The issue of God’s breathing Himself through the Scripture and our breathing in of God through our praying and reading the Word with the exercise of our spirit is that we become a man of God who is complete, fully equipped for every good work; we become a man of God with the breath of God. Amen!
The Scripture, the Word of God, is God-breathed; all Scripture is God-breathed. God didn’t just inspire some men throughout the ages to write something for Him or on His behalf; God breathed out His word.
This means that there’s an element in the Bible that contains God Himself.
If we exercise our spirit when we come to the Word of God, if we “strike” the Word of God with our spirit, we will catch the divine fire, and more of the Spirit will be infused into us. Amen!
In this age of the degradation of the church where not only the world is corrupted and corrupting but even the church there is degradation and decline.
The antidote to the degradation is the word of God. And the word of God is not just black-and-white letters; the word of God is living and operative.
The word of God is what God breathed out, and we need to be a man of God with the breath of God, a man of God who is equipped for every good work.
This means that we need to exercise our spirit to continually receive the Spirit, and we need to breathe in the breathed-out word of God.
On our side, we have a spirit, and we need to be persons living in the spirit, walking according to the spirit, and doing all things in the mingled spirit.
On His side, God has done everything: He went through a process to be able to dispense Himself into us, and He comes to us in His word.
When we touch the Lord’s word with our spirit, that is, when we not only read the Bible but even more exercise our spirit to contact the Lord as we read the words in the Bible, we receive something of Spirit and life.
The words that the Lord speaks to us are spirit and are life.
All Scripture is God-breathed, and it is profitable for teaching, conviction, correction, and instruction in righteousness so that we as a man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.
We want to be the man of God today who is complete, fully equipped for every good work, so we come to the Lord in His word, exercise our spirit, and allow the Lord to teach us by unveiling us to see Him and also see ourselves, convict us concerning our sins and shortcomings, correct us, and instruct us in righteousness. Amen!
Being a Man of God with the Breath of God who is Fully Equipped for Every Good Work
We believers in Christ are not just Christians or good people; we are a man of God, and we want to be a man of God who is complete, fully equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:17).
The issue of God’s breathing out of Himself through the Scripture for teaching, conviction, correction, and instruction in righteousness is that we as a man of God become complete, fully equipped for every good work. Amen!
What is a man of God?
In the Old Testament, a man of God was one who had God’s instant speaking, one who communicated with God and had His fresh message for His people.
What about today, how can we be a man of God? A man of God is a normal God-man, a normal believer in Christ.
A man of God is one who partakes of God’s life and nature by being born of God (John 1:13; 2 Pet. 1:4) and thus becomes one with God in His life and nature (1 Cor. 6:17) to express Him.
A man of God expresses God, and the way a man becomes a man of God is by coming to the Lord in His word day by day to be infused with God’s very life and nature.
Since a man of God partakes of what God is in His life and nature to express Him, this corresponds to the mystery of godliness, which is God manifested in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16).
We today can be a man of God through the God-breathed out Scripture; when we breathe in the word of God by means of all prayer and petition, we are being completed and fully equipped for every good work. Amen!
To be completed is to be complete and perfect in qualifications, and to be equipped denotes being fitted out, furnished, and made ready.
How can we withstand the degradation of the church and be a man of God? It is only by breathing in the Word of God.
This doesn’t mean that we should memorize more verses in the Bible and understand the main doctrines in the Scriptures.
We may be able to memorize many verses and then recite them without experiencing the Lord speaking to us, unveiling us, teaching us, convicting us, correcting us, or instructing us in righteousness.
When we come to God’s word we need to open to the Lord so that He may have a way to shine on us, unveil us, and rebuke us.
Through His word, the Lord shines on us.
Throughout the day, the Lord continues to shine on us to not only unveil us to see the all-inclusive Christ but also see ourselves, our mistakes, our shortcomings, and our failures.
As the Lord rebukes us and corrects us from within, we repent, we are instructed in righteousness, and we become a man of God, fully equipped for every good work.
The Lord does an inward work of adjusting us by means of His living word.
As long as we breathe in the living word of God, the Lord has a way to adjust us, correct us, and instruct us in righteousness.
This adjustment takes place continually, not just once and for all.
The Lord may expose us and adjust us in a certain matter today, but in a couple of days we may fail in the same thing again.
So the Lord keeps shining on us, and we apologize to those we offend or cause damage to, and we’re adjusted before the Lord.
May we be those who allow the Lord to adjust us through His word, His inner, living, speaking word, and may we cooperate with His speaking by saying Amen to His word within us.
When He has a way of adjusting us from within, when we experience the Lord’s unveiling, teaching, convicting, correcting, and instructing in righteousness, the result is that we are perfected to be a man of God, fully equipped for every good work.
On the positive side, we daily breathe in the Lord by calling on His name and pray-reading the word to be partakers of God’s life and nature.
On the negative side, we cooperate with the Lord’s inner speaking and adjusting, and we’re convicted, corrected, adjusted, and instructed in righteousness.
The result of this process is that we no longer express ourselves; we express God, for we become His expression.
We become a man of God who is complete, and fully equipped for every good work; we are such a one not by our zeal or knowledge but by our cooperating with the Lord within us in many things throughout the day.
Lord Jesus, make us the man of God who is complete, fully equipped for every good work! Amen, Lord, thank You for making us partakers of Your life and nature by our divine birth! Hallelujah, we have God’s life and nature in our spirit, and we are partakers of what God is in His life and nature. Amen, Lord, we come to You in Your word to contact You, breathe You in, and partake of all that You are. We open to You, Lord, in our reading of the Bible and in our Christian life and experience. May we breathe in the breathed-out Word of God so that we may experience the Lord’s teaching, conviction, correction, and instruction in righteousness! Amen, Lord, may we as a man of God become complete, fully equipped for every good work! May You be the One expressed through us as we heed the inner anointing and allow You to adjust us inwardly day by day. Keep speaking to us not only as we read the Bible but even throughout the day. Regulate us from within. Live in us and be expressed through us!
Continually Inhale the Triune God by Reading the Scripture with Prayer to receive Revelation, Conviction, Correction, and Instruction in Righteousness and be a Man of God with the Breath of God
One of the main problems with us as believers in Christ is the same problem that Job had in the Old Testament: we have built up our own righteousness, we are OK in the way we are, and we think we do not need any improvement or change, for we follow the Lord to the best of our ability according to His word.
So we are good men – we’re just good Christians, not anything out of the ordinary but just good Christians.
However, what the Lord needs is not just good men but God-men.
What He wants is to gain a corporate God-man, a corporate entity composed of the many God-men who live by the life of God to express God.
If we are a good man, we have an extra “o” – we need to lose this “o” and be a God-man, not just a good man.
We lose this extra “o” by coming to the word of God again and again to inhale the Triune God.
Just as the grass keeps growing and needs to be trimmed, just as the beard keeps growing and needs to be shaved, so we have all kinds of things that we do, are entangled with, and emanate from our being which needs to be “shaved” and “cut” by the word of God.
We need the teaching from the Scriptures to shave away anything of the natural man with its manifestation and constitute us into a man of God.
We need to continually inhale the Triune God by reading the Scripture with prayer and petition so that we may receive revelation, conviction, correction, and instruction in righteousness.
Day by day we need to come to the Lord’s word not just to read it and study it but even more, to continually inhale the Triune God.
When we do this, when we breathe in the Lord by coming to His Word daily, we will receive teaching and revelation, and we will see both who God is and who we are.
We will then be convicted, for there are so many things in our being that are not according to God or match God.
We are inwardly adjusted and corrected, set straight, and brought on the right path.
We are instructed in righteousness, and we will live out Christ as our righteousness, not seeking to have our own made-up righteousness but allowing Christ to live in us.
Furthermore, when we meet others, we will not impart mental knowledge to them but we will breathe out, exhale, God into them.
When we meet the young ones, the new ones, or the saints that we care for, we will not just give them some teaching or instruction but rather, we will infuse God into them.
We need to be such a man of God with the breath of God, a man of God who is fully equipped for every good work to minister Christ to others (Luke 24:44-45; Psa. 119:130; Eph. 1:17-18; Psa. 119:105).
May we be such ones today.
May we be those who come to the Lord’s word daily in a personal and intimate way to be produced as God-men by God’s breathing in His word.
May we continually inhale the Triune God by reading the Scripture with prayer to receive revelation, conviction, correction, and instruction in righteousness.
Amen, may we be real God-men, those who inhale the Triune God and are fully equipped for every good work! This will make us part of the mystery of godliness, the manifestation of God in the flesh.
Lord Jesus, we want to continually inhale the Triune God by reading the Scripture with prayer! Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit to inhale God in His word to receive revelation, conviction, correction, and instruction in righteousness. Have a way in our being. Speak to us inwardly and regulate our being and living from within. Amen, Lord, unveil us to see You and Your purpose; also unveil us to see ourselves and our shortcomings. May we be convicted, corrected, and adjusted, and may we be instructed in righteousness. Oh Lord Jesus, as those who partake of Your life and nature, we want to be one with You in all things! We want to express You and manifest You in our living today. Fully equip us with what You are so that we may be the man of God with the breath of God! Amen, Lord, may our speaking to others be the breathing out of God through us so that they may receive spirit and life! Yes, Lord, gain us as such ones 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,” pp. 423-425, 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:
– The Spirit of reality for the dispensing of the Triune God, a portion from, Enjoying the Riches of Christ for the Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee.
– 5 – The Ministry Produced through Revelation and Suffering, Part One: Revelation (3), from chapter five of The Ministers in the Lord’s Recovery – Genuine Ministers of the New Covenant, via, Shepherding Words.
– Pray-reading the Word, a portion from, The Speciality, Generality, and Practicality of the Church Life, Chapter 6, by Witness Lee.
– The New Creation and New Jerusalem, via, New Jerusalem blog.
– Inhaling and Exhaling the Word of God, via, Church in Los Angeles.
– How to Live Christ, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
– Touching the Divine Concept in the Bible by Exercising Our Spirit When Coming to the Bible, via, Living to Him.
– Knowing the essence of God’s word, a portion from, The Full Knowledge of the Word of God, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee. - Hymns on this topic:
– The Spirit is but Christ Himself, / He is the Lord applied / To generate the men of earth, / Transform them as His Bride. / The living Word is Jesus too, / God-breathed as life to us, / That we be wholly sanctified, / A Bride all-glorious. (Hymns #1228 stanzas 4-5)
– We have the Word! The written Word’s our daily food; / We mix this Word with faith and say “Amen!” / Then thro’ the day, the spoken Word will speak to us / And regulate our living from within. (Hymns #1287 stanza 3)
– It is the breath of God as life to man, / Nature divine to man it doth impart; / The dead it quickens and regenerates, / Transforms the soul-life and renews the heart. / It is the breath of God as wisdom too, / Knowledge divine to man it has to teach; / Th’ eternal purpose of the Lord it shows, / And leadeth man God’s final goal to reach. (Hymns #799 stanzas 3-4)
About aGodMan
Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1984, vol. 1, “Teachers’ Training,” pp. 423-425
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2 Tim. 3:16, footnote 2 on “God,” Recovery Version Bible
08/22/24 Being Fully Equipped Man of God by Inhaling and Exhaling the Word of God as the Breath of God (Week 5, Day 4)
“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 3) The Issue of God’s Breathing Out of Himself through the Scripture is for the Man of God to Become Complete, Fully Equipped for Every Good Work”
After Paul tells us, in 2 Timothy 3:16, that “all Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,” he continues to say, in 2 Timothy 3:17, “that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.”
The ultimate issue of our daily breathing in of God’s Word, the God-breathed Scripture, which brings us into being taught, being convicted, being corrected, and being instructed in righteousness, is to make us complete to become a man of God, equipped for every good work. Complete here means complete and perfect in qualifications, and equipped means being fitted out, furnished, and made ready.
A man of God is one who has passed through the qualification, the standard, of having been fully filled with God after having passed through the Lord’s constant teaching, convicting, correcting, and instructing in righteousness. This is the work of God’s economy, His divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity into His chosen and redeemed people in order to make them men of God.
When a believer inhales and exhales the God-breathed Word daily and regularly, he will, on the one hand, receive the disciplining, the dismantling of the negative elements within him and, on the other hand, be infused with the divine elements of God. By being constantly convicted, corrected, and instructed, God would eventually occupy every part of his being.
Little by little, day by day, God will be added into his inward parts, which causes him to grow a little more each day. The gradual increase of God in his inner being would eventually cause him to become one with God in life and in nature, and finally become complete, that is, qualified to be called a man of God.
A man of God is a God-man, one who participates of God’s life and nature (John 1:12-13; 2Pet 1:4), thus, being one with Gid in His life and nature (1Cor 6:17), and thereby, expressing Him. God’breathing produces God-men, men of God. We need to continually inhale the Triune God by reading and pray-reading the God-breathed Scripture to receive revelation, conviction, correction, and instruction in righteousness.
A man of God is one having become one with God’s mind, emotion, and will. God’s mind becomes his mind, God’s emotion becomes his emotion, and God’s will becomes his will. Such a God-man, a man of God, is then complete and ready to cooperate in God’s work; he is fully equipped for every good work (2Tim 3:17). Good work refers not to our own work of good deeds or behavior, but to God’s work ~ the ministering of God’s life to the people of God to become men of God, the many God-men, who shall become the enlarged corporate expression of God.