The Christian meeting is altogether a matter of our spirit. Concerning this, there are two very strategic points. First, if you are going to get yourself equipped so that you may be used by the Lord to bless the home meetings, you have to be filled in your spirit. Ephesians 5 shows us such an excellent revelation concerning God’s economy of Christ and the church. It seems strange that all of a sudden it says, “And do not be drunk with wine” (Eph. 5:18). We know that to be drunk with wine is to be filled in our body with the physical wine. Do not go that way, but be filled, not in your body nor in your mind, but in your spirit. Be filled in your spirit. The King James and some other versions render this verse wrongly. Their translators thought that the spirit here refers to the Holy Spirit. According to the context, if you read the entire chapter, you can see that the spirit here does not refer to the Holy Spirit. It refers rather to your regenerated spirit, which is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. As a seeking Christian you should not be filled in your body with some physical thing; you should be filled in your spirit.
God made our spirit in a unique way, so that it could never be invaded by anything other than God. The Bible implies that God created one organ in our being to be the very central organ, that is our human spirit. This is an extraordinary organ in our human being. It is hard to find a verse indicating that our human spirit could be occupied by anything other than God. Even the unbelievers’ spirit is kept by God purposely for Himself.
This is why Ephesians 5:18 says to be filled in this organ. Be filled in your spirit with what? Ephesians does not say, nor does it need to say. When it says, “Be filled in spirit,” surely it means be filled in your spirit with God. How can we know this? To know the Bible is not by our imagination, but always by its context. I do not think many among us have ever paid adequate attention to the context of Ephesians 5:18. Verse 13 says, “But all things which are exposed are made manifest by the light; for everything that makes manifest is light.” This word brings us into light. Then it continues from verse 14: “Wherefore He says, Awake, sleeper, and arise from among the dead, and Christ shall shine on you. Look therefore carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And....” “And” here means after all this, in addition to all this you add something: “Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled in spirit.” The next verse says, “Speaking to one another.” Right after “be filled in spirit” you have the word “speaking.” This kind of phrase could be considered as a modifier. “Speaking to one another” modifies “be filled.” How could you be filled? It is by speaking. By speaking, you will be filled in your spirit. But is it by speaking to one another in murmuring or gossip? Should we speak to one another about the world news, America today, school, family, computers? What should we speak in? We should speak in psalms, such as Psalm 119, a long piece which has 176 verses of 22 sections according to the Hebrew alphabet.
Verses 19 and 20 say, “Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and psalming with your heart to the Lord, giving thanks at all times for all things.” Four things are mentioned here: speaking, singing, psalming with your heart to the Lord, and giving thanks at all times for all things. Give thanks not only at the time you gain some profit, but also at the time when you suffer a loss; not only at the time when your wife gives you a happy face, but also when she gives you a long face. When she drops her face you have to say, “Lord, thank You” even the more. When you have a car accident you have to say, “Thank You, Lord.” You have to give thanks at all times for all things bad or good.
In these verses there are four modifiers: speaking, singing, psalming, and giving thanks. All these modify “be filled.” Strictly speaking, I am not a light person who is easily excited, so it is hard for me to be rejoicing or to be joyful. But a number of times when I read a hymn and spoke the hymn to another person, I got excited. For instance, you just speak that hymn, “Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace!” You may think that this has nothing to do with the meeting, but speaking to one another indicates a kind of meeting. If you speak to your wife that means you are meeting with your wife. That is the initiation or start of your home meeting. Speaking to one another indicates a kind of meeting. In today’s Christianity have you ever found a place where people meet together to speak the hymns? It is easy for people to sing the hymns, but not to speak the hymns. We have to practice this. Speaking the hymns is not my invention. This is clearly mentioned here by Paul: “Be filled in spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and psalming with your heart to the Lord.” However, we are not used to doing this.
Now we are going to have home meetings. We all know the problem. Suppose six to eight of us come together. You look at me, and I nod to you. We just do not know what to do. First, we Christians should be people who are all the time filled in our spirit, not just at the time of worship, not just at the time of prayer, not just at the time of morning watch, nor just at the time of the meeting. All the time we must be persons filled in our spirit. We must practice this. Do not practice this just whenever you come to the small meeting. Practice this in your home, in your daily life, from morning to evening. Practice being filled in your spirit with God, with Christ, with the Spirit, with all His praises. The best way to help us do this is to speak the hymns. If you do not have any persons to speak to, you had better speak to the air, to the window, toward the lawn, the trees, the flowers, and sometimes to the cats, dogs, or birds. Speak to your wife and let your wife speak to you. Do not speak ordinary words; speak psalms and hymns. Hymn #501 is a good hymn for speaking. “O glorious Christ, Savior mine, Thou art truly radiance divine.” Speak to one another. Practice this and you will be equipped for the home meeting. Then when you come in, you need not wait, and you need not look at others. You just say, “Brothers, may we speak a hymn?” Sometimes if you ask to sing a hymn, the answer may be that no one knows the melody and that no one can lead the singing. But everybody can speak. Yet to speak from the spirit requires exercise. You need to exercise to speak, to speak with your spirit.
Ephesians 5:18b says, “Be filled in spirit,” and 19a says, “Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” I believe this could be done mainly in the home meetings. It is hard for us to do this in a big meeting, but it is very good to do this with five, six, seven, or eight. When six or eight come together, one says, “Brothers, let us speak Hymn #501.” You speak from the spirit and the others follow in the spirit. If you speak from your natural voice, the others would follow in the same way. If you open in the right way to speak, “Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace!” (Hymns, #499), others will follow. Right away the meeting begins in a living way. This kind of speaking inspires people, stirs people up, and quite often nourishes people.
The Recovery Version translates Acts 13:52 as follows: “The disciples were made full of joy and of the Holy Spirit.” Actually, “made full” in the Greek text is just one word, “filled.” The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. The verse is translated in this way because Acts uses two words for filling and it is hard to find equivalents for these two words in the English language. One is pletho, to fill outwardly; the other is pleroo, to fill inwardly. On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came down upon the disciples, and they were filled outwardly (pletho, Acts 2:4). At the same time the wind filled the house inwardly (pleroo, Acts 2:2). The second word, pleroo, is used again in Acts 13:52. The disciples were filled within. This verse says that they were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Whenever you are filled within with the Spirit, you are also full of joy. This is why the kingdom of God, the church life in Romans 14, is “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (v. 17). You have to exercise righteousness for yourself, and you have to exercise peace with others. Then you must have joy in the Holy Spirit with God all the time. You must be a joyful person. You must be a person of joy. You could only be this kind of person by being filled with the Holy Spirit. This is not the tongue-speaking; this is not the outpouring of the Spirit upon you. This is the infilling, the inward filling of the Holy Spirit within you.
In Acts 13:52 the believers were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. I do believe this was not only in their daily life. At that time their meeting life was a great part of their daily life, because every day they met from house to house. They were joyful people. In Acts 2:46 they broke bread from house to house and they ate food with exultation. Exultation is rejoicing, a crazy joy, a kind of ecstasy. You are so happy, so joyful, that you are crazy; you are a drunkard. That was the way they met in the homes, and that attracted people. Those whom the Lord added were attracted by their exultation.
Suppose you had six brothers and sisters meeting together and you brought in two or three new ones. If all six of you were so sad, not doing anything, but just expressing yourselves in this way, every new one would go away. The husband would say, “We have tasted this kind of atmosphere enough already. In my home I saw my wife’s face like this.” Or the wife would say, “In my home I saw my husband’s long face for quite a long time. I don’t like to see this kind of face anymore. I don’t like to taste this.” But suppose all six of the brothers and sisters were excited, not performing, but filled with joy, eating food with exultation. Every new one would be inspired and attracted. In Acts this eating food with exultation was related to the home meetings. Every day the believers broke bread from house to house and they ate food with exultation, praising God.
If your spirit is not filled with the Holy Spirit, how could you be joyful? How could you be exultant? So we all have to see this. We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit all the time, every day. When we come together, the only way that could help us to be so full of the Holy Spirit is to speak, first to speak a psalm, to speak a hymn, and even to speak a song. Then we sing the short pieces and psalm the long pieces. We all need to practice this. Then we will be persons equipped for the home meetings.