What we have just said concerns speaking in a general way. Now we come to the matter of the meetings. Following the word “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” is “teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.” When our daily speaking becomes so fine, songs and hymns will issue forth. But if our ordinary speaking is not adequate, it will be difficult to bring forth songs and hymns. For example, if you speak Romans 8:2 to people all the time, “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed me from the law of sin and of death,” repeating it again and again, eventually a short song will be composed and you will spontaneously sing it. When you come to the meeting, you will have more words, and the words will again become a song. That is why Paul could say, “Teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.” It is very difficult to discern whether this teaching is by speaking or by singing. According to the context, it is teaching by singing. When you sing to me Romans 8:2, you are teaching me; then when I sing to you Genesis 1:26, I am also teaching you.
It is not only a matter of teaching, but also of admonishing one another. Your singing admonishes me, and my singing also admonishes you. This is to admonish one another. We are still far from this condition, but I believe that if we would be willing to practice, this condition will be among us in less than three years. Then there will be much variety in our meetings. You will speak, I will speak, he will speak, and everyone will speak. You will sing, I will sing, he will sing, and everyone will sing. There will be speaking to one another, singing to one another, and the teaching and admonishing of one another. What an enjoyment it will be to come to such a meeting!
Ephesians 5:18b and 19 say, “Be filled in spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and psalming with your heart to the Lord.” Bible readers all know that this verse is a sister verse to Colossians 3:16. These two verses are parallel; they speak concerning the same matter. The difference is that in Colossians 3:16 the word comes into our being, and in Ephesians 5:18b-19 the Spirit comes into our being. This also proves that when the word comes, the Spirit also comes. Where the word is, there the Spirit is also. The word and the Spirit are inseparable.
Ephesians 5:18b does not mention the Holy Spirit, but it does say, “Be filled in spirit.” This is quite significant. This means that from the time that you let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, you need to learn to exercise your spirit; you need to stay in your spirit. The word of the Lord is already in your mind, but how do you cause the word of the Lord to become spirit? You need to exercise your spirit. When you exercise your spirit and use your spirit, the Holy Spirit will fill your spirit. The best way to exercise the spirit is by praying and singing. I encourage you to try it. Keep on praying and keep on singing. The more you pray and the more you sing, the more you exercise your spirit. The result will be that your spirit will be filled with the Holy Spirit. When you come to the meetings, spontaneously you will speak and sing with psalms and hymns. I hope that from now on the brothers and sisters will all receive this new concept. I hope that from today you will prepare yourselves according to these two verses, opening yourselves to the living word of the Lord, letting Him dwell in you richly, and then exercising your spirit to pray, sing, and be filled in spirit with the Holy Spirit. When you are equipped, it will then be easy to speak to your colleagues, and it will also be easy to speak in the meetings.
In the meetings we have often heard some very shallow testimonies. In 2 Corinthians 4:11 Paul says, “We who live are always being delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our mortal flesh.” This was Paul’s experience. Paul was always being delivered unto death for the sake of the Lord, the Lord’s work, the Lord’s ministry, and the Lord’s gospel. The death of the Lord Jesus was doing the killing work in his being. The result was that the life of the Lord Jesus was also manifested in his body. He experienced the Lord’s death and resurrection, and what he spoke was his experience of the Lord.
We who follow the Lord, who are faithful to Him, who serve Him, and who speak for Him are persecuted everywhere, being put to death by others. This is to allow the death of the Lord to operate in our being. The result is that a fragrance will come forth from our being. What we should speak is this experience, this kind of testimony. When we are speaking to others or in the meetings, we should have this kind of speaking as our basis. We should not speak God’s word in a vain way without any experience of our own. We all must spend time to experience the Lord daily and then speak the word of the Lord according to our experience.
For example, we may speak Romans 8:2 to others: “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed me from the law of sin and of death.” Merely to speak these words is a speaking without experience. However, after speaking this verse, if we would add a testimony of our experience, speaking Romans 8:2 according to our experience, this speaking would carry much more weight and have a much richer taste.
Brothers and sisters, according to the revelation of the Bible, every member of the Lord’s Body needs to let the living word of the Lord dwell in him in all wisdom. We should never comfort ourselves with the thought that we can speak a little better than the brothers and sisters in the denominations. Christianity gives people the impression that whoever wants to be a preacher must study at a seminary. Unconsciously, we have also been influenced to think that we are not preachers. The revelation of the New Testament demands that every brother and sister use all wisdom to let the word of the Lord dwell in him freely. We all need to be up to the standard of the Bible.
If we all practice this way, eventually everyone will be an apostle, a prophet, a shepherd, a teacher, and also an evangelist. Thirty years ago, while I was living in Manila in the Philippines, several brothers and I went to the hospital to visit a brother who was ill. The sick brother’s relatives and friends were all from the denominations. When one of them saw us praying around this sick brother, he asked in amazement, “Are you all pastors?” What do you think his concept was concerning prayer? He must have thought that prayer was the pastor’s business. His concept must have been that one normally seeks out a pastor for prayer just as one would seek out an attorney for a lawsuit or a physician for an illness. When a Christian has fallen to the point where he cannot pray and must seek out a pastor for prayer, he has been totally damaged by the concept of the clergy-laity system in Christianity.
The basic principle of Christianity is to let the clergy be the priests. At a funeral a pastor is needed to preach a sermon about going to heaven, and at a wedding a pastor is needed to give a word of exhortation. A newborn baby is to be brought to the church to be blessed by the pastor. Most Christians consider spiritual matters as specific duties of the ministers. In their concept church members only need to attend the church services. When I was a member of a denomination, I attended a prayer meeting at which only three people were present: the pastor, his wife, and the caretaker. When they saw me they were shocked, and they said, “You are not a pastor. Why have you come to the prayer meeting?” We have not fully put off this fallen condition among us. Three hundred people may come to the Lord’s Day meeting, but only thirty may attend the Tuesday prayer meeting. The other two hundred seventy people, or ninety percent of the saints, apparently have disappeared. The ninety percent come to hear the message. In other words, the ninety percent come to attend the service, but not to pray.
A few days ago I attended a memorial meeting for a co-worker. When I saw that the two elders were functioning as pastors for the funeral, within me I was blaming the brothers who were merely sitting there. I believe there were many who knew the brother who passed away in a more thorough and intimate way than the two elders who were speaking. Why were they not willing to come forth to speak? Why did the elders need to do the speaking? Could not the brothers do it? I believe if we had let the brothers and sisters do the speaking it would have been done in a better and more beautiful way. We still have the poison of Christianity among us. Once the leaven is mixed with the flour, it is very difficult to clear it out. I hope that we will clear away those traditions, turn from the past, and learn to speak the word of the Lord. I hope everyone will practice exercising his spirit, letting the Holy Spirit fill his spirit, and rise up to speak for God.