Search
Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 3:17; 2 Tim. 4:22; 1:7; 2:22; 3:16a; 4:3; 1:13; Eph. 6:17-18; Rom. 10:12; 1 Cor. 12:3, 13b; 14:31-32
In the last chapter we saw that life is the primary matter in the practicality of the church life. We need life and growth in life, and for life and growth in life we need the eating of the Lord. Eating results in growth unto a full-grown man. Then, after eating, we must feed the lambs. The issue of all this is the building.
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life...He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me” (John 6:35, 57). Jesus is the bread of life, but how do we eat this bread? Most Christians know that Jesus is the bread of life, but they do not know how to eat Him. Also, they do not know where He is, and further, they do not know what He is. If we are going to eat something, we first of all need to know the nature, the element, the essence, of the food that we are going to eat. Depending on the nature of the food, we will know what kind of utensil to use in eating. The way we eat something depends on the element, the essence, of the food. Therefore, we need to know what Jesus is.
What is Jesus? Second Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” This verse tells us not only who Jesus is but also what Jesus is. Jesus is the Spirit. Spirit is His substance, His essence.
To eat Jesus, first of all we must know that He is the Spirit. He is not only God, not only man, not only our Redeemer, not only our Savior, not only our Lord; He is even the Spirit. Some say that Jesus is now in the heavens and that He works in us through the Spirit. Others say that He is in the Spirit. However, it is really hard to find some verses in the New Testament which say that Jesus works in us through the Spirit, and there are no verses which say that Jesus is in the Spirit. But it is easy to find verses which tell us that Jesus today is the Spirit (John 14:16-20; 1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17). Because many Christians are not clear that today the Lord is the Spirit, they do not know how to eat Him.
In John 6, when the Lord said that He was the bread of life and that they must eat Him, the Jewish disciples were bothered. Some did not understand. So the Lord Jesus answered them, saying, “It is the Spirit who gives life” (v. 63). This indicated that if He was going to be the bread that gives life, He had to be the Spirit. Later He went to the cross, died there, and was resurrected, becoming a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). What is Jesus? He is Spirit.
Second Timothy 4:22 clearly tells us where the Lord Jesus is. It says, “The Lord be with your spirit.” Where is the Lord Jesus today? Praise the Lord for 2 Timothy 4:22! We should never forget this verse. It tells us where the Lord Jesus is today. He is in our spirit. These two spirits, the Lord Jesus as the life-giving Spirit and our spirit, are joined together as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).
Then we have the third verse, 2 Timothy 1:7. The spirit we have, our human spirit, is not a spirit of cowardice. It is not a weak spirit but a spirit of power and of love and of sobermindedness.
After realizing that we have such a spirit, what shall we do? There is a fourth verse, 2 Timothy 2:22. It says, “Pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” This verse tells us that we should pursue spiritual virtues by calling on Him out of a pure heart. Number one, the Lord Jesus is the Spirit. Number two, He is in our spirit. Number three, our spirit is a spirit that is strong. Number four, we have to pursue with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart by exercising our spirit.
Next we have the fifth verse, 2 Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is God-breathed.” The Lord is not only the Spirit within our spirit; He is also the word in the Scripture. Every word in the Bible is His breath. The Scriptures help us to call on the Lord, to breathe the Lord in. The Greek word pneuma, translated as “Spirit,” also means “breath” or “air” or “wind.” Therefore, the Lord Jesus as the Spirit is the breath of life to us. If you know that the Lord Jesus is the Spirit, the breath, it is easy to breathe Him in. One who does not know how to breathe may say that calling on the Lord is too simple. To him, saying, O Lord Jesus! O Lord Jesus! is too simple. However, if he does not like to be so simple, there are sixty-six books that can be used. He can open up to any chapter, to any verse, to any line, and begin to pray. As an example, he may pray, “In the beginning God created. Amen! In the beginning. Oh, in the beginning. Amen! God created. God created the heavens and the earth. Hallelujah!” (Gen. 1:1).
The Bible is a wonderful storehouse. Come to the Scriptures, and pick up all the riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8). Do not come only to read by exercising your mentality. That may dry you up. Along with your reading, you should exercise your spirit to pray what you read. If you will do it, you will surely be filled with the Lord. This is to feed on the Lord. So many can testify that this is true. When you have tasted it, you will never give it up. However, do not insist upon it as an item of our Christian faith.
Romans 10:12 says, “The same Lord is Lord of all and rich to all who call upon Him.” How could you enjoy the riches of Christ? The best way is to call upon Him. The Lord is rich to all who call upon Him. At any time, in any kind of situation, simply call, “O Lord Jesus! O Lord Jesus!” Do not try to get yourself delivered out of your circumstances. If you do not know how to answer someone, if you do not know what to do, if you are afraid that you will lose your temper, if you are fearful that you will be tempted, call on the name of the Lord. The Lord is rich to all who call upon Him.
First Corinthians 12:13 says that we “were all given to drink one Spirit.” We have been positioned to drink, but how do we drink? In the same chapter, verse 3 says that “no one can say, Jesus is Lord! except in the Holy Spirit.” In other words, when you say Lord Jesus, you are in the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we all need to practice saying, “O Lord Jesus.” This is the real calling on the Lord. It is not just to pray. It is not just to ask. It is to call upon Him.
Lamentations 3:55-56 says, “I called upon Your name, O Jehovah, / From the lowest pit. / You have heard my voice; do not hide / Your ear at my breathing, at my cry. ” I like the word, “I called upon Your name...from the lowest pit.” Sometimes our dear wives or husbands are our low pit. Out of your low pit, call upon the name of the Lord.
These verses also clearly show us that our crying, our calling on the name of the Lord, is our breathing. In breathing is drinking, and in drinking is eating. When you breathe, you drink; when you drink, you eat. Open yourself from your spirit, and with your mouth call, “O Lord Jesus.” It is so sweet, so refreshing, so comforting, and so enlightening. Also, it is so strengthening and even so watering. Then try pray-reading.
These two matters are very practical for the church life. The early believers practiced calling on the name of the Lord. It was evidence that they were followers of Jesus as the church people (Acts 9:14). The apostle Paul, in Ephesians, a book on the church, charged the believers to “receive...the word of God, by means of all prayer” (6:17-18). To receive the word of God by means of prayer is to pray-read the Word. This is for the church to be prevailing against the evil power of Satan, as shown in Ephesians 6.
No one can say that the fact of pray-reading is not in the Bible. One may say that in the Bible there is not such a term as pray-reading. Neither is the word Trinity in the Bible, but the fact of the Trinity is in the Bible. The fact of pray-reading is also in the Bible. Therefore, we need to receive the word of God by prayer. But do not think that I am teaching this as a part of our Christian faith. I am not teaching calling on the Lord and pray-reading the Bible as the Christian faith, but I am recommending them as the best practicality for the church life.
In the Scripture Reading at the beginning of this chapter, we included 2 Timothy 4:3 and 1:13. These verses are concerning the healthy word, the healthy teaching. Why at the end of his ministry did the apostle Paul tell Timothy to take care of the healthy teaching? It was because by that time there were teachings that were not healthy. The King James Version says “sound doctrine” and “sound words” in these verses. Other translations use the words “fundamental teaching” or “fundamental words,” but both “sound” and “fundamental” do not adequately express the meaning of the Greek word. The best translation is “healthy.” There may be teachings, but these teachings may not be healthy. They do not minister anything of nourishment. We must take care of the healthy teachings.
Health relates to our physical life. We also need some healthy teaching related to our spiritual life. Paul says that the time will come when people will not tolerate the healthy teaching (4:3). They will be like the people of Israel in the wilderness who considered the manna to be too simple. They wanted to eat some garlic and onions from Egypt. They could not bear simple food. This is what Paul meant when he said that the time will come when people will not tolerate the healthy teaching. These will have itching ears, heaping up to themselves teachers upon teachers.
Many of today’s Christians have itching ears wanting to hear teachings, but few of these teachings are healthy. We do not need teachings that satisfy itching ears. We need healthy teachings that feed our spirit. Some may ask: “Don’t we need some teachings?” Yes we do, but we do not need the kind of teachings that satisfy the itching ears. We need teachings that are healthy, that can nourish our spirit.
The teachings that the Lord has given to His recovery are healthy, full of nourishment. If one does not care for his itching ears but only for his hungry spirit, surely he will appreciate all these teachings. The Lord is the Spirit, the Lord be with your spirit, you have a strong spirit, you have to exercise your spirit to call on the Lord, and you have to pray-read His Word—these are the healthy teachings the Lord has given us for the practice of the church life.
Now I will point out one more thing that is also a part of the practicality of the church life. When I was a young Christian, I was taught that we should not say anything or do anything in a meeting unless we had the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. Later, I got to know that the Pentecostal movement told people to pray and wait until something would fall upon them from the heavens. But in 1 Corinthians, concerning the meetings, there is no verse that tells us that we have to get the inspiration of the Holy Spirit before we can function in a meeting. Neither is there a verse in this book that tells us we have to wait until something falls upon us from the heavens. However, 1 Corinthians 14:31 does say, “You can all prophesy one by one.” The following verse says, “And the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets.” This means that we, as the prophets, have to give the order to our spirit. Suppose you are about to walk. Do you wait for some inspiration? Do you wait until something comes down upon you from the heavens? As living persons, we have two feet. Our feet are subject to us. When it is time to walk, we simply give the order to our feet. When you come to the meeting, or when you are home, or when you are in other places, say something, prophesy, for the Lord. Take the initiative and give the order to your spirit. Exercise your spirit and say something. This is the concept of the Bible, but it is not the concept of the natural man or the religious man. Religiously and naturally, we do not have such a concept. The religious and natural concept is that we have to wait for the Lord’s inspiration, or we have to pray and wait until something falls down from the heavens upon us in a miraculous, supernatural way. However, the concept of the Bible is that today the Lord Jesus as the life-giving Spirit is in our spirit (15:45; 2 Tim. 4:22), and we have a strong spirit (1:7). We do not only have a strong spirit; we also have a rich spirit because the Lord who is rich is within our spirit. Now what shall we do? We must prophesy. We must speak something for the Lord. If we believe that the word in 1 Corinthians 14:31 is the word of God, we must receive it and put it into practice. Take the initiative and start to say something for the Lord. Tell your spirit to follow you, and you will have something to say.
Sometimes when we come to the meetings a little tired or even a little lazy, we would ask the Lord to give us a vacation, a rest, from speaking. When we do this, we miss the opportunity. However, many times when we feel tired and have the feeling that we cannot speak anything, there is still a kind of urging within to say something. When it is like this and we speak, that is always the best word. On other occasions, you came to a meeting, thinking you had a word to speak, and spoke it, but the word was a poor one. Why? Because you had to at least exercise your mind a little to remember what you had received that morning. This became a distraction that led you from your spirit to your mind. However, if you feel that you have nothing to say, yet you are urged to speak and do, that will be a wonderful word.
We have a marvelous source within us. We have such a strong spirit, and we have such a rich, divine Spirit within our spirit. This is our capital. When doing business, you need the capital. As Christians, we have billions of dollars worth of capital. Be strong to use it.
Do not consider what I have presented in this chapter as something of our Christian faith. These points are not parts of our Christian faith. However, they are the practicality, even the best practicality, the most profitable practicality, of the church life. They are not required for salvation; they are recommendable for the church practice. I hope that we all will put these points into practice.
