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Basic Word How To Meet (Demonstration of The Spirit ) '

  HOW TO MEET


            THE NEED FOR THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE SPIRIT


Now we must see that whatever we speak for Christ, whatever we do in the meeting, must be a demonstration of the spirit. This is quite important. Christ can never be ministered to others without the demonstration of our spirit. I am sorry to say that when some dear ones rise to speak in the meetings, there is no ministry of Christ because there is no demonstration of the spirit. That kind of speaking kills the meeting. When I see dear ones like that standing up, I am really frightened.


 The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:1-4 that when he came to the Corinthians, his speech and his proclamation “were not in persuasive words of wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” This means that when he came to the Corinthians to minister Christ to them, by his speaking, by his preaching, he did not exercise his mind to use excellent words in an enticing way; rather, he exercised his spirit. His speaking was a real demonstration of his spirit. You may say that this kind of demonstration must be miraculous. But read 14:6: “Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what will I profit you, unless I speak to you either in revelation or in knowledge or in prophecy or in teaching?” This means that he did not come to them to speak in tongues, but to speak with clear, understandable words, in an ordinary way. He came to speak just the knowledge, just the doctrine, just the prophesying; yet with this ordinary speaking there was the demonstration of the spirit. We need to put these two verses together: 2:4 and 14:6. By linking these two verses and indeed the whole book, we see what the apostle Paul means by the demonstration of the spirit. Verse 4 of chapter 2 with verse 6 of chapter 14 proves that it does not mean something miraculous and supernatural. Paul did not preach in that way; he preached in an ordinary way with ordinary words; yet his speaking was the demonstration of the spirit.


 We all must learn to say something for Christ in the meeting with a demonstration of the spirit. We have to exercise this; we have to do this. There is no excuse. We cannot say that we were born timid, that we do not have a loud voice, or that we are not so eloquent. Second Timothy 1:7 says that God has not given us a “spirit of cowardice.” God has given us a spirit “of power.” Do not say that you do not have a loud voice—everyone has a loud voice. I do not believe that when your house is on fire, you will announce quietly to the neighbors that your house is burning down. You will cry, Fire! fire!” Then we will see what kind of a voice you have. Do not say anything about eloquence—we do not need eloquence. We can say much for Christ without eloquence.


 The proper way to meet together is this: We must take Christ as our everything, realizing that He is the life-giving Spirit today in our spirit; therefore, we must be in the spirit, exercising our spirit continuously. Then we will experience Christ, partake of Christ, and enjoy Christ in a wonderful way. As such persons, when we come together, we will not meet for the religious worship of today’s  Christianity, but for the building up of the church by ministering Christ one to another with demonstration of the spirit. In this way, there can be no system of clergy or laity. Are you a clergyman or a layman? You should be neither. Praise the Lord, we are simply members of the Body and parts of the priesthood. This means that we must all prophesy. When the whole church comes together, all can prophesy one by one (1 Cor. 14:23-24, 31), because everyone has something of Christ to share with the others.


I have been much exercised in recent days to find a way whereby all the Lord’s children may function one by one in the meetings. To the present day in the local churches, the brothers and sisters are not all functioning among us. So many are still taking advantage of others. So many are still spectators and not participators. This troubles me greatly. If we do not come to the meeting, that is another thing. But if we do come, we must function one by one. “You can all prophesy one by one” (v. 31). There is no escape; there is no exception; all must take part. Whenever anyone stands to prophesy, there should be a demonstration of the spirit. This is the proper way to meet.


                                                     METHODS NOT WORKING


This is not a matter of learning methods—methods do not work. In a certain place in this country I heard the following: “When we first began to meet together, all the people in the meeting were seated in one direction. Then we learned that the church in Los Angeles seated the people in four directions, so we changed the arrangement of our chairs accordingly. We learned, however, that when the people were seated in one direction, there was only one direction of death in the meetings; then, after we changed the seating to four directions, there were four directions of death in the meetings. Therefore, do not follow Los Angeles.” They are right. Do not follow the method—the method does not work. If we are going to speak something for Christ, we must live by Christ. The meeting life depends upon this.


 In the early years of my Christian life, I was in a group, the dear ones of which knew nothing else but studying the Bible in a literal way. I cannot tell you how much time they spent studying the Scriptures just according to the letter of the Word. Whenever they came together, it was just to discuss the letter of the Word. Suppose that we are this kind of people; do you think that when we come together we could speak something for Christ? It is impossible. If we have nothing of Christ, how can we say something for Christ? We can only speak the letters of the Bible. I knew another group of Christians, the members of which were exceedingly clever in fighting one another with Bible verses. They beat and accused one another by using the Scriptures themselves. How can such people speak something of Christ and for Christ?


NOT A PERFORMANCE

The Christian meeting is not a kind of performance but a demonstration. To perform as an actor is simply a pretense. The Christian meeting must be an exhibition of what we are in Christ, not a performance of what we are not. Of course, if I just speak in tongues day by day, I will not be able to exhibit anything but tongues. If I am just studying the Word according to the letter, I will not be able to demonstrate anything but this. If I walk in the soul and live according to the flesh, when I come to the meeting to function, what can I demonstrate? Nothing but my soulish life, my fleshly daily walk. We cannot perform in the church; we can only demonstrate what we are. The meeting is the demonstration of what we experience of Christ, so we must have the proper walk in our daily life as a base for the meeting.


                                                      THE NEED OF PRACTICE

We all must practice one thing in our daily life: to exercise our spirit to contact the Lord. In my early ministry I advised people to read through the Bible once a year, to be faithful in the morning watch, to pray at least ten minutes daily, etc. That was my teaching. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that. But now, my ministry has changed greatly. The most important thing for you and me in our daily life is to continually exercise our spirit to touch the Lord. How? Just by this simple way of calling on His name. “O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus!” Say it loudly. Do not say there is no one listening to you—there are many listening; at least the angels and the demons are listening. The more you practice in this way, the more you will be nourished. The more you speak, the more you will be inspired. The angels will listen to you, the evil spirits will also listen to you, and it will be a good exercise for your spirit.


 Sisters, sometimes you must speak in your kitchen. Do not say there is nobody there. You have to say, “Jesus is the Lord! Christ is my life!” Just speak it out—you will see what victory you will have. Brothers, while you are gardening, you have to say something for Christ. You can speak to the birds: “Little bird, I want to tell you that Christ is my life. My life is better than yours. I am so proud of Him.” Tell the creatures something about Christ. I am not joking. You will learn how to function. Then, when you come to the meeting, it will be easy for you to say something.

 Brothers and sisters, we all must speak for Christ. We should not be dumb people; we do not worship dumb idols, but a living, speaking God. We all can speak—Hallelujah, praise the Lord!


 We are now living in the age of the book of Revelation. In this book we read a number of times of a loud voice, a voice like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunders (7:10; 14:2; 19:1, 6). We must have a loud voice for Christ. We should not be so dumb; we must learn to say something all the time for the Lord, regardless of whether we have a visible audience or not. Wherever we are, we can tell the angels and the demons, “Jesus is the Lord; Christ is my life. I am not here for myself, for my job, for my schooling; I am for Christ.” We are not speaking just to the air. We are speaking to the principalities, the powers in the heavenlies. This is the way to exercise and strengthen our spirit. We need practice to speak for the Lord, and we have many opportunities every day. By such continual exercise, it will not be difficult to speak for Christ in the meetings.


 Everything we learn requires practice. At the beginning we make many mistakes, but eventually we become experts. It is the same with the matter of demonstrating our spirit. Again I say, we have many opportunities every day to practice. We may not have a human audience, but we can always speak to the beings in the air. When we speak to human beings, there may not be so much need of exercising the spirit, but when we speak to the beings in the air, the mind does not work. To exercise the mind to speak to the angels is useless; we must exercise our spirit to speak to them.


 We all must learn to continually say something for Christ in our daily life. Why are you so defeated? It is because you are so silent. The subtlety of the enemy is to keep your mouth shut. Speak something for Christ to the people in your office. The more you speak,  the more victorious you will be. Learn to sing the hymns wherever you are. You may say that you are not a good singer, but there is no need for anyone to be a good singer. Everyone can sing. These two things—speaking and singing—will help you be so living, active, and aggressive in functioning in the meetings.

 
 
 

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Concerning the church, our vision is governed not by the present situation nor by traditional practice, but by God's original intention and by His unchanging standard as revealed in His Word. We regard the New Testament revelation of the church not merely as a historical antecedent, but as the norm for church practice in the present day.

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