When reading the Bible in this way, we also need to pay attention to maintaining constant contact with the Lord and not being distracted by the outward letters. We should not pay attention only to reading but forget to contact the Lord. It is not easy to maintain our fellowship with the Lord when reading the Bible for ten to twenty minutes in this way. Some people can contact the Lord without reading the Bible, but once they start reading the Bible, their contact with the Lord is interrupted. Thus, to read the Word and still be able to maintain contact with the Lord is a spiritual skill that requires much practice. We need to practice reading while contacting the Lord and contacting the Lord while reading so that our contact with the Lord is not interrupted by our reading. In our reading, we need to maintain and remain in fellowship with the Lord. If we read the Bible in this way for twenty minutes, we will have contact and fellowship with the Lord for twenty minutes. This will be a great benefit.
When we touch the Lord’s Word with our spirit and remain in continual fellowship with Him, our spirit should have a feeling of being bathed, as if our whole being were taking a bath in the Bible. This is refreshing, comfortable, and joyful. We should have this kind of feeling when we fellowship with God through reading the Word. If we do not have such a feeling, our fellowship with the Lord has ceased; otherwise, we would certainly have such a feeling. When we pass through God’s word, we should be like a person who has taken a bath, a person who has been soaked in water.
Not only so, we should feel warm, as if we were sitting under the sun, and we should also be inwardly refreshed. The more we read, the more we should be refreshed. If we read for five minutes, we should be even more refreshed. Some may ask us to describe this freshness. Although it is difficult to fully describe this freshness, it is like the freshness of the morning dew. Consequently, we will also be moistened. We may not know what has touched us, what has enlightened us, or what we have learned, but we will be moistened. As we read verse by verse, we become moist and we will be full of an inward sweetness. In addition, we will sense a supply. The more we read, the more we will be inwardly satisfied, filled, empowered, and strengthened. There will also be light. But I am not stressing light because light implies understanding, and we have said that seeking to understand often becomes a hindrance to our fellowship.
This is the way we should read the Bible for thirty minutes in the morning. Although we may not understand anything, we will take a bath in God’s Word and feel warm in our spirit. We will not have the sense of being hot, scorched, or burned, but we will have an indescribably warm feeling and be refreshed, moistened, supplied, and satisfied. This is good Bible reading.
This can be compared to eating a rich breakfast. We may not remember exactly what we ate, but we will feel full and energized. We will be satisfied without any hunger or thirst. This is an indescribable feeling. The more we read the Lord’s Word and fellowship with Him in this way, the more we will know how real and sweet it is to read the Bible.
We will then receive inspiration. Inspiration is not understanding. Understanding comes from the mind, but inspiration is a feeling in the spirit. For example, when we read 1 Peter 5:5, which says, “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble,” we may receive inspiration in our spirit that touches us deep within, causing us to see that we are proud and that we do not know the meaning of humility. We must accept this inspiration and remain in this portion of the Word, without reading further. When we read Genesis 1:2, which says, “But the earth became waste and emptiness,” we may receive the inspiration that there is just waste and emptiness within us. In this case, we must open to this inspiration and let it touch us even more deeply.
In addition to the functions of bathing, warming, moistening, refreshing, and supplying, reading the Bible to fellowship with God has a great function of giving inspiration. When we read the Bible to fellowship with God, it is easy to receive inspiration. In fact, we will receive much more inspiration when we read the Bible in this way than when we read it for understanding. This is because when we read the Bible for understanding, we mainly use our mind, but when we read the Bible for fellowship with God, we use our spirit to touch God’s moving in our spirit. Once the Holy Spirit moves, there is inspiration. We should not regard the inspiration we receive lightly but should open to it in a deep way.
We should meditate on the inspiration we receive. At this stage of our fellowship with God through reading the Bible, we should not ponder, but we should meditate. Once we touch the inspiration, we need to meditate on it and then turn it into prayer. For example, if we receive inspiration and sense that we have lost the opportunity to be blessed because of our pride, we should immediately stop and meditate, saying, “Yes, I am self-satisfied in some aspects, and I am not humble enough.” However, it is not good to meditate too long. Hence, we should turn the inspiration we receive into prayer and confess before the Lord, saying, “Please forgive me. There is pride within me. Have mercy on me and let me touch humility.” This kind of prayer that comes out of inspiration and is through meditation is good fellowship. In this crucial stage, reading the Bible and prayer are now mingled together. Reading the Bible becomes our praying, and gradually, our praying becomes a reading of the Bible. We will cover this point in greater detail in the next lesson.
We need to receive inspiration, meditate on the inspiration, and then turn it into prayer. Sometimes this type of prayer is intercessory in nature; that is, we pray for others. Although we receive inspiration for ourselves, the prayer can result in intercession for others. This kind of intercessory prayer is often valuable, and God answers it.
This type of prayer should not be long. After praying, if there is still time, we should read more from the Bible. We should never think that our fellowship with God is finished after we have read and prayed. In this type of fellowship, reading the Bible and prayer should continue side by side. We read and then we pray and then we read again. We do not need to be clear whether we are reading the Bible or praying because we are reading with prayer and praying with reading. We are not merely concluding our reading with prayer. This is not sufficient. Whenever we read, we should be ready to receive inspiration and then turn the inspiration into prayer and then continue to read after praying. However, this is not a law. Sometimes we may not be able to continue reading because the Holy Spirit touches us and asks us to pray. Very often, however, we will first receive inspiration, meditate on the inspiration, and then turn it into prayer. After praying, we should continue to read. As long as time allows, we should simply continue to read and pray and to pray and read.
Although this type of reading and praying and praying and reading will come to an end, the feeling that we receive from reading the Bible should not end. We may stop our reading of the Bible, but the feeling should not come to an end; we must keep this feeling in our heart. In other words, if we read the Bible in the morning, we should learn to abide throughout the day in the feeling we received. We should live in the feeling we receive through our fellowship with God in the morning. This is a precious and important matter.