Obeying the Inner Feeling from the Spirit, God’s Living Word, as we Read the Bible

When Christ came, in Him was life, and the life was the light of the world; we as believers in Christ have Christ as life in us, and when we have the Lord’s living word within us, the inner feeling from the Spirit, we have God’s living word and we’re full of light and life.

It is really amazing to realize that, when Christ came into us, in Him was life, and this life is the light of the world, dispelling all our darkness and bringing in God’s light and life.

Actually, even from His creation and further restoration as seen in Gen. 1-2, God’s goal is life; He wants to have His divine life (typified by the tree of life) come into our being so that we, men created in His image with His likeness, would be filled with His life to express Him and represent Him.

His purpose and heart’s desire didn’t change in the New Testament; today God still wants to have a group of people who are filled with His life, who live by this life, and who as a result express God and represent Him corporately.

In order to gain such ones, God Himself became a man, accomplished an all-inclusive judicial redemption, and entered into resurrection and ascension to accomplish and carry out His organic salvation.

Now whoever receives the light of life – Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior – is washed of his sins, reconciled to God, justified before God, and is sanctified to God, so that God’s life may be dispensed into this one and he would be saved in God’s life.

Many Christians pay very much attention to Christ’s death on the cross, but who realizes that His death opened the way for us to be saved much more in God’s life, that is, that we would receive God’s life, nature, element, and being, and we would participate in God’s image and glory?

Hallelujah, Jesus Christ is the Author and Perfecter of our salvation, and He is right now leading many sons into glory through the process of His organic salvation. What we need to do is make sure we eat Christ as the reality of the tree of life so that we may grow in life and live by the divine life.

The life we have received by regeneration is simply God Himself in Christ as the Spirit flowing out to be enjoyed by us and to please us and satisfy us. May we be those who enjoy God in Christ as the Spirit to be our life for our satisfaction!

Obeying the Inner Feeling from the Spirit, God’s Living Word, as we Read the Bible

We were once not only in darkness but darkness itself, but the Lord Jesus came as the light of life, and in Him was life – and this life was the light of the world, overcoming and dispelling any darkness (Eph. 5:8; John 1:4-5).

Now we are light in the Lord, for the light shines in us, and no darkness can overcome it!

Life is the light of men; the divine life of God is the light of man. Whenever God’s light shines, His life comes in; when His life comes in, the Spirit is there, Christ is there, God is there, and life is there.

But where can we get the light of God? The light is in the word of God. When we exercise our spirit over the word of God so that they would become spirit and life (John 6:63), we receive God’s light, and this light brings in life.

Light is in the word of God, and when we receive light in God’s word, we have life inwardly. When we touch the Lord’s word, the word becomes light in us, and it also becomes life to satisfy our hunger.

When we turn our heart to the Lord and exercise our spirit as we read the word of God, God’s word operates in us, becoming something living that speaks to us and enlightens us; if we willingly obey God’s inward speaking – the inner feeling from the Spirit – we immediately are filled with life and light!

If we obey the living word of God, the Lord’s inward feeling in spirit coming through His word, we sense God, Christ, the Spirit, life, and light. It is our experience that many times when we touch the Lord in our personal time with Him, we get a sense of receiving a word from God.

We may read an entire chapter or only one verse, but something stands out as the fellowship with the Lord. How do we handle this word? Many people read the Bible but don’t hear God’s word; many believers read spiritual books, but they never touch the Lord.

If we don’t obey the word of God but rather ignore it, reason with it, or argue with it, we don’t get any more light and life from the Lord. But if we read the Bible, receive God’s speaking, and have an inner feeling from the Spirit, and our attitude is one of obeying the word of God, then we receive light and life – we touch life in the light.

Life is in the light, light overcomes darkness, and light is in God’s word (see John 1:4-5; Psa. 36:8-9; John 6:63). If we want to touch life, we need the word, the inner feeling given to us by the Spirit; such a felling is the living word of God (see 1 Sam. 3:19-21).

The inner feeling given to us by the Spirit is the word of God to us; it is not merely the logos (the written word in the Bible) but the rhema (the applied word of God to us). We need to have the Lord’s instant and present speaking, His speaking with our name on it, His personal speaking to us.

If we obey the inner feeling from the Spirit, we touch life. When we are in a meeting, many times the Spirit gives us a word or a feeling to open our mouth and praise the Lord; if we neglect this feeling or argue with it, we do not touch life but rather we are in death.

But if we receive the word and open our mouth to praise the Lord, we will have light within, and this light is life, the Spirit, Christ, and God.

When we respond to the inner feeling from the Spirit, the living word of God, and offer a prayer of praise to the Lord, we sense the satisfaction of life, the sweetness of Christ, the presence of God, and the moving of the Spirit.

Many times we have to go against our disposition, for our disposition – whether rough or nice – often replaces Christ.

Lord Jesus, we want to touch life, the divine life of God, by exercising our spirit to read Your word and receive the living word of God. Save us from merely reading the Bible in the way of knowledge. May we receive and cooperate with the inner feeling from the Spirit as we read the word of God. Lord, gain our response to Your inner feeling, Your personal speaking to us. We want to be full of light and full of life. May our disposition not stand in Your way to bring us to touch life and light in Your word!

The Church is the Result of Life – the Church is Beautiful, Bright, and Powerful!

Speaking from the perspective of the divine life, the church is a corporate entity in life – it is a Body, an entity in life and of life.

If you take the life of God away from the church, the church becomes ugly, withered, and dead; when the church is filled with God’s life, the church is beautiful, bright, and powerful.

All the beauty, power, brightness, and ability of the church come from the fact that Christ as life is her inward content; the church is the result of life, and life is the content of the church (Gen. 2:22; John 19:34; 12:24; 1 Cor. 10:17).

Just as Jehovah took a rib out of Adam’s side and built a woman and then brought her to him, so today God took something of the resurrection life of Christ, and He is building the church – He is building Himself into us and us into Him to gain this corporate entity in life which He desires.

To be the glorious bride and organic body that Christ desires we need to realize that Christ is our inward content as life, and we are His expression.

God became the flesh and came to us as the life-giving Spirit to be our life; God’s life is in the Holy Spirit, and this life is the God who was in the beginning and the Creator who existed in the beginning.

Hallelujah, as the church we have God in us as our life to be our content, and we are beautiful, bright, and powerful in His eyes! The life that we have received from God is the Triune God Himself, the incarnated God, the Holy Spirit, who has come into us and is able to do great things in us.

The life we have today in the church is the greatest, highest, and most vital life. And we can enjoy such a life by simply coming to the Lord in His word and receiving His personal word; then, we need to obey the inner feeling from the Spirit, and go along with the living word of God imparted into us.

The truth in the Bible concerning God, Christ, the Spirit, and the church is rich, high, and profound, but the experience is so normal and simple – we need to contact the Lord daily through the exercise of our spirit in His word, and then go along with His speaking within!

When we daily both personally and corporately obey the inner feeling of the Spirit, the living word of God, we will have God as life as our content, and we will be the result of life – a glorious, bring, beautiful, and powerful entity in life!

Lord Jesus, You are our life and our inward content, and as the church we are the result of the divine life in us. May we daily learn to receive light and life by exercising our spirit over God’s word and obeying the inner feeling from the Spirit, the living word of God. Lord, gain our cooperation – gain our response to Your inward operation as life. May we know the divine life, live by the divine life, cooperate with the operation of the divine life, and become the issue of life, the result of life – the church!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Knowing Life and the Church, ch. 2 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing Life and the Church, msg. 2 (week 2), The Knowledge of Life.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Oh, Lord, let our every action, / Everything we do and say, / Come from Thee alone, experienced / In a real and inner way. / We reject the empty teachings, / Leave the methods and the strife. / Let our only way of living / Be the overflow of life! (Hymns #1136)
  # O Lord, Thou art in me as life / And everything to me! / Subjective and available, / Thus I experience Thee. (Hymns #539)
  # In our daily living / It’s this life that we are sensing. / Are we in the flesh or in the Lord? / If you’re dead and empty / And the troubles you have plenty, / Saints, get out of there and flee back to the Lord! / Then you’ll sense life flowing / It’s this life that’s overcoming / Satan, flesh, and the world, and sin. / What a life we’re having. / Lord, Your virtues manifesting, / Thus, we’re branches bearing fruit in John 15. (Song on life)