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Scripture Reading: Rom. 7:6; 2 Cor. 3:6, 8
In the previous chapter we saw three vital points regarding the matter of service. The first is that in the church all the serving ones must be built up together as a spiritual house, the priesthood (1 Pet. 2:5).
All the Old Testament priests served the Lord in a corporate way. Not one served the Lord in an individual, independent way. They were all coordinated, and they all cooperated one with another. They were built up together as one body. By that Old Testament type, we know that the New Testament saints need to be built up together as a spiritual house and that this spiritual house is a body of priests, a priesthood.
The priesthood is a building up of all the priests, all the serving ones, as one body. Among them there is a priesthood, a priestly body, a corporation, a coordination of a group of believers built up together, serving the Lord. To serve the Lord we first need to be built up together.
Second, we should be the holy priesthood, the separated ones, the saints, the believers, the serving ones, separated from the system of the world unto God, unto the service of the Lord. We need to be separated so that we can be holy.
Then we need to be the royal priesthood. We have seen the difference between the holy priesthood and the royal priesthood. The holy priesthood is a group of serving ones who have been separated from the satanic system of the world unto the service of God. The royal priesthood is a group of priests, a group of serving ones, who have spent time in the presence of the Lord, who have been anointed and committed with the heavenly authority. They are the Lord’s ruling channel with heavenly authority. When they come out of the presence of God to the people, they come with heavenly authority as royal priests.
On one hand, the priests are holy; on the other hand, they are royal. They are those separated unto God, and they are those committed with heavenly authority to serve the Lord. Because they are separated from the world and entrusted with heavenly authority, they are qualified and equipped to serve the Lord. These three points we have seen already.
Now we come to a crucial point; that is, we need to learn how to serve in the spirit. This is the fourth point in the church service. Romans 7:6 says, “Now we are discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held, so that we serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of letter.” We need to learn to serve in the spirit—not in the letter, not in the law, not in doctrine, but in the spirit.
Second Corinthians 3:6 indicates that the New Testament service is a matter of the Spirit, not of the letter: “Who has also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” Verse 8 continues, “How shall the ministry of the Spirit not be more in glory?”
I am afraid that many believers simply do not know what it means to serve in the spirit. Before we were saved, we were dead in our spirit. On one hand, we were very active in the mind and in the emotion, yet we were dead in the spirit. But, praise the Lord, at the time we were saved, the Lord regenerated our spirit and made it alive. From that time on, we need to learn to live, to walk, to act, in the spirit, not in the mind or emotion, not in the soul.
We need to learn not only to walk, to live, in the spirit but also to serve in the spirit and to serve in the newness of the spirit. My burden is to help you know something in a practical way, not in the way of doctrine or theory.
What does it mean to serve the Lord in the spirit and in the newness of the spirit? A spirit has been created within us, and we have been regenerated. Our spirit has been renewed, and the Spirit of God is now dwelling in this quickened, renewed spirit. Therefore, our spirit is now a strong factor in our being. Because this spirit has been renewed and made alive, and because it has been strengthened by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, it surely is a strong factor in our being. Yet, due to the fact that we lack the proper teaching, we simply do not realize that we have such a renewed spirit with the Holy Spirit indwelling it. However, we should have some realization because of all the speaking in the ministry concerning this matter.
On one hand, we need to walk, to live, in this spirit. We are not speaking of the Holy Spirit but of our renewed spirit in which the Holy Spirit dwells. To walk, to live, in our spirit means that we will be in the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is now indwelling our spirit. We need to live in the spirit, and we need to learn to serve in the spirit.
Suppose you plan to choose a hymn for a meeting. There are two ways to choose a hymn—the way in the letter and the way in the spirit. Suppose on the Lord’s Day morning we are having a morning service in the way of the letter, and we have one to take charge of the service. We have invited another one to come to give us a sermon. Before the service you may find out what topic that one will use for his sermon. From this you consider what hymns we should sing, perhaps two or three, and you write all the hymn numbers on the board for everyone to see when they come. This is a way in the letter.
You may think that you would never do anything in such a way in our meetings. But at least in principle you may have this kind of practice in the meetings. For the prayer meeting, you may look in the index of the hymnal and select a good hymn related to prayer, just according to the letter. A way in the letter is a way of death.
Then what is the other way to choose a hymn? There is a way that is not according to your mind, your mentality, but according to the inner feeling of your spirit. You need to exercise to sense the inner feeling of the spirit. If there is no inner feeling for a certain hymn, you should not select it. When you have a proper hymn, you will sense it by the inmost feeling of your spirit.
We need to learn not to act or serve according to knowledge but to act and serve according to the inmost feeling. Suppose you are going to give a message in the meeting. You need to learn the lesson not just to speak according to your knowledge.
The first time I was asked to speak before a large congregation was in 1927. I was a young man, about twenty-two years of age. I prepared a sermon and practiced for quite a number of days. I went to the seashore and practiced giving the sermon to the ocean. Then I went to the pulpit on the Lord’s Day morning and delivered that message according to the mentality. Afterwards, I realized I had forgotten a good portion of it. Later on, I found out that my way was absolutely a way in the letter. That was something dead. At that time I was so young, so immature. I simply did not know how to minister in the spirit.
But gradually the Lord brought me to a point where I had to minister in the spirit, according to the spirit, not according to the mentality or to knowledge. I can testify to you that many times in the past years, even on the way to the meeting, I did not know what to minister, simply because I was planning to serve in the spirit. When the hymns and prayers were over, I had to stand up to minister. While I was standing to speak, even while I was speaking the words, “Let us read,” up to this point I myself did not know what to read. I spoke slowly, “Let us read.” While I was pronouncing the word read so slowly, there was a feeling—a book, a chapter, a verse. While I was reading that portion, there was some anointing within me. Word by word, sentence by sentence, the message came out, not according to the mentality but according to the anointing. Oh, that is wonderful, and that is powerful! I cannot tell you how many times this has happened.
Likewise, there are two ways to offer a prayer in the meeting. One way is to offer a prayer according to knowledge, according to a routine, much like coming to an office to do routine work. Sometimes I have an impression when certain brothers are praying that it is as if they have come to the office to do their routine work. But we need to forget about all kinds of routine, all kinds of knowledge, and all kinds of letters. When we come together to pray, we need to exercise our spirit to sense the inner anointing. We should not pray according to knowledge or routine but according to the inner feeling, the inmost feeling of the anointing.
Many times we can sense when a brother is ministering in the letter. We can also sense when a brother is ministering from the anointing, when he is ministering in the spirit. In such a case we can sense something living, something anointing, something enlightening, not merely something of teaching. The same is true of prayer. By the inner sense we know when a brother or sister is praying in the spirit or merely praying in the letter, according to knowledge.
Many times, when I was praying together with some living ones who prayed in the spirit, after just one sentence I had to say Amen because there was a deep echo in my spirit to their prayer in the spirit. I could not hold back my Amen because something was burning within me. When anyone utters a prayer from the spirit, there is a spontaneous expression of agreement from the spirit of the others.
Some Christians would not agree with the saying of Amen while others are praying. Within them there is an Amen, but they suppress it, they would not release it, simply because of their opinion. But whether they would utter it or not, when anyone prays in the spirit, there is always an echo in the spirit of others.
However, many times a brother prays in the mentality, in knowledge, in the letter, in the mind, and brings in death. The more he prays, the more people are deadened. When we are praying, we need to sense whether there is an echo in the spirit of others. When there is no echo, we need to close the prayer right away. We need to learn how to exercise our spirit while we are serving and learn how to serve in the spirit.
When you are going to visit one of the saints, you need to learn to visit in the spirit. Whenever you meet another saint, there is a serious need for the exercise of the spirit. Merely talking according to your mentality, according to your knowledge, does not edify others in the spirit. You need to learn to exercise your spirit, to sense the anointing within you and to follow it. Because you have a renewed spirit which is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, you have the anointing within you. You need to take care of this anointing and fellowship with the saints according to the inner feeling, the inner sense. Then you will serve and have fellowship with the saints in the spirit and not in the letter.
We need to consider some details because this matter is very important. Suppose a sister you are visiting opens herself to you concerning her family problems. To tell her something according to the teachings of the Scriptures does not work. During the very time you are listening to her, you need to exercise your spirit to sense her spirit and to sense the anointing within you. If you would do this, while you are listening on one hand and sensing on the other hand, the anointing, the Holy Spirit within you, will reveal to you something so spiritual and so heavenly. Then you will be able to help her in a living way. At that very moment, you need to forget your knowledge of the Scriptures, your knowledge of the Christian teachings, and give up that knowledge. You need to exercise your spirit, looking to the Lord. While you are listening, you need to fellowship with the Lord and to sense both what is in her spirit and what is the anointing in your spirit. This is the way.
We all need to learn to practice, to exercise, to conduct ourselves in the spirit in the service of the Lord. Suppose we are preaching the gospel. We need much more exercise in the spirit. We should not preach merely according to the gospel truths or according to the knowledge of the gospel. Merely to preach that we are all sinners and that the Lord Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross for our sins does not work. That is the preaching in letters. Our preaching must be in the spirit.
We need some experiences to illustrate this point. Many times in the gospel preaching I have spoken a word that exactly met the need of someone who was listening, although I had no knowledge of the situation. I have described their case and exactly what they had done, along with their feelings and reactions step by step. Such a speaking has been used of the Lord to bring the needy ones to Him.
In one gospel meeting after we had taken the way of preaching according to the inner feeling of the spirit, while I was speaking, I felt I should say, “You say that you are not a sinner? I tell you, you stole chalk from the school.” A few days later I learned that a young high-school student had been brought to that meeting by his mother. While I was speaking, he was thinking, “Well, I am not a sinner. I haven’t committed any sins.” Just as he was saying this to himself, I spoke the words, “You say you are not a sinner? You stole chalk from the school.” He had actually stolen chalk from the school, but when he heard these words, he said to himself, “That doesn’t matter.” At that very moment I said, “You say that it doesn’t matter? You brought this chalk home and drew circles upon the floor.” This statement caused him to tremble, because that was exactly what he had done. As a result, he was saved. Later he asked his mother whether someone had told me his story and how I could have known everything he had done. Actually, I did not even know his name or anything he had done. We have had other experiences similar to this one.
Another time in the gospel preaching, I turned to a particular part of a large congregation and said, “You say you are a good person? Just look at how cruel you are. Your husband works hard to earn a living for you, and at the end of the year you forced him to buy a pair of high-heeled shoes for you. He did not have the money, but you forced him to do it.” A week later one of the sisters who did the visitation work told us that a young lady was saved by that word. At first that word had made her very angry, because she thought her neighbor had reported her story to me and that I had scorned her publicly. When she learned that this was not the case, that young lady was convinced by the Lord.
In an illustration on another occasion I said, “Suppose you are seventy-six years of age.” Later I learned of someone just that age who received the help. There are living stories of such experiences in the gospel preaching according to the inner feeling of the spirit.
We all need to learn to serve in the spirit, not in knowledge or in the letter. If we take this way, many times while we are serving in the spirit, the Holy Spirit will be so living to us.
Whenever you stand up to speak, you need to forget about your knowledge. On one hand, you need the knowledge, but when you stand up to serve, you should forget the knowledge. If you would keep your knowledge in your memory at that time, you will do much damage, and you will hinder the Spirit. While you are speaking, you need to forget about your knowledge and come back to the spirit to minister in the spirit. This is a lesson that requires much exercise. You may think that you will not know what to say if you let go of your knowledge. This may be true, but all of us need to exercise to serve, to minister, in the spirit.
The purpose of all that we do in the church service is to minister Christ to others. Everything we do should minister life to others. This is the fifth point in the church service.
Suppose you come to the meeting hall to take care of some practical matters, to arrange the chairs, to do some cleaning work, or to take care of the kitchen. Whatever you are doing, you should take that as an opportunity to minister Christ to others. If you are cleaning, your cleaning should minister life to others. You need to minister Christ by cleaning. If you are teaching, your teaching should minister life to others. Merely to minister some knowledge to others is not enough. You need to minister Christ by teaching. It is the same with cooking. Even by cooking, you should minister Christ.
An illustration may help us understand how to minister Christ by taking care of all the practical things. In 1948 there was a conference in Shanghai with many co-workers from many places throughout the whole country, and there was a fellowship dinner for all the co-workers with the local saints. A very capable sister, who was at that time a head nurse in a large hospital, took care of many things related to the serving, the preparing, the cooking, and the arranging. She was very strong in character, and she was very prominent in everything that was done for the whole evening. Yet no one could sense Christ in her. She was highly qualified, and she did many good things, yet nothing of life was ministered through her, and the saints did not receive help from her.
Another sister was serving at that same dinner, and she was the only one of the serving ones who did anything wrong. She did something seriously wrong, and everyone there realized what she had done. Yet in this sister everyone could sense Christ. She had learned something of Christ, how to live in Christ, how to act in Christ, and even how to adjust her wrongdoings in Christ. All the co-workers there were helped by the one who did something seriously wrong, but they were not helped by the capable sister who did so many good things. It is possible to do many things in the Lord’s service and yet have nothing of Christ ministered through you or by you.
There are many lessons to learn in ministering Christ to others by cleaning, by cooking, and by doing many different practical things. It seems that we are so spiritual, so Christ-like, when we come together for a meeting, but when we are in the kitchen, it seems that we are anything but Christ-like. We need to learn the lesson to serve others and to serve God by ministering Christ to others no matter what we are doing. If you are in the spirit when you are playing the piano, by playing the piano, you will minister Christ to others. As the church, we are here to do nothing else but minister Christ to others. To cook a good meal for the saints, to prepare a good place for meeting, to play the piano in a skillful way—none of these things are meaningful unless they minister Christ to others. Whatever we do in the service of the Lord should minister Christ to others. We have much to learn in this matter.
In Shanghai there was an elderly sister who was very much with the Lord. It was her habit to invite the young missionary ladies who had just come to China to have tea with her in the afternoon. By serving tea to those young missionaries, this sister ministered Christ to them. A number of those young sisters could testify how much the life of the Lord was ministered to them by the serving of that tea. This sister did not teach them or say anything to adjust them, but she ministered life to those younger ones.
At one time some of those young missionaries were wearing stylish dresses, with the skirts a little too short. This elderly sister invited them to tea. While they were drinking tea, several times this sister pulled her skirt down so that she was more fully covered. Finally, the other sisters began to check their own skirts. Without a word being spoken, those young ladies received a great adjustment. To serve tea was not the purpose of this elderly sister. It was simply the means by which Christ could be ministered.
To minister Christ as life to others should be the purpose of all the things that we do, whether we are cleaning, arranging, cooking, visiting, ministering the word, singing, or praying. All the practical things in the church life are nothing but the channels, the means through which, by which, and in which we would minister Christ to others.
If others cannot sense Christ in the kitchen while you are cooking, it is doubtful that they will sense Him in the meetings in a real way. To have Christ ministered in the meetings, we need to exercise ourselves in such a way in doing all the practical things so that Christ will be ministered in the practical things. Every part of the service of the church must minister Christ as life.
We need to learn to serve in the spirit, and we need to learn to do all the things in the service of the church in a way that ministers Christ to others. This is our aim and purpose.
Unless we learn the lessons in these matters, the church life will be damaged, and death will be brought in through the practical matters. On the one hand, the saints may be taking care of the practical things together, but on the other hand, they may be talking nonsense or gossiping. The channels of talking and gossiping during the church service will bring death into the church life and scatter the death if the saints do not learn to serve in the spirit and minister Christ to one another. In that case, the more the saints come together for the practical service, the more the church life will be damaged.
May we all learn to minister Christ as life to others whenever we come together to serve in the church life. May we all learn to serve in the spirit to minister Christ as life to others.
