60
Assembling Together
are false even though equally few public prayers are true. When you come to pray with others, you tend to say what you would not say while alone. Thus you add words to your prayers. Though public prayer is difficult and tends to be false and long and men-pleasing, yet prayers in the prayer meetings are stronger than private prayers so far as accomplishing things is concerned. God can answer the prayers of the church far more than He can answer personal prayers. The problem today, though, is that there are more answers to personal prayers than to corporate prayers. Why is it so? Because there is so much falsehood, confusion, vain words in corporate prayers. How God would delight to answer the prayers of His children if they prayed together with simplicity and with one accord! Exercise of Gifts Meetings The gifts found in each local church are different. To some local churches, God may give words of revelation as well as gifts of prophecy and of teaching; to others, He may add the gift of tongues and the gift of interpreting tongues. In some places, He may give only the gift of teaching without giving any miraculous gifts; or it could be just the opposite, there being miraculous gifts without the gift of the word. We cannot dictate what God will do in His church. But what we do know is the principle of such meetings: God wishes His children to exercise their gifts. It is evident that we cannot exercise the gifts which we do not have but that we can use the gifts we do possess. Hence, no local church can imitate other local churches in this matter of exercising gifts. Each church must exercise before God whatever gifts the local brothers and sisters have. What we are describing here are meetings according to the principle of 1 Corinthians 14. At such meetings for the exercise of gifts there may even be questions asked, for we seek to build up one another by finding light