The second step in leading people in the new way is to lead them to call on the name of the Lord Spirit. We do not only call on the name of the Lord, but also call on the name of the Lord Spirit. Now our Lord is the Lord Spirit; He is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17-18). The Spirit is invisible, untouchable, yet we can sense Him. The name of this Lord Spirit is Jesus. When we call on the Lord Jesus, we are calling on this Lord Spirit. When you go to lead people, you need to present this clearly. You have to tell people, “Our God is the Savior Jesus Christ. He is the living Spirit today. While I am speaking with you, He is here. Furthermore, I am speaking with you by this Spirit. This Spirit is now in your mouth. Therefore you have to open up your mouth and call on the name of the Lord Jesus from deep within.” Then you have to help him to call accurately. This is like installing light bulbs. After everything is installed and connected, all you need to do is turn on the electricity and the light bulbs will shine. When a person calls on the Lord, he should not merely call from the throat, nor should he merely call with a sincere heart; he must call from the depth of his being, that is, from his spirit. In this way, he is joined to the Lord, the Spirit. When we go to help the newly saved ones, we need to lead them to call on the name of the Lord who is the Spirit, since this was how they were saved in the beginning.
The Apostle Paul wrote an Epistle to Timothy. At that time Timothy had already become Paul’s co-worker. Paul charged Timothy by asking him to “pursue...with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Tim. 2:22). This implies that our whole life should be a life of calling on the Lord. We call on the Lord in the morning; we call on the Lord also in the evening. Our daily life is a life of calling on the Lord. This is not a form but a living. Whenever we call, we touch the Lord within who is the Spirit, and get the supply. You need to lead the new ones to read Romans 10:12-13, that they may see that God is so rich and that they need to call on the name of the Lord in order to obtain these riches. We have to lead people to establish a life of calling on the name of the Lord as soon as they are saved.
The third step in leading people in the new way is to lead the new ones to realize that the meetings of the believers are mutual. Christianity has already brought people to an erroneous situation, that whenever the services of Christianity are mentioned, people immediately have the concept of going to a chapel and listening to the preaching of a father, a pastor, or a preacher. That practice is one-sided, not mutual. But 1 Corinthians 14:26 says that when the whole church comes together, “each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation.” This clearly shows us that the believers’ meetings are mutual. You speak and I listen; I speak and you listen. Everyone speaks and everyone listens. We speak to one another and listen to one another. This is the believers’ meeting as revealed in the Bible.
Also Hebrews 10:25 says, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together,...but exhorting one another.” From this you can see that the Christian meetings are full of exhorting one another and teaching one another. Even the brothers and sisters who have been in the church for a few decades are not clear concerning this kind of proper meeting. Therefore as soon as we start to change the system, the original habit of meeting becomes a problem. In principle, the changing of the system is not a matter of big meetings or small meetings, but a matter of whether one person is speaking with the rest listening, or whether everyone is speaking with everyone listening. It does not mean that if you change the big meetings to small meetings that you have succeeded. Rather, you have to change the habit of one person speaking with the rest listening to everyone speaking and everyone listening.
Up to today, this habit is still not thoroughly removed. In the concept of most of the brothers and sisters, the meetings are for listening to messages and not for speaking. I am afraid that even you who are sitting here, in your subconscious mind, also desire to attend a big meeting with one person speaking and the rest listening. Therefore, it is really difficult to change the system. This is because on the one hand, the habit built up through the many years is not easily changed; and on the other hand, the practice of one person speaking with the rest listening is easily achieved, while that of everyone speaking is not. This kind of meeting in mutuality demands everyone to be prepared. You can no longer be as before—not being watchful, not praying, not preparing the spirit, not exercising faith, and feeling that it was adequate as long as you came to the meeting. Now the new way demands us to be watchful, to live in the spirit, to exercise the spirit, and to speak by the spirit. In this way, when we come to the meetings, we will be able to speak for the Lord. Also, we will be restrained in our speaking, not taking up all the time but allowing others to carry on the speaking. This kind of meeting in mutuality will be fresh and living and full of supply.
I hope that you can pick up this burden of everyone going to the meeting to speak the Lord’s word and leading the newly saved ones to speak the Lord’s word. As soon as a person is saved, you should immediately set up a meeting in his home and lead him to speak, so that he can realize that the believers’ meetings are mutual and are not like the situation in the chapels of Christianity. After two or three months, you should bring him to the group meeting formed by a number of the neighboring families and also have him practice speaking in that meeting. Gradually a number of these groups can come together to form a bigger district meeting. In this way, after they have become stable and have attained to a certain level of practice in speaking the Lord’s word, you can further bring them to the big meetings so they will know that there are big meetings as well as small meetings in the church. It does not matter whether it is a small meeting or a big meeting, the principle is to speak to one another and listen to one another, and not to have one person speaking and the rest listening.
The fourth step in leading people in the new way is to lead the new ones to understand that the church meetings are for the believers to speak for the Lord and to listen to others speaking for the Lord. First, you can speak by the words in the Bible. Any page from Genesis to Revelation can be used for speaking. Besides that, you can also speak by means of the hymns. Every hymn in our hymnal is a message, full of words of revelation. They are a very good means for us to speak for the Lord. Both Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3 mention that we have to use psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to speak to one another, admonish one another, and also sing and psalm to the Lord. This shows us that the hymns are first for speaking, then for singing. Third, you can also speak by means of spiritual publications. We have many spiritual publications among us such as Life Lessons, Truth Lessons, and Life-study Messages. All of these can be used as materials for our speaking. As long as we practice in these areas during our daily living, we will have something to speak when we come to the meetings.
In the regular meetings of the church, there is no need of a definite topic, nor the need to be tied down by a topic. The topic is left in the hands of the Holy Spirit. If every one of the brothers and sisters would speak when coming together, the items touched will definitely be very rich, and there will be no need to set a specific topic. This kind of meeting with speaking to one another and listening to one another should be as frequent as twice a week. When everyone comes together, we do not talk about news or stories, but speak about the Bible, hymns, and the spiritual publications among us. In this way, the meeting will definitely be living and rich. I hope that these words are an explanation of the new way, so that everyone can understand the commission the Lord has given us and the goal toward which we should press.
A message given by Brother Witness Lee in Taipei on October 27, 1987.