The word in John 6 is for nourishing. In John 6:57 the Lord said, “He who eats Me shall also live because of Me,” and in 6:63 He said, “The words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life.” The word in John 6 is for nourishing, whereas the word in Ephesians 6 is mainly for killing. The word in John 6 is bread, but the word in Ephesians 6 is a sword. A sword does not nourish; rather, it kills. But this sword does not kill you—it slays the enemy and all the negative things within you. If we would fight against the principalities and powers in the heavenlies, we must firstly kill all the “bugs” within us.
You may wonder what these “bugs” are. Speaking in terms of doctrine, you may say that these “bugs” are your mind, emotion, and will. But to be practical, the “bugs” that most need to be killed are our opinions. We need an intensified enlightenment to see that we are filled with opinions. When you listen to a message, fellowship with the saints, or read the Bible, you cling to many opinions and concepts. Nearly every saint holds on to some opinion or concept. My point here is this: If we would be the stronger part in the woman, fighting against the enemy by praying, we must take the word of God by renouncing every opinion. In other words, the way to take the word of God by pray-reading is to have our opinions slain. In message eighty-seven of the life-study of Genesis we pointed out that to keep the word of the Lord means to take in the Lord and to have all our opinions killed. If it were not for the Lord’s mercy, we would all frustrate the word of the Lord by our opinions. How we need to pray-read the killing word, the word that kills our opinions and concepts!
In my experience in the church life, many times I have frustrated the Lord by my opinions. The problem with everyone in the Lord’s recovery is this matter of opinions. I am not saying that we should be without feeling, like a wooden log. When you come to the Word, as a living person who is strong in thought, feeling, and judgment, you must ask the Lord to slay your opinions. Not many saints have prayed in this way. But we must say, “Lord, I am about to pray-read Your word. Lord, kill my opinions.” What has frustrated you from being built up with others is not mainly your weakness or even your worldliness—it is your opinions. We all have a heart to love the Lord and a desire to be built up into the church. Often, however, the outcome has not been according to our desire. Some have been in the church life for more than ten years, but they are still not a part of the actual building. Although they are very close to the building, they are detached from it. No matter how close they are to the building, they are not actually built into it. Their opinions have hindered them from being built up with others. Thus, we all must pray, “Lord, I want to be strengthened in my inner man; I want to be empowered to realize the riches of Christ; and I want to be strong by putting on the whole armor of God. But my problem is that I haven’t yet allowed Your word to kill my opinions.”
Occasionally, some friends have asked me why I receive so much light from the Word and why they receive very little. Although we read the same Bible, they do not receive much light. Here is the secret to receiving light from the Word: Allow the Word to kill your opinions. Many read the Word in a selective way, taking whatever matches their opinion and rejecting whatever does not match it. Genuine pray-reading, on the contrary, is taking the Word itself and letting it kill your opinions. Ephesians 6 does tell us the way to pray-read. It is to take the Word by means of all prayer. As we pray-read, the first thing the Word will do is kill our opinions. If you do not allow the Word to slay your opinions, you will not be able to reach the enemy in the air to do battle with him. Our experience proves that pray-reading does not firstly nourish us; it firstly kills our opinions. Every time we have some practical pray-reading, our opinions are put to death.
You may be wondering what your opinions are. The brothers hold on to one opinion, and their wives hold on to a different opinion. You may think that you are a good husband, but you do not realize how strongly you cling to your opinions in relation to your wife. You love her and you may rarely argue with her, but, deep within, you treasure opinions that differ from hers. Of course, the same is true with the wives. Therefore, the husbands and wives hold to different concepts. As a result, they have not only been hindered from being built up with the brothers and sisters in the church life, but they have not even been built up with each other in their married life. Although you and your wife may have been saved for many years and may have spent those years loving the Lord and seeking the truth, up until this very moment you may still be clinging to your opinions. You love the Lord, you love the church, and you love each other, but you still hold to your opinions. And these opinions hinder you from being built up in the church.
Every one of us is opinionated. I confess that I used to be very opinionated, but I praise the Lord that my opinions have undergone a good deal of killing. Although I do not boast that I do not hold on to anything, I can say that, by His killing, it is difficult for me to cling to anything. According to the implication of Ephesians 6, by pray-reading we take the killing word as the sword that is able to slay all our opinions.