How the Word of God Becomes Spirit and Life

Matthew 15:26 – And He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” Who is he talking to? And he was talking to a Greek. Do you realize if you look at that real carefully and look away from the negatives that the Lord is saying that he is bread for children? Have you ever listened to it that way? Have you ever felt like that? He is bread for children. Okay, he is bread and his drink. Okay, go ahead.

II Corinthians 3:6 – who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

All right, now then. Now we come to the word. And what does it say of the word here? The word can do two things. Are you aware of this? The word can what? Kill. And the word can also give life. What? It is the letter that kills. The spirit gives life.

Now, brethren, I just want to say this to you here that there is something – this is speaking of the word of God – the word of God can be a dead letter that kills, or if it is taken in by the Spirit, it can give life. Did you get that? It can give life, or it can be death. How do you get it into you as death? In the mind.

Brethren, I have been studying the book of Ezekiel. I believe if I take a dragon’s tooth out of Ezekiel and put it with a bear’s ear in Daniel; brethren, if you’ll notice, if you put this dragon’s tooth with a bear’s ear in Daniel, you will be able to see that there comes a time where I believe I have found the exact date of the panmillennial mid tribulation post rapture and you know and just so much. Where is the life?

Brothers and sisters, there is something that we need to learn here. We need to sense that which is life and that which is death when it’s ministered. Now, don’t be judge of any man, but you must be very careful to not be awed by the mind. The mind gets high on knowledge, but that’s not the spirit. It’s not just the spirit, but it’s not only when we come to the Word, but also when it is ministered, that we need to really consider: is this ministering life?

Brother Nee used to tell the story that when he was young, he was under the tutelage of a deeply spiritual woman. I had a dear sister friend in Christ who’s gone on to be with the Lord. She was a Methodist missionary in China. She completely gave up the system, and as an American, she went and put herself under Brother Nee. Later, she came back to America. I knew her for the last three years of her life. She knew the sister – I hope you can follow this – she knew the sister who Brother Nee was under as a youth. She was a deeply spiritual woman. Her name was Sister Barber. Sister Barber took Nee, a brilliant young Christian in his late teens and really taught him the deep spiritual thing, and brother Nee said as a youth he used to go and say, Sister Barber, oh I found this great man and he would take her to the meeting and this man of course would preach some great things, and they would leave and she would say to him, Henry…Nee’s name in English is Henry. Brother Henry Knee. Nobody knows that it just came out, I’m sorry. Henry, did you sense life?? And he’d think about it. No, he didn’t. And he’d take her again to another one. Henry. Did you sense life? And he’d think about it.

Then one time a man came through, and he said, You’ve got to hear this man. This man is really preaching life. She went with him to the meeting. They left. And you know what she said? She said, This man has had a real living experience with the Lord, but it had already become old. She was a very discerning woman, and I really know what she means. Men who have a great experience, a living experience of the Lord, and then they go out and they give it over and over and over, and they do not build on that which God has done. He had had a living experience of the Lord. There was something in his past of the ministry of the Lord.

My brethren, there is something of the Word of God that can be death when taken into the wrong organ, into the soul. The soulish man cannot really feed on Christ. On the other hand, when the Word becomes spirit, it is life. It gives life. Do you understand?

Alright, now then brethren, we have to learn to come to the word of God not with our brain, not with our intellect, but to come to the word of God with our spirit.

Okay, what is the next verse? Yes, brother.

I Corinthians 15:45 – So also, it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.