We are preserved in the church life and in the ministry by receiving the word as the Spirit to be the killing sword, which is a spiritual antibiotic to kill the “germs” within us so that we can live a healthy Body life, a healthy church life.
This is a secret that we all must learn in our Christian life and church life today.
We want to be a man of God with the breath of God, a fully equipped man of God who is filled with the word of God and ministers life to others.
For this, we need to inhale and exhale the word of God as the breath of God. Amen!
In order for God to gain what He is after, His corporate manifestation, we need to realize that we don’t need to be merely good men but God-men, men of God with the breath of God.
What God desires to gain is not good people but God-men, those who partake of His life and nature and live one spirit with Him.
For this, He created us from the dust of the ground and breathed into our nostrils the breath of life, and we became a living soul.
Praise the Lord, we all are living souls, for the Lord has put in us a spirit to match Him as the Spirit!
Then, God Himself became man and then, through death and resurrection, He became a life-giving Spirit, and He came to us to breathe Himself into us as the holy breath. Hallelujah!
Now all the believers in Christ are those who have the Holy Spirit breathed into them; their spirit has been regenerated with the divine Spirit, and they have the life of God in them.
Furthermore, according to 2 Tim. 3:16, all Scripture is God-breathed.
All the Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable to us for unveiling and teaching us, convicting us, correcting us, and instructing us in righteousness.
When we come to the Lord in His word and allow Him to speak to us, when we exercise our spirit to say Amen to God’s word and continue to say Amen to Him in our daily life, He has a way to adjust us from within.
He reveals to us what He is and also shows us what we are, and we are convicted, exposed, and adjusted.
He then corrects us and instructs us in righteousness, and we become men of God fully equipped for every good work. Hallelujah!
The issue of God’s breathing out of Himself through the Scripture is that we become men of God with the breath of God, and we’re fully equipped for every good work.
When we speak to others, we impart not only teachings but even more, we exhale the Triune God who has been infused into our being.
Furthermore, the word of God becomes the sword of the Spirit to operate in us and slay the adversary within.
Receive the Word of God as the Spirit to be the Killing Sword to be Preserved in the Church Life
![And receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which [Spirit] is the word of God, By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit and watching unto this in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints. Eph. 6:17-18](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/And-receive-the-helmet-of-salvation-and-the-sword-of-the-Spirit-which-Spirit-is-the-word-of-God-3-1024x1024.jpg?resize=750%2C750&ssl=1 "And receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which [Spirit] is the word of God, By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit and watching unto this in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints. Eph. 6:17-18")
When we come into the church life, when the Lord shines on us and brings us among the saints in the Lord’s recovery, we have such a great experience being with the saints, for here we find our home, and we truly feel this is heaven on earth!
Hallelujah for the church life!
But after a while, as we live the church life, we realize that the church life is full of people, and we also are human beings with feelings and a particular disposition, and we may be offended.
The more we remain in the church life, the more opportunities we have to be offended, for we are not “marble Mary” nor are we made of stone; rather, we’re made of flesh and bones, and we have feelings and thoughts and opinions. Oh, Lord Jesus!
We all can testify that we have been offended many times in the church life, and sometimes we may even remember this or that offense.
How can we get through all the offenses? Sometimes it may seem that the church life is not so sweet and heavenly, for we have been offended by the way someone spoke to us or even by the way they looked at us.
The only way we can get through and be preserved in the church life is by receiving the word of God as the Spirit to be the killing sword.
When we exercise our spirit to partake of the Word by means of all prayer and petition (Eph. 6:17-18), the Word of God becomes the killing sword to slay the adversary within us.
Apparently, the sword of the Spirit kills our emotions; actually, it kills the evil spirit in the air who takes advantage of our emotions.
Offenses come, things may be said or situations may happen to hurt us, but the enemy in the air will use those offenses and hurt feelings to be offended and dissatisfied, even to stay away from the church life. Oh, Lord!
What we need is not for someone to explain to us why this one said that or what was the other one’s intention when he looked at us in a particular way; what we need is to come to the Bible and receive the Word of God as the Spirit to be the killing sword.
When we pray and read the Word of God, no matter what verse we enjoy, the sword of the Spirit will kill the enemy in the air and will also touch our hurt emotions and offense.
Maybe an elder said something to us in a direct way and we were offended. We may not tell others, but we may keep this in ourselves and this makes us unhappy with the Lord and with the church life.
What we need to do is to come to the Lord and contact Him in the Word.
When we read some verses in the Bible and pray over them, exercising our spirit to contact the Lord, we receive the Word of God in a living way as the Spirit, and the Spirit will kill the emotion that is hurt and will also kill the evil force that takes advantage of our hurt emotion.
Spontaneously, the offense is gone, and there’s no damage done to the church.
If we allow the offense to remain and do not exercise our spirit to receive the word of God as the Spirit and thus experience the killing sword, this may cause serious damage to the church life.
Without the word of God as the Spirit to be the killing sword, there is no way for us to be kept in the church life to be kept in the church life over the years.
Things may happen, words may be said, we may be excluded from certain things or fellowships, and we may simply get offended.
We need to come to the Lord’s word as the Spirit and allow the sword of the Spirit to operate in us and kill the hurt emotion, heal us, and also kill the enemy who is using it for his nefarious purpose.
We are preserved in the church life and in the ministry by receiving the Word as the Spirit to be the killing sword.
What verses should we pray-read when we are offended and our emotions are hurt?
We don’t need to seek any particular verses dealing with offenses or forgiving others; all Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable to us (2 Tim. 3:16).
We need to take the word of God into us by means of prayer and petition, even persevere in prayer over God’s word, so that the living word of God would become the sword of the Spirit and kill the adversary in us, defeat the enemy in the air, and kill our hurt emotions and feelings.
May we practice this in our daily life and in the church life so that the Lord would have mercy on us and preserve us in the church life.
Some have left the church life because they did not practice receiving the word as the Spirit and they did not allow the killing sword of the Spirit to operate in them.
Therefore, the enemy had a way in their being, and they were now cut off from the fellowship. Oh, Lord Jesus!
May we learn to come to the Lord’s word no matter what.
Even when we’re offended, we need to come to the word of God and pray over it to receive the Spirit, the living Word as the sword that kills the enemy. Amen!
Lord Jesus, keep us in the church life with all the saints, enjoying You and partaking of Your riches on the genuine ground of oneness. We come to You as we are, and we present ourselves to You to enjoy You in the word. Amen, Lord, Your word is our daily food. Keep us reading and praying Your word. Keep us coming to You even when we’re offended and our feelings are hurt. Oh Lord, may Your word be living and operative in us. May the word of God become the sword of the Spirit to slay the adversary within us and defeat the enemy outside of us. Amen, Lord, we want to live the daily church life by receiving the word as the Spirit to be the killing sword. Cause us to realize what happens in the spiritual realm when we are offended. Keep us coming to Your word to receive the living Word of God as the Spirit so that the enemy would be defeated and put to shame. Oh Lord, may Your living Word become the killing sword to slay the adversary within us and defeat the enemy outside of us taking advantage of our hurt feelings and offenses!
Taking the Spiritual Antibiotic to Kill the Germs within us for us to live a Healthy Body Life
![And He is clothed with a garment dipped in blood; and His name is called the Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven followed Him on white horses, dressed in fine linen, white [and] clean. And out of His mouth proceeds a sharp sword, that with it He might smite the nations; and He will shepherd them with an iron rod; and He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. Rev. 19:13-15](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/And-He-is-clothed-with-a-garment-dipped-in-blood-and-His-name-is-called-the-Word-of-God-683x1024.jpg?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "And He is clothed with a garment dipped in blood; and His name is called the Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven followed Him on white horses, dressed in fine linen, white [and] clean. And out of His mouth proceeds a sharp sword, that with it He might smite the nations; and He will shepherd them with an iron rod; and He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. Rev. 19:13-15")
The world today is full of germs; we learned this especially as we went through the recent coronavirus pandemic.
Spiritually speaking, the world and everything around us full of germs, and even we ourselves in our being have so many germs.
We may be healthy one day, but then the next day are so sick, feeling low, and having the thought that we are not the right person in God’s economy.
The enemy doesn’t only attack us by persecution but even more, he sends many “germs” to bother us, wear us out, and cause us to feel low and down.
The only way we can be preserved in the church life and in the ministry is by taking the spiritual antibiotic, the living word of God as the Spirit with a killing sword.
In the word of God, there are many healthy antibiotics, and we desperately need these.
This means that in our experience day by day we need to convert the logos word of God into the rhema word, and we need to allow the living word of God to operate in us and become the killing sword, even the antibiotic to all our germs.
On one hand, the word of God is full of nourishment and nutrition; when we eat the Lord in His word, we are richly fed and thoroughly supplied.
On the other hand, the word of God is the sword of the Spirit to kill the enemy and the word is also the spiritual antibiotic to kill the germs in us and the evil spirits in the air.
In this way, by our taking the spiritual antibiotics by praying over the word of God so that this word becomes living, Spirit, and life (John 6:63), we become healthy and we live a healthy Body life.
Especially as we live in the Body, as we meet with the saints and both us and the saints have “germs”, we need to read and pray over God’s word so that we may be healed from our germs.
As long as in experience the word of God becomes the Spirit, the word will not only heal us and nourish us but it will also kill the enemy and remove all the germs.
We need to inhale the word of God and then exhale it to one another so that we all may take our spiritual antibiotic and all the germs within us may be killed.
First, the enemy in the air is killed, and then, the adversary within us is exposed and defeated.
Then, any germs that are in us will be removed, for the word of God is sharp and operative, dividing soul and spirit, able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb. 4:12).
![For the word of God is living and operative and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Heb. 4:12 And He had in His right hand seven stars; and out of His mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword; and His face [shone] as the sun shines in its power. Rev. 1:16](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/For-the-word-of-God-is-living-and-operative-and-sharper-than-any-two-edged-sword-and-piercing-even-to-the-dividing-of-soul-and-spirit-5-683x1024.jpg?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "For the word of God is living and operative and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Heb. 4:12 And He had in His right hand seven stars; and out of His mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword; and His face [shone] as the sun shines in its power. Rev. 1:16")
May we be the Lord’s overcomers today, those who keep the Lord’s word by always coming to the Lord to contact Him as the living Word in the written Word so that He can become the applied word as the dispensing Spirit in us (Rev. 3:8; John 1:1; 5:39-40; 6:63).
The overcomers overcome the enemy and everything negative in them not by their power or zeal but by the word of their testimony.
They apply the blood of the Lamb for their failures, they rely on the Lord, and they speak the word of their testimony, which is the breathing out of the Christ in the word which has been inhaled by us.
We all are learning to come to the Lord’s word and keep it by contacting the Lord so that He can become the applied word to our being.
We want to be fully constituted with the Spirit as the Word of God to be the bride of Christ and the new man!
Amen, we want to be the corporate man of God with the breath of God as the killing sword for the destruction of the enemies of God and the manifestation of the sons of God (Rev. 2:7; 22:17a; 19:13- 15; 2 Thes. 2:8; Rev. 1:16).
If we daily allow the word of God to be the killing sword to defeat the enemy in us, we will be one with the Lord who will return to destroy the enemy by the word of His mouth.
Amen, may the Lord gain us to be such ones, and may we open to Him to make us such ones.
Lord Jesus, we love You and we love Your word. We come to Your word with our spirit exercised so that the living word in the written word would become the applied word as the dispensing Spirit in us. Dispense Your riches into us by means of Your word. Amen, Lord, work more of Yourself into us by Your living word becoming the applied word in our being and in our experience. Keep us coming to You in Your word to be healed, nourished, and supplied, and also to have the adversary in us be destroyed. Oh Lord, expose and remove any germs in our being. Shine on us through Your word. May Your word be the spiritual antibiotic we need and take to remove any germs in our being. We want to live a healthy Body life today in the church life. Amen, Lord, we want to be fully constituted with the Spirit as the word of God so that we may be part of the bride of Christ and the new man! Yes, Lord, make us the man of God with the breath of God as the killing sword for the destruction of the enemies of God and the manifestation of the sons of God!
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, Life-study of Ephesians, msg. 97, by Witness Lee, 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:
– Setting our mind on the spirit, article by Ed Marks via, Affirmation and Critique.
– Taking in the compound Spirit, a portion from, The Mending Ministry of John, Chapter 9, by Witness Lee.
– “Let Your Speech Be Always with Grace, Seasoned with Salt”, via, Shepherding Words.
– The Sword of the Spirit Killing Offenses, article by Joshua Davis.
– Pray-reading the Word of God – Pray-reading the Word of God is a precious life practice revealed in the Bible. The Lord began to recover this practice among us in 1966, and since that time we have been learning to receive and enjoy God’s Word “by means of all prayer” (Eph. 6:18). In this article we would like to consider our practice of pray-reading. More via, Having This Ministry.
– A Revolutionary Concept about the Bible, via, Bibles for America blog.
– The Word of God, a portion from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 1) Vol. 01: The Christian Life and Warfare, Chapter 7, by Watchman Nee.
– My Experience Growing up in the Church Life with Spiritual Fathers and Mothers, via, Living to Him.
– What is to Eat God’s Word? More via, The Hearing of Faith.
– Why Read the Bible? To Slay God’s Adversary! More via, Holding to Truth in Love. - Hymns on this topic:
– O may I love Thy precious Word, / May I explore the mine, / May I its glorious riches take, / May light upon me shine. / O may I find my armor there, / Thy Word my trusty sword; / I’ll learn to fight with every foe / The battle of the Lord. (Hymns #804 stanza 3)
– It is the breath of God as strength to man, / Power divine to man it doth transmit, / Strength’ning the weak, empowering the faint, / Enabling man God’s purpose full to fit. / It is the breath of God for us to breathe, / That as our portion God we may enjoy; / Receiving it by spirits exercised, / Our need is met, His wealth we may employ. (Hymns #799 stanzas 5-6)
– God’s own Word must not be taken / Just as knowledge but as life, / Not alone God’s thought conveying, / But Himself to us as life; / Not alone God’s mind revealing, / But His Christ as life within, / Not alone the teaching giving, / But experience of Him. (Hymns #816 stanza 1)
About aGodMan
![For if we have grown together with [Him] in the likeness of His death, indeed we will also be [in][ the] [likeness] of His resurrection. Rom. 6:5](https://i0.wp.com/agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/For-if-we-have-grown-together-with-Him-in-the-likeness-of-His-death-indeed-we-will-also.jpg?fit=178%2C100&ssl=1)
Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1984, vol. 1, “Teachers’ Training,” pp. 432-433
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08/24/24 Being Fully Equipped Man of God by Inhaling and Exhaling the Word of God as the Breath of God (Week 5, Day 6)
“To Receive the Word of God as the Breath of God in Order to Be Constituted with God is also to Receive the Word of God as the Sword of the Spirit in Order to Slay God’s Adversary: (Part 2) We are Preserved in the Church Life and in the Ministry by Receiving the Word as the Spirit to Be the Killing Sword, which is a Spiritual Antibiotic to Kill the Germs within Us”
Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and operative and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Not only does the Word of God the spiritual milk for newly borne babes and solid food for matured ones, on the positive side, (1Cor 3:2; Heb 5:12; 14), the Word of God is also a spiritual antibiotic that kills the “germs” within us and a killing two-edged sword that pierces and divides the soul and the spirit, on the negative side.
On the one hand, the Word of God, as our spiritual food, supplies us with spiritual nutrients and vitamins for us to grow in the divine life. On the other hand, the Word of God, as our spiritual Sword, kills the negative elements within us, especially in the “self.” Our “self” is our worst enemy, and the most difficult foe because the “self” is just us, our soul, being governed by Satan as sin in our flesh.
Our “self” has an automatic strong defense mechanism that rejects everything that is of God and of God’s will. Only the living, operating, and applied Word that is activated by our pray-reading of the written Word with our mingled spirit that can pierce and penetrate into the strong “self” to remove its devilish elements, thus gradually renewing our mind to be one with God’s mind, recovering our emotion to love God more, and subduing our will to cooperate with God’s will.
Ephesians, a book on the church as the Body of Christ, talks about the Body life, the oneness of the Body (4:4), and the Body being the fullness of the One who fills all in all (Eph 1:23). We need to realize that things such as our opinion, thought, temper, emotion, natural life, and point of view are often used by the powers of darkness in the air to damage the Body life.
As brothers and sisters in the church, we all have our emotion, thought, opinion, and natural life, and we all have our own point of view. Quite often, we are offended, not due to the wrongdoings of others but simply due to our emotion or opinion. A chair cannot be offended, because it does not have feelings. No matter how you treat a chair, it will not be offended. However, it is easy for brothers and sisters in the church to be offended.
Due to their emotion, sisters are easily offended. Suppose an older brother speaks a word to a particular sister, and she is offended because of her emotion. Then, the evil power in the air comes in to take advantage of her emotion, and she determines not to forget that she has been offended. Apparently, the problem is her emotion. Actually, the problem is that her emotion has been taken over by the evil force in the air. This means that the real enemy is not this sister’s emotion but the evil spirit in the air who takes advantage of her emotion in order to damage the church life.
Because of the enemy’s use of her emotion, this sister first has a negative effect on her husband, and then she goes on to have a negative effect on several others. As a result, part of the Body is poisoned. If the enemy is to be defeated in this situation, the sister must learn to receive the word as the Spirit, which becomes the sword to deal with the enemy.
Since all Scripture, which includes all the verses in the Bible, is God’s Breath, His breathing out, it doesn’t matter which verse we would read and pray with our mingled spirit in order to receive the Spirit to become the killing sword to slay the enemy within us. As long as we pray-read any verse in the Bible, the Word spontaneously becomes living and operative to remove any negative elements from within us.
In order for us to be preserved in the church life and in the ministry, we need to continually receive the Word as the Spirit by reading and praying on the Word. Then, the Word that we receive as the Spirit then becomes the sword to slay the enemy. We are thus being inoculated from the temptations of the enemy within and outside of us. Apparently, the sword of the Spirit kills our emotion; actually, it kills the evil spirit in the air who takes advantage of our emotion. Whereas our emotion is killed directly, the evil spirit is killed indirectly.