The Bible should affect our living, and we should be joined to the Bible.
Daniel was a person who not only read the Scriptures but he joined himself to God’s desire through His word.
When Daniel read in Leviticus concerning the fact that God doesn’t want His people to eat anything that is offered to the idols, he immediately rejected to eat the king’s food and would rather eat vegetables and drink water than defile himself (Dan. 1:8-9).
When Daniel read in the book of Jeremiah that the captivity of Israel will be for only 70 years, he immediately started praying and interceding with fasting and supplications for the return of the people of Israel (Dan. 9:1-4).
We need to not only read the Bible diligently, daily, and regularly, but we need to be open to the Lord in our entire being so that He may speak to us what is His heart’s desire for us, so that we would join ourselves to His desire through His word.
The Bible should affect our living, and we should join ourselves to the Bible, to God’s desire conveyed to us through His living Word (see 2 Cor. 6:14-18).
Lord, save us from merely reading the black and white letters of the Bible and doing our best to remember or understand them. Cause us to open our entire being to You, Lord, as we read Your Word. Speak to us as we read the Bible, and make us those who join themselves to Your desire through Your Word. Lord, may Your word be living and operating in us every time we read it!
Joining Ourselves to God’s Desire Through His Word
Whenever we find out what God’s desire is through our reading of the Bible, we should join ourselves to it and ask God to make it real in our life.
It is good to read the Bible, but as we read, we should muse on the Word – converse with the Lord, speak aloud, take the word of God with careful consideration, and pray over God’s word (Psa. 119:11, 24).
In this way, God has a way to impress us with His desire, and whenever we find out God’s desire from His Word, we must immediately join ourselves to that desire (Psa. 119:15-16, 133, 140)! Lord, establish my footsteps in Your Word and don’t let any iniquity have dominion over me!
When we read in the 2 Cor. 6:14 that we should not be yoked with unbelievers in marriage, business, or any intimate relationship, we should just be one with God’s word and practice it in our living.
Whenever we get into the Word of God, we are being sanctified, and we move out of ourselves, out of any division, and into the Triune God – into the enlarged oneness of the Triune God (John 17:17, 21).
God’s living word causes us to be the anti-testimony today, working in us to separate us from the world and move us OUT OF our divisive and confused self into the oneness of the Triune God (Eph. 5:26).
May we be the ones who read God’s word, touch God’s desire from His word, and who join themselves to God’s desire through His Word!
Dealing with Our Whole Being in Coming to God’s Word
We must open our entire being to the Lord for the inner shining of the divine light and the supplying of the divine life; the one who experiences the greatest amount of transformation is the one who is absolutely open to the Lord.
We need to daily practice coming to God’s word to have the Triune God infused into us in the way of life. For this, we need to deal with our entire being – we must open our entire being to the Lord for the inner shining of the divine light and the supplying of the divine life.
Just open to the Lord that He may inwardly shine on you, expose you, and supply you with life (Psa. 119:105; Prov. 20:27; Psa. 139:23-24). Wherever light shines, life supplies; if we are absolutely open to the Lord, His light will shine in all the chambers of our soul, and we will be supplied with His life to be transformed in life.
We need to seek the Lord with all our heart, and we need to love Him with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength (Mark 12:30).
As He shines on us through His word, we need to deal with anything that separates us from the Lord – He shines, we repent, we confess, He forgives, and He is enthroned in our being with a clear sky between us (Acts 24:16; 2 Tim. 1:3a; 1 John 1:9; cf. Ezek. 1:22, 26)!
In coming to God’s word and obtaining light and revelation from the Lord in reading the Bible, our being plays a crucial role. We need to deal with our inner being, opening to the Lord every part of our heart and allowing Him to shine in us.
Our conscience needs to be pure, clean, and without any offense. We need to humble ourselves before the Lord, putting aside our self-confidence, self-assurance, and everything of our self.
We put ourselves aside, and we look to the Lord for His mercy and grace, that He would speak to us in a fresh way. The Lord looks at a man who is poor in spirit (Matt. 5:3) and of a contrite spirit, who trembles at His word (Isa. 66:1-2).
Receiving the Blessings Through the Word of God
God wants to bless us – His entire speaking in the Bible is to bless us with all the riches of the Triune God. But He is limited in His blessings by our being, by our opening, by our listening and cooperating. When we deal with our heart and open to the Lord completely, without any reservation, He can bless us.
Also, we need to exercise our eyes to read the Bible, our mouth to speak the Word, our mind to understand what we read, our emotion to love God, and our will to take God’s way in His word. Above all, we need to exercise our spirit to pray that the Lord would strengthen us into our inner man that we may be joined to God’s desire through His word.
When we open in such a way, we will receive light and life supply when we come to God’s Word. When our being is proper and exercised in coming to the Bible, we will experience enlightenment, life supply, watering, restoration, deliverance, strength, comfort, nourishment, upholding, safeguard, and many blessings!
God’s word restores our soul (Psa. 19:7), delivers us (Psa. 119:41, 170), strengthens our being (v. 28), comforts us (v. 76), nourishes us with a sweet taste (v. 103), holds us up, is our safeguard, and is our hiding place.
We just need to learn to join ourselves to God’s desire through His word by dealing with our inner being and fully opening to Him!
Lord, make us such Christians, those who join themselves to Your desire through Your Word. What about our reading of the Bible? Lord, we want to deal with our mind, emotion, and will. Shine on us, and expose any hindrance. May Your light shine on us and Your life supply us. Lord, we want to take Your word into us in the way of life by praying over it, musing over it, and welcoming it into our being. Make Your word real to us. Make us the Daniels of today, those who read the Word and join themselves to Your desire through Your Word!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from brother Ed Marks’ speaking in this message and portions in, Men Who Turn the Age, (pp. 21-22), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on Crystallization-Study of Daniel and Zechariah, week 2 (entitled, A Pattern of a Person Used by God to Turn the Age).
- Further reading: Life-study of Exodus, msg 59 (concerning the blessings and benefits of reading God’s word in the way of life).
- Similar articles by fellow bloggers:
# How Bible Reading can Change Your Life (holdingtotruth).
# Being Established in the Present Truth (achristianoncampus).
# The Lord is Shining on Us (newjerusalem12). - Hymns on this topic:
# Overcomers separated from the current age. / They have joined themselves / Through His word to His desire. / Overcomers constituted with the Holy Word.
# Every verse reveals Yourself to me, / Every line conveys reality. / When I pray the words that You breathed out / You become so real to me.
# Dear Lord, Thou art the Word of God, / Thou art God’s very Son; / Thou art His holy image true, / And with Him ever one.
# Jesus, O living Word of God, / Wash me and cleanse me with Your blood / So You can speak to me.
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When we come to the Word of God, we need to open…[and] use our whole being, our body, soul, and spirit. We use our eyes to read the words and our mouth to sound out the words. We also use our mind, the main part of the soul, to understand what we read. We may need to use lexicons, concordances, and different versions and translations. God created us with a mind, and we need to use it in understanding the Word of God. The study of the Bible also requires the exercise of our emotion to love the Word and the exercise of our will to take God’s way in His Word. This exercise of the mind, emotion, and will is the exercise of the soul. But we also need to exercise our spirit. Primarily this is to pray so that our inner man may be strengthened. If we use our whole being in contacting the Word, we shall receive light and life supply.
Daniel was not only a person who read God’s Word REGULARLY, but also a person who was JOINED to God’s Word. Whenever we find out God’s desire from His Word, we must immediately join ourselves to that desire. The Bible should affect our living, and we should be joined to the Bible. If we want to receive the blessing from the Word of God, we must first deal with our HEART and TURN to the Lord absolutely and with our whole heart. We also need to deal with anything in our heart that is negative or that causes separation between us and the Lord. We must humble ourselves and put aside our self-confidence and self-assurance and look to Him for His mercy and grace. Each time we come to the Word as the condensation of the divine light, we enter into a realm of light.
Lord, make us those who PRACTICE coming to Your word daily. Cause us to understand Your desire through Your word so that we can join ourselves to Your desire through Your word through prayers.
Daniel was a person infused with God’s Word and therefore the Word of God was effective on him. He must have read Leviticus for him to reject the unclean food and drink. He must have read Jeremiah’s prophecy for him to fast and pray for God’s people to return to the holy land. By reading the Scriptures, he knew God’s desire and by praying he joined himself to God’s Word.
Bro. Nee said we must be the right person first, then we can use all kinds of methods to read the Bible. We must be absolutely open to the Lord and love and seek Him with all our heart. The blessing of the pure in heart is seeing God, and the poor in spirit is the kingdom. We must deal with anything that separates us from the Lord. When we humble ourselves, exercise our spirit to pray-read the Word, we experience the watering, the restoration, deliverance, strengthening, nourishment, comfort. We need to be TOUCHED by every word, by the light, by the teaching, and His desire. Then when we pray to the Lord, He will be TOUCHED by our prayer. “Lord, make us those who seek You and Your desire and joined to Your desire by praying it back to You.”
Amen Lord Jesus
Yes, Lord do this. May we cooperate with You.
Amen Lord Jesus.