The Lord is the living Word, and the Bible is the written Word. Are the written Word and the living Word two kinds of words? If we consider the written Word to be something different from the living Word, the written Word will be dead knowledge to us. The written Word cannot be separated from the living Word but must be one with the living Word.
Many wives are very familiar with Ephesians 5:22 which says, “Wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord.” Most wives appreciate and respect others’ husbands; hence, the apostle exhorts the wives to be subject to their own husbands as to the Lord, regardless of what kind of husbands they are. How could a wife transfer or translate this written word into the living Word? We have to realize that the submission to the husband which the wives should have is nothing less than Christ Himself. The wives should submit themselves to their husbands, and this submission is Christ.
After reading such a word, we have to put what we understand into prayer. A wife should not pray, “Lord, help me to submit myself to my own husband.” The Lord never answers this prayer. She should pray, “Lord, I know that this submitting life, this submission, is You. I do not only take this word, but I also take You. Lord, work Yourself into me as this submitting life. Work Yourself into me to be my very submission. I take You as the reality of this word. I come to contact You through this word and in this word.” If a wife prays in this way, she will enjoy the Lord. She may also pray, “Lord, I do not pay much attention to the matter of submitting, but I pay my full attention to You. I want to enjoy You. Lord, I thank You that You are so much to me. You are not only my Savior and my Lord but also my submission. My submission to my own husband is You Yourself. I am going to enjoy You and take You as my submission.”
A wife could pray in the wrong way, “O Lord, You know I am weak. Lord, help me to submit myself to my husband.” After this kind of prayer, you will be striving. You will be afraid of making a mistake with your husband and you will be on the alert all the time to make yourself so submissive. This is a real striving, not a feasting. In the morning a wife may endeavor to submit and be quite successful, but in the evening she will fail. Her experience is one of striving and failure. Then she may even feel too ashamed to pray. Maybe after two days she will come back to the Lord and repent—“Lord, forgive me. I failed. Lord, by Your mercy and Your grace, I make up my mind again to submit myself to my husband. Lord, You know how weak I am. Lord, help me.” After this prayer, there will be striving and failure again.
If you learn to contact the Lord in the right way, it is not you that submits but the Lord. It is “no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). It is no longer I but Christ as the submitting life. There is no need for me to endeavor or strive. I just need to feast on the Lord. After our prayer in the proper way to contact and enjoy the Lord as our submitting life, we will sing hallelujahs and praises to the Lord. We may even declare, “Hallelujah! I am in the Lord and I am in the heavens!” There is no need for us to make up our mind to submit ourselves. There is the inner grace ministering this submission into us when it is needed. Spontaneously and willingly we will submit with joy, with happiness, and with rejoicing. We will unconsciously submit ourselves. After we pray in a proper way, there is no tension. The wife will not pay attention to submitting, but she will appreciate and treasure her Lord Christ so much. After this kind of a time with the Lord, her face will become a shining face.
We have to deal with every verse of the Bible in this way. We read it by our eyes, understand it spontaneously by our mind, and deal with it by exercising the spirit to translate or transfer the written Word into the living Word, which is Christ Himself. Never pray in a way to ask the Lord to help you do something. That is the wrong way. Instead, always take Him as the fulfillment of His word. Suppose you read John 15:12, which says that we have to love one another. Do not pray, “Lord, I have to love my brother. But Lord, You know I am weak. Lord, help me to love.” After this prayer you will make up your mind to love the brothers and you will be exposed and see the failure. You have to expect nothing but failure. You may be successful for a short time, but eventually you will fail. Even if you were successful, that would not mean anything nor would it be worth anything.
When we read this word—“love one another”—we have to take the word to the Lord by exercising our spirit to pray, “Lord, You are the love to love my brother. I just open to You. Lord, come in to fill me with Yourself as the love to love my brother. You are the loving life.” We will eventually change our prayer into praise. “Lord, praise You. You are not only my life, but also my love.” Thus, to love our brother is not a burden but a feast. It is not a suffering but an enjoyment. We enjoy the Lord when He is loving our brother through us. There is no need for us to make up our mind to love others. We just need to enjoy the Lord and the Lord will love others through us. We will love so much, yet we will love unconsciously.
The word of the Bible must be dealt with and taken in this way. Then we will really feed and feast on the Lord through the reading of the Word. Then the written Word will become the living Word, that is, Christ Himself. Christ and the Bible will be one. We need to taste and see. We have to help the brothers and sisters to contact the word of the Lord in this way. By the mercy of the Lord, we need to keep the Bible as a book of life, the tree of life, not as the tree of knowledge. Knowledge puffs up (1 Cor. 8:1). The more that many Christians learn the Bible, the more puffed up they become. They acquire knowledge just to condemn and to criticize others. Too much knowledge in dead letters results in pride. Do not make this living book a book of dead letters. Paul said that the letter kills (2 Cor. 3:6). That means that the Bible in the letter kills. We should not take the Bible as something in the letter. We have to take the Word as something in life and in the spirit. May we all taste and see that the Lord is good.
We have to change our way of reading this book. Always remember that we have to read with our eyes, understand with our mind, and receive and feed on the Word with our spirit by praying. Then day by day we will be nourished. Day by day the living Word will be made one with the written Word, and day by day whenever we receive something of the written Word it will become the Spirit. It is the Word before us, but it will become the Spirit within us. When it becomes the Spirit, it becomes life. The words the Lord speaks to us are spirit and life. When the Word becomes the Spirit it is life, and when it becomes life it is the life supply, the food, that nourishes us.
There is a real need for us to spend some time to sit at the table to feast on the Lord, to eat of the Lord, day by day. Then we will be strengthened, refreshed, and nourished. Thus, we will grow in life. We will not grow in dead knowledge, but we will grow in life, in spirit, and with the stature of Christ. The Lord is the tree of life. He presented Himself to us in the form of food, and He is not only in the Word but He is also the Word itself. We can contact Him by using our eyes to read the Word, our mind to understand the Word, and our spirit to digest the Word, to receive the Word, to take the Word in. We have to deal with every portion of the Word by exercising our spirit. Then the Word becomes living and becomes spirit and life. Then it is our food. Day by day we have to feast on the Lord in this way. May the Lord bring us into this life practice.