We must speak not only the gospel, but we must also speak the truth, the divine realities in the Bible. To speak the truth, you have to know the truth. There are many truths in the Bible. The Trinity is probably the greatest truth. Nearly all Christians know that our God is triune, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, yet that is all they know. When asked to speak more concerning this they have little to say. We all must learn to speak something deeper. You can tell people that to be baptized is to be baptized into the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Matt. 28:19). Then they will enjoy the grace of Christ the Son and the love of God the Father and will have a share in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. They will enjoy the riches of the Trinity. You may think it would be hard to pick up all these points, but I do not think so. It all depends upon you. If you have the heart and the desire, you can surely do it, especially if you go to the Recovery Version, where there is a long note on 2 Corinthians 13:14. This note gives a long list of the references concerning the divine Trinity, from Genesis to Revelation. Furthermore, 1 Peter 1:2 says, “According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ....” This is the very enjoyment of the Triune God. Then Paul in Ephesians 3 said that he bowed his knees to the Father, that He would strengthen us by the Spirit that Christ may make His home in our hearts. Again you can see the Triune God. There are many verses like this, including John 14:17-20. These are the rich words. Learn to pick them up and to speak them. Twelve years ago you might have had a lot of excuses not to speak the rich word, but not today. This is because I have put a lot of rich groceries in your pantry or at least at the book counter where you can get them. Now you can get all the riches.
In our training on the book of Acts we stressed the matter of dispensational transfer. I am concerned that many of us may have missed this crucial point. We need to spend a lot of time on all the notes that deal with this transfer in the book of Acts. I believe that in just half a day you will pick up a strong point concerning the dispensational transfer found in the book of Acts. I hope that you would spend some time to pick up the riches of the Word. Then when you speak, you would speak not only livingly, but also richly.
I am thankful to the Lord that many have been attending the ministry meetings for over twelve years. I do believe the reason you have kept attending is because I do not render you some cheap things, some dead things, speaking things in a poor way. Whatever I have delivered to you has been at least somewhat living and rich. The livingness and the richness of this ministry attracts you. We all have to learn to speak not only the living word, but also the rich word. Then our speaking of the rich word will be the release of the truth. There are so many truths in the Bible. For example, the book of Galatians is full of riches: “But when it pleased God...to reveal His Son in me” (1:15-16); “For I through law have died to law that I might live to God” (2:19); “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (2:20); “until Christ is formed in you” (4:19); “For neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation” (6:15). With the Recovery Version and the life-studies, it is so easy to pick up all these riches. It would be a pity if you have been with us for over five years, yet are still not so full of the riches of the holy Word. You are in a rich family with many riches. On your left side there are riches. On your right side there are riches. In back of you, in front of you, above and below you, there are many riches, but all the riches are not in you. We all need to realize the situation and pick up the riches of the holy Word that we may speak to people the living and rich word.
Our speaking with prayer, the Spirit, and boldness is also for the ministering of life. Life is conveyed in the holy Word. The Bible is the word of life. Whatever we speak as the living, rich word of God is the word of life. We speak the word, but within the word is life. Therefore, in our speaking we spontaneously minister life to others. However, due to our shortage in the Word of God, when we try to help others, we just do not have the utterance to say anything. The most we could say might be, “You have to love the Lord, and realize that the Lord loves you and is trustworthy.” Instead we need to minister something new, something of our own experience, something that we have discovered, something that we have gone through. By doing this we will spontaneously minister life to others. We need the proper speaking of the living, rich word so that we can minister life to others.
If you would do these three things—preach the gospel, release the truth, and minister life to others by speaking the living, rich word—then when you come to a big meeting or a small meeting you will be so rich. You will have the habit to speak, and you will have a lot to speak about, even to speak with. You would have a lot. I would have a lot; each one of us would have a lot. In this way the meeting would never be poor, low, dead, or cold. It would always be uplifted, enriched, and quite living. This is the way to have the church life built in the small meetings.
The rich speaking also helps us to recover the weaker ones. In the church there are always a number of weaker ones. They need your support; they need your comfort; they need your help through the rich word by the Spirit.
In conclusion, if we really mean business with the Lord in His recovery, we all have to rise up. Do not take the shortcut way. Prepare yourself with a lot of endurance, a lot of divine patience to take this way for at least three or four years. Go to the small meetings, always spend your time to get into the holy Word, pray properly, and learn to speak habitually the things concerning Christ. Speak the divine riches firstly to build yourself up. Then you come to the meeting to practice this habit of speaking. Do not say, “I do not feel that I have the burden to speak anything in the meeting. I am not led; I have no inspiration.” Forget about this traditional way. Learn to enter into the Word and pray about it, and then practice speaking according to the deposit in you. Then when you come to the meeting, whether or not you have the feeling that you are inspired or led, you will just speak. First your speaking will build up yourself, and then it will spontaneously build up others. Thus, the meetings will be built up. This is the way for the church life.