WORD OF GOD
God's direct speaking to man in present tense.
THE BIBLE
The God-breathed scriptures containing past words of God and man.
LOGOS WORD
Christ: the EMBODIMENT of God's communication to and into man.
This article is about Romans chapter 10. In this chapter the term "word" and "Christ" are interchangeable. This is not about memorizing Bible verses. Just because you memorize some bible verses does not mean you interacting with the living Christ in your mouth and in your heart! In Ephesians 6:17 & 18 it points to the word of God as BEING the Spirit: "and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:". Since Christ is called the Word of God in John 1 and the life-giving Spirit in I Cor. 15:45, then He is both the Word and the Spirit. Hence the concept 'the word is near you-in your mouth and in your heart.' Now Paul uses the term through in Ephesians 6:17 & 18. Through what? Prayer. Again, this presumes a heart to heart contact with God.
There's a catch of course. There is something you must do to reap the benefits: in Rom 10:10 it is written: "for with the heart doth one believe to righteousness, and with the mouth is confession made to salvation;" ... You must actively believe in the resurrected Christ with your heart and confess Jesus as your Lord with your mouth as written in: ROM 10:13: "for every one-whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, he shall be saved." So to experience this you MUST CALL upon His Name!! You MUST! Fortunately this is not a one time experience but an ongoing one! Paul here not only mentions this in connection with salvation but spiritual wealth. and this is the real spiritual wealth - not a spiritual wealth where you can be spiritually rich without Christ but it is the Christ AS your riches: ROM 10:12: "for there is no difference between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord of all is rich to all those calling upon Him."
Yes, there's a time to be silent before God and listen. But there is also a time to open your mouth and call on His Name and make some noise!
Calling upon the Unsearchably Rich Christ!
Calling upon the Name of Jesus is so much different than calling any other name! Now, this is better done with a believing heart. But I have seen before my own eyes people with little or no faith who were literally shocked by experiencing the presence of God for the first time in their life because we or I challenged them to call upon the Name of Jesus - the result? Literal trembling! In some of these cases these folks soon decided to be born again.
Paul says in Romans 10:12b and 13 that the "same Lord of all is rich to all those calling upon Him, for every one-whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, he shall be saved." so this means when we call upon Him ALL the riches of the Triune God are right there! They are available. Do not mistake me for saying this is the only element in the believer's life or the only activity. There is also prayer, repentance and confession of sin, fasting, praising, silent contemplation, meditation, witnessing, etc. etc., but if you don't call His Name you are really missing out! Now, of course, it is one thing to touch these riches and another thing to walk in them! This is the difference between being IN the Spirit and walking according to the Spirit. One can be had by merely calling but the other begins with calling on God but is perfected by much much prayer and careful listening to and following the voice of the Lord. Again, read my first article in this series for more light on this subject about the one thing needful. BUT!!! How do you expect to hear Him if you are not even near Him? The best way to draw near and literally be in the Spirit in order to then wait quietly and listen is to call upon His Name! He is near you already, but the problem is not with Him it is with you. And, to be blunt, your biggest problem (I'm speaking to the majority of people) is that you live by your own life; not the life of Christ.
Note: here are 2 items: riches and salvation. Now, you can't have the one without the other. However, too many preachers have seriously limited the Holy One of Israel by preaching emphasizing that you call on the Lord Jesus the first time to get saved so you can "escape hell and go to heaven when you die." This is not without reference to His riches for His death for you to justify and forgive your sins is part of the riches of His grace for you surely. But there is also the need to be sanctified as well as justified and this necessitates a daily walk not just a justified stand. Now this walk has to be by another life: HIS life, not your fallen life. So, it is not emphasized that there is a need for continuing salvation by continuing to call and that calling is like drinking - we need to call over and over just like we need to keep drinking more and more to sustain our physical life. Folks have much more sense when it comes to taking care of their physical life but do not see the same logic in taking care of their spiritual life. Jesus said He WAS the life which is the new life we get when we are born again, but He also said He is the Bread of life and the water of life so He is also the life supply and doesn't it make sense that every life needs a food or supply? But though our parents (if they are half-good parents) teach us to give feed, drink and air to our physical bodies, where are the spiritual parents to train spiritual babes to feed on Christ daily and drink and breath him daily????
So this counts for anyone. The unsearchable riches and salvation of Christ is available to anyone who calls and believes. So this brings me to another subject: the RICHES. Let's qualify the word rich here though. Is it you? NO! Jesus recommended in what most people call the sermon on the mount that we be poor in spirit and take this attitude in Matthew 5. So it is Christ Who is rich. BUT ... He wants to share His riches for FREE with you! The availability is IN the Spirit not in you though and the caller is IN the Spirit by calling. Also, if you mix this with faith and walk according to the Spirit the measure of enjoyment will surely be greater.
Now, the concept of us being poor and Him rich needs to be stated another way so let's do this Paul's way. First of all Romans 10 starts with ending the law!! Ending the law you say? Now doesn't this contradict the words of Jesus Who said not one dot or tittle of the law will pass away and that heaven and earth would have to pass away first?? No! Not at all! Paul says that Christ is the end of law for righteousness to everyone who is believing. If you saw a sign at a cemetery telling the dead residents of that cemetery not to walk on the grass, you would think the owners of the cemetery to be crazy since law does not apply to dead people neither is it necessary for them! Christ is the SPIRIT and those Who believe into Him are in Him and His death on the cross was their death and they are really truly dead!!!! This is just one aspect of the riches of Christ. Now, this does not mean the law is dead or done away with or no longer there. It means that true believers are dead: REALLY DEAD! Now, this does not mean that they become lawless or can sin any way they want to. A DEAD PERSON CANNOT SIN EITHER! They can do neither good nor evil. Rather they live in Christ in His resurrection life! Now you may say "I don't know any Christians like this and I'm not like this. Well, why don't you try calling upon His Name and believing!! This again, is not having or doing your own righteousness or righteous life but His life in you as you receive Him as life and life-supply and listen to Him and follow Him.
Paul describes the righteousness of faith and the "versus" side of that in verses 5-7:
For Moses is writing of the righteousness which is out of law, that a human/man who does the same shall be living in it. Yet the righteousness out of faith is saying thus: You may not be saying in your heart, any/Who will be ascending into heaven?--that is, to be leading Christ down-- or any/Who will be descending~ into the submerged chaos?--that is, to be leading Christ up out/from among the dead. Now Paul is here quoting Moses words in Deut. 30:11-14: "For this command which I am commanding thee to-day, it is not too wonderful for thee, nor is it far off. It is not in the heavens,-saying, Who doth go up for us into the heavens, and doth take it for us, and doth cause us to hear it-that we may do it. And it is not beyond the sea,-saying, Who doth pass over for us beyond the sea, and doth take it for us, and doth cause us to hear it-that we may do it? For very near unto thee is the word, in thy mouth, and in thy heart-to do it. In other words since the incarnated Christ and the unsearchable riches of incarnation are in you plus the same for His human life, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension and further descension as the wind of power are already in you, then surely you can do the word which is doing Him from within you! Now you may say that what Moses wrote was old covenant letter of the law religion, but you must study the context of this verse. Duet 30:6-10, the proceeding verses say: "And Jehovah thy God hath circumcised thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, for the sake of thy life; and Jehovah thy God hath put all this oath on thine enemies, and on those hating thee, who have pursued thee. 'And thou dost turn back, and hast hearkened to the voice of Jehovah, and hast done all His commands which I am commanding thee to-day; and Jehovah thy God hath made thee abundant in every work of thy hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, for good; for Jehovah turneth back to rejoice over thee for good, as He rejoiced over thy fathers, for thou dost hearken to the voice of Jehovah thy God, to keep His commands, and His statutes, which are written in the book of this law, for thou turnest back unto Jehovah thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul. The inward circumcision of the heart is mentioned here which is new covenant reality. Also do you notice the part about hearkening to the voice of Jehovah? Wow! So even though the processing of the unsearchable riches in Christ the Word Who tabernacled in flesh and now in us was not yet complete at that time, God was still looking forward by faith to that time and based on His Son's atonement still proclaimed and claimed a relationship with man. Hallelujah! Men could even then hear God and experience a resulting work of grace in their hearts.
To add light to this, Jesus speaking to Nicodemas about being born again said: "Jn 3:10 & 12 Thou art the teacher of Israel-and these things thou dost not know! vs 12: if the earthly things I said to you, and ye do not believe (my note: that is to say although the birth from above or being born again is a heavenly invasion from above, it is still an earthly event happening upon this earth) , how, if I shall say to you the heavenly things, will ye believe? Jn 3:13 and no one hath gone up to the heaven, except he who out of the heaven came down-the Son of Man who is in the heaven." Jesus was saying that while He was speaking to Nicodemus on the earth, at the same time, He was still in heaven running and maintaining the universe! And why not? So ... do you believe this?
Now, let me expand: the incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Christ may have been past events to this world and the history books, but they are not just past events to the true believer! They are present eternal realities to the eye of faith. They are present rich realities of the unsearchably rich Christ in Whom we are and Whom is in us! Now heed my next statement very carefully: all that Jesus accomplished, experienced and did so that all things written of Him and planned for Him could be fulfilled and done was done and fulfilled not by Him doing it on His Own but He said in Jn 5:19: "Verily, verily, I am saying to you, The Son can not be doing anything of Himself if it is not what He should be observing the Father doing, for whatever He may be doing, this the Son also is doing likewise." In other words (and this is not the scripture showing this point), Jesus lived by His Father's life and did NOTHING except BY His life - and so He did nothing on His own. Then He prescribed that we live BY HIM. SO, the Christian life is not a code of conduct but a lived-out reality of the life of Another One living inside us!! THIS is how Christ lived! It seems by the endless unnecessary preaching today that even though Jesus lived His earthly life this way and had lived this way from eternity past BUT the preachers say you are supposed to live by a certain set of rules! Nonsense!! This wonderful life of the Son of God Who became son of man flowed out from the inseparableness and intimacy of the relationship between the Father and Son that was ongoing from eternity past to eternity future. This cannot be comprehended or explained to the mind but we can enter into the experience of what is (was and will be!!!!!) going on there!! Now! You don't often hear about or read about a definition of the Word of God like this. It is this reality and this experience that the Word made flesh is seeking to tabernacle by mingling Himself with us into you and me!!!!!!!! When you touch even the fringes of this fellowship between the Father and the Son, it is exhilarating and even earth shaking. It truly causes flesh and blood to tremble but at the same time supplies the inner spirit man, watering, strengthening and making that part of us flourish and grow like the green budding forth to produce true fruit! The best thing about all this is that it is so simple! You have GOT to be like a little child (not a theologian) to enter into it: #1 out loud: call on His Name: "Oh Lord Jesus!" #2 While in His presence quietly listen to Him. #3 Follow Him by obeying His voice. Even the illiterate can do this! In fact, maybe they are better off! This is the way to enter into His riches and follow Him!
Now, don't think that this is all. You would miss the point of this web site if you individualize this. Individualization is the common American mind-set or "matrix" that most Americans and indeed most of today's Christians get deceived by. Most have this concept and don't even know it is a wrong concept. No. ALL of this is much more real in the CORPORATE setting of the Body of Christ. The Word of God is like a river with an origination and a destination. The destination is the Bride or the New Jerusalem just like her example or figure Eve is built (the Hebrew word meaning) from that which was taken from her husband's side while in a deep sleep which resembled Christ's death. The origination of this destination, the New Jerusalem which John says is the Lamb's wife is the good pleasure or heart's desire to an ultimate intention of God. Paul calls this the eternal purpose. This purpose includes a desire for His Bride, but also His house, His body and His family. To arrive at this purpose there had to be the family farm! If you get on a straight line between the heart's purpose of God and the ultimate goal, the New Jerusalem, you will surely be in the strongest flow of the river!!!!! Do you not think that the speaking of God is strongest in the middle of this river? Surely it is! To this end what was written in John 1:14: "And the Word became flesh and did tabernacle (emphasis mine) among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of an only begotten of a Father, full of grace and truth." Well ... this was written and this took place that the Word and the scripture, both, may be fulfilled. The rib taken from His side at Calvary to be built into His Bride was accomplished by His incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension and descension again as the life-giving Spirit. There is, believe it or not, a very enlightening Psalm on this very subject containing many examples of the unsearchable riches of Christ. It is Psalm 68 which was directly quoted by Paul in Ephesians 4. During (Yes! It is still during!) this process (finished for Him but ongoing for us), Christ and our Father gave/give gifts back and forth to each other. These gifts are men! I spend some time on this subject concerning Ephesians 4 and His ascending and descending bringing captivity captive in my article above entitled "Logos." However, that is part of and parcel to the goal of God. And His goal is building! And what are those men who are the gifts for? To equip the "separated ones" for a work of building! Building us together to be His Bride, Body and Temple!! So since this is where the river is going, supplying and the Word is tabernacling, then it is time to realize also that this Body of His which God is building is the dwelling, PLACE and expression of His LIFE! This is why you will find salvation and victory difficult outside of the corporate experience and not so difficult when involved with the reality of the Body life where JESUS is Head and there is no other! And what kind of life does Jesus live now? Just like you and me: a BODY LIFE through His Body!!
Now! Calling upon His Name and believing with your heart should also be a CORPORATE experience! So we see that most of Paul's letters were written to a them or corporate you or "unto the ecclesia" in the area where the people were that he wrote to. But our modern Greek mind-set Americanized thinking tends to try to read the New Testament in an individualized mind-set or a good word for it is matrix. My article on how this happened so very very slowly through the centuries can be found here. It concerns the long term sinister plans of the enemy. The American Christianity we have today is absolutely scary. Now, here are some passages of scripture referring to calling upon the Name of Jesus in a corporate setting. They called on Him together. First of all see I Cor. 1:2: " to the ecclesia of *God *which is in Corinth, hallowed~ in Christ Jesus, called saints, together with all in every place *who are invoking (the word is calling in most versions - parentheses mine) ~ the name of our *Lord, Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours:" This was obviously a corporate practice back then! And in more than one locality!
That it was something practiced by the 1st believers is proven in the book of Acts. See Acts 9:14 & 21 as it proves that it was a noted mark even by the unbelievers as something that was practiced corporately and noticeable: "and here he hath authority from the chief priests, to bind all those calling on Thy name." Here he brought chains for the callers. They must have been HEARD calling or this would not have been written. When Saul of Tarsus, the persecutor, went into a city, he had his hand cupped up to his ear, so to speak, listening for those who were calling "Lord Jesus! Oh Lord Jesus!" You could audibly hear them. Some of today's believers, those who call themselves Pentecostals or Charismatics think that speaking in tongues everybody at the same time is what 1st century believers were characterized by but only Acts 2 could be cited as even a remote example but they are blind to the facts that actually the world of that time recognized them by their calling the Name of Jesus as often as they had the chance!! THAT is the real truth! Acts 9:21 goes on to say it again: "And all those hearing were amazed, and said, 'Is not this he who laid waist in Jerusalem those calling on this name, and hither to this intent had come, that he might bring them bound to the chief priests?" For this to have been written means that the audible calling must have been a mark of the 1st century believers: possibly it was the main mark. But in any case it was something they definitely did. Now why would this be? Because the more they called, the more they drank in the Spirit! I don't tell alcoholics that get converted to stop drinking! I tell them to change fountains. If they start calling on Jesus' Name, they will have no problem! The more these early believers drank the Spirit, the more they grew and were made like Christ! Also it was the way to take the cup of salvation because we need salvation not just the initial first time but over and over constantly! Paul had surely been influenced by the example of Stephen, who, when his blood was being shed, set an example by calling on the Name of the Lord. See Acts 7:59: "And they stoned Stephen as he called upon the Lord and said, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!". Now surely this set an example before Saul although it may have been negatively received at first. When Annanias got a strange vision one night to go to Saul of Tarsus, he had no idea that earlier that day the Lord Jesus had shined His glory upon Saul with such light from the eternals it had knocked Saul off his horse. The only proper reaction towards this Light of the universe and the ages was to say "LORD?" His question to Who he knew to be the Lord was "who are you, Lord?" but he knew definitely that whoever it was HE was Lord! So there! Saul called upon the Lord! However his calling was incomplete. He Forgot to finish the phrase: "Lord JESUS", so the Lord Jesus in His great mercy finished the phrase for him answering his question by saying "I am Jesus, Whom you persecute." What a shock! How Saul's conscience must have pricked him through piercingly through and through while the light of God penetrated his heart. Suddenly he realized he didn't really know God!!! Not really! Now he had met Him for the first time and His Name was Jesus!!!! After this Saul must have wept and wept for a seeming eternity as a heap on the ground. It was this man who received the strongest revelation of the Body of Christ. The Lord's words "I am Jesus, Whom you persecute." are pregnant with meaning - that these little believers, poor and weak though they may be ARE JESUS HIMSELF!!! Jesus is one NEW MAN and all believers are members of that new man. So when you do something to them you do it to Him! It was Paul, not Saul who rose from the ground blind to all else but the glory he had seen! Actually he was even physically blind because of the exceeding brightness of that light and also as a sign to him. As soon as Annanias arrived on the scene, he obeyed God to do exactly as he had been told and laid hands on Paul to heal his blindness. Paul told the story in his own words recorded in Acts 22 saying that Annanias "Came unto me, and stood, and said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And the same hour I looked up upon him. And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. (italics mine)" Since his major sin was to persecute those who called on the name of the Lord, it was fitting that he be baptized publicly calling on the name of the Lord! So Paul became a caller.
Now, are you a caller? Do you call upon His Name? If not, it is time to start today! If you carefully read Paul's words above, you will see a connection between calling and hearing His voice. Would you not think it is important to be IN THE SPIRIT in order to hear His voice? Now here is another writing of Paul concerning calling on the name of the Lord: "AV 2Ti 2:22 . Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." It is impossible to have righteousness without sitting at His feet and hearing Him. However here is corporate reality again. Christ is our only real righteousness before God. "All other ground is sinking sand" as the song says and all other righteousnesses are filthy rags. But God never meant for us to do this on our own. The divine One lives a BODY life, therefore the divine life of that Righteous One (to paraphrase: that Just One that Annanias spoke to Saul about) lives His Divine Life out through His Divine Body. Indeed, we were made in HIS image and likeness and we live a body life through our bodies. So is it any wonder this Just One said "unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" AMEN! We are members of His Body just as Eve was originally a rib bone of Adam and a member of his body, nevertheless IN him! But God decided to make the Christian life a corporate one! He decided to make salvation a corporate experience! He decided to make calling on his Name a corporate experience! WITH THEM!!! Do you hear me - he wrote the scripture to say with them that call!!
Out of a pure heart?? So does this mean a sinner cannot or should not call? No! Please come to Jesus just as you are right now! Call on Him. Try to find others who are also callers. AS YOU DO you will be purified!! Doesn't the scripture say "whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved"??? Yes it does! So calling on Him is a major WAY to pureness of heart. Now it is true that if you call from a pure heart the calling it is much more effective: so purity improves calling and calling also improves purity. It goes both ways. Now, do you not, like me, need to call upon the Lord for salvation daily? Not just daily but every hour even every minute. Even just like breathing! I will prove this shortly. Calling upon the Lord IS calling upon the WORD for He is the Word. As you allow the Word His rightful place it washes, sanctifies you in it's water to make you part of His holy blameless Bride. Also the Name of the Lord is a strong tower of safety which the righteous are supposed to run into.
Now about drinking. Drinking the all-inclusive Spirit Whom Christ is in the resurrection according to I Cor. 15:45 is by calling "Lord Jesus" aloud! That's how it's done! Period! And if you don't spiritually drink you will die. Got to. Here's the reference in I Cor 12:3 & 13: "Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and [that] no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." and "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether [we be] Jews or Gentiles, whether [we be] bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit." I have stated before that the Greek rendering of vs 3 is not 'Jesus is the Lord' but rather 'Lord Jesus' - you may say this is not important. You may go on to say that taking these 2 verses 10 verses apart does not prove that calling on His name is the way to drink. Jesus said that coming to Him is to drink. Well this is what happens when you call on Him. You are IN the Spirit and surely you are closer to Christ. But now HERE is a scripture that proves calling is drinking. I tell you when you tell a sinner whose sin is drunkenness to repent, you need not tell him to quit drinking - only that he must change fountains .... FROM the broken cisterns that satisfy not to drawing with joy from the wells of salvation! Hallelujah! So here it is: Psalms 116:13: " I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD" Amen!!!! Shall I just take one sip and quit? You have got to be kidding!! I am going to drink abundantly and draw waters with joy out of the wells of salvation! So, the way to drink is call and then call again.
OK, now I will point you to another passage of scripture: Lam 3:53-64: "They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. Waters flowed over mine head; [then] I said, I am cut off. I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon. Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. Thou drewest near in the day [that] I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause. Thou hast seen all their vengeance [and] all their imaginations against me. Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, [and] all their imaginations against me; The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day. Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I [am] their musick. Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands." (bold print is mine) Did you notice the word "breathing"? If you don't drink you will surely die, but if you stop breathing you are dead almost right away! You got 5 minutes at the most. We must call upon His name constantly to have the rivers of living waters flowing abundantly. Then maybe we will see once again upon this earth meetings like I Cor 12 - 14 suggests where believers come full of the Spirit and yea verily: overflowing bursting out rivers of living waters from our innermost being! Folks coming to meetings with the intention and need ... to share what is so abundant within them, NOT to get something usually because their cup is so empty. THAT, my friends is the difference between today's Christianity and the 1st century Christianity.
So we can see that the unsearchable riches of Christ, our good land of Canaan and all things He has passed through attained and obtained in the fellowship He has with the Father can be enjoyed and the communicating or divine speaking of the same to us and into us is best entered into by calling upon the Name of Lord both individually and corporately that we might really truly and practically become what Paul wrote of in I Thessalonians 1:1: "Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, to the assembly of Thessalonians in God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ!" Have you ever seen this? The assembly IN God!! INSIDE the Fellowship which flows between the Father and Son? This is what the world needs to see, but more than that this is what God WANTS!
An Emphasized CONCLUSION
The Word of God must be a corporate experience as well as an individual experience. The goal of His Word is the same as the goal of meeting together as revealed in I Corinthians 12, 13 and 14: BUILDING!! (Again, do not think I am saying corporate calling upon Jesus Name is the only corporate type of meeting or activity: there is also silence, prayer meetings, times to exercise the gifts, time to listen to a brother sent of God to speak, although this should not have the percentage priority nearly that it has in today's modern fallen Christianity circles as it does, meetings to testify and share and above all worship that Christ may be expressed.) Many Christians think that worship is the goal but their worship in many cases falls far short of the worship which satisfies and pleases the heart of the Lord. Actually worship is the means to the goal, not the goal. The goal is the building up of His dwelling place, Body and Bride: US! Many say we should have a Christ-centered assembly. But Christ wants our assembly or building as HIS center! He is an ASSEMBLY centered Christ! Worship and the Word expressed is the means to this building up and all this is that Christ may be revealed. He must be revealed to us and then through us and then out through us. During the 20th century God used Bahkt Singh of India to restore the kind of worship where one saint after another, one at a time, would utter audibly praise and thanks to God the Father and God the Son and these meetings would go on for hours. There is one report of a meeting like this that went on for more than 12 hours and it could have gone longer!!! I recommend we do as the first century Christians did and begin with corporate calling on the Name of the Lord Jesus (I have also seen meetings started like this and it brought everyone deeply into the Spirit "made to drink into one Spirit" very quickly. I also was in 1 meeting where the praises went on all night!! We were truly there to minister to the Lord that night, not to request things from Him, although I really do recommend all night prayer meetings to inquire of Him also for this will lead to revival) that the Body may practically touch the oneness and functioning already given us in Christ Jesus which is an aspect of the awesome eternal life of the Triune God. After this I recommend a time of silence corporately in the presence of God to allow Him to speak. Then let the functioning of the members function according to the operation of each one part - a time of one by one corporate worship should be part of this - after possibly more silence and more calling upon the Name of the Lord, then prophesying, exhorting, miracles, tongues, interpretations - well! No need for me to go on here! Read it for yourself in I Cor 12-14. Let Christ be the Leader, Head and Teacher in every meeting as we all sit at His feet. Yes, there can sometimes be a time for one man to speak and the rest listen, but not most of the time. This is the true way to enter into God's feasts!
Ps 116:13 says: I shall take up the cup of salvation And call on the Name of Yahweh. This means the more you call from deep within "Oh Lord Jesus!", the more you will drink from the cup containing salvation! And what is salvation? We should say Who! The more you call upon His Name the more He flows into you as the life-giving Spirit! The result is joy! After being filled with the Spirit in this way, the next step is to remain silent before Him and LISTEN. If He chooses to use scripture to speak, then OK but if He chooses something else: FOLLOW HIM. Just because calling on His Name brings you into the Spirit does not mean you are according to the Spirit. You must listen and follow.
OK, in the Young's Literal Translation of I Cor. 12:3, it is written: "Wherefore, I give you to understand that no one, in the Spirit of God speaking, saith Jesus is anathema, and no one is able to say Jesus is Lord, except in the Holy Spirit.". The actual Greek rendering again here is 'no one is able to say LORD JESUS ...
Now , surely if the scripture was given by the Holy Spirit of God and ALL scripture was given by inspiration (meaning breath or Spirit) of God, then also surely surely if there is something we can do to for sure be IN THE SPIRIT, then should we not do it? I have actually heard of cases (and seen at least one case with my own eyes!) of total unbelieving atheists misusing the name of Jesus who accidentally used the term 'Lord Jesus' and met the Living, breathing God as a result!!! (or I know cases of being tricked or challenged by believers into saying "Lord Jesus" loudly. One time I challenged one of them and he found out God is real! Don't tell me you can hold an electric bare wire and not get shocked! You'll find out!! touching the living God is the same!) Why is this? It is because THIS SCRIPTURE IS NOT A LIE: WHOEVER OPENS THEIR MOUTH AND SAYS 'LORD JESUS' WILL BE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD!!!!!! EVERY TIME!! For the real rendering in the Greek of the above written verse is "no one is able to say Lord Jesus except IN the Holy Spirit." (emphasis mine) That goes for anyone: ANYONE! By the way, the term as it is used in the Greek in that verse should be in this order: LORD JESUS!