The Lord’s Present and Instant Speaking Washes and Reconstitutes us with God’s Element

The Lord’s present and instant speaking washes us, cleanses us, and reconstitutes us with God’s element to make us the holy city, New Jerusalem.

We need to have the Lord’s speaking, which is His presence; when He speaks to us, His word washes us, for it is the instant, living word that both cleanses us and reconstitutes us with His element to make us a new creation, even to make us His bride. Amen!

We thank and praise the Lord for unveiling us and enlightening us to see the high peak of the divine revelation in the Word of God.

It is amazing to realize that there’s a “diamond” in the “box” of the Bible – the eternal economy of God for God to become man so that man would become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead. Wow!

From Genesis to Revelation we see that this is the heart’s desire of God; He wants not only a people among whom He can dwell and who can express Him, but He wants to duplicate Himself in man so that man and God, God and man, would become one entity – the Body of Christ, the bride of Christ, consummating in the New Jerusalem.

The whole Bible consummates with the Spirit and the bride speaking in oneness, for the Triune God and the tripartite man have become fully one, with no discrepancy whatsoever.

God is still God in His person, in His Godhead, but man has become God in every possible way; in life, nature, expression, and function, man is becoming the same as God so that God and man, man and God, would become one organic corporate entity.

All we can say is, Wow, this is amazing! This truly is the high peak of the divine revelation!

And for God to carry this out, He has an economy; in His economy, there’s a holding line, which is the divine sanctification.

God is holy, and He chose us to be holy and predestinated us to be sons of God to express Him corporately.

He not only chose us; He also came as the Spirit to sanctify us positionally, sweeping in our inmost parts, lighting the lamp of God’s word, and searching for us until He found us.

Then, He brought us to Himself, even upon His shoulders, so that we would repent and receive the gift of forgiveness of sins and the divine life to be sons of God.

His regenerating sanctification made us a new creation. God is working in His Divine Trinity to sanctify us in our whole tripartite being so that we may be regenerated, renewed, transformed, conformed, and glorified.

Eventually, He will sanctify our spirit, soul, and body, preserving them complete at His coming, and He will make us the same as He is – He will make us the New Jerusalem, the holy city matching the holy God! Hallelujah!

This is such a high calling, such an amazing salvation, and such a tremendous and glorious ending; the application of this high peak of the divine revelation, however, is so simple and organic.

We simply need to be in the word of God so that we may be sanctified and reconstituted with the element of God. His word, His living and instant word, is washing us, cleansing us, beautifying us, and preparing us to be His bride. Amen!

Having the Lord’s Instant and Present Speaking to be Washed, Cleansed, and Reconstituted with His Element

There’s a difference between the Greek word for “word” in John 1:1 and the word for “word” in Eph. 5:26; in English, we have the same word, but in Greek, the first is logos (the eternal word, written word) while the second is rhema (the instant word, the living word).

Christ cleanses and washes the church not merely by giving them the Bible so that they read the Bible; it is by His instant and present speaking, the rhema word.

Paul uses the Greek word rhema when he speaks of the word with its washing process in Eph. 5:26.

Logos is God’s words objectively recorded in the Bible, while rhema is the word of God spoken to us on a specific occasion (Mark 14:72; Luke 1:35-38; 5:5; 24:1-8).

The Lord Jesus, God incarnated to be a man, went through death and was resurrected, and in resurrection, He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45).

As the life-giving Spirit, He is the speaking Spirit, and whatever He speaks to us right now, is the word that washes us.

We need to not only read the Bible but open to the Lord to have the Lord’s instant and present speaking so that we may be washed, cleansed, and reconstituted with His element.

When the Lord speaks to us, we are washed and cleansed; all impurities are removed, and we are reconstituted with His holy element.

Our Lord is not silent; He is the Word of God, even the living, instant and present speaking of God to us, His people.

Our God is constantly speaking. If we take Him as our life and person, we will discover how much He desires to speak within us.

And when He speaks to us, we also speak to others, for we are witnesses of Christ, testifying of the things in which He has appeared to us.

We all need the Lord’s instant and present speaking. His speaking is everything to us in our Christian life.

If we only have the Bible but not the Lord’s speaking to us through His word, we cannot go on with the Lord. His presence with us is His speaking.

God’s economy is not to change us outwardly but rather, to change us inwardly by speaking to us to sanctify us and reconstitute us with Himself.

When we open to the Lord and have His instant and present speaking, we are inwardly washed, cleansed, and reconstituted with His holy element.

When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He was tempted by the devil in the wilderness; every time the Lord responded to the enemy’s temptations, He spoke the word of God.

The Lord Jesus must have been enjoying the book of Deuteronomy, for all His answers were from this book.

We need the Lord’s speaking.

Both personally and as the church, we need the Lord’s instant and present speaking so that we may be washed from anything that is not of Christ.

If we don’t know the Lord’s word, there’s no way for us to be cleansed and sanctified.

We encounter many difficulties and we make many problems when we do not have the Lord’s instant and present speaking.

But when we have the Lord’s speaking as the Spirit, when we are under the Lord’s instant and present speaking, we have a way to advance with the Lord, and we’re inwardly reconstituted with His holy element.

This is why we need to not only read the Bible but also pray over the word of God.

We need to read and pray, pray and read, muse and pray, and pray and muse over the word of God.

When we mix the Word of God with our prayer, our musing, and our prayerful consideration, we have the Lord’s speaking.

The Lord can speak to us when we come to His word and open to Him through prayer and musing over God’s word.

Every day we need to ask the Lord to speak to us.

We need to be honest with Him that we are short of Christ, we are short of the divine life, and we need His instant and present speaking.

Lord Jesus, we need Your speaking! We are so short of Christ. We lack the growth in life. We want to go on with You today. Speak to us. We want to have Your instant and present speaking. We come to You in Your word; speak to us in Your word. Open our mind to understand. We want to read and pray Your word, mixing Your word with our prayerful consideration. May Your word be spirit and life to us. We don’t want to rely on what You spoke to us in the past; we want Your instant and present speaking today! Amen, Lord, Your presence is everything to us. Your speaking is everything to us. If You do not speak to us, we cannot go on. If Your presence is not with us and we do not have Your instant and present speaking, we cannot go on! We need You, Lord! We need Your speaking!

God’s Speaking causes us to Grow in Life and Enables us to Fulfill the Goal of His Economy

Did the Lord speak to you today? Did He speak something fresh and new to you this week?

Our Christian life depends on His speaking. And He doesn’t speak by supernaturally opening the heavens to shine a light and speak something in a thunder down to us.

He speaks deep within our being as we open to Him. If we do not have the instant and present speaking of God, however, we have many difficulties.

If we only have something outward and not the inward speaking of the Lord, we cannot be built in the Body of Christ.

The whole basis of our Christian faith depends upon the Lord’s speaking.

It is the same with the growth of the church; the church can grow when we all have the Lord’s speaking.

The Lord’s word causes us to grow in life and enables us to fulfill the goal of His eternal economy.

May we be like Samuel in the Old Testament, having the Lord’s instant and present speaking to the extent that all the others know that the Lord has a way to speak to us (1 Sam. 3:21).

May we be like Mary who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to His word, absorbing His speaking (Luke 10:39).

The rhema word, the instant and present word spoken to us by God, is God’s word with our name on it; it is the word He speaks to us personally and directly.

This word shows us what we need to deal with and what we need to be cleansed from, for the Lord’s speaking is like the laver in the Old Testament, made of bronze, like a mirror exposing our real situation and condition (Exo. 38:8).

The important thing for each one of us is this: Is God speaking His word to me today (Rev. 2:7; 1 Sam. 3:1, 21; Amos 3:7)?

Does He have a way to expose our situation and bring us in His light so that He may deal with anything that He does not agree with, and add His holy element to us to reconstitute us?

Many times we have spoken to our spouse in a certain way, and after we contact the Lord, we go to our spouse and apologize, for the Lord exposes our way of speaking.

Actually, the more we go on with the Lord and go through the human experiences, we think we become worse, for we lose our temper so many times with our spouse, our children, the situations around us, or our neighbours.

Actually, we are not worse but rather, the Lord has a way to shine and expose what we really are by nature.

We get shined on and the Lord speaks to us; in this way, we see who and what we really are by nature, and we exercise our spirit to live in spirit.

One thing that we always treasure is that the Lord still speaks to us personally and directly today.

True growth in life depends upon our receiving the word directly from God (Heb. 3:7-11, 15; 4:7; Psa. 95:7-8).

Only the Lord’s speaking in us has true spiritual value.

This is why we need the Lord’s instant and present speaking again and again.

Today, if we hear His voice, may we not harden our heart but say Amen.

The Lord cares about today, not about yesterday or the future; He wants us to touch Him today and have His instant and present speaking today.

The central point of our prayers should be our longing for the Lord’s speaking, which enables us to fulfill the goal of His eternal economy.

When we have the Lord’s instant and present speaking, we are enabled to fulfil God’s goal according to His heart’s desire to have His divine sonship.

In a very practical sense, the Lord’s presence is one with His speaking; if we have His speaking, we have His presence.

When the Lord speaks to us, we realize His presence within us, for His speaking is the very presence of the life-giving Spirit (Exo. 33:12-17; Heb. 11:8).

When He speaks to us, we have His smile, His presence.

May we learn to set aside time to spend with the Lord simply by looking at Him, looking into His face, so that we would have His presence, His instant and present speaking.

When we have the Lord’s face, His presence, we have His speaking, and this causes us to be washed, renewed, and transformed, enabling us to live a life for the fulfilment of His purpose.

The speaking of the indwelling Christ as the life-giving Spirit within us is the cleansing water of life that deposits a new element into us to replace the old element in our nature and disposition.

This metabolic cleansing by having the Lord’s instant and present speaking causes a genuine and inward change in life, which is the reality of dispositional sanctification and transformation. Amen!

Our being sanctified for the divine sonship ultimately consummates in the New Jerusalem, the holy city (Rev. 21:2, 10).

The New Jerusalem is the aggregate of the divine sonship (v. 7).

This is the ultimate consummation of God becoming man in the flesh so that man might become God the Spirit to gain a corporate, great God-man (vv. 3, 22) for the corporate expression, the glory, of the Triune God (vv. 11, 23). Hallelujah!

God determined in eternity past that we would be holy, and He is sanctifying us fully until we become the New Jerusalem.

He is working in us, and we cooperate by seeking to have His instant and present speaking so that we would be metabolically changed to be reconstituted with God’s element and become the holy city, the New Jerusalem! Hallelujah!

Lord Jesus, we treasure Your speaking! We love Your speaking. Speak to us personally and directly. Show us what we need to deal with and what we need to be cleansed from. Speak to us today, dear Lord! Wash us and cleanse us by Your speaking. Expose our situation and remove anything that does not match Your holy nature. Lord, only Your speaking in us has true spiritual value! How we long for Your speaking! Your speaking is Your presence within us. Your speaking washes, cleanses, and reconstitutes us with what You are. Amen, Lord, we open to You and we desire to have Your instant and present speaking. Oh Lord, your speaking is the cleansing water that deposits the new element of God into us and replaces the old element in our nature and disposition. Speak to us and sanctify us until we become the New Jerusalem, the holy city!

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 brother Ed Marks in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 466-467, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, An Overview of the Central Burden and Present Truth of the Lord’s Recovery Before His Appearing (2023 July Semiannual Training), week 1, entitled, The Ultimate Goal of God’s Economy – God Became Man that Man Might Become God in Life and in Nature but not in the Godhead for the Building up of the Body of Christ to Consummate the New Jerusalem.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – The cleansing of the church by the washing of the water in the Word, a portion via, The Hearing of Faith newsletter.
  – Podcast: The Practice of Pray-Reading God’s Word, article via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – God as the Word: Logos and Rhema, article via, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Preparing the Bride by Washing (5), article via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – Working in Egypt in Order to Plunder Egypt, article via, Living to Him.
  – Two Important Greek Words in the Bible: Logos and Rhema, article via, Bibles for America blog.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – I come to His presence afresh / Ere the night has passed into morning; / And His face I see as it shines on me— / The Lord within is dawning. / And He speaks to me and reveals to me / All His riches for me today; / And with sweet delight I partake of Him, / My hunger has passed away. (Hymns #554 stanza 1)
  – Lord, speak Thy Word, upon us breathe, / Thy people fitly frame with grace / To be Thy rest, Thy dwelling-place; / Lord, speak and breathe upon us! / Lord, speak to me, upon me breathe, / Revive me, in Thy Body build, / No more secluded and self-willed; / Breathe now, O Lord, upon me! (Hymns #844 stanzas 5-6)
  – Church of God, beloved and chosen, / Church of Christ for whom He died, / Claim thy gifts and praise the Giver, / Ye are washed and sanctified. / Sanctified by God the Father, / And by Jesus Christ His Son, / And by God the Holy Spirit, / Holy, Holy, Three in One. / By His will He sanctifieth, / By the Spirit’s power within; / By the loving hand that chasteneth / Fruits of righteousness to win; / By His truth and by His promise, / By the Word, His gift unpriced, / By His own blood, and by union / With the risen life of Christ. (Hymns #825 stanzas 1-2)