Receiving the Spirit and Life contained in God’s Word by Praying over God’s Word

Ezekiel was told by God to take and eat the scroll, and then to prophesy for God; as believers in Christ, we need to eat the words of the Bible, taking the word of God into us by means of all prayer, and receive the Spirit that is embodied in the word of God.

Jeremiah said, Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word became to me the gladness and joy of my heart (Jer. 15:16). We need to come to God’s word not as we come to a book – only to read it, but come with a heart turned to the Lord and with an exercised spirit to pray over the word of God and eat it.

Our normal response to God’s word, as we read the Bible, should be to eat the word of God. We shouldn’t be satisfied merely with reading the Bible according to a schedule or reading the Bible to get knowledge.

According to the entire revelation in the Holy Bible, God’s words are good for us to eat, and we as God’s people need to eat the word of God.

Our concept concerning the Bible needs to change; the Bible is not a book like other books which we should come to get knowledge about God, but we should come to God’s word to eat His word, for the word of God is good for us to eat.

Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4); whatever God spoke in His word is our food, and every word of God in the Bible is good for us to eat.

As we exercise our spirit to pray-read the word of God, the word of God in the Bible becomes our food, and it is through the word of God that God dispenses His riches into our inner being to nourish us.

This is the way we can live because of Him and we can express Him: it is by eating His words in the Bible, allowing them to be digested and assimilated into us, and living because of the word of God (John 6:57).

In His economy God desires to dispense Himself with all His rich and bountiful attributes into our being so that we may be reconstituted with Himself and thus express Him.

How can this be? How can we express Christ? It is by spending much personal, intimate, spiritual, private time with the Lord in His word to pray over His word and receive the life supply daily. When we read the word of God in a prayerful way, His word becomes our heart’s gladness and joy.

Taking God’s Word as our Food, Eating the Words of the Bible, and Living on the Word

We need to eat the words of the Bible. The words that the Lord has spoken to us are not mere words: they are Spirit and they are life (John 6:63).

Therefore, as those begotten of God with His life and nature, we should long for the guileless milk of the word, that by it we may grow unto salvation, if we have tasted that the Lord is good (1 Pet. 2:2-3).

Eating the words of the Bible – eating the word of God in the Bible – is a revolutionary thought; no other words are food except the word of God. When we read another book or a newspaper, there’s no food there; but God’s words are food for us to eat.

The Bible is not merely for reading but for eating. We need to develop a spiritual skill of eating the word of God, and we need to exercise to eat the words of the Bible. We need to know how to extract the life essence, the life supply, the spiritual food, from the written word of the Bible.

The word of God is not mainly for knowledge but for nourishment; yes, there is knowledge imparted into our mind when we read the Bible, but the main function of God’s word is to be our food.

Although the Bible is a book of teaching, its teaching is not merely to impart mental knowledge but to minister food to us.

In Heb. 5:12 the word of God is likened to milk and solid food, which are both for nourishment; some of the words in the Bible can be considered to be milk, and some are solid food. Milk is for the immature, for babies and infants; solid food is for those mature.

The Lord Jesus Himself took the word of God in the Scriptures as His bread and lived on it – this is why He could say to the devil, Man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4).

The Lord Jesus as a real and genuine man ate the word of God in the Scriptures; He took the word of God in the Bible as His bread, and He lived because of it. He had to do what we also have to do today: He got up early in the morning to eat God’s word, and then He had to digest and assimilate God’s word.

As a real man, Jesus started reading the Bible at least when He was 12; He studied it, ate the word of God, and learned how to do it day by day. He ate the word of God and lived because of it, and He told us to eat Him by eating His words and live because of Him (John 6:57, 63).

How do we eat the Lord? We eat Him through His word.

The Lord Jesus lived out the Father by taking His word, digesting it, and living because of it; now we need to take the word of God in the way of food by praying over it, eat the words of God as our bread, let the words of God be assimilated into our inner being, and live because of God’s word.

Lord Jesus, we want to learn to eat the words of the Bible by exercising our spirit to pray over the word of God. Save us from merely trying to get knowledge in our reading of the Bible. May our reading of God’s word be enriched and uplifted by adding our prayer with the exercise of our spirit so that the word of God would become food to us! Lord, we want to learn to eat Your word, digest Your word, assimilate Your word, and live because of Your word so that we may express You! Hallelujah, God’s word is food to us!

Receiving the Spirit and Life contained in God’s Word by Praying over God’s Word

If we read a text-book or a newspaper, we cannot say that the words in that book are spirit and are life; the Lord said of His words, The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life (John 6:63).

The nature of God’s words is spirit and life, therefore we cannot approach God’s word like we approach any other book. The words of the Lord Jesus are the embodiment of the Spirit of life; the Spirit of life is embodied in the Lord’s words (Rom. 8:2).

The Spirit who is life, the life-giving Spirit, is embodied in something physical, some words; if there are no words, it is difficult to get the Spirit or get life, but because we have the word of God, we can get the Spirit.

Christ is now the life-giving Spirit in resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45), and the Spirit is embodied in His words (John 6:63). We need to translate or convert the written words of the Bible into Spirit and life.

Did you know that there is such a device that can translate the written words of the Scriptures into Spirit and life? When we were created by God, He already installed in us an app, a device: our spirit.

When we exercise our spirit to pray over the word of God, our spirit converts the written words of God into Spirit and life. If you process the words in the Bible through your mind, you get knowledge; but when you exercise your spirit, you get Spirit and life.

Our human spirit, once we exercise it, has the ability to transfer or convert the written word of God into its essential nature – Spirit and life.

Many of us have smartphones, and on our smartphones we may have some apps that we never thought are already installed, but once we use them, they are very useful and great.

In our being we have a pre-installed app, a pre-installed device since we were born, but not many use it; when we discover that we can pray over the word of God with the exercise of our spirit to get the Spirit and life contained in the word, we will be amazed: it is fantastic!

We can convert the word of God into Spirit and life and then we can speak them as a prophecy – we speak Spirit and life into others, that is, we speak words which convey the Spirit and the life of God.

When others hear our speaking, they receive Spirit and life.

When we receive the words of God in the Bible by exercising our spirit, we receive the Spirit, who is life. How do we exercise our spirit to receive the words of God? It is by means of all prayer (see Eph. 6:17).

We need to receive the Spirit and life contained in God’s word by praying over God’s word, and by learning to pray all kinds of prayer to receive, extract, and convert the word of God into Spirit and life.

May we be believers who learn the skill of converting the written word of God into Spirit and life by exercising our spirit to pray over God’s word!

Lord Jesus, thank You for giving us a spirit, a marvelous organ which we can use to convert the word of God in the Bible into Spirit and life. We want to learn the skill of extracting the essence of God’s word by praying over the words in the Bible with the exercise of our spirit. Oh Lord, save us from merely gaining more knowledge in Your word. Save us from reading Your word as we read a textbook. May we learn to receive the Spirit and life contained in God’s word by praying over God’s word every time we come to the Bible!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother Mark R. for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Hebrews, pp. 315-316 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Ezekiel (1), msg. 10 (week 10), Eating the Scroll — Eating and Digesting the Word of God.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # If I Thy Word would understand, / I must Thy Holy Spirit touch; / Not only grasp it with my mind, / But with my spirit, praying much. (Hymns #802)
  # Christ is the Word and Spirit too, / And as the Spirit in the Word; / And all the words He speaks to us / Are life and spirit thus conferred. (Hymns #815)
  # All the knowledge of the Scriptures / Into life must be transformed, / All the mental understanding / In the spirit must be formed; / All the Scriptural understanding / Must become the life received, / All the knowledge of the letters / In the spirit be conceived. (Hymns #816)