HOME MEETINGS
Read and pray: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing to God with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts.” (Col. 3:16)
According to the principle revealed in the Scriptures, to speak God, to speak Christ, and to speak for Christ, we certainly need the Spirit. Without the Spirit, we would not speak, and if we spoke, we would feel ashamed.
When someone speaks about science, geography, history, or the political situation, the more he speaks, the prouder he feels. There is no restriction nor frustration in speaking of these things. But every time someone speaks of Jesus, the feeling of shame appears immediately.
It seems difficult to open the mouth to speak of Jesus to people. Unless we have the Spirit, it will indeed be difficult for us to speak Christ. However, when we are filled with the Spirit, we become crazy; it is delightful to speak things concerning Christ to people.
For this reason, in the Old Testament, when the seventy prophesied, the Spirit of God came upon them. As genuine Christians, believers in Christ, do we still need the Spirit of God to come upon us? If you say yes, then you are in the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament, the incarnation and the crucifixion had not been accomplished. There was no resurrection of Christ nor ascension, there was no breathing of the processed Spirit who gives life into the people of God, and there had been no outpouring of the processed Triune Spirit upon the people of God.
Undoubtedly, in the New Testament, the incarnation, the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension were fully accomplished. Today our Lord is the processed God. He passed through all the necessary processes, and in His resurrection, He breathed Himself as the life-giving Spirit into His disciples and into us.
He does not need to do this again. He died for us once for all. He does not need to die again for you and for me in particular, for He breathed Himself into His disciples on the day of resurrection (John 20:22). Hallelujah!
Not only this, but in His ascension He poured Himself out as the processed and economical Triune Spirit upon all the members of His Body. All the members of His Body, former or recent, whether Greeks or Jews, slaves or free, were baptized once for all in one Spirit. We were baptized in one Spirit, and now He gives us to drink of this Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13).
Almost all of us have faith that the Spirit is in us. When you are going to argue with your wife, Someone within you will not allow you to do so. That person is the Spirit who indwells. We know that the Spirit is in us and we have the faith to say this.
We also need the assurance that the Spirit is upon us. The impulse to speak proceeds from the Spirit who is now within us. If I did not have the assurance that I have the Spirit within me, I would not now be speaking to you. I believe that the impact of my speaking proceeds from this Spirit who is now upon me.
For more than forty years I diligently practiced the great evangelistic meetings. One morning when I was speaking in a large meeting, I said something to the elementary school students. I told them that even if they thought they had not sinned, at least once someone had stolen chalk at school and taken it home.
I did not know that while I was speaking there was a student who had done exactly that. Later, I found out that in the meeting there was a young boy of about thirteen years of age, the son of a widowed sister. This young boy was very intelligent, but he did not want to listen to his mother speak of the Lord Jesus so that he could be saved.
However, he was in the meeting that morning, and when he heard me speak, he thought to himself: “That is nothing.” Then I asked, “Is that nothing?” It was very strange that I had said it in that way. I said: “Draw circles on the ground with the stolen chalk.” This shocked him. He thought: “Who told this man that I did that?” What I had said was exactly a clear description of what he had done.
It was through this that he repented. Do you think it was me? Actually, this shows that while I was speaking, the Spirit was not only within me but also upon me to carry out the speaking. This occurred in my speaking countless times.
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Hymn: Service – “For the Church”
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