May 18, 2017
This is the sixth podcast in a special series on reading the Bible. These podcasts include helpful excerpts from books by Watchman Nee and Witness Lee that provide insight about reading the Bible.
In our previous podcast, we pointed out that it is helpful to have two separate periods of time for reading the Bible. We should have time to meditate on the Word, praying and praising as we read and receiving spiritual food; it’s best to have this time in the morning. The other time of reading the Bible can be at any time of day and is for understanding and learning more about God’s Word.
In this podcast, we’ll talk more about this second time—our time for studying the Bible.
We must exercise our mind to study and understand the Bible. However, even when we study the Word, we must realize that the Word and the Spirit are one. To understand only the letter of the Bible is not our goal; rather, each time we read we must endeavor to touch and receive the Spirit in the Word.
For us to ascertain the facts in the Bible requires our prayerful reading and study. Hence, when we read the Bible, our spirit should be the dominant part of our being. There is no need for us to extensively prepare ourselves or make a long production out of reading the Word. Sometimes a short prayer asking the Lord to wash us with His blood so that we can freely come to Him in His Word to receive Him is sufficient to usher us into genuine contact with Him through the Word.
We should read the Bible with understanding and wisdom. Understanding has to do with apprehending the words of the Bible with our mind. This is a critical prerequisite to receiving revelation from the Word. The amount of speaking and revelation we can receive from the Lord is proportionate to the diligence we apply to our comprehension of the letter of the Bible. Getting acquainted with the facts in the Bible is like accruing capital for our future experiences of the divine life. In Life Lessons, Witness Lee observes,
“In reading the Bible, we must first use the understanding of our mind to comprehend its text, which was written in human language, and to know its meaning.”
Lee’s book The Full Knowledge of the Word of God lists some practical guidelines for understanding the Bible:
First, understand the Word of God literally.
Second, go beyond the letter, historical events, and persons and things to explore and to receive the revelation of life.
Next, take care of the context.
Fourth, expound God’s Word with God’s Word.
Fifth, learn from the saints of the past.
And sixth, pray-read the Word to eat, drink, and breathe in the spirit and life in the Word.
Reading the Bible with wisdom involves apprehending the truth in the Bible with our spirit. This wisdom is not our natural wisdom but the wisdom we obtain through prayer. It’s deeper and higher than the understanding in our mind.
In The Triune God’s Revelation and His Move, Witness Lee says, “We cannot receive the divine revelation through such fanciful imaginations. Instead, we receive it by the spirit of wisdom and revelation, spoken of in Ephesians 1:17. The spirit here is the mingled spirit, the divine Spirit mingled with the human spirit. Thank God that today in the universe there is not only the divine Spirit or only the human spirit but also the mingled spirit. God and man can be mingled together as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). Basically, the way to receive revelation is by the mingled spirit, that is, by the divine Spirit indwelling the human spirit. This mingled spirit is called the spirit of wisdom. This is for our understanding. If we have a revelation, we need the wisdom to interpret and understand it.”
Our reading of the Bible should be comprehensive and thorough; thus, we must be consistent in our reading. We need a schedule.
In Messages for Building Up New Believers, Watchman Nee says, “Every Christian should have a definite plan of studying the Bible. If you can set aside half an hour a day, develop a plan to study the Bible for half an hour a day. If you can afford an hour each day, develop a plan that includes an hour of study. Whatever time you can afford, make a plan that will fit your schedule. The worst way to read is by ‘inspiration,’ that is, casual, unplanned reading that begins at whatever page one feels, at times reading voraciously for ten days and at other times not reading anything for ten days. This is the wrong way. We should not adopt this ‘inspirational’ method. Everyone should have a definite plan of reading. In reading the Bible, we need to be restricted and disciplined.”
To understand the text, we must also be able to properly interpret the types, shadows, and figures in the Bible. Additionally, we should learn to use reference tools that define words and explain grammatical structures, and we should have some knowledge of the Bible’s original languages, Greek and Hebrew.
It is a glorious fact that God has become accessible and communicable to us as the Spirit embodied in the Word, but this fact remains objective to us if we do not exercise our spirit to contact the Spirit in the Word. Join us next time for the final installment in this special series on reading the Bible as we discuss five ways we can exercise our spirit to receive the Spirit in the Word.