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In this chapter we want to continue our fellowship regarding our need to pay full attention to the way of speaking.
Whenever we speak, either in or outside of the meetings, we should take Christ as the center and element. This requires much practice and experience. If we give a testimony, give a short message, or sing a hymn, we must take Christ as the center. Christ must be the focus, the very center, the element, and the substance of our speaking. Even when a person speaks in a secular way, his speaking has an element and a substance. The things of the world or our own history, the story concerning ourselves, may be the substance of our speaking instead of Christ. In the church we should always take Christ as the very constituting element, composing substance, and content of our speaking.
In our prayer we must also take Christ as the center and element. We must train ourselves to do this. As human beings, we are accustomed to talking in a very secular, common, and worldly way. This is because we are short of the knowledge and experience of Christ, and even though we may have some experience of Christ, we are still short of the utterance of Christ. Our utterances may be so secular, worldly, and common. To use such utterances is to reduce the value of Christ and eliminate the very effectiveness of Christ’s work. Therefore, we must learn to pick up some expressions and utterances, either from the Bible or from highly valued spiritual writings. This means that we must learn the spiritual content of certain spiritual books. We also should study the Bible and read the hymns. Spontaneously, we will accumulate a good vocabulary to express our knowledge concerning Christ and our experience of Christ.
Even if we have the knowledge and experience of Christ and we have the proper vocabulary, we still need to learn to mingle our words, our speaking, with Christ. A brother may give a testimony concerning how he dealt with a troublesome taxicab driver. But as a Christian and one who is learning to live Christ, his story should be something mingled with Christ. He may say, “Today I had trouble with a cab driver, but Christ within me told me that I had to tolerate him. The more I considered before the Lord, the more I felt that the Lord wanted me to pay him whatever he asked.” By telling a story in this way, he mingles his speaking with Christ and applies Christ as the element in his speaking.
In giving a message or a testimony, one may speak merely in a common way without the mingling of Christ. This is poor. To take Christ as the center and element of our speaking does not mean simply to choose a topic concerning Christ. If we do not have the assurance that we have Christ as the center and element of our speaking, it is better not to speak. Do not speak anything without Christ.
A person may give even a biblical teaching without Christ. This is wrong. In our meetings we do not want any speaking in a testimony, message, or exhortation without Christ. Even the teachers of Confucianism give good exhortations without Christ. We should not forget that we have been gathered by the Lord out of every kind of occupation into His name, and we are now meeting in His name with Him. Therefore, Christ as everything to us must be the element and focus of our speaking. Our speaking should not be apart from Christ. Without Christ, we cannot speak properly in a Christian meeting.
If we take Christ as the center and element of our speaking, we will spontaneously look to the Lord for instant and fresh enlightenment, vision, and utterance. All Christian believers are priests. As a priest, you should not teach common things or use common words, utterances, points, or illustrations. Learn to speak as a Christian priest. We are all members of the Body, and we are all priests in the church, serving our Lord in a particular, separated, and sanctified way. Therefore, while we are speaking anything, we must look to Him for further inspiration and utterance.
I can testify that when I give a message, I look to the Lord that He would give me instant and fresh utterance and also fresh enlightenment and vision. Many times while I am speaking, new light comes to enlighten me, and I see something new, which is the instant vision. There is a kind of instant view seen by me through the Lord’s enlightening while I am speaking. I may prepare an outline for my message, but when I speak, something new comes that is not on the outline.
The constant word is solid, but the instant utterance always inspires people to the uttermost. The power is not mainly in the constant word but in the instant utterance. We need to have the constant utterance as a base since our speaking should be built upon some constant understanding and knowledge. But the constant utterance alone cannot work out much in a meeting. If we are going to stir up and inspire people, we must have the instant utterance, the utterance that comes to us at the moment. Once we have the instant utterance, our speaking becomes powerful. Andrew Murray once said that a powerful and unlimited speaker always has some instant utterance, something new. If we speak only what we have prepared as an old foundation, this will not be so adequate. Every good speaker must look to the Lord for some fresh utterance and some fresh new light.
The things of the scriptural way will not be hard if we practice them. If we love Christ, love the church, and love the Christian experience, the scriptural practice will not be a hardship to us. If we have a heart for the Lord and the church, we will not feel that anything concerning God’s economy is a hardship. A nursing mother cherishes her little babe. Because of her heart for this little one, she does not consider her sacrifice as a hardship. We need a heart that seeks after the Lord and that loves the Lord. At the end of the Gospel of John the Lord Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him (John 21:15-17); our life with the Lord needs such a love.
At the end of the book of Ephesians, Paul says, “Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptibility” (6:24). For the proper church life, we need to love the Lord in incorruptibility, which is to love the Lord in and according to all the crucial items revealed and taught in the six chapters of Ephesians. These crucial items, such as the Body of Christ, the new man, the economy of God’s mystery, the oneness of the Spirit, truth and grace, light and love, as well as each item of God’s armor, etc., are all incorruptible. For the church our love for the Lord must be in these incorruptible things. When we love the Lord in these incorruptible things, not one of them will be hard to us. The new man is a wonderful, deep, and unfathomable item of God’s economy, but if we love the Lord in the incorruptible new man, the new man becomes an easy item to us.
Spiritual things seem very hard for some to grasp, because they do not love the deep things of God. When you talk to some people about these things, you feel as if you are playing fine music to a cow. The cow does not have an ear for fine music. However, to those of us who have a heart for the Lord and the deep things of God, messages on these spiritual things are like beautiful melodies. When I was young, I remember listening to a message given in the Spirit and feeling that it was beautiful music. It sounded so pleasant to me and was so easy to understand. As those who have a heart for the Lord, we need to learn to look to the Lord for His instant, refreshing enlightenment so that we may have a new vision to speak with new utterances.
We also need to trust in the Lord’s speaking within our speaking. While I am speaking, I trust that within my speaking the Lord speaks. Actually, my speaking in itself means nothing. The real power and impact of my speaking is the Lord’s speaking in my speaking. My speaking is a shell; it may be likened to a box that contains a diamond. Little children who do not realize the value of a diamond might treasure the box that contains the diamond more than the diamond itself. If you are childish, you may treasure my speaking. But the experienced saints can sense that there is a treasure within my speaking, and that treasure is the Lord’s speaking.
When Brother Watchman Nee was a young man, M. E. Barber, an older sister in the Lord, helped him to the uttermost. Brother Nee went with Sister Barber a number of times to hear certain preachers and Bible teachers. After hearing a message that Brother Nee thought was wonderful, he asked Sister Barber what she thought. Sister Barber told him that the message was an empty shell full of eloquence without the content of life. In other words, within the person’s eloquent speaking there was not the Lord’s speaking. This happened quite often with Brother Nee and Sister Barber. One day they went to listen to an ineloquent speaker of whom Brother Nee had a very poor impression. After that speaker’s message, Sister Barber told Brother Nee that this person had something of Christ and the cross. By this Brother Nee learned to take care of the treasure in a person’s speaking. When we speak, we should look to the Lord that in our speaking He would speak.
The Lord Jesus indicated that when He spoke, the Father within Him was working. He said, “The words that I say to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me does His works” (John 14:10). The Lord Jesus also said, “The word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me” (v. 24). The Lord Jesus had the attitude that His speaking would have been vain and empty if the Father did not speak in His speaking or if He spoke without the Father’s working. The Lord never spoke His own word. He always spoke the Father’s word. What a pattern to us!
We may not be required to speak for ten or twenty minutes in the meetings, but even if we speak for only two or three minutes, we have to look to the Lord for His speaking within our speaking. We have to learn this lesson whenever we speak in the meetings. We should pray, “Lord, if You would not speak in my speaking, I would not speak.” If we learn these points concerning the way of speaking and practice them, the church meetings will be very much uplifted and enriched. We cannot take the traditional way of coming to the meetings unprepared without any consideration or sensation. We should not come to the meeting merely to fulfill our duty. This is wrong. All of us have to get ourselves prepared to speak in the meetings and look to the Lord for His speaking in our speaking.
When we speak, we also must follow the anointing of the Lord. The Lord’s inner anointing is the moving of the Holy Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God. If we follow the inner anointing in our speaking, that anointing will become the Lord’s speaking. The Lord’s speaking is the anointing within us.
The Lord’s anointing, the Lord’s speaking, and power in our speaking are the same thing. The Lord’s speaking is the anointing, and the anointing is the power in which we are empowered. This gives us the impact in our speaking.
We need to endeavor to speak everything in the meetings with a verse or a portion of the Scriptures as its base. Our speaking must be based upon the Scriptures. Thus, it is always good to pick up an appropriate verse to match our speaking. The Lord’s speaking, the anointing, the power, and an appropriate verse from the Bible are all one. When all these elements are present, the word that we speak is the living Triune God. Our speaking must always be mingled and blended with the Triune God through the Spirit in His Word.
Whenever we meet, we have the assurance of the Lord’s promise that He is with us (Matt. 18:20). The Bible reveals that, as the Spirit, He is the breath and the wind. In John 3 the Greek word pneuma is translated into “spirit” (v. 6) and “wind” (v. 8). Whether pneuma means “wind” or “spirit” depends upon the context. Verse 8 says that it blows, and the sound of it can be heard. This indicates that it is the wind. A regenerated person is like the wind, which can be realized but is beyond understanding. The very Lord who is with us in our meetings is like the breath and the wind. On the day of Pentecost the Spirit was like a rushing violent wind that filled the whole house where the believers were (Acts 2:2, 4). The Triune God was in that blowing wind because He Himself is the wind, the air, and the breath. In the Old Testament the Hebrew word ruach can be translated into “wind,” “breath,” or “spirit.” In Ezekiel 37 ruach is translated in these three ways (vv. 5, 9, 14).
We believe that whenever we meet in the name of the Lord, He is with us as the air and the wind. The wind blows and flows. In the meeting there is a spiritual flow, and we must learn how to follow this flow. The Spirit may be flowing in a certain direction in a meeting, but we may behave against the flow and miss it. The flow always goes together with the atmosphere. The atmosphere of the meeting is the issue of the flow. Someone’s speaking in a meeting may stop the flow of the meeting, and the entire meeting may be brought out of the flow and its accompanying atmosphere. Thus, we must learn to follow the flow and atmosphere of the meeting.
In our meetings we should avoid speaking merely doctrines, though scriptural. We do not want mere doctrines without some reality for the Christian experience and without the supply of life. When we speak, we should minister the Spirit and the divine life into others.
When we speak, we should also avoid referring to secular stories, illustrations, and parables. Because we were raised up, educated, and instructed in many ways in human society, we have a tendency to speak secular things. But in the church meetings we are speaking for the Lord. It is hard for us to keep our speaking away from secular stories, illustrations, and parables. Whenever we use secular things in our speaking, we eliminate the power and the impact of our speaking. This is a subtraction from our speaking. When we speak, we have to do it without any reference to secular things.
We should avoid quoting things from books without spiritual weight. Many times people like to quote from others’ books in their speaking because they think that these quotations can strengthen or confirm their points. They also may quote others to strengthen or confirm that they are learned and knowledgeable. We do not need to make such a show of our knowledge of others’ books. To refer to others’ books is a risk. We may bring in things that are not according to the truth or that are not constructive. Our speaking with wrong quotations from others’ books may distract others and destroy our intention to build up the church. To bring in quotations from other books may even create dissension, so we have to be careful when we quote others’ writings.
We need to avoid mentioning people’s names as much as possible in the meeting. Unless it is necessary for some reason, it is much better not to relate negative stories. If it is really needed, we may refer to negative stories, but it is altogether wrong to mention people’s names. Even in giving a positive story or testimony concerning a certain person or persons, it is also wise not to mention their names, if possible, so that we may stay away from exalting people and from making mistakes.
We should also avoid liberal and wrong interpretations of the holy Word. In our speaking, especially in public meetings, when we interpret any part of the holy Word, either a single word, a phrase, a clause, a sentence, a paragraph, a chapter, or a book, we must not take the liberal way of some translations. Also, we must do our best to avoid wrong, erroneous, and mistaken definitions and significances.
Whenever we speak in the meetings, we must avoid speaking a number of unrelated points without a substantial emphasis. There was a dear brother among us in the church in Shanghai about fifty years ago. Whenever he spoke, he had many good points. However, one of the elders in the church said, “Every sentence that this brother speaks is a treasure, but when these sentences are put together, they mean nothing.” We must always try to speak with some definite emphasis; otherwise, our speaking will be minimized.
We should never debate, argue, or depreciate others’ speaking in the meetings. People do have a tendency to debate with others. There was one brother among us who was strong in his opinion. If the fellowship was to “go west,” he would “go east.” When we dealt with this brother, we exercised much wisdom. If we intended to go west, we would say we needed to go east. He would disagree with this and say that we needed to go west. Then we would go west. This brother just liked to go contrary to whatever anyone else felt. Some of us may be in this category of liking to debate or argue. If the opportunity arises in a meeting, some may say, “I don’t agree with you, brother.” That kills the entire meeting. To have a living Christian meeting, we must avoid any kind of debate or argument. We should also not belittle anyone or depreciate others’ speaking.
Question: What is the difference between reading something in the meeting and speaking it?
Answer: Too much analysis of this matter does not help. We need to endeavor in a simple way not merely to read but to speak. By our practice we will learn how to speak the hymns or perhaps to speak something from the printed publications of the ministry. We should not analyze what it is to speak, talk, read, or declare something in the meetings. All these things are very close. Speaking the printed material is very close to reading and declaring. But there is a difference. Reading is more according to the letter, and speaking is more free, automatic, and spontaneous. Often you may not speak exactly what is printed. You can add a few words that do not affect the meaning. We need to practice speaking so that we can enter into the full reality of the new way in our meeting life. The more that we practice speaking, the more we will learn.
How much better the meetings in the new way are compared to the old message meetings depends upon our practice. Our practice in the meetings may be compared to a basketball game. If you put a basketball in my hands, I could not play well with it. But if you give the same ball to five trained players, they will play in a skillful way. To play ball we need certain skills; without learning them we can never function skillfully. The success of the game depends on the players. Christianity, however, has annulled the function of the members of Christ by building up one speaker as the “coach” to “play ball” by himself.
To meet together in the biblical way should be easier today than at the apostles’ time. At the time of the apostles the believers did not yet have the completed New Testament. They had only the Old Testament and some songs and hymns. Today, however, we have not only the Old Testament but also the New Testament. We may speak directly from the Bible in a meeting. To speak from the Bible is more than adequate for a meeting because the Bible was written in such a spiritual, economical, and rich way. No one can speak a message that can compare to any page of the Bible. We also have a good hymnal and a number of good books, such as Truth Lessons, Life Lessons, the Life-study messages, The Experience of Life, The Economy of God, and The All-inclusive Christ. We may bring any of these books to the meeting, and when we open them, something marvelous will be there. We do not necessarily need to speak starting from the first section of a chapter, but we can use any page. We may “play ball” from any section. In a meeting you may say, “Let us read a section of Life Lessons concerning the two aspects of the Spirit.” Or you may say, “Let us speak the nine titles of the Spirit as listed in this section.”
We have spent much time with much consideration preparing our writings. Our writings contain many selections prepared to impress people with the truth. Now we may simply come to them, not merely to read them but to speak them in a living way in fellowship. In a meeting in which we speak in this way, people will surely receive the riches of Christ. Recently, a co-worker among us testified that in every place that he served, the most difficult thing for him to do was to give a message in the regular meeting on the Lord’s Day morning. As the Lord’s Day approached, he began to suffer by preparing his message. He had to go to many books to try to select some portions and put them together. All of us, though, have the riches in a condensed form as our rich “groceries.” What we need is simply to learn how to “cook.” Moreover, these groceries are inexhaustible; they can be used again and again.
According to 1 Corinthians 14:26, however, we should not need to have any printed material (other than psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs) to use in the meetings to help us speak. But all of us are used to relying on something in the meetings from our old way of practice. If I am used to walking with a cane, and you suddenly take it away, I will not be able to walk. Temporarily, I still need a cane to rely on until I am able to walk without it. I once had tuberculosis, and it took two and a half years for me to be fully healed. During my sickness, I could not walk without something or someone to help me. We have to realize that we have been crippled by the traditional and unscriptural practice of Christianity. Many of us cannot “walk by ourselves.” If the speaker is suddenly taken away from our meetings without anything to replace him, that will be hard. Thus, we may temporarily use the Life Lessons, the Truth Lessons, the Life-study messages, or some other spiritual books with weight. We should not use them in the way of one person speaking or some persons reading but in the way of everyone speaking. We can use these materials by speaking them corporately. The meeting should be opened up for everyone to speak. In the long run we all will get used to speaking. Eventually, we will not need a cane, that is, the printed material, in our regular church meetings.
We may use a cane, such as the Life Lessons, the Truth Lessons, or the Life-study messages, to help us at the present time. But I warned the church in Taipei that we must avoid something—if we use such a cane, this can build up a bad habit. We may rely on it too much, and then it could never be taken away. While we are walking with the cane, we also have to learn how to walk without it. Sometimes we need to walk without the cane. If we get tired, we may use the cane again to rest. Gradually, we must learn and be fully strengthened to walk without the cane until we no longer need it.
