Week 3, Second Companion Meeting
Read through the following portion and then discuss it with your companions:
There are two different ways to read the word. One way is to read the word but not contact Christ. Too many Christians read the word without ever contacting Christ. This is the wrong way. The right way to read the word is to realize that the word is not mainly for knowledge but for food. “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). Jeremiah 15:16 says, “Your words were found and I ate them.” We need to eat the word, because the word is food.
Physical food is for our body, so we have to eat it with our body and take it into our body. In the same principle, the word is spiritual food, food for the spirit, so we have to eat it with our spirit and take it into our spirit. We all have to learn how to take the word by our spirit and into our spirit. There is no other way to do this but by praying. We must pray over, pray about, and pray with whatever we read and understand.…
…We cannot expect a brother to be normal and healthy in his Christian life if he does not know how to eat the Lord by dealing with the word. Regardless of how many messages we give people and of how good those messages are, if those who hear them do not know how to eat the Lord, drink the Lord, and feast on the Lord, the messages will not work for them. We may have messages on the cross and about many other things, but we still need to feed on the Lord, drink of Him, and feast on Him. This is of the greatest importance. I hope that we will all practice this day by day, especially in the morning. We need to spend at least ten minutes with the Lord to feast on Him by eating the word.
THE PRACTICAL WAY TO EAT THE WORD
The way to eat the word is first not to read too much. Our time in the word is not to buy something from the supermarket; it is to eat a breakfast. Therefore, we should not take too much, just an adequate portion. Second, we should not try to understand too much. At other times we may need to exercise our mind by reading, but our time for eating the word is not for exercising our mind. We should simply read and understand whatever we can understand. We need not try to understand more than that; this will frustrate us. If we read a few verses or even half of a chapter and do not understand it, we should leave it and continue to read. Perhaps in the following verses we will understand something.
Third, once we understand something, we should ponder over it a little. I do not like to use the word meditate, because that word has been wrongly used. Sometimes to meditate is merely to exercise the mind. In that case, it is better not to meditate. When some Christians meditate too much, they travel throughout the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, back to the Psalms, and then back to Genesis. That does not help. However, when we are inspired with something from the word, we should consider it.
Then, fourth, right away we should pray over what we understand. It is by this kind of prayer that we have a fresh contact not only with the word but also with the Lord Himself through the word. Eventually, the Lord and the word, the word and the Lord, become one to us. In this way, our prayer and reading will be mingled. While we read and consider, we speak something to the Lord, and while we are speaking something to the Lord, we ponder on the word and consider what we understand. This is praying and reading, reading and praying, mingled together.
Matthew 8:1 to 4 says that the Lord Jesus “came down from the mountain” and healed a leper. When we read this portion, we may be inspired that the Lord came down from the mountain. Then we can say, “I praise You, Lord, that You have come down from the mountain. You have come down to the place where I am. O Lord, come down once again today that I may be healed. If You come, my leprosy will go away.” It may not be possible to read and pray in this way for an hour, but to take twenty minutes is possible. Try to do this in the morning and again during the day. I would suggest, especially to the young ones, that you keep a small Bible in your pocket. Throughout the day or during recess or rest you can open it and read two or three verses. Then you will get something, and you can pray over it.
(Enjoying Christ as the Word and the Spirit through Prayer, Chapter 6, pp. 53-56)
PRACTICING AND DEVELOPING OUR PRAYER
WITH THE WORD TO FEAST ON THE LORD
John 14:1 through 3 says, “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe into God, believe also into Me. In My Father’s house are many abodes; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will receive you to Myself, so that where I am you also may be.” This is a good portion of the word to pray with. To pray over this portion requires a certain amount of practice, development, and consideration. We should not go too fast here. We need to taste this portion by “chewing” it. We may say, “Lord, I thank You that You went to pave the way, prepare a place, and gain the ground that I may be in the Father, that I may be in the place where You are. Lord, I do realize that today I am in the place where You are, yet I need more realization of this. Grant me more and more to experience that I am in the Father, just as You are.” We should learn to apply such a portion by saying, “Lord, today keep me in the place where You are. Now I am going to my office. Keep me in the Father. Grant me the sense that I am with You in the Father all the time.” When we take the word in this way, it is not merely words in black and white letters. Rather, it is living. It is in this way that we exercise our spirit and have a fresh contact with the Lord. In this way it is easy to use our spirit to pray.
As we practice to take the word in this way, we should learn to pray not merely from our knowledge but by exercising our spirit to say something from within to the Lord, to have a real contact with the Lord. We need to exercise the spirit to bring ourselves into the presence of the Lord and speak something in His presence directly, face to face. This is real prayer, not merely a prayer for affairs, business, or burdens, but a prayer to contact and digest the Lord. This is the way to feed on the Lord through the word. At the same time, while we are praying, we are drinking of the Lord.
(Enjoying Christ as the Word and the Spirit through Prayer, Chapter 3, pp. 60-61)
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