The more we speak by the spirit of faith, the more we will experience the Lord as our riches. However, some have stood up to speak with no spirit and no faith. The reason for this is that they are not well-prepared; they have not prayed properly. To do anything we need to be well-prepared. We cannot take the excuse that we are busy, and thus overlook our preparation.
The Spirit of the Lord is in us as well as upon us, but we still need prayer and the proper preparation. If a man has been occupied the entire day, and he comes home and becomes involved in an argument with his wife, there is no way for him to come to the meeting and speak by the spirit of faith. If he speaks, there will be no spirit, and there will be no faith. Before the meeting starts he must confess his sins immediately and ask for the Lord’s forgiveness. He must take the cleansing of the blood. But even after the blood has cleansed him, the Devil will still bother him by reminding him of his failures. When the brothers and sisters come to the meetings, many are ill-prepared; therefore, when they speak there is no spirit, and there is no faith.
It takes preparation and practice to speak in the meetings with spirit and with faith. Before every meeting you have to pray before the Lord. For myself, before every meeting, especially those in which I have to speak, I must pray. Without prayer, I cannot be well-prepared. If you come to the meeting without praying, Satan will accuse you of many things. He will expose all your shortcomings. For this reason you must pray thoroughly, first to chase out all the demons and to deal with all the condemnations, so that you will have the peace and confidence within. In this way your speaking will be with spirit and with faith.
Faith is not in our mind; it is in our spirit. If we have faith, we have the spirit. When our spirits are released, the Holy Spirit, who is mingled with our spirit, is also released. This is the spirit of faith spoken of in 2 Corinthians 4:13. We all need to learn to speak by the spirit of faith. To speak in this way is to prophesy. To prophesy is not to preach; it is to speak for God and to speak forth God.
Whenever we come to a meeting, we must prophesy. Every brother and sister must learn to open his mouth. Otherwise, there is no way to go on in the Lord’s recovery. The only remaining alternative is for one capable one to speak, and everyone else to listen. If this is the case, immediately we fall back into Christianity to become a part of its degradation.
The Bible shows us that whenever we come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, or has a revelation (1 Cor. 14:26). It is not that one man speaks and all the others listen. Rather, it is that all speak and all listen. Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God.” We can teach and admonish one another with hymns. You can speak to me, and I can sing to you. The second part of this verse says that we teach and admonish one another in psalms, while the first part of this verse says that we should let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. Is it the word or is it the psalms? It is difficult to say. If a man has been speaking the words of the Lord for a number of years, the words to him will almost become a psalm. This is my experience. Not long after I was saved, I became very zealous to preach the gospel. I wrote my own tracts. The title of one tract was “The Wonderful Way to the Salvation of Our Soul.” That was all that I could speak at that time. But through all these years I have been constantly speaking. Today, when I open my mouth to speak for the Lord, the words are almost like psalms and songs.
Sometimes when I listen to your speaking, either your subject is wrong or your verbs are wrong. Your speaking is not proper, much less like a psalm. The reason for this is that you have not been exercising. Your speaking is like gossiping. However, you cannot speak the word of the Lord in the same way that you would engage in idle talk. You need to practice in everything—what is the subject; what is the verb; what phrase goes first; and what phrase should come next? All this requires exercise. I am not trying to give you a hard time. The word of the Lord says plainly, “Desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy” (1 Cor. 14:1).
Very few of us who are saved have been helped in this way. Many have been saved for decades, but today they still cannot speak in the meetings. When a child is born, he begins to receive education step by step. From elementary school he graduates into high school. From high school he graduates into college, and from there he enters into graduate school. At the end of his graduate study, he may receive his doctorate. He may be only twenty-six years old when he receives his Ph.D. degree. There is no waste of time. But if he spends his years in a loose way without receiving a proper education and without going through formal training, he will still speak broken English by the time he is thirty years old.
This is the situation with many Christians today. They are busy with many things every day. When Sunday comes they breathe a sigh of relief and go to attend Sunday worship. Their going to the church is for relaxation. Everyone has been busy for five days. When Sunday comes, there is no need to be busy anymore. Everyone goes to the church to let the pastor do the busy work, since on Monday everyone will have to go to work, and the pastor will have his holiday anyway. So everyone sits in his pew, looks around, listens to the choir singing, and is content. This is degraded Christianity. We cannot take this way. Today we are in the Lord’s recovery. We must receive the Lord’s grace. The more we receive grace, the more grace will abound in us. First Corinthians 14:1 says that we should desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but rather that we may prophesy; verse 31 of 1 Corinthians 14 says that we can all prophesy one by one; and Colossians 3:16 tells us to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to God. We cannot do any of these things. For these things we need much grace.
Because we do not have this kind of exercise or teaching, I am burdened to have more fellowship with you concerning this matter. If we do not do this, we will become nominal Christians. We will come to the worship service when the time comes. Others will call the hymns for us, others will play the songs, others will sing, and others will speak. And when the speaking is over, everyone will go home. We may have a pleasant time that way, but the Lord will not have a pleasant time. He will have no way, and His word will not be realized.