When you are going to visit one of the saints, you need to learn to visit in the spirit. Whenever you meet another saint, there is a serious need for the exercise of the spirit. Merely talking according to your mentality, according to your knowledge, does not edify others in the spirit. You need to learn to exercise your spirit, to sense the anointing within you and to follow it. Because you have a renewed spirit which is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, you have the anointing within you. You must take care of this anointing and fellowship with the saints according to the inner feeling, the inner sense. Then you will serve and have fellowship with the saints in the spirit and not in the letter.
We need to consider some details because this matter is very important. Suppose a sister you are visiting opens herself to you concerning her family problems. To tell her something according to the teachings of the Scriptures does not work. During the very time you are listening to her, you must exercise your spirit to sense her spirit and to sense the anointing within you. If you would do this, while you are listening on one hand and sensing on the other hand, the anointing, the Holy Spirit within you, will reveal to you something so spiritual and so heavenly. Then you will be able to help her in a living way. At that very moment, you have to forget your knowledge of the Scriptures, your knowledge of the Christian teachings, and give up that knowledge. You have to exercise your spirit, looking to the Lord. While you are listening, you have to fellowship with the Lord and to sense both what is in her spirit and what is the anointing in your spirit. This is the way.
We all must learn to practice, to exercise, to conduct ourselves in the spirit in the service of the Lord. Suppose we are preaching the gospel. We need much more exercise in the spirit. We should not preach merely according to the gospel truths or according to the knowledge of the gospel. Merely to preach that we are all sinners and that the Lord Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross for our sins does not work. That is the preaching in letters. Our preaching must be in the spirit.
We need some experiences to illustrate this point. Many times in the gospel preaching I have spoken a word that exactly met the need of someone who was listening, although I had no knowledge of the situation. I have described their case and exactly what they had done, along with their feelings and reactions step by step. Such a speaking has been used of the Lord to bring the needy ones to Him.
In one gospel meeting after we had taken the way of preaching according to the inner feeling of the spirit, while I was speaking I felt I should say, “You say you are not a sinner? I tell you, you stole the chalk from the school.” A few days later I learned that a young high school student had been brought to that meeting by his mother. While I was speaking, he was thinking, “Well, I am not a sinner. I haven’t committed any sins.” Just as he was saying this to himself, I spoke the words, “You say you are not a sinner? You stole the chalk from the school.” He had actually stolen chalk from the school, but when he heard these words, he said to himself, “That doesn’t matter.” At that very moment I said, “You say that doesn’t matter? You brought this chalk home and drew circles upon the floor.” This statement caused him to tremble, because that was exactly what he had done. As a result, he was saved. Later he asked his mother whether someone had told me his story and how I could have known everything he had done. Actually, I did not even know his name or anything he had done. We have had other experiences similar to this one.
Another time in the gospel preaching I turned to a particular part of a large congregation and said, “You say you are a good person? Just look how cruel you are. Your husband works hard to earn a living for you, and at the end of the year you forced him to buy a pair of high-heeled shoes for you. He did not have the money, but you forced him to do it.” A week later, one of the sisters who did the visitation work told us that a young lady was saved by that word. At first that word had made her very angry, because she thought her neighbor had reported her story to me and that I had scorned her publicly. When she learned that this was not the case, that young lady was convinced by the Lord.
In an illustration on another occasion I said, “Suppose you are seventy-six years of age.” Later I learned of someone just that age who received the help. There are living stories of such experiences in the gospel preaching according to the inner feeling of the spirit.
We all need to learn to serve in the spirit, not in knowledge or in the letter. If we take this way, many times while we are serving in the spirit, the Holy Spirit will be so living to us.
Whenever you stand up to speak, you must forget about your knowledge. On one hand, you need the knowledge, but when you stand up to serve, you have to forget the knowledge. If you would keep your knowledge in your memory at that time, you will do a lot of damage, and you will hinder the Spirit. While you are speaking, you have to forget about your knowledge and come back to the spirit to minister in the spirit. This is a lesson which requires much exercise. You may think that you will not know what to say if you let go of your knowledge. This may be true, but all of us have to exercise to serve, to minister, in the spirit.