This is the third 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 the first episode, we discussed some of the benefits of reading the Bible and looked at what the Word of God is. In the second episode, we presented five of the functions of the Bible in our experience. First, the Bible is part of our initial experience of God, making us wise unto salvation. Next, the Bible is our food. The Bible also gives us light. Fourth, the Bible waters and refreshes us. And last, the Bible enables us to have God’s instant speaking.
In this podcast we’ll consider some of the results of reading the Bible.
To live the Christian life we need to read the Bible. We cannot survive without the provisions in the Word. Moreover, through reading the Word, all of our spiritual problems—our real problems—are solved. The Bible is the answer to our questions. How do I enjoy the Lord? How do I escape the world? How do I live the proper life? So many questions about our daily life and experiences as a Christian are cleared up just by reading the Word every day. We may not receive outward, instant answers to these questions, but inwardly, over time, we receive more and more of God as the Answer. Simply by reading in a proper way, the Bible supplies us to live both a normal Christian life and human life. We experience these marvelous consequences by getting into the Word daily. Let’s take a closer look at a few of the results of reading the Bible.
First, when we read the Bible, we are filled in spirit.
At times we may feel spiritually empty and dry, unsure of how to satisfy the discontent within. But according to the Word, we can be those who are filled in spirit. By reading the Bible we are filled in spirit, satisfied to the point of overflowing.
Ephesians 5:18-19 says, “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissoluteness, but be filled in spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and psalming with your heart to the Lord.”
And Colossians 3:16 says, “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.”
What a joyful condition is expressed in these verses! Our being filled in spirit, speaking the truth, singing with grace in our hearts—all are results of our getting into the Word.
Second, when we read the Bible we are infused with faith.
Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is the substantiation of things not seen. As physical beings, we may doubt the unseen spiritual things and even the existence of God. However, when we read the Bible, we are infused with faith as our believing element.
Romans 10:17 says, “So faith comes out of hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
And in Galatians 3:2 Paul writes, “This only I wish to learn from you, Did you receive the Spirit out of the works of law or out of the hearing of faith?”
If we are discouraged by doubts and feelings of unbelief, we should turn to the Word. The more we read, the more we believe.
Third, when we read the Bible we are nourished and supplied.
First Timothy 4:6 says, “If you lay these things before the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, being nourished with the words of the faith and of the good teaching which you have closely followed.”
Matthew 4:4 tells us that man lives “on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God.”
The Bible is the food that sustains our spiritual life. When we eat a hearty spiritual meal by getting into the Word, we are nourished and supplied with the riches of Christ as our food and life supply. We then have the strength to continue our Christian life.
In the Life-study of John, Witness Lee says, “When we contact the Word in spirit, we are actually contacting the Lord Himself as the living bread. When we receive the Word in spirit, we are receiving Christ Himself as the abundant supply of life. Now, day by day, we are participating in this wonderful, resurrected Christ as our food, life, and life-supply.”
Fourth, when we read the Bible we are cleansed and washed.
Ephesians 5:26 says, “That He might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of the water in the word.”
According to this verse, in the Word is water that washes us. This washing is not the washing of the blood of Jesus, which cleanses our sins, but the washing of the water of life that washes away the blemishes of our old man. Through reading the Word, our old nature is cleansed and purified, and we are made new. We need to stay in this washing process by consistently reading the Word.
The fifth result of our reading the Bible is that we partake of the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world.
Second Peter 1:4 says, “Through which He has granted to us precious and exceedingly great promises that through these you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world by lust.”
The divine life contained in the Word includes as a virtue the energy and strength that enable us to escape the corruption in the world. By escaping the corruption in the world, we can partake of the divine nature of God and thus enjoy all the riches of what the Triune God is.
Note 5 on this verse in the New Testament Recovery Version says, “Having escaped the corruption of lust in the world and having thus removed the barriers to the growth of the divine life in us, we are freed to become partakers of the divine nature and to enjoy its riches to the fullest extent in its development by the virtue of God unto His glory.”
Sixth, by reading the Bible our spirit and soul are divided.
Hebrews 4:12 tells us that “the word of God is living and operative and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
Our spirit is deep within our soul. At times it may be difficult to discern between the two because of the doubts and wonderings in our mind. The Word has the power to divide our spirit from our soul, releasing our spirit so that we may enter into the full enjoyment of God, and strengthening our capacity to discern our spirit from our fallen thoughts, intentions, and emotions.
Finally, when we read the Bible, the enemy is defeated and slain.
Ephesians 6:17-18 says, “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, praying at every time in spirit and watching unto this in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints.”
In Matthew 4 Satan tempted the Lord Jesus in the wilderness. The Lord, a sinless and perfect man, defeated Satan by quoting the Bible to him. The Word is a sword, a weapon, with which we can defeat the enemy’s attacks and temptations. As with any weapon, we need to know how to use the Bible and practice using it by daily, prayerful reading and study so we may be fully equipped in all situations.
Note 4 on Ephesians 6:17 in the New Testament Recovery Version says, “The sword, the Spirit, and the word are one. When the constant word in the Bible becomes the instant word, that word is the Spirit as the sword that kills the enemy.”
