This morning, I would like you to see that our meetings, whether home meetings, small group meetings, or even large meetings, are a matter of speaking the Lord’s word with the spirit. First Corinthians 14:26 says, “Whenever you come together, each one has a psalm...” In our mentality, once a psalm is mentioned, we think about singing. The New Testament, however, shows us that psalms are not primarily for singing, but for speaking. Ephesians 5:18-19 says, “Be filled in spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and psalming with your heart to the Lord.” From this you can see that psalms are primarily for speaking, and then for singing. Also, Colossians 3:16, the sister verse to Ephesians 5:19, says the same thing, “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.” It says here that we should teach and admonish one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. We have never properly practiced this matter. We have been influenced too deeply by Christianity. This time, regarding the matter of meeting, we have to come back absolutely to the word of the Bible—to teach and admonish one another in psalms.
For example, Hymns, #499, says:
Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace!
The Christ who’s all within me lives.
With Him I have been crucified;
This glorious fact to me He gives.
Now it’s no longer I that live,
But Christ the Lord within me lives.
Suppose we have learned the way of not giving a message, but speaking one to another with the contents of the hymns. Which meeting do you think has greater inspiration? It may be that we can try asking a brother to speak a half-minute message according to this hymn, and then have two other brothers speak to one another with this hymn. Once you try this, you will know that speaking to one another gives a strong inspiration and grants a deep impression. The problem today is that in anything we do, we cannot make it if we do not learn and practice. Even inborn capabilities like the ability to walk still require learning and practice. Therefore, the immediate need is to have much practice and much learning after we have changed the system.
First Corinthians 14:26 also says, “Each one has...a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.” We have already seen that hymns are not primarily for singing, but for speaking. As far as “has a teaching” is concerned, of course, it is a matter of speaking. “Has a revelation” is still a matter of speaking. “Has a tongue, has an interpretation,” needless to say, are also matters of speaking. Every item is a matter of speaking.
Fifty years ago, our foremost brother, Watchman Nee, already saw that the Sunday service of Christianity is according to the customs of the nations and is not scriptural. He said that the Lord’s Day message meeting is something of a waste, and that we should not consider this as the church meeting. After these messages were released, they were published in two books, The Normal Christian Church Life and Church Affairs, at two different times. At that time we saw that we should not maintain the Sunday morning meeting with one person speaking and the rest listening. However, we had no other way in our practice, because once we drop this practice of giving a message, there would be nothing else to replace it. Brother Nee and I talked about this matter and tried our best to find a way from the Bible, but eventually we did not find any way.
Although in 1984 we already had more than six hundred churches on the whole earth after these many years of experience, nevertheless the most important place in the Far East—Taipei—and the most important country in the West—the United States—were in a half-dormant state, with no spreading and no increase in number. For this I felt very bothered and also distressed. I felt I could not continue to carry out the outward spreading, even though there were people from many of the major cities of the six continents waiting to welcome me. I was even willing to sacrifice the work in the western world because I had to go back to Taiwan, which is the base of the Lord’s recovery in the countries outside of mainland China, in order to resolve this problem. I am already more than eighty years old. I feel that I may not have too long a time on this earth. I do not desire to be looking at such a situation and cheerlessly leave this world. I also know that for me to come to Taiwan to work in this way is risking my life. Moreover, such a great task and heavy burden should not be pressing upon me. But I feel that I am bound by this duty. I have told the brothers here a number of times that I will labor until my death. Within the limits the Lord has given me, I have assigned the co-workers. I have moved nearly all the useful ones here, whether Chinese or foreign. The Lord has also confirmed this matter. The churches, especially those in the United States, responded to this immediately and offered abundantly for this cause. The reason that we have mobilized our manpower and finances to such a great extent to study and carry out this matter is that, based on decades of experience, we feel this matter is not easy to change; yet it has to be changed. Until now, we have spent three full years of time; thank the Lord, we have already obtained a very good result.