For the home meetings we need mutuality and speaking for the building up. But many of you will say, “Brother Lee, we just don’t have the gift of speaking. Thank the Lord that He has given you such a gift that you can speak for many hours at a time. But I cannot do this. I am not so gifted. I do not have the speaking gift.” Due to our feeling that we are unable to speak in the meetings, we need to consider 2 Corinthians 4:10-14. In these verses Paul speaks about Christ’s death and His resurrection in a subjective way, in a way that identifies us with Christ’s death and resurrection. Verses 10-12 say, “Always bearing about in the body the putting to death of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our body. For we who live are always being delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death operates in us, but life in you.” How could Paul speak in this way? In verse 13 he gives us the secret: “And having the same spirit of faith...” What is the “spirit of faith”? Dean Alford in his New Testament for English Readers states that the spirit of faith is “not distinctly the Holy Spirit,—but still not merely a human disposition: the indwelling Holy Spirit penetrates and characterizes the whole renewed man.” Vincent in his Word Studies in the New Testament says, “Spirit of faith: not distinctly the Holy Spirit, nor, on the other hand, a human faculty or disposition, but blending both.” The spirit of faith is the mingling of the Holy Spirit with our human spirit. We must exercise such a spirit to believe and to speak the things we have experienced of the Lord, especially His death and resurrection. Faith is in our spirit, which is mingled with the Holy Spirit, not in our mind. Doubts are in our mind. The “spirit” in verse 13 indicates that it is by the mingled spirit that the apostles live a crucified life in resurrection for carrying out their ministry. This spirit of faith was Paul’s secret.
Verse 13 continues, “And having the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written, I believed, therefore I spoke; we also believe, therefore also we speak.” Do not believe your feelings. Do not believe your habit. We have to exercise our spirit to believe that we have experienced something of the Lord. Have we not experienced the death of Christ? Have we not experienced the resurrection of Christ? We have! Now we need to exercise our spirit to speak. First, we must exercise our spirit to believe what we have experienced; then we must exercise our spirit to speak what we believe. We all need to speak in this way.
Perhaps one would say, “Well, you know I am just a sister. I don’t know if I have something to speak about. Maybe I don’t.” This is a lie from the usurping enemy. The enemy has been usurping us, the Christians, for years. He has made us all dumb. We have gone for years without speaking in the meetings. Now is the time for us to revolt, to stand up and declare to the enemy, “Get away from me, Satan. I don’t believe that. I am not dumb. I am not serving a dumb idol. I am worshipping a speaking God and He is speaking within me. His speaking Spirit is mingled with my spirit. Now I can exercise my spirit to believe that I have experienced Christ. I have experienced something of Christ. I have experienced Him in His resurrection as my patience, as my endurance. I have experienced Him as life. Christ is my life. I have experienced this, so I exercise my spirit to believe in this and to speak what I have experienced.” This is the secret of speaking.
In the following messages I will tell you how to get the terminology, terms, expressions, phrases, utterances, and even sentences for your speaking. But in this message we have to pick up the matter of the mutuality as the factor in our meetings for speaking. The secret is to believe that we have experienced something of Christ. Then we have to exercise our spirit to speak what we believe. This speaking will build up the saints and the church. When we speak, we speak by exercising our spirit. We exercise our spirit to believe what we have experienced of Christ and to utter what we believe. Try to practice this.