HOME MEETINGS
Read and pray: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Cor. 13:13)
DISSEMINATING THE TRUTH
We should not speak only the gospel, but we should also speak the truth, the divine realities of the Bible. To speak the truth, we must know the truth. There are many truths in the Bible.
The Trinity is probably the greatest truth. Almost all Christians know that our God is Triune, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, yet that is all most people know.
When we ask them to speak more about the Trinity, they have little to say. We all must learn to say something deeper.
You can tell people what it means to be baptized into the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). Then they will enjoy the grace of Christ, the Son, and the love of God, the Father, and have a share in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
They will enjoy the riches of the Trinity. You may think it will be difficult to learn all these things, but I do not think so. Everything depends on you.
If you have the heart and the desire, you can surely do it, especially if you go to the Recovery Version, where there is a long footnote on 2 Corinthians 13:14¹. This footnote is one of the long notes concerning the Divine Trinity, which spans from Genesis to Revelation.
In 1 Peter 1:2 it says: “...according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ...”. This is the very enjoyment of the Triune God.
Then Paul in Ephesians 3 said that he bowed his knees unto the Father, that He would strengthen us in the Spirit so that Christ would make His home in our hearts. Again we can see the Triune God.
There are many verses like these, including John 14:17-20. These are the rich words. Learn to take them and speak them. It may be that twelve years ago you had many excuses for not speaking the rich word, but not today.
This is because I have placed many rich eatables in your storehouses or at least on the bookshelf where you can obtain them. Now you can acquire all the riches.
In the training on the book of Acts we emphasized the matter of the dispensational transfer. I am concerned that perhaps many of us have missed this crucial point.
We need to spend much time on all the footnotes in the book of Acts that deal with this transfer. I believe that in only half a day you can grasp the strong point concerning the dispensational transfer found in the book of Acts.
I hope you will spend some time to obtain the riches of the Word. Then when you speak, you will not speak only in a living way, but also in a rich way.
I am thankful to the Lord that many have been attending the ministry meetings for more than twelve years. I believe the reason you have attended is that I do not give you cheap things, dead things, nor have I spoken to you in a poor way.
Everything I have given you has been at least something living and rich. The living and the rich element of this ministry attracts you. We all must learn to speak not only the living word but also the rich word. Then our speaking of the rich word will be the dissemination of the truth.
There are so many truths in the Bible. For example, the book of Galatians is full of riches: “...and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me...” (Gal. 1:15-16); “For I through the law have died to the law that I might live to God. I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me...” (Gal. 2:19-20); “...until Christ is formed in you” (Gal. 4:19); “For neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation” (Gal. 6:15).
With the Recovery Version and the Life-studies, it is so easy to obtain all these riches. It would be a pity if you had been with us for more than five years and were not so full of the riches of the holy Word.
You are in a rich family with many riches. To your left and to your right there are many riches. Behind you, in front of you, above you, and beneath you there are many riches, yet all the riches are not in you.
We all need to realize the situation and extract the riches from the holy Word so that we may speak the living and rich word to people.
MINISTERING LIFE
Our speaking with prayer, the Spirit, and boldness is also for the ministering of life. Life is conveyed in the holy Word. The Bible is the word of life. Everything we speak as the living and rich word of God is the word of life.
We speak the word, yet within the word is life. Thus, in speaking we spontaneously minister life to others. However, due to our shortage of the Word of God, when we try to help others, we simply do not have the words to tell them.
The most we can say might be: “You need to love the Lord and realize that the Lord loves you and is trustworthy.” We need to minister something new, something from our experience, something we have discovered and experienced. In doing this we spontaneously minister life to others.
We need the proper speaking of the living and rich word in order to minister life to others. If you do these three things—preach the gospel, disseminate the truth, and minister life to others by speaking the rich and living word—then when you go to a meeting, whether large or small, you will be rich.
Develop the habit of speaking, and have much to speak and also with which to speak. You will have much; I have much; each one of us will have much. In this way the meeting will never be poor, low, dead, or cold. It will always be high, enriched, and quite living. This is the way to have the church life built up in the small meetings.
RECOVERING THOSE WHO ARE WEAK
Rich speaking also helps us recover those who are weak. In the church there are always many weak ones. They need your support; they need your help through the rich word of the Spirit.
In conclusion, if we truly are serious with the Lord in His recovery, all must rise up. Do not take the shortcut. Prepare yourselves with much endurance, much divine patience to take this way for at least three or four years.
Go to the small meetings, always spend time to get into the holy Word, pray adequately, and learn to speak habitually the things concerning Christ.
Speak the divine riches first for your own building up. Then go to the meeting to practice and develop the habit of speaking. Do not say, “I don’t feel I have a burden to speak something in the meeting. I am not led; I have no inspiration.”
Do not be hearers in the traditional way. Learn to get into the Word and pray over it, and then practice speaking according to your deposit. Then when you go to the meeting, you will not worry about whether you feel or are inspired or led; you will simply speak.
First your speaking will build you up, and then it will spontaneously build up others. In this way the meetings will be built up. This is the way for the church life.
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¹ Depending on the version of the Bible, the text of 2 Corinthians 13 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” may appear in verse 13 or 14.
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Hymn: S22 — “Grace”
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