Turning Mental Understanding into Meditation and Prayer

It is impossible for us not to receive any understanding when we contact the Bible. There will be some amount of comprehension no matter what chapter of the Bible we read. Once we receive some comprehension, we need to meditate on our understanding. At this point we need to exercise our mind. In the previous step we exercised our spirit, not our mind, to contact the Word. But in this step we need to involve our mind. However, this is meditation, not wild and unrestrained thinking. We should consider what we have touched and received and turn it into prayer. For example, there is no need for us to try to understand Genesis 1:1. Spontaneously, there will be a realization within us that God is the beginning and that He is the Creator. At this juncture we can muse and consider and even turn our thoughts into prayer, saying, “God, may You be the beginning in all my ways. May my whole life and the beginning of everything that I do be filled with Your divine element.” In this way we will be able to apply our realization of the Word to our daily living. When we do this, we are absorbing God.

We need to learn this lesson. Especially in the morning when we are reading the Word, we should not occupy our mind with reference books. This will not benefit us. Instead, we should practice this fellowship by exercising our spirit to contact the living word of God. When we contact Him, we should spontaneously turn our understanding into meditation and prayer and concentrate on absorbing God Himself.

Receiving More of God

We also need to realize that the issue of our musing and our prayer must be more of God in our inner being. Since the Bible is God’s breath, His breathing out, and His spoken word, which is God Himself, whenever we receive Him, the result should be more of God in us. We should never congratulate ourselves for merely understanding some truths that we formerly did not understand. There is not much value in this. If the result of our coming to the Word is to receive knowledge, teaching, or truth, not the Lord Himself, our reading is a failure. When we read the Word, the ultimate result should not merely be the acquisition of more truth but the gaining of the Lord Himself. We are contacting the Lord, receiving the Lord, and praying to the Lord; therefore, in the end we should gain the Lord.

Let me elaborate on this point. If in praying for our business we take our business as the subject of our prayer, we have failed. The subject of every prayer should be the Lord Himself, not other things. All those who take other things as the subject of their prayer err in a fundamental way. This type of prayer never makes us clear; instead, it often makes us unclear. Even if we think that we are clear, we are actually quite confused. This type of prayer often results in a wrong impression of the Lord’s leading. When we pray, we must first set aside our business and simply touch the Lord, breathe Him in, and contact Him. As we touch the Lord, we may feel peaceful and sense that the Lord’s presence is with our business, enabling us to proceed with our business. Or we may lack peace and not sense His presence. In this case there is no need to pursue the matter further; we should simply drop it. This type of leading does not become clear to us as we pray about it. It becomes clear to us as we touch the Lord and gain Him in our prayer. The Lord becomes our very leading within us.

Most brothers and sisters have the same problem in reading the Bible. When they encounter problems that need to be solved, they go to the Lord to inquire concerning the matter. They also search the Scriptures to see what the Bible says concerning the matter. For example, when a brother is looking for a job, he may search the Scriptures for something related to jobs and careers. He may even use a concordance to find verses. He may eventually say that he is clear concerning the Christian perspective about a job. He may even say, “Lord, thank You for showing me Your will.” However, this brother has received merely doctrine that can be retained in his mind. His mind may be somewhat corrected, taught, and educated, but this is the wrong way to read the Word.

When we have a problem with our job or when we are looking for solutions to other problems, we should not make these things an issue when we go to God. The Lord should be the subject of our prayer, and He should also be the subject of our reading. When we study the Word, we should say, “Lord, I want to contact You through Your Word. Your Word is Your very self.” We should exercise our spirit to contact the Lord. Genesis 1 says nothing about jobs or careers. Verse 1 simply says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” However, if we touch God and contact Him through this word, it will turn us to meditate and pray so that we can absorb God and receive Him and His element within us. We will not need to say anything related to our business. However, after reading in this way, we will sense the Lord’s presence within as we proceed with our business affairs. His presence will cause us to consider whether He has initiated our work and whether He is involved in it. In this light we may realize that we initiated our business, not the Lord. We may realize that we, rather than the Lord, are the founder of our business. He is not involved in it, but we are fully occupied with it. Then the Lord may give us a clear feeling that what has not been initiated by Him is not His will. In this way we will be clear about the Lord’s will. This is not a matter of understanding the truth but of gaining the truth. As we contact the living Lord and as His element within us increases, He, the living God Himself, becomes our living guidance. He teaches us to understand God’s will.

Being Enlivened and Shining in Spirit

Finally, if our reading of the Bible is proper, our inner being will be enlivened whenever we touch the Word. If our inner being is not enlivened, our reading is wrong. God’s word is living (Heb. 4:12). His words are spirit and life (John 6:63). Whenever our spirit touches the living word of God, we will surely be enlivened, refreshed, enriched, enlightened, and empowered. In other words, when we read the Word in a proper way, our spirit will be filled after reading, our life will be strengthened, and we will be enlightened. This enlightenment is not related to the clarity of our mind. This is an entirely different thing. Some people become very clear in their mind after they read the Word, but their spirit remains dull. Others may not be that clear in their mind, but they are very clear in their spirit. They have discernment in their spirit. This is wonderful.

For example, the friends of a new believer may try to persuade him to go to a movie. He may decline because he is very clear in his spirit that he should not go, yet at the same time he is unable to explain his reason for declining. He simply knows that he should not go. If we would learn to live in God’s word and learn to contact Him through His Word, this will be our story. Although we may not understand many things and we may not know many doctrines, our spirit is clear. We are clear concerning what brings us into the Lord’s presence and what causes us to lose His presence. We know when the Lord is walking with us and when He is far from us. We know when we are being mingled with Him and when we are separated from Him. Even though this type of knowing is not dependent upon our understanding, there is a clear shining in our spirit. This is the normal result of reading the Word.

When we read the Bible, we should realize that God is contained in His Word, and we should contact it in this way. We should exercise our spirit to touch the living Word. When we touch something in the Word, we should turn it into meditation and prayer. Consequently, we will gain more of the Lord, absorb more of Him, and our inner being will be enlivened, refreshed, strengthened, and enlightened. As a result, we will gain more God and enjoy more of Him. I hope that we will all learn to exercise ourselves in these two areas. We should exercise to have the kind of prayer we described in the previous chapter, and we should exercise to read the Word as described in this chapter. We should absorb God, gain Him, and enjoy Him through praying and reading. If we do this, we will express much glory, riches, and divine fullness. Furthermore, the church will rise to a higher plane. May we be faithful to continually learn to take this way and to live this life.