We also must remember that whenever we speak in the meeting, we should speak in the Spirit. Today we are in the New Testament age, but even David in the Old Testament age spoke in the Spirit (2 Sam. 23:2). David’s speaking in Spirit was not a kind of inspiration. This is the religious thought. I beg you all to drop this thought of inspiration. Inspiration indicates the degradation of God’s people from the living God to a religion. If we serve the living God and this God is the Spirit, we should be in the Spirit all the time if we mean business with Him. Even in the Old Testament times the psalmists and those like David all were living in the Spirit. Therefore, whenever they spoke, they spoke in the Spirit. This does not mean that they were indulging in the flesh like King Saul. He was indulging in the flesh, but God used him to demonstrate something and he received some inspiration. This was Saul, but this was not David.
If we had been working, living, and acting in the Spirit throughout the whole day from morning to evening, when we come to the meeting we will speak in the Spirit. If, however, we are busy with family things, with money, with our bank account, with business, with jobs, and with interviews, our talk to people will not be in the Spirit at all. It is possible that as one of the elders, I could be such a person, but I cannot be absent from the meeting. I have to go there and I have to sit in the front row in order to take care of the responsibility. When you come in the meeting in this way you are not in the Spirit but in death, and your coming in brings in death. This is not the Spirit and not of life. Then you may feel obligated to speak. When you speak something, that kills the meeting or at the very least lowers down the meeting because you are not a person in Spirit.
In 1 Corinthians 7 Paul’s speaking concerning dealing with marriage life comprises forty verses. In verse 25 of this long chapter Paul says that he has no commandment of the Lord, but he gives his opinion. In verse 40 he says that what he is speaking is according to his opinion, but he also says, “I think that I also have the Spirit of God.” Here is a man telling people his opinion, yet he is still in the Spirit. Whenever such a person opens his mouth, the Spirit comes out. This enlivens the meetings. The same word out of one person’s mouth may be a kind of enlightening and life-giving, but out of another person’s mouth that word may be a kind of killing. This all depends on whether we live in the Spirit or whether we live in something else. If we do not live in the Spirit yet we expect to have a living meeting, that will be just an opera or a drama. That will be just like something in the theater, a performance with you as a performer. At least a number of times our meetings were just like a drama with no living reality.
Therefore, when you go back to your locality, you must call a meeting, not of all the saints, but at least of all the serving ones who have a heart for the Lord’s recovery, to have some fellowship with them to consider and to reconsider the situation. We must have a change. I do not mean that we have to have a radical change, but we must have a kind of advancing change. We should not be contented with our present meeting. This does not mean that our meetings are not good. Comparatively speaking they are quite good, but we are not satisfied.
The elders and all the serving ones must come together to pray and to fellowship. Every one of these serving ones must be charged, including the elders, to bear the ark of the testimony on their shoulders. This group of faithful ones may be between ten and twenty-five saints. Before every meeting, these dear saints should be living in the Spirit and should get themselves fully ready to bear the ark. The meeting is the ark, the testimony. We need some faithful ones like the Levites to bear the ark. The most devastating thing to me is to come into a meeting with no one bearing the ark. You also must realize that the ark cannot be carried on by one person. There is the need for coordination. To bear the ark needs a team. I came to the meetings a few times with the sensation that no one there was bearing the testimony. There were just performers. The church decided to have a Wednesday meeting and all the elders and serving ones are obligated to come. Then they come without a burden and without the Spirit. They come to pray-read the Word and then to speak something. This is really devastating when no one bears the ark. This kills the appetite for the saints to come to the meetings.
When you elders go back, you must have a time with the serving ones. If the elders make themselves a special, particular group, they are sectarian. They should not be a drop of oil in a bucket of water, but only drops of water. In some churches, however, I noticed that the elders are a drop of oil and could never be blended together with the water. They are a special rank, a special class. You must kill that class and annul that rank. It is a shame among us that there is a class and that there is a rank. If you keep this special class, you should not expect that your meeting will be living. You must be water. What I mean by being just water is that you are not anything in particular. You are just a brother. The church is not yours and the meeting is not yours. The church belongs to the saints and the meetings are the saints’ meetings, so you must be one with the saints. Some of the saints are still young, yet a good number have grown up and they are serving and bearing some responsibility. It is better to have a time together with them. Get with them to reconsider how to take care of the church and the church meetings. If you do this, I believe you will see something positive.