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When a minister of the word stands up to speak, what is the source of his speaking? A minister of God’s word does not just use his mind to think of words to say; his words must come from another source. Let us now examine the source from which he derives his speaking. Once we know the source, we will realize that many things should not come out of our mouth; they cannot be considered as God’s word. We must repeat the fact that there is a strong relationship between the ministry of the word and our human elements. We should also remember that in the function of the ministry of the word, God first gives man a word or two, which he then develops into many further words. These many words are based on the one or two words. Their source is the one or two words, and they are built upon the basis of these one or two words. When a minister of the word stands up to speak, he uses his own words, yet he is speaking the word which God has spoken within him. This is the meaning of being a minister of the word. This ministry of the word contains human elements. This is why we have to pay attention to these human elements when we function as ministers of the word. We must realize that the words are being released through man.
When a man speaks from the platform, the kind of person he is will be seen in the kind of words he speaks. Sometimes, God will acknowledge a man’s speaking as His own. At other times, He will not acknowledge the speaking. The crux of the whole matter lies in the kind of person a man is. Suppose two persons have received the same light in their spirit and have acquired the same words. The ministry they render, however, may be completely different because the persons are different. This difference results in different ministers of the word. The inner revelation may be the same, and the inner word may be the same, but their ministries may be different because of the difference in their persons. This is the reason that we have to study the source of a man’s speaking. Utterance comes from revelation, yet such utterance is very much affected by human elements. The kind of person we are determines the kind of words we will speak. A right person will speak right words, but if a man is poor, his speaking will be low, weak, and childish. He will use human utterances, clever words, and unfocused speech. Thus, his words will not be “spiritual words.” If the person is right, the words will spontaneously be spiritual, lofty, and accurate; they will be words that come as a result of touching God. In order to track the source of our outward words, we have to pay attention to our very person. The kind of person we are has a direct bearing on the kind of words we speak.
The kind of person we are determines the kind of words we speak. If God has done some constituting work in us, that is, if His Spirit has operated in us, disciplined us, and dealt with our outward man and crushed it, to the extent that we begin to touch something spiritual and our character begins to change, our speaking will be the speaking of the Spirit spontaneously. The words we speak will be based on the constitution of the Spirit. Without the constitution of the Spirit, there can be no speaking of the Spirit. We cannot utter something of the Spirit by ourselves. There first must be the constitution of the Spirit within us; the Holy Spirit has to rearrange and reconstitute us. Once we were a certain kind of person, but after the Lord has worked on us for years, we begin to experience the Spirit’s rearrangement and reconstitution in our whole being. We become like a house that has been remodeled and even reconstructed. We should note that the speaking of the Holy Spirit is based on the constitution of the Holy Spirit. If the Spirit has not done a reconstituting work in us, our words will never be fresh. When the Spirit reconstitutes our whole being, we become new, and the things we speak are new.
This is the reason for Paul’s lofty attainment, which is revealed in 1 Corinthians 7. We can learn a singular lesson from this chapter. When the constitution of the Spirit in man reaches a dependable, spiritual, and advanced state, the man is no longer conscious of the revelation he has received. The constitution of the Spirit results in the spontaneous manifestation of revelation. This is why revelation was not an extraordinary thing in Paul. He received light in such an ordinary way that it was almost like his own thoughts. Today men do not have enough constitution of the Spirit. This is why they are so far from God’s revelation. First Corinthians 7 is very unique. Here was a brother who was under God and constituted by the Spirit to such an extent that his thoughts and feelings were almost the same as God’s. God’s revelation was almost the same as his own words; God’s revelation was no longer an extraordinary thing in him. Human elements can rise to such a height that they merge with God. According to Paul, his words were his own. He told others that he did not have a command from the Lord and that he was speaking from himself. Yet he was so highly constituted by God that he also could immediately follow this confession with the words, “I think that I also have the Spirit of God” (v. 40). We have to identify the crucial relationship between the person and the word. Here was a man who was fully constituted by the Spirit. When he spoke, God’s word was released. It seems as if he released God’s word without making reference to special revelation. This is the highest peak that can possibly be experienced by man. Paul’s speaking demonstrates the principle that when the person is right, the words are right. When a man is divinely constituted, his speaking is God’s speaking. We should pay particular attention to this. A man can be so thoroughly dealt with by the Lord, and his person can be so pure and clean that the Spirit’s utterance is released through him whenever he opens his mouth.
We all must pay attention to the fact that the basis of our speaking is the constitution of the Holy Spirit within us. Many people are altogether useless in the eyes of the Lord. But even among those who are useful to the Lord, we find differences in the constitution of the Holy Spirit. These differences in constitution result in differences in speaking. Two persons can be equally useful to the Lord, and both may have attained equal depth of spirituality in the Lord. Yet their constitution is different. The revelation they receive and the inner word they have may be the same, but the differences in constitution can mean different kinds of speakings. Both can be ministers, even lofty ministers of the word, yet the words that come from their mouths may be different. This is because the human elements they possess are different. John was different from Paul, and Paul was different from Peter. As a result, their speakings were different. These men were all used by God, not in an ordinary way but in the highest way. Yet when they opened their mouth, their speakings were different. When Paul spoke, God’s word was within him, but his own words were also in his mouth. Yet his speaking was God’s speaking. The same was true of Peter. God’s word was within him, but his own words were in his mouth. Yet his speaking was God’s speaking. Both Peter and Paul underwent a profound constituting work. When they spoke, they spoke God’s word. Yet the outward manifestations of their words were different.
God’s word was a person when it was in the Lord Jesus. Today God’s word must also be a person when it comes to us. When the Lord was on the earth, He was the Word becoming flesh; God was speaking through the flesh. Today God is again manifesting His word in the flesh; He is still embodying His word in a person. He is still speaking through flesh. This is why God has to deal with our flesh today. He has to deal with our flesh to such an extent that the release of a word from our flesh is the release of the word of God. In order to reach this point, we must have the constitution of the Holy Spirit in us. God constitutes something into us through His indwelling Spirit, and as we ponder over such things and enunciate them, God’s word is released. The inward constitution of the Holy Spirit makes God’s word our own subjective word. A minister of God’s word must allow the Spirit to constitute him to such an extent that the word is no longer objective, but subjective. God’s constitution in us through His Spirit has to be so apparent that our mind and God’s mind become not only compatible but one and the same mind. God’s constitution should be so strong that our word becomes not only similar to God’s word but God’s very own word. This is the result of the constitution of the Holy Spirit. When our word becomes God’s word, we have the ministry of the New Testament. When we find man in this ministry, we find God. When man speaks, God speaks. Since God’s word is released through man, what manner of man must a person be, and what dealings must he go through!
Let us consider how God carries out this constituting work within us. The words within us are formed by God Himself; they are created by God through the daily trials and dealings that He arranges for us in our environment. We may be under some kind of dealing for many days or months. They may be days of victory, or they may be days of defeat. We may find them bearable or unbearable, but the Lord’s sovereign hand is behind all of them. Day after day, incident after incident, we are disciplined a little at a time. Gradually a word or two becomes clear within us. As we become clearer, we can begin to speak, and this speaking is of our own words. God has created a word or two in us. This is the way words are formed. These words are our words, and they are also God’s words. This is very important. This is where we pick up our training. Suppose we experience some dealing by God. In the beginning we may wonder what is happening to us, and we may not have any word at all to describe it. As we pass through the dealing, we do not seem to be clear about anything. But after a while, we begin to feel a little clearer and exclaim, “Ah, this is what the Lord wants. He is dealing with me for the purpose of getting this one thing.”
But it is not this simple. We do not become clear all at once. We may be somewhat clear and yet not altogether clear. While tarrying around this hazy zone, there is a gradual clearing away. As things become clearer, we begin to have a word or two. This clearing away becomes the very word we possess. Sometimes the Lord gives us a trial, a very severe trial, and we find ourselves too weak to overcome. We may even say to ourselves that there is no way to get through. But gradually we may feel that there is somehow a way to get through, perhaps even to overcome. We often hobble between a sense of victory and a sense of defeat, and after some days we find that we indeed have overcome. During this time we may feel that we cannot get through, but daily we overcome. When we add up all the times that we are able to get through, we find that in the end we are able to overcome without our knowing it. Throughout this process, the word takes form. This word is our own word. We have to realize that this movement between light and darkness is a process through which God forms His word in us. While we are under trials and while our senses move back and forth between confusion and clarity, God is forming His word in us. We may feel that we cannot overcome, and yet we find ourselves overcoming. We may feel that we are about to fall, and yet we find ourselves still standing. Day by day we find the Lord delivering us out of different situations. This deliverance becomes the word which we have within us. The more we go on, the more we become clear, and the more word we have. This is the process by which words are formed in us. The ministry of the word is not something that can be conjured up; it is something formed. The formed word is different from the conjured-up word. While we are groping in darkness, something seems to be clear to us, and yet it goes away in an instant. During those moments of clarity we see a little, and the sum total of all these clear moments gives us a clear registration, resulting in our words. Our words, therefore, are what we have experienced.
To be a minister of the word, we need not only light, thoughts, the inner words, the outer words, and the memory; we also need to pay attention to how we deliver this word on the platform, that is, the word formed out of the discipline we have received. God creates words in us through discipline. The measure of our speaking is determined by the amount of dealings that we have received. We can only speak to the extent that we have been dealt with by the Lord. The amount of experience we have before the Lord is the amount of words that we will have. This makes things quite clear: The Lord is molding us, the person, with the view that eventually we will handle God’s word. The Lord is doing a carving work on our person today with the view that our person will eventually become an oracle for God’s word. The extent of the release of such a word is strictly determined by the amount of training we receive. Our words are based on the amount of experience we have before the Lord. God’s intention is to make us and His word one. It is not a matter of us passing on God’s word in an objective way but a matter of God’s carving and molding, with the result that our words become God’s words.
Let us go on further by posing a question: Where is the light of revelation found? We may say that it is found in the spirit. Why is the light of revelation not seen continuously in our spirit? Why do we see this revelation sometimes and not see it at other times? When does our spirit receive revelation? We receive it as we are being disciplined. We receive light in our spirit based on the dealings that we receive. When we go through dealings, our spirit sees light. The light of revelation comes under the discipline of the Holy Spirit. If the discipline of the Spirit is lacking in a person, the light he receives in his spirit likewise is short. There are definite times and places for us to receive light. We receive light in the spirit, and we receive light during the times that we go through dealings. Hence, every dealing affords us a chance to receive more revelation. If we miss a dealing, we may be missing a revelation. If we receive a dealing from God, it means that we may be receiving a revelation, a new unveiling, from Him as well. We have to know God’s hand. Many times the Lord’s hand is upon us. He deals with us and touches us little by little, and we yield to Him little by little. The Lord may have to touch us many times before we can surrender a little and before we bow our heads and say, “Lord, I am willing to surrender. I will no longer struggle.” When we say this, we have the shining. As the Lord deals with us time after time, we yield to Him time after time. As we yield to Him in this way, our spirit becomes enlightened. As we are made aware of what is happening, we begin to see the light, and the light brings in the word. Hence, God uses dealings to give us light, and He also uses dealings to give us words. The words we use in our preaching should be molded through the divine dealings and trials we experience; they should not be something conjured up by ourselves.
As a minister of the word, we have to make sure that we are making progress in our speaking. If there is progress in our speaking, it means that there is progress in the dealings we are receiving. When we first begin to speak for God, we may not have much to say. No matter how clever we are, how good our memory is, or how much we have received from man, we will be unable to speak effectively. In order for the Lord to give us the word, we first have to yield to His dealings, time after time, little by little. Every dealing brings in a little speaking, and the more God deals with us, the more His speaking is in us. He will speak to us more and more each time. After we go through the dealings, we will have the right words to speak when we stand on the platform. We should pay attention to the process by which the word is formed. The formation of the word is carried out through the discipline of the Holy Spirit.
In 2 Corinthians 12 Paul said that he received a great revelation concerning the third heaven and Paradise (vv. 2, 4). The third heaven is the highest heaven, while Paradise is the lowest place. One is the heaven of heavens, while the other is in the center of the earth. Paul told us that he was lacking in none of these revelations. Yet these revelations could have made Paul boastful. Because he was afraid that others would consider him too highly, he refrained from speaking of them (v. 6). There was also a thorn in his flesh, a messenger of Satan, which buffeted him (v. 7). He entreated the Lord three times for the thorn to depart from him, but the Lord answered, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness” (v. 9a). This was a spiritual revelation from God; it was not mere knowledge. Then Paul said, “Most gladly therefore I will rather boast in my weaknesses....for when I am weak, then I am powerful” (vv. 9b-10). This shows that when Paul received a new revelation, he also received new knowledge. The revelation concerning the third heaven and Paradise might very well have been Paul’s highest revelation. Yet he received more help from the Lord’s subsequent word than from the realization of the third heaven and Paradise. We have never been to Paradise, and no one has ever come back from Paradise to tell us anything. Neither have we been to the third heaven, and we do not know of the things from that place. Yet for two thousand years the church has been receiving help from the Lord’s word to Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you.” The church has received more help from this word than from the revelation of the third heaven and Paradise. Where then does the ministry of the word come from? Paul went through the dealings. The Lord brought him to the point where he could boast, “When I am weak, then I am powerful.” He knew that God’s grace was sufficient for him, and he received the ministry of the word in this way. Paul’s ministry of the word was produced under such circumstances.
Utterance comes from discipline. The kind of revelation that is found in 2 Corinthians 12:9 is the result of the discipline of the Holy Spirit. Without discipline, there can be no revelation. Without the thorn, there cannot be the grace. This thorn was a heavy blow to Paul; it was not an ordinary thorn but a buffeting from a messenger of Satan. The word buffeting means battering, abuse, oppression, and affliction. Paul was a man of experience. He was not afraid of sicknesses because he had passed through many trials. When he said that something was a suffering, it surely must have been a suffering. He had a thorn, which was the buffeting of the messenger of Satan, who tried to hurt him through the thorn. Yet God granted Paul grace in the midst of such severe discipline, acknowledging, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Paul received the revelation to know God’s grace and His power, as well as his own weakness. Countless numbers in the church of God have received deliverance through Paul’s revelation. It is much easier for us to go on when we know our own weaknesses. As soon as our weaknesses leave us, power leaves us. But if our weaknesses remain with us, power is with us. This is a principle. Such a revelation, such a principle, is received through the discipline of the Holy Spirit. Discipline gives us the light, and discipline also gives us the word. We have to learn to pick up our words one by one, like a little baby learning to speak.
God puts us through many trials which other children of God will eventually experience. Once we learn our lesson, we will have a word for such an occasion. The more we yield and surrender, the more words we will have. Such words come from submission, a submission that is learned through trials. Our very submission brings forth the word. If we do not submit, we will not have the word. But as soon as we submit and prostrate ourselves, we will receive the word. Once we fall on our face, some words will be written and inscribed into us. God ordains that His children go through different kinds of trials. At times God’s mercy allows us to go through trials which others have not yet gone through. We are tried first, and then others are tried. When the trials have done their job in us, the word will come to us. Other brothers and sisters may be tried later and may come to the end of themselves, but by then we will have risen up, and we will be able to release the word that has been formed in us during our trials. Our word will become life, light, and power to those who go through the same trials after us. We will once more have the ministry of the word.
We must remember that all ministers of the word have to take the lead in accepting trials. If we do not go through any trials, we will never have any word. If we have not passed through a particular trial, we cannot effectively help those who are going through the same trial. Even if we speak, our words will be empty. What use will these empty words serve? The formation of the word is a process that involves fire. The church has to pass through the fire. God must bring the ministers through the fire first; the fire must pass through the ministers first. Those who have passed through the fire will have the word. The fire will consume them. As they are consumed by the fire, they receive a word from Him. They receive a word whenever they surrender to God. The more they surrender, the more word they have. When other brothers are under the same trial, they will have a word to render help to them. This is the reason we say that the ministry of the word supplies words that are taught by the Holy Spirit. This does not mean that the Holy Spirit merely speaks some words of wisdom through our mouth, but that the Holy Spirit has taught us to express the words ourselves. We are taught by the Holy Spirit, and we have learned the words to say to others by passing through the fiery furnace. Any speaking that involves less than this is vain and empty talk. This is a very basic issue. This is the reason that every dealing involves some basic lessons that we should learn. Every word that we speak must be harnessed by fire. Unless our word is harnessed by fire, it will not do others any good; we will wonder what effect it has upon others. When others are in grief, our comfort will amount to nothing. No outside words will amount to anything in someone’s inward being. We can only become useful by passing through God’s dealings.
The church has received so much help from 2 Corinthians 12 during the last two thousand years because Paul had a thorn. Thank the Lord for such a thorn. Once a thorn is removed, the effectiveness is gone. The power of 2 Corinthians 12 was manifested through the thorn. Without a thorn in Paul, the whole experience would have been void of any spiritual worth. Power is manifested in the thorn; life is manifested through the thorn. Only a foolish person will try to save himself from a thorn. Once the thorn is gone, the ministry is over, and no word will remain. The power of the word comes from the thorns we experience. Ministers of the word are men chosen by God to take the lead in facing dealings and trials. They in turn also take the lead in their knowledge of Christ. They minister Christ to God’s people. They are able to minister to others because they are ahead of the others in their sufferings. They can supply many because they bear more burdens than others. If we have no desire to be a minister of the word, nothing more needs to be said. But as long as we have a desire to be a minister of the word, we have to take the lead to suffer what others have yet to suffer. We have to suffer more than others suffer. God has not made us ministers of the word for the sake of just one person; He has made us ministers for the sake of many people. Therefore, we must be ahead of many in their sufferings, and our sufferings must be greater than theirs. Otherwise, as an individual, we could only render help to another individual; we would not be able to help more than one person in their difficulties or trials.
The amount of riches a minister of the word releases is very much related to the amount of dealings he has received from the Lord. We should not ask God to deal with us slowly, delicately, or leniently. As ministers of the word, we should face dealings that many will have to suffer; we should bear what many will have to bear. Unless we do this, we will not have much to offer others. The utterance of some brothers runs out so easily because they have not received many dealings from the Lord. We can trace the problem to this root. A man must go through many dealings before he can become a minister of the word. If he has experienced enough dealings from the Lord, he will have the right words when others come to him for help. A minister of God’s word must be rich in utterance, and in order to be rich in utterance, he must be rich in dealings. Only those who are rich in dealings can be rich in utterance. Those who have gone through a wide variety of trials will be able to meet the needs of the brothers and sisters who are going through a wide variety of trials. Hence, those who serve must not have passed through a few dealings; they must have passed through many dealings. If they can only make claim to a limited range of experience, they cannot meet the need. Many people have needs, and their needs are varied. If we are short in any way, we will not be able to supply them. This means that we need an accumulation of deposits. We must experience many trials, going through what many people will go through, before we can serve them. Without this, we will not be able to serve them in any way when their problems are before us. Thank God that Paul had such a great ministry. His ministry was great because he suffered greatly; he experienced much. This is the reason his ministry was so great. If we want to have a great ministry, we should expect more dealings from the Lord.
What is the goal of ministering to others with the word? The purpose of ministering to others is not merely to deliver them out of their dire situations or to bring them through their trials. We must have a specific goal in ministering to others: The goal is that they would know the Lord. All revelations are revelations of Christ. Unless a revelation is a revelation of Christ, it is not a worthwhile revelation. All revelations are given for the purpose of revealing Christ. We should realize that the ultimate goal of the ministry of the word is to lead men to know Christ. When God puts us in a certain environment or allows us to face certain difficulties, we are faced with a great sense of need; we find that we are forced to seek the Lord. We should remember that every discipline of the Holy Spirit unveils a need to us. The Holy Spirit puts us in an environment in order to show us a need and to show us that we can never meet the need or overcome the situation by ourselves. At such times, our only solution is to know the Lord. Without such a need, a man will not seek to know the Lord. Without his thorn, Paul would not have known the grace of the Lord. The experience of a trial is not just for the sake of passing through the trial; it is for knowing the Lord through the trial. Paul did not say, “All right, I will simply suffer.” Instead, he said that he knew grace. This means he knew the Lord. God has to use the Spirit’s discipline to create a need in us which can only be satisfied by the Lord; only the Lord can bring us through. Such a need induces us to know certain aspects and attributes of the Lord. Second Corinthians 12 shows us that Paul’s knowledge of the Lord’s power was acquired through his weaknesses. When he encountered pain, he found grace. The thorn weakened him, but the thorn also led him to the knowledge of grace. The Lord put him in weaknesses in order for him to have the knowledge of power. He put him in sufferings in order for him to have the knowledge of grace. Where there is the need, there is the knowledge. A certain kind of need produces a certain kind of knowledge. If we want to have a full knowledge of the Lord, we have to have a wide range of experience. If our experience is limited, our knowledge of the Lord will be incomplete. Perhaps we have known the Lord in many ways, yet our knowledge of Him concerning a certain matter is not complete. In order to know the Lord, we have to know Him in a complete way. If the discipline of the Spirit is not complete, our knowledge of the Lord will not be complete. If the discipline we receive is short, we will not have the right word to minister to others.
We have to pray that God would train us, that is, put us in all kinds of environments and trials. At the same time we have to give God the opportunity to bring us through such trials. As we yield ourselves to the trials, we afford the Lord the opportunity to give us more knowledge of Himself. When we face a dealing today, we will have a new realization of Christ. When we receive another dealing tomorrow, we will have another fresh realization of Christ. In this way, our knowledge of Christ will increase day by day, and we can minister the Christ we know to the church.
What then is the word? The word is Christ. The word which we receive in our trials and discipline comes from our knowledge of Christ. Today there are thousands and millions of God’s children in the church, but their knowledge of Christ is too limited. Some only know one or two things about Christ. There is the need for ministers to be raised up who will give God’s children more knowledge of Christ. A minister of the word, through the variety of trials that he experiences, acquires a wide range of knowledge of Christ and is equipped with an abundance of words. These words are given so that he can minister Christ to others. This is the reason that we say that God’s word is His Son. God’s word is Christ. What we know through the word is what we know through Christ. Today we may find a brother here or there in the church who is short of the knowledge of Christ in one or more aspects. By the mercy of God, we may have passed through a certain experience, and our knowledge of the Lord gained through this experience will enable us to supply him with our supply. Whatever he lacks, we will be able to supply him and fill up his lack. We will be able to serve God’s children because we have first learned the right lessons. If our ministry is built upon this foundation, our word will be God’s word.
At times, we make use of others’ experiences. But it is not a simple matter to use others’ experiences, because this results in too much activity in the mind if we are not careful. Many clever people make use of others’ experiences all the time; they have no experience of their own. They are blank before God. This does not work. Before one can draw from others’ experiences, he himself must have gone through many dealings before the Lord. Whenever we borrow an experience from someone, we have to preserve it and cultivate it in our own spirit. Our own experiences must be preserved in our spirit as well. Anything that is preserved in the spirit is living. Suppose we acquire knowledge about the Body of Christ from God. This knowledge has to be cultivated in our spirit before it can be used to lead others to a knowledge of the Body of Christ. It is all right for us to borrow others’ experiences as long as we have something in our spirit first. But if we are individualistic and do not know anything about the Body of Christ and if there is nothing in our spirit, we cannot make use of others’ experience. We must be those who are living in the Body of Christ and our experience must be nurtured in our spirit before we can serve others with such a word. If we do not have these things, everything is an exercise of the mind, and it is powerless. We may think that we have delivered a logical message, but we have not touched the real thing. When others listen to us, they do not touch the real thing.
This is analogous to the principle of quoting Scripture. Suppose we have to quote the Scripture today. First we have to touch something in our experience, and then five, ten, or more verses will come to us. However, we must cultivate these verses in our spirit; we cannot cultivate them in our mind. The same is true in our conversation with the brothers. Words which are relevant to the subject should be cultivated in our spirit. We can only minister to others what we have cultivated in our spirit. If we have something but do not cultivate it to keep it alive, it does not do us any good. Even our own experiences from five years ago have to be kept and cultivated in the spirit. If they are kept in the spirit, our spirit can use them when we talk with others about them. The same can be said of the Scripture. If our spirit cannot use it, it cannot become part of our ministry.
Our word must be formed by God within us. The words we speak must be God’s word. These words must not be a product of our thoughts or something we have picked up from others. They must be something that God has created and formed within us. God has to try a man with fire for years before a few words can be wrought into him. They are produced through prolonged years of carving and molding. We must realize that such words are the words of the constitution of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has to work on us for a long time before these words can be produced. These words are a kind of trust or earnest from the Lord. When we experience something from the Lord and we are led through such an experience, some words are formed in us. These words are truly our own, yet at the same time, they are truly God’s. It is by this process that our words become God’s word. One can only speak such words if he has walked through the depths of the valley. Such words have been washed and tried by God; as such, they are God’s word. We must be clear that the source of our speaking is the discipline we have received from God. Our speaking is based on the light we have in ourselves, and the light of the word we have received is based on the discipline of the Holy Spirit. Even our reference to others’ experience is based on the discipline of the Holy Spirit. We have to learn our lesson in the depths of the valley before we can announce it on the heights. We must see something in our spirit before it can become light to others. Every word that we speak has to be pressed out, squeezed out, and harnessed from the depths of our being. Whatever kind of person we are, whatever kind of trials we suffer, and whatever lessons we have learned will be reflected in the kind of words we speak.
The word is produced through trials, pain, defeat, and darkness. No minister of God’s word should be afraid when God leads him into such circumstances. Once we know this way, we will praise Him, saying, “Lord, You are about to give me some more words.” The first few times we may act foolishly. We may wonder what is happening to us. But after a while we should no longer be foolish. We should realize that some words are produced the first time we go through a trial. More words are produced the second time a trial comes. After we go through such experiences again and again, the words become more abundant and rich. Then, whenever we face a trial, a suffering, a failure, or a weakness, we will have a clear voice within, saying, “Lord, You are giving me more words again.” We will become wise in the acquisition of words. In the church of God, a minister of the word should take the lead in suffering, not merely in speaking. If we cannot walk ahead of the church in the discipline of the Holy Spirit, we have no word to minister to the church. This is a very serious thing. We must be ahead of the church in the matter of trials before we can have something to minister to it. Otherwise, we can do nothing, and all of our ministry of the word is in vain. We cheat ourselves as well as the church. The hymn “Let Us Contemplate the Grape Vine” (Hymns, #635) climbs higher and higher with each stanza. At the end it shows us that the more we sacrifice, the more we can give to others. If we are not a sacrificing one, we have nothing to give to others, and we cannot be a minister of the word. The ministry of the word is a speaking that issues from one’s depth. This is the source of our speaking. Without this, there is no speaking.
Finally, we have to remember the basic principle which Paul put forth in 2 Corinthians 1. He said, “For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of our affliction which befell us in Asia, that we were excessively burdened, beyond our power, so that we despaired even of living. Indeed we ourselves had the response of death in ourselves” (vv. 8-9). The phrase response of death can also be translated as the judgment of death. What is this judgment of death? Paul goes on to say that God had a purpose in all these things. It was to teach him not to have confidence in himself but to have his confidence in God who raises the dead. This was his comfort. When other brothers and sisters went through the same trial, he was able to comfort them. “For even as the sufferings of the Christ abound unto us, so through the Christ our comfort also abounds. But whether we are afflicted, it is for your comforting and salvation; or whether we are comforted, it is for your comforting, which operates in the endurance of the same sufferings which we also suffer. And our hope for you is firm, knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you are of the comfort” (vv. 5-7). This is the basic principle underlying the ministry of the word: taking the lead to suffer in all kinds of trials and then ministering to others what has been learned. We are first comforted, and then we comfort others with the comfort with which we ourselves have been comforted. This is a very basic principle. For this reason, we should never use shallow words in our speaking. Rather, we should speak what we have learned through our repeated trials. Many expressions, words, and illustrations cannot be used, because our speaking becomes shallow as soon as we use them. During ordinary times we have to learn to speak accurately. The Lord has to discipline us until our words echo the words of the Bible more and more. We should learn to use the terms and the expressions found in God’s Word more and more. The words of the ministry are words that issue from within through discipline.
The source of the word is the discipline we have received; the word is acquired through discipline. For this reason, we must never despise the discipline of the Holy Spirit. If a word does not have its origin in the discipline of the Holy Spirit, it is a vain word, and the church does not receive any benefit from it. Brothers, do not regard the discipline of the Lord lightly. We must learn our lessons by passing through the fire.
