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Scripture Reading: Col. 3:16; Eph. 6:17-18; 1 Cor. 12:8; 14:6, 26
In chapter 7 we saw that the first basic factor for the Christian meetings is the mingled spirit. In this chapter we want to fellowship concerning the word as the second basic factor. The word for the Christian meetings is not our word but the holy word, God’s word, the divine word. The two classifications of the word in the New Testament are logos and rhema. The Greek word logos refers to the constant word (Col. 3:16). What is revealed and written in the Holy Scriptures is the constant word, the written word, the remaining word, the word that stands for eternity. The Greek word rhema refers to the instant word (Eph. 6:17). Anyone who is literate can read the Bible according to its written letter. By reading the Bible, we can receive the constant word of God. The constant word, however, is not so powerful, living, working, energizing, or operating within us until it becomes the instant word. When the constant word becomes the instant word, it becomes living, and it works, or operates, to accomplish God’s purpose in us and with us. Therefore, we must first learn to acquire the constant word and look to the Lord for Him to change His constant word into the instant word. In other words, we should pray when we come to the Bible that God would change His logos into rhema.
When I was young, I was taught to recite John 3:16. I loved that verse very much, yet that verse was merely a constant word to me for many years. Although I knew and loved that verse, it did not do any work within me, and it had not become a part of my being. One day, however, John 3:16, as the constant word, became the instant word to me. God’s word in that verse was applied to my being in a personal way. I realized that God not only loved the world but that He also loved me so much that He gave His only begotten Son, and because I believed in Him, I would not perish but would have eternal life. The constant word in John 3:16 had become the instant word to me. It became living and operating within me, and I began to enjoy God in His giving of His Son to me. If we merely read the Bible as the constant word, we will only get some objective knowledge that will not touch our inward being. We need to learn to turn the written and printed word of the Bible into the instant word. In our direct contact with God, the written word is made so practical and that written word becomes the living word. The logos, the constant word, will become the rhema, the instant word. When the logos becomes the rhema, we receive the benefit of the Triune God infusing Himself through His living word into our being.
For the Christian meetings we also need the word of wisdom (1 Cor. 12:8a). The word of wisdom is concerning Christ as the deeper things of God predestined by God for our portion (1:24, 30; 2:6-10). We need God’s wisdom to understand the revelation of Christ as our God-designated portion. In 1984 I gave a series of messages that are now contained in the book entitled God’s New Testament Economy. I consider what is presented in that volume as the consummation of what the Lord has shown us in His recovery. The chart of God’s New Testament economy in chapter 1 of that book contains many new titles, terms, and phrases. These are words of wisdom. These words are not of human thought, human composition, or human terminology. The words of wisdom come through the revelation of God.
First Corinthians 1:30 tells us that Christ “became wisdom to us from God: both righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” To understand the four terms wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, we need much wisdom. We also need the wisdom to speak the reality of these terms to others. Chapter 2 of 1 Corinthians tells us that Christ is the depths of God, the deep things of God (v. 10). Christ as the deep things of God is our wisdom. Christ became wisdom to us from God as three vital things in God’s salvation: He is our righteousness for our past, our sanctification for our present, and our redemption for our future. The deep things of God are Christ as wisdom to us. We need the wisdom from God’s revelation to understand how Christ becomes our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption. After talking about these items in chapter 1, Paul tells us in chapter 2 that to understand the deep things of God and to speak or communicate these things to one another, we need the wisdom by the Spirit’s revelation (vv. 6-10, 13). The word of wisdom is mainly of our spirit through revelation (14:26). The word of wisdom is not merely related to our mentality, our understanding. This word is mainly of our spirit through revelation, so we need to pray for the Spirit’s enlightening and unveiling.
The word of knowledge (12:8b) imparts the general knowledge of things concerning God and the Lord (8:1-7). The word of knowledge speaks in a general way about the Lord Jesus’ dying for us, His accomplishing redemption for us, and His relationship with us. The word of knowledge conveys the things concerning God and concerning Christ the Lord in a general way. First Corinthians 8:1-7 is an illustration of the word of knowledge. The word of knowledge is mainly for our understanding through teaching (14:26). When I read a portion of the word to someone with some explanation and definition to impart some knowledge to him through my teaching, my word is a word of knowledge.
The deeper and higher word is the word of wisdom; the shallower and lower word is the word of knowledge. The word of knowledge, however, is also a help as a basic factor for the Christian meetings. Many times we get the word of knowledge in our understanding first. Then when we pray, contact God, and talk to God, this word of knowledge may become the word of wisdom.
Revelation, knowledge, and teaching, all of the word, are needed in the church meetings (v. 6). We need the word of knowledge and the word of teaching, but we must eventually have the word of revelation. The word of knowledge and the word of teaching may become the word of revelation. To get the word of knowledge is superficial. To get the word of revelation, the word of wisdom, is deeper. Thus, we need to contact the Lord more, to stay with the Lord for a longer time. By our staying with the Lord, our spirit will be exercised. Then the word that we know in our understanding will become the word in our spirit, the word of wisdom. This word will minister life to us, bring light to us, and bring the divine energy into our spiritual being. We have to learn to know the word of knowledge and the word of teaching and let these words become the words of wisdom in our spirit. When the word becomes the word of wisdom in our spirit, it is spirit and life (John 6:63). What we read in the Bible may remain in our being just as the word of knowledge and the word of teaching. But if we would spend more time in the presence of the Lord, this word will become the word of wisdom in our spirit to be our very life supply.
As believers, we need to be filled with and soaked in the word. Colossians 3:16a says that we need to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. We need to receive the word of God into us as drinking water to be filled with the word, and we need to dive into the word as bathing water to be soaked in the word. When we are filled with and soaked in the word, we are completely one with the word. Within and without we have the word. We need to be fully wrapped up with the word, soaked with the word outwardly and saturated with the word inwardly. This soaking and filling will make us one with the word to be a man of God’s word.
The word also needs to become the believers’ singing (Col. 3:16b). The word should become our song, or our hymn. We do not necessarily need to have a written melody to sing the word. We can make a natural, spontaneous melody. We need to sing the word according to our own melody. If we could get a melody for the word, that would be better. But when we spend time to get a melody, that may kill our enjoyment. When the word is revealed within us as the word of wisdom, we will be happy, and we need to sing this word. We do not have to be melodious singers in order to sing the word. We can make a joyful noise to the Lord (Psa. 100:1) and rejoice in the Lord by singing His word.
We also need to pray-read the Word (Eph. 6:17-18). Pray-reading is a term that was invented by us to describe the practice of reading the Word of God by prayer and with prayer. Our spiritual dictionary has been broadened to include this word. When something is invented in a culture, there is the need of a new word. The unabridged dictionaries are much larger than they were fifty years ago. Language goes along with culture. Now that we have been transferred into the kingdom of God, we have a spiritual culture, a Christian culture. We need the term pray-reading to match the reality in our Christian culture.
Many saints pray-read throughout church history, but they did not have the term pray-reading. Many of us pray-read the Word without any realization of what we were doing. After we got saved, we may have read a verse that was so inspiring and pleasing to us. Spontaneously, we repeated it in the way of praying. Andrew Murray was one among many saints who turned God’s word into prayer (see ‘Lord...Thou Saidst’, ch. 6). Many saints throughout church history have pointed out that the best way to understand the Word is to read it prayerfully.
To read the Word with prayer and by prayer, to pray-read the Word, is the best way to read the Word. Mere reading needs only our eyes and our understanding, our mentality. But to receive God’s word into the depths of our being, our spirit is needed, and the prevailing way to exercise our spirit is by praying. Whenever we pray, we spontaneously exercise our spirit. Then what we read with our eyes and understand in our mentality will go into our spirit through our prayer. Every word in the Bible needs our pray-reading.
We all need to learn how to handle God’s word. The first principle in handling God’s word is that we should not exercise our mind too much. Our mind is like a wild horse in need of a bridle. Quite often I have received letters from various saints telling me of the “revelations” they have received from the word. Many times their “revelation” is peculiar and off from God’s word. When we read the Bible, we have to bridle our “wild horse,” our mind. Our mind must be in subjection to our spirit when we get into God’s word.
There are many footnotes in the Recovery Version on the genealogy of Jesus Christ in the first seventeen verses of Matthew 1. In this genealogy of Christ it is significant that five women are mentioned. Only one of these five was a chaste virgin, Mary, a descendant of the chosen race of whom Christ was directly born (v. 16). The other women — Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah — were Gentiles, and some were extremely sinful. This indicates that Christ is related not only to the Jews but also to the Gentiles and is the kingly Savior of typical sinners. Such a revelation from the first chapter of Matthew comes from knowing the word as knowledge along with the exercising of prayer. We need to ask the Lord why there are five women in the genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1. As we study in a spirit of prayer who these women are and what they did, we can receive the Lord’s revelation.
This genealogy also tells us that Jacob begot Judah and his brothers (v. 2), but it does not say that Isaac begot Jacob and his brother. In the Lord’s light we can see that Jacob’s brother was not chosen by God, so Christ had nothing to do with him. But all the brothers of Judah were chosen by God to compose the twelve tribes of Israel, and they all were related to Christ. As we exercise our spirit to pray over the word and dive into the word with a spirit of prayer, the Lord’s light will illumine us with divine revelation.
There is even divine revelation in the name Methuselah (Gen. 5:21-22). When Enoch had lived sixty-five years, he begot a son and gave him this name. The name Methuselah has a prophetic significance. It means “when he is dead, it will be sent.” By naming his son Methuselah, Enoch prophesied of the coming judgment of the deluge, the great flood at the time of Noah. Nine hundred sixty-nine years later, the age at which Methuselah died, the deluge at Noah’s time came (see Life-study of Genesis, msg. 26). In the name of Methuselah there is a revelation of God. This revelation comes from turning our mind to our spirit when we get into the word. When we come to the Bible, we should not exercise our mind too much. Rather, we have to restrict our mind and turn our mind to our spirit by praying with what we understand from the word. Then the word of wisdom will come to us, and this word of wisdom is the revelation.
In the book of Ephesians there are many words of wisdom, but for us to obtain these words we need to exercise our spirit to pray over this book. The proper revelation comes from our understanding through the prayer connected to our spirit. When we pray much by staying in the presence of the Lord, we will get a clear word from the Lord in our understanding that brings revelation. At times we have to wait on the Lord by stopping our entire being, including our speaking and thinking. Then wisdom will be imparted into us, and that wisdom will become our revelation. I saw the matter of God’s New Testament economy with the divine dispensing in the book of Ephesians by staying in the presence of the Lord in quiet prayer over my understanding of the word of knowledge. Then the light came, and that light brought in the wisdom, which became the very revelation. I hope that we would learn to pray over the word of God in such a way to get into its depths. Among today’s Christians, there is a lack of the word of wisdom and even a lack of the word of knowledge. In many seminaries they may study the language, history, and archeology of the Bible. But who graduates from a seminary with a rich deposit of the word of knowledge and of the word of wisdom?
By the Lord’s mercy, the word spoken in the Lord’s recovery is either the word of knowledge or the word of wisdom. As we establish meetings in the homes of the new believers, we need to bring them into the printed ministry that is full of the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom. Every educated person likes to read something, so after the new ones get saved and baptized, we need to furnish them with some reading material. The word in the Lord’s recovery will supply them with life, light, truth, and Spirit. The books that we have published, especially God’s New Testament Economy, are full of words of wisdom. The table of contents of our hymnal, including the arrangement of the topics for the hymns, needed a great deal of wisdom to compose. By studying the hymnal with an exercised spirit, we can receive revelation concerning the proper theology.
In the Lord’s recovery there is no lack of the word, but we have to spend time to get into the word by spending time to wait on the Lord. How much time we spend to wait on Him determines how much revelation we will receive. If we spend the proper time in the Lord’s presence with the word, we will be persons filled with the word and soaked in the word to be one with the word. Then whenever we go to the home meetings, we will be living factors. We must learn how to use Life Lessons, Truth Lessons, and the Life-study messages. We have to learn how to handle the word to help people receive God’s word in the best way of understanding so that everyone in the home meetings can be nourished, enlightened, and strengthened. The only thing that can build up, nourish, strengthen, and empower the new believers is the divine word. They need the constant word, the instant word, the word of wisdom, and the word of knowledge. We must be able to minister the divine word to the new ones and to all the saints. Then spontaneously all the meetings in the homes will be built up, and a strong church life will be seen in all the home meetings.
I hope that all of us would learn to dive into the word according to the fellowship we have received in this chapter. We need to spend time every day in the word. This does not necessarily mean that we need to drop our jobs to serve the Lord with all of our time. Many of us need to work to make a living to support our family and to take care of our children’s education. But, generally speaking, in America people have to work only eight hours a day and five days a week. As long as we can make a sufficient living to support our family and take care of our children’s education, we should be satisfied. Then we must endeavor to spend the rest of our time to go out to visit others by knocking on their doors and by establishing home meetings in all the new homes. To do this divine work we need to be completed. The Lord Jesus as the Christ of God was completed. Now we, as the ambassadors and ministers of the New Testament, need to be completed, equipped, with the mingled spirit and with the all-inclusive word in many aspects. Through this equipping we will be qualified and very effective in helping the home meetings.
