We all need to learn how to handle God’s word. The first principle in handling God’s word is that we should not exercise our mind too much. Our mind is like a wild horse in need of a bridle. Quite often I received letters from various saints telling me of the “revelations” they have received from the word. Many times their “revelation” is peculiar and off from God’s word. When we read the Bible, we have to bridle our “wild horse,” our mind. Our mind must be in subjection to our spirit when we get into God’s word.
There are many notes in the Recovery Version on the genealogy of Jesus Christ in the first seventeen verses of Matthew 1. In this genealogy of Christ it is significant that five women are mentioned. Only one of these five was a chaste virgin, Mary, a descendant of the chosen race of whom Christ was directly born (Matt. 1:16). The other women, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, were Gentiles, and some were extremely sinful. This indicates that Christ is related not only to the Jews but also to the Gentiles, and is the kingly Savior of typical sinners. Such a revelation from the first chapter of Matthew comes from knowing the word as knowledge along with the exercising of prayer. We need to ask the Lord why there are five women in the genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1. As we study who these women are and what they did in a spirit of prayer, we can receive the Lord’s revelation.
This genealogy also tells us that Jacob begot Judah and his brothers (1:2), but it does not say that Isaac begot Jacob and his brother. In the Lord’s light we can see that Jacob’s brother was not chosen by God, so Christ had nothing to do with him. But all the brothers of Judah were chosen by God to compose the twelve tribes of Israel, and they all were related to Christ. As we exercise our spirit to pray over the word and dive into the word with a spirit of prayer, the Lord’s light will illumine us with divine revelation.
There is even divine revelation in the name Methuselah (Gen. 5:22). When Enoch had lived sixty-five years, he begot a son and gave him this name. The name Methuselah has a prophetic significance. It means “when he is dead, it shall be sent.” By naming his son Methuselah, Enoch prophesied of the coming judgment of the deluge, the great flood at the time of Noah. Nine hundred sixty-nine years later, the age at which Methuselah died, the deluge at Noah’s time came (see Life-study of Genesis, pp. 357-359). In the name of Methuselah there is a revelation of God. This revelation comes from turning our mind to our spirit when we get into the word. When we come to the Bible, we should not exercise our mind too much. Rather, we have to restrict our mind and turn our mind to our spirit by praying with what we understand from the word. Then the word of wisdom will come to us, and this word of wisdom is the revelation.
In the book of Ephesians there are many words of wisdom, but for us to obtain these words we need to exercise our spirit to pray over this book. The proper revelation comes from our understanding through the prayer connected to our spirit. When we pray much by staying in the presence of the Lord, we will get a clear word from the Lord in our understanding that brings revelation. At times we have to wait on the Lord by stopping our entire being, including our speaking and thinking. Then wisdom will be imparted into us, and that wisdom will become our revelation. I saw the matter of God’s New Testament economy with the divine dispensing in the book of Ephesians by staying in the presence of the Lord in quiet prayer over my understanding of the word of knowledge. Then the light came, and that light brought in the wisdom which became the very revelation. I hope that we would learn to pray over the word of God in such a way to get into its depths. Among today’s Christians, there is a lack of the word of wisdom and even a lack of the word of knowledge. In many seminaries, they may study the language, history, and archeology of the Bible. But who graduates from a seminary with a rich deposit of the word of knowledge and of the word of wisdom?
By the Lord’s mercy, the word spoken in the Lord’s recovery is either the word of knowledge or the word of wisdom. As we establish meetings in the homes of the new believers, we need to bring them into the printed ministry that is full of the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom. Every educated person likes to read something, so after the new ones get saved and baptized, we need to furnish them with some reading material. The word in the Lord’s recovery will supply them with life, light, truth, and Spirit. The books that we have published, especially God’s New Testament Economy, are full of words of wisdom. The table of contents of our hymnal, including the arrangement of the topics for the hymns, needed a great deal of wisdom to compose. By studying the hymnal with an exercised spirit, we can receive revelation concerning the proper theology.
In the Lord’s recovery there is no lack of the word, but we have to spend time to get into the word by spending time to wait on the Lord. How much time we spend to wait on Him determines how much revelation we will receive. If we spend the proper time in the Lord’s presence with the word, we will be persons filled with the word and soaked in the word to be one with the word. Then whenever we go to the home meetings, we will be living factors. We must learn how to use the Life Lessons, the Truth Lessons, and the Life-study Messages. We have to learn how to handle the word to help people receive God’s word in the best way of understanding so that everyone in the home meetings can be nourished, enlightened, and strengthened. The only thing that can build up, nourish, strengthen, and empower the new believers is the divine word. They need the constant word, the instant word, the word of wisdom, and the word of knowledge. We must be able to minister the divine word to the new ones and to all the saints. Then spontaneously all the meetings in the homes will be built up, and a strong church life will be seen in all the home meetings.
I hope all of us would learn to dive into the word according to the fellowship we have received in this chapter. We need to spend time every day in the word. This does not necessarily mean that we need to drop our jobs to serve the Lord with all of our time. Many of us need to work to make a living to support our family and to take care of our children’s education. But, generally speaking, in America people only have to work eight hours a day and five days a week. As long as we can make a sufficient living to support our family and take care of our children’s education, we should be satisfied. Then we must endeavor to spend the rest of our time to go out to visit others by knocking on their doors and by establishing home meetings in all the new homes. To do this divine work we need to be completed. The Lord Jesus as the Christ of God was completed. Now we, as the ambassadors and ministers of the New Testament, need to be completed, equipped, with the mingled spirit and with the all-inclusive word in many aspects. Through this equipping, we will be qualified and very effective in helping the home meetings.