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Scripture Reading: John 1:1, 14; 4:24; 5:39-40; 6:35a, 57b, 63; 14:23; 15:7-8; 17:17; 1 John 5:6b; Col. 3:16; Eph. 5:18-19; 6:17-18; Jer. 15:16
In the previous chapters we saw that the eternal purpose of God is to have the church, that the church comes out of the dispensing of the riches of Christ, and that in His economy God eventually became the all-inclusive Spirit. It is by this Spirit that all the riches of Christ are being dispensed into us.
In this chapter we come to the Word of God. We all know that the Bible is the word of God. However, we probably know this in a very common, natural, or religious way. We see that the word in the Scriptures is the Word of God, but we need to see something more. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Word is not only the word of God; the Word is God Himself. In the beginning was the Word, this Word was God, and one day this Word became flesh, tabernacling among us, full of grace and reality (v. 14). Grace means enjoyment. The Word, who was God becoming flesh and tabernacling among us, was full not of doctrines and teachings but of enjoyment and reality. To be sure, this Word is more than the word of God in letters. This Word is God Himself.
The word in the Bible is not only the word of God; it is also the embodiment of God. When we touch the word, we must touch God Himself. It is short and even wrong to touch the word in the Bible and not touch God Himself. The Lord Jesus told the Jewish leaders, “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that testify concerning Me. Yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life” (5:39-40). The word search in Greek means to research, to search and search again. The Lord Jesus seemed to say, “I am one with the Scriptures, and the Scriptures are one with Me. If you come to the Scriptures, you have to come to Me. If you research the Scriptures, you have to come to Me. You have to make the Scriptures one with Me; instead, you have made the Scriptures something separate from Me. Therefore, you are wrong. You may gain knowledge in letters from the Scriptures, but you cannot have life, because I am life.”
These two verses are a warning to us. It is possible to come to the Bible yet not come to the Lord. It is possible to separate the Bible from the Lord. We have to realize that to divorce the Bible from Christ is seriously wrong. All the time we have to take the Bible as one with the Lord. Whenever we come to the Bible, we have to come to the Lord. Whenever we read the Bible, we have to touch the Lord. The Bible is not merely a book of knowledge. The Bible is the embodiment of the Lord Himself.
God’s intention in His economy is to dispense Christ into us, and for this dispensing there must be some means. The Bible is the means that God uses to dispense Christ into us. To be sure, if we come to touch the means without touching Christ, we are wrong. In order to serve a meal we must have some utensils, such as bowls, dishes, and cups, but if we come to the bowls, dishes, and cups and do not touch any food, we are very foolish. We do not come to dinner for the bowls, dishes, or cups; we come to dinner for the food. Still, in order to serve the food we must have the means. The Bible is the means through which God dispenses Christ into us. Therefore, when we come to touch the Bible, our intention is not merely to touch the Bible. The Bible is only the means; Christ Himself is the food. If we come to the Bible without coming to Jesus, we are wrong.
There is a further problem, which is related to our different organs. As humans we have eyes and ears, and we have something deeper, which is our mind and heart. In addition, we have something even deeper, which is our human spirit. In John 4:24 the Lord Jesus gave us a principle. He said, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.” God is Spirit, so in order to worship Him, we have to worship Him in our spirit. The principle is that the way to worship is in our spirit. It is only possible for spirit to worship Spirit. In the same way, we must realize that the words in the Bible are not mere letters. Apparently, all the words in the Bible are letters printed on paper, but in actuality, they are spirit and life (6:63). Since the words of the Bible are spirit, we have to exercise our spirit to touch the Word. Only our spirit can touch the Spirit.
We may illustrate this in the following way. Outwardly, a man appears to have only a physical body, but inwardly, he has a mind to consider and understand things and a heart to love and seek things. He also has a spirit to contact, receive, and contain God. If I shake hands with him, I make outward contact with his physical body. If while I am shaking hands, he looks at me and I look at him, there is also a communication between our two minds. If I smile at him and he responds by smiling back at me, then a deeper communication, a communication between the hearts, takes place. Then if I say, “Praise the Lord!” and he responds by saying, “Amen!” we have communicated in the spirit.
The Bible also has a “body.” The body of the Bible is the black and white letters. The first part of John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world.” The letters that spell these words are the body of this verse. However, in the body of the Bible there is spirit and life. When we exercise our mind to read the letters of the Bible, we touch only the body of the Bible, but when we exercise our spirit, we touch spirit and life.
The Bible is the means for God’s dispensing. God’s dispensing is to dispense Christ into us, and the Bible is the means used by God to do this. Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit is abstract and mysterious, but in the Bible He becomes solid. We can touch the Bible, hold it, and carry it anywhere, but we still must open it, open our spirit, and open our mouth to utter something from the Bible to the Lord. In this way we receive the Spirit and life.
There are two ways to touch the Bible: the outward way and the inward way. The outward way to touch the Bible is by exercising our mind merely to understand it, whereas the inward way is by using our spirit not mainly to understand it but to touch the spirit and get the life supply.
John 1:1 is a wonderful verse. Suppose two brothers come together to read this verse. After reading it, one brother may ask, “What does in the beginning mean?” The other brother may say, “God is the beginning.” The first brother may respond, “I don’t think so. How can you say that God is the beginning? I don’t understand what you are talking about. And what is the Word? This verse says that the Word was with God and the Word was God. Surely the Word and God are two. How can They be one? Let us ask the students at the Bible institute.” This is an illustration of touching the Bible in an outward way. Touching the Bible even for only a few minutes in this way is deadening.
There is another way to touch the Bible, the inward way, the way of exercising our spirit. Suppose these same two brothers come to the Word in the following way, saying, “O Lord, in the beginning. In the beginning was the Word. Amen! Hallelujah for the beginning. O Lord, the Word. Hallelujah, for the Word! And the Word was with God. O God! And the Word was God!” When we exercise our spirit to touch the Word in such a living way, we may not understand much, but we are filled with the Spirit, and we get the life supply.
It is very clear that the Bible can be two entities. It can be dead letters to kill us, or it can be the Spirit to enliven us. It depends upon which way we touch it. If we touch the Bible in an outward way by using only our mind, we will be deadened. However, if we touch the Bible in an inward way by exercising our spirit, we will be enlivened. This is true of any verse or chapter, from the first verse of Genesis to the last verse of Revelation. Sometimes we may not understand what we read, and sometimes we may understand but not be able to utter what we see. We may even say, “Praise the Lord, I received something this morning, but I do not have the words to speak it!” This is the right way. The right way to touch the Bible is to touch the Lord Himself. We must never separate the Bible from the Lord. Whenever we open the Bible, we have to open our mouth and open our spirit to utter something to the Lord. We can say, “O Lord! O Lord Jesus!” The louder we say these words the better. This is truly something wonderful and marvelous.
Today the best dietitians cannot fully tell us what is in the food that we eat day by day. If the smallest wheat germ cannot be fully understood, how can we understand the Bible in full? Although we do not fully understand the food we eat, we still take it in day by day. Many things get into us and nourish us, whether or not we understand them. It is the same with the Bible. The Bible is not merely for our understanding. If the Bible were only for our understanding, we would be miserable because our understanding is so limited. We should not trust in our understanding of the Bible. Forty years ago I trusted very much in my understanding of the Bible, but today I no longer trust in my understanding. I do not care merely to understand the Bible. When I come to the Bible, I simply receive it. I receive it not merely by using my mind to understand but by exercising my spirit. I may say, “O Lord! Amen. In the beginning. Hallelujah, for the beginning! Oh, Hallelujah, for the beginning! In the beginning was the Word. I don’t know what the Word is, and I don’t know what the beginning is, but I do know that in the beginning was the Word!” This is a marvelous way to touch the Bible. In this way we get the Spirit and life from the Bible.
Many Christians appreciate that the Bible is a wonderful book. Yet the Bible is more than a wonderful book; it is the embodiment of Christ. The way we touch the Bible determines whether or not we touch Christ. If we touch the Bible only by using our mind, we are finished. To touch the Bible in this way makes us like the Jews who researched the Bible without touching the Lord Jesus. This is the wrong way. Whenever we pick up the Bible with our hand, immediately we have to stir up our spirit. Whenever we open the Bible, we have to open our mouth, and whenever we read a word in the Bible, we have to utter it from our spirit.
Our coming to the Bible should always be our coming to the Lord Jesus. The Bible should always be one with the Lord. If we do not understand the Bible, we should not be bothered. This does not mean very much. If we do not understand, we may let it go for the present time. We should not be occupied with trying to understand the Bible. We should simply receive it.
When we open to John 1:1, we should not merely read it. We have to utter it by exercising our spirit. We can say, “In the beginning! O Lord, in the beginning. Hallelujah, in the beginning!” To utter something by exercising our spirit makes reading the Bible very different. If someone has never tasted pray-reading, I would beg him to try it. Once you taste it, you will never drop it. You will become “addicted” to pray-reading the Word of God. If you are afraid of losing your face, you can go into your room, close the door, and try it a little bit. Change your way of touching the Bible. Formerly, you may have always touched the Bible by reading it and exercising your mind, but now you must change from this way to exercising your spirit. Before you read, you can loudly say, “O Lord Jesus!” But if you are afraid of losing your face, you can call on the Lord and pray-read softly. I believe that if you try this for ten minutes, you will taste something. You will realize the difference between your former way and this way. You will touch the living Lord, and then you will come to the meeting, jump up, and say, “Hallelujah! Now I know! The words of the Bible are spirit! There are many verses that I don’t understand, but I touch the Spirit.”
If we open up the book of Daniel, where there are many puzzling verses, we can still touch the Spirit. Daniel 9:24-27 speaks of seventy weeks, which are divided into seven weeks, sixty-two weeks, and one week. These seventy weeks are very puzzling. However, if we go to this book and say, “O Lord, the seventy weeks. Hallelujah for the first week. I don’t know what a ‘week’ is, but I do know that there is a week. Amen! Praise the Lord for the seven weeks, Amen for the sixty-two weeks, and Hallelujah for the last week!” In our mind we may not get much, but in our spirit, we will be filled with the Lord as the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). This is marvelous! Eventually, we cannot say that we did not get anything in our mind. At the very least, we know that there are seven weeks, sixty-two weeks, and the last week.
Try coming to the Bible in this way. One day the light will come, and we will have the living understanding. At that time, it will not be something taught by others; it will be something enlightened by the Spirit. While we are pray-reading, we may think that we do not understand anything, but later, perhaps the next day, or after two weeks, two months, or even a year, the light will spring up from within us, and we will say, “Now I understand the seventy weeks of Daniel 9.” At such a time our understanding will be something living.
At any time — day or night, morning or evening — we can open up the Bible and pray-read a few verses. When we do, we receive the Spirit. In other words, we receive the riches of Christ. The riches of Christ are unsearchable, unlimited, and unspeakable. No one can tell out all the riches of Christ. Christ is in every chapter and every verse because the Spirit of Christ is in the word.
When we come to pray-read Genesis 1:1, Christ may not seem to be there according to the letter. As we read, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” we may find no direct mention of Christ. However, if we exercise our spirit to pray-read this verse, after a few minutes we will receive something of Christ within. Christ will become so precious within us. Nothing of Christ is mentioned in this verse, yet after pray-reading it, we have the sweet sense and the sweet taste of Christ. It is wonderful that there is something of Christ in every verse and in every word of the Bible.
If we would pray-read chapter by chapter and book by book, week after week, month after month, and year after year, gradually we will receive enlightenment, and all the things of Christ will spring up within us. All the riches of Christ will become our enjoyment. At this time it may be that there is no need for us to open up the Bible because so much of it is within us. Throughout the day, these things within us become our enjoyment of Christ. In this way all the riches of Christ are ministered and dispensed into us. This dispensing will transform us and cause us to have a metabolic change, a change in life. This change comes about because so many heavenly elements of Christ are added into us. These heavenly elements and spiritual ingredients will cause us to have not only an outward change but a metabolic change, a change in life. All these new elements will replace and discharge all the old things. This is a metabolic change, transforming us into a new condition.
A certain brother may have been saved two months ago, and now he is in the church life. However, he may not have much element of the truth within him. He does not have a supply for the church life because the riches of Christ have been dispensed into him only for a short time. He should not be disappointed. Rather, he simply needs to pray-read more. He needs to pray-read day by day, verse after verse, chapter after chapter, and book after book. It is best if he would pray-read ten times a day; this is not too much. If he pray-reads for three months in this way, there will be a metabolic change within him, and he will have the element of Christ within him for the church life. After a time, the church will be enriched by what he is, because the church life is the issue of the enjoyment of Christ, which comes from the dispensing of the riches of Christ.
Paul speaks of pray-reading in Ephesians 6:17-18a, which says, “Receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God, by means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit.” To receive the word not by reading only but by means of all prayer is to pray-read. Andrew Murray also said that we must read the Word prayerfully. To read the Bible prayerfully is to pray-read. Even from our own experiences we can testify that we pray-read the Word of God without realizing it. We may have read a verse and immediately turned it into a prayer. That was pray-reading. Many of us have done this in the past.
The Lord has shown us in a definite way that we must practice pray-reading. In my Christian experience no other way can replace pray-reading. The best way to have the enjoyment of Christ is to pray-read. We all have to try it and see.
The Bible is the embodiment of Christ. All the riches of Christ are embodied in the Bible. The Bible has many pages, and each page contains the riches of Christ. Therefore, day by day, we have to pray-read. Eventually, through our pray-reading we will see that Christ is God, the Lamb, the Creator, the creature, the Father, the Son, the Spirit, life, light, love, the King, the Priest, the Prophet, every kind of tree, wheat, corn, milk, honey, water, green grass, tender pasture, and the cattle. We will discover that Christ is every positive thing in the universe. This Christ is also the building, the house, the bedroom, the living room, the kitchen, the window, and the door. We will also find that Christ is the good land, the sun, and the morning star.
After pray-reading for half a year, we will be disgusted with every kind of religious service. We may say, “I don’t need to listen to a sermon or a message. I have something better. I have something richer. I have something sweeter.” All the riches of Christ are in the Bible. However, we cannot merely meditate over it. Meditation is too poor. Rather, we should open the Word and eat it by pray-reading. We may say, “O Lord, Your words were found and I ate them” (Jer. 15:16). In this way we take in the riches of Christ. The riches of Christ are in every verse.
Good digestion is always needed with eating. In our physical body, good digestion gives the food a free way throughout the body. The best digestion occurs when the food that gets into our stomach has a free course to get into our whole system. This affords us the best nourishment. On the other hand, we have indigestion when due to some blockage our food does not have a free course in us.
I must warn you. Pray-reading is wonderful, but we also have to pray, “Lord, clear a way within me. O Lord, have a free course within me.” Pray-reading does not help us to obtain mere knowledge; rather, it brings many things of the Lord into us. Therefore, we need to give the things of the Lord a free course within us. This affords us the best spiritual digestion, assimilating what we have pray-read. Never say no to the Lord; learn always to say Amen.
Whether or not we understand what we pray-read, it always brings something of the Lord into us. When these things get into us, they need a free course. Thus, we always have to say Amen. The Lord, the Word, and the Spirit are one. The Lord is the Word, the Word is the Spirit, and the Spirit is the Lord. When we get the Word into us, we have the Spirit and we have the Lord. Therefore, we must be warned. If we pray-read for ten minutes, we may not understand much, but we will sense that something is within us. We may say that it is the Word, we may say that it is the Spirit, or we may say that it is the Lord. Whatever term we use, there will be something moving within us and adjusting us.
After pray-reading, we may have the intention to go fishing, but something within us indicates that we should not go. Is it the Word, is it the Spirit, or is it the Lord? It is hard to say. It is not even a “gentle, quiet voice” (1 Kings 19:12). In Christianity many like to talk about the gentle, quiet voice, but that is something of the Old Testament. What is within us is not a voice or a clear word such as “don’t” or “do.” There is simply a sensation within us, indicating that we should not go. What should we do at that time? We have to say, “Amen, Lord. Amen.” However, nine out of ten times we may still go. This blocks the course within us. Then after two or three times like this, we may realize that our pray-reading does not work very well, and we may even lose our appetite for pray-reading. The reason for this is indigestion. When we try to pray-read, it does not taste as sweet. However, if we will say, “Amen, Lord,” every time something within us forbids us, restricts us, adjusts us, or corrects us, we will be hungry for pray-reading.
Sometimes when I am at home, I suddenly say, “Amen.” My family may check with me and ask, “What happened? To whom are you saying Amen?” In response to them I say, “You don’t know, but I know.” I am saying Amen to the word of the Spirit, the Lord within me who is moving, speaking, anointing, and adjusting. If we would say Amen in this way once, twice, or even three times, we will be hungry for pray-reading. Then pray-reading will taste so good. We will have a good appetite because we have had the best digestion. Later, others will see a change of life in us. No one has taught us, rebuked us, corrected us, or instructed us, yet there is a change. Even as we are changing, we do not realize the change. Something subconsciously and unconsciously is changing us. This is the growth in life, and this is the increase of the measure of Christ. This proves that some of the riches of Christ have been dispensed into us.
Reading a chapter like this may help us, but the best way to pick up the riches of Christ is pray-reading. By pray-reading, two birds are killed with one stone. When we pray-read, we pray and at the same time we read. This is why it is called pray-reading. This kind of prayer is not a peculiar prayer or a prayer with vain words. It is prayer using the wonderful Word. In this way we get into all the riches of Christ. This is what we need in our Christian life. Pick up pray-reading and try it. It will turn us around a hundred and eighty degrees. If we would pick up pray-reading in a proper way, we will be another kind of Christian after only one week. We will see the Lord’s recovery, we will see God’s will, and we will see the church. Then we will see that Christ is so different to us. This is the means that God uses to dispense Christ into us.
