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Scripture Reading: John 5:39-40; 6:63; Deut. 8:3; Jer. 15:16; Psa. 119:103, 105, 130
Prayer: Lord, thank You for gathering us to read Your Word together. We believe that You are in Your Word. Your Word is Your expression; Your Word is also Yourself because Your Word is spirit and life. O Lord, we worship You for giving us this environment that we could meet freely and come together before You to seek You. Lord, be with us and give us the Spirit, light, the supply of life, and the rich enjoyment.
O Lord, as we are reading Your Word, we pray that Your glory may shine on each line. Give us understanding and inward knowledge. Lord, make us hungry and thirsty so that we will not be inwardly numb or indifferent. Take away our lukewarmness so that we may be burning inwardly to pursue You and to desire Your Word. Also, give us the utterance so that You could speak from within us into everyone, so that each one of us can be supplied.
O Lord, speak to each one of us, and speak Your word into us to enlighten us. Thank You that the entrance of Your word gives light. O Lord, care for us by visiting each one of us, and resist the power of darkness for us. Thank You that Your blood cleanses us and defeats the enemy. We thank You for being with us, and in Your name we look to You. Amen.
To us the Lord’s Word is not a small matter. If there were no Bible among men on earth, if there were no word of the Lord, then the entire world would fall into darkness. There was a period of time in history beginning from the end of the sixth century, about A.D. 570, when Catholicism was formally established and papal authority was set up, that the Bible was declared to be sealed. Only the pope and the so-called clergy beneath him were allowed to read the Bible. The excuse was that the common people could not understand the Bible and, therefore, would easily make mistakes and suffer loss in their reading. Hence, the common people were not allowed to read the Bible.
From that time until around 1518, when Martin Luther was raised up by the Lord, there was a period of almost ten centuries. Those who study history all know that this period of time in history is called the Dark Ages, or the Middle Ages. Why is it called the Dark Ages? It is because during that period of time the Bible was sealed up. The common people could not read the Bible, and the result was that they fell into darkness.
The Bible was written first in Hebrew by the inspired Hebrew patriarchs. Because communication was difficult in ancient times, the influence of the Hebrew Old Testament was almost totally limited to the Hebrew people. Later, as communication and transportation progressed, the Hebrew Old Testament spread out to other lands. Around the year 400 B.C., the Greek culture spread all around the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, especially in its southeastern part, and in Palestine and North Africa. Around the year 300 B.C., Jewish scholars living in Egypt began to translate the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek; this was called the Septuagint. From that time on, the Old Testament came into existence in Greek. Without a doubt this caused the influence of the Old Testament Bible to increase among the Hellenized people.
After this the Lord Jesus came. By the end of the first century the New Testament was completed, written almost entirely in Greek. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He often quoted the Scriptures in His speaking, and His quotations of the Old Testament came from the Septuagint (meaning “seventy”), the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Thus, when the apostles continued writing the New Testament, they quoted the Old Testament from the Septuagint version. This spontaneously caused the revelation of the Bible to thoroughly penetrate the Greek culture. It was for this very reason that in the first two centuries, at the beginning of the church age, the Greek Gnostic philosophers brought the myths in Greek philosophy into the church. Thus, during the first two centuries and even up to the beginning of the third century, the myths in Greek philosophy invaded the church through the Greek Gnostic philosophers to the extent that many wrong and heretical things were taught concerning the person of God and the person of Christ. This created tremendous controversies within the church.
Recently, I have spent some time to study the truth of the Bible totally from the perspective of the Divine Trinity. The more I read, the more I saw that when the people of the first two or three centuries read the Bible, their scriptural studies eventually brought them into the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Most of the people were there eating that tree. Eventually, the scholars themselves did not receive the supply of life, and they harmed many others by preventing them from obtaining the real supply of life.
Many peoples and linguistic groups on earth today have the Bible in their own language. The Bible today has been translated into all kinds of languages and has entered into every nation. Thank the Lord, for this is a great matter! But we must know that it is useless to merely take the black and white printed words of the Bible and study them with only our mind. According to the Bible, man has three parts. The outer part is the body, within the body is the soul, and within the soul is the spirit (1 Thes. 5:23). The soul is the psyche that we sometimes hear of today. The most important part of the soul is the mind. Young people studying in school are being trained mainly in the functions of their mind: the understanding, memory, and use of their mind. But within man’s soul, that is, within man’s psyche, there is also the human spirit. The human spirit, soul, and body are the three parts of man.
As I am speaking, I believe that all my three parts — my spirit, soul, and body — are being used. You can see my body; my mouth is moving, my hands are gesturing, and even my shoulders are moving with them. This is the activity of my body. If I did not have a body while speaking, there would be only my soul. You would hear a voice speaking without seeing a body, and you would certainly be frightened, thinking perhaps that I am a ghost. However, because I have a body while I am speaking, you need not be afraid. Moreover, if I were merely teaching at a school or making a speech, it would be enough for me to use my body and my mind, my understanding. I would not need to use my spirit. However, as I am speaking, the most important matter is my spirit. We can all tell that listening to a lesson in the classroom is one thing, while listening to a message in the meeting is another thing. The former does not require us to use our spirit, but the latter does. In the classroom you might be touched at times to shed tears or to laugh, but these have nothing to do with your spirit. In the meetings, however, all of us, especially those of us who speak for the Lord, must have sufficient prayer and exercise to use our spirit more than our soul or outward body, because we desperately want to allow the Lord to speak His word from our spirit.
It is the same with reading the Bible. When you read the Bible, you absolutely must remember to use all three parts — spirit, soul, and body. You certainly must use your eyes and your mouth to read; this is to use your body. In Chinese, the word read does not mean to read silently but to read aloud. Reading the Bible should be done aloud. When we read the Bible, we first use our body, then our mind, and then our emotion. We must use our emotion to appreciate and love the Word. Why do you like to read novels? It is because your emotions tell you to keep on reading them. Why do you nod off when you read the Bible? It is because you do not appreciate it with your emotions. Therefore, you must pray and ask the Lord to cause you to desire His Word. However, this is not enough. You have used only two of your three parts, your body and soul, but you still have not used your spirit.
Our spirit is our innermost part. The best way to use our spirit is to pray with our spirit. For example, when we want to use our feet, the best way is to walk. In the same way, if we want to use our spirit today, the best way is to pray. It is very easy to gossip and to criticize others, because you do not need to use your spirit for this. All you have to do is make a telephone call, and your gossip and criticism will come out. But if you want to use your spirit, you must pray. Therefore, when you read the Bible, not only your eyes and mouth must cooperate, and not only must you use your soul to understand and love the Word, but you must also pray, expressing in prayer what you have read and understood. This prayer is the use of your spirit. In this way you use your spirit, soul, and body, and you are not merely touching the Bible without contacting the Lord. However, if you do not use your spirit to pray, then you may remain in a situation where you only touch the Bible without contacting the Lord. This means that you only seek Bible knowledge without seeking the Lord.
You must simultaneously seek the Lord and His Word. First, you need to seek the Lord. Whenever you are going to read the Scripture, even before you open the Bible, you should pray. It does not matter whether it is in the morning, in the evening, or at noontime; whenever you open the Bible, before you read the Lord’s Word, you should always pray first. You do not have to follow any formalities, so you may either kneel or sit. The only thing you need to do is spontaneously express the feelings in your heart. This expression of your heart is prayer, and it is the coming forth of your spirit: “O Lord, I love You. I thank You that now I am coming to read Your Word.” All it takes is a short, simple prayer like this for you to seek the Lord. Do not despise this simple practice; it is truly precious. You do not need to say the same thing every time, because it is not a matter of what you say. The point is that you pray, showing that your heart is turned to the Lord and that you are seeking the Lord.
When you pray, first seek the Lord. Then when you open the Bible to read, you will be able to inwardly understand what you are reading, and you will desire the Word. At this time you will spontaneously turn what you have read, desired, and understood into a prayer. For example, you might read John 1:1, and perhaps you will pray, “O Lord, I praise You that You are the Word who was in the beginning. You existed from the beginning, and You are the Word of the beginning. When we breathe, we breathe You in as this Word. This Word defines God.” In this way you turn the Lord’s word into prayer; your prayer can be many words or just a few words. It is even all right to pray only one sentence. You can say, “O Lord, thank You that You are the Word who was in the beginning.” When you turn the Lord’s Word into your prayer, the Spirit comes, and at the same time you are seeking the Lord.
If you pray in this way, the Lord says that His words are spirit and life. If you do not pray like this but only open the Bible to read, then even though this Bible is the Lord’s word, it is only words in black and white letters to you. The modern Chinese philosopher Mr. Hu Shih also read and studied the Bible, but he studied only with his mind and never touched the Spirit; therefore, he did not receive life. We are not like this. Whenever we read the Bible, we first pray to the Lord to open to Him so that our spirit may contact Him, and then we read and are able to understand. Once we understand, we spontaneously have a desire, and then at this time we turn what we have read and desired into a prayer. Then when we pray, the words of the Bible become the Spirit and life. This is a marvelous experience!
In John 5:39-40 the Lord Jesus said, “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that testify concerning Me. Yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” It says here that the Bible is the testimony of the Lord Jesus. At the time the Lord Jesus was on earth, the Jewish teachers and leaders were zealous to search the Scriptures. They did not merely read, but they searched and studied because they thought that in the Scriptures they had eternal life. However, the Lord Jesus said, “It is these that testify concerning Me.” What the Lord Jesus meant was, “You think that in the Scriptures there is eternal life, but you must know that the Scriptures speak of Me, the Christ. The Scriptures have eternal life because the contents of the Scriptures speak about Me, the Lord Jesus. Only I, the Lord Jesus, am the eternal life.”
Eternal life is not what most people understand it to be, merely an eternal blessing. Eternal life is the uncreated, indestructible life of God. The Lord rebuked those Pharisees, saying, “You teachers of the Jews search the Scriptures, which testify concerning Me, because you think that in them you have eternal life, but you are not willing to come to Me.” This proves that people can read the Bible without contacting the Lord of life. Thus, our real need is to simultaneously seek the Lord Himself and His Word.
We cannot separate the Lord from His words. If you separate the Lord from His words, you will get nothing. We must see that the Lord is the contents of His words; His words are His expression and container. The Bible is like a bottle, and the Lord Himself is like the water in the bottle. Today if you do not have the bottle, you have no way to drink the water, nor can you carry the water. Likewise, if you only hold the bottle without drinking the water, you will not get anything. If we want to enjoy the water, we must both hold the bottle and take a drink.
Our reading the Bible and seeking the Lord are just like drinking water; reading the Bible is like holding the bottle, and praying to the Lord is like drinking the water. Suppose you offer me a cup of tea, and I take that cup of tea but only look at it, saying, “This cup is the best china produced in Ching-te-chen; that city is famous for its porcelain.” If I were to admire the cup for half a day without drinking one mouthful of the tea, I would offend you. You offer me the tea, not the cup. You want me to drink the tea, not to admire your cup. It is only by drinking the tea that I can quench my thirst and honor you. This is what the Lord’s word in John 5 means. He rebuked the Jewish teachers for admiring the Scriptures without being willing to touch the content of the Bible, which is the living person, Jesus Christ, the eternally living Lord. They were studying the Scriptures because they thought that only in them they had eternal life, but they did not know that the Scriptures speak of the Lord Jesus who is the eternal life. They only searched the Scriptures but were not willing to come to the Lord Jesus to obtain the eternal life.
Remember, therefore, that when you read the Bible you must contact the Lord. Do not merely read the Bible without exercising your spirit. When you read the Bible without exercising your spirit, it is the same as searching the Scriptures without coming to the Lord. If you do not come to the Lord, then all you will get is knowledge. The same Bible may be to you either knowledge or life; it all depends on whether or not you exercise your spirit to touch the Lord when you read it. The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil are both here; it all depends on how you read. You must read the Bible with your body, understand and long for it with your soul, and pray over it with your spirit. Once you pray, you immediately touch the Lord through the Holy Scriptures and obtain life.
Some people may ask, “Isn’t the Lord within us? It doesn’t matter whether or not we come to the Lord because He is already within us.” This is right; in any event the Lord is within us, but we still need to contact Him. The Lord is in us, but we must pray to contact Him. Because the Lord as the Spirit abides in our spirit, whenever we pray, we exercise our spirit and are able to contact the Lord. However, many people are not willing to exercise in this way. They listen to a message or read the Bible, but they are not willing to pray. The result is that they only get the doctrines in black and white letters, but they do not contact the Lord. If we only get the doctrines or touch the Bible without contacting the Lord, then we have no way to obtain eternal life.
I hope that we can all correct this error by always praying before we read the Bible and by turning into prayer what we have understood in our reading. This is to seek the Lord and simultaneously seek His Word. We absolutely must not separate these two matters. Instead, we must combine our reading of the Bible with our praying, so that our reading is our praying and our praying is our reading. In this way, not only the words of the Lord will enter into us, but He also will enter into us in and with His words. As a result, not only will we obtain the Lord’s words, but the Lord will be one with His words and enter into us as our supply.
In John 6:63 the Lord Jesus said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” The words, the Spirit, and life are three items, but the Lord spoke of them here as one. When the words are merely words, they are only black letters printed on white paper; they are not the Spirit. But when the words get into your mind through your eyes, and you begin to pray with your spirit, then the words become the Spirit. When the words become the Spirit, they are life.
When we pray in our reading of the Word, we turn the verses we have read into prayer. When we pray, we must forget everything else and have only the Lord and His Word. Hymns, #389 says, “From morning to evening my one world Thou art.” This means that when we seek the Lord, we have only one world: “O Lord, You are my world; I seek You.” When you pray a simple prayer like this, whatever you read and understand will enter into you. Once the word enters your spirit, it becomes the Spirit and life. However, if you do not pray, then the word that you read will not become the Spirit, nor will it become life.
Deuteronomy 8:3 says, “He humbled you and let you go hungry and fed you the manna, which you had never known nor your fathers had ever known, so that He might make you know that man lives not by bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out from the mouth of Jehovah.” When the Lord Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness, He quoted this verse to answer the devil (Matt. 4:4). This shows us that the words of God are not only teachings, but as the manna from heaven, they are also food for our nourishment and supply. Teachings are for educating our mentality so that we may have knowledge to understand and comprehend. Food does not give knowledge; it causes us to obtain an inward supply of life. Therefore, the Lord Jesus said that the words which He speaks to us are spirit and are life, that is, the supply of life.
This is why in John 6 the Lord also told us, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall by no means hunger” (v. 35). Moreover, He said, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me” (v. 57). These passages show us that the Bible is not merely a book for us to receive religious teachings and obtain knowledge about God. Rather, the words in the Bible are the words that proceed out through the mouth of God. When we read the Bible, we should not only read and understand it, but we must also pray. When we pray, the words that proceed out through the mouth of God enter into our spirit. When the words enter our spirit, they are spirit and life, and they become our food as our living supply.
We all know that if we eat sand and get it into our stomach, this sand cannot supply us as food does, and it will even harm our body. Because sand is not organic, it does not have any elements with which to supply us. Any food, such as meat or vegetables, is necessarily organic. Because our body is organic, our food must also be organic for us to be able to digest and assimilate it. Through the organic function of our body, the food that we eat is organically digested into our body to be our life supply so that our body may obtain life.
If you do not eat anything all day, by evening time you will feel that you have no strength. If you do not eat for seven days, you may die. Therefore, our supply of life depends upon food. In the same way, we Christians not only have physical life, but we also have life in our spirit. The life in our spirit must have God Himself as the supply. However, because God is abstract and mysterious, we must have the substantial Bible, the Word of God, as the means for us to obtain the supply of God. By reading and understanding God’s words and by turning what we read and understand into our prayer, the words enter into us as life to become our life supply. This is the proper way to read the Bible — considering the Lord’s words as food and not as teachings or religious writings.
Thus, 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.” Good food always makes us happy; the Lord’s words are the same. When we eat the Lord’s words, we have joy and rejoicing in our heart. Psalm 119:103 says, “How sweet are Your words to my taste (lit., palate)! / Sweeter than honey to my mouth!” This verse does not say that God’s words are in my mind. If this were so, that would mean that I study them with my mentality. It says that God’s words are on my palate, in my mouth. This is a description of the taste of enjoyment. One has to be very particular in eating. If one eats too quickly, gobbling things ravenously, then he will not have much sweet enjoyment.
Next, verse 105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet / And a light to my path.” On the one hand, we should not consider the Bible to be mere teachings, but on the other hand, we still need to be taught. First, the Lord’s word is our food to be our supply and enjoyment. Then, it becomes our lamp and our light to guide us. Today’s society is in darkness everywhere. Schools, offices, businesses, and so forth are all in darkness. But if you carefully chew and taste the Lord’s words, allowing them to be digested within you, they will shine forth to enlighten you inwardly and make you feel that in the path of human life, your every step has a lamp and is full of light.
Sixty years ago, when I was still a small child, it was completely dark outside our door at night, so we had to carry lanterns outdoors and walk carefully step by step. In those days the roads were not as even as they are today. There were always little bumps and hollows. When we walked, we had to use the light and look carefully before we took a step. This was the way we walked in those days. Today in our human society it is as if we are walking at night, as we did in the old days. Even if you are a young person in school, your way is very bumpy, and everything is in darkness. However, if you read and eat the Lord’s Word every day, then His word will shine brightly within you and prevent you from stumbling.
This is why verse 130 says, “The opening of Your words gives light, / Imparting understanding to the simple.” The word opening here does not mean the opening up of a truth through an explanation, but it refers to an actual digestion. When the Lord’s words are eaten by us and digested in us, then they have an entrance and shine forth light. For example, you may often lose your temper with your wife, and the elders may exhort you with Ephesians 5:25, saying, “Husbands, love your wives.” Their exhortation, however, does not have much effect, because the Lord’s word has not been digested within you.
If you truly digest the Lord’s word, even if you do not read Ephesians 5 but instead read John 6:63, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life,” immediately you will have the inward process of digestion. Once the Lord’s word is digested in you, it gives forth light. You are immediately in the light, and you see that your attitude toward people is wrong. You see that not only have you lost your temper with your wife, but your attitude toward others is also inappropriate. Sometimes you seem to have the proper attitude toward others, but it is false; it is only a kind of outward politeness while you inwardly detest that person. Therefore, it is not necessary that you specifically pray-read the verses about loving your wife or submitting to your husband. The only thing you need to do is use your spirit in reading the Bible. The operation of the Lord’s word is so broad that it spontaneously will enlighten you in every aspect.
I hope that you brothers and sisters will spend a little time every day, at least ten minutes, to read a small portion of the Lord’s Word. The young people need at least ten minutes to eat a meal, but when they eat in just ten minutes, they do not digest the food very well, so it is better to use half an hour. Similarly, we should spend at least ten minutes every day, and it is best if we spend half an hour, to read the Lord’s Word. Today we are all the saved children of God who have the inward spiritual life. This spiritual life needs nourishment. If you do not feed it, this life will not grow up. I have several grandchildren; all those who know how to eat are husky, and those who do not like to eat as much are skinny. I hope that you all will take my word to have a good appetite every day and to spend a little time to read, understand, desire, and pray the Lord’s Word. In this way you not only seek the Lord’s Word but you also seek the Lord Himself.
I hope you will not take this merely as a doctrine to listen to, but rather that you will receive this word and practice it in your daily life. I hope that every day you will exercise to read the Lord’s Word in this way. As to how you read, I would advise you not to pick and choose, because picky eaters who eat only their favorite foods do not grow up to be healthy. It is best to read both the New Testament and the Old Testament at the same time, starting with Matthew in the New Testament and with Genesis in the Old Testament. Read the New Testament in the morning and the Old Testament in the evening, and read straight through according to their sequence without skipping over the difficult passages. When you are reading, you must remember to pray over it verse by verse, because the Lord’s words are life and truth and because this Lord is in our spirit today. We must first ask Him to cleanse us with His blood, and then we exercise our spirit to pray over what we have read and understood in His Word. In this way we will touch the Lord inwardly and receive His supply. Consequently, our entire being will be in the light of life, and this light of life will be our life supply, enlightening us and supplying us in every matter so that we will have light in our path and strength in our work.
