HOME MEETINGS
Read and pray: “And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.” (Acts 4:31)
When we speak the word of God, we must speak it with boldness. In Acts 4:31 boldness is used to speak the word of God. This boldness has much to do with the Spirit, and the Spirit is related to prayer. This verse is composed of these three things.
Although they were supplicating, that is, although they were asking, pleading, or praying to God, they were filled economically and outwardly with the Spirit of power. Through prayer they experienced the Spirit.
With the Spirit they spoke the word of God with boldness. We can see that here, speaking the word of God involves three things: prayer, the Spirit, and boldness. They could not have boldness without the Spirit, and they could not experience the Spirit without praying.
Prayer brings us to the Spirit, and the Spirit is boldness. Not only does the Spirit give us boldness, but the Spirit is boldness. Sometimes we are timid because we are short of Spirit. By being short of Spirit, we lack boldness.
Boldness always proceeds from the Spirit, and the Spirit precedes our prayer. These three things — prayer, the Spirit, and boldness — are fully involved with our speaking. We must learn to pray in order to obtain the Spirit. Then we will have the boldness to speak the word of God.
THE PROPER AND ADEQUATE SPEAKING
In this series of messages we have emphasized only one thing: that we must always speak. We have made it very clear that this speaking is a divine speaking for the meetings. Christian meetings are for a purpose, and this purpose will not be carried out if there is no speaking.
If there is little speaking, then very little of the purpose of the meeting is accomplished. This purpose can only be carried out by the proper and adequate speaking of the saints. I am concerned that you have not been adequately impressed, and I am even more concerned that you are not practicing this speaking.
In Acts 1:8 the word witness has a great implication. The Lord Jesus said, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My witnesses….” A witness is someone who speaks. We are chosen, appointed, and designated to be His speakers. We all must speak, speak for Him, and express Him. This is our duty.
Revelation 12:11 says that the brothers overcome the accuser by means of three things. One of them is the word of their testimony. The word of our testimony is a weapon to defeat the enemy, the accuser. Therefore, we should not remain silent, but open our mouth to speak.
We must speak throughout the whole day. All the time we must learn how to speak, how to be genuine, constant, and spontaneous speakers. We must speak the Lord’s word continually. This is our daily duty.
We were chosen, regenerated, appointed, and designated for this commission. It is good to sing:
Learn the living and rich word.
GAINING THE DEPOSIT OF THE LIVING AND RICH WORD
If you want to speak the living and rich word, you should not rely on inspiration. Suppose you have not learned English, yet you trust in some spiritual inspiration to enable you to speak English.
In the same way, we cannot have the living and rich word of the Bible only by inspiration. In the past you may have had the desire to speak something from the Bible, yet you realized that you had little expression in words. You did not have the living and rich word.
The main thought of Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:8-11 is that the Spirit distributes the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge when we are in the meetings. If you do not read the Bible, consequently you will lack the rich deposit of the divine Word and will go to the meetings empty.
Then, even if inspiration comes, you will not have the deposit you need. If you are going to serve people in a rich feast, first you need to obtain the foodstuffs. If you do not have the foodstuffs, how can you cook and prepare a tasty meal? It is impossible. We all must spend the necessary time to acquire the Lord’s word in the Bible.
🌿 Enjoy more:
Hymn: Blessed Assurance – “Born of the Spirit”
No comments:
Post a Comment