Spring 1991

Opening The Word of God
Edited from a spoken message by
John Wright Follette

When I first met the Lord, I consecrated my spirit, soul, and body to Him. Over many years, the Lord has used me in a marvelous flow of life through His Word. Each one who sits under this flow of life is exposed to the power of The Holy Spirit who is bringing us forth as a new creature in Christ Jesus. We are still tabernacled in these bodies of flesh, but this is not who we are. We are in essence, spirit. We are invisible, dynamic personalities hidden away in a body.

We are so accustomed to interpreting life through our sense perception that it is very difficult for us to recognize that we are intelligent, spiritual beings responding to the power of the Word of God and to His Holy Spirit. We forget this because we have lived so long under the entanglements of our fleshly natural concept of living. We must move away from this, if we desire to get any where, spiritually.

Truth is eternally established. We cannot improve upon it. The "doctrine" of it is the skeleton; but Jesus did not say "This is my skeleton." Rather, He said "This is my flesh." The skeleton must be filled in so that through it the spirit may vibrate, move, live, and touch us.

What I have is bits of truth. Most of these are concealed, or hidden within the Word of God. When the Lord reveals something to me, it may take weeks or months to bring this thought through to me. He may bring me under the power of some little concept of truth, like a thought or two, and I may be six months to a year working under the power of this one thing. We cannot grasp the fullness of eternal truth in a minute; there are no shortcuts. We live in a gadget age in which we push a button and out jumps the thing. Because we live this way, if we are not careful, we try to make it happen this way in the realm of the Spirit.

"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God ...But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" 1 Cor 2:12, 14.

Many Christians think that they must read the Word of God. They are not reading for any spiritual inspiration at all, but are under a strange pattern of compulsion. Reading the Word of God will always benefit us. But I am trying to warn you away from just a perfunctory reading of the Word because it is your "Christian duty" to do so.

I had to learn to not read the Word traditionally, but approach it as no other word in the world. I have had college and seminary training. In that field I did a lot of mental work, but my heart was never really satisfied because I knew there must be something in God that was more than just my mental ascent to truth. Then after great starvation and hunger, the Lord filled me with His Spirit and brought to me the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Since that time, I have never been the same.

I must approach the Word of God as no other literature in the world, because itis not of this world. I must approach it "in the spirit" and allow the Lord to speak to me through it. I am a very slow reader, I am not a marathon reader -so many chapters a day. Take the Holy Spirit with you into the Word. He wrote the Word, therefore He has the right to give you light on it.

At times, truth may seem to be elementary, but there is nothing elementary in the things of God. As we keep our spirit open, pliable, and receptive, the Lord may take a very well known story and begin to enlarge upon it, and open it until we say, "I never knew that was there."

When we read our Bible, it should not be as it was when we read it twenty years ago. The Word is the same, but we have changed and should be able to see much more than we did before. Dealing with the Word of God, with the whole revelation of truth, is purely a progressive matter. It is not attained in a moment, or acquired in a single Bible study. There is no finishing, or exhausting it. It is a continual progressive unfolding. I have discovered that understanding the Word of God is not something you learn, it is something that you must continually discover. God is not a definition. We cannot define Him, but we can experience Him.

Each one of us must be continually conditioned for the reception of the Word. We may say, "This is wonderful Lord, open the Word to me." He may respond, "I can't." "But Lord, I'm so hungry and the Word says, 'Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst ... for they shall be filled.' Lord, fill me right now." "I can't." "Why?" "You are not yet conditioned for the thing you are anticipating."

We must be conditioned continually in heart and in spirit for the reception of that which we hope and long for. It is delightful to have the urge of the Spirit stirring us within for more of God. Sometimes, when all of our emotional life has been silenced by the Lord while this conditioning process is taking place within us, our spiritual hunger is all that we have to live by. But we will not find the fullness, nor the satisfaction we seek after, until our heart has been conditioned for its reception.

When we have come to the place of receptivity through His conditioning us, we will approach the same "old" truth again, but our reaction will be quite different. We will say, "Oh Lord, I never knew you like this." What made this difference? Previously, He was unable to bring this understanding into our being because we had not been conditioned to receive it. He could have blessed us, but He could not have brought us into this rich revelation in His Word.

What do I mean by conditioning? I am saved and baptized in the Spirit, but that does not "condition" me. No one experience, no matter how profound or moving that experience may have been - that experience in itself never matures us. We may have come through a crisis in which the Lord has brought us face to face with issues and we are changed. But this does not, in itself, grow us up. There must be an ongoing process of disciplining and qualifying us, ever enlarging our capacity, until "truth" can fit within us.

You ask me how? You would not be able to follow my path of discipline. I could not follow you in your discipline either. Each one of us has his own discipline, our own cross, our own individual dealings with the Lord. The RESULT of these dealings, if they are in the Spirit, and if we come through(overcome), will produce within us a freshness of understanding in the Word.

Truth is purely progressive in all its forms. The heart must be continually conditioned for its reception, then we grow. While living under the power of this "impact of truth," we are to go about our everyday doings, but this is not our life. We are occupying while He is accomplishing this invisible, spiritual miracle within us.

There are many "fads" that affect the Body of Christ. A growing child, at times, has certain symptoms. He gets the mumps, then the measles. Some become very concerned because we find the Body of Christ breaking out with all these things. It is as an epidemic that strikes, and if we are not schooled in the ways of the spirit, we may catch it. The Body of Christ must have intense vitality to resist all these strange maladies that attempt to strike it. The Body of Christ has not matured as it should. Why? Because these strange maladies have laid hold of it, and there is seemingly so little vitality of spiritual reality and life that can penetrate through that thing and slice it off the Body. The power of the life of God, the power of truth will push that thing off, and the Lord will have a healthy body. My burden is that these precious members of the Body of Christ will receive instruction, vision, strength; the culture of the Spirit, pushing aside all the old patterns and failures.

I have been two years now clearing up some of my thoughts on the Kingdom. I thought I knew about the Kingdom, but after 50 years of real intensive study, I find that I do not know quite as much as I thought I did. Why? As I study; as I move in God and allow the Spirit effect me, I am beginning to understand truth from His perspective.

In the Word of God, nothing is accidental or occasional. Every story, every conversation, every dramatic moving of a nation, a person, or a group, is a dramatic picture highly charged with profound and wonderful spiritual reality. But it is veiled under surface pictures, such as the story of a wedding feast. It is not there just because it makes a pleasing story. It is given with all his dramatic covering because within it is a rich truth that is seeking to penetrate through to us.

Always remember that the truth is an invisible, extract bit of reality. I had been reading one time and came to the passage where Jesus expressed what His Word really was. He had been working miracles as a symbol lesson to explain, or prove what He had been telling them. Finally, He said, "The eternal Word of God, this flash of reality that radiates and moves through me to this darkened world, this Word is Spirit and it is Life."

Jesus did not hold up his Bible and say, "This is the Word." Rather He said, I will call upon every feature in creation and use these within the written Word in most peculiar ways, that SPIRIT and LIFE may vibrate and strike your heart. The "Letter of the Word" killeth. But the eternal Spirit of God, The Voice who said, "Let there be light," will quicken and move through these Bible texts until they begin to speak and move within our heart." Jesus said, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" John 6:63. They will push heir way through this phenomenal thing we call the Bible, and then they will speak.

Jesus had to correct the Scribes who were reading the law. While they were reading one day, Jesus came and said to them "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life" John 5:39-40. Jesus, within whom dwelt all truth, stood unrecognized among these scribes as they read a scroll that was written about Him. They were unable to see beyond the letter of the Word.

When I read, I find so many wonderful things hidden away within the Word. I feel Spirit and Life penetrating, pushing through these stories. They are beautiful, fascinating, but we are not to rest there. Always know that every word is inspired, every word is carefully put where it is. Even the conversations have been arranged by God. God put it in the original as He wanted it. Never disturb this arrangement. If you do not understand it, leave it as it is, and someday you may.

Consider the marriage supper as recorded in Scripture. This tells the story of Jesus in His first miracle. He is going to express a profound teaching that will last us for two thousand years. This is not just a story. It is Spirit and Life seeking to find a vehicle of expression. Mary takes the initiative. It isn't her business, but she presumes. How does Jesus speak? "Now mother be quiet." No! "Woman what have I to do with thee." Why didn't He say, "Mother?" He couldn't possibly have said mother here. Why? Because He is giving us a dramatic picture of spiritual reality which would be absolutely ruined if He had said "mother." He said "woman." Each word in a story is precise, and is where it is for a reason.

The Word of God is in essence spirit; it is life. It can only come through the medium which the Lord has given, the written Word. If we only see it as the letter of the Word, it will slay us. But, if we allow the Spirit and Life that seeks its expression through the letter of the Word to penetrate out into our being, we shall live.