The Significance Of Spiritual Meetings

Before our Lord Jesus ascended to heaven, He entrusted His disciples with two great commissions, which are ‘to tend my sheep’ and ‘to preach the gospel to the whole creation’ (Jn 21: 15-17; Mk 16: 15). In a man’s life, none of his messages is more important than the last few words spoken by him just before his death, and normally when a person receives such a message, he would keep it and try to fulfill the request. Similarly, Christianity has been existing till this day and is being preached to all corners of the world because, throughout history, the believers kept Jesus’ commandments given before His ascension. In our Church, spiritual meetings are held once or twice a year. The purpose of holding these spiritual meetings is to carry out the two great commissions entrusted by Lord Jesus—to tend the flock and to preach to the unbelievers.

The Spiritual Meeting is indeed a great occasion every year in each church. During this occasion, believers are benefited by:

1. Receiving more spiritual food;
2. Being able to pray for grace, i.e., those who have not yet received the Holy Spirit can pray for the Holy Spirit; those who have already received can pray for the abundance of the Holy Spirit and the various spiritual gifts; those who are sick can pray for the healing of their sickness and those who are burdened can pray for relief;
3. Partaking the Holy Communion to enrich one’s spiritual life;
4. Enjoying love feast to improve the communion among brethren;
5. Offering thanksgiving to repay part of the grace of the Lord.

These are the aims for which Spiritual Meetings are held for the purpose of tending the flock.

Another important purpose of Spiritual Meetings is that one can bring more friends and relatives on these great occasions so that they may be able to share the grace of the Lord. Those who are heavy-laden should be invited to draw near to the merciful Lord Jesus; as for those who are possessed by demons, they should be led to pray to the almighty Lord to cast out their demons. If a gentile is brought to the Spiritual Meeting and is bestowed with the Holy Spirit, he would be able to realize the existence of the True God and he may turn to God, Jesus Christ. In this way, another soul is saved.

According to the report made by the General Assembly of Taiwan in 1974, 1,265 believers were baptized in 1973 and 1,365 members received the Holy Spirit. The rate of souls being saved from the grasp of Satan as compared to the amount of money being spent on the evangelical work is still not very encouraging.

After knowing the fact, should not one feel shameful for not fulfilling the commission? Taiwan is a striving metropolis and everybody has to devote most of his time in striving for a living and being further enhanced with the progress of science, man indulges in materialistic measures and neglects the value of spiritual life, thus causing the attendance during services and the zealousness of members to decrease. We are, in fact facing the danger of our faith, being weakened.

Now that Spiritual Meetings are held in every town, we should seize this opportunity to rise up from our slumbering; to revive ourselves in the spiritual fervency to propagate the Truth and to accomplish the mission entrusted upon us.