In John 5:39-40 the Lord Jesus said, “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that testify concerning Me. Yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” It says here that the Bible is the testimony of the Lord Jesus. At the time the Lord Jesus was on earth, the Jewish teachers and leaders were zealous to search the Scriptures. They did not merely read, but they searched and studied because they thought that in the Scriptures they had eternal life. However, the Lord Jesus said, “It is these that testify concerning Me.” What the Lord Jesus meant was, “You think that in the Scriptures there is eternal life, but you must know that the Scriptures speak of Me, the Christ. The reason the Scriptures have eternal life is because the contents of the Scriptures speak about Me, the Lord Jesus. Only I, the Lord Jesus, am the eternal life.”
Eternal life is not what most people understand it to be, merely an eternal blessing. Eternal life is the uncreated, indestructible life of God. The Lord rebuked those Pharisees saying, “You teachers of the Jews search the Scriptures which testify concerning Me, because you think that in them you have eternal life, but you are not willing to come to Me.” This proves that people can read the Bible without contacting the Lord of life. Thus, our real need is to simultaneously seek the Lord Himself and His Word.
We cannot separate the Lord from His words. If you separate the Lord from His words, you will get nothing. We must see that the Lord is the contents of His words; His words are His expression and container. The Bible is like a bottle, and the Lord Himself is like the water in the bottle. Today if you do not have the bottle, you have no way to drink the water, nor can you carry the water. Likewise, if you only hold the bottle without drinking the water, you will not get anything. If we want to enjoy the water, we must both hold the bottle and take a drink.
Our reading the Bible and seeking the Lord are just like drinking water; reading the Bible is like holding the bottle, and praying to the Lord is like drinking the water. Suppose you offer me a cup of tea, and I take that cup of tea but only look at it, saying, “This cup is the best China produced in Ching The Chen in Chiang-hsi Province, that city famous for its porcelain.” If I were to admire the cup for half a day without drinking one mouthful of the tea, I would offend you. You offer me the tea, not the cup. You want me to drink the tea, not to admire your cup. It is only by drinking the tea that I can quench my thirst and honor you. This is what the Lord’s word in John 5 means. He rebuked the Jewish teachers for admiring the Scriptures without being willing to touch the content of the Bible, which is the living Person, Jesus Christ, the eternally living Lord. They were studying the Scriptures because they thought that only in them they had eternal life, but they did not know that this Bible speaks of the Lord Jesus who is the eternal life. They only searched the Scriptures but were not willing to come to the Lord Jesus to obtain the eternal life.
Remember, therefore, that when you read the Bible you must contact the Lord. Do not merely read the Bible without exercising your spirit. When you read the Bible without exercising your spirit, it is the same as searching the Scriptures without coming to the Lord. If you do not come to the Lord, then all you will get is knowledge. The same Bible may be to you either knowledge or life; it all depends on whether or not you exercise your spirit to touch the Lord when you read it. The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil are both here; it all depends on how you read. You must read the Bible with your body, understand and long for it with your soul, and pray over it with your spirit. Once you pray, you immediately touch the Lord through the holy Scriptures and obtain life.
Some people may ask, “Isn’t the Lord within us? It doesn’t matter whether or not we come to the Lord because He is already within us.” This is right; in any event the Lord is within us, but we still need to contact Him. The Lord is in us, but we must pray to contact Him. Because the Lord as the Spirit abides in our spirit, whenever we pray, we exercise our spirit and are able to contact the Lord. However, many people are not willing to exercise in this way. They listen to a message or read the Bible, but they are not willing to pray. The result is that they only get the doctrines in black and white letters, but they do not contact the Lord. If we only get the doctrines or touch the Bible without contacting the Lord, then we have no way to obtain eternal life.
I hope that we can all correct this error by always praying before we read the Bible and by turning into prayer what we have understood in our reading. This is to seek the Lord and simultaneously seek His Word. We absolutely must not separate these two matters. Instead, we must combine our reading of the Bible with our praying, so that our reading is our praying and our praying is our reading. In this way, not only the words of the Lord will enter into us, but He also will enter into us in and with His words. As a result, not only will we obtain the Lord’s words, but the Lord will be one with His words and enter into us as our supply.
In John 6:63 the Lord Jesus said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” The words, the Spirit, and life are three items, but the Lord speaks of them here as one. When the words are merely words, they are only black letters printed on the white paper; they are not the Spirit. But when the words get into your mind through your eyes and you begin to pray with your spirit, then the words become the Spirit. When the words become the Spirit, they are life.
When we pray in our reading of the Word, we turn the verses we have read into prayer. When we pray, we must forget everything else and have only the Lord and His word. Hymns, #389 says, “From morning to evening my one world Thou art.” This means that when we seek the Lord, we have only one world: “O Lord, You are my world; I seek You.” When you pray a simple prayer like this, whatever you read and understand will enter into you. Once the word enters your spirit, it becomes the Spirit and life. However, if you do not pray, then the word that you read will not become the Spirit, nor will it become life.
Deuteronomy 8:3 says, “And He humbled you and let you go hungry and fed you the manna, which you had never known nor your fathers had ever known, so that He might make you know that man lives not by bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out from the mouth of Jehovah.” When the Lord Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness, He quoted this verse to answer the devil (Matt. 4:4). This shows us that the words of God are not only teachings, but as the manna from heaven they are also food for our nourishment and supply. Teachings are for educating our mentality that we may have knowledge to understand and comprehend. Food does not give knowledge; it causes us to obtain an inward supply of life. Therefore, the Lord Jesus said that the words which He speaks to us are spirit and are life, that is, the supply of life.
This is why in John 6 the Lord also told us, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall by no means hunger” (v. 35). Moreover, He said, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me” (v. 57). These passages show us that the Bible is not merely a book for us to receive religious teachings and obtain knowledge about God. Rather, the words in the Bible are the words that proceed out through the mouth of God. When we read the Bible, we should not only read and understand it, but we must also pray. When we pray, the words that proceed out through the mouth of God enter into our spirit. When the words enter our spirit, they are spirit and life, and they become our food as our living supply.