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Read and pray: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing to God with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts.” (Col. 3:16)
You may have faith, have the spirit, and have the Holy Spirit, yet when you try to speak, you feel that you have nothing to say. Yet you say you lack experiences. That is correct, but I say that you lack not only experiences, but also the word of Christ.
Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” We must observe that in this verse Paul said, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.”
This kind of tone indicates that the word of Christ is here waiting for your permission to enter. It seems that a Person is waiting, waiting for you to allow Him to enter. Years ago, when I read this verse, I disagreed with this kind of tone.
Why did Paul say, “Let… the word of Christ dwell in you”? This indicates that the living word of Christ is waiting for permission to enter. This word is personified as a living Person.
We do not say, “The table dwells in the room.” A table cannot dwell because it has no life. Whatever can dwell in your house must be a living being. A lifeless thing cannot dwell.
Paul said, “Let… the word of Christ dwell in you,” and the New Testament tells us that Christ is the Word. Not only that, the Spirit is also the Word (Eph. 6:17).
The Word, Christ, the Spirit, and God—these four are actually one. These are four synonyms referring to this one unique Person. God is Christ, Christ is the Spirit, the Spirit is the Word, and the Word is God, Christ, and the Spirit. Therefore, the Word is a living Person. Paul did not say the word of someone else or of something else. He said the word of Christ.
Surely this is the organic Word, the living Word, the Word that exists as a living Person. This Word waits to enter into you. Open yourselves and allow it to enter. Colossians 3:16 continues: “teaching and admonishing one another… with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.”
If you read this verse carefully, you may find some controversy. First it is the Word, but eventually it becomes a psalm or a hymn.
The principle is this: if you do not speak a certain word many times, that word could never become a psalm or a song. Whatever becomes a psalm or hymn must be a word that has been spoken one, two, three times, four times, many, many times; then that word will become a psalm.
You cannot compose a song unless you compose it with words you have spoken repeatedly. The same word you have spoken again and again will eventually become a poem, a song, a hymn, or a psalm.
For example, Hymn 499 (English) in our hymnal says:
This poem was composed by me. For years, I always spoke this:
I also continued with the next stanza:
I always spoke this, and eventually it became a song. This indicates that we must allow the Lord’s word to dwell in us to such an extent that eventually it becomes a song, a hymn, or a psalm.
Psalms are long poems, hymns are shorter, and spiritual songs are even shorter.
The word of Christ is personified; it is a living Person waiting for your permission to enter. Once you allow Him to enter, He will take over your speaking again and again. Eventually this speaking will become poetry with rhythm and rhyme.
Sometimes when you begin to speak for the Lord, you feel strange. When you speak worldly things—which you have been speaking for many years—you can express them like a song, like a psalm with rhythm and rhyme. But when you began to speak Christ after being saved only two weeks, it was something strange to you.
We must allow the word of Christ, as a Person, to dwell in us, and we will speak this word fluently until we become used to it, and until it becomes poetry in our speaking.
We all must learn to speak Christ and become accustomed to speaking Christ. We need to become accustomed to such an extent that everything we speak is a kind of poetry, a song, a psalm, and a hymn. In this way we will speak healthy words (1 Tim. 6:3).
In conclusion, first we must realize that God desires us to speak. He desires all His people to prophesy. Second, to speak we need the Spirit. This Spirit is upon us and within us. Hallelujah! We have been baptized in the Spirit; therefore, the Spirit is upon us.
We have also drunk the Spirit; therefore, the Spirit is within us. We have the Spirit. Now we only need to exercise and say Amen to what the Bible says. The Bible says that the Spirit is within us. We say, “Amen.”
We exercise this Spirit of faith and feel that we are truly in the Spirit, and that the Spirit is upon us and also within us. When I speak, He speaks in my speaking. We must practice this throughout the whole day.
If there is no one to speak to, simply speak to the angels in the air or to the demons around you. Allow the living word of Christ to enter and dwell in you. Then speak Christ, not with common, ordinary, worldly expressions, but with Himself as the Word.
We must learn the spiritual terminology, the spiritual phrases, and the spiritual prayers. This is why it is good to take the hymnal and recite some hymns. This will help you express something.
Along with this, we need our daily experiences. But I assure you that if you are people who exercise to speak by faith, with the Spirit and with the Holy Spirit, spontaneously you will experience Christ.
You will experience Christ throughout the whole day, not only in great things but especially in all the small ones such as: combing your hair, dressing, putting on your shoes, what kind of shoes to buy, and which color to choose.
In all the small things you will experience Christ. Then you will have the accumulation of the rich experience of Christ, and each time you go to the meetings, you will be accustomed to speaking, and you will simply speak. Speak Christ, speak for Christ, and utter Christ as the living Word.
If we are all willing to do this, all the small meetings will be in the third heaven. This will be very attractive and appealing. It will retain people and preserve them, and will produce increase and the growth of life.
This is the proper way. I hope you all will be attracted to this kind of practice so that through us the church may go on in the Lord’s recovery.
🌿 Enjoy more:
Hymn: Experience of Christ — “As Life”
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