The Meetings and Spiritual Exercise of the Local Church

Additional Quotes about the Local Church by Watchman Nee and Witness Lee

Witness Lee shares on the benefits of calling on the Lord:

Calling on the name of the Lord is not merely a doctrine. It is very practical. We need to practice it daily and hourly. We should never stop our spiritual breathing. We hope that many more of the Lord’s people, especially new believers, will begin the practice of calling on the Lord. Today, many Christians have found that they can know Him, that they can be brought into the power of His resurrection, that they can experience His spontaneous salvation, and that they can walk in oneness with Him by calling on His name. In any situation, at any time, call: “Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus!” If you practice calling on His name, you will see that it is a wonderful way to enjoy the Lord’s riches.

(Witness Lee, Calling, 10-11)

Witness Lee tells us how we can experience Christ by calling on the Lord:

How can we touch and experience Christ in a practical way as our very life moment by moment? The Lord has given us a simple way. All we have to do is call upon Him, and we will touch Him who is the life-giving supply. In Romans 10:12spiritual-exercise-local-church-13 the Bible says, “For the same Lord is Lord of all and rich to all who call upon Him; for ‘whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’” In the past we may have had the concept that these verses were only applicable to an initial salvation experience; however, every Christian also needs a daily salvation from sin, self, human weakness, and other negative things. On the positive side he also needs a bountiful supply of the Lord to nourish and strengthen him in order that he may grow up into Christ in all things. The way into the realization of this is simply by calling on the Lord. He is rich to all who call upon Him. We see Paul in 2 Timothy 2:22 urging Timothy to live the Christian life with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

(Witness Lee, Touch the Lord, 5-6)

Calling on the Lord was practiced by the early Christians and is still practiced by many Christians today, according to Witness Lee:

The Christian’s experience of Christ as purposed by God is to be real to the believer and a testimony to those in the world. What was the testimony of the early Christians? It was this: they were a people who called on the name of the Lord. We are shown this in Acts 9:14, which states that Paul before his conversion was persecuting all those who called on the Lord’s name. He was given authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on His name. First Corinthians 1:2 reaffirms this by showing us that the early Christians were those who in every place called upon the name of the Lord.

Many Christians today have begun to practice calling upon the Lord daily, hourly, and moment by moment in a simple, practical way. They have found to their joy that the Lord is all they need and that they can touch and fellowship with Him at any time and in any circumstance just by calling on Him from deep within. Our calling upon the Lord should not be in an objective manner, calling on the Christ who dwells in the heavens, but calling on the Christ who is the Spirit and who dwells within our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). By calling upon Him from deep within, we will sense the flowing and fellowship of Christ within us.

(Witness Lee, Touch the Lord, 6-7)

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Small Group

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Children’s

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Spiritual Exercise

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Speaking

Thanksgiving

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Serving

Calling

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