1 John 2:27 And as for you, the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone teach you; but as His anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true and is not a lie, and even as it has taught you, abide in Him.
Christ Being both the Spirit and the Word That We May Enjoy Him
According to the revelation of the Bible, God’s pleasure is Christ. Christ is the One in whom God the Father has found His delight (Matt. 17:4-5). Furthermore, through His death and resurrection. Christ became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Thus, 2 Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord [that is, Christ] is the Spirit.” Christ is the Spirit, the Spirit is the word, and the word is Christ (Rom. 10:6-8). Thus, the three—Christ, the Spirit, and the word—are three-in-one. Christ is the Spirit and the word for us to enjoy.
We have the Spirit within, and we have the word without. The Spirit within is for us to breathe, and the word without is for us to understand. We should not say that we cannot understand the things of the Lord. We can understand, because we have the word. This is both marvelous and mysterious. Christ is the Spirit as well as the word so that we may enjoy Him.
Enjoying the Lord by Pray-reading the Word
In order to enjoy anything, we need the proper organ. To enjoy music, we need ears; to enjoy a certain odor, we need a nose; to enjoy sightseeing, we need eyes; and to enjoy food, we need a mouth. The organ by which we can enjoy Christ is our spirit. If we would enjoy Christ, we need to use our spirit to contact Him as both the Spirit and the word. The best way to do this is to pray-read. We need to exercise our spirit to pray, that is, to contact the Spirit, and we also need to exercise our spirit to read, that is, to contact the word. When we put praying and reading together, we have pray-reading.
The Working of the Word in Us through Pray-reading
I would again illustrate by using Genesis 3:1. In the morning you may pray-read, “O Lord, the serpent; O Lord, the serpent was more crafty, Amen.” You may not understand what you read; nevertheless, by receiving the word, you will be nourished. Please be assured that at some time in the future, this verse will work in you. After pray-reading Genesis 3:1, on a number of occasions I condemned myself. I realized that I was a little serpent. This is the working of the word in a living way. If you pray-read the word of God a number of times daily, the word as the spiritual food containing Christ as the element will enter into you. Sooner or later this word will work out something in you.
I can assure you that the more you pray-read, eventually the more there will be something working in you. The more we pray-read, the more we will be nourished, and the more nourishment we receive, the more inner working we will experience. This inner working first liberates us and ultimately transforms us.
The Working of the Word Regulating Us
through the Law of Life
Between the liberating and the transforming, there are many items. First, there is a constant inner regulating, an inner law that regulates us continually. In one sense, the more we pray-read, the more we are liberated, but in another sense, the more we pray-read, the more we are regulated. Let me illustrate in this way. Suppose a sister makes a decision to buy a certain item for the celebration of a holiday. Suppose one morning she pray-reads the word. The more she pray-reads, the more she will be regulated. Eventually, she will drop her decision to buy the item. When the inner nourishment liberates us, it also regulates us. The inner liberation is always accompanied by the inner regulation of the law of life. The law of life is nothing less than Christ as the regulating power within us.
The Working of the Word Leading Us through the Anointing
In addition to the law of life, we have the anointing (1 John 2:20, 27). The law of life is different from the anointing. The law of life replaces the law of letters given by Moses. The inner anointing replaces the prophets. In the Old Testament time the children of Israel had the law and the prophets, but today we have the inner regulating with the inner anointing. We do not need the law, nor do we need the prophets, because we have the inner regulating and the inner anointing. The inner anointing also is Christ working within us.
Taking Care of the Inner Regulation and the Inner Anointing
We all need to learn how to take care of the inner regulating and the inner anointing. The more we take care of these two things, the more we will digest the nourishment we receive through pray-reading. The more of the Lord’s word we eat, the more we need a proper digestion. The more we take care of the inner regulating and the inner anointing, the more we will be hungry for the Lord. The more we walk according to the inner regulating and the anointing, the more we will digest the nourishment we receive through pray-reading. It is by pray-reading with the adequate spiritual digestion that we will eventually be transformed into the image of the Lord from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18). We all need to take care of our spiritual digestion by cooperating with the inner regulating and the inner anointing.
Being Transformed into His Image from Glory to Glory
When we take care of His inner regulating and inner anointing, we are in the spirit. As a result, we have a healthy appetite and thirst for the Lord, and we enjoy the taste of the Lord again and again. It is in this way that we are liberated, regulated, anointed, and eventually transformed into the Lord’s image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.
We need to be impressed that the way to enjoy the Lord is to pray-read. The more we pray-read, the more we will be nourished, and the more we will experience the inner regulating and the inner anointing. As we take care of these two things, we will be in the spirit in a genuine way, and we will be transformed into His image from glory to glory. (CWWL, 1967, vol. 2, “Enjoying the Riches of Christ to Become the Body as His Fullness”, ch. 2)
