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Scripture Reading: Col. 3:16; John 6:63b; Eph. 6:17; 1 Cor. 2:13
It is not easy to speak the word of the Lord. This is because we do not have this concept or practice in our daily life. To speak the word of the Lord is to speak forth something concerning God’s mystery, God’s will, something concerning His riches and His truth, and especially something concerning Christ. It is rather easy for us to speak ordinary words, but to speak spiritual words, words that speak of Christ and speak forth Christ, requires special practice.
The title of this chapter is “Practicing to Speak the Word of the Lord.” To speak the Lord’s word does not mean that you recite the words of the Bible verse by verse. Neither does it mean that you quote some Scriptures to support what you are speaking. Rather, it means that when you have some experience of the Lord and some understanding of god, you relate to others your experience and understanding by spiritual words and expressions (1 Cor. 2:13). When you speak, you should not speak as if you are writing a formal composition; rather, you should speak in an ordinary way. This kind of speaking is not easy, but this kind of speaking is the speaking by the word of the Lord.
A proper Christian life that is up to standard is a life of speaking the Lord’s word. In other words, if we have been a Christian for many years, but we still cannot speak the Lord’s word today, we are not proper and are not qualified. After many years of observation, I have found this to be a fact.
There are many kinds of Christians today. First, there are the pastors, evangelists, and preachers. To put it in a simple way, preaching is their profession. Most of them can go up to the platform and give a sermon, but many of them cannot speak the Lord’s word in their daily life. This is like some Chinese scholars in the old days. They might have ranked first in the national examinations, but it is possible that they could not write a letter home. When asked to compose a classical writing, these scholars could easily do that, but when they were asked to write a letter home, many of them could not do it. Today many preachers and pastors can preach on the platform, but when they talk with people in their daily life, they cannot speak the word of the Lord. The main reason is that they are short of experience. They lack the understanding of God and the experience of the Lord.
Another reason for this inability is the lack of prayer. How much a man can speak for the Lord depends on how much experience he has. But even if he has the experience, if there is no prayer, his experience cannot be converted into speaking. It is by prayer that his experience is converted into words. But even if a man has the experience and also has prayed, still he needs to digest the Lord’s word and have the word of the Lord constituted into him. Only then can he speak the word of the Lord in his daily life.
Stanza 7 of Hymns, #811 says,
Feeding and drinking, Lord Jesus, of Thee,
Feeding by reading, and drinking by prayer;
Reading and praying, I eat and I drink,
Praying and reading — Lord, Thou art my fare.
The third line of this verse speaks of reading and praying, and the fourth line speaks of praying and reading. To pray-read is to eat the Lord, and to read-pray is to drink the Lord. In pray-reading the emphasis is on reading, and this reading is an eating. In read-praying the emphasis is on praying, and this praying is a drinking.
In the Bible spiritual breathing is linked to spiritual drinking. This is very meaningful. In the air there is water. Air would be harmful to us if it did not have water in it. In one sense, when a man breathes in air, he is drinking in water. The Bible likens prayer to breathing. Since breathing also includes drinking, prayer is also a kind of drinking. This is not my experience alone; Sister M. E. Barber in one of her hymns also said, “Just to breathe the Name of Jesus, / Is to drink of Life indeed” (stanza 2 of Hymns, #73). Her experience also confirms that to breathe is to drink.
If you want to digest the word of the Lord, you need to pray-read; that is, you must first read and then pray. To pray-read is to turn what you read into prayer. Then you also need to read-pray, which is to mingle the Lord’s word in your prayer. To pray-read is to eat; to read-pray is to drink.
I can never forget the first article I read about morning watch. Its title was “Plan the Year Early in Spring, and Plan the Day Early in the Morning.” The writer of the article said that morning is the most precious time and that the best way to spend the morning is to have morning watch. Of course, a formal morning watch will not avail much. The true morning watch is one in which you take the Word of the Lord as the Lord Himself and fellowship with Him face to face through His Word.
Sometimes when you have your morning watch, you try to hurry a little because you want to be on time to go to work. Under such a circumstance you would give inadequate attention to your reading and prayer. At other times you may not be in a hurry, but you may use your time to read in a light way and talk to others. Neither of the above practices is good. If while you are reading the Word of the Lord, your spirit is not exercised and you do not take the words you read as the Lord Himself, your morning watch is not right. Whether you are having morning watch by yourself or with a few others, a principle must be kept: whenever you come to read the word of the Bible, you should regard it as the Lord Himself.
The Lord’s Word is the Lord Himself (John 1:1). If you write me a letter, it is one thing for me to receive your letter, and it is another thing for me to talk to you face to face with the letter in my hand. When we come to the Bible, we should have the attitude that we are coming to the Lord with His Word in our hand, taking the Word as Himself. We are not merely reading His Word; we are coming to talk to Him and to let Him speak to us. This is the way to make the Word of the Lord living to us.
The Bible is not a secular book. The words of the Bible do not originate from the human mentality. The Bible is the breath of God; that is, it is God Himself. This does not mean that we worship the Bible as an idol. We need to realize that the words of the Bible are God Himself. Whenever you read the Bible, God speaks to you there. You should not read the Bible merely with your eyes; neither should you merely memorize or understand it with your mind. You must pray-read it with your spirit (Eph. 6:17-18a). In other words, you must mingle your reading with prayer. Prayer is your communication with the living Lord. While you pray-read in this way, you are converting the words of the Bible into your prayer. In the end, you are not merely reading the word of the Lord; you are speaking to the Lord with His word. This is the proper way to fellowship with the Lord. This kind of pray-reading is most helpful to us. For this reason, every time we have our morning watch, we should have the deep sense that we are there to speak to the Lord and to have the Lord speak to us.
The whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation shows us that the word of God is living. Paul tells us from his experience that “all Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16). The word breathe in Greek is a strong word. In translating 2 Timothy 3:16 the Bible translators were not bold enough. The translators of the King James Version rendered the first part of 2 Timothy 3:16 as “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.” The New American Standard Bible renders this phrase as “All Scripture is inspired by God.” Actually, neither of these renderings is accurate. The accurate translation should be “All Scripture is God-breathed.”
The words of the Bible are different from all the words of the great ethical teachers in the world. All their writings were produced from their minds; their whole being was not involved. When a person speaks in a refined way, most of his speaking is probably a pretense. It is only when he loses his temper and speaks out of his anger that his words are not pretentious. The word of God is His breath. It comes directly from God; there is no pretense whatever. God is Spirit (John 4:24), and God is life (1 John 5:20). Whatever comes out of God is, of course, also spirit and life. This is why the Lord Jesus said, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63b).
Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” In the past I did not understand this verse. To me this was as strange as someone telling me, “Let the rice get into you and dwell in you.” Only recently my eyes were opened, and I began to realize what Paul was saying. Paul considered the word of Christ as a person. To Paul, the word of Christ is the same as Christ Himself. If I were to visit your home, when I knock on the door, you would let me in. But how could we speak of letting some rice come in? No matter how much we let the rice in, the rice will never come in, because rice is not a living person. If someone were to place a desk and two chairs at your front door, and you were to open the door to let the desk and chairs come into your study and dwell there, you would never see those pieces of furniture come spontaneously into your house. This is because they have no life; they are not living. But when a living person knocks at your door and waits there, you can let him come in.
The word of Christ is living. It is like a living person. You must let this word come in and dwell in you. The word of Christ has been waiting outside for a long time; it is not far from you. Because of this, you can let this word come in. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” This verse proves first that the word of Christ is living. Second, it shows that this word is very near to you; it is even waiting at your doorstep. Whenever we come to read the Lord’s Word, we need to realize that the Lord’s word is not only living; it is a living person, the Lord Himself, who is waiting to come into us and dwell in us. For us to come to the Word of the Lord is to come to the Lord Himself.
When the Lord was on the earth for three and a half years, He was with the disciples visibly. When the Lord Jesus came, Peter followed Him. When He ate, Peter ate also. When He walked in and out, Peter could follow behind Him. There was no need for any training in order for the disciples to become accustomed to the Lord’s visible presence. Later the Lord left the disciples; He died, was buried, and rose from the dead. In resurrection He came back to the midst of the disciples. At that time His presence became an invisible presence. Because of this He needed to train His disciples to experience this invisible presence.
On the day of the Lord’s resurrection the disciples were assembled in a house. It was evening, and the doors and windows were closed. Suddenly the Lord appeared in their midst and said, “Peace be to you” (John 20:19). Eventually, after spending some time with them, He disappeared. Actually, He did not leave the disciples; He only withdrew His visible presence. The difference was merely one of being visible or invisible. The Lord appeared unnoticeably, and He withdrew His visible presence unnoticeably.
On the road to Emmaus the Lord walked with the two disciples, listening to them as they discussed the Lord’s death and resurrection (Luke 24:13-35). The two disciples did not know that it was the Lord. When they came to a village, the Lord was about to journey on, but they asked Him to tarry, and the Lord stayed with them. When they sat down to eat, the Lord took the bread and broke it. At that moment they recognized that it was the Lord. Suddenly the Lord disappeared. When they did not know that it was the Lord, the Lord followed them and walked with them for a long journey, but when they recognized that it was the Lord, He disappeared from them.
After the Lord’s resurrection He also appeared to Peter (1 Cor. 15:5). However, when the Lord withdrew His visible presence from Peter, he became impatient and said to the other disciples, “I am going fishing,” and they followed him (John 21:3). That night they caught nothing. I believe that the Lord Jesus commanded all the fish that night to stay away from them so that not a single fish came to their net. They did not realize that the Lord Jesus was with them in their fishing. At dawn the Lord asked them if they had anything to eat. They answered, “No.” The Lord told them to cast the net on the right side of the boat. They obeyed and caught an abundance of fish. It was then that they realized that it was the Lord. In dealing with the disciples after His resurrection, the Lord seemed to appear suddenly and disappear suddenly. Actually, it was not a matter of being present or not being present; it was a matter of being visible or invisible.
Today we enjoy the presence of the Lord not in a visible or physical way but in an invisible and unseen way. This is rather difficult for us. I have been practicing this matter for sixty years. Gradually, through much practice I have become accustomed to this. Now I have learned the secret. The Lord’s presence is real. You have the Lord’s presence, and I also have the Lord’s presence. Every one of us has the Lord’s presence. But though the Lord’s presence is practical to me, it may be very abstract to you. In the morning I only need to spend at most ten or twelve minutes, and immediately I can enjoy the Lord’s presence. I can touch the Lord’s word as well as the Lord Himself, and I can enter into fellowship with the Lord. I hope that you will practice fellowshipping with the Lord in this way. In this way the words of the Lord will automatically be digested by you. If you would learn to do this, my next advice to you is that you need to practice speaking these words.
I believe that you all love the Lord, but I must say that even in loving ourselves we are sometimes lazy. This is especially true of the young people. If their parents are not with them, their eating and sleeping habits will be very loose. Only those who are not slothful can cook and eat on time. Although I have never visited your homes, I know that some of you never make your beds. You would not care even if half of your pillow had slipped out of the pillow case, or if one of your socks was under the bed and the other under your pillow. When the time comes, you just fall on your bed and sleep, and when you wake up, you do not care to tidy up anything. You say that you love yourself, but your life is so loose that you are actually wasting yourself.
All of you love the Lord, but your laziness is a big problem. You say that you love the Lord, but during the day do you spend a few minutes to fellowship with the Lord and to talk to the Lord? Do you put the Word of the Lord before you and let the Lord speak to you? This kind of practice requires a great deal of effort. I am afraid not too many brothers and sisters spend a portion of time each day to be with the Lord and to fellowship with Him in His Word.
Romans 12:11 says, “Do not be slothful in zeal, but be burning in spirit, serving the Lord.” Our first service is to fellowship with the Lord. When you fellowship with the Lord, your fellowship will become your prayer. In this way the Lord’s word will automatically be constituted into you, and spontaneously you will have the burden to speak for the Lord. Furthermore, you will have something to say, and whatever you say will be full of content.
In these days our attention is focused on the small group meetings. We must spend time in this matter. All the pastors and preachers in Christianity today know that it is very difficult to help believers lead a life of constant fellowship with the Lord. For this reason, two methods have been developed in Christianity. One is to have a Sunday morning worship service to sustain the people. During the week very few people go to church meetings; most of them go only on Sunday for a worship service. The preachers or pastors prepare a sermon for them each week. In addition, at least twice a year there may be some so-called revival meetings or retreats. Through these revival meetings or retreats they try to stir up the congregation. Most of the fundamental Christian churches depend on this method to maintain themselves.
The other method is that of the Pentecostal movement with its tongue-speaking. This group considers the fundamental Christians too dead; they use the Pentecostal gifts, especially tongue-speaking, to stir up the people. From 1932 on I began to attend their meetings. After many decades of observation and experience, I have the confidence to say that most of today’s so-called speaking in tongues is false. The tongue-speaking mentioned in the book of Acts and in 1 Corinthians is a real dialect (Acts 2:4, 6, 8, 11; 1 Cor. 13:1). It is not like what the tongue-speakers of today practice. Most of today’s tongue-speaking is only a kind of nonsensical sound; it is not a dialect. We have a brother among us who is a scholar in linguistics. He told us that today the most simple language in the world is the Hawaiian language; but even this language has at least thirteen consonants. However, the tongue-speakers can usually produce at most only ten consonants. This proves that the so-called Pentecostal gift of tongues today is not a real dialect.
In the summer of 1963 I was conducting a training in Pasadena. At that time tongue-speaking was quite prevailing on the West Coast. I read a report by a pastor who was very much in favor of tongue-speaking. He said that he had contacted two hundred tongue-speakers, and every one of them told him that they doubted that their speaking in tongues was genuine. After that the pastor exhorted the readers not to doubt their tongues. All they needed to do was to speak; it was all right for them to speak anything. He said that as long as they could speak something, that was a tongue. During the training I asked a brother to read aloud the article to everyone. After that I asked them, “On the day of Pentecost when the apostles spoke in tongues, did any one of them doubt that his was a real tongue? Why is it that today, of the two hundred mentioned in this article who speak in tongues, all doubt their genuineness? This proves that their tongues are not real.”
Some are not happy unless they speak in tongues. They must shout and cry before they feel happy. At first I did not understand this. Gradually, I found out that even an unbeliever when he is depressed can experience an emotional release by shouting a little; he does not need to speak in tongues. I remember that as a child in my hometown I watched the carpenters and the bricklayers build houses. They kept themselves busy from morning until evening. When it was time for them to stop to eat, they threw their tools aside, waved their arms around, and shouted some nonsense. In this way they felt relieved and refreshed.
Concerning the tongue-speaking of today, I would say that most of it, if not all, is false. However, the principle that tongue-speakers apply is correct. The principle of tongue-speaking is to open people’s mouths. To close our mouth is to be shut up, and to open our mouth is to be released. When a person is angry, if he is a cultured man, he will shut up and not speak anything. This will give him an ulcer. If you are angry but have no way to vent your anger, just go out into the yard and shout, “Oh, heaven! This is unfair!” Then sing some songs or recite a poem, and your anger will be gone. You do not need to speak in tongues. It will be just as effective if you shout like the heathens do.
A brother read in some books that even in ancient Egypt and Babylon, a kind of tongue-speaking was practiced in the places of idol worship. There is a brother among us from Ghana in Africa. He told me that when he was young, while he was still an unbeliever, he saw the idol worshippers speaking in tongues.
The reason I have mentioned all these things is to advise you not to take the way of tongue-speaking. Do not take this shortcut. Tongue-speaking is like a tide; it comes in fast, and it goes out fast. The Pentecostal tongue-speaking movement began roughly in the middle of the nineteenth century in England. By now nearly a century and a half has passed. Historically, very few churches or Christian groups have been definitely built up through tongue-speaking. The Assembly of God is the most solid group among the tongue-speakers. They told their seminary students clearly that they cannot depend on tongues to build up the churches. The only way to build up churches is by teaching. They can speak in tongues in private, but in their meetings they do not speak in tongues.
We must be clear that the big meetings cannot build up the church. In order to build up the church, there must be the small groups, and to build up the small groups, our concepts and ways must be changed. We cannot take the old way of Christianity any longer. The way of one man speaking and everyone else listening is definitely wrong; such a thing is not in the Bible. First Corinthians 14:26 shows us that when the whole church gathers together, it is not that one man speaks and everyone else listens; rather, it is that each one has a psalm, a teaching, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. It is mutual; it is reciprocal. Everyone who comes to the meetings must learn to speak for the Lord, and everyone must open his mouth to speak forth Christ.
In order to achieve this, all the responsible brothers who minister to the children of God must labor diligently. For a pastor to take the old way today is very easy; all he has to do is to meet together with his congregation every Sunday and prepare a sermon for them. But to help everyone to seek after the Lord, fellowship with Him, read His Word, digest it through pray-reading, and then speak for and speak forth the Lord is not easy. This requires a great deal of laboring.
In order for the churches in the Lord’s recovery to be strong, we cannot depend on one man preaching in the big meetings. There must be the diligent labor to speak for and speak forth the Lord. The leading brothers must especially take the lead to labor in the word (1 Tim. 5:17). If a mother has five children, she should not expect to have very much rest. There must be a great deal of laboring every day. She has to take care of every aspect of the family. In addition, she must bear the responsibility of teaching and nurturing the children, so that every one of them will grow up to be proper and decent, with a clear mind and a healthy body. For a mother to do this is not easy; she must put all her efforts into this work.
If we love the Lord, we must realize that the way of the Lord today is in the building up of the small groups. We cannot take a shortcut. We should not be misled to think that tongue-speaking and the so-called Pentecostal gifts are the way. If we love the Lord and we love the church, we must pray much before the Lord. In our prayer there must be thorough confessions. Whenever we sense in our prayer that we have sinned or been defiled, or we have done anything wrong, we must confess and repent of our sins one by one. If necessary, we need to go to others to deal with all our unrighteousnesses, so that our conscience can be without blemish. Whenever we come to the Lord’s Word, it is as if we are coming to the Lord Himself, fellowshipping with Him face to face. If we would practice this way, the word of Christ will surely be constituted into us, and our daily experience and enjoyment of the Lord will become our words. When we come to the meetings, surely we will have a lot to speak. If we speak and express ourselves in this way all the time, we will be edified, and others will be built up. We must labor diligently in this way.
We need to use the Word of the Lord frequently in the small group meetings. We are not replacing the Word of God with the Life-study messages. Rather, we are using the Life-study messages to open up and unlock the Bible to us so that we can have a deeper understanding of the Bible. Hence, in the small group meetings, on the one hand, we need to read the Word of God, and on the other hand, we need to receive some guidance and explanation from the Life-study messages so that those who attend the meetings may be further enlightened in the Word of God and be nourished through the reading of the Word.
When we read the Life-study messages, we will find that there are passages that are not so important. The function of these passages is to connect the main points together. They can be read over quickly. Other passages contain the main points of the message. They should be read repeatedly and with emphasis. You should not feel that you need to read every single word in a lifeless and legal way. Instead, you should read the Life-studies in a living way. At times some terms in the messages may be unfamiliar; you may want to explain them briefly while reading them. We call this expound-reading. At other times you can pray-read; at the end of a paragraph you can stop to pray for a short time. You can also give testimonies to strengthen and confirm the words that you read. Then there are times when you can sing-read; when you come to a passage that touches you, you can put the words to a short tune and sing it together.
We must come to the small group meetings with preparation and much practice. Before we come to the small group meetings, everyone should read the message first at home. We should read through the main points, and we should pray and be prepared before the Lord. In the small group meetings, everyone should be diligent. Those who are somewhat taking the lead in all the small groups should all the more be prepared beforehand. Since you take the lead, you should be the first to be diligent. This is the situation in a good family. If the mother takes the lead to be diligent, all the children will follow her example and be diligent. In this way, the whole family will be busy, and everyone will have his part of the work. I hope that you all will take this word and put it into practice in your daily life so that the Lord may have a way among us in the building up of His church.
