The works of the devil, Satan, all have been destroyed, and he as the ruler of the world has been cast out by Christ through His death in the manifestation in His flesh (1 John 3:8; John 12:31b). This is also a vital base for our growth in the divine life, based upon which we have overcome Satan, the evil one (1 John 2:13b, 14b).
Christ's death on the cross in His flesh has put the world, the cosmos of Satan, on His cross and has judged it and terminated it there (John 12:31a). For us to grow in the divine life we need to overcome the world (1 John 5:4-5), and the world was judged and terminated by Christ through His death on the cross.
We also have the way to grow in life. The way of the growth in life is by eating Christ, drinking Christ, and breathing Christ.
For the maintenance and growth of our physical life, eating is vital. Jesus is the bread of life for us to eat so that we can grow in the divine life. Eating Jesus is the way! (See stanza four of Hymns, #1226.) He is the Lamb, the brass serpent, and the dove as the base of our growth in life. Now He is our food for us to eat as the way to grow in life.
We can grow in the divine life by eating Christ as the living bread from heaven embodied in His words of eternal life (John 6:57b-58a, 51, 68). Every word in the Bible is the embodiment of the eternal life, so to eat Jesus, we must take in the Word. Where is Jesus today? He is in the Spirit and in the Word. The Spirit is within us, and the Word is in our hand. This is why we encourage all the saints to spend at least ten to twenty minutes every morning to exercise their spirit in prayer with the Word. Throughout church history, many godly saints read the holy Word prayerfully. On the one hand, we read the Word, and on the other hand, we pray with what we read, not with our own word, but with God's loving, holy Word.
When we come to a verse like John 1:29—"Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world"—we should not merely read it. We should read it with prayer by saying, "Lord, praise You, You are the Lamb of God. I love You. Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! Lord Jesus, thank You for being the Lamb of God who took away my sin." The proper way to read the Bible is to read the Bible prayerfully. Our spiritual nourishment does not depend on the number of verses or chapters we read but on how many of the Lord's words we have eaten (Jer. 15:16). We have to eat by pray-reading a few verses every morning. By eating Christ as the living bread embodied in His words of eternal life, we can grow in the divine life. Without eating, no one can grow.