For us to take, receive, and keep the word of God, we must be absolutely one with God; it must be our habit that we take God as our source, and receive His word by being one with Him, so that we may be even as His mouth, bringing out the precious from the worthless.
The book of Jeremiah shows us the principle of being one with God; God made us in His image and according to His likeness, He regenerated us with the divine life, and now we can be one with Him not merely outwardly but in life, intrinsically.
Our being one with the Lord and our receiving His word needs to go together; on one hand we need to have the intention, the exercise, something more than a willingness, a desire to be one with God in an absolute way, and then when His word comes, we will be one with Him and amen His word.
When the Lord’s word comes to us and we are one with Him, whether we receive the word through our reading of the Bible, listening to one of the brothers speaking the word of God, or through some fellowship with some members of the Body who have the Lord’s anointing, we will say Amen to God’s word.
To receive the Lord’s word for our benefit, leading, and supply, we need to have a mind, a heart, a desire, and an exercise to be one with the Lord.
If we’re not one with the Lord and yet we read His word, we may receive some knowledge and doctrines from the word, and we may be touched about this or about that, but the word cannot really operate in our being to make us one with God.
May our heart be open to the Lord and may our spirit be exercised whenever we come to the word of God, desiring to be one with the Lord, so that we may receive the Lord’s word! Amen!
We see an example of this in the book of Jeremiah, where the prophet was fully one with the Lord’s word, he had a heart to seek after God, he listened to the Lord’s word, and he obeyed what the Lord told him, for he was one with God.
On the other hand, the people of Israel and even the other prophets and priests and kings, they were not one with God, so they did not receive the word of God, they denied God’s word, and they had no desire to even listen to God’s word.
Some of the people of Israel did good things, they even cared for Jeremiah the prophet, but their attitude was not to care for the Lord and His word, and they had no desire to be one with God.
When we about to come to the word of God, when we’re about to listen to a message, or when we receive some speaking, we need to have the attitude that we are one with God, so that His desire, His will, and His heart and intention would be revealed to us, infused into us, and even become ours.
When we have this kind of exercise, the word we hear and receive will benefit us, for it will become operative within us.
For us to Take, Receive, and Keep the Word of God, we must Absolutely be One with God
In Jer. 40 we see Gedaliah, one who was faithful in caring for Jeremiah the prophet, but he was not one with God; Gedaliah did care for God’s prophet but he didn’t seek the Lord’s word because it was not his habit (Jer. 40:5-6, 13-14).
We need to have a habit of seeking the Lord’s word and being one with God; for us to take, receive, and keep the word of God, we must be absolutely one with God.
A true seeker of God’s word is not someone who wants to merely find our more information or doctrine from the Bible, or to get some teaching; rather, he has the desire to know God, to be one with God, and even to live out God and to practice God’s hearts’ desire.
When we have such a seeking, the word benefits us. Some people, however, receive no benefit from the word of God, and there’s no inner operation or guidance from the word they read or listen to, because there’s something wrong with them – there’s no readiness to be one with God.
This person, Gedaliah, didn’t take God as his source to be one with Him and to receive whatever issued from Him; if he had been a person who was one with God, the first thing he would have done have been to receive the word of God.
He just didn’t care to be one with God, so he rejected the Word of God, having no heart for the word of God; even when the word of God came, he was determined not to do what God said because he was ready to do something in himself and by himself. Oh Lord Jesus!
This really shows us that for us to take, to receive, and to keep the word of God as the expression of His thought, His will, His heart’s desire, and His good pleasure, we must be absolutely one with God.
For us to take, receive, and keep the word of God, we must be absolutely one with God, trusting in Him, relying on Him, and not having any opinion that comes from the self (see 2 Cor. 1:8-9, 12).
This is a fundamental lesson for us believers in Christ; when we open the Bible and come to pray the Word, we must always have a heart to be one with the Lord and receive His word.
Such an attitude will affect our reception and the degree of assimilation of God in the word, and it will affect the way that the word will operate in us.
Many of those who were of the poorer people that the Babylonians allowed to stay in the land, and the people proposed that they go to Egypt, so they enquired of the Lord through Jeremiah.
It was not God’s mind to go to Egypt but to stay in the land, and He promised to care for them; but they already decided to go to Egypt – they only wanted to “check with the prophet”, for they were hoping that Jeremiah will give them a sugar-coated word according to their intention.
Similarly, many Christians read the Bible to find something there that matches their concept, something that matches their opinion and agrees with their thought; this doesn’t work – this is hypocrisy!
Eventually, Jeremiah told them to stay and not go, but they called him a liar, rejected his word, and went to Egypt; then they suffered the punishment from Jehovah.
We need to be the kind of person that is absolutely one with the Lord in coming to His word, trusting in His faithfulness, grace, and word; we need to rely on Him, reject our own opinions and intentions and desires, and receive and keep His word.
The principle of the Bible – especially in the New Testament – is that God opens Himself to us so that we may enter into Him, receive Him, and become one with Him; then He will be in us, and we will be in Him, taking Him as everything (John 15:4-5; 1 John 2:28; 3:24).
The first thing we will take is His word to express His thought, His will, His heart’s desire, and His good pleasure; we will not care for our opinions and preferences!
In this way, we become His mouthpiece to speak Him forth to others for their supply (see Jer. 1:6-9).
Receiving the word of God is a not simple matter, for it depends on the person, on how someone is within, on his motive…
The first thing is to take the word of God not for ourselves, for us to find something to agree with or to match our opinions; rather, we need to know God’s thought, His will, His desire, and His pleasure, and we put ourselves aside, we empty ourselves, and we unload ourselves of our opinions and preferences.
Then we will not only have God’s word but also become His mouthpiece to speak the life supply to others also.
Lord Jesus, we want to be absolutely one with You as we come to Your word. We put ourselves aside and we come to You to take, receive, and keep the word of God as the expression of His thought, His will, His heart’s desire, and His good pleasure. Oh Lord, we really want to be absolutely one with You, trusting in You, relying on You, and not having any opinion which comes from the self! Thank You for opening Yourself up to us in Your word so that we may enter into You, receive You, and become one with You, so that You may be in us and we may be in You, taking You as everything! Amen, Lord, we want to be absolutely one with the Lord when we come to the word of God so that we may become Your mouthpiece to speak You forth to others for their supply!
Seeing the Excellency and Surpassing Worth of Christ, Treasuring His Word, and Speaking Him Forth as the Preciousness
In Jer. 15:19 the Lord told Jeremiah, If you bring out the precious from the worthless, you will be as My mouth (see Jer. 23:29, cf. v. 16).
Our concept of value needs to change; we should no longer cherish what we once cherished, and we should no longer treasure what we once treasured, for now we have seen Christ and we realize His excellency, His surpassing worth.
The Lord told us in Matt. 10:37-38 that whoever loves father or mother above Him is not worthy of Him, and whoever loves son of daughter above Him is not worthy of Him; furthermore, whoever doesn’t take his cross and follow after Him is not worthy of Him.
Our father, our mother, our wife, and our children are the most precious things to us; they are the most important things in our life.
When these are not compared with the Lord, there’s nothing wrong with loving them; however, when a situation arises when we have to choose between the two, which one will we choose?
Will we choose to follow the Lord, or will we put the Lord aside so that we may keep and please our relatives and family?
Paul had a change in his concept of value; he used to treasure certain things and value them before he was saved, but when he saw the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, the things that were gains to him, these he counted loss on the account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.
He reckoned the Christ whom God has anointed as Lord, as King, and as the most excellent One; for His sake, he suffered the loss of all things and counted them as refuse.
We all need to have such a change in valuation, so that we may treasure Christ above all, considering Him as the most precious One.
When we see Christ, when we are absolutely one with the Lord in coming to the word of God, we will enjoy His supreme worth and utmost preciousness, and nothing compares to Him!
If we cannot tell the proper value of things, God will reject us and cast us aside, but if we bring out the precious from the worthless, we will be as God’s mouth.
We need to have the eyes of our heart enlightened to see the excellency, the super-eminence, the surpassing worth, of Christ as the preciousness to us, His believers, in order for us to count all things other than Christ as loss (Phil. 3:7-8; 1 Pet. 2:7, cf. vv. 4, 6).
We must treasure the Lord’s words more than our apportioned food, tasting the Lord as the reality of the good land flowing with nourishing milk and fresh honey for us to dispense to God’s people for their full salvation (Job 23:12; 1 Pet. 2:2-5; Psa. 119:103; Deut. 8:8; S. S. 4:11a). Amen!
May we treasure the Lord’s words more than all the earthly riches so that we can speak oracles of God to dispense Christ into others!
When we are absolutely one with the Lord in reading the word of God, we will treasure His words more than anything else, and we will speak God’s speaking, His utterance, conveying divine revelation, to dispense the unsearchable riches of Christ as the varied grace of God to all the saints (Psa. 119:72, 9-16; Eph. 3:8; 2 Cor. 6:10; 1 Pet. 4:10-11). Amen!
May we be those who utter and speak the oracles of God, something to be treasured, something that is precious, rather than speaking something that is worthless. It all depends on our being, on our exercise. And we can cooperate with the Lord by telling Him,
Lord, enlighten the eyes of our heart to see the excellency of Christ as the preciousness to His believers so that we may gain Christ, counting all things other than Christ as loss! Amen, Lord, may we see the super-eminence, the surpassing worth of Christ, so that we may be absolutely one with the Lord in reading the word of God. Oh Lord, we treasure Your words; we taste You in Your word as the reality of the good land flowing with nourishing milk and fresh honey! Fill us with Yourself in the word so that we may speak the oracles of God to dispense the unsearchable riches of Christ as the varied grace of God to all the saints!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 60, ch. 45, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization Study of Jeremiah and Lamentations, week 6, The Principle of Being One with God as Revealed in the Book of Jeremiah.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Dear Beloved, we admire Thee, / Who can tell Thy preciousness; / All Thy love we deeply treasure / And Thine untold loveliness. (Hymns #170)
– Thou, Lord, to God art precious, / His chosen, His delight; / With oil of joy, anointed, / How comely in His sight. / We treasure with affection / Thy perfect comeliness, / Thy sweetness and Thy fragrance, / And all Thy loveliness. (Hymns #169)
– We limit not the truth of God / To our poor reach of mind, / By notions of our day and sect, / Crude, partial and confined. / Now let a new and better hope / Within our hearts be stirred: / The Lord hath yet more light and truth / To break forth from His Word. (Hymns #817)
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