According to our study, experience, and observation, I would say that we have found that the home meetings are the unique way for the increase and building up of the church. There are many positive things that come out of the home meetings. In the home meetings, everyone becomes a seeking one, a serving one, a preaching one, a teaching one, and one that spontaneously witnesses for the Lord. We hope to encourage all the saints in the Lord’s recovery to have meetings in their homes.
The Greek phrase in Acts 5:42 indicates that not one house was missed. They met from house to house. We should not take the way of selecting some promising homes, and then having the meetings in those promising homes. This is wrong. Every home of the believers is promising. We need to open up our home. First we can meet with our folks. We do not need to meet with others first. We can initiate our home meeting by meeting with our family members. We who have wives and children all can have a home meeting. We just meet with our folks, with our wife, and with our little children. To set up a meeting will stir up our heart and will fan the flame in our heart and in our spirit. First of all, we will be burned, and then our family will be burned. To set up a home meeting will keep out many evil things from our homes.
Do not say that you are weak, that you cannot overcome your self, that you cannot overcome your temper, that you cannot control yourself, that you cannot do this or that. Just set up a home meeting in your home. I have seen in many cases that when you set up a meeting in your home the Holy Spirit brings people to you. Gradually people will come. I would say that if you are a Christian, yet you do not have a home meeting, you are not up to the standard. You may know the Bible, be spiritual, be seeking, love the Lord, and so forth, but if you do not open your home, you are not up to the standard. Even a single sister could open her apartment for meetings. Every lodging of the saints, whether single or with a family, should be opened up for meeting. You may say, “With whom do we meet?” First, with the angels, then with a believer, then with a neighbor. You must pray, endeavor, and even fast until you get a neighbor to come to meet with you. If you determine to have some meeting with you in your home, surely there is a way. A lot of persons are around you every day. You have a lot of relatives and friends.
Are you going to be holy? Set up a home meeting. Are you going to be spiritual? Set up a home meeting. Are you going to know the Bible? Nothing will force you to seek the knowledge of the Bible more than setting up a home meeting. The home meetings will force you to seek after the proper, spiritual knowledge, and while you are seeking the knowledge for teaching others, you yourself will be taught, enlightened, and nourished. I can recall my own history. When I was trying to teach others I began to realize that I needed to be taught. The definite, single, and sole step for the Lord’s recovery to take today is to promote the home meetings. This is the unique way.
In one sense, for everyone to come together to have home meetings is an easy thing, but in another sense, it is the hardest thing. The most difficult thing is to have the home meetings. Why? Because for Christians to gather together is not a natural thing. It should not be done in a natural way but rather in the spiritual way. So, we studied much concerning this matter, and thus far, we are still not so sure what is the best way to build up the home meetings. We are trying our best to read, to study, to check out, and even to examine and determine the best way to have the home meetings. Thus far, I can tell you that to have the home meetings depends altogether upon our spirit.
Those who are too much for the Pentecostal movement would say, “Well, if you don’t have the Holy Ghost, you just cannot have any kind of meeting. A Christian meeting depends upon the Holy Ghost.” But I was in such meetings for some time and I did not see that those meetings were so good in the most proper way. After reading the Scriptures again and again and checking with our experiences, we realized that for Christians to meet is altogether a matter of our spirit.
If you are going to play a certain sport you have to use the right members of your body. To use your ears, nose, lips, or teeth to play football would be nonsensical. You may say that you depend upon the Holy Ghost, but to depend upon the Holy Ghost you need the proper organ. You cannot depend upon the Holy Ghost by your mind; the mind is not the right organ to touch the Holy Spirit. There is only one organ created by God for you to touch the Holy Spirit—your human spirit. Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit.” It is the Spirit with your spirit. The Spirit works, yet He works by a certain organ.
For example, all the appliances in this building are operated by electricity. But electricity only operates by a definite means, that is, by the wire and the switch. If you do not install wire into this building with a switch, the electricity will not work. The problem today is not with the Holy Spirit, because according to the entire New Testament revelation the Holy Spirit has been given and has also been poured out. The Holy Spirit today is the very consummation of the Triune God. He has gone through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. Now He is the life-giving Spirit as the consummation of the Triune God. In John 16:15 the Lord Jesus tells us that all that the Father has has been given to Him. Now all that He is and has is fully realized in the Spirit. Hence, the Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God, and this consummated Holy Spirit is ready. Today in the whole universe this consummated Holy Spirit is ready for God’s seekers to open up and receive Him. By what organ do we receive Him? By our spirit!
Today, when we preach the gospel to sinners, mainly we have to approach their conscience. If we only teach their mind to know God, to understand the Bible, and to understand the gospel, that is not adequate. The best and most effective way to preach the gospel is to touch a sinner’s conscience, for the conscience is the main part of the human spirit. When we touch a person’s conscience, we touch their spirit. This is why when we preach the gospel, we must do it with the convicting power to convince them and to convict them in their conscience. Then, when their conscience is touched, they begin to repent, to weep, and sometimes even to cry. We cannot teach people’s minds to weep; we have to touch their conscience. The conscience is the main working part of our human spirit, and when we exercise our conscience, we exercise our spirit. When we pray, and repent, and speak to the Lord, we exercise our spirit. When we do this, right away the Holy Spirit gets into us. This is the only way for us to touch the Holy Spirit, the consummated Spirit as the very consummation of the Triune God. But this principle has been very much neglected, and even missed by today’s Christians.
Some think that the best way to get the Spirit is to pray and pray. That is right. The best way to touch the Spirit is to pray, but you have to pray with a right understanding. The ones in the Pentecostal movement always teach people that they have to fast, to pray, and to wait on God until suddenly something happens to them. Then you get the Holy Ghost. They say that the best way to receive the Holy Ghost is to turn your jaw and turn your tongue to utter something in a strange voice, that is, to speak in tongues. I tried many different ways, but I must tell you that the biblical way is to pray in your spirit. You do not need to wait, and you do not need to turn your jaw, and you do not need to turn your tongue; you just need to pray from within your spirit. If you will do this for just a minute, you will touch the Holy Spirit.
Today, to touch the electricity in this building is easy; just go to the switch. Suppose you kneel down, begging and praying, “Dear electricity, please come to me. I’m waiting on you. Don’t you know this? Answer me. Please come!” If the electricity could speak, it would say, “Stupid guy, why don’t you touch the switch?” Every morning you have to pray, not just to ask the Lord to give you a good day, but to open yourself up again in your spirit. Open up your spirit to the Lord, “Lord, thank You.” Sometimes you only need to say, “Lord, thank You. Thank You that I can contact You here.” You can say, “Lord, thank You. Thank You that Your blood cleanses me. Thank You, Lord, that You are with me.” When you do this, you have the sense that deep within you, that is, in your spirit, you are touching the Lord, you are touching the Spirit. We all know this, but too many times we pray so many things which distract us from touching the Spirit.