Week 2, Day 6

The Precious Word of God, Message Two
The Bible—God’s Breathing
Day 6

V. The way to receive God’s breathing by praying and singing

Ephesians 6:17–18   And receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God, by means of all prayer and petition.

Colossians 3:16   Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God.

Use the outline points & verses above and the hymn below for your prayer to spend time with the Lord in the Word in the morning. After your prayer time, jot down in your notebook one or two things that the Lord touched you with.

Reading Portion

BREATHING IN GOD’S WORD THROUGH PRAY-READING

When contacting the Lord through the Word, we should not separate the Word from prayer. When we read the Word, we may have an inward feeling to pray. Whenever we receive some inspiration from the Word, we will instantly desire to pray. We need to practice to pray every time we come to the Word. We do not need to interpret the Word in order to compose a prayer; we can simply use the words of the Bible as the words of our prayer. To pray the words of the Bible is to breathe in God’s breath. This is a mingling breathing—God is breathing, and we are breathing. God breathes out, and we breathe in. This mingled breathing makes us spiritually healthy. (The Healthy Word, Chapter 6)

THE WORD OF CHRIST DWELLING IN US RICHLY – SINGING THE WORD

In Colossians 3:16 Paul says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God.” What does it mean to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly?… Paul gives us the way in Colossians 3:16, where he says “in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God.” Here Paul indicates that we should teach and admonish, not in an ordinary way, but in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs…. We need to sing with the exercise of the spirit. The more we sing in this way, the more we shall be inspired and set on fire. By this kind of singing, we let the word of Christ dwell in us richly.

The more we take the Word by reading, pray-reading, and especially sing-reading, the more the riches of the Word will saturate us and make us one with the Lord. Then we shall do things not in our own name, but in the name of the Lord Jesus. Let us first read the Word and then pray-read it. Following this, let us sing the Word. Then we shall become thoroughly saturated with the riches of the Word.

THE WORD BECOMING THE BOUNTIFUL SPIRIT

Whenever we are saturated with the riches of the Word, the Word within us becomes the bountiful Spirit. This takes place through our unceasing prayer. Perhaps you are wondering what this kind of prayer has to do with singing. Singing is an excellent way to pray. When you sing by exercising your spirit, you pray. Often the best prayer we can offer to God is our singing unto Him. Suppose you sing “Oh, what a life! Oh what a peace! The Christ who’s all within me lives.” This is an excellent prayer.

By praying, singing, and thanking we are infused with Christ, permeated by Him, and mingled with Him. Many of us can testify that, as we were enjoying a certain portion of the Word, spontaneously a melody welled up from within. Then we began to use this melody to sing the Word to the Lord. By singing, we were saturated with the Word and nourished by its riches. This caused us to be thankful to God. At that time we were truly one with Christ. Whatever we did in word or work was done in the name of the Lord Jesus. Again I say, this is to live Christ.

Once again I would urge you to combine the rich Word, the bountiful Spirit, and unceasing prayer. Take the Word of God not only by reading, but also by pray-reading and sing-reading. Also praise the Lord and give thanks to Him. Combine the rich Word and the bountiful supply of the Spirit with unceasing prayer. Then you will enjoy the Lord, partake of Him, be one with Him, live Him, grow in Him, and magnify Him. This is what God desires today. (Life-Study of Philippians, Chapter 37)