Ezra was used by God to reconstitute the people of Israel by educating them with the heavenly truths so that Israel could become God’s testimony; we need to be a divinely constituted people to be God’s testimony by being reconstituted with the word of God. Amen!
Ezra was not a prophet who spoke the word of God directly from His mouth; he was a priest and a scribe, a priestly scribe, who spoke and gave meaning to the word of God spoken through Moses.
We may not be those who have the direct revelation from God to speak a new word to His people like the prophets in the Old Testament did, but we all need to be the Ezras of today.
We need to be those who contact the Lord and are filled with Him to be real priests to God, those who spend time with God to be infused with God and be one with God.
Also, we need to be those who are saturated with the word of God, allowing the word to dwell in us richly in all wisdom.
We need to be both contacting the Lord continually and spending time in the word of God with much prayerful consideration to being constituted with the word of God and be skilled in God’s word.
Day by day we need to take time to enjoy the Lord; we need to have set times to contact the Lord, and we also need to call on His name and seek His face throughout the day.
As we do this, we are priests to God, those who minister to Him and spend time in His presence.
As we come to the Lord in His word, we need to seek not only inspiration or enlightenment; we need to take the way of reading, praying, studying, reciting, and prophesying with the word of God.
As we read, pray, study, recite, and prophesy with the word of God, exercising our whole being including our mind to get into the word of God and the ministry that properly interprets the word of God, we become skilled in the word of God.
However, if the word of God is only committed to our mentality in the way of doctrine and teaching, if we do not exercise our spirit to internalize the word and be in touch with the Lord, we may have the letter of the word but not the life in the Word.
We need to be the priestly scribes of today, those who speak what the Lord has already spoken, ministering the word of God to others to bring them onward in their experience and enjoyment of Christ for the building up of the church.
We first need to get the insight into the word of God, being filled with the healthy teaching of God’s economy, and then we need to skillfully impart this insight into others to bring them back to the Lord and usher them into a deeper experience of Christ for the building up of the church.
How Ezra Reconstituted the People of Israel by Educating them with the Heavenly Truths for them to be God’s Testimony on Earth
If we read the books of Ezra and Nehemiah we will be impressed with this person, Ezra, who was used by the Lord to reconstitute the people of Israel by educating them with the word of God so that they would become God’s testimony on earth (Neh. 8:1-3, 5-6, 8, 13-18).
The people of Israel were taken into captivity by the Babylonians, and they were in captivity for seventy years.
Then, as prophesied by Jeremiah, many of the people of Israel returned to Jerusalem, for the king gave an edict allowing them and even encouraging them to go back to rebuild the house and city of God.
Hundreds of thousands were taken into captivity, but only a few returned in several waves, maybe even less than one hundred thousand people.
Even more, most of those who returned were born in captivity in Babylon.
They were Jewish people and Israel was their homeland, but they were born in Babylon and, by nature, they were Babylonian.
Even though they started to build the house of God and the city of God in Jerusalem, their very constitution was Babylonian.
They were born and raised in Babylon, and they had to be reconstituted with the word of God to become the testimony of God on earth in their very nature.
Because the Babylonian element had been wrought into them and constituted in their being, they had to be reconstituted.
Ezra was very useful in this matter, for he was one through whom the people of Israel could be reconstituted with the word of God.
God desires not only to bring His people back to the proper ground where they can rebuild His house and city on earth; He wants to gain a divinely constituted people to be His testimony.
Therefore, a reconstituting work needs to be taking place all the time, for by their very living among the nations around them, the people of God are defiled and influenced by negative elements.
In order for God’s people to be His testimony, a divinely constituted people on earth, they have to be reconstituted with the word of God.
This is our need today also.
In Neh. 8:1-8 we see that the people came together as one man before the Water Gate and told Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses and read to them.
Ezra did so, and he blessed Jehovah the great God; all the people answered, “Amen, Amen.”
They lifted up their hands, they worshipped Jehovah with their faces to the ground, and they received God’s word.
They were very touched by the word of God, for Ezra not only read the law of Moses to them but also gave the proper interpretation to apply it to their situation.
Rebellious Israel had been fully convinced and subdued by the word of God spoken through Moses and uttered by Ezra.
Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priestly scribe, and the Levites helped the people to understand the word of God, and they charged the people to sanctify that day unto Jehovah their God.
Furthermore, they encouraged the people not to mourn or weep but rather, to take joy in the Lord; the people were weeping when they heard the word of God, for it exposed their situation.
It was hard for people to rejoice, however, for they had been convinced and subdued by the word to realize that they are sinful (vv. 9-10).
Eventually, the people went their way rejoicing, eating and drinking and sending portions to one another, for they were inwardly changed and encouraged by the word of God (v. 12).
When we receive the word of God, we are subdued and convinced, and we may even weep, for we realize how sinful we are.
May we realize our need to be reconstituted with the Word of God to be the testimony of God on earth, a people shining forth with Christ as our life and living.
Lord Jesus, show us our need to be reconstituted with the word of God so that we may be Your testimony on the earth. Shine on us, Lord, through Your word. Have a way to expose our fallen condition and our mixed situation. May we allow Your word to shine, penetrate, and subdue us. May we let Your word fully convince and subdue us so that we may realize that we’re sinful and we need to be educated with the heavenly truths to be God’s testimony. Amen, Lord, we just open to You! We want to be a divinely constituted people to be Your testimony on the earth. Save us from living according to our old nature, our old habits, and our own way of living. We give ourselves to be educated with the heavenly truths in the word of God so that we may be reconstituted with the word of God and be the testimony of God!
Our Need to be Reconstituted with the Word of God to become God’s Testimony on earth
The history and experience of the people of Israel is a type of our history and experience in the church life.
We in the church life have been stirred up by the Lord in spirit and, in His mercy, we have returned to the ground of oneness, the Jerusalem of today, to rebuild the house of God.
Christ is the One who builds His church (Matt. 16:18), and we cooperate with Him by allowing Him to build Himself in us and build us into Himself.
However, as we live the church life and learn to build the church, we realize that our very constitution is problematic.
We may be burning in spirit, and many times our heart is for the Lord, but our daily living, our inward constitution, is so much like those around us, having many “Babylonian” elements and features.
And we may be completely oblivious to this.
We may live the church life and function in the meetings of the church but in a “Babylonian way” and according to our Babylonian constitution. Oh, Lord Jesus!
God desires to gain a divinely constituted people to be His testimony on the earth, and for us to be such ones, we need to be reconstituted with the Word of God.
The way for us to be reconstituted in our very essence is by being in the word of God.
God’s word reconstitutes us. Each one of us has our own kind of disposition and habitual behaviour; however, God is able to reconstitute us through His word.
Day by day we need to read the Bible. We need to be in the word of God every day.
The word of God gradually changes our mind and our way of thinking.
Even if we grow up in a Christian family or in the church life as a “church kid”, we still have to be in the word of God every day and read the Bible.
The more we read the Bible, the more our mind is renewed.
The word of God is one with the Spirit (Eph. 6:17); when we read and pray over the word of God, taking it in by means of all prayer and petition, we are inwardly reconstituted with the element of God.
When we read the Bible and turn our hearts to the Lord, the Spirit operates in us through the word of God and dispenses God’s nature with His element into our being.
We may not feel this and we may not sense that we are any different from before, but the divine dispensing is inwardly changing us.
We all can testify that, as we go on with the Lord and read the Bible every day, we simply drop certain habits, we give up certain things, and we refuse to be involved in certain activities because the Lord within us gives us a certain feeling concerning these things.
We may have dressed in certain clothes or used particular items of clothing to adorn ourselves; as we read the Bible, we cannot wear certain things, and we just can’t be the same as those around us.
There’s a wonderful inward dispensing going on as we come to the Lord in His word, and the Spirit reconstitutes our inner being with the Lord’s element as we contact the Lord in His word.
For us to be God’s testimony we don’t have to outwardly separate ourselves from anything worldly and go on the mountain where it’s just us and the Lord, neither should we deprive ourselves of things in order to “kill our lusts” in the flesh as the ascetics do.
We simply need to come to the word of God, for the word is the solid base for the Spirit of God to dispense God’s element into our being.
Day by day we need to experience coming to the word of God to contact the Lord and receive more of His divine dispensing.
Then, when we come together, we need to read even more of the Word of God (Acts 13:14-15; Heb. 19:24-25; John 14:15).
For us to be reconstituted with the word of God and be His testimony on the earth, we need to read the sixty-six books of the Bible again and again.
Our daily reading of the Bible is very beneficial, for as we read the Word of God, we are being reconstituted a little more.
God’s intention is to have on earth a divinely constituted people to be His testimony; He desires to gain a people who is reconstituted with the word of God (Isa. 49:6; 60:1-3; Col. 3:16).
May we be those who daily come to the Lord in His word, even have set times to read the Bible and enjoy the Lord in His word, not giving up on our Bible reading both personally and corporately.
As we abide in the Lord by abiding in His word, He makes an abode with us and makes us His abode (John 14:23).
This reconstitutes our very being little by little to the extent that we become the testimony of God on earth, a divinely constituted people for His testimony and expression.
Lord Jesus, we open our being to You. You know our disposition and habitual behaviour. We open to You to be reconstituted with Your element as we come to read the Bible. Amen, Lord, we want to read the Bible every day with an exercised spirit and a turned heart so that we may be gradually reconstituted with the word of God. May the word of God gradually change our mind and our way of thinking. May the Spirit dispense the element of God with His nature into our being as we read the Bible day by day. Amen, Lord, keep our inner being open to Your divine dispensing. Speak to us in Your word. Rearrange our inner being. Reconstitute us with what You are. Make us the testimony of Jesus on earth, the divinely constituted people expressing God in their living. Amen, Lord, keep us in Your word day by day to be reconstituted with the element and nature 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 Nehemiah, msg. 3 (by Witness Lee), 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:
– Our need to build up Christ into our intrinsic constitution so that we may be reconstituted, a portion from, Life-Study of 1 & 2 Samuel, Chapter 24, by Witness Lee.
– Help in Receiving God’s Word by Its Interpretation and Our Reconsideration, an article via, Living to Him.
– Not being the natural man but the man reconstituted with Christ, a portion via, One Body, One Spirit, and One New Man, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
– Nehemiah Program 4: The Reconstitution of the Nation of God’s Elect (2), a LSM radio broadcast – watch/listen to it on youtube.
– The Word of God in the Believers’ Prophesying, an article by Roger Good via, Affirmation and Critique.
– God Wants to Change Your Diet – What would cause you to change your diet? A need to lose weight? Build muscle? Improve energy? Other health concerns? Read more via, Holding to Truth. - Hymns on this topic:
– 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… / When we the Word in spirit touch, / As life the Spirit it becomes; / The Spirit, when expressed from us, / As words of life to others comes. (Hymns #815 stanzas 1 and 5)
– 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)
– Jesus is the living Spirit / And the living Word; / When we touch Him by pray-reading / We receive this Lord. / Jesus is the living Spirit / Who among us flows; / Fellowship of life in spirit / Unity bestows. (Hymns #1142 stanzas 3-4)
About aGodMan
In order for God’s people to be His testimony, they had to be reconstituted with the word of God. Under Ezra and Nehemiah the returned people of Israel were collectively constituted by and with God through His word to be a nation as God’s testimony.
According to Nehemiah 8:1-8 all the people of Israel gathered as one man before the Water Gate and told Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses and read to them. Ezra did it and blessed Jehovah the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands; and they worshiped Jehovah with their faces to the ground.
This indicates that rebellious Israel had been fully convinced and fully subdued by the word of God spoken through Moses.
The word of God is the solid base for the Spirit of God, who is God Himself, to dispense God’s element into our being to cause us to be constituted with God.
This should be our personal experience day by day. When we come together, we then need to read even more of the Word of God. To do this is to come together according to the way of the divine constitution.
Life-study of Nehemiah, pp. 17-19, by Witness Lee
Just like the people of Israel who were Babylonian in nature and needed to be reconstituted with the word of God, so we need to become a divinely constituted people by reading the Bible so that God’s element may be dispensed into us!
For us to be God’s testimony, our nature needs to be changed; this is by our reading the Word and opening to the Lord to allow Him to work Himself into us.
God wants us to be reconstituted with himself.
Just like the children of Israel in Nehemiah time we can be constituted with so many things other than God with himself.
The only way we can be reconstituted is to spend time in the word in this way God as the can dispense his essence in the word which is Spirit into us
May the Lord increase our appetite to get into the word in our daily life.
Our God has an urgent need for those who are skilled in the Word.
No one can come back to God without coming back to His Word.
God’s word gradually changes our mind & our way of thinking.
The Word of God is the solid base for the Spirit to dispense God’s element into our being to cause us to be constituted with God.
Dear brother, in Nehemiah 8 we see the importance of being reconstituted with the word of God.
Ezra, Nehemiah and the Levites, read the word, even interpreted and gave sense to it.
As a result these returned captives, who had been constituted with the Babylonian elements, were fully convinced and subdued to be a reconstituted people!
Today, personally and corporately we need to be convinced, subdued and reconstituted, by daily reading the Bible, to receive the divine dispensing of God’s nature by being one spirit with God’s word!
Aaaaameeen!
I was impressed that we come back to God mainly by coming back to His Word, as we spend time in God’s Word, He is able to reconstitute us even if we are not aware such a dispensing is taking place.
Amen, Lord!
Keep us eating you every day so that you can dispense in us fully.
We don’t want to live a mixed life compromising with religion dominating by culture.
Change our whole beings.
God’s intention with Israel was to have on earth a divinely constituted people to be His testimony.
In order for God’s people to be His testimony, they have to be constituted with the word of God
Oh wow! Amen Lord remind remind us of the basic food- your word!
Keep us pray reading your word daily!
Amen brother!
O Lord make us attentive to hear and understand and eat your Word and be constituted with it!
Then we will be wrought in you to overflow with Christ unto others as your Testimony!
Hallelujah!😃
Aamen!
Thank the Lord Jesus for the body Christ, thank You for building the church making us prophet and priests
thank you my dear, dear brother for the overflow…. Iron sharpening iron…
yes Lord reconstitute us over and over again as we feed upon Your Holy Words.
Dear brother, In the Lord’s recovery we need Ezras, priestly teachers who contact God, who are saturated with God, who are one with God, who are mingled with God, who are filled with God, and who are skillful in the Word of God; this is the kind of person who is qualified to be a teacher in the recovery.
God’s intention with us as seen in His intention with Israel is to gain a divinely constituted people to be His testimony.
Because we have been constituted with the Babylonian nature, there is the need for us to be reconstituted.
The solid based for the Spirit of God to dispense God’s element into us is through the word of God.
Although we can pray in fellowship with God. Although we can call on His name but the solid way, the concrete way for us to be reconstituted is through the word of God.
Oh when we come to the word we need to come in the way of constitution, that is, to take the Lord’s word as our food.
Oh how we need to eat, digest, and assimilate God into us so that we may be constituted with Him, with the result that we express Him and represent Him.
This is how we become His testimony. Praise the Lord!!!
Amen Lord, keep us reading Your word continually!