The word of God is put before us, and its substance is the Spirit. Therefore, 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed.” On God’s side, the Scripture is His breathing out; on our side, it is for us to breathe in. God has already breathed out. The Bible is God’s breathing out, and to this day it is still God’s breathing out. Therefore, whenever you come to read the Bible, if you just read the dead letters and do not breathe in what God has breathed out, then the Bible will be dead letters to you. The Scripture is the breathing out of God, whereas our prayer is our breathing in. By this breathing out and breathing in, we breathe God into us. This is the meaning of the Scriptures. However, no matter how God breathes out, if we do not breathe in, we cannot receive God as our enjoyment and supply. This is why many people come to the Bible but do not receive the life in it.
The words of the Bible are the breathing out of God, but when you turn them into prayer, they become your breathing in. Every word of the entire Scripture is the breathing out of God. How can you receive into you what God has breathed out? It is by praying the words of the Scriptures. Once you turn the words of the Bible into prayer, God’s breathing out becomes your breathing in. What you breathe in is spirit and life. Therefore, the Lord said that the words which He has spoken to us are spirit and life. When the Lord’s words are spirit to us, they are also life.
Thank the Lord, many of our older brothers and sisters love the Bible, which I also love. In my fifty-eight years’ experience of reading the Bible I have learned a secret; that is, the most profitable way of reading the Bible is to pray-read. If you simply read in an ordinary way, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” this may be profitable, yet it is merely a revelation to let you know that the heavens and the earth were created by God, that is, to let you know their origin. However, this is only knowledge; you have not gained any supply and nourishment from it. In Matthew 4 the Lord Jesus said, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God” (v. 4). Every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God is the Scriptures. In Matthew 4 the Lord Jesus dealt with the three temptations of the devil by quoting the words of the Scriptures. The Lord said, “Every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God,” referring to the holy Scriptures. From the first verse to the last verse of the sixty-six books of the Bible, every word is a word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. This corresponds with 2 Timothy 3:16, which says that “all Scripture is God-breathed.” The words that proceed out through the mouth of God are God’s breathing out. It is not enough for us just to read and to understand what God breathed out, because then it would be mere knowledge, revelation, and doctrine. Although these are profitable to us in saving us from being ignorant, we still cannot gain the nourishment. How can we gain the nourishment from the words of the Scriptures? It is by turning these words into prayer. This is pray-reading, which is different from mere reading.
The Holy Bible is the word of God, and we live on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God. Therefore, the Bible also tells us that God’s word is our food. John 6 clearly tells us that the words which the Lord has spoken to us are life (v. 63). In verse 35 the Lord Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall by no means hunger.” He also said, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me” (v. 57). Because of His concern at that time that the disciples who listened to Him might not understand the meaning of His words, He added the words in verse 63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” Therefore, you can see that the Lord’s words are the food of life to us.
However, it is necessary not only for the food to be prepared in the kitchen and set on the table; it is also necessary that you come to eat it. If you do not eat, you will not get the nourishment. Therefore, we all must learn to do one thing. Every good, living, and strong Christian must learn to do this one thing, that is, to eat the word of life. The whole world today pays great attention to eating nutritiously; hence, the human life span has increased. There is an old Chinese saying which says that it is rare for one to live to the age of seventy. I praise and thank the Lord that now I am almost eighty years old. My secret is in eating; I eat properly every day. The result is that I have no less strength than those of you who are younger.