Why do we say we must be outside of religion? Why do we say that we need to abandon all forms? Simply because religion and forms bind and kill us. We need just to be in the spirit and exercise our faith to realize the ascended Christ. Oh, we need to be wild for this Christ! We need to be fully released—not so much in the exercise of our physical bodies, but in the exercise of our spirit, the exercise of our faith.
Let me illustrate. We had a co-worker, a sister, six or seven years older than I, through whose preaching I was saved. In 1925, when she was twenty-five years of age, I heard her preach for the first time. She was but a young girl, yet I can testify that in my entire life I have never seen preaching so prevailing as hers. She was a young lady who naturally was shy, but many times in a situation which required something to be said for the Lord, she immediately forgot herself; she did not exercise her body much, but she exercised her spirit and her faith mightily. She spoke with full assurance that she was speaking from the heavens. People trembled before her. She did not jump, she did not exercise her body, but she exercised her spirit and her faith with boldness. She was not bound by any kind of religion, form or teaching—she was absolutely out of these things. She was more than one hundred percent in the spirit, exercising her faith to speak. I tell you, that kind of exercising of the spirit and faith not only frightened the people, but frightened the demons.
Let me give you another illustration. That young sister whom we described being led to her execution was instructed by the Boxers to be quiet, but the more they commanded her to be still, the louder she sang. To be wild in that way is really meaningful for Christ. She said in effect, “You persecutors tell me to be quiet, but I will not be quiet; I will say something for Jesus! I will never be bound by you; I will be wild for Christ!” Again, that kind of exercise and boldness shakes both men and demons.
We need to be fully released and bold to speak and sometimes shout for the ascended Christ, but we must do it in the spirit meaningfully and discernibly. If I realize that it is time for me to speak for Jesus, I will do it from the spirit, boldly and with living faith. This kind of speaking is powerful, full of impact, and with heavenly authority. We do not need any forms, and we need not keep any regulations; yet we must be in the spirit, exercising our faith to believe that we are in the heavens. Suppose we are going to have a Gospel preaching meeting on the coming Sunday morning. Then it is a matter for everyone of us, brothers and sisters, old and young, not just to shout, but to be in the spirit, exercising our faith, just as the soldiers on the front line fighting the battle. Everyone must be on the alert; everyone must be in the spirit, believing by living faith that he is joined to the ascended Head. Then when the time comes, we can immediately stand and with a strong spirit speak something from the heavens. This is a kind of meeting for the ascended Christ. We exercise our spirit with our faith to realize what Christ has accomplished by His ascension.
The Lord is not only resurrected, but also ascended. And by His ascension He has received all the gifts and passed them on to all the members of the church. By His ascension all His members have received something. You cannot say that you have not received anything. If you feel this way, you need to exercise faith—it is not a matter of feeling, but faith. And according to the principle in Ephesians 4, the gifts given by the ascended Christ are for building up the Body, for perfecting the saints, and for bringing in new believers.
Brothers and sisters, let us forget all the things we have learned in the past and simply learn to have these two kinds of meetings. Let us come together with Christ to breathe Him in and feed upon Him. Then at the same time, whenever there is the need of bringing in the new converts, perfecting the saints, and building up the Body, we must all realize that our Lord has ascended and that He has poured down all the gifts with all the functions. We must simply exercise our faith and apply it. We not only need to realize the presence of the resurrected Christ, but also the power, the authority, the headship, and the lordship of the ascended Christ. This requires the exercise of living faith in our spirit. I trust that in the coming meetings we will take the opportunity to be bold and even wild, not physically, but spiritually, to release something of Christ and for Christ.