We have seen that the first step of God’s ordained way is to preach the gospel by visiting people in their homes. The second step of the God-ordained way is to have meetings with the new believers in their homes. In Acts 5:42 and 20:20, the words “from house to house” indicate home meetings. We must have proper home meetings in order for our fruit to remain.
There are four elements that constitute a meeting: the Word of God, the mingled spirit-our spirit mingled with God’s Spirit, singing, and praying. These are like the four legs of a table. If one leg is missing, the table will not stand. The Word, the spirit, our singing, and our praying are the four “legs” that support a meeting. Without these four elements, a meeting will be flat like a tabletop lying on the floor with nothing to support it. However, the more we have the living Word, the more we exercise the spirit, and the more we sing and pray, the more a meeting will be strengthened and built up.
When we are in a meeting, many of us do things as a form, without being genuinely living. Our singing and even our shouting can often be religious forms. However, the more we exercise our spirit to speak, sing, and pray in a free and released way, the better and more living the meeting will be. But if we come and sit in our seats in silence, the meeting will be dead. Sometimes a Christian meeting can be like a cemetery, so quiet and proper yet dead. This kind of meeting is a shame to the Lord.
To sit in silence kills the meeting and is an insult to the God whom we serve. In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul indicates that the dumb, voiceless idols (v. 2) make their worshippers dumb and voiceless. However, the living God causes His worshippers to speak in His Spirit (v. 3). The worshippers of God should not be silent but utter some voice by speaking forth the Lord Jesus in the Spirit of God. Whenever we come into a meeting, we should speak something. Singing, praying, shouting “Hallelujah!”, or speaking the Word by reading from the Bible or reciting a verse are all proper kinds of speaking for the meetings. The more we have these four elements-the Word, the spirit, singing, and praying-the richer our meetings will be.
When we go to visit the homes of ones whom we have recently baptized, we should not go in a religious way according to our usual practice, habit, or custom. We may plan to pray for a certain amount of time before going out to visit people. However, even this can become part of our religion. It is easy for us to take any way and make it a religious practice.
We all must learn to forget religion and live in the spirit. Then we will be quite living in a very normal way. We may arrive home from work only half an hour before our appointment with a new one. Then we will not be able to have our planned time to pray. We may not even have time to eat, so we might take a sandwich to eat on the way. While we are going and while we are eating, we can be praying, calling on the Lord, and singing. We can go in a very spontaneous way because we are persons living in the spirit.
When you arrive at the new ones’ home, you may knock on the door and begin singing. You should sing the hymn, the song, or the chorus that you sang with them on your last visit when they were baptized. They are already familiar with the tune, and before they open the door, they can realize who has knocked. If they have a small child, he may join in your singing. You would be singing outside, and their small boy would be singing inside. In this way the meeting has started even before the door has been opened.
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