Jesus in his house. However, he did not invite Jesus alone, nor did he invite prominent officials and famous persons. Instead, he invited many tax collectors and sinners (vv. 27-29). Because he himself was a vile sinner, he did not have good men as his friends but rather a crowd of wicked men, all of whom he invited to recline at table with the Lord. The Lord was the guest of honor, and all the other guests invited to keep Him company were sinners. This is a good example of opening the homes for the preaching of the gospel. Once we open our homes, the gospel will have an outlet; without the homes the gospel will have no outlet. Now we have many mouthpieces, but what we need is the outlet. Hence, we must open our homes.
I hope that all the saints, especially those who are newly saved, will do this one thing—hold a reception for Jesus and invite all your friends, even the friends who are disreputable. You and I do not have reputable friends. What we have are “sinner-friends,” such as drinking friends, gambling friends, dancing friends, playing friends, and deceiving friends. Seriously speaking, where can you find good people on this earth? All are sinners. We did not have good friends before we were saved, but after we got saved, the Lord Jesus became our good Friend. We should hold receptions at our homes for the Lord Jesus and invite our sinner-friends so that they may receive the Lord Jesus as their Friend.
The Bible not only has examples of sinners preaching the gospel; it also has examples of “good men” preaching the gospel. In Acts 10 there was a good man, Cornelius. The Bible does not mention any sin of his; it speaks of only his good points. He was a devout man who feared God, gave alms to the people, and always prayed and petitioned before God. One day an angel came to him and said, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. And now send...for a certain Simon, who is surnamed Peter” (vv. 4-5). It is true that Cornelius was truly a good man, but he was not saved and still needed the gospel. Therefore, he needed to ask Simon Peter to come and tell him how to be saved. When Peter came, he was surprised because Cornelius was already waiting there, having called together his “relatives and intimate friends” (v. 24). Relatives and intimate friends is a very good expression and a good example to us.
The house of Levi, a tax collector, and the house of Cornelius are excellent examples to us. Regardless of whether we are slaves of money, like the tax collectors who were vile sinners, or we are those who often pray to God and give alms to the poor, like Cornelius, who was a virtuous person, we are all sinners before the Lord; we all need salvation. We also need to open our house and hold a reception for Jesus, inviting all our relatives and intimate friends. I believe in that day when the Lord Jesus was with the group of tax collectors, there must have been many who eventually were saved. Perhaps even all of them were saved. I also believe that those relatives and intimate friends who were at the house of Cornelius that day were also saved, with no one left out. Therefore, the way to contact people with the gospel is in the homes. If there are no homes, the gospel will not have a way. When there is a home, the gospel has a way.
The Lord as a great wind blew upon us and brought us to America. The elderly saints never thought about coming to America. When I was in mainland China, I felt that it was very good to be there, especially in the three “norths”—north China, the northwest, and the northeast. We could go anywhere in those regions to work for the Lord, so why should we go to a foreign country and stay in a foreign land? In 1938 someone gave me two checks. One was sixteen hundred U.S. dollars for my fare to America; the other was twelve hundred Chinese yuan for my family’s living expenses for one year. However, I did not have the burden and never even thought about coming to America. China is so vast and has many people. It would not have been possible for us to cover all the places or to exhaust our preaching of the gospel, so why would we think of coming to America? However, this was not up to us. Eventually, the Lord blew upon me, and I was brought to Taiwan and then to America.
Whether or not it was your desire, the Lord blew upon you also and brought you to America. Today the Lord is like a great wind that has blown multitudes of Chinese to America. This is the Lord’s perfect will. If men do not leave their own land or soil, they will not believe in the Lord. However, since they have been uprooted and have come to a foreign country, it is easy for them to believe in the Lord. This is why on the college campuses it is easy for us to preach the gospel to the Chinese students. There are hardly any rejections; many have come to attend the Lord’s banquet, and nearly all of them have received the Lord. This is the Lord’s work.
The Lord saved Levi, a tax collector. This was Matthew, who later became one of the twelve disciples to preach the gospel to many sinners. In the vision that Cornelius saw, the angel did not tell him to invite his relatives and intimate friends. However, he did not hide what he had for only his family members to be brought to salvation. Rather, he invited all his relatives and intimate friends. We need to take him as our model. When you young people go to the college campuses, you are there to hold a reception for Jesus. Just set out a few cold treats, and use half an hour to share the gospel with your friends. That is your home. Alternately, if you can get your parents’ permission, you can invite classmates over for meals and to hear the gospel. The gospel presented in this way will save young people from becoming vile persons, like the American hippies. In America it is dangerous for the young people to not believe in the Lord Jesus. If they do not believe, it is hard to know what they will do, because there are all kinds of strange and bizarre things happening on college campuses. Only Jesus can replace those things. If parents are wise, they will definitely let their sons and daughters believe in Jesus.
Therefore, I hope that all of you will open your homes to give a great reception for Jesus, simply inviting “sinners” as your guests so that you may preach the gospel to them. If you open your homes, it will not be a loss but a blessing to you. The Lord Himself said that He will show lovingkindness to thousands of generations of those who love Him (Exo. 20:6). Hence, for the sake of eternity, we all should open our homes and provide an outlet for the gospel of the Lord. In this way the blessing will come not only to us but also to our sons and daughters for generation after generation.
