THE WAY TO BE EQUIPPED FOR THE HOME MEETINGS–THE PRACTICAL WAY TO EXPERIENCE CHRIST (2)
The reason today’s Christian meetings are so weak and so poor is that most of the Christians do not have this kind of experience of Christ. Every seeking saint is a genuine believer with a thirsty spirit created by God. Only God Himself, that is, the items of the riches of Christ, can satisfy people. So we must have the experience of Christ. Then when we come to the small group meetings, we all can spontaneously say something and minister something that is Christ Himself. I recently read the testimony of a prominent government official in Taiwan. When he was close to forty years of age, he felt that he was short of nothing physically, yet deep within him he was hungry for something of the real human life. At this time he and his wife visited many Christian meetings in Taipei but felt that they had received nothing. One day they were brought by some brothers to the meeting of the church in Taipei. On the first visit they realized that the Spirit of God was there. From that day he was saved and began to attend the meetings. I just give you this testimony to show you what we need in our meetings. We must have something in spirit to pray or to sing or to say that can satisfy the hunger of the real seeking ones. This hunger is not in our mentality but in the depths of our being, that is, in our God-created and God-seeking spirit. For the home meetings we need the very Christ whom you and I experience.
How can the home meetings be strengthened, refreshed, and made new? How can they be so attracting, full of power, with might to uphold? There is no other way than to experience Christ. Just to have a list of all the items of the riches of Christ does not work. The only thing that works is what you have experienced. I hope that I have made this clear.
I hate to pass on to you another message of doctrine. I surely expect that you all would take this word and pray, “Lord, minute by minute I want to live a life praying to You all the time.” This is why Paul says to “unceasingly pray” (1 Thes. 5:17). Years ago I did not understand what it meant to pray unceasingly. How could this be? Although I never received the proper instruction, gradually, by groping I touched the way. To pray unceasingly is just to pray all the day in all things. While I am writing, I pray, “Lord, be one with me in this writing. I am going to study a verse that is too deep. It is hard for me to apprehend. Lord, be one with me. I am studying a Greek word that is too deep. I have exhausted all the reference books, yet I cannot get the proper, right, spiritual significance. Lord, be one with me.” Even when I am speaking, I have a praying spirit: “Lord, right now, be my utterance. Be my instant utterance, a present utterance, an utterance just for now, an utterance for some definite persons. Lord, be one sentence for a certain person I don’t know.” I have prayed quite often in this way. The Lord answers and honors this kind of prayer. Quite often people have come to me and told me, “Brother Lee, tonight just one sentence out of your mouth caught me. That was exactly what I needed.” We must be ones attached to God’s Anointed and one spirit with Him. Then we will live such a daily life, in everything experiencing Him in specific ways.
In certain situations you need humility, wisdom, forbearance, slowness, or quickness. If you pray in the way I have described, you will experience Christ as certain items. In one kind of environment you will experience Him as your forbearance. In others you will experience Him as your wisdom, your humility, or your long-suffering. With some weaker ones you may experience Him as your sympathy, as your mercy, as your compassion. On all different occasions and in everything, you will be one with Him and realize that He is one with you. (CWWL, 1985, vol. 3, “The Home Meetings–the Unique Way for the Increase and the Building Up of the Church”, pp. 141-143)
The church in Zamboanga 