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Scripture Reading: Col. 3:16; Heb. 5:13-14
In this chapter we come to the matter of speaking in the meetings. We have said before that the meeting God desires is one in which all the believers can speak. The focus of a meeting is its speaking. In a meeting, if there is speaking that is proper, good, living, and rich, the meeting will be proper.
Christianity has degraded to today’s fallen condition because few people are able to speak the Lord’s word in the meetings. At the time of the worship service, only the pastor who has been trained in speaking speaks. All the rest just listen in silence. This is because they cannot speak and have nothing to say. This is the situation of the worship service in all of Christianity. In the Lord’s recovery our meetings in general have also fallen into the same condition of not speaking. We only have a little speaking in the bread-breaking meeting. Actually, that cannot be considered as speaking the Lord’s word; there are merely some prayers and praises. Yet to everyone’s feeling, the most enjoyable and the best meeting is this bread-breaking meeting. This is because in the bread-breaking meeting everyone practices speaking some words of praise. When everyone speaks, the meeting is certainly attractive. In the early days the words of praise spoken by the brothers and sisters in the bread-breaking meetings were quite simple. Yet the meetings were still very enjoyable. But after a while the words of praise became monotonous, and eventually, no one had much feeling about those words anymore. By 1961 we added some new songs and published some messages on God’s economy. After that the praises in the bread-breaking meeting had more depth of content, and the meeting became more enjoyable. For example, Hymns, #203, stanza 3 says,
Singing and speaking the above words in the bread-breaking meeting truly touches the burden and feeling in our spirit. It makes the meeting more enjoyable and more nourishing.
I would like to speak briefly concerning our hymnal. The first stage began over sixty years ago when we were raised up by the Lord. The hymnals used by Christianity at that time were not suitable for the saints’ use in the Lord’s recovery. We read of the hymnals published by the Brethren during their golden age. Brother Nee borrowed the table of contents of their hymnals as the basic structure for ours and added two more topics related to the spiritual warfare and the subjective experience of the cross. These were compiled into a hymnal. This hymnal begins with praises to the Father for our worship of the Father. There is also the appreciation of the Lord for our remembrance of the Lord. This rendered great help to the bread-breaking meetings. At that time our hymnal had only one hundred eighty-three hymns, and we used it until we came to Taiwan. In 1949 the young people’s work began in Taiwan. We felt that the one hundred eighty-three hymns were not adequate, so we published a second volume of our hymnal. By 1961 we began to see God’s economy. I wrote eighty-five hymns that became the Supplement of 85 Hymns. They were all related to God’s economy and included such hymns as “Thou art all my life, Lord,” “O glorious Christ, Savior mine,” and “Spirit begets spirit, spirit worships the Spirit.” In 1967 after I finished the compilation of the English hymnal in America, I returned to Taiwan and combined the two volumes of the Chinese hymnal, the Supplement of 85 Hymns, and the gospel songs into a single volume. In addition, I added two hundred more hymns. The result is the Chinese hymnal that we are using today.
When this new hymnal was published, the brothers and sisters did not know how to appreciate it very much. As a result, when they broke bread to remember the Lord, they still selected the old hymns that they were accustomed to. Because we published many messages to promote God’s economy, the brothers and sisters were gradually brought into this new flow during the last twenty years. They began to love these hymns. For example, Hymns, #203 says,
Just singing the above hymn will bring us into God’s economy.
If you go back to the hymns written by the Brethren, they will no longer be that enjoyable. Take, for example, Hymns, #226:
This is a very good hymn among the Brethren for the remembrance of the Lord. Brother Nee’s translation into Chinese was also excellent. But the content of the hymn is merely a gratitude and remembrance concerning the Lord’s death, sacrifice, and the shedding of His blood. It does not have much to do with God’s economy. Their knowledge and experience of the Lord’s word during that period went only that far. Accordingly, their feelings expressed in their hymns went only that deep. Among their hymns or books you cannot find anything like Hymns, #501:
Because they did not have this kind of knowledge nor this kind of feeling, they could not have this kind of expression.
I mentioned at the beginning that the key to meeting is speaking. When the Brethren were raised up by the Lord, their influence was mainly due to their speaking. During that period, although their understanding and experience were only up to a certain level, the power of their speaking was like dynamite. Brother Nee once said that during that period their revelation and light were like the pouring down of a waterfall. D. M. Panton also said that the strength of the Brethren movement was greater than that of the Reformation by Luther. However, we feel that the Lord is always going on. In every age He has a leading for that age. As far as we are concerned, since 1949 I have had no more burden to preach the things of the Brethren period. All that I wrote were words concerning God’s economy, such as Hymns, #233:
Today we have changed the system. The revelation and light that the Lord has given us have advanced even more. We need to return to the Bible to recover the meeting revealed in 1 Corinthians 14, where the secret is altogether in speaking. Whether the Lord can have a way among us depends fully on our attitude toward the Lord’s word. Some have memorized the Scriptures thoroughly, but they cannot speak the Lord’s word. This is because they have not allowed the Lord’s word to enter into them and to occupy them. Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.” The Chinese Union Version translates the word dwell as “be kept.” This is similar to a man returning from the market with a lot of rice, flour, vegetables, meat, and all kinds of food yet merely keeping them; these foods are not related to the buyer of these goods. Some may have memorized a lot of Scriptures. But these Scriptures are just kept there and have nothing to do with the one who memorized them. But what Paul means is that the Lord’s word is a living person. In other words, the Lord’s word is the Lord Himself. Hence, we have to let Him dwell in us. The word let is very meaningful. It is like our knocking on doors to preach the gospel. On the one hand, we like to go in; on the other hand, the ones behind the door have to let us in. Many times we have locked our doors tight and would not let the Lord come in. But as soon as we would give a crack for the Lord’s word, the Lord would come in.
The word dwell here in Greek has the sense of being at home, indwelling, and abiding. It has the same root as the word make home in Ephesians 3:17. This means that the Lord’s word must have full ground in us in order to operate and supply the riches of Christ to our inner man. To let the word of Christ dwell in us is different from providing hospitality to a guest for three to five days. Instead, it is like someone moving into a new house, settling down, and making home there. Every corner of this house is for his use and control. Only this can be considered as making home. When the Lord’s word enters into us, it must make home in us this way. We should let the Lord’s word be our Master, taking ground in us, occupying us, so that it can move freely in us. When you allow this living word, this living person, to abide in you, to fill and occupy your whole being, and to move freely in you, you are taking in the Lord’s word. Some people have problems with their digestive systems; their stomachs are so damaged that nothing eaten can be digested. Whatever they eat is completely excreted. Although they eat food, the food does not have much to do with them. It is not digested and absorbed by them to become their elements. Hence, not only do we have to learn to receive the Lord’s word into us; we have to allow the word received to occupy a place in us, to be digested into us, to be one with us, and even to become our elements.
Many of you are memorizing two verses every morning. This is a good practice. But I am afraid that after you have memorized dozens of verses, you still have nothing to speak in the meeting. Even though you have the words of the Bible, they cannot become the words out of your mouth, because you have not digested and absorbed them. I hope that the words we speak in the meetings are the words taken in and digested by us. For this we must allow the word to rule, to occupy the proper place, and to operate freely in us so that we would be fully taken over by it to become one with it. The word is the Lord Himself, and the Lord is the Spirit. Therefore, this word is the Spirit. In our experience it is very difficult to separate the word from the Spirit. In other words, when we receive the Lord’s word into us, this word becomes the Spirit. When this Spirit is spoken out from within us, it becomes the word. The Bible without is the Lord’s word; when we receive it into us, it becomes the Spirit. When the Spirit is expressed from within us, it becomes the word again. The word becomes the Spirit, and the Spirit becomes the word. By this cycling, the word will spontaneously become a part of your being. In this way it will be very easy to speak when you come to the meeting.
Hence, not only do you have to practice speaking in the meetings; you must also in your daily life let the Lord’s word, which is a living person, gain the ground in you, operate in you, and act freely in you. When you are one with the word, it will become the words that you can speak. This is like a person who, after enjoying some beautiful scenery, has the view impressed into him, and upon returning, he spontaneously has a lot to say. You full-timers have, so to speak, your own line of business. Your line of business is speaking. This is why we have to do our best to exercise ourselves in the enjoyment, experience, expression, and release of the Lord’s word.
We have seen that the way for Christians to meet as revealed in the Bible is a way of revival and overcoming. If we are not revived and overcoming and if we do not live in the spirit, we will be through. If we want to walk properly in this way, we must be ones who are overcoming, spiritual, living in the spirit, and fellowshipping with the Lord. Not only so, we hope that we can influence all the brothers and sisters so that everyone would be revived. If we would be faithful to carry out this new way of the Lord perfectly, the result will be a great revival. If there are ten attending a meeting, all ten will be revived. If a hundred are meeting, all one hundred will be revived. If a thousand are meeting, all one thousand will be revived. Wherever there is a meeting, there will be a revival. This is a tremendous thing. Today there are hundreds of millions of Christians on the earth, yet Christianity is completely powerless. This is because the old way of meeting in Christianity has annulled the function of so many. Since we in the Lord’s recovery want to return to the Bible in order to take the way of life, we can no longer expect to have this kind of preaching meeting with one speaking and the rest listening. Every one of us must exercise to practice speaking the Lord’s word. Not only the brothers have to practice this; the sisters have to practice this as well. I hope that in your four months’ training here, you would specifically practice speaking. Of course, you still have to take care of the home meetings and bring people to the group meetings. The key now is how you speak the Lord’s word.
In order to speak in the meeting, it is not enough just to memorize a few verses of the Bible, nor will we succeed just by practicing for eight or ten days. You must spend a long time to read and enjoy the Lord’s word daily and to receive the Lord’s word into you. This is like a person taking in food. Not only does he have to receive; he has to take the food into him. If you would allow the Lord’s word to be digested in you, the digested word will become the living and instant word spoken out from within you when you go to the meeting. Paul told the Hebrew believers, “When because of the time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you what the rudiments of the beginning of the oracles of God are and have become those who have need of milk and not of solid food...But solid food is for the full-grown, who because of practice have their faculties exercised for discriminating between both good and evil” (Heb. 5:12, 14). This shows us that the full-grown ones who can take in solid food have had their faculties exercised through practice. This is why you must be exercised in the Lord’s word.
To be exercised in the Lord’s word means that you do not just receive the Lord’s word; you also allow the Lord’s word to be applied in you and in your daily life. In other words, you must apply the verses that you pray-read and memorize every morning to your practical daily living. The more you apply them, the more they will be used. The more they are used, the more you are exercised. The more you are exercised, the more you become skillful and well trained. Suppose this morning you read 1 John 2:15: “Do not love the world.” You should apply this in your living today. You should pray, “Lord, You love me. You have redeemed me. Now I belong to You. I love You. I do not want to love the world.” If you pray this way, you will touch the Lord, and the Lord’s word will operate within you. When you go to the department store to shop and pick up an item, something within will say, “Do not love the world.” When you drop it and pick up another item, something within will say again, “Do not love the world.” If you drop that and pick up a third item, something within will say, “This is the world.” In the end you will not buy anything. This is how you apply the word “Do not love the world” in your practical living.
This kind of experience will enable you to speak the living word. When you open up your mouth to speak in the meeting, your speaking will not be merely letters from the printed Bible; rather, it will be words that you have digested and experienced. We should speak this kind of word in the meeting. While you are being trained here, you should not merely learn a technique for speaking. We previously mentioned different ways of speaking, such as speaking with the word, with the Spirit, with singing, and with prayer. All these are necessary, but the person is the most important. You must take in and digest the Lord’s word and apply it in your practical living so that the function of the Lord’s word can be fully manifested in you. Otherwise, merely learning a technique will not work. If you merely use a technique, your speaking will not be living or practical but will be empty doctrines. Hence, you must practice. I hope that you will not practice merely memorizing two verses a day. That is for the other brothers and sisters in general. You who are burdened to serve the Lord full time for the rest of your life should labor in the Lord’s word to receive, take in, digest, be exercised in, and apply the Lord’s word. In the end your whole being will become the word. Today I am advanced in age. For me to memorize the Bible chapter by chapter and book by book is not easy anymore. But all the words of the Bible are in me. I am very clear where each verse is, and what each chapter talks about. This is why it is very easy for me to speak the Lord’s word. I hope that you can be the same as I am. In the next few years, not only do you have to carry out the new way in Taipei; you must succeed in learning the Lord’s word. In this way no matter where you go in the future, you will be a person who takes in the Lord’s word in a full way and is exercised by it.
