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Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:9; Eph. 4:18; John 1:4; 11:25a; 10:10b; Col. 3:4a; Rom. 8:2a; 2 Cor. 3:6; Acts 5:20; 35, 57, John 6:63; 7:37-38; 20:22; 1 Cor. 3:6-7; 10:3-4; 3, 12:13; 1:2; Rev. 2:7b; 21:6; 22:1-2
God’s eternal purpose in the whole universe is of two aspects: (1) God desires to express Himself through a body of human beings, and (2) He desires to subdue and to conquer His enemy. This is why at the beginning of the Bible we are told that God created man in His own image and gave man His dominion, the authority over all things (Gen. 1:26). God created man in His own image with the purpose that man may express Him, and God gave man His dominion over all things that man may conquer the earth and subdue His enemy. Then when we come to the end of the Bible, we see that there is a city, and the city is in the appearance of God (Rev. 21:11 cf. 4:3). The city looks the same as God. That is a city of living beings composed together as God’s corporate expression, the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the composition of all the redeemed ones built together as a corporate body to express God, bearing the very appearance of God. Through that city the earth will be fully conquered, and all God’s enemies will be subdued. The enemy of God will be put into the lake of fire (20:10). Thus, the Bible concludes with God being fully expressed through His regenerated, transformed, and glorified people, and with His enemy being thoroughly conquered and subdued.
Now we have to see how God can accomplish His purpose. Before we see this, however, I have to point out one thing. Our religious concept always damages God’s purpose. This religious concept is that we have to do something to please God by correcting ourselves, adjusting ourselves, and improving ourselves. We think that we have to do many good things in order to please God. This religious concept is very prevailing even today in Christianity. I look to the Lord that we will drop this damaging concept.
God’s purpose is divine and high. No human being can fulfill it. Do you think you can fulfill God’s purpose? God’s purpose, positively, is to express Himself. How could you express God? It is impossible. God has no intention to ask you to do this good thing or that good thing. It might be good in your eyes, but it is so poor in His eyes.
When God created Adam, He did not tell him that he had to do certain things to please God or to glorify Him. Instead, God put man in front of the tree of life and told him to be careful to eat the right thing (Gen. 2:8-9, 16-17). That means that man had to eat the tree of life. Besides the tree of life, there was another tree, the tree of knowledge. Man has to be careful. If he eats the wrong thing, the tree of knowledge, surely he will die (v. 17). It is not a matter of right or wrong, good or bad; it is a matter of life or death. If you eat the right thing, you get life; if you eat the wrong thing, you get death.
God has no intention to ask you to do something right. The right thing and the wrong thing are in different categories according to our concept. But to God both right and wrong are in the same category. The tree of life is one category, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is another. Thus, God classifies good and evil in the same category. You may think religiously that your good is really good, but God says, “Your good is just as bad as your evil. I never credit your good to your account; I always debit your good to your account just like I debit your evil.” Good and evil are not on the credit side but on the debit side. God has no intention to care for good or evil. God’s intention is just to care for life. All that you need is life.
Let us use a dog as an illustration. Whether this is a good dog or a bad dog, it is still a dog. Whether it is naughty or it behaves, it is still a dog. When it is dirty, it is a dog; when it is clean, it is still a dog. Its life and nature have not changed. In the same way, whether we are good or bad, our life and nature are still the same. This is why we have to give up the religious concept.
God’s intention is that He may come into man as another life to be man’s life. God has no intention to ask you to do good, just as He has no intention to ask you to do evil. His intention is just to ask you to take Him in as life. Only He as life within us can express Himself. We cannot express God; only God Himself can express God. We need God as our life. We think that God is someone over us, above us, beside us, or behind us to support, help, and sustain us. In a sense, this is not wrong, but this is not God’s central way. God’s central way is to get into man to be man’s life. This is why God made things so simple by putting man in front of the tree of life.
In the first two chapters of the Bible, life is the center. They tell us that God created the heavens and the earth with millions of items (1:1). Then in the center God created man and put this central creature in front of the tree of life. So the tree of life became the very center of God’s universe, as far as man was concerned. Science has found out that the earth is unique in the universe. It is different from all other planets because only the earth has life. God created the heavens for the earth. Upon this earth God planted a garden, and in this garden the tree of life is the center. Thus, life is the center of God’s universe. After being created, man was put in front of this tree of life, facing the central thing of God’s universe. In the last two chapters of the Bible, life is also the center. Within the new heaven and the new earth is the New Jerusalem, and within the New Jerusalem, the tree of life is the center (Rev. 22:1-2). This shows us that life is the center of the Bible.
The Father, the Son, the Spirit, and the Word are life. Ephesians 4:18 speaks of “the life of God.” It says that the Gentiles, the unbelievers, are alienated from the life of God. This proves that God’s intention is that we human beings may have God’s life. It is a great thing for us to have the life of God. What a wonder it would be if a dog could have the life of a man! If such a thing could happen, this would be the top news on earth, and everyone would want to see this. Of course, this cannot happen. But praise the Lord, we human beings can have the life of God! God is the Divine Being, the almighty Creator, and we are just little creatures, yet we can have the life of God. The best relationship we can have with God is a relationship of life. We need God’s life, and this is God’s intention.
The Bible also reveals that God the Son is life. In Him was life (John 1:4), He is life (14:6a), and He came that we may have life and have it abundantly (10:10b). Christ is our life (Col. 3:4a). When I was a young Christian, I heard that Christ is our Savior, but I was not told that He is also our life. Christ being our Savior is for the purpose that we may have Him as our life. His being the Savior is not the goal. Life is the goal. Many know Christ as the Savior, but very few know Christ as life in a practical and daily way. God the Father is life to us, and God the Son is life to us also. We need to have Him as our life.
Furthermore, God the Spirit is the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). The Spirit gives life (2 Cor. 3:6b). In Christianity people speak of the Holy Spirit as an instrument or a power, but there is very little talk about the Spirit as life. Christianity has missed and is still missing the mark of God. Many speak about Christ as the Savior and Redeemer, but very few speak about Christ as life. They may speak about the Spirit as a power or an instrument to fulfill God’s purpose, but they do not speak about the Spirit as life to us. Romans 8:2 speaks of the Spirit of life. Second Corinthians 3:6 tells us that the Spirit gives life. God the Father is life, God the Son is life, and God the Spirit is also life. The Triune God is life to us.
The Word is also life to us. Christianity has made the Bible a book of knowledge full of teachings, but actually it is a book of life. The Bible speaks of the Word of life (1 John 1:1). Also, the words the Lord speaks to us are spirit and are life (John 6:63). The Bible contains words of life, not words of knowledge or teaching. Peter was told to go to the people and speak to them the words of life (Acts 5:20), not the words of teaching, doctrine, or knowledge. God is life, God the Son is life, God the Spirit is life, and the Word is life. The God whom we have — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — is life to us. God the Father is in the Son (John 14:10), the Son is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17), and this Spirit today is within us as life to us. God has also given us the Bible, and this Holy Book also is life to us. We have the Holy Spirit within as life, and we have the Holy Bible without also as life.
We cannot fulfill God’s purpose, because His purpose is so divine and we are so human. It is impossible for us human beings to fulfill the divine purpose. But God’s intention is that He be taken into us as our life. We need to help people realize how we can take God in as our life. God the Father is in the Son, the Son is the Spirit, and the Spirit is within us. We received the Spirit of life into us when we repented to the Lord, believed into Him, and called upon His name. When we heard the gospel, we called, “O Lord Jesus.” We did this because the Bible tells us that we have to call on the name of the Lord. “Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13). When we heard the gospel, many of us did have a kind of desire to call on the Lord. We may have called by saying, “O Lord Jesus,” “Jesus,” “O Lord,” or “Jesus Christ.” When you call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, that is according to the Bible and according to the inspiration within you.
The Holy Spirit within you is absolutely one with the Holy Bible outside of you. What you need is to mingle the Holy Spirit within with the Holy Bible without. You need to open up your mouth and say from deep within, “O Lord Jesus.” Here is the principle of how to mingle the Spirit with the Bible, making the Holy Bible one with the Holy Spirit. Eventually, in our experience the Word becomes the Spirit, and the Spirit is the word of God (Eph. 6:17).
The Spirit is the consummate person of the Godhead because the Father is in the Son, the Son is the Spirit, and the Spirit comes into us. The Bible is the breath of God. All Scripture is God-breathed (2 Tim. 3:16). The breath of God is also the Spirit (John 20:22). Thus, we have the Holy Spirit within us as the consummate person of the Godhead, and we have the Bible in our hand, both as God’s divine breath. These two items are waiting for our calling on the name of the Lord.
This is why we need pray-reading. Pray-reading is the best way of calling. To pray is to utter something from the Spirit within. To read is to repeat what is written in the Holy Bible. We need praying and reading mingled together as one, that is, pray-reading. This is the best way to mingle the Holy Spirit with the Holy Bible into one, and this is the best way to make the Holy Bible one with the Holy Spirit. By this pray-reading, by this way of mingling the Bible with the Spirit as one, we take God into us again and again. We enjoy Him as our food (6:57).
My burden is not to pass on more knowledge. My burden is to point out the prevailing way that we can enjoy God, that we can take God into us, not only as life but also as the life supply. What we need today is just to take God into us again and again. All that we need is the Triune God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. Do not think that the Bible is a book of knowledge. The Bible is the embodiment of God’s divine breath. God’s divine breath is condensed in the Bible. God’s intention is not to pass on knowledge through the Bible; God’s intention is to pass on Himself through the Bible. We take God into us through the Bible by pray-reading. The more we pray-read, the more we breathe God in. The more we pray-read, the more we drink of Him (7:37). The more we pray-read, the more we eat of Him (Jer. 15:16). In other words, the more we pray-read, the more we take Him in. When God gets into us, He will do a lot of things. The divine life operates within us in many things to fulfill God’s purpose (Phil. 2:13).
We need to drop the religious concept and come back to God’s concept. What we need is just to take Him in, and the way to take Him in is to mingle the Holy Spirit with the Holy Bible as one. Then we may enjoy all the riches of the Godhead as our life and as our life supply.
