The Bible is the Word of God, and through the function of the word of God we as God’s loving seekers receive God’s blessing. The Bible as the Word of God has a positive function toward us if we come to it with a right attitude and a proper heart.
In the days of the Lord Jesus, the Jews still kept the law and read the Scriptures, but they did not come to the Lord to receive eternal life (John 6:39-40); we need to not only read the Bible but also have a proper heart in coming to the Lord, the One who is revealed in His word.
A great principle that we see in the Bible is that light and life go together: when God created the earth and all things in it, He did so through His word; when He spoke, light came in, and life came into being. The higher and the stronger the light, the higher form of life was produced.
In our Christian life, the more light we receive from the Lord through His living word, the more the divine life in us grows and develops. The opening of God’s word gives light, imparting understanding to us; the more we allow the Lord’s Spirit to shine together with our spirit (both the Spirit and our spirit are lamps shining), the more the light increases and the life grows in us.
Today we want to see more concerning the blessing of the divine light becoming the divine light in us, and how we as loving seekers of God can receive the divine life, grow in life, and arrive to maturity in life by being in God’s light and allowing Him to shine in us as we walk in the light and do everything in the light.
May we learn to have a proper attitude and a pure heart when we come to the Word of God, being God’s loving seekers and desiring to know God, touch God, enjoy God, be enlightened by God, and be infused with God rather than just having knowledge or understanding doctrines concerning the spiritual things.
The Divine Light Removes the Darkness and Makes the Divine Things Real to us
God is light, and in Him there’s no darkness at all; when we received the Lord Jesus, He came into us as light, and all darkness in us was scattered (1 John 1:5). Christ as light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot and will not overcome His light (John 1:5).
Praise the Lord, we have been delivered out of the satanic darkness and have been transferred into God’s kingdom of light and love (Acts 26:18; 1 Pet. 2:9). Christ came into us to be our life, and He as life shines in us constantly, removing any darkness in our being as we open to Him; praise the Lord, darkness cannot overcome Christ as light!
If we allow the Lord to shine and penetrate in our inner being as light, we follow Him as light and we by no means walk in darkness of sin (John 8:12; 1 John 1:7-10). The divine light is actually the divine life of the Son of God coming into us and operating in us; this light shines in the darkness within us, and the darkness cannot overcome it.
As we go to school, study, work, travel, play sports, and do this or that, we many times are in darkness – even without knowing it; but when we come to the light and allow the Lord to shine in us through His living word, darkness is scattered and we can see God as we walk in the light!
When we walk in the light, all the divine things are made real to us, and we see one reality after another; however, when we are in darkness, nothing is real to us (1 John 1:7; 2:8).
This is our experience: when we enjoy the Lord in His word and have Him shining on us, we can see clearly all the divine truths; we see and enjoy God’s love, holiness, grace, joy, peace, and all the divine realities. But when we are in darkness and do not come to the light, nothing is real to us; we may try to read the Bible, but what we get is knowledge and doctrines.
When we are in darkness, everything is empty and vain, but when we are in the light, we are filled with meaning, purpose, and all the divine things. Day by day, beginning in the morning, we need to practice contacting the Lord to come into His light and enjoy all the divine realities being made real and enjoyable to us.
We need to practice to open to the Lord as light and be full of Him as life to be the loving seekers of the Lord who genuinely experience and enjoy Him so that we may become the same as He is in life and nature for His enlargement on this earth.
The more He shines on us and in us, the more we will be children of light, people of light, sons of light, a people of light becoming the city of light, God’s corporate expression in this universe to express Him.
Lord Jesus, thank You for coming into us as life to shine in us and remove any darkness. Lord, keep us coming to You and spending time with You in Your word so that any darkness in our being would be removed. Praise the Lord, God as light shines in the darkness, and darkness cannot overcome the light! Lord, in Your light we see all the divine things. Keep us in Your light so that we may see and enjoy what You are to us in the spiritual realm. Save us from living in the darkness a vain and meaningless life.
Allowing God’s Light to go Deeper in us to Bring in Life and cause Life to Grow
Psa. 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible and it is full of the psalmist’s love and appreciation for the word of God. Again and again the psalmist said, Enliven me according to Your word (Psa. 119:25, 50, 107, 154). On the one hand, the word of God is light; on the other hand, the word of God brings in life.
Any time we come to the word of God we need to come to Christ, and we will be not only enlightened by Him but also enlivened in, through, and according to His word. As loving seekers of God we come to His word and He shines on us; when God’s light comes, His life also comes.
The divine light we receive from the word of God needs to become life by our praying over God’s word. Although it is good to have light, the light must penetrate and go deeper until it becomes life. When the light goes deeper, reaching into our spirit, it becomes life, and we receive the life supply.
We need to cooperate with God’s light: as He shines on us through His word, enlightening our soul, we should exercise to pray over God’s word so that His light would go deeper in us and reach our spirit to become life.
It is possible to be momentarily enlightened by the Lord through His word yet without having an increase of life in our spirit. We need to go deeper and allow the divine light to penetrate our being through our pray-reading of the Word of God so that the divine life would be added to us and grow in us. The more light penetrates, the more life grows.
When the Word of God as light becomes life in us, we will go forth and leap about like well-fed calves (Mal. 4:2); maybe not outwardly but inwardly we will leap about like well-fed calves. Our outward circumstances may change, we may experience suffering and troubles, but when we as God’s loving seekers experience Him as the blessing of light becoming life, we will be inwardly leaping for joy.
As sons of light (John 12:36), we should live in the light, walk in the light, remain in the light, and be persons altogether in the divine light (1 John 1:5, 7, 2:8). Just as the physical light is the key to the physical life, so in the divine realm we need to be in the light constantly so that the divine life in us may grow in a normal way.
When we are in the divine light, we are in fellowship with our Triune God, and we participate in what He is and enjoy Him. Hallelujah, we are not only sons of God (Gal. 3:26) but also sons of light (John 12:36), those who live in the light, remain in the light, walk in the light, and are persons altogether in the light!
As we live in the light, we should cooperate with the divine light by praying God’s word into us so that the divine light would penetrate our being and generate and increase the divine life in our spirit.
Lord Jesus, may Your light go deeper in us and penetrate our being until it reaches our spirit so that the divine life would grow in us. We want to cooperate with the divine light as it shines on us through the word of God. Lord, go deeper in us. We want to pray-read Your word until the life-essence of Your word is infused into our being and Your life grows in us. Lord Jesus, keep us walking in the light and living in the light so that we may be sons of light expressing You! Lord, make us persons altogether in the light!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, brother Dick Taylor’s sharing in the message for this week, and Life-study of Exodus, pp. 698-699 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on,Crystallization-Study of Exodus (2), week 4 / msg 4, The Blessing Received by God’s loving Seekers through the function of the Word of God.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# Take time to receive Him—the blessing’s outpoured, / And we may obtain it by reading His Word; / We bask in the splendour of His healing light, / And light becomes life, as in Him we delight. (Song on Light becoming Life)
# Each day let Thy supporting might / My weakness still embrace; / My darkness vanish in Thy light, / Thy life my death efface. / In Thy bright beams which on me fall, / Fade every evil thought; / That I am nothing, Thou art all, / I would be daily taught. (Hymns #395)
# Walk in the light, thy path shall be / Serene and clear and bright; / For God, by grace, shall dwell in thee, / And God Himself is Light. (Hymns #658)
About aGodMan
When the divine light shines, we see all the different truths, and these truths are realities. But when we do not have the divine light but are rather in darkness, we have the sense that everything is vanity and emptiness. I would ask you to consider your experience. When you are in the divine light, you can see the truth, the reality. For example, when you are in the light, God is a reality to you, and the divine life is also a reality. Furthermore, God’s holiness, love, and grace are all realities to you. When we walk in the light, we see one reality after another. However, when we are in darkness, nothing is real to us. On the contrary, everything is empty, vain. When we are in darkness, we do not have any reality because we do not see anything. Instead of the sense of reality, we have the sense of emptiness and vanity. (Witness Lee, Life-study of 1 John, p. 62)