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In reading the Bible you need to learn to find the main points and the general thought. When you read the Bible, you must learn to hit the mark. For example, when you eat chicken, you should eat its meat and not pay attention to its feathers, skin, and bones. Chicken feathers, skin, and bones are essential to the growth of a chicken, for without them it would not be possible for a chicken to exist. When you eat chicken, however, you should eat only its meat. Let us use a fish as another example. A fish has a head, a tail, fins, and bones. To properly enjoy a fish, you have to know which parts to eat. Many Americans do not know which parts of a fish can be eaten, so they discard the fish head, the fish tail, and the fish bones. As a result, they do not get the proper enjoyment of the fish. When we read the Bible, we must learn to hit the mark. Whether or not we do this depends on whether or not we are focused on the main points and have the proper enjoyment.
The authors of the Bible did not include only “chicken meat” when they wrote the Scriptures. They included geography, history, and various people, matters, and events. When we read the Scriptures, however, we should not focus on these items; instead, we should endeavor to find the main points pertaining to life and spiritual principles, such as the meaning of salvation and the meaning of grace. After reading a particular section of the Scriptures, we should also try to speak the main points and understand the outline of that section. You who are learning to work for the Lord must learn how to speak properly. You must not only speak properly when giving a message, you must also speak in a logical and attractive way that is full of content when you are conversing with people one-on-one.
Let us use Philippians 1 as an illustration of how we should read the Bible. You may have studied this chapter very well; that is, you may have endeavored to grasp the main point and to find the central line. As a result, you may know that the subject of this chapter is living Christ for His magnification. You greatly miss the mark, however, if you do not see the matter of the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (v. 19). Without the Spirit, how can you live Christ? Without the Spirit, how can Christ be magnified in you? The key, the life pulse, to live Christ and to magnify Him is the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Without the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, you also will not have the power to defend the gospel.
Paul clearly points out that his defense of the gospel, his preaching of the gospel, his suffering of persecution, and even his imprisonment all resulted in his living Christ for His magnification, and all hinged on the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. We can use the breath in our human body to illustrate the importance of the Spirit. If our human body has all its parts and organs intact but does not have breath within, it will be a corpse. We can also use the gas in a car as an illustration. A cheap, old car with gas is better than the best car without gas. The bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ is the “breath” and the “gas” for our experience of Christ. The bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ is the life pulse of Philippians 1.
A chicken has feathers, skin, bones, and meat. This is obvious, and we know that we should eat the chicken meat. But when we read the Bible, it is not so easy to find the “chicken meat.” This is the preciousness of reading the Bible. Philippians 1 has thirty verses, and every letter of every word is of the same size and style. Moreover, the phrase the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ is not printed in large or bold type. Hence, when we read the Bible, it is up to us to find this phrase, to magnify it, and to apply it in our daily life. Reading the Bible may be likened to responding to a traffic signal. When we see a traffic signal, we know that we have to stop at a red light and proceed at a green light. Likewise, when we read the Bible, we have to find the life pulse, the most precious point, of the portion that we are reading.
The entire book of Philippians is concerned with the experience of Christ. In particular, chapter 1 speaks on the experience of Christ in several aspects. First, it mentions the defense of the gospel. Regardless of how others preached or what they preached, Paul still preached the proper gospel. In doing this he lived Christ. For the preaching of the proper gospel, he was persecuted and even put in prison, yet he still lived Christ that Christ would be magnified in him. How could Paul defend the gospel, preach the proper gospel, and live Christ in a proper way so as to magnify Christ even to the extent that he did not care about being imprisoned? The key, the life pulse, for him to do this was the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. When we read Philippians 1 we should make note of this fact and summarize this chapter in this way.
The whole book of Philippians is about the experience of Christ. Chapter 1 tells us that in order to experience Christ, we need to defend the gospel, to preach the proper gospel in a proper way, and to even suffer persecution for the gospel’s sake. We need to always live Christ that Christ may be magnified in us. The key, the secret, and the life pulse to doing this is the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
The way to apply the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ is through prayer. Verse 19 of chapter 1 says, “I know that for me this will turn out to salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” Here salvation does not mean that Paul would be rescued from the prison. It means that he would be delivered from the failure of not living Christ. In the midst of persecution and imprisonment he would still live Christ, defend the gospel, and magnify Christ. Paul was able to continue to preach the proper gospel and to defend the gospel even during his imprisonment. Thus, he lived Christ and magnified Christ. This was his salvation. How could he be saved in this way? It was through the petition of the saints and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. After the saints prayed for him, the Spirit supplied him, and once he was supplied, he was saved, so that instead of being defeated, he was strong and able to preach the gospel, defend the gospel, suffer persecution, live Christ, and allow Christ to be magnified in him as always whether through life or through death. This is a crystallized exposition of Philippians 1.
Let us take Galatians 1 as another example of how to read the Bible. In the beginning of Galatians, Paul says, “Who [Christ] gave Himself for our sins that He might rescue us out of the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father” (v. 4). What Paul means in this verse is that Christ died for our sins to accomplish redemption that He might rescue us not out of sin, as is commonly thought, but out of the evil age. The evil age here refers particularly to the religious world. Then Paul continues to say that the gospel he preached was received through a revelation (v. 12). This is in contrast to the teachings of religion, which come from tradition. Galatians 6:14-15 proves that the evil age denotes the religious world. The second half of chapter 1 also proves this. In verses 13 and 14 Paul says, “You have heard of my manner of life formerly in Judaism...And I advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries in my race, being more abundantly a zealot for the traditions of my fathers.” Judaism is a religion, and one receives this religion by receiving its traditions.
The gospel preached by Paul was received through revelation and not through tradition. Paul says, “It pleased God...to reveal His Son in me” (vv. 15-16). The focus of the revelation that Paul received was Christ, the Son of God. Hence, Galatians clearly shows us that Christ is versus religion. It is a fact that Christ died for us that we might be delivered from the religious world. However, how can we be delivered? How does Christ rescue us? His death alone was not enough to deliver us. He needed also to be resurrected. Through His death and resurrection Christ became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). When this life-giving Spirit, who is the living Christ, is revealed in us, He rescues us out of religion. The living Christ comes into us not by tradition and heredity but by revelation. Christ is versus religion. The center, the focus, of the revelation that we receive from God is the living Christ.
How do we know that Christ is the living Christ? We know this because He can enter into us and be revealed in us. The living Christ, who is revealed in us and is versus religion, rescues us from the religious world. How does He come into us? He comes into us not through our heritage or tradition but through revelation—God reveals His Son in us. Religion is a matter of tradition; Christ is a matter of revelation. This is a summary of Galatians 1.
In order to study the Bible in this way, you must learn a secret—to practice continuously. You should not be afraid of your shortages in learning or in training, and you should not say that you are not well educated or adequately trained. You must simply grasp every opportunity to practice, and you must continuously endeavor to learn to speak. If you do this, you will do well. You should not be afraid of your lack in studying the Bible. You should be afraid only of pretending that you have thoroughly studied the Bible when you have not. If you pretend in this way, it is as if you are hanging yourself. In every training meeting there is a testing. During these tests, you should not be afraid but should actively participate. This is a training. If you do not answer properly, and I criticize you, this will profit you more than your personal Bible reading. In addition, everyone else will receive help as well. When you sacrifice yourself and receive criticism, everyone will receive benefit, but the one who will receive the most benefit is you. You should not think to yourself, “If I speak, the first time that I speak, I must speak so well that everyone will be greatly impressed. If I am unable to do this, I will not speak at all.” If you were able to speak in such a way, then you would not need this training.
The secret to being trained is to be unafraid of making mistakes, of failing, of falling short, and of having your weaknesses exposed. If you write a composition perfectly, when your teacher reads it, you will not benefit. However, if your composition is written poorly and your teacher adjusts it, you will have the opportunity to learn a great deal. The more mistakes you make, the more you will learn. In the same way, when you are in the training, you have to try your best to expose your mistakes so that you can receive the benefit. Do not expect to speak excellently. Good students are those who intentionally hide their talents and knowledge and allow their weak points to be manifested so that they can receive instruction from their teachers. When I was young, I learned English very well. Later when I went to an English college founded by some Americans, I could have almost taught the teachers, so the principal agreed that I could be exempt from taking English classes. Since you come here to be trained, unless you think that you are better than your teachers and can be exempt, you have to learn in a serious way.
In this chapter we want to see something further concerning the filling of the Holy Spirit. From the very beginning of the Lord’s recovery among us, we have paid much attention to the filling of the Holy Spirit. We have been enlightened to see that there is more to the Holy Spirit than what is taught in Christian theology. We see that the Spirit is the ultimate expression of the processed Triune God. In this ultimate expression there is divinity, humanity, human living, Christ’s all-inclusive death and its effectiveness, resurrection and its power, ascension, and descension. The Holy Spirit is an all-inclusive, compound, life-giving, and consummated Spirit. Therefore, the Spirit is exceedingly rich.
In the past, even though we spoke so much about the filling of the Holy Spirit, it seemed that the saints were not paying much attention to this matter. Last year when I came back to Taiwan, I noticed that you all had learned to speak about the essential Spirit and the economical Spirit. However, although you pay attention to the essential Spirit and the economical Spirit, you are still not filled with the Spirit. Hence, you lack the experience of the Spirit both essentially and economically. You have to know that regardless of how true it is that the Spirit has an essential aspect and an economical aspect, if you are not filled with Him, He cannot be the Spirit in you essentially nor the Spirit upon you economically. To experience the Spirit essentially and economically requires you to be filled with the Spirit.
In the table of contents of our hymnal, the first category is the blessing of the Trinity, the second is the worship of the Father, the third is the praise of the Lord, and the fourth is the fullness of the Spirit. In the category on the fullness of the Spirit, more than half of the hymns were written by me. There is a hymn in the Chinese hymnal that says that everything related to the relationship between God and man depends upon the Spirit. The strangest thing is that although I have given you such wonderful assets, no one has made use of them. Even my co-workers do not use these things in their work. I am afraid that a person can get saved and be among us for a long time and yet never hear a message about the filling of the Holy Spirit. The truth concerning the filling of the Holy Spirit is like a smoking flax among us. This is a great loss. Therefore, we must fan this fire into flame.
We have focused very much on the Spirit since the beginning of the Lord’s recovery among us. We have not focused on a simple Spirit but on the consummated Spirit. Our co-workers have been taught a great deal and have been going out to work, but they lack the revelation of the Holy Spirit, and they do not emphasize the Holy Spirit. Take for example Galatians 1 and Philippians 1. Many of us do not see the meaning of the expression to reveal His Son in me, and many also do not grasp the significance of the phrase the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. When you neglect these things, you miss too much. Similarly, although we have been working all the time, we have missed a crucial point—the filling of the Holy Spirit. Now we must go back to be rekindled in this matter. When you trainees are learning to serve the Lord, you must pursue to be filled with the Holy Spirit from the outset.
In The Experience of Life the title of chapter 14 is “Being Filled with the Holy Spirit.” Crucial Truths in the Holy Scriptures also covers this truth. Our present burden is that you would pay attention to the daily filling of the Holy Spirit. Just as you cannot graduate from breathing after having breathed for one day, so also you cannot graduate from being filled with the Holy Spirit after having been filled once. You must be filled with the Holy Spirit day by day. This matter can never be overemphasized. When you baptize people, you have to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, your baptism of them will deaden them. John the Baptist baptized people with water. The water buried and terminated them. The Lord Jesus baptized people with the Spirit and into the Spirit (Matt. 3:11). The Spirit enlivened them. Hence, you not only need to lead people to receive the baptism in water so that they may be buried and terminated, but you also need to help them to receive the baptism in the Spirit so that they may be made alive. You have to pay attention to this point and preach these two baptisms in a proper way, especially when you go out to labor on the campuses.
Today in Christianity when people are baptized, whether by sprinkling or by immersion, they are often baptized with water but without the Spirit. Although the Pentecostals stress the Spirit, they have only the name and do not have much of the reality. We must be a group of people who genuinely pay attention to the Spirit and fan the Spirit into flame. The Bible records that even the Lord Jesus needed to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Luke 4:1 says, “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit.” Hence, from now on we all have to pay attention to this matter. Before people set off for a long trip, they have to make sure that their car is filled up with gas and that their tires are fully filled with air. Likewise, before we go out to speak for the Lord and contact people one-on-one, we must pray thoroughly so that we will be filled with the Spirit as our “gas” and our “air.” The Holy Spirit is our gas and our air, filling us so that we can move.
I say again, when you go out, you have to cast out demons whenever necessary and without consideration. Consideration is a sign of lack of faith. Even if you feel that you do not have faith, you have to pray immediately to ask the Lord for faith. Then you must cast out the demons in the Lord’s name. In Matthew 12:28 the Lord Jesus said, “If I, by the Spirit of God, cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Here it mentions two matters—casting out the demons by the Holy Spirit and ushering in the kingdom of God by casting out the demons. Thus, when you go to the campuses and communities today, and when you go to the villages in the future, you have to cast out demons by the Holy Spirit to bring in the kingdom of God. This requires you to always be filled with the Holy Spirit.
It is relatively easy to cast out demons, but it is not that easy to heal diseases. Demons are easy to deal with. Once you apply the Lord’s precious blood, you are covered, and once you employ the Lord’s name, the demon is cast out. But you may not be able to heal a disease instantly. If someone asks you to lay hands on him, you cannot refuse him. You have to lay hands on him and pray for him that the Lord will heal him. However, you should not quickly lay hands on everyone who is sick. Paul says, “Lay hands quickly on no man” (1 Tim. 5:22). If you lay hands on every sick one, you are looking for trouble. You must cast out the demons whenever you encounter them; however, when you encounter sickness, you should lay hands on the sick only if you have been asked to do so. If you pursue the filling of the Holy Spirit, you will be able to cast out the demons and heal diseases.
The first thing that we must pay attention to is the filling of the Holy Spirit. Then, once we are filled with the Spirit, we should cast out demons and heal the sick. We do not care, however, for tongue-speaking or any strange miracles or wonders. People in the Pentecostal movement often do these things. This is a mistake. Gradually, those who get involved in these things give them up. The infilling of the Holy Spirit is the scientific way, and it is the truth revealed in the Scriptures. Today when you go out to preach the gospel, you have to be filled with the Holy Spirit, then you have to cast out demons and heal diseases. This is a law. In the past when we preached the gospel, we merely paid attention to speaking and did not rely on being filled with the Holy Spirit. Hence, we also neglected healing and the casting out of demons. The preaching of the gospel requires speaking, but in our words there must be the Spirit, with whom is the power to cast out demons and heal the sick. The Spirit is the power of the gospel. If we preach the gospel in such a way, our gospel will be powerful.
The New Testament reveals that in our preaching of the gospel, we must have the Word (Rom. 10:14-15) and the Spirit (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4; 2:4). With the Word is the supply of life, and with the Spirit is the power to cast out demons and to heal (5:12-16; 16:18). If we have the Word and the Spirit, our gospel will be powerful, and our work will be living and effective. If you do not pursue the infilling of the Holy Spirit, I am afraid that when you go out to baptize people, everyone whom you baptize will become dead. Consequently, they will neither attend the meetings nor pursue the Lord. If you want to make people alive through baptism, you need to baptize them not only in water but also in the Spirit. This means that when you baptize people, you have to lead them to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The way to do this is to teach them to confess their sins, to pray, and to open themselves to receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit.
Baptism is the first step a person must take after he has believed in the Lord. Then he has to pursue the filling of the Holy Spirit and to live and move by being filled with the Holy Spirit. This is the proper living of a baptized person. The key to being filled with the Holy Spirit lies in thoroughly confessing, praying, and opening ourselves. In the past we focused on burying people in the water so that they would be delivered from the world through the death of Christ. However, we did not raise them up. As a result, they were still dead in spiritual matters, having neither spiritual “air” nor spiritual “gas” because they were not filled with the Spirit. Now we must pay attention to helping people to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and we ourselves should also be such people.
Prayer: Lord, cause us to touch the key point and the central line so that we may be here solidly pursuing the filling of the Holy Spirit and exercising to be filled with the Holy Spirit, so that we may have the Word and the Spirit, so that we may bring people to be put to death and to receive life, and so that our gospel may be full of power. Lord, we not only receive this view, but we ask You to enable us to exercise and practice. Through our thorough confessions and prayers, cause us to open ourselves to You that we may be filled with the Holy Spirit and bring others to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that we may bear Your testimony in our living and move. Amen.
