THE ORGAN TO USE THE KEYS
What is the organ for us to use these two keys? It is our human spirit. Our hand, we know, is the proper organ to turn the key to open the door of our house. To somehow manipulate our mouth or our toes to turn the key would be extremely absurd. Likewise, the proper organ for us to use the keys of the Spirit and the Word is not our mentality or our will, but our human spirit. We must exercise our human spirit; we must stay in the spirit. Whenever we pray, we must pray in our spirit; whenever we pray-read the Word, we must pray-read with our spirit; whenever we say, "O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah," we must say it by exercising our human spirit. The Bible may either be a book of letters or a book full of words as the Spirit. The kind of Bible we have depends upon which organ we use to contact it. If we contact the Bible by our mentality, it is merely a book of letters to us. If we contact the Bible, however, by exercising our spirit, it immediately becomes a book of the Spirit. The Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3:6, "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." Paul, in referring to the letter which kills, was referring to the written Scriptures. If we contact the Scriptures with our mind, it becomes the killing letters. The same book may be either killing letters or the life-giving Spirit.
We all must realize firstly that we have such a Christ—a Christ for our happiness, a Christ for our rest, a Christ as our Lawgiver and Predictor, and a Christ as the Life-giver. But we must also realize that this Christ today is the Spirit and is in the Word. Now, if we would contact this Christ, we need to exercise our spirit to pray-read the Word or simply to call on His name. If we would do this, we would continually contact Christ and enjoy Him. There is no other way.
Have you ever changed your way in dealing with the Bible? I am much concerned that you are still cleaving to your old way of reading and studying the Bible by exercising your mentality. Are you still in the old way? Sometimes, no doubt, in your study of the Bible you have received some life. But I believe that most of the time you have been deadened and killed. It is simply because you have used the wrong way. The new way and best way is that whenever you come to the Bible, at the same time you come to the Lord. Always combine coming to the Bible with coming to the Lord. When you come to the Bible, you must open your spirit and mouth to call on the name of the Lord Jesus. Whatever verse, whatever sentence you read, read it by calling on the name of the Lord. Always mingle your reading of the Scriptures with calling on the Lord Jesus. Try it! You will see the difference.
You may say then, "Should we not understand the Bible?" Leave this matter to the Lord. Just pray-read; the Lord will take care of your understanding. I guarantee that if you faithfully pray-read the Word of God, you will understand the Bible much better than all the others who do not pray-read.
Let us use for an illustration a match. The match stick, it is true, is made of wood, but in essence the match is really phosphorus. The meaning of the word phosphorus is "light-bearer." II Peter 1:19 refers to the Lord as the day-star: that term "day-star" in Greek is the word phosphorus. Christ is the phosphorus, the light-bearer, shining in the darkness. Now suppose I want to use the match: what shall I do? Of course, I must strike it. But how shall I strike it? If I strike it, using the end without the phosphorus, though I strike till eternity I will get no light. I am using the wrong end. The Bible is the match, and the Lord Jesus, the Spirit, is the phosphorus. The wooden stick may be likened to the black and white letters, the words in the Bible, which hold Christ as the phosphorus, the heavenly day-star. How can we make the phosphorus take fire and shine? We must use the right end of the match, and we must strike it on the right spot. The right end is the Holy Spirit, and the right spot is our human spirit. We must not care so much for the black and white letters—that is tantamount to concentrating on the wooden stick of the match. All our focus should be on the end with the phosphorus. We do have the letters of the written Word, but we must not pay too much attention to them. We must concentrate on the heavenly phosphorus in the Word, Christ the Spirit. And we must strike this end in the right place, our human spirit. How many Christians there are who are "striking" the Bible in the area of their mentality. Little wonder that they never catch fire. We need the stick to hold the phosphorus, no doubt; we need the written Word, the black and white letters, to contain Christ, the heavenly phosphorus. But it is the phosphorus, it is the Spirit, that burns and gives the light. We must strike the right end, and we must strike the right end at the right spot. We must take the written Word and strike the Lord who is the Spirit upon our human spirit. Immediately we will get the fire. It really works. If you stay with the Bible for half an hour or even an hour and get no fire, you are wrong. I can tell you, just after two minutes of, "O Lord Jesus! In the beginning was the Word. Amen! O Lord Jesus, You are the Word! Amen, Lord Jesus! Hallelujah!" you will be burned. This is the right way to contact the Word. You have to strike the Lord Jesus, the heavenly phosphorus in the Word, upon your human spirit. Hallelujah! Try the new way, and you will give up the old way. Every time you come to the Word in this new way it will burn and shine upon you.
Praise the Lord, we have the keys, we have the organ, and we have the way to contact and enjoy such a wonderful Christ.
(Christ versus Religion, Chapter 7, by Witness Lee)
