We have gone through the entire sixteen chapters of 1 Corinthians, chapter by chapter. This is the foundation, this is the basis for our meeting together. It is not just a matter of gifts. The so-called Plymouth Brethren pluck out 14:26, and the Pentecostal brethren take just a few verses from chapters twelve and fourteen referring to the gifts. But we must take the whole book. By looking into the context of all the chapters and obtaining a full scope, we realize that the function in the meeting depends on the life in our daily walk. The way to meet together properly is to live properly. This simply means to take Christ as our life and our everything in our spirit. Therefore, we must learn how to exercise our spirit constantly. We have seen that the Apostle Paul was one who did this very thing. He was so strong in his spirit; he was forever exercising his spirit. This is the proper way to live, and this kind of living is the first necessity of the proper way to meet.
Let me illustrate. Suppose that we have a few brothers here who like to play basketball. They always spend their weekends and spare time engaging in the sport of basketball. Then suppose there is another group of brothers who like to have parties, to go to the beach, to see the movies, etc. Other brothers and sisters are always shopping for new clothes, new cars, new homes, new gadgets, etc., etc. Then on Sunday they all come together and ask me to speak to them concerning how to meet. Do you think that such people could meet in a proper way? If I encourage them to raise a building fund, to obtain the best and most eloquent speakers, to build a temple or a cathedral, that would be easy. But to tell them to exercise their spirit that they may all prophesy one by one would be impossible. They would chase me away.
I believe now we are all clear: in accord with the whole book of 1 Corinthians, the proper way for us as Christians to meet depends upon the proper living, the proper life. First Corinthians 14 is not the first chapter nor the last chapter of this book. There are so many chapters preceding it, telling how Christ is everything to us and how we must exercise our spirit to enjoy and experience Him in so many ways. Following chapter fourteen, we still have two chapters, telling how Christ is the life-giving Spirit, how our spirit needs to be continually refreshed with Christ, and how we need to live, move and do everything in love. If we are such persons, taking such a way to live day by day, we are qualified to meet together; then we have the right foundation, the right basis for our meeting. Do not pick out a verse here and there in the book and speak about gifts, tongues and healing, etc. That is not the message of 1 Corinthians. Where there are saints who mean business with the Lord, who have the real experience in their daily walk of taking Christ as their life, the meetings will be so proper and living. There is the life to support the meeting.
What is the proper way to meet? 1) We must have the proper life. We must exercise our human spirit all the time to take Christ. We must be so accustomed to exercising our spirit. It is not just a matter of doing this in the meetings, but in our daily walk with our children, our husbands, our wives. We must forget about exercising our minds and turn rather to exercising our spirit. Then our spirit will be so strong, living, and aggressive. By taking Christ as our life and experiencing Him as everything day by day, we will have a spiritual savings account. We will continually deposit something of Christ into this account and have a rich surplus of our experience of Him. We will come to the meeting with a strong spirit and a rich surplus. Then, 2) we only need to exercise our spirit to stand up in the meeting to function, to prophesy. It will be so spontaneous for us to do so; it will simply be an overflow of what we have been experiencing of Christ all day. There will be no strain; it will just be a continuation of our normal, daily experience of Christ. Whatever we do in the meeting will be living and rich with Christ in the spirit. Of course, it is also necessary in the meeting to drop all our old background. We must be delivered from the influence of thinking we are not capable of saying anything in the meetings, delivered from thinking we are not qualified, we are not committed with something from the Lord. No one else can function on our behalf in the meeting. We need to come to the meeting with a new concept, realizing that we are in something new, that we are out of the old Christianity. We need to come in a new and living way, accustomed to exercising our spirit, with Christ as our life and with a rich surplus of Christ. This is the way to meet.