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Scripture Reading: Heb. 5:13-14; Acts 4:31; Col. 3:16; Eph. 5:18-19; 1 Cor. 12:8
In this chapter we shall continue to see something concerning the Word and the Spirit for the meetings. We need to pay our attention to the title of this chapter. It says, “Experienced in the Word.” Even among us, not many have ever realized that in the New Testament there is such a thought, the thought of being experienced in the word. Hebrews 5 speaks of the negative side, saying, “Inexperienced in the word.” Paul, to some extent, blamed the Hebrew believers for not having adequate experience in the word of God, saying in verse 13, “Everyone who partakes of milk is inexperienced in the word of righteousness.” Paul blamed them concerning this matter because, according to the context of this book, especially chapters 5 and 6, the Hebrew believers, after being saved and going on for a while, stopped in the course of their spiritual life at the beginning of the word of Christ, the “good word” in Hebrews 6:5. The good word is the word of the beginning of Christ’s salvation (v. 1). Because they stopped there and did not go on, there was the need for the apostle Paul to write the book of Hebrews.
The book of Hebrews is an advance in the understanding of God’s holy Word. Now, the word that the stopped believers must go on to experience is the word of righteousness. In the New Testament there are terms such as the word of grace (Acts 20:32), the word of life (Phil. 2:16), and the word of truth (2 Cor. 6:7). It may be easy for us to understand what the word of grace is and what the word of life and the word of truth are. However, I doubt that many, even among us, have an understanding of the word of righteousness.
The word of righteousness is the teaching in the book of Hebrews. Paul told the Hebrews that they had enjoyed, tasted, the good word of God, which is the beginning of the word of Christ’s salvation, but they had not gone on. They had never become experienced in the word of God’s righteousness, the word concerning God’s dispensational dealing with His chosen people. We must become experienced in the word of righteousness. We need to know the truth, not just the beginning of the truth but the advanced truth, which is the word of righteousness.
We must be experienced in the word and also filled with the Spirit. In Hebrews 5:13-14 is the thought of being experienced in the word, and in Acts 4:31 is the clear fact concerning the filling of the Spirit. As to the Spirit, we need to be filled; as to the word, we need to be experienced.
I do not like simply to pass on doctrines. We need the help to realize our real situation. What is needed today in the Lord’s recovery is the increase. Recently, four brothers from Orange County in Southern California came to me with a purpose. They had prepared more than five pages of statistics with a spiritual budget. Those statistics show that in the past ten years the rate of increase in the Lord’s recovery has not been encouraging. It has been too low, on the average lower than ten percent.
In the past ten years we have built two large halls. In 1976 over eighty young saints dedicated themselves to build the first large hall in Anaheim, and five years later in Irving, Texas, we built another hall. On the first day of use during the training on Revelation, the hall in Anaheim was filled with over four thousand saints. The hall in Irving was completed in the fall of 1982. Now there are approximately ninety-eight churches in the Lord’s recovery in the United States, and seven more in Canada. This number, as a whole, is still very low. The percentage of increase today is much lower than in the years from 1963 to 1973. In those ten years the increase was always over thirty percent yearly, but in the last ten years the rate has come down even to less than ten percent. Now more of the truth has been released, and so many have grown quite much in life. However, the low rate of the increase bothers us.
We have been meeting in the Lord’s recovery in this country since 1962. I still remember our meetings in Los Angeles in those ten years from 1962 to 1972, especially in the few years after 1969. Nearly every meeting was an exciting meeting. Whoever met with us from 1969 through 1971 could never forget the high meetings. Actually, the meetings never started in the hall or even on the way to the meeting. Before dinner time, after all the saints had come home from work, they began to meet in their homes. At the dinner table they began the meeting—singing and fellowshipping. Then they all came to the meeting in groups, singing on the way, shouting, “Hallelujahing,” and “Amening” on the way. At 7:30 the meeting started. If you had come at even five minutes before seven, it would have been hard to get a front-row seat. But regrettably, in many of today’s meetings only a few are sitting on the front row at 7:30; most of the saints have not yet come.
This is not a very positive and encouraging sign. The rate of the increase has been getting lower and lower. The high atmosphere in the meetings has also been coming down. These two things are troubling. The four brothers who came from Southern California to fellowship with me felt that they could not tolerate this situation any longer. They wanted to revolt against the present situation, to have a revolutionizing change in these two things. They said that at any cost we must uplift the rate of increase; at any cost we must uplift the atmosphere of our meetings. They said that Southern California should no longer be a “Dead Sea.” They considered that all the saints in over fourteen churches in Southern California are at the present time like a Dead Sea, with little flow coming in or going out. Without an inflow the Dead Sea would be dried up. In the churches today there is nearly no going out, no migration, and no producing of full-timers. This situation is a standstill. Thank the Lord that there has been a rate of increase, which is better than nothing. The recovery is not going down, but it is going up. The rate of increase, however, is too low. It is low to such an extent that we do not realize that anything is happening. It is as if there is no rate of increase at all.
In October of 1984 I went back to Taiwan. I went there purposely at the sacrifice of the Lord’s recovery in the Western world because we do have a great heritage, a big investment in the Lord’s recovery there. Because the work there was started by the Lord through this ministry, I had the full position and right to say whatever the Lord led me to say. I told the saints there that the entire situation of the Lord’s recovery, including the work in the churches, needs to be revolutionized. I told them to forget about the old way. At that time the church in Taipei had over eleven thousand meeting in twenty-one halls, with only less than six elders. In the past, for over five years, whenever I checked with the leading ones, I said that the eldership there was not strong and needed to be strengthened. They answered that nearly no one else was qualified to be an elder. After a year I checked with them again, saying that there was the urgent need to increase and strengthen the eldership in Taipei. Once more they said that nearly no one was qualified. They considered the brothers name by name, showing me that nearly no one was qualified.
Last October I went, and I gave messages telling the churches that everything should be revolutionized and that we should not remain old. After I gave those messages in two or three conferences, they all agreed to have a change. First, in one night fifty-two new elders were established. The leading ones agreed to raise up all those “unqualified ones” to be elders. The former six were not excluded but were put into a special responsibility. The fifty-two bear the direct responsibility in twenty-one halls for the church.
The second thing I did was to nearly annul, to kill, all the big meetings. They had only practiced to gather over eleven thousand saints into twenty-one halls and had trained about twenty or thirty speakers to take care of the speaking every Lord’s Day morning. I proposed that they should establish small group meetings with no speaker and no leader. I said that everybody should be a speaker, including the sisters and even the young boys. Everyone has to be a speaker, everyone has to be a leader, everyone has to be an usher, and everyone has to be a song leader in the small group meeting. Likewise, every home has to be a meeting hall. Thank the Lord that He blessed and confirmed this way. Much blessing has been brought in already.
These four brothers from Southern California who came to me went to Taipei in October, November, and December of 1985 while I was there. They saw the blessing and were inspired, touched, and very much influenced. Coming back to Orange County, they told the saints that they could not tolerate the situation there. They could not tolerate the low rate of increase and the Dead Sea situation. Ten years ago we had many migrations, but within these ten years there has been nearly none. These brothers reminded me that I had challenged them twice in the past one or two years concerning migration. There were many openings in the Southeast, in the so-called Bible Belt from North Carolina to Arizona. The Lord has opened many places for us, but not many would migrate to fill the openings. They also vindicated me in the matter of the full-timers. They told the saints in Orange County that I had challenged them with the urgent and great need of more full-timers. However, among seventeen hundred saints in Southern California not many responded. Therefore, these four told the saints there that they could not tolerate the situation any longer. They are burdened to “set a fire to burn the old house,” to burn the old practices, the indifferent practices, the lukewarm practices, the standstill practices, the old Dead Sea practices. All the churches should be a spring, a living spring out of the living fountain to have a living flow. Honestly speaking, we cannot see this in the Lord’s recovery today.
We must reconsider our way, as the Lord said through the prophet Haggai: “Consider your ways. You have sown much, but you bring in little...and he who earns wages, earns wages to put them into a bag with holes” (Hag. 1:5b-6). What is the reason? There is nothing wrong with the Lord’s recovery. Much more of the truth has been released, but the situation among us is at a standstill. What is the shortage?
In Taiwan the practice of the small group meetings is not just a method. I realize that a number of the churches in the United States are now practicing the small group gatherings. However, I am really concerned that it is probably just a method without any incentive, without any inner motivation. On the day of Pentecost, those three thousand all began to meet from house to house on the same day they were saved. No doubt there was a strong motivation with them. Their motivation was not just a method. The motivation was that they heard the word of the New Testament. They were all Jews filled with the old religion of their fathers, but on the day of Pentecost they heard something new. They heard Peter speaking the gospel of Jesus! They heard how Jesus was God, how Jesus became a man, how Jesus lived among them, how He was rejected, and how He was put on the cross, crucified, yet God had honored Him, God raised Him up, and He was living. They all heard the message, they received the word, they repented, they were baptized, and they received the Holy Spirit. They heard the word and they believed it. Through believing in the word, they all received the Holy Spirit; they were filled up. They had to meet; they had to gather in the homes. That was not a method but an issue, an overflow from their being filled with these two things: the word and the Spirit.
What about us? I would say, in the Lord’s recovery today in the United States, that most of the saints in all the churches are in a standstill condition. There is no motivation. They are like a car in which there is no gasoline and whose tires have no air. They are short of gas and short of air. Even the best car with no air in the tires and no gasoline is at a standstill. It needs more gasoline. It needs more air. We must send the saints to the “gasoline station” to fill up the tires with air and fill up the car with gas. Then the car will run. This is not a method. To simply have a method is to have a car without air and without gas that we push and pull. This is hard. The real situation needs to be exposed. In some places the churches now realize they are at a standstill and that they have become a Dead Sea.
What is going on in Taiwan is that the saints are experiencing the filling of the Spirit. All the young saints received the help to repent and to make a thorough confession to receive the filling of the Spirit. When they practiced repenting and making a thorough confession, they were filled with the Spirit inwardly, essentially, and they received the outpouring of the Spirit upon them outwardly, economically. Now they have become “crazy,” going out to contact people one-on-one. They baptize people nearly every day in Taipei. The baptistery is not only in the hall but in the homes and everywhere. If there is no baptistery, they use the bathtub. They do not need the elders to make a decision as to who should be baptized or who should not be baptized. This is absolutely right. If you have the right to preach the gospel, why would you not have the right to baptize people? Philip in Acts 8 had the privilege, the right, and the position to preach the gospel to that eunuch and to immediately baptize him (vv. 36-37). He did not say, “Oh, I am not an elder. I had better bring you back to the church in Jerusalem and let the church elders have an interview with you to see whether you are qualified to be baptized or not. I am not privileged, and I do not have the position to baptize you. I am just an evangelist, not a baptizer. The baptizer should be one of the elders.” We must forget this way. We must revolutionize!
Everyone can preach the gospel. Everyone can baptize someone anywhere. Acts 2:47 is now the experience of the church in Taipei—“the Lord added together day to day those who were being saved.” I was in Taipei for about ten weeks. Within those ten weeks over three thousand were baptized, and these baptisms took place nearly every day and everywhere. On one occasion, without my knowledge, there was suddenly a gospel-preaching meeting in the hall, and young people were baptizing other young people.
For the Lord’s recovery to spread, there is the need of more increase, and there is the need of meetings with a higher atmosphere. The meetings in all the churches should be very attractive, even very attracting. In 1969 through 1971 in Los Angeles in the hall on Elden Street, the meetings were attractive and attracted everyone. While the saints were at work, they anticipated the end of the work day when they could go to the meeting.
What is needed today is the motivation. The motivation is the filling of the Holy Spirit. All the saints in the Lord’s recovery today need to be filled with the Spirit and to be poured out upon by the Spirit.
My burden is that we would not follow the fundamental way or the Pentecostal way in dealing with the Word and the Spirit. The fundamental way is to emphasize the Word and neglect the Spirit, and the Pentecostal way is somewhat to emphasize the Spirit and neglect the Word. In the Bible we can see that as children of God and members of Christ, we surely need to have the real experience in the holy Word and to experience the Spirit of God, essentially and economically.
Both the Word and the Spirit are God. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word...and the Word was God.” John 4:24 also says, “God is Spirit.” God is the Word and God is the Spirit for the purpose of reaching us. Without being the Word and without being the Spirit, how could He reach us? It would be impossible. God’s reaching us is in the Word and in the Spirit. Thank Him that He has given the Word and the Spirit as two great gifts to us. We have the gift of the Word in our hands, and we have the gift of the Spirit in our spirit. Our problem is related to how we handle these two gifts.
Most of the saints in the Lord’s recovery are at a standstill, not dealing with the Word and not dealing with the Spirit. Some may say that they are dealing with the Word by reading the Bible and even by studying the Bible and reading the Life-study messages. I admit that this may be so, yet you are not so serious in studying the Bible; you read the Bible indifferently. We do not eat our food indifferently. Every day we eat our food seriously. If I would not eat properly and seriously, I would die. Every morning I like to eat a banana and some yogurt. If my wife provides me only with oatmeal for breakfast, I will respond, “Where are the banana and the yogurt?” My response indicates that I eat seriously. My vigor comes from that serious eating.
Do you study the Bible so seriously? When you read the Bible, do you look for “the banana and the yogurt”? You may read the Bible and the Life-study messages, but not seriously. Paul said that some were “inexperienced in the word of righteousness.” The Hebrew believers should have been experienced in the word of righteousness. How many of us could say that we are really experienced in the Word of God and that we do mean business in reading the Word? In the polishing of the messages, we are serious in dealing with the Word—just concerning the use of one preposition we may spend fifteen minutes or more. We might ask, “Should we use of, or should we use in or with ? Upon what verse is our decision based?” This illustrates that we need to be serious to deal with the two great gifts bequeathed to us by the ascended Christ—the holy Word and the Holy Spirit. The Word is in our hand, and the Spirit is in our spirit. However, we do not handle them seriously; we just deal with them indifferently. If this is so, then for the long run we will never be healthy and vigorous. We all must become experienced in the word, and we need to have the real experience of the infilling and outpouring of the Spirit. Then we will be full of air and full of gasoline; we will be a car that will run well.
To gain the increase, you need the Word and the Spirit. In Acts 8 Philip the evangelist, charged and burdened by the Spirit, approached the chariot of an Ethiopian eunuch, who was reading the Old Testament. Philip asked the eunuch, “Do you really know the things that you are reading?” (v. 30). The eunuch replied, “How could I unless someone guides me?” (v. 31). From the very chapter that that eunuch was reading, Isaiah 53, Philip expounded the holy Word to him (vv. 32-35).
If Philip would have had no idea or knowledge of that chapter, he could have said, “Sir, I do not know much. You had better bring me to Jerusalem to see Peter. Probably Peter knows this and will be able to help you.” Although you have not actually said this, in principle what you have done was like this. When the one you were contacting referred something to you, you did not understand and did not know what to say. You may have said, “Nevertheless, Christ is very good. The Lord is tasteful. Just taste and see that the Lord is good.” People would ask, “How good is He? In what way is He good?” You may say, “I cannot tell you, but He is good.” You cannot gain people in this way. You have to be experienced in the Word. Whatever you are asked, you should have the right answer immediately, not out of your own thoughts but out of the Word. If you say something without a base from the Scriptures, people will not regard that, but if you say something that the Bible says, this will be meaningful to them. If you have a pocket-sized version of the Bible, you can open it up and say, “The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15:45...” Then you can turn to that verse and read it. People will have to respect you because you know the best book among all the books.
If you refer people to the Bible and give them Bible verses, you will surprise them. To do this you must become experienced in the Word. The thoughtful people, especially the young college students, are desirous of knowing things and substantiating them. You may go to a college student and say, “The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is God.” He would say, “Sir, show me. What verse in the Bible tells us this?” To answer that you do not remember so well would surely weaken your speaking. You should show him some verses that prove this point. You could use John 1:1 and 14, which say that the Word was God and that the Word became flesh. Such a thoughtful person may be bothered and say that the name Jesus Christ is not mentioned in these verses. Then you have to show him Romans 9:5, which says, “Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever.” This will convince people. Also, by being experienced in the Word you will find a way of salvation for people. You could present them first with Romans 3:23: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Then you could turn to John 3:16 and many other applicable verses. Your use of the Bible will convince them that you are not talking nonsensically but that you are speaking something solid from the best book among the human race. Whenever the Bible is used in this way, the Holy Spirit always goes along with it. The Holy Spirit always honors the holy Word. Do not waste others’ time. Simply present something so precious and so definite out of the holy Word. This will give the Holy Spirit a way to inspire people.
In addition to the Word, you must have the Spirit with you. Since the time we were saved, we have had the Holy Spirit within us, but He has not been within us enough in an experiential way. We may not have any experience of the Spirit for a number of days. When we talk to people, we may not have the Spirit in our experience. To be filled with the Spirit both inwardly and outwardly, we must make a thorough confession every day: “Lord, cleanse me and clear me up. I would like to pour out all the dirt and junk from within me to let You have all the ground and all the space within me. Fill me up.” If you have such a dealing with the Lord every day, even every moment, the Spirit within you will be so fresh in your experience. When you talk to people, even though they may not know what is there, they will realize that something within you is quite new and convincing. This is the Holy Spirit working with your speaking in the Word to help the sinners. By becoming experienced in the Word and in the inward filling and outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we can do a living work to catch people for the Lord’s increase.
We have found out that the way to gain people directly is by one-on-one contact. Do not talk to too many; simply talk to one person at a time. This was very much practiced by the Lord Jesus, as seen in John 3. Nicodemus came to the Lord in the night, and the Lord dealt with one person, one-on-one. Nicodemus came to the Lord Jesus, but in John 4 the Lord went purposely from Jerusalem to Samaria to the very well of Jacob. There He waited for one Samaritan woman to come, and He spoke to her in the principle of one-on-one. In chapter 8 He talked to a sinful woman, one-on-one. In chapter 9 He talked to a blind man, one-on-one. In Luke 19 the Lord dealt with Zaccheus in the principle of one-on-one. Even Barnabas took hold of Paul when he was newly saved in the principle of one-on-one (Acts 9:26-27). We must learn to contact people one-on-one. This has been and still is very much practiced in Taiwan.
Over one hundred thirty young full-timers are in a training in Taipei at this time. All these young people were taught, instructed, and trained to go out on the streets, to go on the campuses, and to visit homes to simply contact people in the principle of one-on-one. They have learned the secret of talking to people in a very short way. Within fifteen minutes people are baptized. They use Bible verses through the Spirit, and they touch people’s heart, feeling, conscience, and understanding. They catch people. There is no way for people to escape. They become convinced and captured; they repent and are baptized. These full-timers do not use vain talk, for they have learned that people frequently say that they are busy and do not have time. They tell people that they desire to stay with them for only ten minutes. Most people would not reject them. They spend ten minutes economically. Within these ten minutes they do not speak vain things; they speak the word from the Bible through the Spirit. Every day and everywhere they gain people. Once within one week some of the saints in Taipei, plus the full-timers, baptized eleven hundred and four new believers. This is to gain the increase with the Word by the Spirit. You need to be experienced in the Word, and you need to have the proper infilling and outpouring of the Spirit.
Before the small group gatherings were established, the saints in Taipei were used to attending big meetings. In the large meetings one speaker took care of the speaking while they simply sat there to listen. Suddenly they were assigned to go to small meetings. There was no leader there; neither was there a speaker, a singer, or a reader. No one knew what to do, but gradually they began to exercise their spirit and use the Word. They began to realize how precious the Word was. They treasured the Word in a practical way. Now when they go to the small group meetings, they have a way to use the Word. They have also been helped greatly to get into the experience of the infilling and outpouring of the Spirit.
For us to exercise our spirit in the meetings requires much exercise in our daily life. We need to exercise our spirit in speaking the word to everyone. When you do not have anyone to speak to, you may practice speaking to dogs, to cats, or to the windows. You may practice speaking, practice the exercise of the spirit, and practice the belief in the infilling and outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Then it will not be difficult for you in the home meetings, regardless of whether the attendants are unbelievers or believers. You will have a way to exercise your spirit to talk to people with the Word according to the need. The home meetings will become very flexible according to the situation because you can meet there with two or with ten, and you can meet with people from all levels of society.
Even the sisters may learn to be bold to speak something for the Lord by giving a short testimony. The result, the effectiveness, and the power will be prevailing. Through the small meetings many will be saved. In Taipei at the beginning of the year they had three hundred ninety-nine small home meetings, and they may have more today. I encouraged them not to have small group meetings with over ten attendants. Once they reach ten, they divide into two groups. The fewer people there are in a small group meeting, the better it is.
We all need to take the way of getting ourselves experienced in the word and experienced in the infilling and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit so that we may come in a proper way to any kind of meeting. Then even in the large meetings we will be able to exercise our spirit to release the word. In the meeting we can speak a good hymn to one another. However, for you to speak a hymn, you must be experienced in the holy Word, because a good hymn is always composed according to the biblical revelation. If you do not have much knowledge and experience in the holy Word, it will be hard for you to speak the hymns. You will be able only to repeat the words and phrases.
In Colossians 3:16 and Ephesians 5:18 and 19 a few important words are mentioned. Colossians 3:16 mentions teaching, admonishing, and singing. Teaching and admonishing are not in the speaking of ordinary words but in psalms. The psalms are used to teach and admonish people and also to sing. In Ephesians 5 the word speaking is used as well as singing and psalming. In these verses there are teaching, admonishing, speaking, singing, and psalming. To do all these things you need an adequate knowledge of the biblical terms. To speak forth Christ you have to exercise your understanding, your spirit, and your heart, with the proper words, phrases, and expressions, mostly from the Bible.
We need to get ourselves built up in the experience of the holy Word and built up in the experience of the infilling and outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Then in any meeting it will be easy for us to release something. This will enrich, uplift, and enliven the meeting, making the meeting so living. Eventually, the meeting will be upholding, attracting, preserving, and even embracing people. Whenever one comes into such a meeting, he will never give up coming but will continue to come again and again. It is by this way that we can retain and hold all the new increase. By going out to contact people in the principle of one-on-one, we gain people. By meeting in such a living way we can keep people, teach people, educate people, and build people up with the proper supply of life and truth.
To gain the increase and to have the proper meetings requires our experience in the Word and our experience in the infilling and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This is all that we need. I hope that we would be deeply impressed with our need today. We all need to go to the Lord: “Lord, have mercy upon me. Give me the help that I would be serious in handling Your Word. I want to learn Your Word seriously. I would also like to make a thorough confession to get myself fully cleansed and thoroughly cleared up that You could have every inch of space within my whole being, to fill me up and to saturate me, and even to pour Yourself out upon me as the very power from on high. Then I will be a living person with Your Word and with Your Spirit. Then wherever I am, I will be a speaking person. I will speak all the time.”
If we practice this way, we will surely get the increase. It will be so easy for each one of us to gain a person monthly, to bear fruit every month, like the tree of life (Rev. 22:2). However, at the present time not many among us bear fruit even yearly. If everyone bears one piece of fruit yearly, we will have a hundred-percent increase yearly. If you daily practice what I have presented to you, be assured that you will gain people, not only one a year but perhaps five, six, or ten a year, perhaps even twenty a year. Then, how could we count the increase? It would be beyond our counting. It will be doubled or tripled in one year. If this is the case, in a short time your hall will be filled up. We would not need to have the training or a conference to fill the hall. Simply in the weekly church meetings the hall will be crowded with people. I have seen this kind of situation in the past. But we all have to endeavor to become rich in this kind of experience. May the Lord have mercy on us and give us grace.
