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Scripture Reading: Acts 13:52; Eph. 5:18-19; Col. 3:16; 1 Cor. 12:7-8, 10; Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:16, 22-23, 25; Acts 2:4; 10:45-46; 19:6; 1 Cor. 12:9-10; Acts 4:8, 31; 13:9
We need to continue what we have studied and emphasized here in the past and see together the secrets of building up the home meetings. We have pointed out that the crucial elements of meeting are the word, the Spirit, singing, and praying. If you want the meetings to be living and rich, they need to be full of the Lord’s word, and the word must have the Spirit. If the word does not have the Spirit, then it is merely the letter; it is dead and empty, and it causes people to be depressed. The word of God must have the Spirit in order to be life. Therefore, fundamentally, Christian meetings should be full of the word of God, and the word of God should be filled with the mingled Spirit of God. When we come to the meeting, the first thing is to sing the word of God with the spirit. The second thing is to pray, and there should be much prayer. Regardless of whether we are in the home meetings, small group meetings, district meetings, or even in large meetings, we have to practice these four things: the word, the Spirit, singing, and praying. After praying, you have to speak; after speaking, you have to sing; after singing, you still have to pray. In this way our meetings will definitely be living, high, rich, and full of impact.
In the recent past we have conducted some experiments to practice these four things in different kinds of meetings. However, the results have not been entirely satisfactory. Our situation is still too rigid and monotonous. Therefore, I spent time to study again all twenty-seven books of the New Testament, from Matthew to Revelation, to have a reconsideration. When I put together all the verses concerning meeting, I can see that the meeting of the believers is not an independent matter but an issue and expression of our daily living. How we have our daily living will determine how we meet when we come together. If our daily living is of one condition, yet we come to the meeting and put on masks like those in the opera to portray something of another condition, that is not a meeting but a performance. Our Christian meetings must be genuine; the more genuine they are, the more proper they are. How we are in our daily life should be how we are in the meetings. We must be genuine, without any falsehood at all. It should not be that you do not talk in your daily life, yet you talk without stopping in the meetings. Neither should it be that you talk so roughly in your daily living, yet you speak so gently when you are in the meetings. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He rebuked the Pharisees as hypocrites. At that time, this word hypocrites was used to refer to the Greek and Roman actors who spoke wearing a mask; hence, they were false and were pretending. Our Christian meetings should not be like that.
Therefore, our meeting cannot be separated from our daily living. The entire New Testament reveals to us that Christian living is not a matter of teaching and doctrine but a matter of the Spirit. The verses we quoted this morning show us that Christian living is a living of being filled with the Spirit. Ephesians is a profound book. At the end it says, “Do not be drunk with wine...but be filled in spirit” (5:18). According to the entire revelation of the book of Ephesians, to be filled in spirit is to be filled with the Triune God. Today our God has passed through many processes, and He has been prepared. This processed Triune God has become the all-inclusive Spirit. He is just like the air, upon us, in our mouth, and even within us. Simply by taking a breath, we can be filled with Him. Eventually, we will be “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (v. 19). From this you can see that the living of the members of the Body of Christ must be filled in spirit with the Triune God. Romans 8 also has a similar word telling us that the genuine spirituality is to walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit (v. 4). Galatians 5 also says that we who live by the Spirit should also walk by the Spirit (v. 25). These words adequately prove that Christian living is altogether a matter of the Spirit.
If we have this kind of living, we will also have this kind of meeting when we come together. Our living is of the Spirit; our meeting is also of the Spirit. This is altogether a matter in the Spirit. If we merely have the Spirit, yet we are not in the spirit, then our living is not a Christian living; rather, it is no different from that of the worldly people. In that case, when we come together, of course, there would be no Christian meeting. In the worldly meetings people are gathered together, and each one is seated in an orderly way one by one. There may be someone in the meeting making an announcement on a specific matter or someone giving a speech. When we Christians are not in the spirit, our meetings will also be like this. The ushers will invite everyone to be seated. When the time comes, an elder will call a hymn, another elder will offer a prayer, and then a brother who does the speaking will give a message. If he speaks well, everyone will be happy; if he does not speak well, everyone will be disappointed. If the speaking is good, everyone will offer some praise; if the speaking is not good, some will criticize him behind his back and will not even want to come back again. This kind of meeting can sometimes offer people some edification. But as a whole it does not perfect people, nor does it edify the spirits of the Christians. It does not build up together the members of the Body of Christ in the Spirit of Christ.
In order to have the God-ordained meetings according to the New Testament economy as revealed in the Bible, the persons attending the meetings must be living in their daily life, overcoming, not loving the world, not lusting after sin, not living by the flesh, and not pitying the self. Also, they need to exercise their spirit to call on the Lord Jesus moment by moment, fellowship with the Lord unceasingly, and speak the Lord’s word to others all the time. This is the daily life we ought to have. Regrettably, many among us lack this kind of exercise. When they get up in the morning, they do not call on the Lord’s name. Naturally, they do not have prayer or the reading of the Word. They are merely busy with different matters all day long. All six days of the week they do not live in the spirit, nor do they fellowship with the Lord. Of course, their heart toward the Lord becomes cold. And gradually, they fall into the world, live according to the flesh, and even fall into the snares of sin. When the Lord’s Day comes, because they are believers, they cannot stay away and not come to even one meeting a week; therefore, they come to the meeting. However, though their body has come to the meeting, they are dead inside. Even if they want to say something, they do not know what to say. They may want to call out, yet they cannot; they simply have to sit there in silence. Under such a situation, there is, of course, the need for someone to come to give a message. In today’s Christianity, whether Catholicism or Protestantism, and even among us, the general situation of the meeting is like this. This is not a meeting of the living but a meeting of the dead. The large meeting is a meeting of the dead; the small meeting is also a meeting of the dead. If this is the case, even if the church changes the system, it will be useless.
Therefore, in studying the Lord’s new way, we have discovered in the end that this is a key issue. If, by the Lord’s mercy, we cannot have a breakthrough on this point, it will be useless, regardless of what kind of change we have in our ways. That would be just like changing the coffin for the dead. If the large meetings are changed to small meetings, and one person speaking is changed to many persons speaking, yet the people still are not living, not able to utter a word, then we might as well take the old way to invite a pastor or a preacher to come to give a message, so that at least he may have something to say. This would still be better than changing to small meetings where you look at me and I look at you yet with no one able to utter anything. Therefore, I advise you that if everyone is not living, not in the spirit, then we do not want to change the system.
Our foremost brother, Watchman Nee, who brought the Lord’s recovery to us, pointed out quite early in his messages that the Lord’s Day morning message meeting is according to the customs of the nations; it is a waste, and we do not need to maintain it. Fifty years ago, not only did I hear him say this, but I also discussed with him how to eliminate the Lord’s Day message meeting. I still remember him saying that 1 Corinthians 14:26 tells us clearly that when the whole church gathers together, it is not one person speaking and the rest listening, but each one has a hymn, or has a revelation, or has a teaching. It is evident that the meeting is mutual, with one another, and is not one-sided. We must return to such a situation. Later on we decided to gather the brothers together to practice first. When these brothers came together, we absolutely did not want anyone to take the lead or any one person to select the hymns, or pray, or give a message. Everyone could open his mouth to pray, to speak, to testify, or to call a hymn. This was the brothers’ meeting at that time. At the beginning, this one testified, and that one also testified. But after two or three months, the testimonies were exhausted, and there was nothing else to do. Hence, that trial was not successful. Afterward, we came to Taiwan. We still tried our best to have brothers’ meetings and sisters’ meetings in Taipei. However, before long they had to stop those meetings due to the lack of speaking. At the beginning Brother Nee had already said that in order to eliminate the Lord’s Day message meeting, there was the need of a better substitute. Otherwise, we can predict already that as soon as the meeting with one person speaking and the rest listening is eliminated, a small number among us who like to listen to messages may go to other places to listen to messages. Needless to say, those outsiders who like to listen to messages and attend services will not come either.
I would like to let all of you know that what we have done recently to change the system may be considered a success in every respect. Regarding the matter of preaching the gospel by visiting peoples’ homes, as long as you would do this according to the secrets we have discovered through our study, you will definitely gain people. Not only has this matter been tested successfully here in Taipei, but among the churches on the six major continents of the earth, many places have also tested it successfully. Now the key is how to bring the brothers and sisters into the spirit to live and walk by the Spirit daily and to become overcomers. If there are ten persons meeting, and four or five among them are like this, then there will be no problem with that meeting. Of course, we hope that every brother and sister will live in the spirit, but church history has shown us that probably only on the day of Pentecost were every one of the hundred and twenty disciples and the three thousand newly saved ones filled with the Spirit. After that, even at Paul’s time, the meetings of the saints also had imperfect areas. Some walked by the Spirit, and some did not walk by the Spirit. Therefore, after much study, we expect to have only twenty-five percent. What this means is that if we went out to knock on doors to preach the gospel and baptized one thousand people, we would expect only two hundred fifty to stand firm. And among these two hundred fifty, we would expect only about sixty to be used by the Lord. Based on this way of budgeting, if in a meeting of ten people there are two or three persons who are living, then we will consider that as successful. According to this standard, our change of the system will surely succeed. Of course, the key to this success still lies in our endeavoring.
The New Testament shows us that concerning the issues and manifestations of the filling and outpouring of the Spirit, only a small number of items are miraculous, such as tongue-speaking, healing, works of power, and predicting. In his Epistles Paul did not encourage people to exercise these four kinds of gifts in the meeting. On the contrary, he said in 1 Corinthians 14 that if there is one who wants to speak in tongues in the meeting, but there is no one to interpret, then that one should be silent (vv. 27-28). We cannot find any evidence from the Bible that there definitely should be the works of power, tongue-speaking, healing, or predicting in the meetings. Therefore, we should not be disturbed by thinking that these few items must be in the meetings. What the Bible considers to be the more important issues and manifestations of the filling and outpouring of the Spirit are five items in the essential (filling) aspect:
The first is being filled with joy and the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:52).Whether you feel troubled or sorrowful, you only need to call, “O Lord Jesus!” You will become joyful and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
The second is speaking words of praise, of teaching, and of admonition (Eph. 5:18-19; Col. 3:16). These words are already in the Bible, which is the “word of Christ” mentioned in Colossians 3. The psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs mentioned in Ephesians 5 are not only in the Bible but also in our hymnal. For example, Hymns, #501 says,
These well-speakings are really too good! If you cannot recite the hymns, at least you should learn to memorize what each hymn talks about. Concerning the Bible, you should at least remember what each book and each chapter talks about. For example, the first section of Matthew 5 talks about the nine blessings given by the Lord Jesus. When you come to the meeting, if you have the inspiration within, you may tell everyone, “Let us turn to Matthew 5:3.” Immediately after you find that page, you may say, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” There should be someone to continue spontaneously by saying, “For theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.” When you read these nine blessings in a living way with some declarations, everyone will receive the edification. We all need to practice this. Practice in your home, using the words of the Bible or the hymns to speak one to another. When you go to the small group meeting, use these words to speak to others. In this way the entire meeting will become living. We all need to practice speaking these two kinds of words; one kind is the words from the Bible, and the other kind is the words of the hymns.
The third is speaking the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, and the word of prophecy (1 Cor. 12:7-8, 10). This is to speak the revelation concerning God and Christ, speaking for God and speaking forth God.
The fourth is living by the Spirit and walking according to the Spirit (Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:16, 25). As soon as we get up every morning, we should call, “O Lord Jesus!” We should practice this all day long, and gradually we will live according to the Spirit. This is also what it means to be filled with the Spirit.
Fifth, when we live by the Spirit and walk according to the Spirit, the result is that we will be able to bear the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). If we live in this way, we will surely desire to meet together. Moreover, regardless of whether we meet with family members, with a small number of saints, or even with many saints, our meetings will definitely be living and rich.
Then in the economical (pouring out) aspect, besides tongue-speaking, predicting, healing, and works of power (Acts 2:4; 10:45-46; 19:6; 1 Cor. 12:9-10), the most important item is to speak the word of God with boldness (Acts 4:8, 31; 13:9). As long as we live by the Spirit, walk according to the Spirit, and are overcomers, spontaneously we will speak the word of God and testify for the Lord with boldness when we come to the meeting. These are the issues and manifestations of the filling and the outpouring of the Spirit.
