HOME MEETINGS
Read and pray: “The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 13:52)
BEING FILLED IN OUR SPIRIT (2)
Now we will have the home meetings. We all know the problem. Suppose six to eight of us gather. You look at me, and I greet you with my head. We simply do not know what to do.
First, Christians must be people who are at all times filled in spirit, not only in the time of worship, prayer, morning watch, or the meeting time. At all times we must be people filled in spirit. We must practice this.
Do not practice it only when you go to the small meeting. Practice it at home, in your daily life, from morning to night. Try to be filled in your spirit with God, with Christ, with the Spirit, with all His riches. The best way to help you do this is to speak the hymns.
If you have no one to speak with, it would be better to speak to the air, to the window, to the garden, to the trees, to the flowers, and sometimes to the cats, to the dogs, or to the birds. Speak with your wife and allow her to speak. Do not say just any words; speak psalms and hymns.
Hymn 501 [in English] is a good hymn to speak: “O glorious Christ, my Savior, Thou art truly the divine effulgence.” Speak among yourselves. Practice and be equipped for the home meetings. Then, when you enter, you do not need to wait, and you do not need to look at the others.
Simply say: “Brothers, can we speak a hymn?” Sometimes, if you ask to sing a hymn, it is possible that the answer will be that no one knows the melody and that no one can lead the singing. However, all can speak. Nevertheless, speaking in the spirit requires exercise. We need to exercise to speak, to speak with the spirit.
Ephesians 5:18b says: “Be filled in spirit,” and verse 19 says: “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” I believe this can be done mainly in the home meetings. It is not difficult to do it in a large meeting, but it is very good to do it with five, six, seven, or eight brothers.
When six or eight gather, one says: “Brothers, let us speak hymn 501.” You proclaim in spirit and the others follow in spirit. If you speak in your natural voices, the others will follow the same way. If you begin to speak in the proper way: “Oh! What a life! Oh! What a peace!” (Hymn 36, in English) the others will follow you.
Immediately the meeting begins in a living way. This way of speaking inspires people, enlivens people, and often nourishes people.
The Recovery Version translates Acts 13:52 this way: “The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.” Actually, “were filled” in the Greek text is only one word, full.
The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. The verse is translated in this way because Acts uses two words for fill. One is plēthō, to fill outwardly; the other is plēroō, to fill inwardly.
On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples, and they were filled outwardly (plēthō, Acts 2:4). In contrast, the wind filled the house inwardly (plēroō, Acts 2:2). The second word, plēroō, is used again in Acts 13:52.
The disciples were filled inwardly. This verse says they were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Every time you are filled inwardly with the Spirit, you are also filled with joy. This is why the kingdom of God, the church life in Romans 14, is “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (v. 17).
You have to exercise righteousness toward yourselves, and you have to exercise peace toward others. Therefore, you need to have enjoyment in the Holy Spirit with God all the time. We must be people who enjoy. We must be joyful people. Only those who are filled with the Holy Spirit can be this kind of person. This is not speaking in tongues; this is not the outpouring of the Spirit upon you. This is the inward filling of the Holy Spirit within you.
In Acts 13:52, the believers were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. I believe this was not only in their daily life. At that time, their meeting life was a great part of their daily life, because every day they met from house to house. They were a people who enjoyed.
In Acts 2:46, we see that they broke bread from house to house and took their food with exultation. Exultation is rejoicing, an explosion of joy, an enjoyment, a kind of ecstasy. One is so joyful, so full of enjoyment, that he is beside himself; he is drunk. This was the way they gathered in their homes, and this attracted people. Those whom the Lord called were attracted by this exultation.
Suppose you gather as six brothers and sisters and bring two or three visitors. If all six of you are sad, doing nothing, expressing yourselves in this way, every new person will leave. The husband will say: “I have already experienced this kind of atmosphere. At home it is the same face of my wife.” Or the wife will say: “At home I see my husband’s sullen face all the time. I do not like to keep seeing this kind of face.”
However, suppose the six brothers and sisters are very joyful, not pretending, but full of enjoyment, taking their food with much joy. Every new person will be inspired and attracted.
In Acts, taking food with joy was related to the home meetings. Every day the believers broke bread from house to house and took their food with joy, praising God.
If you are not filled in your spirit with the Holy Spirit, how can you enjoy? How can you be exultant? So we all must see this. We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit all the time, every day.
When we come together, the only way that can help us be so filled with the Holy Spirit is to speak—first to speak a psalm, to speak a hymn, and even to speak a spiritual song. Then let us sing the stanzas and psalmize the entire portions. We all need to practice such a thing. Then we will be people equipped for the home meetings.
🌿 Enjoy more:
Hymn: Praise the Lord – “His All-Inclusiveness”
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