I would stress again that for us to realize and to touch the solid and concrete substance of the divine element, He gives us the Bible, the Word. You must realize the Word is divine, and the Word is a very particular writing. It is the condensation of the breathing of God. This is why you don’t need to exercise your mind, your mentality, so much. Of course you need your mind, but you have to realize the Bible is not a kind of human, secular, worldly writing. It is the very condensation of God’s divine breath. So you must love Him, and you must love His Word, not in a way of knowledge but in a seeking and living way.
Remember these three points: First, God wants you to take Him as life and live Him. Second, He is now the Spirit, and third He is the very Word as well. When you apply these two to your experience you will find they are one. The Word and the Spirit are one (John 6:63). When this wonderful One gets into you, that is the Spirit. When this wonderful One remains outside of you, it is the Word. But these two are one. Don’t consider that the Bible is something separate from the Spirit. They are just one. It is somewhat like your body and your physical life. Your physical life and your body are just one; you cannot separate them. If you separate your body from your physical life, your body will become a carcass. If you separate the Bible from the Spirit, the Bible is just a dead body. This is what the Bible calls the letter (2 Cor. 3:6). The letter means the dead writings. We must keep these two one in our experiential enjoyment of our God.
Because the Bible is a writing, you need to read it. But from Psalm 119, Ephesians 5 and 6, and Colossians 3, I have been deeply and strikingly impressed that to touch the Word of God in the way of reading is just the initial step. You can never finish anything just by taking the initial step. The initial step is just the initiation; you need to keep on. What are the following steps? You must sing; you must pray; you must psalm; you must thank the Lord all the time. In addition to your reading you must exercise the prayer, the singing, the psalming and the thanking. Reading is only one part of these five. In the past we were out of proportion because we made our reading too big. Reading is the initial step; then it should be followed by praying. Then it should be followed by singing, by psalming, and by thanking. All these are in the Bible. In all three of these portions, the word read is not used. But in our mentality and on our lips there is nothing but read. However, in these few chapters a lot of other predicates are used for the touching of the living Word. How many different predicates are used in Psalm 119! Ephesians and Colossians say that we need to receive the Word of God by means of all prayer and petition, even praying at every time.
Don’t take this word just as a message. I don’t like to see all of these things taken as a kind of doctrine. This is not a mere doctrine. If you don’t practice these things, you are wasting your time coming to this Perfecting Training. You must practice these things. Don’t pray for other things; pray the Word. I surely hope that we all could pray through these four books: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. Then not only pray through them, but sing through them. Then you can psalm. Psalming doesn’t need much of a melody for singing. You can psalm with your own tune and even with all kinds of irregular tunes. You will see what will come out. There will be a sweet and strengthened receiving of the divine element. Then we need to practice thanking through the Word. If we all would practice praying the Word, singing the Word, psalming the Word, and thanking through the Word, the church life will be much uplifted.
This is a direct word. Just these three or four things are worthy to talk about: first, our God today wants us to live Him. Second, He is the Spirit. Third, He is the Word. Last, He wants us to take Him in through the Word and the Spirit by praying, by singing, by psalming, and by thanking. We all can testify when we pray in our spirit we get the infusion of the divine element, of light, of life, of love, of sanctification, of all the divine things we need. When you sing, that is a real musing upon the Word. To muse upon the Word is not just to have a deep consideration or a deep apprehension of the Word. To muse is to enjoy the Word. The best way to muse upon the Word is to sing. A deeper musing is psalming. Psalming even gives you more enjoyment than singing. Thanking may be considered as a kind of conclusion. You must pray, you must sing, you must psalm, and eventually you must give thanks to our God.
If we would practice this all the day long we wouldn’t need to talk about living Christ; spontaneously we would live Christ. If we don’t practice singing the Word, praying the Word, psalming the Word, and thanking the Lord for the Word, yet we try to live Christ, we will find it impossible. I hope we all could realize this is crucial. We must practice this. It doesn’t matter how much you know. But if you would practice this you will be fully infused, saturated, and even permeated with the Triune God. This is being one spirit with the Lord. When you are infused and permeated with Him, you are actually one with Him, and you are practically one spirit with Him. So whatever you do, that is to live Christ. Whatever you do, you spontaneously do it in Him. You do it in His name, and that is not you; that is He. Because you have been fully saturated with Him He surely becomes you, just like you become Him. This is to live Christ. This is what the New Testament terms “in Christ” and “Christ in you” mean. Do you think the words “in Christ” and “Christ in you” are just a kind of terminology? What do these mean? For many years I was bothered by these kinds of expressions. When you practice these matters you will experience the real fact that you are in Him and that He is in you. It will not be just a kind of expression or terminology, it will be a kind of real experience. You will really experience that you are in Him and He is in you. You need to contact and receive Him and be saturated with Him and enjoy Him. Then you will live Him.