Today is a day of confusion. We have a strong base for the things we minister. I admit that so many items are very new. But we should not think that because they are new, they are not scriptural. The Lord is progressing in opening His word to us. Even today we are seeing something more, that is, the matter of the Body-Christ. This is strongly based upon 1 Corinthians 12:12, “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is the Christ” (Gk.). The many members are one body, and so also is the Christ. This is simply the Body-Christ.
We believe in the Bible, the divine Word, and we believe every word in the Bible. We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God incarnated to be a man, that He died on the cross for our sins and was literally resurrected from the dead. He is our Saviour and life today, and we are looking forward to His coming back, when we will all be raptured. We believe in all these things. Who can say that we are heretical? Is it just because we are shouting? Does this mean that to be silent is scriptural? I do not believe so. There are many verses in the Bible about shouting. When all the captives returned to Jerusalem, and saw the foundation of the temple laid, they all shouted for joy (Ezra 3:11-13). Psalm 5:11 says, “But let all those that put their trust in Thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because Thou defendest them: let them also that love Thy name be joyful in Thee.” This verse says that we should ever shout for joy, not just once in a while. It also says that if we love the Lord’s name, we will be joyful in Him. If we are joyful, how could we be silent? Psalm 47:1 says, “O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.” Some may argue that this is a kind of voice, not a noise. But Psalm 100:1 says, “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord.” The Bible tells us to be noisy! Seven times the Psalms tells us to make a joyful noise.
Some will say that this is something of the Old Testament. Then we had better read Matthew 21:15-16, “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” The children were crying in the temple and shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” Certainly the chief priests and scribes thought this was out of place in the temple. They were greatly displeased. But Jesus declared that out of the mouth of babes and sucklings praise would come unto Him. They were so quiet scripturally, but they never saw such a verse in the Scriptures.
Preaching was only practiced in the sanctuary of the church of England. But God raised up John Wesley, who cared nothing for this. He preached and taught the Holy Word on the street corner. In his meetings there was much shouting. Even today, there are still the shouting Methodists. Church history shows us that many human concepts were brought in to confine the living Christ. He told the seven churches in Revelation, “I am the living One, and was dead; and, behold I am living forevermore” (Rev. 1:18). He is living! He can never be confined by any forms. Of course, if we were to have a form of shouting, Jesus would leave that too. This is why everything must be in the spirit.
I was born and raised in formal Christianity. I really know what Christianity is. After I was saved, I was brought into an assembly of Christians to learn the good teachings of the Bible. I received the teachings on prophecy and typology; but after seven and a half years, I discovered I had been killed by the teachings of dead letter. I repented and came into the matters of the inner life. After practicing the inner life for some time, I still felt weak, so I became involved with the Pentecostal things. I spoke in tongues for a considerable time and took the lead to help others to do this. Then I stopped this peculiar kind of speaking. By the Lord’s mercy He planted me in the church life. You can see that I passed through all of these things. I was in formal Christianity, fundamental Christianity, the inner life, and the Pentecostal things. Through all this process, the Lord planted me in the church life. Now I have learned to enjoy the Lord as everything in my spirit by calling on the name of the Lord, the life-giving Spirit, and pray-reading the living Word, which is spirit and life.
By all these lessons in the past, I have realized that it is altogether a matter of the divine Spirit mingling with our human spirit. This is why 2 Timothy 4:22 says, “The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit,” and 1 Corinthians 6:17 tells us, “But he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” Zechariah speaks not only of the wonderful divine Spirit in his book (Zech. 4:6), but also the human spirit. “The Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him” (Zech. 12:1). In the whole universe, only three things are important: the heavens, the earth, and the spirit of man. The book of Zechariah speaks of the recovery of God’s building. But without the divine Spirit and the human spirit, God’s building is impossible. This is why both of these spirits are mentioned in this book. God’s building is possible, and God is doing it. This building is a corporate entity, the Body-Christ. How the Lord must open our eyes to see this! The whole matter issues from the Triune God as the seven Spirits in our human spirit.
The book of Revelation is a harvest of the divine Spirit and the human spirit. John spoke of it first in his Gospel when he said that God is Spirit and that we must worship Him in spirit (John 4:24). Now in the book of Revelation we see the sevenfold Spirit in our human spirit. This book was written to the seven churches from the seven Spirits. “John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from Him who is, and who was, and who is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne” (Rev. 1:4). To see all that the sevenfold, intensified Spirit is speaking to the churches, John had to be in spirit. In spirit he saw the churches with the Son of Man walking in the midst. In spirit he saw the world under God’s judgment. In spirit he saw the great Babylon. In spirit he saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem. Everything was so clear because he was in spirit. We will never understand what the Lord is speaking unless we also are in spirit. When we are in spirit, the vision is clear. This book is the speaking of the Spirit to the churches (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). Eventually, the Spirit and the Bride speak together as one (Rev. 22:17). It is altogether a matter of the divine Spirit with our human spirit. May we all see this.