We all know that to do anything requires real power. When we go to perfect a home meeting, the real power lies in our being joined to the Lord as one spirit. Whether or not we are joined to the Lord as one spirit is spontaneously revealed in our living in several ways. First, we must be people who always pray and fellowship with the Lord. This does not mean we need to pray for many things. Often when we have too many things to pray for, they become a distraction to our being joined to the Lord. According to the New Testament, to pray unceasingly means that we are always joined to the Lord and that we keep contacting the Lord in our inner being. As a result, our entire being is filled with and occupied by the Lord inwardly, and our outward, spontaneous expression is thanksgiving and praises.
In Ephesians 5 Paul charged the believers to not be drunk with wine. Then he said, “But be filled in spirit” (v. 18). The result of being filled in spirit is to be filled with the word of the Lord. Our mouths not only speak and sing the word of the Lord unceasingly, but they are also full of thanksgiving and praises (vv. 19-20). This requires us to be people who live in the Lord and are joined to the Lord continually.
If we are too formal and rigid when we lead a home meeting, we will definitely kill the meeting. These formal and rigid ways may not be wrong, but they do not issue in the living out of the divine life. We must be people who are joined to the Lord in our spirit. This kind of joining to the Lord will make our expression fresh, living, and touching, and our expression will cause others to feel that we are people full of vitality. If a person weeps in front of us, even though we may not weep, we will still feel a certain sorrow. When a weeping person comes to us, he makes us want to weep. On the contrary, if a joyful person comes to us, even though we may not want to laugh, we still will laugh. A laughing person, one who brings laughter with him, causes us to respond with laughter. The kind of person we are determines the kind of response we produce.
When we go to perfect a home meeting, we need to bring the Lord with us. The Lord is lively, fresh, full of vitality, and always joyful. Of course, the Bible tells us that the Lord Jesus had times of grief and sorrow, and in Genesis 6:6, when man was corrupted to the uttermost, God grieved and repented that He had made man on the earth. It is true that God has times of sorrow, but we do not see many instances in the Bible in which God grieves. Rather, God is continually joyful. God is not a sorrowful God but a joyful God. Today since we are joined to God and are one spirit with the Lord, we should be a joyful and released people.
It is right for us to be proper, but we should not be too restrained. If we are released, joyful, lively, and fresh, when we go to a home meeting, we will bring with us these sweet qualities. A Japanese has the look of a Japanese; when he goes to a home meeting, he brings the Japanese culture and atmosphere with him. Likewise, when an American goes to a home meeting, he brings an American atmosphere, and if a five-year-old child goes there, he brings a naughty atmosphere. Therefore, when we go to perfect a home meeting, the most important key is the kind of person we are. A Japanese will “perfect” a Japanese home meeting, an American will create an American home meeting, and a joking person will produce a joking home meeting. Similarly, a formal and rigid person will produce a dead and cold home meeting. We cannot pretend. The kind of person we are is the kind of home meeting we will produce. How useful we are in the Lord’s hand and the kind of home meeting we can produce all depend on the extent, the degree, and the condition of our joining to the Lord. If the extent of our joining to the Lord is great, the degree is high, and the condition is good, the home meeting we lead will certainly be a good one.
We all know that to do a certain thing requires a certain kind of person. When a surgeon is about to operate, he must be completely sterile, and his hair and body must be covered. Only then can he perform the surgery. If a surgeon does not cleanse his hands and cover his head, he will unconsciously spread the bacteria on his body to the patient. When we go to perfect a home meeting, we often unintentionally bring our old man to the saints. Our original intention is to bring the Lord Jesus to them, but often the Lord Jesus does not come. Instead, a Japanese, an American, or a joking person comes. Although we intend to bring the Lord, it is questionable who eventually comes.
It is certainly easy to change outward things. It is easy to ask a surgeon to wash his hands and to sterilize and cover his whole body. However, it is very difficult for a person to change his nature. There is a proverb that says, “Changing one’s nature is more difficult than moving mountains and rivers.” Some co-workers who were trained more than thirty years ago still do not have much change. Even up until today they are what they were. When a person has been molded into a certain form, he cannot be changed when the east wind comes, nor can he be changed when the west wind comes. He is the same way in the summer, and he is still the same way in the winter. When others feel cold, he is not cold; when others feel hot, he is not hot. When others weep, he has almost no feeling; when others laugh, he does not laugh. When you lift your hands to sing hymns and be joyful with this kind of person, he does not respond, and when you want to pray aloud with him, he does not make a sound. No matter how one may rebuke this kind of person, he does not become angry. With great strength he seems as invincible and stable as a great mountain; he cannot be moved.
If this kind of person goes to lead a home meeting or a church meeting, the whole meeting will be as dead and rigid as he is. Not a single person in the church under his leading will be beside himself for the Lord. Since such a one is not beside himself, he certainly cannot lead a “crazy” meeting or perfect others to be beside themselves. However hard one tries, he cannot ignite a fire in this kind of person. It seems he is fireproof, even fire extinguishing. This shows us that in the matter of perfecting a home meeting, the most difficult one to deal with is ourselves.
We have to be adjusted before the Lord and not remain in our old nature. Whether we are Shantongese, Cantonese, Japanese, or American, we have to remember this principle: We saved ones have “moved our home” from Adam into Christ. The phrase in Christ is a great one, but few people have the actual experience of being in Christ in their practice. This experience is in the spirit. The Bible does not say that he who is joined to the Lord is one Christ with Him, but that he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). This is altogether a matter of the spirit. Therefore, we must learn not to stay in our own person but to enter into the spirit and be joined to the Lord in spirit. In the past we used only our mind to think, our emotion to manage things, and our strong will to decide. This demonstrates that we were people who stayed in our soul and remained in our self. We must learn to walk not by the parts of our soul but by our spirit, always turning back to our spirit. Once we turn to our spirit, we contact the Lord, and our spirit is fanned into flame and burning.
In the New Testament there are two passages that speak of being burning and fervent in spirit. One is in Romans 12:11: “Be burning in spirit, serving the Lord.” The other is in Acts 18:25, which speaks of Apollos. Although he had little revelation and did not know much truth, he was fervent in spirit. In common speech there is no such expression as being fervent in spirit; we mainly speak of emotional impulses. However, if a Christian is emotionally impulsive, he will fail, because to be emotionally impulsive is in the self, the natural man, and even the flesh. Therefore, we must be ones who are fervent in spirit.
Before going to perfect a home meeting, we ourselves must first have a transfer from our soul—our mind, emotion, and will—into our spirit. This requires our exercise. We need to go out and labor, but we should never forget that before we go to a home, we must first have a transfer. This transfer is to move quickly from our mind into our spirit. We may be in our spirit one moment, but in the next moment we may run to our mind. Therefore, we have to move back. We must resolve not to go to perfect a home meeting before we turn back to our spirit. Every time we go to a home meeting, we have to be in our spirit. Moreover, when we go to the home meeting to fellowship and speak with others, we need to be careful, because it is easy for us to unconsciously move back to our “old home,” our soul. This is the way we need to exercise.