Our God is a speaking God; He is no longer merely hidden and mysterious, but He is speaking, He revealed Himself, and we today are the speaking people of our speaking God.
In Num. 11:29 there’s a hidden small gem, a crystal, which is the expression of God’s desire and Moses’ desire, Oh that all of God’s people be prophets.
This week in our deeper study of Numbers we come to the topic of, Moses desiring that all Jehovah’s People would be Prophets, and we want to see what is a prophet and what do they do, Moses desire that all God’s people would be prophets, and God’s desire for His people to speak.
We need to see what is a prophet, what does a prophet do, and how is a prophet constituted, plus how do we practice prophesying in our days.
Moses and God’s desire was that not just a few would speak for God and be prophets, but that all of God’s people would be prophets; similarly, Paul desired the same thing.
According to our realization, the matter of prophesying is probably the greatest matter in the Lord’s recovery today. For the last two thousand years, among the Lord’s children, since the apostle Paul spoke the word in 1 Cor. 14:26, where do we see this matter being practiced in a proper way?
When the whole church comes together, there should be a speaking in mutuality; however, in Christianity as a whole today, meetings are mainly characterized by one man speaking – the clergy class, and the rest are listening.
For the past two thousand years we don’t know of any Christian groups – maybe one here and there – but no Christian body has practiced or got into what Paul spoke in 1 Cor. 14, concerning the matter of prophesying, mutuality in speaking in the church meetings.
Brother Watchman Nee spoke of this matter in 1937 in his book, The Normal Christian Church Life, where he said that the matter of one man speaking and the rest listening is not according to the word of God, and it is not God’s way.
If we study the Bible, we can’t find any portion telling us that in the church meetings only certain ones can speak and the rest would listen. Yes, there was a case where Paul spoke until late, but that was a ministry meeting. There’s an abnormality in Christianity today in this matter.
Then in 1948, in the messages of the training that he held – compiled later in the book, The Church Affairs – brother Nee repeated this matter even stronger by saying that this kind of practice of one man speaking and the rest listening is according to the custom of the nations, and in our practice of the church life such a practice has to be thrown away and discarded.
But brother Nee was aware that there was nothing else to replace this; so he realized that in the Lord’s recovery we have been under the strong pressure of the tradition in Christianity, doing the same things as them.
Later in 1984, brother Witness Lee studied the scriptural way for the believers to meet and to serve, and he discovered that, for us to have a healthy church life and build up the church, we must take care of four main things.
First, we need to beget people by preaching the gospel to have them regenerated with the life of God. Second, after new ones are begotten of God, we need to nourish them, feeding them in the word by having home meetings with them.
Third, after a period of time of this kind of feeding, we need to also teach them and perfect them by gathering more saints to have a small group meeting to carry out a kind of teaching of perfecting, so that the saints would not just be nourished but also can learn.
Fourth, the highest point, is that there has to be the building up of the church, and this is realized by the prophesying of the saints in the church meetings.
Prophesying is the ultimate consummation, the ultimate issue of the practice of the God-ordained way.
As we in the church life are practicing the way shown to us in the Scriptures, preaching the gospel, our feeding the new believers, and our teaching and perfecting the new believers should issue in them learning how to speak so that they may prophesy for God for the building up of the church. Amen!
Our God is a Speaking God – He Reveals Himself and He Creates all Things by His Speaking
The Bible reveals that our God is a speaking God; so many religions believe in their gods, but their gods are dumb, for their worshipers expect them only to protect hem and bless them and give them prosperity, not caring if their god speaks to them.
But the God revealed to us in the Word of God is a speaking God (Heb. 1:1-2); through His speaking, God reveals Himself to us. God speaks to us, and He explains His desires to us.
In the old He has spoken through the prophets and in many portions and ways, and today He still speaks to us in Christ, the Son, and in the Body of Christ, the church. God is a mystery, but hallelujah, this mystery has been revealed by His speaking!
Our God loves to hide Himself; though the Jewish people – God’s earthly people – worship the genuine God, they do not know who He is, for to them He is not a revealed God.
In the New Testament we see that our God is speaking, He reveals Himself. Without the divine speaking, God would remain forever unknowable (Luke 1:70; Acts 3:21). Our God, however, is the revealed God because He has revealed Himself to us in His speaking.
He is no longer hidden, mysterious, or silent – He is a revealed God! Through His speaking, God created all things. Every created thing came out of the word of God (see Gen. 1:3; John 1:3).
When God spoke, things came into being; the entire old creation – the whole universe – came into being by God’s speaking (see Gen. 1:3, 6-7; Psa. 33:9; Rom. 4:17; Heb. 11:3). The creation didn’t come out some sort of a “big bang” but out of God’s speaking.
The new creation was brought into being by the entire God speaking as the Word (John 1:1, 3; 5:24). In the beginning was the Word; it doesn’t say that in the beginning was love or power, but the Word.
The Word is for the explanation, definition, and expression of God, and this Word was God Himself.
This eternal Word one day was incarnated in the flesh to be the man Jesus Christ; the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace and reality.
This One who was the eternal word, by His incarnation, brought God to man; He explained and revealed God to man so that we may receive Him and become children of God, those begotten by God.
The speaking God continues to do all things through His speaking (Rom. 4:17). He calls things not being into being and gives life to the dead; our God through His speaking continues to do all things according to His purpose.
Praise the Lord, today in the church life in the Lord’s recovery we have the Lord’s speaking, and God’s speaking among us int rare, for He speaks to us all the time! This fact alone shows us that God is with us and that this is His recovery, His work, and His desire.
Even though brother Lee – who was God’s spokesman for many years – passed away over twenty years ago, God’s speaking is still here with us.
We worship Him! Our God is still speaking among us, and by His speaking He continues to operate in us, grow in us, transform us, and build us up together.
Without God’s speaking, we don’t have a direction and we don’t have a way to go on.
Hallelujah, our God is a speaking God! He spoke in many ways and many portions, and He is still speaking today! Praise the Lord, our God is no longer mysterious and hidden – He has been explained, defined, expressed and revealed to us through His speaking, through His word! Thank You Lord for being a speaking God. We can know You and Your heart’s desire through Your speaking. Thank You for speaking and causing things to come into being! Thank You for speaking and bringing life into us! Hallelujah for our speaking God!
God infuses us by His His Speaking and makes us the Speaking People of our Speaking God
The living God imparts and infuses Himself into us by His speaking (see 2 Tim. 3:16-17); when God speaks, the light shines, bringing us understanding, wisdom, and utterance (Psa. 119:105, 130).
When God speaks, His life is imparted into us, and this life includes all the divine attributes and human virtues of Christ (John 6:63; 1:1, 4).
God’s speaking is different from all the other earthly speaking; we may read all the novels and the classics, but we won’t get life and light, but when we come to the Lord in His word, when He speaks, life is there, we are supplied, and we are enlightened.
When God speaks, power is transmitted, and this is the growing and producing power of life (Mark 4:14, 26).
He came to sow Himself as the seed of life through His word, and the word is like a seed with the growing power, being able to germinate and reproduce.
God’s word is powerful; it has the power to change a person, give life to a person, and regenerate a person by the seed of God’s word.
In the Old Testament, God spoke in many portions and in many ways to the fathers in the prophets, in men borne by the Holy Spirit (see Heb. 1:1; 2 Pet. 1:21).
There were many prophets in the Old Testament such as Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel; God spoke through them, and He spoke through the patriarchs.
God spoke in the Old Testament in many ways and in many prophets, and men were under the blowing wind of the Spirit to speak the word of God. God’s Spirit was still on the outside of man to inspire man.
In the New Testament, however, God speaks to us in the Son, in the person of the Son (Heb. 1:2).
Now God is not just inspiring some people to speak – He speaks to us by being embodied in a person, Jesus Christ, who is the embodiment of the Word of God. Christ came as the Word of God to become flesh, and God as the word was one with Him.
God’s speaking was in Him, and as the Son, God spoke. When Jesus was on the earth He testified that the words He spoke were not from Himself but whatever His Father speaks, He also speaks.
The Father was in Him, He was one with the Father, and He was the embodiment of the Father’s speaking.
This person, Jesus Christ, was first an individual, and then through His death and resurrection He was enlarged to become a corporate person (Matt. 17:3; Acts 9:4; 1 Cor. 12:12).
God today speaks in a person, and this person has increased to be a corporate person, including all the apostles and all the members of this person’s Body (1 Cor. 14:4, 31).
We are the Body of this wonderful person; two thousand years ago one individual Jesus Christ was God’s speaking, but today He is enlarged to include all the believers in Christ as His Body.
The believers are all part of the corporate Son; God today is still speaking in the Son! The speaking God desires to have a speaking people (Acts 4:31; 6:7; 12:24; 19:20; Col. 4:3; 2 Tim. 4:2; Rev. 1:2, 9).
When He created man, He created him in His image and according to His likeness, and He created man with a spirit to receive and contain Him; furthermore, God created man with a mouth to speak and express God.
The lions can roar, the dogs can bark, the birds can chirp, but man speaks! Man was created as a speaking vessel, a speaking being, to reflect and express our speaking God! Hallelujah, we are a speaking people to match our speaking God!
Lord, we treasure Your speaking; You are speaking to us in the Son and as the Son, and today You are speaking through the believers in Christ as the members of the enlarged Son of God, the church! Hallelujah, our speaking God is now speaking in His speaking people, the church! Praise the Lord, we have a spirit to contact and receive God, and we have a mouth to speak for God and to speak God forth for God to be revealed, expressed, and manifested! Speak to us and through us, Lord, so that Your life may flow, Your power may be transmitted, and there will be the growing and producing of life!
This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Dumnezeul nostru este un Dumnezeu care vorbește; acest Dumnezeu vorbitor dorește să aibă un popor care vorbește.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. James Lee for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1985, vol. 3,”The Divine Speaking,” chs. 1-4, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Numbers (2), week 9, Moses Desiring That All Jehovah’s People Would Be Prophets.
- Hymns on this topic:
# God the Lord has spoken, God has been unveiled; / All His character and persons are expressed; / Unto Adam’s sons His mystery is revealed, / Fully illustrated and made manifest. / God the Lord has spoken, and His heart disclosed, / That His Son should have pre-eminence in all, / That in His dear Son He might be glorified / Midst all His creation, either great or small. (Hymns #800)
# Thou art the living Word, O Lord, / Which ever was with God; / His glory Thou hast fully shown / When Thou on earth hast trod. / We praise Thee, O Thou living Word, / For God in Thee we see; / His glory and His character / Are all revealed by Thee. (Hymns #58)
# Now the church life is so precious with all the saints so dear. / Enjoying all Your riches, our vision is so clear, / That all would prophesy of Christ from what they’ve seen, / According to Your scripture in First Corinthians fourteen. (Song on, God’s economy and His eternal plan)
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