Now we want to go on to see the position of the Word in the organic building up of the church. The Bible tells us that the Spirit is God and that the Word is God. In other words, God is the Spirit and the Word. We have seen that God as the Spirit is our supply. John 4:24 tells us that God is Spirit, and John 1:1 says that the Word was God. God, the Spirit, and the Word are one. We have one wonderful Savior, who is God, the Spirit, and the Word to us. Furthermore, the Word is the Spirit. In John 6:63, the Lord Jesus said, “The words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life.” Ephesians 6:17 speaks of the sword of the Spirit, which (Spirit) is the word of God. The Word is the Spirit, and the Spirit is the Word.
When I call on the name of the Lord and pray, I have the deep sensation that the Spirit is within me. Although I have this inward, divine sensation, I may not understand much. When I come to the Word, the Word speaks to me and explains something to me. The Word explains to me what I have sensed. The Word gives me the definition of the sensations of the Spirit within me. Then I speak the word to the saints according to my sensation of the Spirit within me. When we receive the Word, it becomes the Spirit within us. Then the Spirit within us becomes the word uttered by us. When some receive this word, it enters into them and becomes the Spirit. The Spirit and the Word are one.
We must pray by calling on the name of the Lord, and we must read the Bible so that we can have both the Spirit and the Word. If we merely read the Word without much prayer by calling on the Lord, we will only have the Word without the Spirit. Then the Word will be very dry and empty. Our reading of the Word will be empty, mental stimulus. While we are reading, we need to pray, and while we are praying, we should call on the name of the Lord. We should make praying, calling, and reading one thing. Calling on the Lord’s name is for praying, and praying is for reading. Eventually, our reading of the Bible becomes pray-reading by calling.
In the Bible we are told that we have to feed on the divine Word, that we have to eat the Word (Jer. 15:16; Matt. 4:4; John 6:57, 63). We should not just read, understand, and receive the Word in a doctrinal way, but we have to take the Word in by eating it. The best way to get into the Word in this way is to pray-read the Word. We should not merely exercise our eyes to read the Word and exercise our mind to understand and receive the Word in a doctrinal way. After reading, understanding, and receiving the Word, we have to exercise our spirit, because the Word is not just knowledge, but it is composed of the divine essence. In the word of the Bible is the divine essence. Surely we have to read, understand, and receive the Word by exercising our eyes, mind, and heart. Many of us, though, may stop here, thinking that we understand a certain verse or a part of the Word. We may understand it, but it has not been assimilated into our spiritual being. This is why we all have to learn to pray-read the Word by exercising our spirit.
Throughout the history of the church, many godly saints, although they did not have the term pray-read, had the reality of pray-reading. They read the Word prayerfully, with prayer and by prayer. Whenever we pray, our spirit is exercised. To understand the Word is to exercise our mind, to receive the Word is to exercise our heart, and to pray is to exercise our spirit. Just as we walk by exercising our feet, we pray by exercising our spirit. We have to learn to exercise our spirit to eat the word of the Bible. After eating the word in our spirit, spontaneously something of God’s essence will be assimilated into our spiritual being. This is similar to the physical food that we eat being digested and assimilated into our blood to become the cells and tissues of our physical being. Our physical being has been built up with food that we have eaten, digested, and assimilated. For the Body of Christ to be built up organically, we need the Word as our spiritual food.
If we only exercise our mind to read a verse like John 1:1 without exercising our spirit, it may be very dry and empty to us. We need to turn our reading into prayer. We need to read, pray, and call, “Lord, thank You that in the beginning was the Word. Thank You that You are the Word. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was You, Lord. Amen! Hallelujah! O Lord Jesus, You were in the beginning as the Word.” By reading, praying, and calling with such a verse, we are watered, stirred up, enlightened, and made alive. We should combine reading, praying, and calling together. We need to read by praying and pray by calling on the name of the Lord. In this way we can receive God as the Spirit and the Word. When we receive God as the Spirit, we are drinking, and when we receive God as the Word, we are eating. Thus, we enjoy God as our drink and food, and we are nourished, satisfied, supplied, saturated, and enlivened.
Sometimes people ask me why I am so fresh, living, and active. The key is to contact the very God by the Spirit. He is the Spirit within us. He is so close to us. He is in our spirit, butw e have to be positive and aggressive all the time to contact Him. It is good to call on the Lord ten times before we pray. This calling makes our prayer so living. We may have prayed ourselves to sleep in the past because we did not touch God in our prayer. God is not only near us but also in us as the Spirit, so we must exercise our spirit. When we call, “O Lord Jesus,” we are enlivened in our prayer. We need to exercise our spirit to touch the Spirit. Then we can open up the Word to read by praying and to pray by calling on the name of the Lord. We can blend and mix our reading, praying, and calling into one. Then we will touch God, touch the Spirit, and touch the Word.
God is not only the Spirit and the Word but also the light. When we contact God in the way of pray-reading and calling, we will touch God’s life, be brought into God’s life, and in this life, we will see the light. We will be enlightened and exposed to realize our real condition and situation. Spontaneously we will be like Isaiah who said to the Lord, “I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips” (Isa. 6:5).
God is the Spirit, the Word, the light, and also the divine love. When we touch God as the Spirit and the Word, we are nourished, saturated, and enlightened. Furthermore, He ministers Himself into us as love so that we can love even our enemies (Matt. 5:44; Rom. 12:20). Sometimes we will be enlightened to see that we need to apologize to someone or make restitution. When we stay with God for a time, He will be love to us. God as love will be dispensed into our being, and this love enables us to apologize to people. We can enjoy God as the Spirit and the Word. Then we enjoy God as light and love. By this we are altogether enlightened, exposed, and supplied, being ministered to by God to enjoy Him as our bountiful supply. This is the way to be built up, to grow. If we all take this way, the entire Body of Christ will be built up with the Spirit and with the Word.
God’s word is the constant word of God (Acts 4:31) and the instant word of life (5:20). Because the word is a matter of life, it can grow (6:7), multiply (12:24), and be strong (19:20). The word is strong, so it is prevailing. It can overcome all the enemies. Because the word prevailed to grow and multiply in Acts, the number of the disciples in Jerusalem multiplied exceedingly (6:7). For the number of the church to increase, we all have to learn not only to enjoy the word but also to speak the word. The apostles did not leave the word (6:2), the believers preached the word (8:4), the apostles spoke the word (13:46), and people listened to the word (13:44).
We have to stick ourselves to the word and speak the word with the Spirit. When we speak, we need to call on the Lord inwardly. When we speak the word, we need the Spirit. The way to get the Spirit is to call on the name of the Lord Jesus. Then when we speak, the Spirit speaks, and we have the divine speaking in our speaking. Then the very Lord who is one spirit with us speaks in our speaking. This makes our speaking God’s oracle because not only are we speaking but also God is speaking in our speaking. Thank the Lord for the Spirit and the Word in the organic building up of the church.