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A minister of the word must also pay attention to his memory. In fulfilling the ministry of the word, a man’s memory occupies a very important place. Its significance goes far beyond what men ordinarily imagine. This is another matter in which we should exercise ourselves before the Lord.
In ministering to others as ministers, we often feel that our memory is too poor. Some of us may have a good memory by birth, but when we serve as ministers, we realize how insufficient our memory is. As soon as we become aware of our poor memory, we discover that it is difficult for us to release our words. It seems as if a veil is covering our mind, and our burden cannot be released. We can only speak what we remember; we cannot speak what we do not remember. In other words, in serving as a minister of the word, how should the outer words match the inner words? How can the inner words be converted into the outer words? How can the inner words support the outer words? Without the supply of the inner words, there are not any outer words. Once the inner words stop, the subject of the outer words is lost. The subject lies in the inner words, not in the outer words. Hence, the outer words must draw their supply from the inner words. Without the supply of the inner words, the outer words dry up. This is where our memory comes into play. The outer words convey the inner words to others through the memory. The memory carries the inner words to the outside world. Whenever our memory fails, our burden cannot be released. We have to see the importance of the memory.
Whenever a minister of the word stands up to speak, he encounters a strange phenomenon: The more he remembers a doctrine, the less he remembers the revelation behind it. This is something beyond our control. Suppose we understand a doctrine, and it is very clear to us today. We may not be able to boast that we remember everything about this doctrine, but we can say at least that we remember a big part of it. But suppose we see a revelation within, capture the light with our thoughts, and also have a few words to articulate what we have seen. It is not so easy to remember these few words. The Lord may give us a sentence, and the sentence may articulate what our thoughts have captured; it may express what we have seen in our spirit, and it may encompass the retained thoughts as well as the light of the Holy Spirit. The sentence may be very simple; it may consist of just five or ten words. Humanly speaking, it should be very easy for us to remember these words. Yet, strangely, the more real a revelation is, the harder it is for us to remember it. This is a fact, not a theory. Our memory fails us after just five minutes of our speaking. Sometimes the order of the words is reversed. Sometimes important words are left out. Sometimes even though we try our best to recall the words, they are gone altogether. Even when we remember the words, the very thing behind the words is gone. At this point we should realize how hard it is for God’s revelation to be retained in man’s memory, and we should say, “Lord, be gracious to me and help me remember.”
We need the aid of our memory to transmit the inner words to the outside world and to express them in outer words. However, because our memory often fails us, the inner part cannot aid the outer part. The more we speak, the farther the outer words drift from the inner words. After we finish a message, we may realize that the inner words were not released at all. This is a very painful experience. We may think that jotting down some notes on a pad may help. At times this may be useful, but at times this may not be useful at all. It is strange that even as we read what we have jotted down and try to recall it, we may realize that we know all the characters and all the words, yet we cannot remember the very thing that the words are trying to convey. This is when we find our memory failing us. If what we see is merely a doctrine, it can easily be communicated to the outside world. The more doctrinal a point is, the easier it is for us to remember it. But if it is a revelation, it will not be that easy for us to remember it. If we try to express and convey the revelation we have within, we find that we have forgotten what we have seen just a moment ago. We remember the words, but we have forgotten the very things behind the words. The trouble with us is that we often forget what we have seen when we stand on the platform. Throughout our speaking, we speak about something else; we do not speak of the things we have seen. The result is a loss to the ministry. Hence, a minister of the word must have a good memory.
We need two kinds of memory, the outward memory and the memory of the Spirit. We need to use these two kinds of memory properly before we can be a minister of the word. The outward memory is the memory of the outer man. It is the memory that resides in our mental faculty. This memory occupies an important place in the testimony of God’s word. But there is a second kind of memory, the memory of the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus refers to this memory in John 14:26: “But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and remind you of all the things which I have said to you.” This is the reminding of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who makes us remember such things; we do not remember them by ourselves. We should spend some time to find out about the memory of the Holy Spirit before considering the outward memory.
First, our spirit sees something; second, our thoughts capture it; and third, we have a word within us. What is contained in this word? This word contains thoughts, and it also contains light. God gives us a sentence or two. These sentences contain thoughts as well as light. What should we pay attention to before God? We should know what the word of revelation is. A revelation is a seeing, a removal of the veil. The light shines through, and we see what is beyond the veil. Initially, we see what is beyond the veil, even though we cannot articulate it. This light appears to us like the flashing of a camera. God then gives us thoughts to capture the light; the light is converted into the thoughts. Finally, He gives us a word or two which encompass the entire revelation. One word from God unlocks all the significance behind the light. We can say that the word of revelation is a word of “seeing.” We can say that it is a word, yet this word is an inner seeing, an inner revelation; it is not merely a word. When this word is in us, it is, at the same time, a “seeing.” When it is in us as light, we do not understand what it means. When it is converted into thoughts, we can see its meaning. When it becomes a word, we can grasp it in our thoughts as well as utter it in our mouth. This is the word.
What is the word? The word is a revelation that has become articulated thoughts. A word does not mean just a word alone; it is not just three, five, eight, or ten sentences. It is something within us, an utterance of what we see. Originally, seeing is a function of the eyes; it has nothing to do with the mouth. But when God gives me a word, the word includes light. I can be very clear within, but I cannot articulate what I see. Today the word enables me to articulate what I see. Therefore, we have to be clear that the word is not just one or two sentences. It embodies a seeing, and it is an articulation of our seeing. When we have both the word and the seeing within us, we can call the word our own. God first shows us something in a clear way, and then He gives us a word. The word explains what we see.
The word can only be retained in the memory. We have two kinds of memory. One is a faculty which retains the word. The other is a faculty which retains the seeing. One retains the word; this is the outward memory. The other retains the seeing; this is the memory of the Holy Spirit. The problem today is that our outward memory often functions to remember the word, but the Spirit’s memory is gone. We do not remember the seeing. We remember the few words, but we forget the seeing. This is where the problem lies with revelation: It is not like doctrines which can be memorized word for word. There is nothing more to doctrines than simple recitation. Doctrines remain in the outside realm, but the ministry of the word touches life. The more doctrinal something is, the easier it is to remember; it can be repeated easily word for word. However, the inward vision is related to life, and the more something is related to life, the easier it is to forget. One can remember the words verbatim but lose the vision of the thing behind the words. This is what happens when the memory of the Holy Spirit is gone. We must bear in mind that the word that God has given us must be nurtured in the memory of the Holy Spirit. Only then will the word remain living. Once the word is separated from the memory of the Spirit, it becomes something physical and is no longer spiritual. It is very easy for a spiritual thing to turn into a physical thing.
It is very easy for the inner word to degenerate into something dead and outward. It is very easy for a spiritual word to degenerate into something outward and physical. Spiritual words must be kept alive in the Holy Spirit before they can have an effect on us. Words of revelation must be kept alive in the Holy Spirit before we can derive benefit from them. If a word of revelation is not nurtured in the Holy Spirit, a person can remember the words without remembering the revelation. For example, we all know that sin is ugly and evil. Some see this the day they become a believer. Others see this at the time of their revival. Some see the evil of sin the day they hear the gospel. Others, who were given to a dissipated living, do not see the evil of sin until three to five years after their salvation, when they experience a great revival of the Spirit. Once, a brother became conscious of his sins and was very sad. He prostrated himself and rolled on the ground from eight o’clock in the evening until the next morning. The rest of the people had left the meeting, but he was still rolling on the floor. It looked as if he had touched the gates of hell, and he was crying, “Even hell is not big enough to swallow my sins.” That day the Lord opened his eyes to something; he saw something in his spirit. Afterwards, he related what he had seen in his spirit to others. He told them about the evil and abomination of sin. Another brother testified that when this one talked about sin, others could feel sin like a thick, black cloud overshadowing them. In his consciousness sin was a thick, black cloud; nothing could be worse than it. When he spoke and articulated the inward revelation, others received the help. But after two or three years, the vision became blurred. He could still say that sin was like a thick, black cloud. When he stood up, he could say the same words, but the picture was gone; the revelation of the Spirit was gone. The revelation was no longer as clear and strong in him as before. Formerly, he would be in tears when he spoke about the blackness of sin. But when he spoke about its blackness now, he could laugh. The taste had changed. The words were the same, but the memory of the Holy Spirit was gone.
Romans 7:13 says, “Sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.” One day the Lord may show you how evil and sinful sin is. The very word sinful is enough to scare you. But when you preach about it after a few days, it is possible that you still remember the word sinful, but the picture, the image, is gone. When you see the sinfulness of sin, both the word and its picture are present. But when you stand up to speak about the evil of sin, the word is present but the picture is gone. We call this picture the memory of the Holy Spirit. In serving as a minister of the word, we need the memory of the Holy Spirit. Such a memory reminds us not only of the words but also of the picture in our speaking. Without such a memory, we may remember the words, but the thing, the picture, is gone. Whenever we stand up to speak, we have to ask the Lord to grant us the memory of the Holy Spirit so that we will convey not only the words but impart the very thing behind the words as well. Unless we have this memory, we can speak on the evil and sinfulness of sin ten or twenty times without knowing what sin really is. We can only impress others with the sinfulness of sin when the memory of the Spirit reminds us of its sinfulness. While we speak about it, we should not only have the words but the picture as well. What is God’s word? It is word plus picture. Brothers, do we see this? God’s word must be supplemented by the picture. In fact, God’s word is word plus picture. Word without the picture is not God’s word. If we have the wrong picture behind the words, the words alone are not enough.
Take another example. Suppose we are preaching the gospel and the subject is the Lord’s love. While we are speaking on love, we may have the picture in front of us; our speaking is based on the picture. This is good. But many times the one who is speaking on God’s love does not believe in God’s love. How can he expect others to believe in it? We need the memory of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit reminds us of the picture; He causes us to remember the very thing called “love.” When we speak on that thing, we hit the right spot. The more we speak about it, the more we strike life. Life is struck; it is released. Without the memory of the Spirit, we may have all the right words, but we miss the very thing itself. The phrasing is right, but the thing is gone. This is useless. In preaching God’s word, we have to look to the memory of the Holy Spirit to remind us of the revelation in addition to having the inner word that the Spirit gives to us. When we speak according to this inner word, whether it is once or twice, life will be released, and others will see what we have seen. It is useless for us merely to pass on letters. The Spirit must first remind us of the word before we can speak it.
Some of us were saved through John 3:16. But what if we memorize John 3:16 to see whether it will work again for others? It will not work even if we recite it ten times to others. The Holy Spirit opened our eyes at one time to this verse. John 3:16 is only useful inasmuch as this seeing, which brought about our salvation, is retained in our memory and as we are reminded of this thing. The only thing that works is the memory of the Holy Spirit.
Many people found the Lord to be very loving and precious when they received forgiveness of their sins. They saw a revelation within, and they found the Lord to be very clear to them. The forgiveness which they experienced was great; therefore, the love was great (Luke 7:47). They saw something, and they had the word in their mind. They had both the thoughts and the word. One day they spoke on the platform for an hour or two. The word within was released, and everyone felt happy and received help. After some time, they repeated the same speaking again. The words were still there; they remembered them all. The outer words were not missing, but the more they spoke, the more they realized that they did not have the real thing. It seemed they had forgotten that very thing they once talked about. They could not recall what it was. The words were still there, but the love was gone. They were short of the memory of the Holy Spirit. Every revelation has to be preserved in the memory of the Holy Spirit. A minister of the word must be a person with a good memory of the Holy Spirit. The stronger this memory is, the better it is for him. His ministry of the word will be so much richer because he will have so many more living deposits within him. But if his memory of the Spirit is poor, he will have to repeatedly study all the revelations God has given him. This is a pity. A man must not only know the revelation of the Holy Spirit, but this revelation must be enriched continually. Perhaps we were saved thirty years ago. At that time the Lord gave us a revelation. Later He gave us another revelation and yet another one. The revelation became greater and greater. At the time of our salvation, we saw the basic revelation. Later the revelation became deeper and greater. A minister of the word must have the memory of the Holy Spirit; that is, he must nurture the revelation he receives in the memory of the Holy Spirit. When he receives a fresh revelation, he has to keep it and nurture it in the memory of the Holy Spirit. Then everything he receives will be kept alive.
Let us come back to the illustration of the sinfulness of sin. This must be a fresh vision in us. If it is fresh within us, we will be a minister of the word when we release it sentence by sentence. If it is not fresh within us, we can speak about the sinfulness of sin on the platform, but others will receive only stale manna; it may be a day old, a year old, or even ten years old. We will not be serving as ministers of the word in that case, and our word will amount to nothing. When some brothers give a gospel message, others can see that they have the memory of the Holy Spirit. When others preach, others can see that they do not have the memory of the Holy Spirit. No one can pretend. If a person has it, he has it; if he does not have it, he does not have it. The same principle can be applied to higher and deeper revelations. Revelation is kept alive in the memory of the Holy Spirit. In order to be a minister of the word, our word has to be nurtured in the memory of the Holy Spirit. If we have the memory of the Holy Spirit, this memory will become operative as we speak and convey the inner word to others. The strange thing is that when we see something in the spirit, we may forget about it the very first time we try to use it to minister the word. We cannot speak what we want to speak. It is understandable that we might lose the acute sense of sin which we felt ten or fifteen years ago. But while we are speaking on the platform, we often forget what we saw the night before. Our outward memory is useless in retaining the revelation of the word. We cannot depend on our outward memory to capture the revelation. Revelation can only be retained in the Holy Spirit.
Consider another illustration. Suppose a person realizes the great difference between pressing upon the Lord and touching Him. He sees the great difference between physically and spiritually touching the Lord. When he sees it, he is very clear and very happy about what he has seen. After two or three days, when he visits a sick brother, he tries to tell him the same thing. Yet he finds that he is going around in circles. The more he speaks, the colder and emptier his words become; his endeavor is completely futile. With sweat upon his brow, he tries as hard as he can to remember what he once saw, but to no avail. The only reason for his failure is that his revelation has not been nurtured in the memory of the Holy Spirit. If the words of revelation were nurtured in the memory of the Holy Spirit, he would have no trouble using them in his ministry of the word. Hence, we need the revelation, the thoughts, the inner words, and the outer words, and we also need the memory of the Holy Spirit. Without the memory of the Holy Spirit, the inner words and the outer words do not function. No one can be a minister of the word by his own natural strength. It does not matter what kind of person we are. As long as we trust in our natural strength, we are completely useless. Only a foolish person boasts about himself. What do we have to boast of if we cannot even remember what we saw yesterday? We rack our brains to recall what we saw yesterday, and we still cannot remember a thing. No matter how hard we try, our memory still fails us. In order to support and supply the outer word with the word of revelation, we have to maintain the word of revelation within the memory of the Holy Spirit. Only then will the words we speak be what the Lord wants us to speak, and only then will they be spiritual, not physical. Unless the words of revelation which we have received are preserved in the memory of the Holy Spirit, we will find our spirit sagging as soon as we speak.
When the Lord works in us, it is easy for us to be a minister of the word. But when the Lord does not work in us, nothing is harder than assuming the ministry of the word. If a man remains loose and forgetful, and if he is undisciplined in his thoughts and words, he is useless in the ministry of the word. There are strict requirements for the ministry of God’s word. The Lord has to work on us very much before He can use us. If we allow ourselves to relax a little, we may still be able to do other things, but we will not be able to be a minister of the word. We have to ask the Lord for grace. We have to ask Him to grant us the memory of the Holy Spirit so that we can remember the words we have seen. Revelation is within the word. If we have the memory of the Holy Spirit within us, we will remember the word. We will remember not only the word of revelation but the revelation of the word. When we supply the outer words with this word of revelation, we will know what we are talking about as soon as we open our mouth. While we speak, we will see, and spontaneously we will become ministers of the word. If while we are speaking, we do not see the inward things, we panic. We become confused and do not know what to say. Brothers, we have to acknowledge the futility of a clever mind in this endeavor.
Next, we have to consider the outward memory. Sometimes the Lord uses our outward memory. At such times the outward memory becomes necessary. But sometimes the Lord does not want to use our outward memory. At such times the outward memory is useless to Him. Why is our outward memory necessary at times and useless at other times? I cannot explain this; I can only state the fact. This is a fact for which I can give you no explanation. Sometimes we have the word within; we have the word of God’s revelation, and we also have the memory of the Holy Spirit. We are very clear within, but we still need to exercise our own memory. The Holy Spirit reminds us of things; He does not create a separate memory for us. The memory of the Holy Spirit means that the Holy Spirit reminds us of things. John 14:26 says, “He will...remind you of all the things which I have said to you.” God’s Spirit is living within us. When He gives us a revelation, this revelation is kept alive in the Holy Spirit. When we speak, God may give us two words. These two words are the key words. If we remember these key words, amazingly the memory of the Holy Spirit will remain. But if we forget these two words, the memory of the Holy Spirit will also be lost. Sometimes when the Holy Spirit reminds us of these words, we are afraid that our memory will fail, and we write down these crucial and important words. Often as we recall these two words, the picture within comes back, and we see the revelation once again. This shows us that the Holy Spirit uses our outward memory. Sometimes we jot down a few words, and just a glance at them makes us inwardly clear. Yet sometimes we are not clear within even after we look at the words. During these times, it is clear that the Holy Spirit is not using our outward memory.
Hence, we can say that the outward memory can be both useful and useless. Sometimes the Lord shows us something. Yet after a while, only the outward memory is left; inwardly we do not see anything. There is nothing that we can do about this. Under normal circumstances, we should write down the words we have received. The more revelation we receive from God, the more we need our outward memory. The less revelation we receive from God, the less we need our outward memory. The stronger our inward memory is before the Lord, the more our outward memory and inward memory will be purified. As the things in our outward memory and inward memory become more purified, we will retain things both in our outward memory as well as in our inward memory. In the beginning our inward memory may not match what has been retained in our outward memory. Do not be discouraged. The things we retain outwardly may sometimes be visible to us and sometimes be gone from us. But as our experience advances, we will find these two kinds of memory becoming more and more one; they will merge to become one memory. We will find that, along with the outward remembrance of the words, there is also the inward remembrance of the words. This is the reason that we have to humble ourselves before the Lord. We have to pray much, look to Him much, and be ready at all times. When we are clear about what we see, we can speak to others about it. We must always preserve the inner words in the revelation of the Holy Spirit before we speak it out.
Sometimes you may give a good message, and everyone may applaud you. But within you know how good the message really was. At the time of your speaking, you could not recall the very thing that you were impressed with. The outward memory did not match the inward memory. You said the right things, but the revelation was not there; it had faded into the background. We must learn this lesson before the Lord: A minister of the word must have light, inner thoughts, the inner words, the outer words, and the memory of the Holy Spirit, as well as the outward memory. The memory of the Holy Spirit should lie between revelation and the inner words; it should be ready always to supply the inner words. The outward memory should be placed in between the inner words and the outer words; it should be ready always to supply the outer words.
Let us consider these three steps: light, the inner word, and the outer words. (For now we will not consider the thoughts.) The memory of the Holy Spirit should lie in between the first and the second items. Our own memory should lie in between the second and the third items. The memory of the Holy Spirit should lie between the light and the inner words so that the memory of the Holy Spirit can supply the inner words with light. The inner words have to be fed by the light of the Holy Spirit. Without the feeding of the light, the inner words will die; they will become something physical, not spiritual. The memory of the Holy Spirit supplies the inner words with light so that the inner words will continue to thrive in the environment of light. Then we have to use our own words, which we acquire by exercising our own memory to supply the outer words with the inner words. When this happens we will have the speaking.
In exercising our own memory, we have to remember that the outward memory can never replace the function of the inner memory. In fact, the memory of the Holy Spirit often has no use for the outward memory.
Another thing we have to realize is that sometimes the outward memory can even become a barrier to the memory of the Holy Spirit. The outward memory is not only unqualified to substitute for the Spirit’s memory, but at times it actually can frustrate the Spirit’s memory. Sometimes the inner word within us is shining and living, and the Holy Spirit reminds us of this shining. Yet outwardly, we forget the few crucial words. The utterance is gone, and we cannot go on. Many times there is no problem inwardly; the problem lies in outside factors. The crucial words are lost, and the speaking is gone. When we become more experienced, we see that our memory sometimes aids the Spirit’s memory, while at other times, our memory blocks the Spirit’s memory. The Spirit’s memory has to use our memory. The Spirit cannot use another memory besides our own; it has to use our memory. Suppose we are busy with outside affairs all the time and cannot remember many words. We are either too careless or too anxious. Even though the Lord has given us three or five words, we can forget them all and be unable to remember one thing. Even though we cannot remember these words, nevertheless, we may speak for an hour. The taste, however, is gone. This is a serious matter. This is the reason that we sometimes have to write down the revelation we have in a few words. The few words will refresh the seeing, and the entire revelation within us will come alive again as we read these words.
Every time we serve as a minister of the word, the Holy Spirit may want to say many things. We cannot emphasize one part while overlooking another part. For example, the Holy Spirit may want to say three things, yet we may miss two of them. The two things that we have missed become a burden to us. As long as we miss one thing, we cannot be considered as a qualified minister of the word. Within one revelation, God may need to release more than one word or cover more than one subject. He may want to bring up two or three subjects. If we forget them or skip over them, we will feel the weight upon us. Therefore, we have to write down the three or five words. These three or five words can evoke more meaning than just the meaning of the words themselves. The Lord may want us to mention three or five subjects. We should write down every one of them so that nothing is missed. If we miss the last point, we barely may be able to get by with the rest of the speaking. But if we miss the first point, the whole meeting will be ruined.
Ministry of the word is a very serious matter. We must never offend the Spirit. We may think that it does not matter much whether or not we speak well. It seems as if we can afford to miss one out of five sentences. No! If we miss the very thing that we are supposed to release, we will feel the weight upon us increasing. If we miss something, we will feel its weight, because we have not communicated what God wants to convey to His children. Consequently, our burden increases.
A minister of the word should never fail. We must remember that if the Lord wants us to say three things, we have to say three things. If the Lord wants us to say five things, we have to say five things. If we cannot release them all, our burden will increase. If we release all the points except one, the light will be veiled, and we will feel the weight and the bondage. This is the reason that we must learn to exercise ourselves to have a good memory before the Lord. We must guard against any failure of our memory. May God grant us a clear understanding of the way of the ministry of the word. Our outward memory is merely a slave to the Spirit’s memory; it is merely a servant. But if this servant becomes unfruitful, the Spirit’s memory is not able to function well. Our memory needs to be renewed so that it can become useful to the Spirit. Every minister of the word has to pass through the proper dealings before becoming useful. Our mind must be dealt with to the extent that it can become useful. Our memory also must be dealt with to the extent that it can become useful. The thoughts and the memory are very much related to the ministry of the word. Once our memory fails, revelation is locked up and eventually dies.
We should also pay attention to the matter of quoting the Scripture. In delivering God’s word, we have to follow the example of the apostles who quoted from the Old Testament. When we speak on a certain subject, we should quote from the Old and New Testaments. In speaking God’s word, we must have the written Bible as our basis. We should base our speaking on the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. But there is a problem today: If we are not careful, we can be led astray by the Scripture. In quoting from the Old and the New Testaments, we may get carried away by the quotations. We may miss what we intend to speak in the first place, and when we return home, our burden becomes even heavier. This is not a simple thing. Many times while we are speaking, we have no control over our memory. It is easy for us to speak on an Old Testament passage or a New Testament passage and then get carried away by it. We wonder why we feel heavier and heavier as we speak. When we return home, we feel condemned; we feel that we have wasted time. We have expounded the Scripture and explained the doctrine, but we have not discharged the burden that God has given us. Therefore, in our speaking, we have to learn to continually check whether or not the burden is unloaded. We may say this or that, and we may quote from the Old Testament and the New Testament, but all these are peripheral to the purpose of bringing out God’s present word. Unless there is God’s present word, there is no need for us to speak at all. If we do not have God’s present word, we would do just as well if we came together and studied the Scripture together without any special speaking. We must not be satisfied with just repeating something in the Old Testament and the New Testament; we must release our own words as well.
The ministry of the word is a very subjective thing. We have to speak God’s past words, and we have to speak God’s present words. We must not only speak about the Old Testament and the New Testament; we have to come back to our own words. We can say something through the Old Testament, and we can say something through the New Testament. But we also have to say what we need to say. Our words have to be strong and rich. We should release what we want to say sentence by sentence. As each sentence is released, we touch the right spot, and more life is released. The burden is gradually discharged, and it is fully discharged when the message is done. We may feel that our utterance is short, but our burden is discharged; we have done what we needed to do. Following this, we will see the fruit in others. One thing is certain: Where there is the discharge of a burden, God’s children will see the light. If they do not see the light, it is their problem, not ours. But if we cannot discharge our burden, then the problem lies with us, not them.
We must realize before the Lord that a minister of the word should always be burdened with words. Speaking is for the discharge of a burden. In order to discharge a burden, we must have the Spirit’s memory. Without the Spirit’s memory, we cannot discharge our burden. Even when the Spirit’s memory is fresh, we must still be careful not to be carried away by the truths of the Old Testament and the New Testament. We should always remember that our burden is to bring God’s present word to men. We should not merely expound the Bible, while forgetting what we are supposed to do. If we forget the words that we are supposed to speak, we will find that we still have not said that very thing even after we have said everything. It is possible that there may be a hindrance from Satan. In any case, our thought has to be rich, and our memory has to be rich. We have to be rich in everything before we can release our burden through our speaking.
