Acts1:8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
God Needing Man to Cooperate with Him before He Can Fulfill His Eternal Plan
The Bible shows us that God needs man. God needs man to cooperate with Him before He can fulfill His eternal plan. At no time and place has God’s work been carried out without human cooperation. Man works together with God, and God cannot do anything without man. (The work of God here does not include His work of creation in the six days. The work of creation in the six days was God’s own work, and man had no part in it.) (CWWN, vol. 37, “General Messages (1),” msg. 28)
A Person’s Usefulness Depending on His Character
Whereas our words represent our person, our character is our very person. A person’s usefulness, the things that can be entrusted to him, the responsibilities he can bear, and the things he is able to accomplish altogether depend on his character. A carpenter determines the use of a piece of wood based on its quality. Laziness ruins one’s usefulness. Accordingly, character has very much to do with the Lord’s service. Consider those persons in the Bible whom God used. They were used by God because they possessed a character that was fit for His use. (Character, msg. 2)
We must be built up as proper human beings. This is a matter of our character, that is, our behavior and habit. In our sleeping, in our rising up, in our dressing, and in every detail of our life we should be very strict to be built up in a good character. We must be punctual and learn to take care of even the small matters in a proper way. We must be strict in our speaking. We have to learn what to say when we talk to others; we should not be free and loose to express ourselves. Every matter related to our life should be in order. (The Exercise and Practice of the God-ordained Way, msg. 31)
Two Aspects of the Holy Spirit
In chapter one of Acts the resurrected Christ charged His disciples to remain in Jerusalem for the baptism in the Holy Spirit: “For John indeed baptized in water, but you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5). In verse 8 He went on to say, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” Here we see that the baptism in the Holy Spirit is a matter of the Spirit descending upon the disciples.
In Acts 1 the Lord talks about the disciples experiencing the Holy Spirit coming upon them. But had the disciples not received the Holy Spirit already?
According to John 20, in the evening of His resurrection day, the Lord appeared to His disciples, breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (v. 22). In this verse the Holy Spirit is likened to breath. Breath is something inward, something related to the life within us. In John 20:22, therefore, the disciples received the Holy Spirit as breath for life.
Forty days after His resurrection, the Lord commanded the disciples to remain in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit to descend upon them. That descending of the Spirit upon the disciples was for power, not for life. In John 20 we have the Spirit inwardly for life; in Acts 1 we have the Spirit outwardly for power, for baptism. When a person is baptized, he does not drink the water; instead, he is immersed in the water. In a similar way, the baptism in the Holy Spirit is a matter of the Spirit coming upon us outwardly so that we may have power.
The Lord’s word to the disciples concerning the Holy Spirit in chapter one of Acts was fulfilled in chapter two. On the day of Pentecost “suddenly there came a noise out of heaven like a rushing violent wind,” and it filled the house where the disciples were sitting. Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4). On the day of the Lord’s resurrection the disciples received the Holy Spirit as breath for life. Then fifty days later, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples as a rushing mighty wind. We can easily see the difference between breath and wind. Breath is for life, and wind is for power. In John 20 and Acts 2 we have two symbols of the Holy Spirit: the breath for life inwardly and the wind for power outwardly. (Life-Study of Mark, msg. 67)
The New Way Being the Way of the Lord’s Recovery
The new way is the way of the Lord’s recovery. The new way is inclusive. It starts with knocking on doors for preaching the gospel to dispense the Triune God into people; then it continues with establishing home meetings in the believers’ homes, with speaking to one another and listening to one another, for the building up of the local churches. When we are building the local churches in this way, we are building up the Body of Christ, the universal church. I hope that you all can listen to this word completely, thoroughly, and comprehensively. When you return to your respective localities to speak, you must also speak completely, thoroughly, and comprehensively. May the Lord have mercy on us! (Words of Training for the New Way, vol. 2, msg. 15)
The New Way Being a Way That Causes Us to Be Revived
The kind of meeting that is revealed in the Bible is one in which everyone functions by praying, singing, speaking, and testifying. To be able to do these things requires us to live in the spirit. We must be those who love the Lord, who are consecrated to Him, who fellowship with Him, and who walk according to the spirit. If we are touched in our conscience that we have offended someone, we should confess it to the Lord immediately, and we should also confess it to the one whom we offended and make reconciliation with him. Only then can we recover the fellowship and be able to function in the meetings. Thus, we can see that the biblical way to meet is a way that requires us to be revived. (Being Up to Date for the Rebuilding of the Temple, msg. 14)
Only Such a Group of People Bringing in the Lord’s Return
In this way we will have such a group of people under the light of the truth who are being taught, cultivated, and supplied and who in their daily lives live Christ, express Him, and have become one spirit with Him, living in the spirit and walking by the spirit. This is what the Lord wants to obtain today. When the Lord returns, these ones will be the bride for Him to gain. Only such a group of people who are constituted as the Lord’s bride through practicing the new way will be able to bring in the Lord’s return. I hope that we all will see this vision clearly. (The Furtherance of the New Way for the Lord’s Recovery, msg. 2)
