John 6:63 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 Father, the Son, the Spirit, and the Word Being life
Life is the center of the Bible. The Father, the Son, the Spirit, and the Word are life. The best relationship we can have with God is a relationship of life. We need God’s life, and this is God’s intention.
How to Take God into Us as Life
God the Father is in the Son, the Son is the Spirit, and the Spirit is within us. We received the Spirit of life into us when we repented to the Lord, believed into Him, and called upon His name. The Holy Spirit within you is absolutely one with the Holy Bible outside of you. What you need is to mingle the Holy Spirit within with the Holy Bible without. You need to open up your mouth and say from deep within, “O Lord Jesus.” Here is the principle of how to mingle the Spirit with the Bible, making the Holy Bible one with the Holy Spirit. Eventually, in our experience the Word becomes the Spirit, and the Spirit is the word of God (Eph. 6:17).
Mingling Our Reading of the Word with Prayer
This is why we need pray-reading. Pray-reading is the best way of calling. To pray is to utter something from the Spirit within. To read is to repeat what is written in the Holy Bible. We need praying and reading mingled together as one, that is, pray-reading. This is the best way to mingle the Holy Spirit with the Holy Bible into one, and this is the best way to make the Holy Bible one with the Holy Spirit. (The Fulfillment of God’s Purpose by the Growth of Christ in Us, ch. 1)
We may first spontaneously offer a short prayer to the Lord. Then we can open the Bible and read, and while we are reading, we can spontaneously respond to the Lord with what we read. We should not read too many verses or a long passage before we pray. Rather, as soon as we understand something from our reading, we should respond to the Lord with a short, spontaneous prayer. Then we can continue to read and pray some more. In this way our reading is mingled with prayer. We should not merely read or pray. We must mingle the two into one.
Allowing the Lord to Speak to Us in Our Reading and Prayer
We need to read the word and then allow the Lord to speak to us through the word. After listening to the word from the Lord, we can speak back to him. This is a dialogue, not a soliloquy. We must go into the presence of the Lord in the spirit and be prepared to hear something from Him. Therefore, before we open the Bible, we do not need to pray too much. We may simply say a few words, such as: “I thank you, Lord, for this precious time that I may come to you. Lord, cleanse me now with your precious blood, and grant me the anointing. I am now reading and listening to Your word.” Then we can open the word, read it, and allow the Lord to speak to us through the written word. In this way the written word becomes the living word.
Caring More for Our Nourishment than for Our Understanding
There is no need to go to a Bible dictionary, concordance, or exposition in our time with the Lord. Every morning, if possible, we need to spend at least thirty minutes in the presence of the Lord by mingling our reading with prayer. There is no need to try to understand what we read. If we take the word of God in this way, it will be the tree of life to us, nourishing us and feeding us with something of Christ. If we will receive this fellowship and turn to the Lord, taking his word by reading and prayer, all our problems and differing opinions will be terminated. Instead of having problems, we will be full of spiritual nourishment, life, and Christ in our spirit. Endeavor to practice in this way. (CWWL, 1966, vol. 2, “The Way to Enjoy Christ as the Word and the Spirit”, ch. 3)
How to Pray-read
Praying with the Same Words You Read
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. If you will practice this you will receive something so nourishing and strengthening within which will empower you and give you life all the time.
Pray-reading with Others
For more enjoyment and nourishment and to pray-read the Word properly and adequately, we need the Body, the church. We may enjoy pray-reading the Word privately, but if we try it with a group of other Christians, we will be in the third heavens! The explanation of this is that food is for the whole Body, not merely for one member alone. Therefore, the best way to pray-read is with other members of the Body. You will profit by pray-reading alone, but you will see the difference when you come together with other brothers and sisters.
Four Words for Pray-reading
When we come together to pray-read with other brothers and sisters, there are four words we must remember: quick, short, real, and fresh. First we need to pray quickly, without hesitating. When we are quick to pray, we have no time to use our mind and to consider. Then our prayers must be short, because long prayers need some composition. We must forget about composing a long prayer and just utter a phrase or a sentence. Do it in a quick and short way. And we also need to be real, not pretending. Say something in a real way. Finally, our prayers must be fresh, not old. The best way to be fresh is not to pray with our own words, but with the words of the Bible. Every part and every line of this book can be used as a prayer, and it will be the freshest prayer!
By contacting the Word in this way to enjoy Christ and be nourished by Him, you will be a person growing to maturity, full of life and saturated with this living One. (Pray-Reading the Word)
