When we come together in any kind of meeting, we must exercise to keep ourselves away from anything of religion. Something of the influence of religion can be seen in the way we come to the meetings. Some saints are very talkative everywhere else and at any other time except at the time of the meeting and in the meeting hall. This is the result of the influence of religion. Outside of the meeting hall, they may be very active and talkative, but as soon as they get inside, they become very quiet and “reverent,” walking quietly and maintaining an attitude and posture of attending a religious activity. This kind of conduct is altogether religious and must be completely abandoned. We must learn to come to the meetings in a very general and natural way. We should only consider the meeting hall as a convenient place to come together, not as a “sanctuary.”
In our daily life, we must be people who are full of Christ and filled with the fullness of God in our spirit, praising, rejoicing, and speaking of Christ all day long. Then, we should come to the meetings as we are in our daily life-full of Christ, full of joy, and full of the Spirit. If we are not such persons, we are failures. But if we are a praising, singing, rejoicing, and Christ-speaking people, we will come to the meetings in this way.
The reason that it is hard for us to practice the praising, singing, rejoicing, and speaking of Christ is because religion has been constituted into our being. As Christians, whenever we come to a meeting, we act in a religious way, because we have been influenced by the religious things of our background. This religious influence kills our preaching and singing spirit. The Christ-speaking spirit is also killed. The concept of religion has wrapped up our entire being and has become a part of our being. It seems that even before we became Christians, the concept of religion was there. We must exercise to reject anything of religion in our meetings.
The intrinsic things of the church, such as the intrinsic essence, the intrinsic growth, the intrinsic building up, and the intrinsic fellowship, are all just the processed and dispensing Triune God Himself in Christ, His embodiment, being realized by us. These intrinsic things stand in opposition to our disposition and character. We usually come to the meetings in our disposition and character and behave a certain way according to our disposition and character. Usually, we do not come to the meetings in our spirit, in Christ, in our singing spirit, or in a praising attitude. But when we go to the group meetings in the preaching, shouting, singing, and Christ-speaking spirit, we are completely outside of our disposition and character. Thus, when we attend the group meetings in this way, we are far away from religion.
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