Prayer: Lord, again tonight we are all sitting around You. Lord, we believe You are open to us. Lord, do keep us open to You. Lord, we would like to hear a word from the depths of Your heart. Lord, we don’t like to hear doctrine; we don’t like to hear knowledge. We like to hear Your voice; we like to hear Your speaking. Lord, tonight do speak a word to all of us. Our needs may be different, yet, Lord, we all need the same word. Lord, speak a word to us that can enlighten us—a word that can heal us—a word that can even kill our problems. Lord, how much we need Your instant, living, and operative word. Lord, we believe we are under Your cleansing, so we have no frustration. Lord, we don’t have any sensation that anything is between us and You. We believe there is nothing between. So, Lord, do speak to us. We are here ready to hear Your word. Amen.
In this meeting we would like to have open fellowship with the Lord and open fellowship one with another. My burden is not to pass on some knowledge to you but to open up my whole being to you, hoping that you would open up your being to me and that we would all open ourselves to the Lord. I believe the Lord is open to us. Let us have some very genuine talk with nothing artificial. Let us talk not only from heart to heart but also from spirit to spirit. Many brothers and sisters have been among us for a number of years and have gained much knowledge through all the Life-studies, but tonight we are not touching knowledge; we are touching the heart and the spirit. We need to have a heart-to-heart touch, a spirit-with-spirit touch.
Although we want to open ourselves heart-to-heart, you must realize it is very dangerous and risky to know a person’s inner condition. In the matter of spiritual seeking, it is better not to know others’ condition. Not to know others’ condition is a safeguard for our spiritual seeking. If you have learned some spiritual lessons, you will realize that to know others’ situation is a snare of the enemy. If you have never learned not to know others’ situation, you have never learned what it is to be spiritual. To be genuinely spiritual is to know only the Lord, not to know anyone’s situation. Your eyes are one thousand percent open to the Lord, but one thousand percent blind to any kind of situation. We need to be blind concerning others’ situations. If you consider your experience you will realize that when you are down spiritually, you like to know others’ situation. When you are fallen and backslidden, you like to know about others’ situation. You will be exercising and watching to get information concerning others. But when you are up spiritually you are not happy to know others’ situation; you don’t like to know. When you are up, you don’t like to know; you don’t have the heart, you don’t have the intention, you don’t have the desire to know. When you are up and someone comes to you speaking about Christ and ministering Christ, you are happy. When someone comes to you talking about others, it seems tedious to you. It makes you unhappy. This is a strong indication that the Spirit we have within, even the indwelling Spirit, doesn’t like to know others’ situations. It is always dangerous to know others’ hidden secrets. It is against the spiritual law to dig out others’ inner hidden secrets. If you have learned some spiritual lessons, whenever one comes to you trying to open up his inner secrets, you would avoid it. You know that is risky and that is dangerous.
When I say we need the heart-to-heart fellowship and the spirit-with-spirit fellowship, I don’t mean that you open up your inner secrets concerning your wife, your husband, your money matters, your college degrees, your future, and so forth. I mean concerning Christ. To come to me and open yourself in a heart-to-heart way to have some fellowship concerning Christ is safe and is needed. This is altogether profitable and for the building up. We need to open ourselves to one another concerning Christ.