It is our burden to lead the newly saved ones to enter into this experience. However, we must also note that not every home is suitable for this. For those who have reached this stage, we need to bring them into the experience of fellowshipping with the Lord. If we want to bring people into fellowship with the Lord in life, we first need to lead them to be filled with life and to have the experience of the filling of the Holy Spirit. However, we ourselves have to be such people in the first place.
There are two aspects of the filling of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit fills us not only inwardly but also outwardly. In Greek the word pleroo is used for the inward filling, and pletho is used for the outward filling. One is within, whereas the other is without. This is spoken of clearly in lesson nineteen of Life Lessons. This lesson first shows us the two aspects of the filling of the Holy Spirit, the inward filling and the outward filling. Second, it describes the promises related to the two aspects. The promise of the outward aspect is in Joel 2:28-29 and repeated in Luke 24:49. The promise concerning the inward aspect is the one made by the Lord Jesus in the Gospel of John (14:16-17; 16:7). Following this, the lesson speaks about the functions of the two aspects, the inward filling being for life and the outward filling being for power. There are also two symbols of the two aspects. Breath and living water are the symbols of the Holy Sprit as the inward Spirit of life, and the wind and the mantle are the symbols of the Holy Spirit as the outward Spirit of power. In the evening of the day of the Lord’s resurrection the Lord breathed into the disciples, and on the day of Pentecost there was a rushing violent wind blowing outwardly. In addition, water is for people to drink, and a mantle is for people to be clothed with. These symbols are very meaningful. At the end of lesson nineteen, we can see the experiences of the two aspects. Not only did the Lord Jesus have the experiences of the two aspects, but the disciples also had these experiences.
Lesson nineteen mentions the two aspects of the Holy Spirit, and lesson twenty speaks about the inward filling of the Holy Spirit, how the Holy Spirit fills us and occupies us inwardly. First it mentions the fact of the inward filling of the Holy Spirit in us. Then it speaks of the function of the inward filling of the Holy Spirit in us and our condition after being filled inwardly. Then it talks about the way to be filled inwardly with the Holy Spirit. The ways to be filled inwardly with the Holy Spirit are by receiving the co-death with Christ on the cross, offering ourselves fully to the Lord, believing the filling of the Holy Spirit in us, and walking according to the Spirit.
To receive the co-death with Christ on the cross and to offer ourselves fully to the Lord involve a practical matter, that is, confessing our sins. If we do not confess our sins thoroughly, it is very difficult for the Holy Spirit to have the ground in us, and we are not able to receive the co-death with Christ on the cross. Even more, we are not able to consecrate ourselves to the Lord. This is the basic matter we need to care for.
When we take the lead in the home meetings, we need to lead the new ones to confess their sins. There is a proper way to confess our sins. We should not confess in a general way, saying, “O Lord, I am a sinner. Lord, You died for me and bore my sins.” We must teach them to set aside at least one certain time to come before the Lord, personally and on their own, and say to Him, “O Lord, I am a sinner. Shine on me. I am willing to deal with my sins thoroughly before You.” After such a prayer, if they feel that there is any specific sin within them, they should confess it. If someone has struck his younger sister, for example, then he should also confess to her. If he has lied in the past or recently, then he should confess the sin of lying. Confession is like dusting and cleaning. Before dusting, we may not realize that there is so much dust, but the more we dust, the more the dust comes out. It seems that the more we dust, the more dust there is. Actually, it is not that there is more dust but that the dust is more apparent. After the cleaning is completed, there is no more dust; everything is clean.
We should not confess our sins in a casual way, like someone who cleans only the areas that can be seen and not the ones that cannot be seen. If you go to such a person’s home, you will dare not look underneath his bed or in the corners of the house where there are piles of dust. When this person sweeps the floor, he sweeps in circles, never reaching the corners of the house. In a house like this, the edges of the sink counters are also dirty and have stains. I am afraid that we may confess our sins like a person who sweeps the floor in circles, only confessing the sins “in the circle” and not the sins “in the corners” and “at the edges.” That is why it seems that the more we confess our sins thoroughly, the more sins we have. In actuality, the more we confess, the fewer sins we have, but they are manifested more. At the beginning of our confession we should first draw near to the Lord and contact Him. Then when we sense that we have sins, we should begin to confess them, not only the big ones but also the small ones. The more we confess, the more we will have to confess. We must not confess in general but in detail, confessing item by item, one by one. After confessing our sins in this way, we will truly be filled with the Holy Spirit inwardly.
We must lead the new ones in such a way so as to help them to be filled with the Holy Spirit inwardly. We do not need to follow Life Lessons completely. We can guide the new ones to confess their sins according to our experience. When we lead them to confess their sins, we do not need to purposely dig out their old account but simply lead them to confess. The Holy Spirit will operate. When they have confessed one item, another item will come, one item after another, and they will continue to confess to the Lord. In this way they will touch the Spirit within. If the people we lead do not have such an experience, it is definite that they still have not entered into the fellowship of life. We must lead those we care for to such an extent that they will truly be stabilized and have a solid foundation. As they touch the Spirit within and have fellowship with the Lord within, they will live in the Lord spontaneously.
I believe that many new ones are waiting for us to bring them to this stage. We should not waste any more time or be restricted by regulations. Some homes have already reached a stage that requires us to focus on leading them until the Spirit has the opportunity and the ground to fill them within. For this, we need to pray with them, while telling them that our praying with them cannot replace their own prayers of seeking to be filled with the Holy Spirit inwardly. Anyone who seeks to be filled with the Holy Spirit inwardly must have prayers of his own, preferably with no one else present. Sometimes a person may say that he is too weak and that he needs help from others. This is right. However, no matter how much help he receives in seeking to be filled, as long as there is someone beside him, it is very hard for him to be filled with the Holy Spirit inwardly in a thorough way. Those who seek to be thoroughly filled with the Holy Spirit inwardly must confess their sins thoroughly before the Lord themselves.
When leading the new ones to confess their sins, we do not need to talk about many other matters. Instead, we should simply lead them to be focused and to come before God to confess their sins from within. It does not matter whether their voice is high or low, loud or quiet. What is important is to confess, one by one, the sins that they feel, sense, realize, and see. The New Testament commands us first to repent and second to confess our sins. Repenting without confessing our sins can never be thorough. We need to pay attention to the new ones we lead to see whether they have had a thorough confession of their sins after their repentance. We have to realize the importance of this matter and lead them to have an experience of the most serious and thorough confession of sins.
This does not mean that it is our confession alone that brings the inward filling of the Holy Spirit. It means that confessing our sins empties out our being within, allowing the Holy Spirit to gain the proper ground within us. After we have confessed our sins, we have peace within because how many sins we have confessed is how much God has forgiven us, and how many sins we have confessed is how much the precious blood of the Lord Jesus has cleansed us. The extent of the forgiveness of God is according to our confession. How much we confess is how much God forgives, how deeply we confess is how deeply God forgives, and how broadly we confess is how broadly God forgives. Following God’s forgiveness, the precious blood of the Lord cleanses us. As we believe the forgiveness of God and receive the cleansing of the Lord’s blood, we have peace within, and we also have the inward filling of the Holy Spirit.
At this time we will have a deeper feeling of the presence of the Lord and a deeper feeling of our intimate and deeper relationship with the Lord. If we can bring the new ones to such an extent, they will have fellowship with the Lord in life. One thing worth mentioning is that we need to help them to see that confession of sins and clearance of the old living are different matters. Clearance of the old living is outward; it deals with the outward matters. Sins, however, are both inward and outward. Therefore, when the new ones confess their sins, they need to deal thoroughly with both the inward and outward sins. In this way they will be filled with the Holy Spirit. This filling will bring them into the fellowship in life, and they will learn to have fellowship with the Lord.
(A message given May 19, 1987 in Taipei, Taiwan)