Pray-reading: refs. include Witness Lee, Watchman Nee

The Need of Growth in Life

All believers have been born of God. John 1:12-13 tells us that “as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name, who were begotten…of God.” John later says, in his first Epistle: “Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and we are” (3:1). All believers have been literally, actually, and factually born of God. They are not just called children of God—they are children of God. What a wonderful gift the Father has given His believers through regeneration! (For a further discussion of the divine birth, see Regeneration.)

Much more than the mere accumulation of scriptural knowledge or doctrines, what the believers need is the essence of the Bible—the element of God as spirit and life—for their spiritual growth.

As children of God, Christians need to grow. In his first Epistle, Peter compares the believers to newborn babes (1 Peter 2:2). The most important thing for a baby to do is to grow. Later in the same verse, Peter encourages these new believers to “grow unto salvation.” Similarly, in 1 Corinthians Paul compares the believers to a farm, a plot of cultivated land, used for growing plants (3:9). He explains that he planted, and Apollos watered, but that God caused the growth (3:6). This passage also clearly indicates our need for growth.

Another crucial verse on Christian growth is Colossians 2:19, which says, “…out from whom [referring to Christ] all the Body...grows with the growth of God.” This verse is vital because it shows not only the need for growth but also the definition of growth. Genuine spiritual growth is the growth of God within the believers; that is, the increase within them of the element of God received at their new birth. (Both the Darby Version and King James Version translate this phrase as “Increase with the increase of God.”) Real spiritual growth is thus not simply the increase of knowledge or doctrine. Real spiritual growth is the increase of God Himself in the believers through the gradual imparting, or dispensing, of His divine life and nature into them (for a further explanation, see God’s Economy and God’s Complete Salvation).

Pray-reading plays a key role in this growth process; that is, in the increase of God within the believers, for when a person receives the Word of God by means of prayer and petition, he gains God Himself. Much more than the mere accumulation of scriptural knowledge or doctrines, what the believers need is the essence of the Bible—the element of God as spirit and life—for their spiritual growth.

Eating the Word in the Bible

As a baby grows by eating the proper food, so also Christians must grow by eating the Word of God.

As a baby grows by eating the proper food, so also Christians must grow by eating the Word of God. And just as the Bible reveals the Word to be the believer’s spiritual food (see The Essence of the Bible), both the Old and the New Testaments consistently point us to the matter of eating the Word.

In the Old Testament

And He humbled you and let you go hungry and fed you the manna, which you had never known nor your fathers had ever known, so that He might make you know that man lives not by bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out through the mouth of Jehovah. (Deuteronomy 8:3)

As for the commandment of His lips, I have not turned back from it; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my apportioned food. (Job 23:12)

How sweet are Your words to my taste! Sweeter than honey to my mouth! (Psalm 119:103)

Your words were found and I ate them, and Your word became to me the gladness and joy of my heart, for I am called by Your name, O Jehovah, God of hosts. (Jeremiah 15:16)

But you, son of man, hear what I say to you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I give you. And I looked, and there was a hand, put forth toward me; and in it there was a scroll book. And He spread it before me. And it was written on the front and back, and on it were written lamentations, mourning, and woe. Then He said to me, Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.
So I opened my mouth, and He gave me that scroll to eat. And He said to me, Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your inward parts with this scroll that I am giving you. And I ate it, and it was like honey in my mouth in its sweetness. (Ezekiel 2:8-3:3)

In the New Testament

But He answered and said, It is written, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)

I gave you milk to drink, not solid food… (1 Corinthians 3:2)

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. (1 Timothy 4:6)

…you…have become those who have need of milk and not of solid food.
For everyone who partakes of milk is inexperienced in the word of righteousness, for he is an infant; but solid food is for the full-grown…. (Hebrews 5:12-14)

And have tasted the good word of God… (Hebrews 6:5)

As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word in order that by it you may grow unto salvation, if you have tasted that the Lord is good. (1 Peter 2:2-3)

And the voice which I heard out of heaven, I heard again speaking with me and saying, Go, take the opened scroll in the hand of the Angel who is standing on the sea and on the land. And I went to the Angel and told Him to give me the little scroll. And He said to me, Take it and devour it, and it will make you stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey. And I took the little scroll out of the hand of the Angel and devoured it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth; and when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter. (Revelation 10:8-10)

Eating By Pray-Reading

To receive the Word is to eat the Word, and the way to eat the Word is “by means of all prayer and petition”

Not only does the Bible reveal the need to eat the Word of God, but also the way to eat. The way is clearly revealed in Ephesians 6:17-18: “And receive…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….” To receive the Word is to eat the Word, and the way to eat the Word is “by means of all prayer and petition,” as illustrated in the Christian Testimonies section of this web site.