We all need to read the Bible, but we should exercise our spirit as we read it. This means that when we read the Bible, we must pray. If we read the Scriptures without praying, we shall misuse them. To read the Word with prayer is to pray-read it. This practice was not invented by us. Throughout the centuries, many godly people have practiced praying with the words of the Bible. According to Ephesians 6:17 and 18, we must take the Word by means of prayer.
Furthermore, we should pray at every time in spirit. If we take the Word in this way, we shall receive the Spirit, because the Word is spirit. We should not take the Bible merely as a book of doctrine and teaching. Our urgent need today is not to receive more doctrine; it is to have more direct contact with the Triune God. Do not separate the Bible from the Spirit. In your experience these two should be one. If you consider the Word and the Spirit as one and take the Word by means of prayer through exercising your spirit, you will receive the supply of the Spirit.
I wish to emphasize the fact that when we pray, we must exercise our spirit. If we want to walk, we use our feet, and if we want to see, we exercise our eyes. In the same principle, if we wish to pray, we need to exercise our spirit. We should not pray simply according to our mind. If we pray by exercising our spirit as we read the Word, we shall receive the Spirit.
Before we were regenerated, our spirit was empty. But now that we have been born of the Spirit, we are able to receive the Spirit. God’s purpose in regenerating us is that our spirit may function to receive the Spirit continually. The proper Christian walk is not a walk according to doctrines we have learned. It is a walk according to the Spirit and by the bountiful supply of the Spirit (Phil. 1:19). Day by day and even moment by moment, we should be open to the Spirit and exercise our spirit by calling on the Lord to receive the Spirit. I assure you that if you turn from the mere learning of doctrine to the receiving of the Spirit, you will see a change in your daily life. Many negative things will be swallowed up, and you will be healed and transformed.
Those who have been in the Lord’s recovery for a number of years have learned the doctrines and teachings of the recovery. They have gained much knowledge. What is needed is not more doctrine or more knowledge, but more receiving of the Spirit.
We praise the Lord that He is real, living, near, and available. How subjective the Triune God is to us! As the life-giving Spirit, He dwells in our spirit. To receive the Spirit continually means to give Him the freedom to spread within us. As we exercise our spirit to pray, calling on the name of the Lord and pray-reading the Word, we shall breathe spiritually and receive the Spirit. Then the essence, the heavenly element and divine substance, of the Triune God will be added into our being. As this element spreads within us, we shall grow and be transformed, and the negative things in us will be eliminated. The more we grow by having the element of the Triune God added to us, the more we shall function in the church and be built up with others in our locality as the expression of the Body of Christ. May all the saints in the Lord’s recovery turn from receiving mere doctrine and knowledge to receiving the Spirit.