GOD’S GLORIOUS PLAN
The Scriptures reveal that God has a glorious plan, which is for man to receive Him as his life and element so that man may be mingled with God as one. Then God and man will become a mutual dwelling place, in which God dwells in man and man dwells in God. This is the eternal desire of God’s heart and His eternal plan. In order to accomplish this plan, God has put all that He is in His Son. He now wants man to receive His Son so that man will receive all the fullness of God.
The entire Bible, from the beginning to the end, repeatedly reveals the riches and sweetness of the Son of God, our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. He is God coming to be everything to us. By enjoying all that God is in the Son, we will be constituted with all that God is and blended with God. Consequently, God is mingled with us to become a mutual dwelling place.
TWO PROVISIONS FROM GOD— THE HOLY WORD AND THE HOLY SPIRIT
In order to touch and experience the Lord, we should know His provisions. Throughout the ages the saints who love the Lord have treasured two things: the holy Word and the indwelling Holy Spirit. The wealth of a Christian consists of the holy Word and the Holy Spirit. God in His wisdom has provided us with these two items. Anything we treasure apart from the holy Word and the Holy Spirit will one day become a thorn to us. The sweetest blessings that God has given to us are the Bible in our hand and the Spirit within us. These two blessings are available for our enjoyment at any time and in any place.
There is no way for us to know the Lord, touch Him, or draw near to Him apart from the Word and the indwelling Spirit. God is bountifully rich; He is so many items, such as life, power, light, wisdom, and the way. Among the numerous items of what God is, His being the Word and the Spirit (
John 1:1;
4:24) are general in that they include all the other items. In the Word, God is life, light, wisdom, power, and the way. Likewise, God is life, light, wisdom, power, and the way in the Spirit. All that God is, is included in the Spirit. Therefore, the Word and the Spirit are the totality of all that God is.
All that God is can be summed up in His being the Word and the Spirit. Our knowing, obtaining, and experiencing the Lord depend on His being the holy Word and the Holy Spirit. Our experience of Him as our life, light, power, bread of life, and living water depends, first, on His being the Word and, second, on His being the Spirit.
The holy Word and the Holy Spirit are two great provisions. The Gospel of John says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (1:1). In this verse the Word is with God, and the Word is God. Hence, God is the Word. John also says, “God is Spirit” (4:24). Chapter 1 says that God is the Word, and chapter 4 says that God is Spirit. In chapter 6 the Word and the Spirit are joined as one: “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (v. 63). The Lord’s words are life because they are spirit. In His wisdom, God has provided Himself to us as the Word and the Spirit.
Colossians 3:16-17 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or in deed, do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” According to these verses, a person sings to God with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs when he is filled with the word of the Lord. When a believer is filled with the Lord’s word, he will praise the Lord.
Ephesians 5:18-19 says, “Be filled in spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and psalming with your heart to the Lord.” These verses say that a person praises the Lord when his spirit is filled with the Holy Spirit. Colossians and Ephesians are sister books and have many similar portions. Both Epistles refer to praising the Lord with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. However, Colossians says that a believer praises when he is filled with the Lord’s word, and Ephesians says that a believer praises when his spirit is filled with the Lord’s Spirit. This indicates that the Lord’s word and His Spirit are inseparable.
THE HOLY WORD ENABLING US TO KNOW CHRIST
In order for something to occupy us, it must pass through our mind. If we want to gain a person, we must first gain his mind. Hence, newspapers and magazines are filled with words of advertisement to engage a person’s mind. We may not pay much attention to words, but they are important. A person who speaks effectively will prosper, and a person who speaks convincingly will prevail.
If God had never spoken, we would be confused concerning everything in the universe. However, our God speaks, and He is the Word. He has even put His words into writing in the Bible. There are sixty-six books in the Bible, and every chapter of every book is God’s word. God speaks so that we would know and understand that He is a speaking God and that the Lord Jesus is the Word. Since we have God’s Word, we know that He is the Word, that He is triune, that He is life, and that the Spirit dwells in us. We would not have a way to know all these matters without God’s speaking. We can know and understand the things of God because He has spoken.
Hebrews 1:1-2 says, “God, having spoken of old in many portions and in many ways to the fathers in the prophets, has at the last of these days spoken to us in the Son.” God spoke to the fathers through the prophets, but now He speaks to us in His Son. God is a speaking God, He is the Word, and He gave us the Bible, His Word. When we read the Bible, we are enlightened to understand many things that scientists and philosophers are not able to understand. The Bible tells us who God is, and it tells us the source and destination of the universe. It also tells us where we came from, where we are, and where we are going. The more we read the Bible, the more enlightened we will be. God’s word is precious.
We must remember that Christ is the Word of God; He is what God speaks, and He is what God reveals. If we want to know the Bible, we must know Christ. Christ is the key that opens up the Bible. Furthermore, if we did not have the Bible, we would not know the Lord Jesus: we would not know that He is the Son of God, that He bore our sins on the cross (
1 Pet. 2:24), that our old man was crucified with Him (
Rom. 6:6), that He destroyed Satan on the cross (
Heb. 2:14), that He accomplished the work of redemption on the cross, that He resurrected from the dead and is sitting at the right hand of God (
Eph. 1:20), or that God has given Him the name which is above every name (
Phil. 2:9) and has given all authority in heaven and on earth to Him (
Matt. 28:18). The more we read the Bible, the more we will see and know our glorious, great, and immeasurably rich Lord. We are thankful that God has given us the Bible, which fully reveals His Son, our glorious Lord Jesus.
THE SPIRIT ENABLING US TO GAIN CHRIST
Not only do we have a mind, which is a part of our soul; we also have a spirit, which is deeper than our soul. If the Lord were only the Word and not the Spirit, He would be able to reach only our mind for us to understand Him, but He would be unable to enter our spirit for us to gain Him. The Lord, however, is not only the Word but also the Spirit. The Word is the explanation of the Lord, but the Spirit is His essence. The Word explains the Lord to us so that we may apprehend, understand, and know Him. However, He is not only the Word; He is also the Spirit so that we can contact Him with our spirit.
We must see that God has not only prepared the Word for us but also given the Spirit to us. These two items are related. When the Word enters into us, it is realized as the Spirit, and the Spirit is released from within us through the Word.
A brother might read Genesis 1:1 in the morning. This verse says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This is a very simple word. However, while reading it, he might pray, “Lord, You are the beginning of everything.” Then he will be full of praise and spontaneously say, “Lord, I praise You because You are the beginning of all things. I want You to also be the beginning of everything that I do today. I do not want to begin anything.” By praising and praying in such a way, the Word enters into him. Hence, the Word that he contacted and received becomes the moving of the Spirit within him. This example shows that the Bible is outside of us, but once we contact and receive it, it becomes the Spirit within us. God is the Word, and He is the Spirit; hence, the Word is the Spirit. As soon as the Word enters into us, it becomes the Spirit.
Every person who is filled with God’s speaking is also filled with the Spirit. A person who has no understanding of the Bible and no knowledge of the Lord Jesus has no way to be filled with the Spirit. There is a brother who was filled with the Spirit the first time that he prayed. He knelt down and confessed, “Lord, I am a sinner. You are the Son of God, and You are my Savior. You died on the cross for me.” At that time he wept and was filled with the Spirit. His prayer was according to the Bible. We can receive the Spirit only through the Word. The Word that we receive enters into our spirit and becomes the Spirit.
ENJOYING THE TWO PROVISIONS BY READING THE WORD AND PRAYING
Since God has given us the holy Word and the Holy Spirit, we should enjoy them. Some Christians are short of experience because they only read the Bible without praying; they contact the Bible with their mind without contacting the Spirit with their spirit. They appreciate the Bible but not the Spirit. When they read the Bible, they are reading dead letters; hence, they are not able to receive a supply of life. Other Christians pray but do not read the Bible. These Christians may be burning in spirit, but since they are not clear concerning the truth, they pray in ignorance. Furthermore, their fervency cannot last, because it is not based on enlightenment from the Word. Both types of Christians are not normal.
Since we have the Spirit within us and the Bible in our hand, we should enjoy both. When we read the Bible, we should pray. We should be like the brother who read Genesis 1:1. After reading this verse, we should pray, “Lord, You created the heavens and the earth in the beginning.” When we pray in this way, we will be inspired with praise and say, “Lord, You are the beginning of all things.” Then the Spirit will have the way to ask us whether it is God or we who initiate the things that we do. Being enlightened in such a way is an indication that the words in the Bible have entered into us and have become spirit and life.
Some believers say that it is easy to read the New Testament, but a brother once told me that it is a closed book to him. He did not understand the first sentence of Matthew 1: “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” When he read verse 2, “Abraham begot Isaac, and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers,” he was confused by all the begettings. This brother’s problem is also the problem of many other saints. In order to deal with this problem, in 1936 we published the pamphlet Gleanings from the Genealogy of Christ. This pamphlet deals specifically with the genealogy in Matthew 1. However, it is possible to receive the supply from this portion of the Word without understanding its interpretation. When we read Matthew 1:1, we should pray, “Lord Jesus, You are the son of David and the son of Abraham. I do not know who David was, nor do I know who Abraham was, but I know that they were men. Lord, I praise You that You are the Son of Man.”
If we are willing to pray according to what we read in the Bible, we will sense that the Lord Jesus is lovely. Then we might praise Him by saying, “Lord, You created the heavens and the earth. You are the Lord of all, yet You became the son of David and the son of Abraham. You became the Son of Man.” This is the way to be filled with Christ.
When we are filled with Christ, we will not lose our temper. Suppose a brother spends time with the Lord in the morning, but instead of mentioning his temper, sins, and the world, he reads Matthew 1:1 and spends ten minutes to pray over it by beholding, worshipping, and praising the Lord. He will be filled with the Lord, and his temper will not overcome him, nor will any problem suppress him, because he has touched the Lord’s word, and the Spirit has turned this word into life within him. We can be filled with the element of Christ even by praying over a seemingly dry verse.
Some saints think that the four Gospels are not very meaningful, and they do not like to read them. Matthew 8:1-3 says, “When He came down from the mountain...a leper, coming near, worshipped Him, saying, Lord, if You are willing, You can cleanse me. And stretching out His hand, He touched him, saying, I am willing; be cleansed!” Some saints say that these words are ordinary and should not be considered as the Scriptures. But if a saint is willing to use his spirit and pray over even this portion of the Bible, he will be supplied. He might say, “Lord, if You had not come down from the mountain, that leper would not have been cleansed. But You came down from the mountain to the place where we, the lepers, are. When You cleansed us, You were so considerate that You stretched out Your hand to touch us.” By praying in such a way, he will touch the sweetness of this portion of the Word. This portion does not speak of sin and the world, nor does it exhort us to be patient, meek, and loving. But if we would use our spirit to pray over this portion of the Word, these words will become spirit and life within us, and the element of Christ will increase in us. As a result, we will stay away from sin and the world, and we will be patient, meek, and loving.
It does not matter whether we have a bad temper or other weaknesses that we cannot overcome. We do not need to bear these matters in prayer to the Lord. We should put aside our sins and our weaknesses and instead read a portion of the Word and turn it into prayer and praise. Then we will be filled with the Lord’s sweetness, joy, and glory. This is the way to be victorious over sin and filled with Christ.
The Lord is the Word, and He is the Spirit. Moreover, the Lord’s words are spirit and life. We can read the Bible, and we can be filled with the Spirit through prayer. If the Lord’s words remain in our mind, without touching our spirit, they will be merely words, not spirit and life. Therefore, we should not only use our mind when we read the Bible; we must also exercise our spirit and pray. Then the words will pass through our mind into our spirit. Once the words of God’s holy Word enter our spirit, they will become spirit and life to us.
We have repeatedly stressed the need to pray after we hear a message. It is not enough to nod our heads in agreement; we must also stir up our spirit and let our spirit be enlivened. If we only nod our heads, we may not grow in life, because the words that we hear will remain in our mind, not in our spirit. We should pray when we read the Word, and we should pray after we listen to a message. May we learn to use not only our mind to receive the Word but also our spirit to receive the Holy Spirit.