A word now to those who are so accustomed to open their mouths in a natural way in the meetings: I beg you to be somewhat restricted. I do not believe the Lord is so happy to listen to you, because you are so used to speaking. I am afraid that may be a kind of strange fire (Lev. 10:1). On the other hand, those who are so quiet and dumb must open their mouths. I do believe the opening of their mouths is a real joy to the Lord. The Lord will say, “Look, a dumb child is opening his mouth!” This is a wonder and a miracle. So we must be careful. You know where you stand. If you are accustomed to opening your mouth in a natural way, learn to be restricted. Give more opportunity to those who are usually quiet to enter in and participate in the praise. If you are not accustomed to opening your mouth, learn to open it. Of course, we all must take responsibility to go on without undue hesitation and waiting; yet we must still care for others.
Now let us consider some examples of meetings and make a few remarks regarding them.
Suppose that we come together and are not quite clear what we should do. One may begin, “Lord, we thank Thee for the meeting tonight.” Then another may say, “It is good to come together.” This is not too bad, but we must go on from this to uplift the meeting. You may say, “Lord, we meet together with Thee.” Then someone else may continue, “With Thee as the center.” From this you will turn to something further till you hit some point. That point will probably coincide with the current flow in the meetings of the church. Suppose that the flow is the victory of the Lord. It may be good then to use Psalm 68. This will further uplift the meeting and release the praises.
Suppose now that you have begun your meeting with the subject of newness. Concerning this matter, you must realize, there is very little Scripture. With the doctrine of newness, you can finish in two sentences, and you may just find yourself repeating, “newness, newness, newness.” So here you need the experiences. Without experiences you will be tongue-tied, but with them, you will have many things to say. There is no need to restrict ourselves to the doctrine in such a subject. I believe many of us do have the experiences, but we have not learned how to apply them. It is better to give short testimonies telling how new Christ is according to your experiences. Two or three sentences is sufficient; you need not give a long testimony—this will kill the praising. Then others will follow to praise, taking your testimony as a base. Someone else may then share a further testimony regarding his experience of the Lord’s newness. At a certain point we will need a proper hymn to match the praise. After the singing some will continue to praise according to the wording of the hymn. Later we may need a chorus as an insertion to uplift the meeting even further. There should not be any rules or forms. We all must learn to be so alive. We should certainly not be praising the Lord for His newness and yet our way of praising be old.
Now suppose that in our meeting we have taken up the matter of the greatness of God. This is a good point, but there is still not much doctrine here. Yet you may have many things to say. One may rise and say, “Look at the universe; how great God is!” Another may say, “Look at the millions of saints in the earth; how great God is!” Then another may say, “Look at all the local churches. See how all the saints are being built up together in love. How great God is!” Eventually someone may exclaim, “Look at us. See how He is building us up here as the local church in this place. How great God is!” This will release a volume of praise. When the meeting has reached the climax, we may then sing the hymn, “How great Thou art!” We will all be in the heavenlies.
Another meeting may begin with praising about the Lord’s name. Here you have one of the richest and fullest of subjects. There are many doctrines regarding His name, and, of course, it is so easy to release some testimonies on this matter. But we need the skill. With such a subject, before we get into the various aspects and our experiences concerning it, we need to give some kind of definition, some kind of exposition of the name. Someone may then follow by saying that the name of Jesus is a mighty name. This is one aspect, but to mention the aspect of mightiness first is not so fitting. It is better first to speak of the sweetness of the name. The name of Jesus is so sweet—sweet to us in this way and sweet to us in that way. We could continue our praising of the name of the Lord for one hundred days and not be exhausted, but we need the skill. We may then turn from the sweetness to the mightiness. The sweet name is the mighty name. There are many doctrines and many hymns and choruses that we can use to enrich our praising in this matter. We need the practice till we acquire the skill.
In still another meeting we may praise the Lord for His house. This also is an excellent subject: it is exceedingly rich and easy to deal with—even easier than the name of the Lord. Yet we all need more skill. If we have entered into a subject like this, we need time first of all to define what the house is. Then we need to point out in our praises the goodness of the house. From there we may go on from one aspect to another, matching each one with our experiences. Of course, there are many songs and choruses we may use to enrich the praise.
Now I do believe that we all have the idea. We need more and more practice, however, that we may obtain a better coordination one with another and render the best cooperation to God. If we learn to meet together in this way with the proper skill, our meetings will be so sweet, so rich, so inspiring, and so edifying. They will be much more effective than the meetings merely with teachings and messages.
Every time we come to the meetings, we must come fully open to the Lord, not knowing just how the meeting will be carried on. There is no need to decide that tonight we will praise the Lord for His name or His victory or some other topic. That does not work. There is no need to make up our mind in certain matters. In fact, we should not bring anything to the meeting according to our head knowledge. That will damage; that will bring death; that we must forsake. Forget about making up your mind in any way. Just keep yourself in the Lord’s fellowship; just keep yourself open to the Lord. Perhaps at the moment you enter the meeting place you will instantly receive a certain sense deep within you. Just utter that; just follow that. You may never have dreamed of this when you were home; it is so new, so instant, so up-to-date. It may be a sense of the exceeding goodness of the Lord. Then you can immediately praise the Lord, “O Lord, how good You are!” Just praise the Lord according to the instant sense in your spirit. All the others will then coordinate. One has begun, and we will all cooperate to play the same ball. Then the meeting is started. The meetings in this day of the spirit should have no regulations, forms, or particular trends to follow. We all must be fully open to the Lord.
The new way of meeting is a way in the Spirit. It is not according to the teachings or doctrines of the Bible (of course, it is not contrary to the clear words of Scripture), but absolutely according to the Spirit. Do not say, “We must act in such and such a way according to the Scriptures.” In a sense I agree with you, but I tell you, that will kill you. The written code kills. It is rather difficult to find a verse in the Bible telling us to walk according to the Word, but there are several verses instructing us to walk according to the Spirit (e.g., Rom. 8:4 and Gal. 5:16). We must be clear, I say again, that if we walk according to the Spirit, we will certainly not act in contradiction to the Word; everything will correspond to the Word. But the Spirit must be the leading, controlling factor. Do you see the difference? Merely taking the Word in letter and seeking to walk according to it will kill us. For seven years I was with a group that attempted this, and I know too well the resulting death. The Bible tells us that we must walk according to the Spirit, without anything in opposition to the Word. This is the new way. We all must learn, therefore, how to exercise our spirit, release our spirit, strengthen our spirit, and demonstrate our spirit. Then the Lord will be exhibited, the Father will be glorified, the saints will be edified, and the church will be built up in a practical way in the locality where we live. Practice this above all, and you will be ready for the meetings.
We must lay the foundation of the meetings in such a way. Once the foundation has been laid, it will be so easy for the newly saved ones and newcomers to follow. May the Lord be gracious to us that He may have a full recovery.