On God’s side, the Bible is God’s breathing; on our side, the Bible is for us to receive the breath of God as our profit in teaching, conviction, correction, and instruction in righteousness; the Bible is profitable for teaching, conviction, correction, and instruction in righteousness, so that we may be men of God fully equipped for every good work. Amen!
The majority of believers in Christ today read the Bible to get more inspiration or enlightenment, or they may want to get God’s leading as they read the Bible.
But according to 2 Tim. 3:16, the Bible is God-breathed. This is amazing.
God breathed Himself out in His word, and we can breathe Him in by our reading of the Bible.
However, if we read the Bible as a textbook or a newsletter, we may not get much breath from God.
If we exercise our spirit to read the Bible, we will get Spirit and life.
God created us with a spirit; our spirit was formed when God breathed into us the breath of life and man became a living soul.
We have something in us that corresponds to God: our human spirit.
Through man’s fall, however, man’s spirit was deadened, rendered useless, for man neglected his spirit and paid much attention to his soul and his flesh.
But praise the Lord, through being regenerated, the divine life of God came into our spirit, and our human spirit which used to be dead, now is vivified and made alive.
Through being born again not only did God’s life come into us but even more, our spirit became alive, even became living, for God as the Spirit is joined to us as one spirit!
Now we have something called, an inner man, the spirit indwelt by the divine Spirit; into this inner man we need to be strengthened day by day and we need to be nourished with the healthy word of God.
The Bible is our food. The Bible is our drink.
The breathed-out word of God needs to be breathed into us to enliven us, supply us, and cause us to live one with the Lord.
We need to come to God’s word in a proper way and with a proper attitude.
We cannot just read the Bible to understand it nor should we just read it according to a schedule to get through it.
Day by day we need to come to the Lord in His word by exercising our spirit to contact the Lord.
When we read the Bible, we also need to pray and call on the name of the Lord to contact the Person who not only wrote the Bible but who is also embodied in the Word.
God breathed Himself out in His word, and we breathe Him in by exercising our heart to love Him and our spirit to receive Him in and through the Word. Amen!
The Bible is Profitable for Teaching, Conviction, Correction, Instruction in Righteousness
2 Tim. 3:16 reveals in the first part that all Scripture is God-breathed; this is very important to realize before coming to the word of God, for we don’t come to God’s word as to a textbook or a book of doctrines but rather, we come to breathe God in! Amen!
As we breathe in God by coming to His word, the Bible is profitable to us. All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
There are four definite matters listed by Paul here that give us the benefit or profit of the word of God as the breath of God to us.
On God’s side, the Bible is the breathing out of God. On our side, the Bible is for us to receive God’s breath as our profit in four matters: teaching, conviction, correction, and instruction in righteousness. Amen!
The Bible is Profitable for Teaching: Rolling Away the Veils to See God and His Economy
The first thing that the Bible is profitable for us teaching. Teaching is not “the Nicene creed” or any doctrine in the Bible.
Rather, when the apostle Paul speaks of teaching, he speaks of revelation; teaching equals revelation.
Teaching equals revelation; to teach is to roll away the veil so that others may see something of the Triune God and His economy (Eph. 1:17; 3:9).
To teach is to roll away the veils, to bring others into seeing a revelation of the Triune God and His economy.
When we come to the word of God with the exercise of our spirit, we experience having the veils rolled away, and we can see clearly something of God and His economy.
We need to daily come to the Lord in His word and ask Him to remove the veils so that we can see more of Him.
This is the real teaching: it is a revelation.
Once we receive a revelation, we will have something of the divine reality being televised into our being.
Then, when we speak to others, we impart not just doctrines to them but something of the divine light that shined into us.
We will be like Paul, enlightening others that they may see what the economy of the mystery is.
The Bible is profitable for unveiling, and rolling away the veil.
First, we need to be unveiled; then, we need to cooperate with the Lord to roll others’ veils for them to see something of God and His economy.
Our teaching should not merely be our speaking of sound doctrine but our rolling away the veils for others to see God.
Lord Jesus, shine on us through Your word. Roll away any veils so that we can see more of God and His economy. Amen, Lord Jesus, we want to be under Your shining today. Shine on us and shine in us through Your word. May we be unveiled to see the Triune God and His economy. Amen, Lord, may we see! Enlighten the eyes of our heart so we may see. Remove any veils from our eyes so that we can behold You and reflect You. Amen, Lord, we want to speak what we see, exercising our spirit to impart something of God’s word in the way of life and unveiling to those around us!
The Bible is Profitable for Conviction: We’re Convicted and Reproved, we Abhor and Deny Ourselves
![I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, / But now my eye has seen You; Therefore I abhor [myself,] and I repent / In dust and ashes. Job 42:5-6](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/I-had-heard-of-You-by-the-hearing-of-the-ear-But-now-my-eye-has-seen-You-Therefore-I-abhor-myself-and-I-repent-In-dust-and-ashes-1024x1024.jpg?resize=750%2C750&ssl=1 "I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, / But now my eye has seen You; Therefore I abhor [myself,] and I repent / In dust and ashes. Job 42:5-6")
When we come to the word of God by means of all prayer and petition through the exercise of our spirit, all Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for teaching and conviction.
When we see a revelation of God and His economy, we do not only see who He is but even more, we see who we are and what we are.
Conviction comes from the revelation we have seen.
Whenever we see something of God, we realize our mistakes, wrongdoings, shortcomings, and sins, and the result is that we are convicted and reproved (see Isa. 6:1-8; Job 42:5-6; Matt. 16:24).
When Isaiah saw the Lord, he realized he’s a man of unclean lips living among a people with unclean lips and heart.
Job saw God and, even though he thought he was righteous and did nothing wrong, he was convicted, he abhorred himself and he repented in dust and ashes before the Lord.
When Peter met the Lord and was exposed of what he is, he also realized he was a sinner.
We all can testify that, when we come to the Lord’s word and receive His shining, when He reveals what He is to us, we love Him but we abhor ourselves.
We simply deny ourselves.
Many times we’re either in our time with the Lord or in the meetings with the saints and the Lord convicts us of our failures, our mistakes, and our shortcomings.
On one hand, we see a vision of God and His eternal purpose.
On the other hand, we see who we are and we repent before the Lord.
The more we go on with the Lord and the more we read the Bible, the more the Lord shines on us and exposes us, convicting us of our sins and shortcomings.
We realize that our intentions are not right, our disposition is not proper, our character is not upright, and our motives are impure.
If we read the Bible but there’s not much convicting, we need to come to the Lord and pray to open to Him.
Conviction is reproof. The Lord reproves us.
He convicts us of our sins and shortcomings, and He is faithful to shine and expose what is not of Him in us.
The Bible is profitable for conviction; our reading of the Scriptures causes the divine light to shine on us, and this shining brings in much conviction.
Lord Jesus, we come to You in You in Your word; shine on us and expose us. We want to see You and enjoy You. Oh Lord, in Your light we see light. Have Your way to expose our mistakes, wrongdoings, shortcomings, and sins. How Your light reproves us and convicts us! We love You, Lord, and we want to know You. We come to You as we are and we want to be under Your light in Your word. Hallelujah, the Bible is profitable for teaching and conviction! Amen, Lord, we love to see You, know You, and open to You! We deny ourselves and we abhor ourselves. We need You. Work Yourself into us. We are not the right person and our disposition is not proper, but we come to You to be dealt with by You. Oh Lord, keep shining on us!
The Bible is Profitable for Correction: Set Right the Things that are Wrong and Being Turned to the Right Way
Correction follows conviction; the Bible is profitable for teaching, for conviction, and for correction.
Teaching brings in conviction, and conviction produces correction.
When the Lord unveils us to see Him, we are convicted of our sins, trespasses, and mistakes, and we repent before the Lord.
The result is that we are corrected by the Lord.
The things that are not right in us are not only exposed by Him; they are also corrected under His light.
Correction follows conviction and is a matter of setting right what is wrong, turning someone to the right way, and restoring a person to an upright stage (Matt. 7:13-14; James 5:19-20).
Many times we may pray and thank the Lord for this and for that, and He shines on us to go and repent to this person and apologise to our spouse for the way we talked to them.
The Lord within us adjusts us and corrects us, bringing us on the right path and restoring us to an upright state.
The Lord doesn’t just shine on us to expose us, and convict us; He also corrects us and brings us to an upright state.
When we speak of the Bible being profitable for correction we do not mean that we should take the Bible and correct others.
Much damage has been done throughout the years in the church life when some zealous saints take the Bible and use it to correct others.
They feel they should adjust this new one or that young ones.
They see that someone fails again, so they take the word of God to adjust them or correct them. Oh, Lord!
Before any correction can be done, there has to be the revelation, the rolling away of the veils, so that the Lord may convict us, and then correction can be made.
Any correction we may give others without rolling away the veils for them to see Christ, God’s economy, and themselves, so that they may be convicted by the Lord, is not effective. Oh, Lord!
We ourselves may have damaged some people and may have offended them by our correction without revelation or love. Oh, Lord Jesus!
May we ask for the Lord’s forgiveness in this matter and may we allow Him to adjust us and correct us, and may we learn NOT to adjust or correct others but rather, help them see a revelation of Christ and the church so that the Lord may shine on them, convict them, and correct them from within!
Thank You, Lord, the Bible is profitable for correction. Thank You for not only enlightening us and convicting us but even more, correcting us and bringing us on the right path. We open to You, Lord. We open to Your shining. We open to Your enlightening and exposing. We open to Your convicting. We open to Your correcting. Have a way to set right what is wrong and to bring us back to the right way. See if there is any wicked way in us, Lord, and bring us on the way that is eternal. Restore us to an upright state in Your economy. May we allow You day by day to correct us and adjust us so that we may be proper persons in Your economy!
The Bible is Profitable for Instruction In Righteousness for us to be Right with God and Man and Live out Christ
![And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is out of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is out of God [and] based on faith. Phil. 3:9](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/And-be-found-in-Him-not-having-my-own-righteousness-which-is-out-of-the-law-but-that-which-is-through-faith-in-Christ-2-1024x1024.jpg?resize=750%2C750&ssl=1 "And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is out of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is out of God [and] based on faith. Phil. 3:9")
The Bible is profitable for instruction in righteousness. First, the Bible is profitable for teaching, for rolling away the veils so that the Lord may shine on us and expose us, convict us, and correct us.
After we have been corrected by the Lord, we will receive the proper instruction – the instruction in righteousness.
The Lord doesn’t just instruct us how to do this or that; He instructs us in righteousness.
Instruction in righteousness is to be divinely instructed to enjoy Christ as our lived-out righteousness and to be divinely disciplined in being right with God and with man (Phil. 3:9).
The result of our breathing in the breathed-out word of God is not that we have our own righteousness but that we have the righteousness of God which is in Christ; Christ becomes our lived-out righteousness.
Furthermore, we are discipled and disciplined by the Lord to be right with God and with others.
We are wrong in so many ways and with so many entities.
We are wrong with God, with the brothers and sisters, with the church, with our family, with our spouse, with our children, and with so many people.
We are wrong in the way we handle our money and our time. We are wrong in everything.
So we need instruction in righteousness, which comes in through our breathing in the Word of God.
When we contact the Word of God by means of our spirit to breathe in the breathed-out God in His word, we have much profit.
We are instructed by the Lord in our inward parts how to live and walk in righteousness, how to live Christ as our righteousness, and how to be right with God and with man.
The Lord’s word shines on us and in us, exposing how wrong we are in the way we dress, in the way we style our hair, and in the way we speak to others.
If we say Amen to the Lord’s inner speaking as the living word of God, we are not only rebuked and corrected but also instructed in righteousness.
And the result is that we live Christ as our righteousness, and we become right with God and with man.
May we reconsider the way we contact the Lord in His word and have a proper experience of Christ by coming to His word, for the Bible is profitable to us in so many ways!
If we obtain such profit from the Bible, we will be a man of God with the breath of God, fully equipped for every good work!
Lord Jesus, thank You for shining on us and in us through Your word. Oh Lord, we realize how wrong we are with God and with man. Your shining exposes how wrong we are with our family, our workmates, and our neighbours. Oh Lord, we are so wrong in styling our hair, our way of speaking to others, and in our attitude toward so many matters. We open to You. Instruct us in righteousness. May we be divinely instructed to enjoy Christ as our lived-out righteousness. Amen, Lord, live in us today. You are the righteousness we need and want. Disciple us and discipline us to be right with God and with man. We do not want our own righteousness which is out of the law but the righteousness which is out of God and is in Christ. Amen, Lord, live in us today!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1984, vol. 1, “Teachers’ Training,” ch. 2, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Being a Vessel unto Honor, a Fully Equipped Man of God, by being Empowered in the Grace which is in Christ Jesus to Fully Accomplish our Ministry in the Unique Ministry of God’s Economy (2024 April ITERO), week 5, Being a Fully Equipped Man of God by Inhaling and Exhaling the Word of God as the Breath of God.
- Similar articles on this topic:
– 7 Compelling Reasons to Read the Bible, via, Bibles for America blog.
– “Let Your Speech Be Always with Grace, Seasoned with Salt”, via, Shepherding Words.
– Why You Should Sing the Word of God Daily, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
– The Bible is God-breathed, a portion from, Life-Study of 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon, Chapter 18, by Witness Lee.
– Seeking the Full Knowledge of Christ (1): Knowing Christ by Revelation, via, Living to Him.
– Inheriting the All-inclusive Christ as the Good Land, via, The Church in Los Angeles.
– We Partake of the Father’s Holiness, via, New Jerusalem blog.
– God breathing out and we breathing in, a portion from, Messages Given to the Working Saints, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee.
– The highest spirituality – 1 Corinthians 7, article via, Conversant Faith. - Hymns on this topic:
– I hardly know myself; / Deceived so much by pride, / I often think I’m right / And am self-satisfied. / I know Thee even less; / In doctrine, shallowly; / True revelation lack / Of Thy reality. / Oh, may Thy living light, Lord, / Scatter all my night, Lord, / And everything make bright, Lord, / For this I pray to Thee. (Hymns #426 stanzas 2-3 and chorus)
– All Scripture is the very breath of God, / And by His Spirit into words was breathed; / By godly men the words were written down, / With all God’s fulness unto man bequeathed. / It is the breath of God as light to man, / With rays divine man to illuminate; / It shines in darkness and to man reveals / What is his truest need and actual state. (Hymns #799 stanzas 1-2)
– Speak Thou for us, O Lord, / In all we say of Thee; / According to Thy Word / Let all our teaching be; / That so Thy lambs may know / Their own true Shepherd’s voice, / Where’er He leads them go, / And in His love rejoice. / Live Thou within us, Lord; / Thy mind and will be ours; / Be Thou beloved, adored, / And served with all our powers; / That so our lives may teach / Thy children what Thou art, / And plead, by more than speech, / For Thee with every heart. (Hymns #902 stanzas 3-4)
About aGodMan
Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1984, vol. 1, “Teachers’ Training,” p. 428
The Bible is the word of God, the very breath of God, and when we read and pray over the word of God, all Scripture is profitable to us for teaching, conviction, correction, and instruction in righteousness.
We can testify that the word of God unveils us to see God and His economy, convicts us of our sins and shortcomings, corrects us and brings us on the right path, and instructs us in righteousness.
Amen! O Lord Jesus, thank you for your profitable word. Thank you for your living word
Amen!!! Thank you, Lord for your Word!
We have a new opportunity to appreciate the word of God….but we can sip it like His breath…today we can mingle more with Him by being one spirit with His word and overcome the incident with the power of God’s word Himself.
Amen! Lord Jesus! Make us men of God with the breath of God, fully equipped with the living word of God! Operate in us as the living word of God today!
To be a fully equipped man of God requires that we receive the breathing of God continually.
Specifically, we need God’s breathing in four matters:
We need the kind of teaching that is a revelation, an opening of the veil, so that we may see something of the Triune God.
When we see something of God, we are convicted & rebuked.
Conviction is followed by correction, a restoring to a state of being right with God and right with others.
Our teaching & speaking should be a rolling away of the veil that prevents people from seeing God, thus leading to conviction & rebuke, and instruction in righteousness so that we may be profitable servants of Christ and the church.
As all scripture (the Bible) is God-breathed, so, on our side, as we inhale the word, we are profited in the matters of teaching, conviction, correction and instruction in righteousness.
We teach the divine revelation to roll away the veil; when we receive revelation, seeing something of God, we are convicted of our sins, mistakes, wrongdoings, faults and shortcomings; we are then corrected to set such things right and even lead others to the right way.
Consequently, we are divinely instructed to enjoy Christ and divinely-disciplined to be right with God and man.
Yes Lord, make us men of God with the breath of God, may Your word be profitable to us, may we be fully equipped for every good work!
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Yes Lord. Amen Lord.
The God-breathed Scripture as the embodiment of Christ and of the Spirit, is the profitable for teaching, conviction, correction, and instruction in righteousness, that they we maybe complete, fully equipped for every good work.
We must receive the word of God as the breath of God, as life and spirit in order to be constituted with God is.
Hallelujah we can be constituted with God practically and substantially through the God breathed scripture! Ameeen!!!
08/21/24 Being Fully Equipped Man of God by Inhaling and Exhaling the Word of God as the Breath of God (Week 5, Day 3)
“The God-breathed Scripture is Profitable for Teaching, Conviction, Correction, and Instruction in Righteousness, that the Man of God May Be Complete, Fully Equipped for Every Good Work: (Part 2) On God’s Side, the Bible is God’s Breathing; on Our Side, the Bible is for Us to Receive the Breath of God as Our Profit”
The reason we need to set aside our personal lexicons and study the words of the Scriptures is that the Scriptures teach us the things of God and the things concerning God. We may even say that the Scriptures teach us God Himself. When some hear this, they may ask, “Can we teach God? How can God be taught?” Today’s seminaries do not teach God; they merely teach about God. The Scriptures, on the contrary, teach us God and also teach us the things of God. There is a great difference between teaching about God and teaching God.
Seminary instructors pay very little attention, if any, to minister spiritual food to the students. Instead of ministering God, these instructors mainly teach theology, the mere knowledge about God. They do not minister God Himself to the students. We do not want our summer school to resemble a theological school or seminary.
Our school should actually be a “restaurant”, not just giving them the “menu” (knowledge about God), but serving the Triune God, as spiritual food, as spiritual drink, and as spiritual breath to the young saints that they may be infused with the very God Himself, in all that He is and in all that He has.
There are two functions of the Bible: one for God and one for man. The Bible functions for God to reveal God and all His aspects—including His Person, nature, intention, authority, and power and His plan, creation, redemption, and purpose for the universe. The Bible provides clear and detailed revelations concerning these things.
The Bible also functions for man “to make [him] wise unto salvation through the faith which is in Christ Jesus…[and is] profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work” (2Tim 3:15-17; Rom 15:4; 1Cor 10:11).
Second Timothy 3:16 says not only that the Scriptures are God-breathed but also that the Scriptures are “profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” On God’s side, the Bible is God’s breathing. On our side, the Bible is for us to receive profit in four matters—teaching, conviction or reproof, correction, and instruction.
Teaching is for revelation. Conviction here means “reproof, confutation.” Correction denotes setting right what is wrong, turning someone to the right way, or restoring a person to an upright state. Instruction refers to discipline or chastisement according to righteousness. This means to discipline or chastise by the element and condition of righteousness.
To teach is to reveal or unveil. Teaching equals revelation. When we teach young people in the summer school of truth, we need to unveil to them the divine revelation of God. Many might have the knowledge of God, but they have not seen God and experienced God. Therefore, our goal in teaching young people is for them to see the Person of God in the aspects of His words and actions. In order to do this, we ourselves must breathe in the Word with our spirit daily so that we may have something to breathe out that teaches and reveals to others something of God.
According to 2 Timothy 3:16, our teaching should result into conviction. Our teaching is in vain if we have not unveiled something of God. When we have revealed something of God to others, they will be convicted. They will be reproved. Job 42:5-6 says, “I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, / But now my eye has seen You; Therefore I abhor myself, and I repent / In dust and ashes.” When we truly see something of God, we would be like Job, who abhorred himself.
When we see God as light, we are convicted that we are in darkness. When we see God as holy, we are convicted that we are sinful. When we see God as righteous, we are convicted that we are unrighteous. Whenever we see something of God, we realize our failures and defeats towards Him, our mistakes and wrongdoings towards the people around us, and our shortcomings and sins due to Satan’s temptations. The result of our seeing something of God is that we are put in a state of being convicted, being reproved, and being rebuked.
Such a conviction brings us into the third state ~ correction. We have seen the revelation concerning God, which causes us to be exposed, convicted, and rebuked. This would bring us into repentance to humble ourselves to receive the Lord’s correction, which restores us into an upright state (James 5:19-20).
And, finally, correction brings us into the Lord’s instruction in righteousness. Instruction in righteousness is to be divinely instructed to enjoy Christ as our lived-out righteousness and to be divinely disciplined in being right with God and with man (Phil 3:9).