Being Priestly Teachers Filled with God and Skilled in the Word to Teach the Truth

In the church life in the Lord’s recovery today we need Ezras, priestly teachers who contact God and are filled with God and are skilled in the word of God; their teaching is an opening of the veil for others to see the heavenly truths of God’s economy and apply them to their daily living.

Ezra was a person greatly used by God in his time to bring the people of Israel back to the word of God.

We need to return to the word of God.

There are many spiritual writings and good books that comment on the word of God, and there are many sermons and messages given to expound the Bible; however, the basis of our Christian life should be the word of God.

We need to come back to the word of God and read the Bible every day.

Without reading the Bible with the exercise of our spirit to contact the Lord, we are just like those around us.

Without reading the Bible with a heart turned to the Lord and a face unveiled, we only get knowledge from the word of God.

May we daily spend time with the Lord in His word, seeking His leading and being open to receive His speaking.

The word of God is living and operative, sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to divide the soul and the spirit.

As we read the Bible and open to the Lord, He is able to divide our soul from our spirit, and we will choose to be in the mingled spirit for the sake of God’s economy.

As we read the Bible and allow the Lord to speak to us, He infuses Himself into us and we are saturated with the thoughts of God and the considerations of God.

By such a heavenly constitution, we will live as God’s people.

This heavenly constitution in our being comes not from our trying to remember what would Jesus do in this situation or how to apply a particular verse in our case but by our being immersed in the Word of God and allowing the Word of Christ to dwell in us richly.

May we take this way in the church life today.

May we not merely seek to have an ephemeral inspiration as we come to God’s word but seek to contact God in His word and be infused with His rich element.

As we allow the word of God to dwell in us richly by reading, praying, musing, and prayerfully considering the word of God, we will be constituted with the heavenly truths.

Then, when we meet others, we will have something to share with them in the way of teaching the truth by rolling away the veil so that they may see something concerning God’s economy.

May we take the way of being constituted with the word of God by daily being in His word so that He would work Himself into us and fill us, and so that the word of Christ would richly dwell in us and even overflow through us in our speaking.

May the church life be filled with the Lord’s rich speaking in and through the saints.

Teaching the Word of God equals Revelation: Opening the Veil for Others to see Christ and God’s Economy

When we speak of the need to be the Ezras of today, the priestly teachers who are filled with God and teaching the word of God we don’t mean that we need to know more doctrines and memorise more of God’s word so that we would be able to recite it.

Teaching, according to the Bible, equals revelation; teaching is opening the veils for others to see something of God, Christ, and the church (1 Tim. 2:7; Eph. 3:3-4, 9).

People today are covered with a veil; the unbelievers are blinded by the god of this age so that they would not see the knowledge of the glory of God shining on the face of Jesus Christ.

Even we as believers are many times veiled, covered, for our heart that is not turned toward the Lord is covered with a veil so that we don’t see Him.

Our teaching of the truth, therefore, needs to impart revelation into others, opening the veil for them to see Christ and God’s economy.

Paul received by revelation the mystery of God, the church; he received the revelation of the mystery directly from the Lord.

The veil was rolled away and he saw the content of the mystery; concerning this mystery he wrote in many of his epistles, and we can perceive his understanding of the mystery of Christ.

Paul’s writings are a rolling away of the veils so that we may see what he perceived in his understanding through the revelation that he received from the Lord.

This kind of teaching is needed today in the church life. We need to not only speak the truth but roll away the veils so that others may see something of Christ and of God’s economy.

Our teaching of the truth should be in such a way that others see God, His economy, Christ and His all-inclusiveness, and the church as the Body of Christ.

Furthermore, they need to enter into the enjoyment of the Lord.

To teach is to roll away the veil; as we are teaching others, we should be taking away the veil so that they may see something of the Triune God.

We should aspire to be such ones in the church life, those who roll away the veils so that others may see something of the Triune God.

When we speak something in the church meeting, our speaking should be the rolling away of the veil. This means that our teaching should present a revelation (1 Tim. 4:6).

To prophesy, to speak for the Lord and to speak the Lord forth in the meeting, is to release some spiritual vision as a revelation and some spiritual enlightenment as a light to shine over others.

To prophesy in the meetings is to either bring certain things of God to light or to bring people into the enlightenment of God.

First, we ourselves need to be under the Lord’s enlightenment, and we need to be filled with the divine light.

Then, we need to bring others also into this light, rolling away the veils that they may see and bringing them into the enjoyment of Christ.

Like the apostle Paul, we were also entrusted with this stewardship, with this commission: to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God (Acts 26:18).

We may think that the saints in the church life are not under the authority of Satan, but actually most of us still have some ground for Satan in our being.

Our teaching of the truth, therefore, should be a rolling away of the veils for others to see God, Christ, the church, and the economy of God, and it should bring others into the participation and enjoyment in the portion allotted to the saints in the light.

When we speak in the church meetings, we shouldn’t simply describe certain experiences that we have; we may use these experiences to illustrate what we are saying, but the experiences should not be the content of our prophecy.

Our teaching the truth and speaking for the Lord should be a word that brings revelation, spiritual vision, and spiritual enlightenment to others.

May the Lord bring us all into this kind of speaking in the church meetings!

And praise the Lord, He is doing it little by little!

As we practice speaking for the Lord and teaching the truth by exercising our spirit and being one with the Lord, the veils are rolled away, and others can see something of God.

This will bring them into the experience and enjoyment of Christ, and together we partake of the all-inclusive Christ as our portion.

Lord Jesus, we want to be filled with Your word and speak the truth in the church meetings to impart revelation into others. Amen, Lord, may our speaking in the meetings release some spiritual vision as a revelation and some spiritual enlightenment as a light to shine over others. Keep us in the light. Keep us enjoying You and being filled with You. Saturate us with Yourself. May our speaking of the truth and teaching of the word of God be a rolling away of the veils for others to see God, Christ, the church, and the economy of God. Amen, Lord Jesus, may we be one with You to open others’ eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God! May many saints be brought into the enjoyment of the inheritance given to the saints who are being sanctified by faith in the Lord!

Priestly Teachers Labor to Constitute God’s people by Educating them with the Truth so that they may be God’s Testimony on the Earth

Today in the church life in the Lord’s recovery we need more Ezras, those who are priestly teachers contacting God, being saturated with God, being one with God, being mingled with God, and being filled with God.

These are also skilful in the word of God and their teaching of the truth rolls away the veil for others to see and enter into the enjoyment and experience of Christ for the church (Matt. 13:52; 2 Cor. 3:5-6; 1 Tim. 2:7; 2 Tim. 1:11).

Such ones are qualified to be a teacher in the church life. We all need to aspire to be those who teach the truth in the proper way; we need to be the Ezras of today.

However, some Christians today are very much in the word but not in the enjoyment of Christ in spirit; they overemphasize the matter of knowing the doctrines in God’s word but neglect the Spirit.

Other Christians are very much on the side of the Spirit, seeking to be filled in spirit and to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but they neglect the word of God.

We should not be to either of these extremes; we must have the Word with the Spirit.

The word of God brings the Spirit into our being, and we then partake of the Spirit through the word of God.

We need to be the priestly teachers in the church life today, those who are mingled with God and are skilled with the word of God.

The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life; if we merely remain in the letter of the word, we will receive and impart death, but if we exercise our spirit in coming to God’s word, we receive Spirit and life.

May we be the priestly teachers of today who are ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit.

May the Spirit saturate us and fill us, and may the word of Christ richly dwell in us in all wisdom.

If we are such priestly teachers, the Ezras of today, we will minister Christ to others as we teach the truth.

Today’s Ezras, the priestly teachers who contact God and are skilled in the word, should labor to constitute God’s people by educating them with the truth so that they may be God’s testimony, His corporate expression on the earth (Neh. 8:1-8, 13; 2 Tim. 2:2, 15; 1 Tim. 3:15).

Being a priestly teacher involves a labor.

We need to labor first to be filled with God and constituted with the word of God, and then to constitute God’s people by educating them with the truth that they may be God’s testimony on the earth.

We need to be educated. Humanly speaking, education takes a long time. Children may enter the education system at the age of four, and they study until they are twenty-five or so.

Education is not something that happens overnight, in one day, or even in one week; it is something continual.

And education trains a person, teaching them skills and giving them the knowledge he needs to perform certain things for the benefit of society.

What results after going through the American educational system is an American who knows what to do and say in American society.

2 Tim. 2:2 says that Timothy heard from Paul things through many witnesses, and so Timothy should commit these things to faithful men who will be competent to teach others also.

Paul taught Timothy not only directly but also through many witnesses, and now he charged Timothy to commit these things to faithful men who will do the same; this is spiritual education.

We need to hear things and receive the things of God’s economy through many witnesses, and then pass them on to others so that they would be competent to teach others also.

Through this, the divine truths are preserved and propagated among God’s people.

This kind of spiritual education produces a certain constitution, and the church becomes the house of God, the church of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15).

The church upholds the truth and supports the truth, holding the truth forth for all to see.

And when others look at us as the church people, they see the great mystery of godliness: God manifested in the flesh.

As we remain in the word of God, are filled with the Lord and skilled in God’s word, and teach the truth, the church becomes the manifestation of God in the flesh, for we live Christ and express Him to be His testimony on the earth.

Lord Jesus, make us the priestly teachers of today who are filled with God and are skilled in the word of God, speaking the truth in the church life. Amen, Lord, we give ourselves to You to contact God, be saturated with God, be one with God, and be mingled with God! Fill us with Yourself and make us one with You. May Your word dwell in us richly and become our very constitution so that we may be filled with God’s word and skilful in the word of God. Amen, Lord, we give ourselves to labor on the word of God and be filled with Christ so that, in our speaking, we may help others be educated with the heavenly truths and become the church as the testimony of God. Gain Your testimony on the earth. Gain a group of people who are mingled with God and who speak the truth constituted into them for others to be enlightened and brought in the enjoyment of Christ! Fill our meetings, dear Lord, with much speaking of the truth by the priestly teachers who prophesy!

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. 422-424, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther (2022 winter training), week 5, entitled, Ezra, a Priestly Scribe, and the Need for Ezras – Those Skilled in the Word of God.
• Further reading on this topic:
  – The universal priesthood and endeavouring to bear fruit, a portion from, The Speciality, Generality, and Practicality of the Church Life, Chapter 7, by Witness Lee.
  – The testimony of a priest who became a real priest, via, The church in San Gabriel.
  – Quotes from the ministry regarding priests and priesthood, and how we can be the acting God, via, A Faithful Word.
  – The need for Ezras – those skilled in the word of God, via, The church in Los Angeles.
  – Quotes from the ministry on how God wants to raise up the universal priesthood, via, The Practical Building Up of the Local Churches.
  – Preaching the gospel as priests of the gospel of God, a portion from, Elders’ Training, Book 09: The Eldership and the God-Ordained Way (1), Chapter 11, by Witness Lee.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – All Scripture is the very breath of God, / And by His Spirit into words was breathed; / By godly men the words were written down, / With all God’s fulness unto man bequeathed… / 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. (Hymns #799 stanzas 1 and 5)
  – Oh, send Thy Spirit, Lord, / Now unto me, / That He may touch my eyes, / And make me see; / Show me the truth concealed / Within Thy Word, / And in Thy Book revealed / I see the Lord. (Hymns #806 stanza 3)
  – Oh, healthful teaching, wholesome words: / The truth of godliness! / Oh, good deposit, common faith, / And life of holiness! / Lord, make us now those faithful men / Who pass on what we’ve heard; / Make us examples of the saints / In spirit, faith, and word. (Hymns #1285 stanzas 5-6)