«　WEEK 5　DAY 5　»

　　Acts 1:8 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.

　　2 Tim. 4:2 Proclaim the word; be ready in season and out of season; convict, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and teaching.

　　All Christians have been made the witnesses of Christ. As witnesses, we must be persons…speaking for Christ, telling something of Christ to others… We must be speakers, those speaking clearly, adequately, and definitely for the One we witness. I hope that we all would go out to speak. For example, we can speak something to our relatives. We can tell them something concerning Christ’s death, something concerning Christ’s resurrection, and something concerning the Body of Christ and the local church… We must come back to the Bible and mine the store of the divine riches. Then we will have so much to speak. (CWWL, 1985, vol. 3, “The Divine Speaking,” p. 295)

　　In 2 Timothy 4:2 Paul charges Timothy to “proclaim the word; be ready in season and out of season.” When I was studying this verse, I checked with myself as to what word Paul charged Timothy to proclaim… Second Timothy 4:1 is surely a continuation of Paul’s thought at the end of chapter 3. In the last three verses of chapter 3 Paul says, “From a babe you have known the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through the faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work” (vv. 15-17). From these verses we can realize that the word Paul charged Timothy to proclaim was the word in the sacred writings of the Scriptures that Timothy had known from a babe. We all have to get into the Word, into the Scriptures. The charge of the apostle Paul to Timothy was based upon Timothy’s knowledge of the Bible… We must proclaim the word that we have learned from the Word of God. This is what the early believers did in Acts 5:42 when they met from house to house “teaching and announcing the gospel of Jesus as the Christ.” In the home meetings they taught and announced what they had learned concerning Christ.

　　Paul charged Timothy to be ready “in season and out of season” to proclaim the word. Many times we say… that it is out of season. That is the right time for us to speak… The young ones who are still in school have the most people around them. Every school is a big fishing pond full of fish. This is an environment arranged by God for speaking to others. Students always enjoy listening to their classmates much more than to their teachers or parents… We have to be made the fishers of men, bringing people to Christ and to the home meetings. For this, I do not trust in any human arrangement but in the young saints’ acting, behaving, working, endeavoring, and struggling to contact their fellow students. If we would do this, within a short time many would be baptized and added to the churches.

　　We need to practice speaking… in the Holy Spirit… When you stand up in the meeting to speak, stand up in this way: “Brothers and sisters, let me tell you, I am no longer weak! I am empowered in the One who empowers me, so I can do everything. Formerly, I could not submit myself to my husband. Now it’s easy for me to do it. I am the top wife. Hallelujah, brothers.” This is the best speaking. In every locality some saints have learned to be [in a positive sense] “professional” priests praying whenever the church comes together for the prayer meeting… In the same way, some saints have become “professional” at giving a testimony at the end of the message meetings… We all have to learn to be the “professional” speakers speaking in the Holy Spirit. (CWWL, 1985, vol. 3, “The Divine Speaking,” pp. 289-291)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1985, vol. 4, “Meeting to Speak the Word of God,” chs. 1, 3