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In previous chapters we have said that a minister of the word needs four things. Two of these things, light and the inner words, are of God, while the other two, thoughts and memory, are of the minister himself. Before a minister of the word opens his mouth to speak, he needs to have two things available to him — his own thoughts and his memory. But this is not all. While he is speaking, he also needs two more things — proper feelings and a proper spirit.
In reading the Bible, we find one outstanding feature in all the writers of the books: Their feelings were never a hindrance to them in their ministry of the word. In their speaking, they expressed their feelings. We must realize that the release of our spirit often is affected by our feelings. If a man’s feelings cannot be expressed, his spirit cannot be freed. Whether or not a man’s spirit is released has very little to do with the will or the mind. It has much to do with the feelings. The spirit is mainly expressed through our feelings. When our feelings become a hindrance, the spirit is blocked. When our feelings are cold, the spirit becomes cold. When our feelings are dry, the spirit is dry. When our feelings are calm, the spirit is calm.
Why do God’s children so often confuse the spirit with feelings? God’s children can most readily discern the spirit from the will because there is a great difference between them. They can discern the spirit from the mind because this difference is also great. But it is not easy to discern the spirit from feelings. It is easy to confuse the two because the spirit does not flow independently; when it flows, it carries feelings with it. The spirit does not express itself through the mind or the will but through the feelings. This is the reason that many people find it difficult to differentiate between the spirit and the feelings. Although the two are totally different, the spirit being one thing and the feelings another, the spirit is nevertheless expressed through the feelings. The light bulb is the place where electricity is expressed. Although electricity and the bulb are two different things, the two cannot be separated. In the same way, the spirit and the feelings are two different things, yet the former is expressed through the latter. For this reason we cannot separate the spirit from the feelings. But this does not mean that the spirit is the feelings or that the feelings are the spirit. For those who have never learned the spiritual lessons, the spirit and the feelings are one and the same thing. This is like some people who consider that electricity is the same as the light bulb. In reality, electricity and light bulbs are two entirely different things. When a minister of the word speaks, his spirit has to be released. But the release of the spirit is related very much to his feelings. If his feelings are not proper, his spirit cannot be released. The electricity in the power company can be very strong, but without a light bulb no light will be seen. In the same way, no matter how wonderful our spirit is, the spirit is frustrated if our feelings are poor. The spirit is released through the feelings. In order for the spirit of the minister of the word to be free, it must have suitable feelings to express itself. If the feelings do not obey the spirit or follow its instructions, the spirit is blocked. For the purpose of releasing the spirit, a man must have proper feelings. Now let us consider the kind of feelings that are proper.
Man has a will, but the will is the coarsest part within him. Man also has a mind, which is more refined than the will, yet the mind is still coarse. Man also has feelings, which are the most delicate part in him. When a man makes a decision, he may do so in a definite way. Even though man is capable of thinking, his thoughts are not necessarily refined. But in man’s emotions and feelings, we can find a soft and tender spot. In the Old Testament, particularly in the Song of Songs, the finer parts of man are signified by scents. Scents can only be detected by the nose, and the sense of smell is a very delicate function. Smell represents the finer sentiments. The Bible uses the nose as a symbol of feelings. Although man’s feelings are delicate, not all feelings can be used.
A minister of the word has to use his feelings. Every time he speaks, he has to put his feelings into the words he is speaking. Without this, his words are dead. Before a minister of the word opens his mouth, he must have memory and thoughts. But after he opens his mouth, he first should have feelings. If his feelings cannot match his speaking, his speaking amounts to nothing.
The Lord Jesus once illustrated this point to His disciples, saying, “But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like little children sitting in the market places, who call to the others and say, We have played the flute to you, and you did not dance; we have sung a dirge, and you did not mourn” (Matt. 11:16-17). If a man has feelings, he will dance when others play the flute and mourn when others sing a dirge. In other words, a minister of the word cannot speak one thing but feel just the opposite. This altogether disqualifies a person from speaking for the Lord. We cannot speak a word of grief without having any feeling of grief. If we do not have the feeling of grief, we cannot be a minister of such a word of grief. The feelings that we are speaking of are not a kind of performance. Any performed feeling is an imitation; it is like acting in a play. A minister of the word should not perform his speaking in an artificial way. When a minister of the word speaks, he should be full of feelings for the words he is speaking. Every word of his should be full of feeling. If the words are sorrowful, he should feel sorrowful. When the spirit is sad, the feelings should be sad as well. Some words are joyous, and he should feel joyful. When the spirit is joyful, he should have the feelings of joy.
We must remember that it is not enough to just release the word; the spirit must be released as well. However, when the spirit is released, it conveys our feelings also. Therefore, if our feelings are not up to the standard, our words will be short of the spirit. When our feelings are too rough, they are useless in the release of the words. The feelings are the most delicate part of man. If our feelings are rough and insensitive, we cannot use them, and our speaking will be without the spirit. Whatever words we are speaking, we must have the spirit to match the words. If the spirit is different from the words, the two become incompatible, and the words will suffer a loss. The result will be nothing but failure. When we release certain words, we have to convey a certain spirit. In other words, we need the proper spirit for the proper words. We cannot speak one kind of word while having another kind of spirit. No one can be a minister in this way. The kind of spirit we have must match the kind of word we speak. But when the spirit is released, it cannot express itself; it must be accompanied by feelings. If our feelings are unusable, or if they are heading in a different direction from that of our spirit, the spirit is unable to do anything. Hence, our spirit must match God’s word, and our feelings must also match God’s word.
While a minister of the word is speaking, it is not enough for him to release words alone. If the obstacles mentioned above are not dealt with, nothing will happen even if one has light, thoughts, the inner word, the memory, and the outer words; all of these will be vain. It is a big problem for our feeling to be different from the feeling in God’s word. Today we should not try to touch the feeling of the Bible in an outward way. Rather, we should speak with our feelings when we exercise our inner being to speak from the Bible. God’s word embodies God’s feelings, and He demands that we have the same feelings. When we speak, our feelings must match our words. Our feelings should be reflected in our words. Only then will our feelings touch the audience. In other words, when we speak with our feelings, the Holy Spirit reaches others through our feelings.
What is the problem today? The problem is that some have the revelation and the word, but they do not have the fruit. Why do some have the revelation and the word but not the fruit? The only explanation is that their spirit is not released, and their spirit is not released because their feelings are not released. When their feelings are not released, the Holy Spirit does not have a channel through which to release Himself. Hence, even when we have the light and the word, we can still be fruitless if our feelings are absent. We must remember that feelings are needed to release the word. We have to have light, thoughts, the inner word, memory, and the outer words. But when we speak, we must have feelings as well. The Holy Spirit touches men through feelings. Of course, trying to touch others with feelings alone is just a performance. It only conveys death; it is not the ministry of the word. We can touch others with our feelings because both our spirit and the Holy Spirit are working already. In other words, our feelings must match our speaking before both can be released in a powerful way. Only then will the Holy Spirit operate in others when the word is released. It is a great frustration indeed when the first hindrance we encounter in our speaking is ourselves.
When some brothers stand up to speak, the first hurdle they face in discharging their burden is themselves. They try very hard to release what they want to say. Yet they have one problem: their words do not seem to go very far. There are hurdles; the words are not easily released. The word cannot find a proper channel for its release. The biggest hurdle with these ones is themselves. While they speak to the brothers about the Lord’s love, they do not feel the Lord’s love at all. Such a feeling is not in them. It is not a matter of whether or not they have seen the love of the Lord, but a matter of whether they have the sense and the feeling of the Lord’s love as they are speaking. A brother may have seen the sinfulness of sin, but when he stands up to speak, he may not feel the sinfulness of sin. His words and his feelings do not match. He is short of the proper feelings. When a brother stands up to speak about the grief of repentance, but does not have the feeling of such grief, his words are not released in a proper way. If he does not have feelings for it, his audience will surely not have feelings for it. We minister the word to others because they do not have the feeling, thoughts, and light. We have seen the sinfulness of sin, but they have not. If we want them to see the sinfulness of sin, we must have feelings about it when we speak. Only then will a word on the sinfulness of sin affect them, and only then will our word convey the proper feeling to them. We have to reach their feelings, and we have to speak until they see the same thing that we see. If we are short of feeling or our feeling is not usable, others’ feelings will not be affected. George Whitefield was very effective in speaking about hell. One day while he was speaking on hell, men held on to pillars in fear of slipping into hell. His word on hell was full of feelings. It was as if hell was opening up for the sinners right before their eyes. Because he spoke with such feeling, his spirit went out with the words, and the Holy Spirit went out as well. This is the reason men were so touched that they held on to the pillars for fear of slipping into hell.
If a man is very careless with his speaking, he will not be conscious of the limitations of his feelings. He will not realize that his words are vain and that his speaking is useless. If we are serious about being ministers of the word and serious about speaking to an audience, we will find that our feelings often are inadequate. We will realize that the thing that hinders us the most is our feelings. This first hurdle frustrates us. We may need to say a very strong word today, but the more we speak, the weaker we feel; our feeling cannot match our speaking. Our words are harsh, but not our feeling. The more we speak, the less serious the matter sounds. Our feeling cannot catch up with our words, and all that is left is shouting. Many brothers only know how to shout; however, their shouting is not for others but for themselves. They cannot do anything else, and so they shout. Whenever they shout, others immediately know that they are short of feelings. When many people speak, half of their energy is spent on struggling with themselves. They spend half of their energy on themselves because their feelings are so short. They have to speak until they have the feelings first. They have to speak until they come up to a desired level before they are able to convey the same word to others. Words that are meant for others have to be spoken to the ministers first because they are a barrier to their word. It is a serious problem with many people to find, after stepping onto the platform, that they are in fact a barrier to their own words. They want to pass on God’s word to others, yet they do not have such a feeling before God. Their feelings do not match their words. As a result, their words are blocked.
We must see that a minister of the word must have usable feelings. If he does not have them, he is not qualified to be a minister of the word. If his feelings are not adequate, his words cannot be released; they will be blocked inside of him. This is a serious thing, a very serious thing. This is where much of the problem lies. We have the word, but our feelings are different from the word. We realize the seriousness of the word, yet our feelings do not match it in seriousness. When the word is released, our feelings should be released at the same time. Yet we find out that our feelings are absent. If a man speaks without any feeling at all, no one will believe him. It would be useless even if he shouted at the top of his voice. While he is speaking, he does not feel the things he is speaking. In fact, he may even find the whole exercise amusing; he may feel that he is performing. How can one expect others to believe such a word? We can only expect others to believe our word if we believe the word ourselves and have a feeling for it ourselves. If the more we speak, the colder and more unnatural we become, and if we realize that our feelings really do not match our word, we can be certain that our spirit is not released, that the Holy Spirit is not released, and that our word has no power.
We should not merely know how to apply our feelings. We also should know how to take the right way to acquire feelings that are proper and usable. This leads to a consideration of our basic experience, which is the breaking of our outer man. In the previous discussion of the minister as a person, we paid special attention to the breaking of the outer man. Unless the outer man is broken, the Lord’s word cannot be released. Unless the outer man is broken, a great part of it can never be used by the Lord. We have to repeat this point. We need to see how the Lord breaks our outer man and how He prepares our feelings for the ministry of the word.
God deals with a man by arranging all kinds of circumstances to buffet him. This buffeting naturally produces wounds and pain. When a man receives wounds and pain, his feelings are hurt, and they become more tender than before. Man’s feelings are the tenderest part of his outer man; this part is more tender than the will or the mind. Yet even this tenderness is not enough for God. It is not tender enough to satisfy the demand of God’s word. In order for God’s word to be released through us, we must be full of feelings for His word. In order for God to use us to be ministers of the word, our feeling has to match the word’s feeling. The feeling of every minister of the word must match the word he ministers. Every minister of the word has to be equipped with such feelings — feelings the word demands. The feelings for the word must be rich enough. A speaker must have the sense that when God’s word is released, his person is released as well. Otherwise, the word will not be powerful in others, and it will not be powerful in him.
After one goes through God’s dealings, he realizes how crude his feelings are in the eyes of God. Although the feelings are the most tender part of a person, these feelings are still crude and are useless in the eyes of God. If our feelings are not tender enough when God’s word is released through our mouth, we will find that some of it is padded with feelings, while some of it is void of feelings. In painting, a painter has to mix the paint powder well. If the powder is not well blended, some areas will be left untouched. If the paint is well mixed, the whole surface will be evenly covered. This is true of the feelings of the minister of the word. Those whose feelings are crude will miss the mark in eight out of ten sentences. Those whose feelings are fine will match every word with their feelings. In the Bible the Lord’s life is typified by fine flour. This means that our Lord was very fine in His feelings. It is a horrible thing when brothers say things without having any feeling about them at all. Their feelings are unusable. Their feelings cannot match their words; they are not fine enough. Their feelings hardly are expressed in one or two out of ten sentences. We have to remember that unrefined feelings cripple the release of God’s word.
We need the Lord to work on us until our feelings are fine and tender. We must be broken before our feelings can be tender before the Lord. In the Bible we find the writers of the Scripture not only full of experience of life and thoughts of the Holy Spirit but full of spiritual feelings as well. The ministers of the word in the Bible released their word with much feeling for the word. Today in serving as ministers of the word, we have to release the word with feelings. If our feelings cannot match our word, our audience will not take our word seriously. If God’s hand has never touched us and broken our outer man, naturally our feelings are not tender in the eyes of God; we do not have any wound or hurt. If we are sensitive in a certain matter, it means that we have a wound and a hurt in that matter. The grains of wheat must be ground into powder before they can be fine. We must have wounds and hurts before our feelings can be tender. The more wounds and hurts we have, the tenderer we become. As the pressure is applied, the one grain is enlarged to three, five, seven, or one hundred grains. The feelings become finer. We should not expect to be fine in our feelings if we have not suffered any wound or bleeding from God. There is not such a thing. We must have wounds, and we must go through dealings.
As soon as we touch some brothers, we know that the Lord’s work is not deep enough in them. If a brother is disciplined and has learned to walk somewhat properly, has advanced somewhat in his conduct, and has made progress in the study of the Scripture as well as in other areas, yet has failed to become tender in his feelings, he is missing something before the Lord; there are still some parts in him that God cannot use. No matter how much a person’s outward behavior changes and no matter how much light he sees within, his training is still too superficial and shallow if he is lacking in feelings. When a man touches the work of the Lord’s cross, his entire person is broken. His strong will is no longer stubborn, his arrogant mentality is no longer arrogant. His will is broken, and his arrogant mind is also subdued. At the same time, his feelings become more and more refined. The Lord can deal with a person’s will with one great shining of His light. A man may think that he is clever and resourceful, and the Lord can bring down his exalted mind in one great shining. However, the feelings cannot be dealt with through one shining. Tenderness in one’s feelings is the result of an accumulation of countless numbers of dealings. One’s feelings do not become tender until he has passed through certain circumstances. If we are sloppy in certain matters, the Lord will arrange circumstance after circumstance to deal with us. After one circumstance goes away, another one comes. Time after time, we are ground and pressed like grains in a mill. Eventually, we will be pulverized into fine flour.
Before the Lord we need a stricken spirit. What is a stricken spirit? Since the spirit is expressed through the feelings, a stricken spirit has the feeling of being stricken. The Lord desires that we live in a stricken spirit; He desires that our feelings be fine and tender. Such tender feelings are not in us; we acquire them through being stricken. The Lord wants us to live in a stricken spirit, which means that He wants us to have the feeling of being stricken. We should be so broken by the Lord that the feeling of His chastisement is fresh with us, and His discipline should still be fresh in our memory. The Lord has to work on us so much that we fear and tremble in our feeling, that we no longer dare to be cavalier or lazy. Every time God works on us, chastises us, and deals with us, our feelings become finer and more sensitive. This is the deepest lesson in the breaking of the outward man. The breaking of the feelings may not be as drastic as the breaking of the will and the mind, but it is much deeper.
If we live in a stricken spirit and if there is a wound in us, we feel the pain. This pain spontaneously makes us fearful; our feelings are refined by the pain. As we are dealt with repeatedly, we become genuinely happy when our hearts are happy and genuinely sad when our hearts are sad. When God’s word comes to us again, we will sense the feelings of the word, and our feelings will match the word. This is a glorious thing. The purpose of chastisement is to make us compatible with God’s word. When He speaks or expresses a desire again, our feelings will match His feelings. The Lord is disciplining us. He repeatedly tries us until we have a wound and a scar in our body. We were once coarse and insensitive, but after discipline, we begin to have feelings. As soon as God’s word comes, we feel something. As soon as He moves, we are sensitive to it. At least during the period immediately after our discipline we can match God’s word. As the Lord increases His discipline in us, we are broken, and all our feelings come up to His standard. A minister of the word must come up to the standard of the Lord’s word in all his feelings. After we have gone through such discipline in our feelings, we discover one interesting thing: We not only speak God’s word, but we feel His word as well.
What we feel inwardly is expressed outwardly. Peter “lifted up his voice” when he spoke at Pentecost (Acts 2:14). He lifted his voice because his feelings were strong. I am afraid some of us have never lifted up our voice in our speaking. The only explanation is that our feelings are not strong enough. Peter was full of feelings as he spoke, and because his feelings were so strong, he was able to lift up his voice when he spoke. God’s word has feelings, and it does not come out like words from a dictating machine. It is pressed out by strong feelings. Paul exhorted the church in Corinth “through many tears” (2 Cor. 2:4). I am afraid many people have never shed tears in their messages because their feelings are too short. Lifting up one’s voice or shedding one’s tears are not big things in themselves. But if a person has never lifted up his voice or shed his tears, something is wrong. There is no special merit to lifting up the voice or shedding tears. But there is definitely something wrong with those who have never lifted up their voice or shed tears; the feelings of such ones have never been broken by the Lord. If a man’s feelings have been finely ground, he will rejoice when God’s word calls for rejoicing and weep when God’s word calls for weeping. This is not a performance. Do not try to perform. If it is a performance, an experienced person immediately will see through the farce and artificiality. We must never be artificial. Artificiality only corrupts God’s word. What we are saying here is that we must have proper feelings. We have to have the same feeling as God’s word. Joy and sadness are opposite examples. When the Bible speaks of joy, the proper reaction is to rejoice, and when it speaks of sadness, the proper reaction is to grieve. Some people are so bound up in themselves all their lives that they are always cold. They do not rejoice when others play the flute, and they do not mourn when others weep. Their feelings cannot meet the need, and God’s word is frustrated through them.
Why do so many people have feelings that cannot be used at all? Why does the Lord bring them through so many experiences? It is because the root of man’s feelings lies in the person himself. The problem with feelings is different from the problems with the will and the mind. The problems with the will and the mind are more complicated. The problem with feelings is simply that they are centered around the person himself. Many people expend all of their feelings on themselves. They have little difficulty feeling for themselves. If a man expends all of his feelings on himself, he does not have any feelings for others. Some brothers are dull and insensitive to everything; they seem to be indifferent to everything. Yet they are not insensitive or indifferent to themselves. A brother can be rude to every other brother, but if someone is rude to him, he is offended. This brother has expended all of his feelings on himself. He loves himself and cares for himself. When he suffers, he feels it. When he has problems, he weeps, but he has no feelings whatsoever for others’ affairs. Brothers, if the Lord does not conquer our feelings completely, we will be useless in the ministry of the word. The Lord often lays His hand on us through the discipline of the Holy Spirit with the purpose of turning our feelings toward others. We need to direct all of our feelings into the service of the ministry of the word. We have no time to spend our feelings on ourselves. Our feelings have to be tender all the time. Once they are exhausted, they become useless. Many people are obsessed with themselves; they think that they are the center of the universe. All their feelings revolve around themselves. God has to deliver them out of their shells. We do not have an unlimited supply of feelings. If we exhaust our feelings, we will not be able to be a minister of God’s word. God must discipline us and deal with us until we do not have feelings for ourselves and until our feelings become tender. The foundation of tender feelings is a freedom from self-centeredness. The Lord has to break down our feelings so that we will no longer be self-centered. The more we are ground and the finer we become, the more our feelings will become useful.
A minister of the word has to have feelings that are fine and rich before God can make use of them. We must remember that our words are only as rich as our feelings. The amount of riches in our word is determined by our feelings. Our inward feelings dictate the number of words we speak. Sometimes we have many words, yet our feelings are not strong enough to match them. At such times, our words are bound by our feelings. All ministers of the word have to remember that their words can only go as far as the breaking they have received from God. The words cannot go beyond the person’s condition. Some people have trouble with their mind. Others are short in their feelings. They are still short in God’s breaking work. A spiritual man is rich in all kinds of feelings. The more spiritual a person is, the more feelings he has. Never think that the more spiritual a man becomes, the more insensitive he becomes. The more lessons a man learns from God, the richer his feelings will be. If the feelings of a sinner were compared to the feelings of Paul, it would be easy to see that Paul was superior both in his spirituality as well as in his feelings. The more dealings a person receives, the more feelings he has. When our feelings are enriched, we find the right sentiment to match the words we speak. When the feelings match the words, God’s word finds the free outlet He desires. If words are spoken yet feelings lag behind, the two are out of step, and the utterance will not be satisfactory. We feel that something is wrong. We may try to say more, and we may try to raise our voice, but something still is wrong because our feelings do not match our speaking.
If a man desires to be a minister of the word, he must subject himself to strong dealings. Once he turns away from a dealing, he will fall behind. We must be dismantled before the Lord. Unless we are broken, we cannot accomplish any work. Without discipline, there is no work. Even if we were the wisest men in the whole world, we still would be useless. It does not matter how clever or knowledgeable we are. Only those who have been broken are useful. This is a very serious matter. Our emotions and feelings must go through repeated dealings before they can become useful to our speaking. If the Lord has dealt with our self-love once or twice, when we speak about self-love, our feelings spontaneously will match our speaking. There will be no hindrance whatsoever. If our pride has been dealt with, when we speak about pride and about the Lord resisting the proud, our feelings will match our words. In other words, our feelings can match our words only to the extent that they have been touched. Our feelings must be totally and universally stripped before they can serve us in the release of the word. This is the only way for us to prepare ourselves for the ministry of the word. Our feelings must match the word. The extent of our feelings will determine the extent of the speaking that we can render. Every time our words touch something higher, our feelings have to be made finer. May the Lord be gracious to us, and may all of our feelings match our words.
