SPEAKING THE LIVING AND RICH WORD (3)—THE HOLY WORD AND THE HOLY SPIRIT
We have to thank the Lord that on this earth, two great gifts have been given to humankind and to God’s chosen people. One of these is the Word, the Bible. In this universe and on this earth, there is such a book that is called “the Book.” Bible is a Latin word that means “the Book.” This is “the Book,” the unique book. If today there were no Bible, the earth would be full of darkness. The Bible is one of the greatest gifts of the Lord to mankind.
Our God has also given us another gift, the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus as the very God went through the wonderful processes of incarnation, human living, the all-inclusive death, resurrection, and ascension. Through all these wonderful, excellent processes He eventually did two things. First, He breathed the Spirit of life into His disciples on the day of His resurrection. Then He took another step to pour out the Spirit upon His disciples in His ascension. In His resurrection He breathed the Spirit into us, and in His ascension He poured the Spirit upon us. In that way He baptized all of us into one Body. We have the Bible, the Holy Scriptures, and the Spirit—the Holy Spirit. These are the two greatest gifts that we have today.
However, we always neglect these two gifts. We may have the Bible on our shelf or even in our pocket, but it has never gotten into us as it should have. In addition, many times we grieve the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 4:30 says, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption.” The Greek word unto implies “with a goal to reach.” This means that the sealing is not once for all but continuing, still going on. We are still under this sealing all the day long. The Spirit is sealing us until we reach the goal of the redemption of our body. However, the real situation is that most of the time we care neither for the Holy Spirit nor for the holy Word. Mainly we just care for ourselves. As Christians, we have been saved by the Lord, and we have been graced by Him. Today we are seeking after Him, and we love Him, yet we mostly care for ourselves, not for the holy Word or for the Holy Spirit. We need a turn to care for these two gifts. We have to enjoy these two gifts hour after hour, day by day.
We have to pick up the word from the Bible until we have a rich deposit. Then when we come to the meeting with such a deposit, at any time we can write a check for a hundred dollars, a thousand dollars, or even a million dollars. When you come to the meeting with a deposit of the living and rich word, surely the Spirit will distribute to you the deep word of wisdom and the rich word of knowledge. The way to keep such a deposit is by laboring on the Word of God…Christians today are so weak, so poor, and so low just because of the spiritual famine. They do not eat the spiritual food. They do not pick up the Word regularly. Even among us I still feel that there is such a famine. If you mean business with the Lord for His recovery, and if you do love Him, you have to love His Word. The Lord Jesus said clearly, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word” (John 14:23). We must take His Word daily. Learn to pick up the Word and gain a deposit. Then when you come to the meeting, it will be easy to receive some distribution from the Spirit, either the word of wisdom or the word of knowledge. In this way you will speak by the Spirit. For this you must have a praying spirit. (CWWL, 1985, vol. 3, “The Home Meetings–the Unique Way for the Increase and the Building Up of the Church”, pp. 177-179)
The church in Zamboanga 