Col. 3:16a Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.
The Word of God Being the Spirit as the Application
of the Dispensing Triune God
In His essence, God is Spirit (John 4:24). In His economy, that is, in the dispensing of Himself into His chosen people, God is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. In the redemption accomplished through His death and resurrection, the last Adam, Christ, who is the incarnated God, became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor.15:45b). In His being applied to us, the words that Jesus speaks are spirit and are life (John 6:63).
Ephesians 6:17 says, “Receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God.” According to the grammar of the Greek text, the relative pronoun which refers not to sword but to Spirit. This proves that the Spirit is the word, just as the word as the breath of God is the Spirit. When we come to the Bible, we come not only to the printed words but also to the Spirit. We need to pray, “O Lord, as I am coming to contact Your word, I am coming to the Spirit, because Your word is the Spirit, and the Spirit is Your word.” We should never forget John 6:63, 2 Timothy 3:16a, and Ephesians 6:17.
Our teaching concerning pray-reading is based on Ephesians 6:18, which tells us to receive the word of God as the Spirit “by means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit.” There is a difference between pray-reading the Word and reading it in the way of studying. If we read John 3:6 in the way of studying, we will focus on understanding what the flesh is, what it means to be born of the flesh, and what it means to be born of the Spirit. To find the answers, we may check the cross references, a concordance, and a good exposition of the Gospel of John. Reading the Bible in the way of studying may eventually exhaust our patience. (CWWL, 1970, vol. 2, “Experiencing the Divine Spirit in our Human Spirit for the Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ,” ch. 10)
The Simplest Way to Enjoy the Word Being to Pray-read the Word
Once the brothers and sisters start to pray-read, they do not want to give it up. They acquire a taste for it, and they receive much benefit from the Word as they pray it back to the Lord. When they pray-read, the Word becomes rich, living, satisfying, watering, and enlightening. When we pray-read the Word, we enjoy the Lord through the Word. Thus, one of the best ways to enjoy the Lord is to enjoy the Word, and the simplest way to enjoy the Word is to pray-read the Word. We all need to have a turn in the way that we handle the Word. Ephesians 6:17-18 says, “Receive…the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God, by means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit.” We need to receive the word of God by means of all kinds of prayer—long prayers, short prayers, individual prayer, and corporate prayer. (CWWL, 1969, vol. 2, “Practicing the Church Life by Exercising the Spirit,” ch. 8)
Pray-reading the Word Involving the Exercise of the Spirit
Pray-reading the Word, however, involves the exercise of the spirit. As we take the word by means of all prayer, we can call on the name of the Lord and say Amen to the word. In fact, the more we call on the Lord, the better our pray-reading is. After exercising in this way for a few minutes, we will be on fire. The Bible is not merely a book of knowledge. It is the breath of the Divine Being. We praise the Lord that He has shown us the wonderful way to receive the word by pray-reading. A sister may pray-read this verse in the morning. Then later, when she is tempted by her colleagues to go to the theater, the Lord will rise up within her and say, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other animal of the field.” In this way the living word that she pray-read is applied to her. To pray-read is the proper way to contact the living word of God.
The Digested Word of God
Killing the Negative Elements within Us
After pray-reading, there is the need to digest and assimilate the word that we have eaten. A proper digesting and assimilating of our food causes the germs within us to be killed. We live in a world that is full of germs. We need these germs to be dealt with not by medicine but by the killing element in the food that we digest. The word as the Spirit is the sword to kill the enemy within us. This requires that after pray-reading the Word, we have a proper digestion. Indigestion is caused by some kind of blockage within us; a proper digestion allows the food we take in to pass freely into and through our inward parts. We need to give the word that we pray-read a complete thoroughfare, a free way, in our being. Then we will have the best digestion.
Giving the Word a Free Way in Us
When we properly digest and assimilate the word of God, it also enlightens us. It is possible to receive knowledge by reading the Bible, but genuine enlightenment comes from assimilating what we have received by pray-reading. The digested word of God kills, nourishes, discharges, equips, fulfills God’s purpose, and enlightens. All these matters are worked out not by merely reading the Word but by pray-reading it and digesting it by giving it a free way in us. The word of God that we digest has the functions of killing the negative things, nourishing us with the divine riches, discharging the negative and old things, equipping us, fulfilling the Lord’s purpose, and enlightening us. It is not sufficient only to read and understand the Word. Instead, we need to pray-read the Word by breathing in what God has breathed out. Then by the Lord’s mercy, we must be willing to give Him the free way within us to pass through all our inner being. This will cause us to experience all the different functions of the word. (CWWL, 1970, vol. 2, “Experiencing the Divine Spirit in our Human Spirit for the Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ,” ch. 10)
