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Scripture Reading: 1 Tim. 1:10; 4:6; 6:3; 2 Tim. 1:13; 3:16; 4:3; Titus 1:9; 2:1; 1 Cor. 1:18; Phil. 2:16
There are four great things that are real and living yet altogether mysterious, invisible, abstract, and intangible: God, Christ, the Spirit, and the divine life. To believers these things are real and living. Without these four great things, the Christian life is empty and meaningless. The way we touch and experience God, Christ, the Spirit, and life is by the word of God in the Bible. The word of God is the embodiment of God. Without the Bible, God is altogether untouchable, but through the Bible we can touch God. Any time we come to the Bible with an open heart, even before we open the book, we have the sense that we have come into the presence of God. This is not a psychological phenomenon, for it is impossible to reproduce the same feeling when coming to a secular magazine or newspaper. Sensing that we are in the presence of God when we come to the Bible can be likened to feeling cold when we go outside on a cold day — the sense indicates a fact. We sense that we are in the presence of God when we come to the Bible, because the Bible is the embodiment of God, Christ, the Spirit, and the eternal life of God.
We need to see what the Bible says about itself. Second Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed.” The Bible is God’s breath and not only God’s breath but also God’s breathing. Whenever we come to the Bible, we come into God’s breathing. Many of God’s children sense that they come into God’s presence when they come to the Bible, but they do not realize that the Bible is God’s breathing. The reason we sense God’s presence when we come to the Bible is that the Bible is God’s breathing. God’s breathing is divine, holy, life-giving, and full of riches. Even if we have been a Christian for many years, we may never have realized that the Bible is the breathing of our heavenly Father. When we come to the Bible, we should always consider that we are not merely coming to printed words on paper but that we are coming into the breathing of our Father. When we have the breathing of our Father, we have His presence.
Although in the past we may not have realized what the Bible is, we have experienced coming to the Bible and having a sense that is sweet, clear, and bright. Before we come to the Bible, we may be clouded, darkened, or puzzled. However, when we come to the Bible, even before we open it, we often are inwardly cleared up and enlightened. We may be disappointed or hurt, but when we come to the Bible, deep within we are comforted and soothed. Such experiences are not the result of having a natural concept that the Bible is a divine book, God’s word. Rather, God as the Spirit of life always accompanies His word, because His word is His embodiment.
Because electricity is transmitted through a wire, we may say that the wire is the embodiment of electricity. The wire gives the electricity a location and makes it tangible. Today God is embodied in the Bible and is realized as the Spirit. The Bible and the Spirit are the “wires” of the heavenly, divine, and spiritual “electricity.” We have the holy Word without, and we have the Holy Spirit within. These are the two wires that transmit the unseen, invisible, abstract, and mysterious God into our being. The Spirit is the heavenly wire, and the Bible is the earthly wire. Through these two wires God, Christ, and life are transmitted into us.
We need to realize that the Bible not only is inspired by God but also is God’s breathing. Whenever we come to the Bible, we come into God’s breathing, and this breathing is a transmission. God’s divine element and all the riches of His divine attributes are continually transmitted into us as we read the Word. Whenever we come to the Bible, we receive the infusion of the divine element.
Every day we need to spend time in the Bible early in the morning before doing anything else. This may be likened to eating a healthy breakfast in order to be physically healthy. To take in the word of the Lord every morning is a great thing. Regardless of how busy I am, I always pray-read a few verses from the divine book before I do anything else.
After rising up, the first thing we should do is to come to the Lord through the word in the Bible. It does not matter whether we pray first or read first. Eventually, our praying and reading will become one thing. If we pray and read each morning, we will be spiritually healthy. When we receive nourishment from the divine word for our spirit, we will be a happy person. Joy is a great medicine that heals all kinds of diseases. We are made joyful by contacting the Lord through the Bible. Therefore, we will be healthy not only spiritually but also physically.
Some may be discouraged from reading the Bible because they do not understand everything or remember what they read. We should not be disappointed that we cannot remember what we have eaten of the word. Whether or not we remember, the word gets into us.
We may think that we receive only knowledge when we come to the Bible. Actually, when we read the Bible, we should not try to understand everything with our mind. Striving to understand everything will frustrate our receiving of the nourishment from the holy Word. Instead, we need to exercise our spirit. We should not care for how much we understand or remember but for how much we are nourished.
When we come to the Bible, we should not only read but also pray. Instead of composing a prayer, we can simply use the verses we read as the words of our prayer. For instance, if we are reading John 1:1, we can pray, “Lord, in the beginning was the Word. O Lord, was the Word. Amen. Oh, the Word, Amen.” This is pray-reading.
Pray-reading in this way is spiritual eating. Repeating the words of the Bible can be likened to chewing one’s food to receive nourishment. We should practice this every morning. When our morning time is finished, we will go into our day with the nourishment we have received from God’s breathing. This nourishment will remain in us the whole day, sustaining, enlightening, and watering us. Sometimes this nourishment will comfort us. According to my experience, this nourishment will sometimes speak to me throughout the day. My morning nourishment brings me into God’s presence for the whole day. We have a desperate need to practice this constantly. We need to regard our contact with the Lord in the morning through the word as more important than our breakfast. Our spiritual breakfast is more important than our physical breakfast. Reading the Bible and having a morning time with the Lord are life necessities, just as eating, drinking, breathing, and sleeping are life necessities for our physical life. Early in the morning before doing anything else, we need to come to contact the dear Lord through the word. We should consider that this is a life necessity.
The burden in this chapter concerns the healthy word. In the two Epistles to Timothy and the Epistle to Titus the word healthy is used six times to describe God’s divine word (1 Tim. 1:10; 6:3; 2 Tim. 1:13; 4:3; Titus 1:9; 2:1). These Epistles were written at a time when the church was in degradation, and at such a time some teachings and doctrines are not healthy. Because the church is in degradation today, many teachings in Christianity are not healthy.
The word healthy implies two elements. Negatively, there is an element that kills germs. Every day our body is fighting against germs. The physical life is a struggle between the human life and germs. Similarly, there are spiritual germs from which we must be constantly protected. Therefore, healthy teaching is full of antibiotics — the germ-killing element. Positively, there is the nourishing element. By these two elements we are made healthy. The healthy word is not a doctrinal shell but rather is the truth. The healthy word and the healthy teaching are the truth, containing the killing element and the nourishing element.
First Corinthians 1:18 mentions the word of the cross. The word of the cross is the killing word. Every chapter of 1 Corinthians contains the word of the cross, because the believers in Corinth had been deceived and brought into contact with spiritual germs. Each chapter of 1 Corinthians concerns a different problem in the church life. Every problem was a disease. Because the Corinthians were full of germs, they needed the spiritual antibiotics in the word of the cross, the killing word.
Philippians 2:16 mentions the word of life. Philippians is full of the word of life, the nourishing word. For example, in 1:20 and 21 Paul says, “Christ will be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death. For to me, to live is Christ.” Another example is in 4:13, which says, “I am able to do all things in Him who empowers me.” Thus, in the Bible there are two kinds of words: the word of the cross and the word of life. The word of the cross is the killing word, and the word of life is the nourishing word. On the one hand, the healthy word kills the germs in us; on the other hand, the healthy word nourishes us.
The word of God is actually composed of three elements — Christ, His death, and His resurrection. The basic ingredients of the Bible are not stories or doctrines but Christ, His death, and His resurrection. When we read the Bible, if we pick up only stories or doctrines rather than Christ, His death, and His resurrection, our Bible reading is in vain. Regardless of what chapter or verse we read, we should always take in and enjoy the three basic ingredients — Christ, His all-inclusive death, and His resurrection.
The first few verses of the Gospel of John do not mention the death or resurrection of Christ, but if we eat the healthy word by pray-reading these verses, the result will be that the germs within us will be killed, and the weaknesses within us will be swallowed up. This is a killing produced by the killing element of Christ’s death in the word. As we continue pray-reading, we will be supplied with life by the same word, which also contains the nourishing element of Christ’s resurrection. This is the Christian life — a life of receiving killing and nourishing from our God through the Word.
The proper reading of the Bible always transmits a killing element into us. If we do not receive any killing when we read the Bible, our reading is in vain. Our physical eating similarly enables our body to kill the germs in us. If we do not eat properly every day, we will quickly become sick from many germs. As long as we eat well and regularly, we do not need to take antibiotics. Through our eating we will naturally have the killing element. In the same principle, every time we read the Word, we receive a killing element. Actually, it is not we ourselves but the negative things within us, such as our natural life and our flesh, that are killed.
Without the Bible human society would be in total darkness. Although the Bible is available to everyone today, regrettably, not many Christians apply the Bible in a practical way to their daily living. If we, the children of God, apply the holy word of our heavenly Father practically to our daily living, we will witness the transformation of our life, and we will influence our family, friends, neighbors, and other relatives. This is to hold forth the word of life (Phil. 2:16). To be luminaries shining over the darkness by holding forth the word of life is the best way to preach the gospel (vv. 15-16). In this way we may bring one person to the Lord every year. Those around us will spontaneously no longer be in darkness but will be under our shining and thereby see the way that leads to salvation and to God. It is in this way that we can live a life of testimony.
Christianity has many organizations and activities, but not many Christians daily eat the word of God. In the Lord’s recovery we have no organizations or activities; rather, we have only the living Christ. We eat His word, take Him in, live Him, grow Him, and produce Him. In this way we are luminaries shining over those around us. This depends on our coming to the holy Word every morning and throughout the day. In the morning we need to come to the Word to be nourished by pray-reading. Later in the day we can read three or four chapters. By reading three chapters in the Old Testament and one chapter in the New Testament each day, we can read the whole Bible once a year. If we continue for several years in this way, reading through the Bible once a year and pray-reading verse after verse, we will be spiritually healthy, receiving the nourishing and killing element in the Word.
In the past fifteen years we have been ministering mainly concerning Christ, the human spirit, the experience of life, and the ground of the church. In the local churches in the United States these four things have been built up as four pillars. Most of the saints are very strong and clear concerning these matters. Regrettably, however, we have not adequately stressed the matter of the truth. Hence, in our building we are lacking the pillar of the truth. Because of this lack of the truth, in recent years several corrupting things have crept into the churches from God’s enemy. In the absence of the light of the truth, certain things have crept in. For instance, a brother declared that he is the leader in the Lord’s recovery. This exposes a terrible lack of the truth. In His New Testament economy God does not allow any kind of human leadership among His people, because He has given the headship and lordship uniquely to Christ His Son. To call someone other than Christ the leader leads to a hierarchy, which insults the headship of Christ. If in the past years the pillar of the truth had been built up in the churches, all the saints would know that among the Lord’s people today there is no organization and therefore no official leadership. We all would refute anyone who dares to say that he is the leader. We would be not a people under darkness but a people under the light and full of the truth. We would know that in the Lord’s recovery there is no organization and that no one sent by God would say that he is the leader.
The United States is a strong nation mainly because it has a strong constitution and because the people of this country uphold the Constitution. Even the president must follow the Constitution. Likewise, a strong local church is one in which all the saints uphold the truth. This should be the condition and the situation of every local church. Every brother and sister in the church should know the truth that in the church we practice neither autocracy nor democracy but the headship of Christ. We need to know and practice this truth.
I encourage all the saints to make a vow before God: “Lord, from today I will be a person of the Bible. I will study and pray-read the Bible. I will pick up the truths from all the doctrines.” Only in this way can we grow in life, the church be built up, the kingdom of God be established on the earth, and we be matured so that the bride will be prepared and the Lord Jesus Christ can come back.
As we saw in the previous chapter, truth is not doctrine. In the Bible there are many doctrines, and there is also the truth. Doctrine is merely teaching in letters, but the truth is Christ. For instance, there is the doctrine of holiness in the Bible. We may find a number of doctrinal definitions and explanations of holiness. However, the reality, the truth, of holiness is Christ. John 1:17 says, “The law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.” Christ is the truth; He is the reality of every positive thing. Holiness may be only a doctrine to us, or it may be a truth to us. Perhaps we hold the doctrine of holiness, knowing that holiness is God’s holy nature and that to be made holy is to be sanctified by having God’s nature wrought into us. It is possible for us to know this doctrine yet have no holiness. If this is the case, we have the doctrine, but we do not have the truth, the reality. The way to obtain the reality is not by merely reading, knowing, or listening to a message but by opening our being and contacting the reality of holiness, which is Christ. When we open our being and exercise our spirit to contact the living Lord, His holy nature will be infused into our being. Then we will have the truth, the reality, of holiness.
Thousands of missionaries went to China in the nineteenth century to preach the gospel, but very few preached the truth of salvation. My mother was a third-generation Christian. As a girl, she was sent to study at a Southern Baptist mission school. She was baptized there, and she was fully for Christianity. She taught her children Bible stories. Every Sunday she prepared herself and charged all her children to go to the Southern Baptist morning service. However, she was not saved. She received the doctrine of salvation, but she never touched the truth of salvation. My whole family was in Christianity and knew much doctrine, but not one was saved until one day my second sister contacted the Lord and was saved. Then she prayed for me, and I was saved at nineteen years of age. My salvation caused me to love the Bible, and my youngest brother was influenced by me to read the English Bible, which caused him to be saved. My mother witnessed a great change in us, and she was impressed in a positive way, but she was still not saved until seven years later when the Lord raised up a local church in my hometown. Through the meetings my mother received the truth of salvation and was saved. This illustrates the difference between the truth and doctrine.
We can find doctrines in the Bible, but we should not forget that within the doctrines is the truth. We should not be satisfied with the knowledge of a doctrine until we touch the truth in it. We can learn the doctrine by reading, but to touch the truth we must exercise our spirit to contact the living Lord, who is now the life-giving Spirit within us. As we have pointed out, the Spirit and the Bible are the two “wires” through which God, Christ, and life are transmitted into our being. When we exercise our spirit to touch the Spirit by pray-reading the Word, we receive the truth. It is in this way that the churches will be built up with life and according to the truth. As a result, even the youngest among us will have adequate experience of life and knowledge of the truth. No heresy will be able to creep into the church, because all the saints will be healthy, strong, and infused with the truth. This is the proper way to build up the churches in the Lord’s recovery.
Question: When I pray, I close my eyes and focus inwardly until I feel that I contact the Lord and sense the Lord’s presence. Is this the best way?
Answer: A number of saints practice this, but it is a difficult way. Instead of waiting until we have some feeling from within, we should begin by speaking. This is the easiest way. Whenever we are going to contact the Lord, we should not be quiet and wait for a feeling. The best way to contact the Lord, even before we kneel, sit, or open the Bible, is to speak something simple, such as, “O Lord. Praise You, Lord.”
A Christian should be a speaking person, speaking not only to people and to God but also to angels, demons, and even the atmosphere. When we come into the meeting, if we do not speak but only sit there, the atmosphere will be full of death. However, if everyone speaks, our speaking will bring in life and repel all the distractions. The best and easiest way to contact the Lord is to speak. We should not wait; we should immediately and spontaneously speak. We can praise the Lord, thank the Lord, or worship Him. We can speak anything, as long as we speak from our spirit to the Lord. After speaking only two or three sentences in this way, our speaking will usher us into the presence of God.
Question: I have trouble coming to the Word in a regular way every day. What is the secret to be able to do this?
Answer: No matter how busy a person is, he always finds time to eat, because he realizes that eating is a necessity of life. Therefore, doing something regularly depends upon our realization. For all Christians, coming to the Word is a necessity of life, but many do not realize it. Because we now realize that this is a life necessity, we need to pray, “Lord, help me to read Your Word two or three times every day.” We should try to make this practice legal for ourselves by pray-reading a few verses in the morning, perhaps spending ten minutes to read a chapter after lunch, and then reading a few more chapters in the afternoon or evening. Such daily practices depend on our realization. Anyone who realizes that this is a life necessity will be able to practice it. Eventually, we will become accustomed to doing this. Then we will have an appetite for it and will feel that something is lacking if we do not do it. It will become our habit, and we will be healthy. We will see our Christian life transformed. Reading, studying, and eating the words of the Bible are life necessities. We need to trust in the Lord to be able to practice this.
