In this message we will continue to fellowship concerning the third main step of the God-ordained way-the group meeting. In previous messages we have covered the basic elements of such a meeting. When we come together in a group meeting, we must have the mutual fellowship, intercession, care, and shepherding. After this, there must be the mutual teaching by all the saints. This mutual teaching is the crucial part of the group meeting because, through it, the saints will gradually be perfected week after week. As they are being perfected, they will spontaneously learn to speak the word of the Lord, that is, they will learn to prophesy.
Although some among us have been meeting in smaller groups for the past three or four years, for the most part, those meetings were still in the old way. We may pick up all the items of the new way and yet practice them in the old way. Our group meeting may have fellowship, intercession, mutual care, shepherding, and teaching, yet still be according to the old way. In the new way, when we come to the group meeting, we must be those who are living a life of morning revival and daily victory. If we are not revived by the Lord in the morning and are defeated by the enemy in our daily life, how can we be victorious and living when we come to the group meeting? If everyone comes to the group meeting in a defeated condition, that meeting will surely be empty.
If we mean business with the Lord to practice the group meeting in the new way, we must be revived, victorious, and overcoming people. Then our spirit will be living and uplifted, and our person will be altogether in the spirit. Then when we come to the group meeting, we will come in the spirit, praying, praising, and shouting, “Hallelujah!” Even before we enter the meeting place, the meeting will have already started in our home or on our way to the meeting.
The group meeting should be something real in the spirit. It should not be anything as a performance. Therefore, we must be revived, victorious, and living in our spirit. A proper Christian is a very peculiar person, even a “crazy” person. When others laugh, they would not laugh; when others weep, they would not weep. The New Testament, based upon the Old Testament (Deut. 7:6; 14:2; 26:18), calls us the peculiar possession of God (Titus 2:14; 1 Pet. 2:9). To be a Christian is to be something peculiar. We should not be this kind of person through mere performance. We are peculiar, even crazy, because we are saturated with the Triune God. This causes us to be crazy with joy. We are so happy, joyful, and rejoicing because the Triune God is saturating us with Himself. If we are such persons in reality, nothing will bother us. Regardless of what our outward environment or situation may be, we will be at peace and will always be eager to attend the meetings.
The old way is cold, dumb, dead, and deadening. In the old way, we may have come to the meetings deadened within ourselves and deadening to others. But the new way is living, revived, overcoming, shouting, and rejoicing. We cannot learn to be crazy in this way; it must be the issue of our living. Then when we come together in the group meetings, we are living, fresh, and refreshing. We come singing, praying, shouting, and praising; we are crazy in the most positive sense. Then, spontaneously, there will be the proper fellowship with intercession, mutual care, and shepherding. Then the mutual teaching will come forth from all the saints through the mutual answering of one another’s questions.
Because we are so living, we will have many good questions. Then, all can and must answer. Do not think that some brothers are so mature and knowledgeable that no one can teach them. This kind of thought is wrong. Quite often, I have received much teaching from the younger ones. If we mean business with the Lord to follow the Bible, we must practice this way. Hebrews 10:24-25 says that we should not forsake our own assembling together. We should have our own meetings, and they should be full of mutuality. We must consider one another, incite one another, exhort one another, and teach one another.
The perfecting work in the group meeting is carried out mainly through the mutual answering of one another’s questions. Every member can answer according to his capacity, and every member can be taught. Within God’s people there are many riches. However, many times when we go to a group meeting, we do not speak. Although we are rich, it seems that when we come together, many of us leave our riches at home and appear to have nothing. This is due to the marriage between our disposition and religious tradition. To have a proper group meeting, we must dissolve this marriage. The Lord wants us to meet in the group meetings so that we can release what is within us. Some young ones may answer in a way that is not so right, yet that is still a kind of teaching that can help others. No matter who we are or how young we are in the Lord, we all can and must speak something in the group meeting.
Sometimes an interesting question can open the way for the saints to pour out the riches that are within them. Therefore, you all must learn how to ask a proper question in order to help the meeting. If no one else asks a question, this puts the responsibility upon your own shoulders. You must initiate the mutual teaching by asking a question. You might ask, “Why does the Bible tell us that Christ became the life-giving Spirit?” There are many answers to such a question, and every believer, old or young, can give an answer.
Every one of us should feel obligated to speak in the group meeting. Such a meeting always affords us the time and the opportunity to pour out the riches we have within us. By this we both teach one another and are taught by one another. Sometimes we are taught unconsciously. By simply listening in the group meetings week after week, we receive the riches from the saints. Whenever we open our mouth and exercise our spirit to say something, the Holy Spirit within us will be one with our spirit. Sometimes it seems that we are speaking something out of ourselves, but actually it is something out of the Holy Spirit. We must learn to do this; then we can have a proper group meeting.
Home | First | Prev | Next