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We have seen that in all our contact with people, we must cherish them with the goal of nourishing them with the unsearchable riches of Christ. We ourselves must be constituted with the riches of Christ revealed in the Bible if we are going to dispense these riches into others.
The Bible was first written, then translated, and finally interpreted and explained. According to our old way, many of us have been listening to messages interpreting the Bible for years, but when we go to contact people, we still do not know what to say. This is why I have shared that we need to follow the pattern of the saints in Taiwan to practice PSRP—pray-reading, studying, reciting, and prophesying. All of this requires time. Pray-reading cannot be done lightly. Then we need to study the truths word by word, term by term, and phrase by phrase. For instance, John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Then verse 14 says that the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace and reality. Many read these verses without understanding them. This is why we need the word to be interpreted to us.
Acts 8 gives us a very good example of this. The Ethiopian eunuch whom Philip contacted was reading from Isaiah, and Philip asked him, “Do you really know the things that you are reading?” The eunuch responded, “How could I unless someone guides me?” (vv. 30-31). Philip interpreted the word to this eunuch, and he believed in the Lord and was baptized (vv. 35-38). Some people have said that all we need is the “pure Word,” but how can we understand it? Acts 8 shows that we need the Word interpreted to us.
Our study equips us to interpret the Word to others. By my study of the Word throughout the years, I saw that grace is God gained and enjoyed by us, and reality is God realized by us. We have to gain Him, receive Him, and enjoy Him as grace. Then we have to realize Him as the reality. Although points like this have been made clear in our Life-study of the Bible, we may not pay attention to them to study them. In order to be constituted with the truth, we need to pray-read and then study. Pray-reading verses such as John 1:1 and 14 lays a good foundation. Then we can study the crucial points of these verses with the help of the Life-studies. With this help we can find out what grace and reality are. We have to study the truths word by word, term by term, and phrase by phrase. Spontaneously, we will be able to recite what we have pray-read and studied. In addition to our personal study, we also need to study with others. This kind of study cannot be carried out in big meetings. It can be carried out mutually in vital group meetings of six to not more than ten saints.
We have inherited much from the foregoing interpretations of the Word and have had a life-study of the entire Bible. Then the Lord has taken us further to have a crystallization-study. In this study I have to spend time not merely to present messages as I did with the life-study but to present outlines. We have to pray-read, study, recite, and prophesy with the points of these outlines. If we are equipped to recite the outlines, we will spontaneously know how to prophesy. The second point of outline 1 of the recent Thanksgiving conference says, “His [Christ’s] humanity through His incarnation became a shell to conceal the glory of His divinity” (see The Issue of Christ Being Glorified by the Father with the Divine Glory, ch. 1). In the beginning was the Word, who is God, this Word became flesh, and this flesh was a shell to conceal the glory of Christ’s divinity. This is why the first banner of the conference says, “The glory of Christ’s divinity was concealed in Him as in a grain of wheat.” The shell of a grain of wheat conceals the grain’s life and riches. If we prophesy with points like these, those whom we contact will want to hear what we say. This new way of pray-reading, studying, reciting, and prophesying—PSRP—has been passed on to many places. What I am speaking here is a kind of instruction to all the churches. My new way is PSRP. This is the way for us to cook and to eat the riches that have been released in these recent years.
Part of our upcoming winter training will be a crystallization-study of the Lord’s organic salvation in Romans. Romans 5:10 says, “If we, being enemies, were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more we will be saved in His life, having been reconciled.” We should pray-read this verse and then study it. The subject we refers to the believers. At one time we were God’s enemies, but we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. The death of God’s Son was for our judicial redemption. The salvation in Christ’s life is for our organic salvation. We have to study these points and then recite them. Then we will be equipped to prophesy.
We should prophesy with what we can recite; what we can recite is what we have studied; and what we have studied is what we have pray-read. If we do not pray-read, study, or recite, we cannot prophesy. I have encouraged people to prophesy in the Lord’s Day meeting, but they still claim that they do not know what to say. Now we have a new way. If we pray-read, study, and recite the points of the outlines released in our crystallization-study of the Word, we will surely prophesy. Who cannot prophesy? Those who do not pray-read the outline, who do not study the outline, and who do not recite the outline. If we practice PSR (pray-reading, studying, and reciting) each day, from Monday through Saturday, we will surely prophesy in the Lord’s Day meeting of the church.
Before giving this message, I studied Philip’s encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8. Verses 32 through 35 say, “Now the passage of Scripture which he [the eunuch] was reading was this: ‘As a sheep He was led to slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is dumb, so He does not open His mouth. In His humiliation His judgment was taken away. Who shall declare His generation? For His life is taken away from the earth.’ And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I beseech you, Concerning whom does the prophet say this? Concerning himself or concerning someone else? And Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he announced Jesus as the gospel to him.” This was Philip’s preaching of the gospel.
This account in Acts 8 shows that the practice of PSRP is not our new way. It was in the Bible already, in Acts 8. The way Philip answered the eunuch and preached Christ to him as the gospel surely indicates that Philip had studied that portion of Isaiah 53, which the eunuch quoted to him, and that he had remembered that portion so that he could preach Christ as the gospel as a kind of prophesying. If he were not familiar with that portion of the holy Word, how could he have preached Christ as the gospel according to that portion? His preaching was a real prophesying of the holy Word with which he had become familiar.
If anyone comes to the Lord’s Day morning meeting without being prepared to prophesy, this indicates he was lazy for the whole week. Throughout the week he did not pray-read, study, or recite. If he had practiced this, he would be able to prophesy on the Lord’s Day. After reading the fellowship in this chapter, we may feel that the standard in the church is too high. In a sense, this is true because we are in the Lord’s recovery. We do not want to remain in degraded Christianity. Those in Catholicism are required only to attend mass. They do not have to function. Those in Protestantism mostly listen to sermons. They are not required to speak for the Lord in their meetings. The Lord’s recovery is different.
All the members of Christ’s Body should be functioning members who speak for the Lord. This is why we need to practice PSRP. We have to pray-read, study, and recite the points that we have studied. Then spontaneously, our pray-reading, studying, and reciting will become our prophesying. Many of us like to hear certain brothers who are good speakers. This shows that it is not easy to change our mentality, because it is still affected by Christianity.
The apostle John’s writings are composed of revelations in visions. Only the New Testament writers received such revelations in visions from God. They wrote down what they saw in the New Testament, and this has been passed on to us. We have to interpret what they saw. In our crystallization-study of John 1, we pointed out that the Word who was God became flesh (vv. 1, 14). In the flesh He became the Lamb (v. 29), and then in resurrection He became the dove (v. 32). Nathanael recognized Him as the Son of God. The Lord then revealed to Nathanael that He was not only the Son of God but also the Son of Man, on whom the angels of God would ascend and descend (vv. 49-51). We have to study these points and recite them; then we will be able to speak them. By taking this way, we will be equipped to nourish people with the unsearchable riches of Christ.
