Question:
54.3—When is it okay to pray during meeting or when is it okay to tell your opinion during a meeting? Do you have to be a certain age? And how do you know the Holy Ghost is leading you? 54.3— The Scriptures do not give any age for participation in the assembly meetings, but we are told that we must be “filled with the Spirit,” or controlled by the Spirit, which is necessary for the Spirit to give us something to speak and so He can provide the opportunity to speak it. This is the age of the Spirit of God, and this is how the Spirit has led in the assembly of the Lord’s people since the day the church was formed on the day of Pentecost. “And they were all filled [controlled] with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4). A Spirit-filled Christian is a Word-filled Christian, so if we are led of the Spirit we will not express our “opinions,” but if the Spirit wants us to speak in the assembly He will bring to our minds what God’s Word has to say about the subject. The Spirit’s function is to glorify Christ (John 16:14), and He is the power for all ministry (1 Peter 4:11), worship (Philippians 3:3), and every activity in the functioning of the assembly (1 Corinthians 14:15). 1 Corinthians 14 tells us how we can know when the Spirit gives us utterance in the assembly. What is said will be: (1) According to the Scriptures (verse 37). (2) Subject to the Spirit in others (verse 30-33). (3) Not presented by women (verse 34). (4) Done fittingly and in order (verse 40). (5) Profitable and refreshing to ourselves and to others (1 Corinthians 12:7; 16:18). It is important that we know that the Spirit of God is leading when we participate because Divine Persons of the Godhead are present in the gathering of the assembly. Christ is there, not physically for His body is in heaven, but He is there by His Spirit as He promised: “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). The Spirit of God is present as well to lead and direct in everything that is done: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are” (1 Corinthians 3:16,17). These verses were written to the assembly at Corinth and tell us that the Spirit of God dwells in the gathering of the assembly, and they warn that God will judge any person who defiles the temple or assembly by not being led of the Spirit and thus producing “wood, hay, and stubble” that will be burnt up at the judgment seat of Christ (1 Corinthians 3:12-15). This warning is not given to cause us to keep us from participating but to instruct us to come in the right manner into God’s holy presence. The Spirit of God says to each believer: “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus…Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:19,22). The sprinkling of our “hearts” by the blood of Christ has made us fit to come because it has freed us from the guilt of sin, and the washing of our “bodies” by the Word cleanses us from the power of sin in our lives. Thus we can come boldly with our praise and worship into His presence in the assembly, and we are encouraged and pleaded with by God Himself to come. Dear Christian young people, let us not disappoint the Lord and grieve the Spirit of God by not functioning in His assembly, as He desires us to. If you know the blood of Christ has washed your sins away, allow the Word to cleanse you from anything displeasing to God. Then come, controlled by the Spirit, and function as a priest in His presence in His assembly—thus bringing glory to His name and blessing to His people, the unsaved, and to yourself as well.
Answer: