Suppose you plan to choose a hymn for a meeting. There are two ways to choose a hymn-the way in the letter, and the way in the spirit. Suppose on the Lord’s Day morning we are having a morning service in the way of the letter, and we have one to take charge of the service. We have invited another one to come to give us a sermon. Before the service you may find out what topic that one will use for his sermon. From this you consider what hymns we should sing, perhaps two or three, and you write all the hymn numbers on the board for everyone to see when they come. This is a way in the letter.
You may think that you would never do anything in such a way in our meetings. But at least in principle you may have this kind of practice in the meetings. For the prayer meeting, you may look in the index of the hymnal and select a good hymn related to prayer just according to the letter. A way in the letter is a way of death.
Then what is the other way to choose a hymn? There is a way that is not according to your mind, your mentality, but according to the inner feeling of your spirit. You need to exercise to sense the inner feeling of the spirit. If there is no inner feeling for a certain hymn, you should not select it. When you have a proper hymn, you will sense it by the inmost feeling of your spirit.
We need to learn not to act or serve according to knowledge, but to act and serve according to the inmost feeling. Suppose you are going to give a message in the meeting. You need to learn the lesson not just to speak according to your knowledge.
The first time I was asked to speak before a large congregation was in 1927. I was a young man, about twenty-two years of age. I prepared a sermon and practiced for quite a number of days. I went to the seashore and practiced giving the sermon to the ocean. Then I went to the pulpit on the Lord’s Day morning and delivered that message according to the mentality. Afterwards, I realized I had forgotten a good portion of it. Later on, I found out that my way was absolutely a way in the letter. That was something dead. At that time I was so young, so immature. I simply did not know how to minister in the spirit.
Gradually, however, the Lord brought me to a point where I had to minister in the spirit, according to the spirit, not according to the mentality or to knowledge. I can testify to you that many times in the past years, even on the way to the meeting, I did not know what to minister, simply because I was planning to serve in the spirit. When the hymns and prayers were over, I had to stand up to minister. While I was standing to speak, even while I was speaking the words, “Let us read,” up to this point I myself did not know what to read. I spoke slowly, “Let us read.” While I was pronouncing the word read so slowly, there was a feeling-a book, a chapter, a verse. While I was reading that portion, there was some anointing within me. Word by word, sentence by sentence, the message came out, not according to the mentality, but according to the anointing. Oh, that is wonderful and that is powerful! I cannot tell you how many times this has happened.
Likewise, there are two ways to offer a prayer in the meeting. One way is to offer a prayer according to knowledge, according to a routine, much like coming to an office to do routine work. Sometimes I have an impression when certain brothers are praying that it is as if they have come to the office to do their routine work. We need to forget about all kinds of routine, all kinds of knowledge, and all kinds of letters. When we come together to pray, we need to exercise our spirit to sense the inner anointing. We should not pray according to knowledge or routine, but according to the inner feeling, the inmost feeling of the anointing.
Many times we can sense when a brother is ministering in letters. We can also sense when a brother is ministering from the anointing, when he is ministering in the spirit. In such a case we can sense something living, something anointing, something enlightening, not merely something of teaching. The same is true of prayer. By the inner sense we know when a brother or sister is praying in the spirit or merely praying in the letter, according to knowledge.
Many times, when I was praying together with some living ones who prayed in the spirit, after just one sentence I had to say, “Amen,” because there was a deep echo in my spirit to their prayer in the spirit. I could not hold back my “amen” because something was burning within me. When anyone utters a prayer from the spirit, there is a spontaneous expression of agreement from the spirit of the others.
Some Christians would not agree with the saying of “amen” while others are praying. Within them there is an “amen,” but they suppress it; they would not release it simply because of their opinion. But whether they would utter it or not, when anyone prays in the spirit, there is always an echo in the spirit of others.
However, many times a brother prays in the mentality, in knowledge, in the letter, in the mind, and brings in death. The more he prays, the more people are deadened. When we are praying, we need to sense whether there is an echo in the spirit of others. When there is no echo, we need to close the prayer right away. We need to learn how to exercise our spirit while we are serving and learn how to serve in the spirit.
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