God’s desire: The speaking God desires a speaking people. God created man in His image and His likeness so that man can express Him (“image”) and represent Him (“dominion”) (Gen 1:26) by speaking. I never really saw this aspect of speaking to express God and represent Him. I thought it is enough just to live Christ “quietly” to express Christ, without speaking Him forth.
Imagine someone standing on the stage, just smiling at you or nodding his/her head for hours and not speaking to you. There is some kind of expression but not that much. However, if the person speaks, then we know his/her intention, desires, preference, etc.
This is what our God does – He spoke in the Old Testament through the prophets, and in His Son in the New Testament (Heb 1:1-3). He is still speaking through all the members in His Body. He is the speaking Spirit.
I was impressed to see that in order for us to be useful to the Lord, we must learn not to speak our own words – just as the Lord Jesus did when He was on earth (John 14:10)! Therefore, we must let the word of Christ dwell in us richly (not poorly!) by pray-reading and spending much time in His word, and accumulate the experiences of Christ – so that out of the abundance of our heart our mouth speaks (Matt 12:34) Christ!
Furthermore, I saw more clearly that the word of Christ is a Person. Only a Person can dwell in us and make home in our hearts. Thus, the way for Christ to make His home in our hearts (Eph 3:17) is by us letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly (Col 3:16).
The Lord Jesus said in John 15:4, “Abide in me and I in you”, but in verse 7, He said, “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you”. This shows that His word is equal to the Lord Himself. Therefore, we must not come to the Word without the Lord, neither come to the Lord without the Word.
The effect of the word of God – “beautifying” and “killing”. I also enjoyed that God’s word must have an effect on us. His Word beautifies us and kills the adversary within us. He beautifies us by the washing of the water in the word (Eph 5:26-27) to wash away the spots (our natural life) and wrinkles (oldness).
For sins, we need the blood, but we need the water (laver) in the word for the “spots” from our natural life such as jealousy, pride(which are not beautiful in the eyes of Christ). We need to be washed in the water in the Word so that we can be His beautiful corporate Bride to be presented to Him, our dear Bridegroom, who will come back as the word of God (Rev 19:13).
Another effect of the Word is that it kills the adversary within us (Eph. 6:17-18) so that we can be God’s corporate warrior to slay His adversary. Pray-reading is a practical way to kill the negative elements within us.
We also need to live a proper, normal Christian life – a prophesying life to speak the word of God in ten major categories. I realise that we prophesy not just in the church meetings but this is our daily life as we get into the word, we speak Christ ALL the time.
For this we must love the Lord and be revived every morning. There are many other points but the most important thing is that we love the Lord. The brother who spoke this message described to us how his wife speaks about him all the time – because of her love for him – to the point of embarrassment, but he likes it!
The same principle applies to us with the Lord. “My heart overflows with a good matter; I speak what I have composed concerning the King. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer” (Psa 45:1). I never thought composing a prophecy is scriptural! Many times, I just speak in the meetings without writing down my prophecy, thus my speaking is usually not very coherent.
Naturally, I do not like to speak the word of God (though I do speak other words!) but I realise that we must speak the Word of God in season and out of season (2 Tim 4:2), i.e. whether we feel like it or not.
Finally, the last major point on message 5 says that “in the church life today, there is the need for the speaking of God-constituted persons”. I realised that God just want to make as the same as He is in life, nature, expression, and function, but not in the Godhead. He is the Word (John 1:1), He is coming back as the Word (Rev 19:13).
He is making us the Word of God by making His home in our heart through His Word so that we can speak Him forth to express Him and represent Him. Then our speaking will be Christ’s speaking (2 Cor 13:3). Our speaking will bring the Lord back. Come, Lord Jesus!
As it regards to my experience of blending with the saints in the Iberian peninsular – I enjoyed that even though the saints were speaking in Portuguese and Spanish, everyone was so eager to function in the meeting! Hallelujah for speaking the word of God through every member in the Body for the building up of itself in love.
[sharing from the recent conference in Portugal by sister Annie B, main topic: Speaking the Word of God]
Lord, we want to spend more time with You in the word so that we can be constituted with You as the Word of God, to be made the same as you are.
Amen!!!