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Scripture Reading: John 21:15, 17; Rev. 3:1-2, 3:20-21; 2:7, 17; 1 John 1:6; 2 Cor. 13:14; 1 Thes. 5:17; Col. 4:2; 1 Tim. 2:8; Psa. 119:147-148; Gal. 5:16; Rom. 8:4; Phil. 1:19-21; Gal. 2:20
In this chapter we want to fellowship concerning a very subjective matter, that is, the speaking ones in our meetings. To speak in the meetings is really today’s problem among Christians. The Christians who are in the denominations have hardly any idea about the matter of speaking in their services because they are used to coming to these services not to speak. They were trained this way, built up this way, raised up this way, and made a person in this way. When they go to their church services, they have no thought or idea about speaking in them. Today on the earth among all the Christians, where is the mutuality in speaking? No one gets prepared to give a word in the meeting except for the clergy, the ones who have been appointed to speak. Everyone has a strong thought that to go to the church service is to listen to a pastor or a minister speak. This is the habit. This is not only the practice among most of the Lord’s children, but this is also something built up in their blood. This terrifying matter still remains in our blood.
Many of us have been in the Lord’s recovery for ten or more years. Since we came into the church life and have been meeting with the saints in the church life, we have been attending the church meetings every week. We are the regular ones in the church meetings, the faithful ones. We attend the meetings as much as we can, and we have never missed one meeting intentionally. If you have been such a person in the recovery, attending about three meetings a week, you have attended about one hundred fifty-six meetings a year and fifteen hundred sixty meetings in ten years. When you attended all these meetings, how many times did you get yourself prepared to speak? I would even ask how many times have you thought about speaking in these meetings? In this matter most of us must admit that we are “birds of the same feather.” Whether we have been in the church life for ten years or just for one month, most of us do not have the thought of getting ourselves prepared to go to the meetings to speak. If none of us have this thought, then who is going to speak in the meeting? We say that we have left the denominations, but the practice, the habit, of the denominations still follows us and even remains in us.
We must endeavor to have church meetings with many speaking, not with speaking by only one person. Some of us, however, still like to be spectators in the meetings. All of us should get ourselves prepared to speak in any meeting that we attend. Although we may have been Christians for many years, we do not have the thought that we need to rise up to be the speaking ones in the meetings. The way of meeting with one person speaking and the rest listening is an annulling way.
Recently, some leaders of certain denominations in the United States gathered together to talk about how to evangelize the entire world by the year 2000. Their conclusion was that they did not have enough manpower. How can they say that they have no manpower when they have millions of members? One denomination alone in the United States has approximately fourteen million members. In spite of so many people, they do not have the manpower. Where are all these people? Nearly everyone’s function was killed by the way of Christianity. If only ten percent of the fourteen million members of that certain denomination were living and functioning members, these one million four hundred thousand could turn the world upside down (Acts 17:6).
The practice of Christianity has annulled the functions of the members of the Body of Christ and has choked them. This practice has delayed the Lord’s return. Why has the Lord been waiting for the past nineteen hundred years? He is still waiting. The night is darker, and there is hardly any sign among the Lord’s children that the day of His appearing is going to dawn. This is because of the deadening, choking, and annulling practice that is according to the traditional way of today’s Christianity. This practice crept into the Lord’s recovery, and it is still here in us in a hidden way. We must take the Lord’s new way, the scriptural way, of meeting and serving. The churches and the saints who have taken the scriptural way and practiced it with no opinion have gained the increase and have been revived. This is because they are simple. The cleverness of the complicated people is killing.
The trouble today is that the denominational blood still remains in our person. We have the habit of doing things according to the traditional way. To some of us it may seem terrible not to have a meeting on the Lord’s Day with a good speaker speaking to us. Some may not be so happy with the change of our way. But we must realize that the truth overcomes. Nothing in the universe can do anything against the truth. We need to labor in the scriptural way with endurance. For us to have a full success in this new way may take five years, ten years, fifteen years, twenty years, thirty years, or even fifty years. Eventually, what we have been speaking concerning the scriptural way of meeting and serving for the building up of the Body of Christ will be very prevailing on the earth. The Lord has to fulfill His word. He has to do something on the earth, not to build up Christianity as a kind of “church,” an organization but to build up His Body as an organism. This can be done only by the new way that the Lord has shown us.
There are basically two ways that we can take for our meeting life. One way is for us to have a pastor, or a minister, speak to us every Sunday morning. Another way is for all of us to speak in the meetings. Which way is better? We all know which way is better because we have tasted it to a certain extent. If the way of everyone speaking is better, then we must desperately endeavor to build up a habit of speaking in every meeting. The way of everyone speaking is undoubtedly better, but this way depends on something. Gold is obviously better than copper, but our possessing of gold depends upon whether or not we would pay the price. Sometimes I did not want to spend that much money for a pen, so I bought some inferior ones. After a short time these pens were no longer any good. One day one of my relatives gave me a very good pen as a gift, and I have been using it for about seven years. I could have had such a pen in the past, but that depended upon whether or not I would pay the price. Would we pay the price to practice the new way? To hire a good speaker and listen to him speak is easy to practice. There is nothing required of us. But for us to be the speaking ones in our meetings involves at least seventeen “musts.” In this chapter we will cover the first eight. We should pay the price to take the way of all of us being the speaking ones in our meetings. But would we pay the price? It is not a matter of whether or not we could pay but of whether or not we would pay the price.
It is much easier to establish a religious organization than it is to build up the church as a living organism. To establish an organization, we must first raise up enough funds to rent or build a meeting place. Then we need to hire a pastor, or someone with an official degree. After we do this, we basically do not need to do anything else. We are only required to attend one or a few services and give some of our income. Then we can go back home to live the way we desire. On the next Sunday we will come again to listen to a good speaker. This is the way in today’s Christianity, but this is not the God-ordained way, the biblical way. It is the way according to tradition, the way according to the customs of the nations, the way that fits man’s fallen condition. This denominational way does not need us to be revived, nor does it require any kind of church life. To walk in the traditional way, the denominational way, there is no need for us to be persons who pray or who love the Lord. This way of meeting and serving fits man’s natural and fallen condition.
For the God-ordained way, the biblical way, the new way, we all need, first of all, to love the Lord. In John 21 the Lord asked Peter if he loved Him. Peter told the Lord, “You know that I love You.” Then the Lord answered, “Feed My lambs,” and “Feed My sheep” (vv. 15, 17). To speak is not only to edify or to teach but also to feed the lambs and to feed the sheep. If we are going to feed the Lord’s sheep, we have to speak. Without speaking, how could we feed any Christian? For us to feed the Lord’s sheep, we must love Him. We should tell the Lord, “Lord, I love You, so I like to speak You forth to others.” The more that we love Him, the more we are qualified, equipped, and even perfected to speak.
According to the Scriptures, the sisters are weaker vessels according to their nature by birth (1 Pet. 3:7). This is according to God’s creation. But as long as the sisters love Him, they will speak. I was born in Christianity, and I was raised there for nineteen years without receiving the Lord as my Savior. But one day a young lady came to my hometown. I was nineteen years old, and she was twenty-five. That was over sixty years ago in conservative mainland China. For a young lady to speak to a thousand people was a unique and unusual event. Although I had been to Christian meetings quite often, I went to this meeting full of curiosity to see this young lady speak. In my whole life, even up to today, I never heard a person speaking with that much authority. She was a young girl standing on the platform in a meeting place that was filled with about one thousand people. As I listened to her, all my curiosity was taken away. Every word that she spoke caught me, and I was fully convinced. I was a young man raised up in Christianity, but that day I was convinced and caught by the Lord. After the meeting as I was walking home, I prayed and gave my entire life to the Lord.
That young lady, who was only twenty-five years old, loved the Lord to the uttermost. That was her motive. Her love for the Lord was the factor, the element, and the very basic essence of her being powerful. The message she released was from the book of Exodus. She told the audience that Egypt typified the world and that all the worldly people were under the tyranny of Satan, just as the children of Israel were under the tyranny of Pharaoh. She said that we had to be delivered out of this tyranny and that this was our exodus. When I heard this near the beginning of her message, I said to myself that I would not be under Satan’s tyranny anymore. Because this young sister loved the Lord to the uttermost, she had the Lord’s authority, and the impact was in her gospel preaching.
If we love the Lord, we surely will be filled with Him. Whatever fills us within will come out of us. The overflow comes from the infilling. When we love the Lord, He will fill us. From that day in 1925 when I gave my life to the Lord, I loved to study the Bible and to talk to people about Jesus. Because I was filled with the Lord Jesus, I wanted to speak the Lord Jesus. If we are filled with the Lord Jesus, we surely will have something to pour out. If the sisters love the Lord, they will not be able to restrain themselves from speaking forth the Lord. When we love the Lord to the uttermost, we must speak. We must release the One who has filled us within.
As we are loving the Lord, we will be revived. According to the book of Revelation, both the church in Sardis and the church in Laodicea were backsliding churches (3:1-2, 15-17). The Lord Jesus said to Sardis, “You have a name that you are living, and yet you are dead” (v. 1). Whatever the church in Sardis had was not growing but dying. They needed to repent. They needed a revival. Laodicea had become lukewarm. Because the saints in Laodicea were neither cold nor hot but lukewarm, the Lord was about to spew them out of His mouth. They needed to repent. They needed a revival. The churches in the Lord’s recovery need a revival to be brought out of such a lukewarm and dying situation.
Before we began to visit people for the gospel, the churches did not baptize that many. But since we began to take the Lord’s way of visiting people to bring the gospel to them, we have baptized thirty-eight thousand people in less than two years in Taipei alone. By 1984 our situation was not encouraging. We hardly had any sensation that we were so dormant, so lukewarm, so dying, and even so deadening toward others. The number of churches was increasing through the publications of the ministry, but in general the membership in each local church was at a standstill. Most of the churches had very little increase. Why should we remain in such a dormant situation without any sensation that we have to wake up, to rise up, and to be revived? We all need a revival. Once we are revived, we will not be able to stay at home and be silent. We will have a desire to go fishing for men and to go to the homes where the fish are (Matt. 4:19). If we are going to set up a denomination, we do not need a revival. But to have a local church in the Lord’s recovery that is living and prevailing with everyone speaking, we all need to be revived.
Then we need to live a victorious life to overcome sin, to overcome the world, to overcome ourselves, to overcome our flesh, and even to overcome our quarreling with our spouse. The wives and the husbands among us may not be so one. Many couples may not have prayed together for three years. This is the situation that really needs a revival that we may live a victorious life. In each of the seven epistles to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, the closing word is that we have to overcome (2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 20-21). We need an overcoming life.
We also must abide in the fellowship with the Lord daily and hourly (1 John 1:6; 2 Cor. 13:14). Even the angels should be able to testify that we are in the fellowship with the Lord. We should not be away from Him but present in His fellowship. There should be no absence in our fellowship with the Lord. Daily and even hourly we need to be such persons. If I were not such a person, it would be hard for me to speak in the Lord’s ministry. My speaking depends upon my continual and present fellowship with the Lord. Why can we not speak in the meetings? Maybe we have been absent from the Lord’s fellowship for three days because we had a quarrel with our spouse. Because of this quarrel, we have been put away from the Lord’s fellowship. If we are going to speak for the Lord, we have to recover our fellowship with Him by confessing our sin and by making an apology to our spouse. We must remain, abide, in the constant and continual fellowship with the Lord. This is a strong demand.
We must also be praying persons. We should pray unceasingly all the day long. This means that we have to call on His name. We need to call “O Lord.” Do not think that such a short calling means nothing. It means a lot. While we are working in an office, teaching a class, or doing any task, we can call “O Lord Jesus.” Such a short calling means a lot to our Christian life. By calling on the name of the Lord, we can pray unceasingly. For us to be the speaking ones in our meetings, we must be praying persons.
We also must enjoy the Lord in the Word every day early in the morning to have a new start each day (Psa. 119:147-148). According to God’s principle in His creation, He ordained to have a new year, a new month or a new moon, and a new day. Within every year we can have three hundred sixty-five new starts. If we failed for three hundred sixty-four days, we still have one more opportunity to have a successful day. We may have failed today, but thank the Lord tomorrow is still here waiting for us. Tomorrow morning we will have another chance to have a new start. Within every twenty-four hours, there is a new chance for us to have a new start and be renewed.
To have a new start is not hard. It is so easy. Just rise up a little earlier and say, “O Lord Jesus. O Lord Jesus.” You do not need to shout loudly and bother others. Just say, “O Lord Jesus.” To say this makes a big difference. Sometimes I forgot to call on the Lord immediately after I woke up. That became a big loss to me. As soon as I realized this, I said, “Lord Jesus, forgive me for forgetting You.”
Then we need to pray-read a short portion of the Word, anywhere from two to four verses. We can enjoy the Lord with His Word and in His Word through pray-reading. We should do this every day in the morning to have a good, new start. We can speak the Word to ourselves, to the Lord, and even to the angels. We can speak the Word to our pets and even to our furniture. When we speak the Word in such a way, we will be the first ones nourished by our speaking. We do not need to spend a long time to enjoy the Lord in the Word early in the morning. Ten to fifteen minutes is sufficient to get nourished and have a good start of a new day. We need to practice this.
We also must learn to walk by and according to our spirit mingled with the Spirit (Gal. 5:16; Rom. 8:4). Praise the Lord that we have a spirit and that our spirit is mingled with the divine Spirit! What a provision! Our God has created us with a spirit and has even regenerated our spirit. Immediately after regenerating us, He stays with us as the Spirit to be one with us and even to mingle Himself with us as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). Now we have such a mingled spirit. After having a good start in the morning, we should continue to walk, to live, to do everything by this mingled spirit and with this mingled spirit all day long. We must learn to practice this.
Many married couples cannot avoid having problems with each other. Very few can avoid these problems because the husband and the wife are so close, and they know each other so well. They feel that they do not need to be careful, so there are always chances for them to get into the self or the flesh. These chances are snares and traps to get you. You must learn to walk and to speak, to talk, by the Spirit. Many times Satan would send your spouse to tempt you. He or she may say a hard word to you or give you a long face. But at that time we have to learn how to walk, how to behave, how to have our being and living by the Spirit. Do not talk to your spouse by yourself. Talk to your spouse with the mingled spirit. This is the way that you can always be ready to speak in the meetings.
We must live Christ for His magnification by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and this bountiful supply is right within us (Phil. 1:19-21; Gal. 2:20). The Lord has given us a wonderful provision. First, we have His Word in our hand. Second, we have the Holy Spirit, who is the bountiful Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, living in us, in our spirit, which has been regenerated and strengthened. We have such a provision, and we can live Christ by this divine provision. If we are such persons, we will surely have something to speak when we come to the meeting.
What kind of Christian do you want to be? Do you want to be a cold, dumb, dormant, dying, lukewarm, defeated, and backsliding one? Or do you want to be a Christian who loves the Lord and who is living, refreshing, and active. Why is Christianity not powerful? It is because most of the Christians in the denominations have been stripped of their riches. They have been annulled and even choked to death. This is why they need a religious service in which one person speaks to them. But in the Lord’s recovery it should be different. The Lord desires to recover a meeting with all the members speaking to function. But this depends upon our Christian walk. We must love the Lord, we must be revived, and we must live a victorious life. We must abide in the fellowship with the Lord daily and hourly, and we must be praying persons. We must enjoy the Lord in the Word early in the morning to have a new start each day. We must walk and have our being by and according to the mingled spirit, and we must live Christ. If we are such persons day after day and throughout each day, we will be ready to speak in the meetings. Something of Christ will always be bubbling out of us. The Spirit will become a flow out from our innermost being to flow out all the riches of Christ by the Spirit (John 7:37-39).
