Day by day we need to come to the Word of God and be washed by the laver of water in the Word, having the Lord’s speaking His word to us in a living way, the rhema word, the very presence of the life-giving Spirit, so that we may be beautified and become His glorious church, the bride of Christ. Amen!
As believers in Christ, we need to remain in the word of God, be saturated with the word of God, and enjoy God in His word. It is very interesting to see that, when the Lord Jesus was tempted by the devil three times in the wilderness, even though He did not eat or drink for a long time, He still spoke the word of God.
And the word that He quoted was mainly from Deuteronomy, which may indicate that the Lord was enjoying this book in His prayer and consideration before God.
Man indeed shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God. We need to not only read the Bible at the appointed time, according to a schedule, or together with the saints; we need to eat the Lord in His word!
The word of God embodies Christ as the life-giving Spirit; when we come to God’s word with the exercise of our spirit, we receive the Spirit, we are washed, and there’s a process of dispositional sanctification going on in our being.
In the Word of Christ there’s the Spirit as the water of life; when He speaks to us in His word, His words are Spirit and are life.
As Ephesians 5:25-27 indicates, the way Christ gains His bride – the prefect, spotless, glorious church – is by the washing of the water in the word.
How can we cooperate with the Lord to be produced as His beautiful bride, His glorious wife?
It is by being in the Word of God, and in particular, by being sanctified in the truth in God’s word (John 17:17) as we mix the word of God with our prayerful consideration with the exercise of our spirit.
So many people today read the Bible but all they get is knowledge, doctrines, history, poetry, or prophecy; they do not get the Lord Himself as life.
As the Lord said in John 5:39-40, it is easy to come to the Word of God to look for Christ yet not come to Christ so that we may have life.
May we come to the Lord as we come to His word.
May we just exercise our spirit over God’s word so that we may have God’s instant speaking, His present and living word, which washes us, cleanses away our natural and old element and replaces it with God’s element, causing us to be transformed to be His glorious bride!
Come to the Bible to be Cleansed by the Laver of the Water in the Word and be Sanctified by the Lord’s Present Speaking, His Rhema Word
In Ephesians 5:26 Paul speaks of the washing of the water in the word; the Greek word for “word” is literally “laver.” This is very significant.
In the Old Testament the priests used the laver to wash away their earthly defilement (Exo. 30:18-21).
On the one hand, Christ gave Himself up for the church, and His blood was shed for the washing and cleansing of our sins.
On the other hand, His divine life flows out in resurrection for the washing and removing of any impurities and defilement so that we may be produced as the glorious church.
Day by day, morning and evening, we need to come to the Bible to be cleansed by the laver of the water in the word.
On the one hand, whenever we sin and the Lord shines on us, we need to confess our sins and His blood cleanses us frome very sin (1 John 1:7; Rev. 7:14).
On the other hand, we need to be washed from any blemishes of the natural life of our old man, such as the spots and wrinkles and any such things (Eph. 5:27).
We need not only the cleansing of the Lord’s blood (Heb. 13:12) but also the washing of our blemishes and spots by His word; for this, we need His present speaking.
May we come to the Lord as we come to His word so that we may be washed by the laver of the word. Paul uses the Greek word rhema when he speaks of the word with its washing process.
Logos is the word used to denote God’s word objectively recorded in the Bible, while rhema is the word of God spoken to us on a specific occasion (Mark 14:72; Luke 1:35-38; 5:5; 24:1-8).
We all can testify that, even though we may read a certain portion of God’s word many times, it becomes living to us only when the Lord speaks it to us.
Sometimes we may read a verse and prayerfully muse on it, and even though we may have read it many times, the Lord shines on us and washes us in a fresh way, sanctifying us in His word; this becomes such a precious experience of the Lord.
The indwelling Christ as the life-giving Spirit wants to speak to us an instant, present, and living word to metabolically cleanse away the old and replace it with the new, thus causing an inward transformation.
However, for us to experience His present speaking, we need to come to the word of God with a heart turned to the Lord and a spirit exercised. We need to experience the word of God as the laver of the word cleansing us.
In a real sense, the word of God is a laver; when we come to God’s word, the Lord shines on us and exposes our real condition, and we just repent and confess our sins.
He washes us with His precious blood, and as we go on enjoying the Lord, He adds His element to our being to transform us into His image.
When we experience the washing of the laver in the word, we are full of joy, and we can testify to others, for this word is living and instant, spoken to us by the Lord on a specific occasion.
We need the Lord’s rhema word; we have the logos word, the written, constant word of God, but we need to convert it into the rhema word, the instant, spoken word of God, the present speaking of the Lord.
The rhema reveals something to us personally and directly; it shows us what we need to deal with and what we need to be cleansed from. This is to experience the word of God as a laver.
The laver of bronze in the Old Testament was a mirror that could reflect and expose (Exo. 38:8).
Thank the Lord that we have the real laver in the word of God.
Thank the Lord that we can come to the laver in the word of God so that God would shine on us, expose us, speak to us, and infuse us with His living word! As we are cleansed by the laver in the word, we are sanctified, and we become the Lord’s beautiful and glorious bride!
Lord Jesus, we come to You in Your word to receive Your shining and Your supply. May the word be to us like a laver with living water, exposing our situation and condition and also supplying us with the water of life. Amen, Lord, may we be washed in the laver of the word from any defilement and impurity. Remove any spots and wrinkles and any such things from us as we prayerfully read Your word. We come to You day by day in Your word, morning and evening, to be washed by the laver of the water in the Word! Speak to us, Lord! Make Your word be so living to us. Save us from merely reading the Bible to get more knowledge; may we gain more of God’s element as we read and pray over Your word! Hallelujah, the word of God is our food! Praise the Lord, God’s word is living water to wash us, cleanse us, and sanctify us! Amen, Lord, we say Amen to what Your word exposes in us; remove any impurity, blemish, and spot, and add more of Yourself to our being!
Our Sanctification for the Bride Depends on the Lord’s Present Speaking to us as the Life-giving Spirit
The most important thing for each one of us, the believers in Christ, is whether God is speaking His word to us today. We may read the Bible but a veil may lie on our heart, for our heart is not turned to the Lord (2 Cor. 3:15-16).
We may read the Bible yet we may only gain some doctrines and knowledge about God, for we do not come to the Lord to gain Him (John 5:39-40).
Is God speaking His word to us today? Not just yesterday, not sometime in the future, but today? This is what matters.
One thing we all need to treasure is that the Lord still speaks to us personally and directly today; true growth in life depends on our receiving the word directly from God (Heb. 3:7-11, 15; 4:7; Psa. 95:7-8).
We may hear some speaking from others’ enjoyment of Christ in the meeting, we may listen to messages, and we may be inspired; however, what matters for our growth in life is having the Lord’s present speaking to us.
Only His speaking in us has true spiritual value. We need to have ears to hear what the Spirit is speaking to the churches today.
We don’t just go to meetings and then go home; when we go to the meeting, we open to the Lord to have the Lord’s present speaking.
Only the Lord’s speaking to us and in us has true spiritual value. And when we hear His voice, when He speaks to us, may we not harden our heart; may we just open to Him.
Sometimes the Lord’s word exposes us and causes us to realise that we need a great change, something we can’t do by ourselves; we just need to say Amen to His word.
We only have today – we don’t have tomorrow; we need the Lord’s speaking today. Yesterday is gone; we may have had the Lord’s speaking yesterday, but we need His fresh speaking today.
The central point of our prayers should be our longing for the Lord’s speaking, which enables us to fulfill the goal of His eternal economy according to His heart’s desire to have a bride as His counterpart (Rev. 2:7; cf. 1 Sam. 3:1, 21; Amos 3:7).
We need to bring our needs before the Lord, and we need to pour out our heart before Him; however, the central point of our prayers should be our earnest desire for us to have the Lord’s present speaking.
It is only the Lord’s present speaking that enables us to fulfill the goal of God’s eternal economy and become His bride.
The Lord wants to speak to us, but we may not be open to Him.
He wants to reveal His heart to us, and He wants to gain us to pray one with Him for others, but we may still be preoccupied with so many other things, and our heart is not turned to Him.
Many times we find ourselves under the Lord’s speaking in a meeting or a time of prayer, and we agree with the Lord’s speaking, but it has no effect on us; we nod, give our consent, but it has no effect on us. Oh Lord!
May we learn to turn our heart to the Lord afresh day by day. May we learn to open to Him and let Him open to us.
When we come to read the ministry books or the Bible, we need to come to the Lord to have His present speaking; if we do not have His present speaking, it would be hard for us to grow in life unto maturity or be prepared as the bride of Christ.
Samuel was open to the Lord in his days, and the Lord appeared to him and revealed to him what He was about to do. In Amos 3:7 we see that, surely, the Lord will not do anything unless He reveals His secret to His servants, the prophets.
May we be those who have the Lord’s present speaking today.
When He speaks to us, when we have His present and instant speaking, we can speak the word of God to others, and they will receive more of the element of God. In a very practical sense, the Lord’s presence is one with His speaking.
When the Lord speaks to us, we realise His presence within us. We can testify to this.
Christ’s speaking is the very presence of the life-giving Spirit.
When we exercise our spirit as we come to the word of God or in the meetings of the church, we can have the Lord’s present speaking, and His presence is with us.
The speaking of the indwelling Christ as the life-giving Spirit within us is the cleansing water that sanctifies us to prepare us as the bride of Christ.
On the one hand, the Lord’s present speaking as the life-giving Spirit deposits the new element of God into our being, and on the other hand, it replaces the old element in our nature and disposition.
This is a metabolic cleansing, which causes a genuine and inward change in life, which is the reality of dispositional sanctification and transformation. Hallelujah!
What a privilege that we can be beautified by Christ as the life-giving Spirit in our spirit.
He’s the speaking Spirit in our spirit, and through the Lord’s present speaking within us as the life-giving Spirit, we are becoming His glorious church (Eph. 5:25-27; Rev. 2:7).
Lord Jesus, we treasure Your speaking in us today. We treasure that You still speak to us personally and directly today. We open to You. We come to You in Your word. We exercise our spirit to touch You and receive the Lord’s present speaking. Amen, Lord, true growth in life depends upon our receiving the word directly from God, so we open to You today! Only Your speaking in us has true spiritual value. Speak to us. We just want to hear Your voice. Unveil Your heart’s desire to us. Expose anything that You disagree with in our being. We confess our sins and allow You to remove by washing any spots, impurities, and blemishes. Amen, Lord, we treasure and desire Your speaking as the life-giving Spirit! Oh, when You speak to us, Your presence is with us! Your presence is the life-giving Spirit. Speak to us and deposit Your new element into our being as You remove and discharge the old element in our nature and disposition! Amen, Lord, beautify us as the life-giving, speaking Spirit in our spirit, to make us Your glorious church!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brother Ed Marks in this conference, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 34, “The Glorious Church,” ch. 3, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Maturity of the Bride (2025 Memorial Day Blending Conference), week 4, The Beauty of the Bride – day 4.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Oh, sanctify us, Lord; now add Thyself to us, / In our experience, Thy Person spread in us, / That in reality the church be glorious, / O Lord, do add Thyself, we pray. / Oh, sanctify us, Lord, today; / Lord Jesus, You’re the only way. / We take Your Person, Lord; / Oh, spread Yourself abroad. / Oh, sanctify us, Lord, today. (Hymns #1135 stanza 1 and chorus)
– God’s own Word must not be taken / Just as knowledge but as life, / Not alone God’s thought conveying, / But Himself to us as life; / Not alone God’s mind revealing, / But His Christ as life within, / Not alone the teaching giving, / But experience of Him. / It is only knowledge to us / If we in the letter read, / But when reading in the spirit / It is truly life indeed. / All the knowledge in the letter / Only brings us into death, / But the Word in spirit taken / Gives to us the quickening breath. (Hymns #816 stanzas 1-2)
– Now to enjoy Thee I come to Thy Word, / On Thee to feed till my hunger is o’er. / Now in my spirit I turn unto Thee, / Of Thee to drink till I’m thirsty no more. / Feeding and drinking, Lord Jesus, of Thee, / Feeding by reading, and drinking by prayer; / Reading and praying, I eat and I drink, / Praying and reading—Lord, Thou art my fare. (Hymns #811 stanzas 6-7)
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