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Scripture Reading: John 1:1, 14; 4:24; 6:63; 16:7, 13-15; 20:19-22
The content of the Gospel of John can be considered as an amplified explanation of Genesis 2:8-10. In these verses God put man in the garden of Eden. In the middle of the garden there were the tree of life and the river of water of life for man to enjoy. The tree of life denotes Christ, and the river denotes the Spirit. The Gospel of John also speaks of God as a tree and as a river in order to be man’s life and enjoyment. The Lord is a vine tree (15:1), and the Spirit is a river (7:38-39). Therefore, the Gospel of John is concerning God in Christ as the Spirit to be our life and life supply. The chorus of Hymns, #509 says, “God is in Christ to be my supply, / God as the Spirit nourisheth me; / If upon Christ in spirit I feed, / Filled with His life I’ll be.”
The Gospel of John begins with the Word and ends with the Spirit. Verse 1 of chapter 1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” In verse 22 of chapter 20 the Lord breathed into His disciples and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” In the beginning of this Gospel, God is the eternal Word. At the end of this Gospel, God is the Spirit who was breathed into man and received by man. God is both the Word and the Spirit. In verse 63 of chapter 6 the Lord said, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit.” This shows the relationship between the Word and the Spirit; the Lord’s words are spirit. God wants to give Himself to us for our enjoyment not only in Christ but also in the Spirit and in the Word.
How can we eat and drink God? How can we touch God? In order to give me a loaf of bread, you would simply need to hand it to me, and I would take it. That is quite easy. But how can we give God to others? We cannot show them the Lord Jesus, because He is not visible. In order for people to understand and to know the Lord Jesus, they need the Word. We can know the Lord Jesus through the Word, which is the gospel. He is also the Word who became flesh (1:14), and all that He is and has done are now in the Word. His person and His work, including how He was crucified, shed His blood, was buried, resurrected, and ascended, and all that He has obtained and attained are in the Word.
The Lord is also the Spirit. In Himself He is the Spirit and then the Word, but in our experience He is the Word and then the Spirit. The Word explains and reveals Him to us so that we may understand and know Him. The Spirit accomplishes within us what the Word has revealed and explained so that we may not only understand and know Him but also receive and enjoy Him.
The Word of God is our spiritual life supply. Matthew 4:4 says, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God.” This is a quotation of Deuteronomy 8:3. God’s words are more important than food. A man who lives only on physical food, not on God’s word, will not fulfill God’s desire. It is not enough for a person to live on food; he must also live on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God. A proper person cannot live only on physical food; he must also feed on God’s word. There is a great difference between those who feed on God’s word and those who do not. Most people care for eating only the physical food. They neglect God’s word, because they do not know that God’s word is the food that man needs. The Lord Jesus’ words in Matthew 4:4 show that God’s word is bread, our food.
The Lord Jesus fasted for forty days, but He lived on the word of God (v. 2). He did not eat anything else. As a result, when the devil tempted Him to turn stones into loaves of bread in order to satisfy His hunger, He said, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God.” This verse indicates that the Lord did not need food in order to live. He needed every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God.
When we are filled with the Lord’s word, our spiritual sicknesses disappear. When we do not eat enough of His word and are spiritually malnourished, our sicknesses and problems return. As Christians, our problems are due to a lack of feeding on the word and being supplied by the word. When we eat and are filled with God’s word, our problems are eliminated.
I can testify that when I am heavily burdened with problems or troubling matters and I eat God’s word, the heavy burdens are lightened, the problems disappear, and I am comforted. It is often not enough for us to merely pray when we face problems; we must also eat God’s word. If we would spend half an hour or more to eat and be filled with the word, we would be strengthened within, and our problems would be resolved. May we learn to eat the word. God is embodied in the word. When we eat Him, He will supply our needs. We should always remember that man cannot live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God.
Jeremiah 15:16 says, “Your words were found and I ate them, / And Your word became to me / The gladness and joy of my heart, / ...O Jehovah, God of hosts.” When Jeremiah found God’s words, he not only heard them, but he ate them as food. After he ate God’s words, he was immediately supplied within and felt glad and joyful.
In the spring of 1948 I went to work in Foochow. After I finished giving a message, the saints gave me a glass of tangerine juice. Tangerine is a specialty of Foochow. As soon as I drank the juice, I was refreshed. For several weeks in Foochow I was very busy every day, and I was very tired. The tangerine juice that the saints gave me in the morning, at noon, and in the evening refreshed me. This impressed me with how much food and drink supply us. Likewise, when we eat the Lord’s words, we are spiritually refreshed.
There is not one book in the world that has the ability to supply life. Only the Bible has such an ability because the words in the Bible convey the Spirit, and God is embodied in the word. Many believers have been supplied by the word of God. The word of God not only has the ability to supply man but can also change him completely. Just as the food we eat sustains our life, makes us healthy, and changes our constitution, so also the word not only gladdens and satisfies us but also gradually transforms us to the Lord’s image.
Once a white man went to Africa and saw a native reading the Bible under a tree. The white man ridiculed the Bible and said that it was an outdated book of no value. The native looked at him and replied, while pointing to his own stomach, “If it were not for this book, you would have already been in my stomach.” Those natives were cannibals who were converted by the Bible. This shows that God’s word is wonderful and powerful. A Christian who has believed in the Lord for years but has not had much transformation has not eaten enough of God’s word.
Hebrews 1:1-2 says, “God, having spoken of old in many portions and in many ways to the fathers in the prophets, has at the last of these days spoken to us in the Son.” God is pleased to speak through man. The words that God spoke through the prophets are the Old Testament. The words that God spoke through His Son are the New Testament. To this day God’s Son is still speaking to us through the Spirit. Throughout the ages God has been a speaking God. He has not ceased speaking. This is His mercy, for when God does not speak, we do not have any way to know Him. God reveals Himself to us through His word and supplies us with His word.
Hebrews 5:12-14 says, “When because of the time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you what the rudiments of the beginning of the oracles of God are and have become those who have need of milk and not of solid food. For everyone who partakes of milk is inexperienced in the word of righteousness, for he is an infant; but solid food is for the full-grown, who because of practice have their faculties exercised for discriminating between both good and evil.” The oracles of God refers to the words of God. All God’s words are our food; some are like milk, and others are like solid food. If we are spiritually immature, that is, like children before God, God’s word will be like milk to us. If we are spiritually grown, God’s word will be solid food to us.
The Hebrew believers were spiritually immature; they were not full grown. Therefore, they could be given only milk to drink; they could not be given solid food to eat. The author of this book said that he could feed them only with the simple truths of God’s word, but he could not supply them with profound truths.
First Corinthians 3:2 says, “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food.” Just as in Hebrews, in this verse both milk and solid food refer to God’s word. The Corinthians could receive only milk, but they could not receive solid food. These verses prove that the word of God is food that can supply the needs of every kind of person.
First Peter 2:2 says, “As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word.” Milk of the word refers to God’s word. This verse also shows that God’s word is nourishing and digestible food, like milk, to the newly saved, who may eat of it and grow by it.
God has given Himself to us as a tree and a river for our enjoyment. The tree of life is food for us to eat, and the river of water of life is living water for us to drink. We can eat God in His word and drink Him in the Spirit.
God is the Word. God is mysterious, incorporeal, intangible, and invisible. We cannot see Him, hear Him, smell Him, or taste Him. What we can perceive with our five senses is of no avail in relation to God. The way that God has prepared for us to know Him is by the Word. Every orthodox and proper word in the universe is an expression of God. Every proper and positive thing in the universe is also an expression of God. Thus, every positive and proper word that man can comprehend is out of God and explains God. God has been expressing Himself with words throughout the ages. The crucial points, principles, topics, and content that God has spoken throughout the ages are contained in the Bible. The Bible is God’s Word. A person who wants to know God and touch God must come to the Bible. It is impossible to know God accurately without reading the Bible. A person cannot contact God without contacting the words in the Bible. God is the Word. Hence, man must read the Bible properly in order to know God, contact Him, and eat Him.
We can enjoy God through the Spirit. Everything created by God is balanced with two sides. God created man with a right foot and a left foot. Man also has two hands, two eyes, two ears, and two nostrils. Everything has two sides: a top and a bottom, a front and a back, a left and a right, and an inside and an outside. God wants man to enjoy Him as the Word and as the Spirit. The Word without the Spirit is dead letter. Therefore, God is the Word, and He is the Spirit.
The Spirit and the Word cannot be separated. John 6:63 says, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit.” During the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt, a pillar of cloud was before them by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exo. 13:21-22). The pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud were not two things. At night this pillar shined like fire and was thus the pillar of fire. During the day it did not need to shine and was thus the pillar of cloud. The pillar of fire typifies the Word of God, and the pillar of cloud typifies the Spirit. God’s Word is light and shines on us as a pillar of fire (Psa. 119:105, 130). The cloud is a symbol of the Spirit of God (Luke 1:35). The Holy Bible is the pillar of fire, and the Spirit is the pillar of cloud. Just as the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud are one, so also the Bible and the Spirit are inseparable. The Bible that we read is in our hands, and the Spirit that we sense is within us. When the sense within is spoken forth, it is the word, and when this word enters into others, it becomes the Spirit. Without the Spirit, the Bible is dead, and without the Bible, the Holy Spirit is intangible. Without the Bible, the Spirit cannot be expressed. Without the Spirit, the words of the Bible are dry and dead; they cannot touch us.
We need to see that God is the Word and the Spirit and that He is in the Word and the Spirit. The Spirit and the Word are mingled and inseparable. It is difficult to say whether it is the Word that moves us or the Spirit who moves us. Under normal conditions the Word is the Spirit, and the Spirit is the Word. Therefore, the Lord said, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit.” The Bible conveys the Spirit, and the Spirit is the essence of the Bible. The greatest gifts that God has given to us are the Bible and the Spirit. God is the Word and also the Spirit. God is expressed in the Word and made real as the Spirit. Hence, we must learn to contact the Word and the Spirit with our spirit by reading the Bible and praying. Then we will enjoy God by eating and drinking Him.
