The word of God is living and operative, sharper than any two-edged sword, able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit; we need to take the word of God in with a praying spirit so that we can build up our new man and discern our spirit from our soul.
We all need to be renewed not only in the spirit of our mind as we get into the Word but also in our person and in the way we come to the word of God.
Especially when we come to the book of Proverbs, such a great collection of wise sayings and proverbs, it is so easy for us to come to this book in our mind to get more knowledge instead of coming to this book in our spirit.
All Scripture – including the book of Proverbs – is God-breathed and profitable (2 Tim. 3:16); when we come to the Bible, we need to pray over the word of God, mix the word with our prayer, and take the word by means of all prayer and petition.
On one hand, our mind is exercised to understand the word of God, but this is not the primary matter; the most important thing we need to do when coming to the Word of God is to exercise our spirit to receive Spirit and life from the Lord in His word.
In the book of Proverbs, we see some big proverbs which can be considered to be nuggets and smaller proverbs like gems; these are NOT for us to build up our old man but for us to build up our new man.
Hallelujah, we have two men in us – the old man which is decaying and is being corrupted, and the new man which is being renewed according to the image of Him who created him.
When we come to the word of God, we should come in our new man, that is, by exercising our spirit to receive Spirit and life from the Lord in his word.
If we turn our heart to the Lord and exercise our spirit as we come to the word of God, this word will build up our new man and strengthen our life of pursuing Christ for the fulfilment of God’s economy.
If we merely exercise our mind when we come to God’s word, we may gain knowledge to the end that we aspire to do what the word says; the result is the building up of our natural man, which the Lord hates and will tear down.
Oh, may we have a revolutionary change in our being when we come to the Word of God, and may we live in and by the new man for the fulfilment of God’s economy to build up the Body of Christ!
Receive the Living and Operating Word of God with a Praying Spirit to Discern our spirit from our soul
Hebrews 4:12 is a key verse in the Bible, telling us that 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, able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
All the word of God – both the Old and the New Testament – is living and operative, being able to pierce and divide the soul from the spirit.
Just as the marrow is concealed deep in the joints, so the spirit is concealed deep in the soul; just as there is the need for the breaking of the joints to get to the marrow, so there is the need of the dividing of the soul and the spirit.
The dividing of the spirit from the soul requires the breaking of the soul so that the spirit may flow forth and be free.
We are so many times in our wondering mind, sometimes even doubting God’s way of salvation, and we consider our own interests above God’s interest.
Our soul has to be broken by the living and operative word of God; we need to receive the living and operative word of God with a praying spirit so that we may discern our spirit from our soul.
This word, discern, requires a keen sense, a sensibility; when we exercise our spirit and receive the living and operating word of God, we will be able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Many times our thoughts are not the expression of ourselves but they are from the enemy, being defiled, evil, and bad.
We need to pray-read the word of God and allow it to pierce and divide the soul from the spirit, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
The strategy of the enemy is to mix everything together, that is, to mix our spirit with our soul and thus bring us into confusion; nearly everyone in today’s world is in a mixed situation.
When we are in a mixed situation when the spirit is not divided from the soul, the spirit loses and the soul wins.
We need to receive the living and operative word of God with a praying spirit so that we may build up our new man and we would be able to discern our spirit from our soul.
When we come to the word of God, when we read the book of Proverbs, we need to allow the word of God to pierce and divide the spirit from the soul.
The more we come to the Lord and know Him by being filled with His light and presence, the more we will treasure purity over power (Matt. 5:8; Luke 11:34-36; Psa. 119:105, 130).
The way for us to be purged from the mixture of the spirit and the soul is through the revelation of the Holy Spirit; the dividing of the soul and the spirit occurs when God’s word illuminates us, shining within us to reveal the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Psa. 36:9; 1 Pet. 2:9).
We need to come to the Lord’s word in a proper way to receive the Lord’s light in His word; the entrance of His words gives light, imparting understanding to the simple.
As the Lord shines on us through His word, our spirit and our soul are cut asunder, and there will be a clear separation between them.
The living and operative word of God separates our soul from our spirit, exposing the very thoughts and intentions of our heart.
Whatever we see under the shining of God from the word of God is killed by the light; it is a great thing in our Christian experience to have the killing that comes from the Lord’s light.
The dividing of our soul from our spirit comes from the shining of the Lord through His living and operating word as we receive it with a prayerful spirit.
Lord Jesus, we receive the living and operative word of God with a praying spirit so that we can discern our spirit from our soul. Amen, Lord, we come to Your word in a prayerful way so that You may shine on us through Your word and expose the thoughts and intentions of our heart. Save us from having our spirit mixed with our soul; save us from living in a mixed way, in the way of confusion. Shine on us, Lord, and illuminate us through Your Word so that our spirit may be cut asunder from our soul and we would live in the mingled spirit. We agree with Your divine light, Lord; may Your shining kill anything that it exposes so that our soul and our spirit would be separated. We treasure Your living and operative word; we come to You in Your word with a praying spirit to get Your shining, Your enlightening, and Your exposing!
Being Lovers and Seekers of God coming to the Word of God Prayerfully to Build up and Live by the New Man
It is really a great thing for us to see what God sees – this is revelation; this requires that God would open our eyes to see our intentions and the deepest thoughts in our being as God sees them.
As we come to the Lord’s living and operative word, our thoughts and intentions are exposed, and our soul is separated, divided, from our spirit.
This requires that we come to the word of God in a prayerful way.
Apart from pray-reading, the book of Proverbs is merely a collection of proverbs, but when we read Proverbs prayerfully, that is, when we pray-read Proverbs, our pray-reading causes all the proverbs to become words of spirit and life to us.
When we come to the Lord’s word we need to be not letter-keepers but God-seekers, those who love and seek God in His word, so that we may not build up our natural man by gaining more knowledge but build up our new man and live by the new man.
As the Lord shines on us through His living and operative word, we get the divine light and our old man is exposed; we will realize how much we still try to build up our old man.
The Lord is faithful to shine on us and expose us of how much we still try to be perfect by keeping the law, how much we try to be a good brother or sister by our natural strength, and how much we still try to keep the words of wisdom in the Bible by our old man.
All these efforts of the old man, whether obvious or subtle, is to build up the old man, the outer man, which the Lord hates.
May we come to the Bible as God-seekers, as lovers of God, those who seek God with all our heart.
May we come to the word of God by seeking God’s favour and entreating His countenance, asking God to cause His face to shine upon us so that we may walk in God’s presence (Psa. 27:8; 105:4; 119:2, 10, 58, 135, 168; 2 Cor. 3:6).
We desire that His face would shine upon us so that, as we study the word of God, we would live in His presence by living by the new man.
We should never come to God’s word without seeking His face; we should come to the Bible to be before the Lord’s countenance.
This will safe keep us and will render us much profit, even spirit and life.
When we come to the word of God in a prayerful way, we will build up our new man and our old man will be exposed.
The book of Proverbs should not be used to cultivate and build up our old man but to cultivate and build up our regenerated new man; we should come to this book in a prayerful way so that we may foster, develop, grow, and develop the new man.
Our whole Christian life is a continual building up of the new man until it is full-grown and perfect in the Lord’s sight.
One way that this building up is manifested is by our not responding to things or people in a fast way; when we stop and consider prayerfully before the Lord before responding, we can live by the new man.
When we are about to talk to someone about a brother or sister in the church, we should stop and contact the Lord; this will cause our natural man to be stopped and we can give the new man a way to live and be manifested.
When our mind is about to go wild when we discover we are in our thoughts and in our way of thinking, we should simply set our mind on our spirit and exercise our spirit to contact the Lord; in this way, our spirit will be discerned from our soul, and we will build up a strong habit of exercising our spirit.
When we are about to respond to an email asking for fellowship, when we’re considering what to respond to a WhatsApp or text message, we can simply turn to the Lord and contact Him, and wait in His presence until we have His feeling and guidance concerning what to respond.
If we do this habitually, if we exercise to stop and contact the Lord, prayerfully read the Bible and allowing the living and operating word of God to divide our soul and spirit, we will nurture and foster the new man, and we will live in and by the new man more and more, thus walking according to our spirit.
Lord Jesus, we want to be God-seekers and not letter-keepers; we come to You to seek You with all of our heart! We love You, Lord, and we seek Your favour by entreating Your countenance. Cause Your face to shine upon us and make us those who walk in God’s presence. May we see what You see; expose the thoughts and intentions of our heart, and cause Your living and operative word divide our soul and spirit. Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit and we set our mind on our spirit! We choose to live in spirit today. We choose to build up and nurture our new man so that we may live by the new man and not by the old man! Amen, Lord Jesus, work this out in us!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1993, vol. 2, “The Spirit with Our Spirit“, ch. 8, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes (2020 winter training), week 9, Reading the Book of Proverbs with a Praying Spirit So That It Will Render Us Nuggets and Gems to Strengthen Our Life of Pursuing Christ for the Fulfillment of God’s Economy.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Oh, how the Word doth penetrate, / Spirit and soul divide, / Revealing every hidden weight / For us to lay aside. / Lord, how we thank Thee for Thy Word, / Living and operative. / Oh, for Thy coming, we are stirred / Ever by it to live! (Hymns #1310)
– Lord, teach us to discern the spirit, / To us Thy living Word so give / That soul from spirit be divided / And in the holiest place we’ll live. (Hymns #746)
– Lord, teach me how to exercise / My spirit now to contact Thee, / That in Thy Spirit I may walk / And live by Thy reality. (Hymns #493)
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