THE FOUR PART: THE PATHWAY OF THE LORD’S RECOVERY
The Course of the Church
Message Thirteen
The Truths Recovered by the Ministry of Brother Witness Lee (2)
Scripture Reading: Rom. 1:16-17; Gen. 2:9; John 6:35, 51, 57; Eph. 6:17; 1 Cor. 1:2; John 20:22; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2Cor. 3:6, 17; Rom. 5:6, 11; 1 Cor. 6:17; Luke 1:35; Rev. 21:2
I. Concerning salvation—Luke 3:6; Acts 28:28:
A. The complete salvation of God is composed of God’s judicial redemption and His organic salvation—Rom. 5:10, 16-17; 8:2:
1. The first section, the section of foundation, is by the redemption of Christ judicially as the initiation and procedure of God’s salvation to satisfy His righteous requirements—Rom. 5:16-17:
a. God redeemed us judicially by the blood of Christ on the cross, from our sins, from God’s righteous judgment, wrath, and condemnation, from eternal perdition in the lake of fire, and from the accusation of Satan, God’s enemy—1 Pet. 2:24a; Rom. 2:5-6; 3:19b, 24-25; Rev. 1:5b; 21:8; 12:10-11.
b. The judicial aspect of God’s complete salvation, His judicial redemption, was accomplished by Christ in the flesh in His earthly ministry and includes the forgiveness of sins, the washing away of sins, justification by God, reconciliation to God, and positional sanctification unto God—Luke 24:47; Eph. 1:7; Heb. 1:3; Rom. 3:24-25; 5:10a; 1 Cor. 1:2; Heb. 13:12.
2. The second section, the section of consummation, is by the life of Christ organically as the completion and purpose of God’s salvation to fulfill His heart’s desire—Rom. 5:10b; 8:2:
a. God saves us organically by the life of Christ in the Spirit of life from the indwelling sin, from the condemnation due to the sinful action of the indwelling sin, from the old man, from the natural I, from the self, from the flesh with its passions and its lusts, from worldliness, from tribulations and all kinds of environmental troubles, from spiritual death and weakness, and from the vanity and slavery of corruption—5:10b; 8:2; 7:17-20; 6:6; Gal. 2:20; 5:24; Matt. 16:24; 1 John 2:15-16; Rev. 3:1-2.
b. The organic aspect of God’s complete salvation, His organic salvation, is carried out in Christ’s heavenly ministry by Christ as the Spirit with our spirit—Rom. 8:2, 16; Gal. 5:25.
B. Furthermore, the intensified work of God’s organic salvation by the intensified Spirit in our spirit, drawn by the Lamb, motivates us to overcome the degradation of the church for the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem—Rev. 4:5; 5:6; 1:10; 4:2; 17:3; 21:10; 14:4.
II. Concerning life—Psa. 36:9; John 14:6:
A. From the very beginning of the Bible we see two lines which begins with the tree of life and continues throughout the Scriptures until it ends at the city of New Jerusalem—Gen. 2:9; Rev. 22:2, 14, 19:
1. The tree of life signifies the Triune God in Christ to dispense Himself into His chosen people as life in the form of food—Gen. 2:9.
2. In the Bible the tree of life always signifies Christ as the embodiment of all the riches of God for our food—Col. 2:9; Gen. 2:9; Rev. 22:2, 14, 19.
3. In Revelation 2:7 the tree of life signifies the crucified and resurrected Christ, who today is in the church, the consummation of which will be the New Jerusalem, in which the crucified and resurrected Christ will be the tree of life for the nourishment of all God’s redeemed people for eternity—1 Pet. 2:24; John 11:25; Rev. 22:2, 14.
4. According to the purpose of God, the earth is the center of the universe, the garden of Eden is the center of the earth, and the tree of life is the center of the garden of Eden; hence, the universe is centered on the tree of life—Gen. 2:8-9.
5. The Gospel of John reveals that Christ is the fulfillment of the figure of the tree of life; if we put together John 1:4 and 15:5, we will realize that Christ, who Himself is life and also a vine tree, is the tree of life.
6. The enjoyment of the tree of life will be the eternal portion of all God’s redeemed; the tree of life fulfills for eternity what God intended for man from the beginning—Gen. 1:26; 2:9; Rev. 22:1-2.
B. We need to enjoy Christ by eating and drinking Him—John 6:48, 51:
1. God’s economy is that we eat, digest, and assimilate Christ to be constituted with Him—1 Tim. 1:4; John 6:35, 51, 57.
2. The Triune God becomes our life and life supply by entering into us organically to be assimilated into the fibers of our spiritual being—Eph. 3:16-17a; 4:23.
3. To eat the Lord Jesus is to receive Him into us so that He may be digested and assimilated by the regenerated new man in the way of life; we need to eat, digest, and assimilate Jesus as our spiritual food day by day—John 6:51-57.
4. We should not only believe into the Lord Jesus and receive Him but also eat Him, digest Him, and assimilate Him, allowing Him to become the content of our being—3:15-16; 6:51-57.
5. As we eat the Lord Jesus, we need to have proper spiritual digestion—Ezek. 2:8-3:3; Jer. 15:16.
6. Any believer who receives the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity by eating, digesting, and assimilating the Lord Jesus will live because of Him— John 6:57b.
C. Pray-reading the Lord’s word—Eph. 6:17:
1. “Receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God, by means of all prayer and petition “; to receive the word of God by means of all prayer is to pray-read—v. 17.
2. When we pray-read, there is no need to understand everything we read or to compose a prayer; we should open the Bible, look at the pages, and pray in the spirit—v. 17.
3. To pray-read the Word properly, we need the Body; the reason for this is that the Lord as our divine food is for the Body, not just for the individual members; there is some profit to pray-reading for ourselves, but if we pray-read with a group of saints, we will notice the difference—v. 17; Eph. 4:16.
4. As we practice to pray-read corporately, we need to remember four words: quick, short, real and fresh; we should forget about trying to compose a long prayer and simply utter a phrase or a sentence; we should do this in a quick and short way—6:17.
5. We also need to be real; we must not pretend; we should say something in a real way; finally, we need to learn to be fresh; the best way to be fresh is not to pray with our own words but with the words of the Bible—2 Tim. 3:16.
D. We need to call on the name of the Lord:
1. Calling on the name of the Lord is not a new practice that began with the New Testament; rather, it began with Enosh, the third generation of mankind, in Gen. 4:26; it was continued by Job, Abraham, Isaac, Moses and the children of Israel, Samson, Samuel, David, the psalmist Asaph (Psa. 80:18), the psalmist Heman, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others, all of whom practiced this in the Old Testament age—Gen. 4:26; 12:8; 26:25; Duet. 4:7; Judg. 15:18; 1 Sam. 12:18; Psa. 14:4; 80:18; 88:9; 99:6; Lam. 3:55.
2. In the New Testament, calling on the name of the Lord was first mentioned by Peter, here, on the day of Pentecost, as the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy; this fulfillment is related to God’s outpouring of the all-inclusive Spirit economically upon His chosen people that they may participate in His New Testament jubilee—Acts 2:21.
3. Calling on the Lord’s name is vitally necessary in order for us, the believers in Christ, to participate in and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ with all He has accomplished, attained, and obtained—1 Cor. 1:2.
4. The early believers practiced this everywhere, and to the unbelievers, especially the persecutors, it became a popular sign of Christ’s believers—v. 2; Rom. 9:14, 21.
5. When Stephen suffered persecution, he practiced this, and his practice surely impressed Saul, one of his persecutors; later, the unbelieving Saul persecuted the callers by taking their calling as a sign; immediately after Saul was caught by the Lord, Ananias, who brought Saul into the fellowship of the Body of Christ, charged him to be baptized, calling on the name of the Lord, to show others that he too had become such a caller—Acts 7:58-60; 22:20; 9:14, 21.
6. By his word to Timothy in 2 Tim. 2:22, Paul indicated that in the early days all the Lord’s seekers practiced such calling; undoubtedly, he was one who practiced this, since he charged his young co-worker Timothy to do this that Timothy might enjoy the Lord as he did.
E. We need to breathe in the Lord as the holy pneuma, the holy breath, the Holy Spirit—John 1:29; 20:22:
1. The Gospel of John reveals that Christ became flesh to be the Lamb of God and that in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit; thus, in His resurrection He breathed Himself as the consummated Spirit into the disciples—1:29; 20:22.
2. It is as the Spirit that He was breathed into His disciples, that He can live in the disciples and they can live by Him and with Him, and that He can abide in them and they can abide in Him—v. 22.
3. The Lord is the Spirit who gives life, and this Spirit is our breath—2 Cor. 3:6, 17; John 20:22.
4. Paul’s command to pray without ceasing implies that unceasing prayer is like breathing; to live is to breathe; to breathe spiritually is to call on the Lord’s name; we need to call on the Lord Jesus continually; this is the way to breathe, to pray without ceasing—1 Thes. 5:17; Rom. 10:12-13.
5. If we would live Christ, we must breathe spiritually, and the way to breathe spiritually is to call on the name of the Lord—Lam. 3:55-56.
6. The consummated Spirit as the breath is everything to us in living the Christian life; only the breath, the Spirit, can be a Christian and be an overcomer—Gal. 3:2-3, 14; Phil. 1:19; Rev. 2:7.
F. The eternal life, the life of the Triune God, is dispensed into the tripartite man to save the believers subjectively in this life through regeneration, sanctification, renewing, transformation, conformation, and glorification—Rom. 5:10b; 8:2, 10, 6, 11:
1. First, this life was the divine life in the Spirit—v. 2.
2. Second, it became the life in our spirit through regeneration—v. 10.
3. Then from our spirit it saturates our mind for the transformation of our soul, to which our mind belongs, and becomes the life in our soul—v. 6.
4. Eventually, it will permeate our body, ultimately issuing in the transfiguration of our body, that is, the redemption of our body—vv. 11, 23; Phil. 3:21.
5. The history of the entire universe is focused on the Triune God dispensing Himself into His tripartite people and mingling Himself with them to produce the New Jerusalem as His eternal corporate expression—Rev. 21: 11.
III. Concerning the believers—John 3:15; 1 Cor. 1:21:
A. The believers are those who were fallen sinners and who have been saved by the grace of God through their God-given and God-allotted faith, which has brought them into an organic union with the Triune God in Christ—Eph. 2:8; 2 Pet. 1:1:
1. The believers’ relationship with the Lord is described by the words union, mingling, and incorporation; union is concerning our oneness in life with the Lord, mingling is related to the divine and human natures, and incorporation is persons indwelling one another, coinhering—John 6:56.
2. Christ’s resurrection was His transfiguration into the life-giving Spirit Who is the processed and consummated Triune God—1 Cor. 15:45b.
3. Christ as the life-giving Spirit is in our regenerated spirit; when we believed into Christ, He came into our spirit; we are also joined to Him as the life-giving Spirit and are one spirit with Him—1 Cor. 6:17.
4. By believing into the Lord, we have an organic union with Him; the union of the life-giving Spirit with our regenerated spirit becomes a mingled spirit—John 3:15-16.
5. The organic union with the resurrected Christ can only be in our regenerated spirit, because Christ as the life-giving Spirit is now with our spirit—v. 6; Rom. 8:16; 2 Tim. 4:22.
B. The relationship between God and man in its highest aspect is one of mingling—1 Cor. 6:17; John 14:20:
1. The mingling of God and man is an intrinsic union of the elements of divinity and humanity to form one organic entity, yet the elements remain distinct in the union—Luke 1:35.
2. God’s unique purpose is to mingle Himself with us so that He becomes our life, our nature, and our content, and we become His corporate expression—John 14:20; 15:4-5; Eph. 1:5, 9; 3:11, 16-21; 4:4-6, 16.
3. The church, as the Body of Christ, is the enlargement of Christ, who is the mingling of God and man—Luke 1:31-35; Eph. 1:22-23; 4:16:
4. The processed and consummated Triune God mingles Himself with His chosen people in their humanity; this mingling is the genuine oneness of the Body of Christ—v. 3; John 17:21-23.
5. In the mingling of divinity and humanity, we may live a meal-offering church life—1 Cor. 1:2; 5:8.
6. The New Jerusalem is the mingling of the processed and consummated Triune God with His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, transformed, conformed, and glorified tripartite people; this mingling is the counterpart of Christ, a mutual dwelling place, our eternal destiny, and the ultimate manifestation of the processed and consummated Triune God for His eternal, corporate expression—Rev. 21:2-3, 9-23; 22:17.
C. Man become God in life and nature but not in Godhead—Gen. 1:26; Rev. 4:3; 21:10-11:
1. God’s economy is His intention to dispense Himself in His Divine Trinity into His chosen and redeemed people to be their life and nature so that they may be the same as He is for His corporate expression—1 Tim. 1:4; Eph. 1:3-23.
2. God’s good pleasure is to be one with man and to make man the same as He is in life, nature, and expression but not in the Godhead—vv. 5, 9.
3. For the accomplishment of His economy, God created us in His own image with the intention that we would become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead—Gen. 1:26; Rev. 4:3; 21:10-11.
4. For us to be deified means that we are being constituted with the processed and consummated Triune God so that we may be made God in life, nature, and expression to be His corporate expression for eternity—v. 11.
5. God redeemed us for the purpose of making us God in life and nature so that He can have the Body of Christ, which consummates in the New Jerusalem as God’s enlargement and expression for eternity—Eph. 1:7; 4:16; Rev. 21:2.
D. The Universal Incorporation of the Consummated Triune God with the Regenerated Believer—John 14:16-20:
1. In the resurrection of Christ, all His believers have been brought into the union of life with the processed Triune God and mingled with the consummated God into an incorporation—vv. 16-19.
2. God in His Divine Trinity is an incorporation—vv. 10-11.
3. The consummated Triune God and the regenerated believers are an incorporation—vv. 16-19.
4. The consummated Triune God and the regenerated believers became an incorporation in the resurrection of Christ—v. 20.
5. The first aspect of the incorporation of the consummated God with the regenerated believers in resurrection is the house of the Father—v. 2.
6. The second aspect of the incorporation of the consummated God with the regenerated believers in resurrection is the true vine of the Son—15:1-8, 16.
7. The third aspect of the incorporation of the consummated God with the regenerated believers in resurrection is the new child of the Spirit—16:13-16, 19-22.
E. The experience of God’s organic salvation equals reigning in Christ’s life—Rom. 5:17, 21:
1. God’s complete salvation is for us to reign in life by the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness—vv. 17, 21.
2. The experience of God’s organic salvation equals reigning in Christ’s life; How much we are saved in God’s organic salvation determines how much our reigning in life is manifested; our reigning in life is a proof of our experience of God’s organic salvation—vv. 10, 17, 21.
3. We were regenerated with a divine, spiritual, heavenly, kingly, and royal life; this life enthrones us to reign as kings over all things—John 1:12-13; 3:3, 5; Rev. 5:10; Rom. 5:17, 21.
4. To reign in life is to conquer, subdue, and rule over Satan, the world, sin, the flesh, ourselves, and all the environmental circumstances and to subdue all kinds of insubordination—8:2, 35, 37; 5:17-18.
5. There is the need for all the believers who have received the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness to practice the restriction and limitation in the divine life—8:6; Rev. 22:1; John 8:12; Prov. 4:18; Matt. 8:9; 2 Cor. 2:14-15.
6. As those who love the Lord Jesus, we have come under His pleasant rule, where we are restricted in the sweetness of love—Col. 1:12-13.
7. The living and experience portrayed in the revelations in Romans 6-16 are the evidence that we are reigning in life.
8. When we live not by our natural life but by the divine life within us, we are in resurrection; the issue of this is the Body of Christ—Gal. 2:20; Rom. 8:6, 10-11; 12:4-5.
9. The result of reigning in life—that is, living under the ruling of the divine life—is the practice of the Body life in the church life—vv. 4-5; 16:16.
10. The Body life is expressed in the church life; only by living under the ruling of the divine life, that is, by reigning in life, is it possible for us to live the proper church life—14:1-23; 16:1, 4-5, 16.
Ministry Excerpts:
THE JUDICIAL ASPECT OF GOD’S SALVATION
We need to be clear that the complete salvation of God is of two aspects: the judicial aspect and the organic aspect. The judicial aspect is according to the righteousness of God (Rom. 1:17a; 3:21-26; 9:30-31) as the procedure of God’s salvation to satisfy the requirements of God’s righteous law on the sinners. It is for sinners to be forgiven before God (Luke 24:47), washed (Heb. 1:3), justified (Rom. 3:24-25), reconciled to God (5:10a), and sanctified unto God positionally (1 Cor. 1:2; Heb. 13:12), thereby entering into the grace of God for the accomplishment of the purpose of God’s salvation. However, redemption as the judicial aspect cannot carry out the purpose of God’s salvation, because it is merely the procedure, not the purpose. For example, a cook spends a great amount of time cooking in the kitchen to prepare a feast. However, the cooking is not his purpose but merely a procedure. Later, when the guests are invited to enjoy the feast, that is the purpose of the cooking. Likewise, in the salvation of God we should not remain in the aspect of procedure, the judicial aspect; rather, we should go on to the aspect of purpose, the organic aspect.
THE ORGANIC ASPECT OF GOD’S SALVATION
The organic aspect of God’s salvation is through the life of God (Rom. 1:17b; Acts 11:18; Rom. 5:10b, 17b, 18b, 21b). Whereas the judicial aspect is according to the righteousness of God to accomplish God’s redemption, the organic aspect is through the life of God to carry out God’s salvation, including regeneration, shepherding, dispositional sanctification, renewing, transformation, building up, conformation, and glorification. This is the purpose of God’s salvation to accomplish all that God wants to achieve in the believers in His economy through His divine life. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The Organic Aspect of God’s Salvation”, msg. 1)
We want to see that the key of God’s organic salvation is the Spirit Himself with our spirit. We should not forget that there is such a marvelous phrase in the Bible in Romans 8:16. Even after we enter into the New Jerusalem, I would like to see a banner there saying—“The Spirit Himself with our spirit.” The Spirit Himself with our spirit is doing one thing: witnessing that we are the children of God. Just to say the people of God is not too critical, but to say the children of God is so great.
The Spirit Himself is the witnessing One, and this Spirit is the Spirit of life, the Spirit who gives life, the Spirit who is the Spirit of Christ. This Spirit is also the pneumatic Christ and the indwelling Spirit. Our spirit was created by God but became dead through the fall. But later it was regenerated by God. Not only so, after regeneration the regenerating Spirit remains in our regenerated spirit and mingles Himself with our spirit to make the two one. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “The Divine and Mystical Realm”, ch. 4)
God’s organic work is from regeneration to glorification, from God’s entering into man to man’s practically being brought into God. Regeneration is God entering into man, whereas glorification is man entering into God. Thus, man is altogether mingled and joined with God to express the image of God. That is glorification. The ultimate consummation of God’s complete salvation is the New Jerusalem—the crystallization of the union and mingling of God with man, the processed and consummated Triune God with His regenerated, transformed, conformed, and glorified tripartite elect. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The Organic Aspect of God’s Salvation”, msg. 5)
Dear brothers and sisters, our future is the Lord’s coming back. We are not here miserably longing for His return so that our afflictions may be over quickly and we may be released from the bondage of slavery. Rather, we are awaiting the Lord’s coming back by daily experiencing His organic salvation. We are waiting not by sitting passively but by being saved actively day by day. We cannot remain in the stage of regeneration; rather, we must cooperate with the Lord for Him to renew, sanctify, transform, conform, and glorify us so that God’s organic salvation may be accomplished in us for the fulfillment of His eternal economy. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Experience of God’s Organic Salvation Equaling Reigning in Christ’s Life”, msg. 3)
THE TRIUNE GOD BECOMING OUR LIFE AND BLESSING
How is it possible for the Triune God to be our life and blessing? It is not a simple matter for something to become our life. For example, the food we eat and digest becomes our life supply. In order for anything to be our life or life supply, that thing must be organic. If you swallow a stone, that stone cannot become your life supply, because a stone is not living and organic. Only something organic can be digested by us and then assimilated into us to become our life supply. In a similar way, in order for the Triune God to be our life supply and even our life, He must come into us to be digested and assimilated by us. To be sure, the Triune God is living and organic.
According to chapter six of the Gospel of John, Christ is a loaf, the bread of life, for us to eat. The Lord Jesus said, “I am the living bread which came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever,” (v. 51). Then He went on to say, “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me shall also live because of Me.” (v. 57). Any believer who eats the Lord Jesus as the bread of life will live by Him. When we eat this bread of life, He comes into us to be digested by us and to be assimilated into us organically. This is the only way the Triune God can become our life. The Triune God becomes our life supply and our life by entering into us organically to be assimilated into the very fibers of our spiritual being. (Life-study of Mark, msg. 44)
Pray-reading the Word of God with Our Spirit
Pray-read, converting all that we see and all that we comprehend into prayer. When we pray, we use our spirit. At first, we may use our mind to pray, but after three to five sentences our spirit will rise up. This is a definite fact. Therefore, never forget that the essence of the Word of God is God’s breathing out. When you read it, you should breathe it in. On God’s side, it is a matter of His breathing out; on our side, it is a matter of our breathing in. The spiritual breath comes out of Him and enters into us. That which comes out of Him and enters into us is the spiritual breath. The Word of God is spirit and life. Our mind cannot touch the Spirit; only our spirit can touch the Spirit. If we do not touch the Spirit, we do not have life. Only by touching the Spirit can we have life. Ultimately, this life is Christ, and it is also God Himself.… At first, we do not need to explain what we read, nor do we need to understand it; we only need to pray-read the Word literally. When we pray-read, our spirit touches the Spirit of the Bible, and thus we receive life.
Eating, Drinking, and Breathing the Spirit
and the Life in the Word of God
The matter of pray-reading to eat, drink, and breathe the Spirit and the life in the Word of God is seen in the word of the Bible; hence, pray-reading is not superstitious. When we pray-read, the word in letters becomes spirit and life, that is, the Lord Himself. To pray-read is to receive “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, by means of all prayer and petition” (Eph. 6:17-18). Whenever we receive the Word of God by pray-reading, the result is that we eat, drink, and breathe in the Spirit and the life in God’s Word. Even an Old Testament saint, Jeremiah, also said, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them” (Jer. 15:16). The Word of God is edible; hence, it is our food. Therefore, we must “long for the guileless milk of the word” (1 Pet. 2:2). …In addition, God’s Word is also God’s breathing out. When we breathe in God’s Word, breathing in what God has breathed out, we receive Him. It is clear, then, that to pray-read is to eat, to drink, and to breathe, and the more consistently we practice it, the better. (CWWL, 1985, vol. 4, “The Full Knowledge of the Word of God”, msg. 2)
The Exercise and Practice of Pray-reading the Lord’s Word
We must now see the proper way to come to the Word. What is it? We must look at the Word of God as recorded in Ephesians 6:17-18. In what way are we to take the Word of God according to this passage? By means of all prayer and petition. This is what we call pray-reading! Again, we must repeat—the Word of God must be taken by means of all prayer.
Simply pick up the Word and pray-read a few verses in the morning and in the evening. There is no need for you to exercise your mind in order to squeeze out some utterance, and it is unnecessary to think over what you read. Just pray with the same words you read. On every page and in every verse there is a living prayer. There is no need to close your eyes when you are pray-reading. Keep your eyes on the Word as you pray. …we must realize that there is no need for us to close our eyes when we pray. It is better for us to close our mind! There is no need for you to compose any sentences or create a prayer. Just pray-read the Word. Pray the words of the Bible exactly as they read. Eventually, you will see that the whole Bible is a prayer book! You can open to any page of the Bible and start to pray with any portion of the Word. Perhaps you are quite familiar with the entire book of Romans. But even today, you still need to pray-read one or two verses of it. Though we may know all about food, yet we still must partake of some food daily. Regardless of how much we know about it, we still must eat it! To know is one thing, but to eat is another. …To enjoy it bit by bit, is another thing. You may have been a Christian for many years, but regardless of how long you have been a Christian and regardless of how many times you have read this book, you must not only read it, but pray-read it! You must eat it, partake of it, and enjoy it day by day.
Needing the Body to Pray-read the Word Properly
To pray-read the Word properly, we need the Body. I have proven this by my experience. I enjoy pray-reading the word privately, but whenever I practice pray-reading with a group of believers, I am transported to the third heavens. The reason for this is that the Lord as our divine food is for the Body, not just for the individual members. No member of our body can eat for itself. The eating of food is by the body and for the body. When we exercise to pray-read not just by ourselves but with a few of the members of the Body, we keep the principle of the Body. In Taiwan and in other places, the saints have formed many small groups to come together to pray-read. Many sisters do not have time to come together in the morning because they have to go to the market in order to buy vegetables for their meals. Once they complete their journey to the market, they come together in a home to pray-read for thirty minutes to an hour. These groups consist of six to ten sisters. By pray-reading, they taste the Lord and enjoy Him. The brothers come together to practice pray-reading in the morning or at other times during the day. This kind of corporate pray-reading is a feast.
I say again that eating is for the Body; it is not for the individual members only. There is some profit to pray-reading by ourselves but if we pray-read with a group of saints, we will notice the difference. It is good to come together as often as possible to feast on the Lord by pray-reading His Word. (CWWL, 1967, vol. 1, “Pray-Reading the Word”, ch. 2)
The Meaning of Calling on the Name of the Lord
Firstly, we need to learn the meaning of calling on the name of the Lord. Some Christians think that calling on the Lord is the same as praying to Him. Formerly, I held the same concept. One day, however, the Lord showed me that calling on His name is different from merely praying. Yes, calling is a type of prayer, for it is a part of our prayer, but calling is not merely praying. The Hebrew word for call means to “call out to,” “to cry unto,” that is, to cry out. The Greek word for call means “to invoke a person,” “to call a person by name.” In other words, it is to call a person by naming him audibly. Although prayer may be silent, calling must be audible.
To call on the Lord also means to cry to Him and to experience spiritual breathing. “I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon. Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry” (Lam. 3:55-56). These verses indicate that calling is also crying and breathing. Crying is the best breathing. I have been told that crying is the best exercise for little babies. Whenever you cry out, you breathe spontaneously and deeply. By crying and breathing we both exhale and inhale. Inhaling always follows exhaling. By exhaling we breathe out all the negative things. Whenever you breathe out the negative things, the positive things of the Lord will fill you up. Let me take the example of losing your temper. When you are about to lose your temper, do not try to suppress it, but call, “O Lord Jesus.” Then add a short prayer, “Lord Jesus, I am going to lose my temper.” Do this and see whether you still lose your temper. By calling on the name of the Lord you will breathe out your temper and you will breathe in the Lord Jesus. You will exhale your temper and inhale the Lord. Do you want to be holy? The way to be holy is to call on the name of the Lord Jesus. By calling on His name all the sinful, evil, and unclean things will be breathed out, and all the positive things—the riches of the Lord—will be breathed into you. (Life-study of Genesis, msg. 25)
There is one matter that is very important, yet it is not clear to many Christians. It concerns two things: the name of the Lord and the Spirit of the Lord. The name of the Lord is Jesus, and the Spirit of the Lord is the Lord Himself, the person of the Lord. Everyone has a name, and every name denotes a person, who is the person himself. If there were no such person but only a name, then that name would equal nothing. Jesus is the name of the Lord, and the Spirit is the person of the Lord. When I call the Lord’s name, the Spirit comes. Brothers and sisters, do you think that the Lord Jesus is merely an empty name? The Lord Jesus is real; therefore, when you call, He comes, and the One who comes is the Spirit. Do not think that calling upon the name of the Lord is a small matter; you cannot call upon the name of the Lord Jesus without any result. When you call, “O Lord Jesus!” He comes. (CWWL, 1972, vol. 1, “The Lord’s Recovery of Eating”, msg. 3)
We can often use physical things as illustrations of spiritual matters. To enjoy the Lord in our spirit is like breathing the air physically. Just as our body takes in fresh air by breathing, so also our spirit inhales the Lord when we call on His name. I believe that all of us have had this experience. Whenever we truly open to the Lord and call on His name, we have the sense of the Lord’s presence within us. The more we call, the more we receive the supply of the Lord; the more we call, the more we are watered by Him; the more we call, the more we are filled with Him. The Lord is the Lord of all! When the Lord comes into us, whatever we need, He is. He is all that we need, and He supplies all our needs. (CWWL, 1972, vol. 1, “The Lord’s Recovery of Eating”, msg. 4)