In preparing for a meeting we need to be ready to receive grace, light, supply, and help. This is toward ourselves. Before coming to a meeting, we should prepare ourselves to receive grace, light, supply, and help in the meeting.
Toward the devil, our preparation is to reject. We reject distractions, hindrances, and a closed mouth. The devil has a powerful scheme, which is to keep our mouth closed. He may let us come to a meeting but try to forbid us from opening our mouth. We should reject his attempt to keep our mouth closed. Some brothers and sisters are kept quiet by the devil because they do not see through his scheme. From the beginning to the end of a year, they never open their mouths in a meeting; hence, they cannot supply others or be supplied by others.
We need to prepare ourselves before every meeting, saying, “I want to open my mouth. I will not let Satan keep my mouth closed. Lord, cast out the demon of dumbness from me!” Especially the brothers and sisters who are particularly timid and shy should prepare in this way. In 1 Corinthians 12:1-3 Paul said that the Corinthian believers once served dumb idols, but now they served a God who speaks. When we served dumb idols, we were possessed by a demon of dumbness and were dumb, but now we are serving a speaking God. His inspiration reaches us, causing us to open our mouth and speak. Therefore, when we come to a meeting, we should reject Satan’s scheme to keep our mouth closed.
The most important thing in a meeting is to touch the feeling and the atmosphere of the meeting. What are the feeling and atmosphere of a meeting? For example, in a wedding meeting everyone is joyful, and we touch a joyful atmosphere as soon as we enter the meeting. In a funeral meeting, on the contrary, we sense an atmosphere and feeling of grief. These two examples clearly show that the atmosphere of a meeting is something concrete. As long as we have feeling, we should be able to sense the atmosphere.
Every meeting has its own feeling and atmosphere, and we need to learn to touch and take care of this atmosphere. It would be insensible for us to begin weeping when we enter a wedding meeting or for us to sit in a funeral meeting looking cheerful. We should never disregard the feeling and the atmosphere of a meeting.
Although most meetings do not have such a distinct feeling and atmosphere, there is always a feeling and atmosphere in a meeting. No meeting is without a feeling or atmosphere. Therefore, if we want to have a good meeting, we need to learn to touch the feeling and atmosphere of the meeting.
In order to touch the atmosphere of a meeting, we need to pay attention to the following points.
The feeling of a meeting is a spiritual fact. When we touch this spiritual fact, the feeling of the meeting is produced. Thus, in order to touch the feeling of a meeting, we need to learn to touch the spiritual facts. In a wedding meeting, for example, everyone is happy because someone is getting married, and there is the fact of happiness. When we touch this fact in a wedding meeting, we are happy. This is the feeling of the meeting. Another example is a funeral meeting. In a funeral meeting everyone is grieving, and there is the fact of grief. Touching this fact in a funeral meeting causes us to have a feeling of grief. This is the feeling of the meeting. The feeling of a meeting is a spiritual fact, and when the spiritual fact touches man’s inward feelings, the feeling of the meeting is produced. We must touch the spiritual fact before we can touch the feeling of a meeting.
In order to touch the feeling of a meeting, our spiritual sense must be keen. It is difficult for a person with a dull spiritual sense to touch the feeling of a meeting. For example, a child can run into a wedding meeting crying, even though joy is the fact in the meeting. A child can also scream and yell happily in a funeral meeting when everyone is grieving. This is because his inward feelings have not been exercised and are muddled. In order to touch the fact of a meeting, our inward sense must be keen, not dull. This keenness depends on our daily exercise.
Our spirit is deeper than our mind, emotion, and will. If we normally do everything by our mind, emotion, and will and disregard the feeling in our spirit, the sense of our spirit will not be developed. Consequently, the sense of our spirit will not be so keen, and it will lose its function when we are in a meeting. However, if we exercise the sense of our spirit for every matter in our daily life, our spirit will be very keen and able to touch the fact of a meeting once we enter the meeting.
This is similar to learning music. Because a person has been learning music consistently, his ears become very sharp and can distinguish a note that is either sharp or flat. There are also people whose eyes are trained to accurately determine the size of a piece of land without measuring it. This is because they have been trained in their daily living.
Hence, after we are saved, we not only need to love the Lord and follow Him; we also need to exercise the sense in our spirit so that it can be keen. In this way, it will be easy for us to touch the spiritual fact of a meeting and sense the atmosphere in our spirit.
Daily exercise of the sense in our spirit is not enough. Before coming to a meeting, we need to fellowship with the Lord in prayer to deal with everything between Him and us. This is dealing with our spirit. Then our spirit will be enlivened and uplifted. Once our spirit is enlivened, uplifted, and refreshed, the feeling in our spirit will be keen, and we can easily touch the feeling of the meeting. Because some people still have many barriers between them and the Lord, they cannot sense the atmosphere of the meeting. Their spirit is dull and numb. Therefore, such dealing is very important before a meeting.