In this chapter we want to have more particular and detailed fellowship concerning the group gatherings.
Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “And let us consider one another for inciting to love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the custom with some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day drawing near.” We need to “consider one another” for inciting, for encouraging, for stirring up, to love and good works. Paul also says that in the group meetings, we should be “exhorting one another.” The phrase “one another” indicates that Paul is not talking about a meeting of the entire congregation of the local church. The meetings mentioned in these two verses must be group meetings. When a large number of us come together, it is hard for us to exhort one another. It is difficult to do anything in a large meeting in the “one another” way. A meeting where a small number of people come together is a “one another” meeting. Therefore, Hebrews 10:24-25 does not refer to big meetings but to group meetings, in which we can consider one another and exhort one another, inciting one another to love and good works. When Paul says “the assembling of ourselves,” this means that these group meetings are our meetings.
I do not believe that many of us have tasted this kind of group meeting. I am concerned about the contents of the group meetings that we have. Our meetings should be like a feast with many courses of food. If we were invited to a feast and there were only empty glasses on the table with no dishes, we would be very disappointed. What we went to was called a “feast,” but it actually was not a feast. It had the name of a feast without the reality of being a feast. In the same principle, many of us have attended meetings that are called “group meetings,” but they do not have the real contents of group meetings. Sometimes a Chinese feast may have twenty-two courses of food. Our meetings should be like that.
Our meetings should be full of the riches of Christ, and they should be composed of four basic factors and elements— the Word, the Spirit, praying, and singing. If we are going to have an enjoyable meeting, we must sing and pray. We should not come to the meeting in a dumb way, without singing or praying. We must pray and sing from our home. Furthermore, we must be in the Spirit. We even need to be crazy and ecstatic in the Spirit. We need to sing and pray in and with the Spirit. The stronger we exercise our spirit, the more joy we will participate in. We should not pray or sing without the Spirit. The fourth element we need in our meetings is the Word of God, the holy Word. We need the Holy Spirit and the holy Word to go along with us in our singing and praying. These four things are the basic elements that constitute our meeting.
If we pray without the Spirit, our prayer will be dead, empty, and cold. A prayer without the Spirit is a “killing” prayer, and it is the best sleeping dose. Such a prayer puts people to sleep. If we sing and pray without the Spirit in a group meeting, that group meeting has no reality. Some group meetings have attempted to use Truth Lessons. These truth lessons are based upon the holy Word, but if we handle these lessons in an improper way, they will become empty and dead. The Lord Jesus said that the words that He speaks to us are spirit and life (John 6:63). As long as the word used by us in a Christian meeting is not spirit and life, that is not the living word. That is merely the word according to the letter. The holy Word must be something full of the Spirit and full of life. We can use Truth Lessons in many different ways. We need to exercise our spirit whenever we come to the Holy Bible or to the printed ministry that opens up the Bible. When we exercise our spirit, the Word becomes living. When we read something with the exercise of our spirit, our reading becomes living and full of the Spirit.
Our Lord’s table meetings should also have these four basic elements and factors: the Word, the Spirit, praying, and singing. When we are at the Lord’s table, it is hard for someone to give a living word. I have a burden to train the saints how to give a living word even at the Lord’s table. Mostly, the dear saints who distribute the bread in the table meeting do it in a silent way. When the bread is being distributed, someone can say a living word about its significance. As a brother is picking up the bread, he may say, “Saints, this bread signifies two things. It signifies the Lord’s physical body given on the cross for us, and it also signifies His mystical Body, which is the church composed of all of us. This morning we are taking this bread as a token of our remembrance of the Lord.” Many new ones who attend the Lord’s table may partake of the bread without knowing the significance of the bread. We need to have the Lord’s table in a living way that is full of singing, full of praying, full of the Spirit, and full of the holy Word.
If someone speaks a word for one minute concerning the significance of the bread at the Lord’s table, this word will give life and incite others to love the Lord and the saints. Because of such a word, some may pray, “Lord Jesus, I love You, and I love Your members. I want to live a life of loving You and of loving Your members. I would also like to live a life of loving the sinners and of bringing them to You.” Because of such a living word at the Lord’s table, the inciting power will operate within all the saints. Some of the new ones among us do not understand the significance of the cup that we drink at the Lord’s table. They need someone to speak a living word in the table meeting concerning the significance of the cup that we drink. In every meeting we must have praying, singing, the Holy Spirit, and the holy Word.