In the four Gospels the Lord Jesus came as the Word. Then through His crucifixion and resurrection He was transfigured into the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). After His resurrection and ascension, from the book of Acts through all the Epistles, the Lord Jesus is the life-giving Spirit. Therefore, in our experience we need to learn how to transfer the Lord as the Word into the Spirit. We need to know the Lord as the Word, the expression, the revelation, the manifestation, of God, but we need more than this. After we know Him as the Word, we need Him to be transferred into the Spirit that we may not only know Him but also experience Him.
In the four Gospels the Lord Jesus is revealed as the Word, the expression, the manifestation, of God for us to know. At that time Jesus was always among the early disciples for them to see, to study, and to know. Day by day throughout those three and a half years, Peter and the other disciples knew the Lord more and more. However, when we come to the book of Acts and the Epistles, we see the Lord Jesus as the life-giving Spirit indwelling our spirit (Rom. 8:16; 2 Tim. 4:22), not mainly for us to know but to partake of, taste, enjoy, and experience. Here we have two steps in our dealing with the Lord. The first step is to know Him as the Word, the more the better. The second step is to enjoy Him, to taste Him, and to experience Him—the more deeply the better. The principle is that we all must learn how to transfer the Lord as the Word into the Spirit.
Colossians 3:16 and 17 say, “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.” These two verses show us that psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs come out of the word that fills us. When we are filled with the word, we give praises and thanks with psalms, hymns, and songs. The parallel passage in Ephesians 5:18 and 19 says, “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissoluteness, but be filled in spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and psalming with your heart to the Lord.” Of the two passages in these sister books, one tells us that when we are filled with the word, we praise the Lord with psalms, hymns, and songs, while the other says that when we are filled in spirit, we praise with psalms, hymns, and songs. This proves that the word becomes the Spirit to us. When we are filled with the word in a proper way, we are at the same time filled in spirit.
By our own experience we know that the word must become the Spirit. Otherwise, we can never praise adequately. To praise with hymns is not something merely from the mind; our praising must be from the spirit. When our spirit is touched by the word as the Spirit, we have praise within us.
When the word spoken to us comes into us, it becomes the Spirit. Then when we speak it to others, it becomes the word again, and when they receive it, it becomes the Spirit to them. The Spirit going out becomes the word, and the word received in a proper way becomes the Spirit. If the word does not become the Spirit, it is mere knowledge, the letter that kills (2 Cor. 3:6). If we receive the word only in our mind, it is knowledge in letter, but when we receive the word into our spirit, it becomes Spirit. Moreover, when the word becomes Spirit, it becomes life.
There is no need to teach people how to receive the word into their mind. People do this spontaneously. However, not many Christians know how to receive the word as the Spirit. The only way to receive the word as the Spirit is by prayer. Regardless of how deeply we have received the word, it will not be life to us until we have adequate prayer. A person may hear the gospel and be very deeply inspired and moved by the Holy Spirit. However, if this person does not pray, he still cannot be saved. Regardless of how deeply this person is inspired, he still needs to pray; this is a principle. Many times we have been inspired by a good message, but we have neglected to pray. Therefore, after a short time the inspiration is gone. In order to keep the message that we have heard and been inspired by, we must immediately pray the message into our spirit. Then this message will be sown into our spirit and mingled with our spirit by our prayer. To pray makes a very big difference.
In our gospel preaching we have learned that regardless of how much people understand a message and are inspired by it, we still have to help them to pray. To pray is like putting a signature on a contract. Everything may be written into a contract, but if we do not sign it, it means nothing. From now on, after a message is delivered, we have to help the listeners to pray about it.
We can apply the same principle to our reading. Every time we read the Bible, we need to put what we have read and understood into prayer. If we spend ten minutes for reading, we should spend at least fifteen minutes for prayer. We need to pray more in order to receive what we read into our spirit. Many times when we read the word, we gain knowledge and understanding in the mind, but we are not nourished within. Not until we spend time to pray with what we read will we be nourished in our spirit. Then we will be not only enlightened and taught, but also nourished, refreshed, and strengthened within.
We have suffered too much simply because we have neglected this principle. In reading, listening, and fellowshipping we have come to know many things, and we have been truly inspired, but we have neglected to pray. Therefore, what we have heard and that which has inspired us quickly disappear. Gradually, however, we keep the knowledge in our mentality. As a result, we have much knowledge but not enough growth in life. The knowledge in our mind becomes the killing letter, which damages our Christian life.