Will you please turn to 1 Timothy?
Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an ensample to them that believe, in word, in manner of life, in love, in faith, in purity.
Till I come, give heed to reading, to exhortation, to teaching.
Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.
Be diligent in these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy progress may be manifest unto all.
Take heed to thyself, and to thy teaching. Continue in these things; for in doing this thou shalt save both thyself and them that hear thee.
Now the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee,
and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee;
I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations.
Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak; for I am a child.
But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child;
for to whomsoever I shall send thee thou shalt go,
and whatsoever I shall command thee thou shalt speak.
Be not afraid because of them;
for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord.
Then the Lord put forth His hand, and touched my mouth;
and the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth.
See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms,
to pluck up and to break down, and to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.
And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou?
And I said, I see a rod of an almond-tree.
Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen:
for I watch over My word to perform it.
Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee. Be not dismayed at them, lest I dismay thee before them.
And the voice which I heard from heaven, I heard it again speaking with me, and saying, Go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel that standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.
And I went unto the angel, saying unto him that he should give me the little book. And he saith unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but in thy mouth it shall be sweet as honey.
And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and when I had eaten it, my belly was made bitter.
And they say unto me, Thou must prophesy again over many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.
Dear Heavenly Father, how we do praise and thank Thee that through Thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus, we have ready access to Thy throne of grace.
We do praise and thank Thee that through the blood of our Lord Jesus and His broken body, with Him as our High Priest, we can really boldly enter into the holiest of all, to be in Thy very presence, to behold Thy face, to hear Thy word, and to worship and serve Thee.
O our Father, how we do praise and thank Thee for all the mercy and grace and love and faithfulness and goodness that Thou hast so bountifully bestowed upon us, not because we are worthy, but because of Thy beloved Son. And we do want to give all the glory to Thee and to Thy beloved Son.
Lord, as we gather in Thy presence, we trust that Thy light shall shine upon us. Remove any veil that may be upon our hearts. Give us understanding. We pray that Thou wilt quicken our spirit, our soul, and our body, that our whole being will be united toward Thyself, that Thou wilt do the work that Thou art wont to do this morning, to the praise of Thy glory.
Lord, we just trust in Thee, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Amen.
My burden is with the ministry of the word. Yesterday morning, we shared together a little bit on the principle of the ministry of the word. And this morning, God willing, we will be on the practice of the ministry of God’s word.
But before we go into this matter of the practice of the ministry of the word, I feel we need to divert a little bit and spend a little time on this matter of ministry, because we have been mentioning ministry all the time.
In Acts 6, we find that the apostles gave themselves up to prayer and to the ministry of the word. Again, we find in 2 Corinthians 4 that Paul said, “Having this ministry.” So, in other words, I feel that our minds are filled with this word ministry. Now, what does it really mean? Or, to put it another way, in what way are we involved in that ministry?
Does it mean that we will all be like apostles, to give ourselves wholly to the ministry of the word? If you read these two places, it seems to be so. So, I think we need to clarify something on this.
Now, in the Word of God, you will find that, so far as the ministry of the word in the New Testament is concerned, there are actually two areas.
One is what we have been quoting: the apostles gave themselves to the ministry of the word. In other words, they had a special calling from God to devote their whole lives to this one thing: the ministry of the word.
Yet you find in Scripture other passages. For instance, if you read Ephesians 4, you will find that our Lord Jesus, after He had risen from the dead and ascended on high, gave gifts to men and to the church. He gave some apostles, some evangelists, some teachers, and pastors, for the edifying, or building up, and equipping of the saints, with a view to the work of the ministry, that the body may be edified, may be built up.
Here you find that God gave four classes of men to the church as His gifts to the church, for the perfecting of the saints—that is, for the maturing of the saints, or for the equipping of the saints. These four classes of men are all ministers of the Word of God.
So far as these four classes of men are concerned, this is what is meant by Paul in saying, “Having this ministry.” This is what is meant in Acts: “We give ourselves to the ministry of the word.”
But then immediately following, you find that after these men have been used by God to perfect, mature, and equip the saints, the result is with a view to, for the purpose of, the ministry. And that ministry is the edifying, or building up, of the body of Christ.
Now, the word ministry there does not refer to the ministry of these four classes of men, because these four classes of men are used to perfect the saints. That is their ministry.
After the saints are perfected—now, the word perfect does not mean sinless perfection; it only means maturity. When the saints grow up, when they are more mature, they are better equipped. Then the saints will take up a ministry. This ministry is what we call today body ministry.
In other words, it is ministry that comes out of the body and into the body. In that sense, every believer is involved in this ministry. Every member of the body of Christ, every saint, has a responsibility to grow up, to be mature, to be equipped, so that everyone will be able to minister to the body for its building up in love.
If you read Colossians 2, you will find the same thing. Instead of putting it in a negative way, put it in a positive way: holding fast the Head, then all the body will be fitly framed and united together, and ministered one to another.
Here again you find this word ministry. It means that every member of the body of Christ has a ministry to fulfil, and it is to build up the body of Christ.
To use an illustration, if you go to 1 Corinthians 12, you will find that God has raised up some prophets. Then, when you come to 1 Corinthians 14, you will find that all may prophesy.
But in 1 Corinthians 14, “all may prophesy” does not mean that because they prophesy once in a while, they become prophets. No, they do not become prophets, yet they do prophesy. So you can see the difference here.
There are some people whom God has raised up for the ministry of the word, who give themselves to it, and they are people whom God uses to perfect the saints. Then you find all the many, many more brothers and sisters—every believer in the church, in the body of Christ. God has raised every one of us up to have a ministry toward one another, and in that ministry there is also the ministry of God’s word.
There are two different areas of people who minister the Word of God, and yet you will find that the principles are the same. When you come to the matter of the principles, you will find that they apply to both: to those who give themselves to the ministry of the word, and to all who minister the word in the body of Christ, as we find in many local assemblies.
So far as this matter of calling is concerned, people sometimes ask, “What about calling?” Again, we will say that there is a general calling to which every believer is called. We are all called to be disciples of Christ. Everyone is called to be His disciple.
Whether you respond to that call or not is another matter, but the calling is general. We are all called to be His disciples. We are all called to learn of Him. We are all called to serve Him. This is a general calling.
But you find that there is a specific calling. Some people receive a specific calling, over and above this general calling, to devote themselves to the ministry of God’s word.
So you will find in Scripture that whom God has called, there is a general sense; and whom God calls, there is also a specific sense. I do hope that we will understand this. We are not here as training for ministers as such, or trying to get people into the ministry as such.
But we feel that the church today needs many people who are able to minister the Word of God faithfully, whether it is through a specific calling to the ministry of the Word of God or through the general calling in which every brother and sister should be involved.
We do feel the tremendous need in the church that God’s word may be ministered faithfully and livingly. This is actually the purpose for which we are here together: that we may learn together. Whether you are specifically called to the ministry of the Word of God, or whether you are involved in the general calling of the ministry of God’s word, let us learn together, because the principles and even the practices are quite similar.
As to this matter of the practice of the ministry of the word, it is to put all these principles into practice—from what to how.
When you touch upon a matter of practice, you have to involve techniques. But again, we want to underline that God is more interested in the person than in the method. God is more interested in the character of that person than in the technique that person has.
You may have all the techniques, and yet if you are not the right person, you may be successful in doing a work, but that work is not God’s work. Or, to put it even more seriously, you may be able to do a work that is actually destroying God’s work.
God would rather wait until He has the right person. Then He will begin to use that right person to do the right work. If He does not have the right person, the right character, He will wait.
You find in Scripture that the preparation of a vessel takes time. Even the Son of Man on earth took thirty years. His work was only three and a half years, but the preparation was thirty years. So you can see what is involved there.
God is more interested in us as persons than in the work that is in our hands. Or, to put it another way, He will not entrust us with His work if He has not done something in our lives.
So we have to remember, when we come to the matter of practice, that we must not forget that the person, the character, is primary. The technique is secondary.
But that does not mean that because it is secondary, it is not important. Why? Because if you read Ecclesiastes 10:10, it says:
If the iron be blunt, and one do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct.
In other words, the tool is important. If the iron is blunt, you have to put more strength into it. If it is sharp, you can do it much more easily. So the tools are important—not that they are most important, but they are important.
Of course, we have read this verse again and again: you have to be a person approved of God, a workman not ashamed. You have to take heed to yourself and then to your teaching. The person is always more important than the work.
If we remember this, then I think it is safe for us to go into this matter of how we minister the Word of God.
First of all, when we come to this matter of ministering the Word of God, we have to have a word given to us.
In other words, we are but messengers. The message has to come from our Master. We are not responsible for that message. Our responsibility is to receive the message and to faithfully deliver it.
The problem today is that because we have studied the Word, we have some knowledge of the Word. So we think that we can just go over the Scriptures, pick out some texts, do some research, have some sermons ready, and deliver them.
In a sense, this is what Christianity is doing today. Instead of waiting before God for His word to come, we just try to find the word ourselves.
In doing so, unconsciously, we are doing the same thing as the scribes and the Pharisees. They taught, but how did they teach? They had studied the Word. They knew it by heart. I am afraid that probably some of them knew the Word—that is, the Old Testament—much better than we do, even the New Testament.
You remember when our Lord Jesus was born, and the wise men came to Herod and said, “Where is the King of the Jews born?” King Herod called the Pharisees and scribes and asked them, “Where should the Messiah be born?”
The scribes and Pharisees did not say, “Wait a minute; let us go back and consult our concordance.” They did not. Right away, they quoted verbatim from the minor prophets. They knew the Word so well, but unfortunately, it was all in their minds and not in their hearts.
How did they minister? They simply opened the Old Testament scroll and rolled it out. Probably they had a programme: in a certain service, they would read certain portions. Then they would expound those portions to the people because they had done research on such texts.
This was the way the scribes and Pharisees handled the Word of God. When the Word of God was handled in this fashion, it became dead. It became letter. There was no spirit in it—words without authority.
You remember Matthew 7. When our Lord Jesus finished the so-called Sermon on the Mount, those who overheard it—actually, the Lord was not speaking to the crowd; He was speaking to the disciples, but the crowd stood at the outskirts and overheard it—they said, “This man, when He taught, was not like our scribes and Pharisees, because He taught with authority.” He was living. It was different.
Now, brothers and sisters, how do we handle the Word of God? How do we start to minister the Word of God? Oftentimes we find that the greatest difficulty is to choose a text, to know what to talk about.
Oftentimes, we do the same thing as the scribes and the Pharisees. Sometimes we have a programme. On Easter Day, of course, you talk about resurrection. On Palm Sunday, you talk about the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Very fitting.
Then it is Mother’s Day, and you talk about mothers. You take out some text from the Scripture about mothers. Maybe you talk about Mary, the mother of Jesus. That is the way it is done.
Can you wonder that it is dead? Except by the mercy of God, sometimes it is living, though. But those are the exceptions, and exceptions always prove the rule.
So, how do we handle the Word of God? Suppose that you are going to deliver the word. First of all, you have to find out where the word is.
Again, you have to remember that it is not your responsibility. You are just a messenger. So where do you get the word? You go to the Master. That is where you get a word.
You do not simply open the Bible, turn over pages, and look at one passage: “No, no, this does not look like it.” Then you look at another: “Well, this seems to be it. I have some thoughts about it.” Then you use that as your text. That is your message, not the message of the Master.
What you need to do is go to the Lord and wait upon Him. First of all, you have to recognise that you do not have the word.
If you think you have the word, well, you have it. And God is not going to give it to you. If you speak, God will keep silent. Oftentimes, our much speaking makes God very silent.
When we come to minister the word, the first attitude we must have is that we do not have the word, even though we know the Bible, even though we have studied it, even though we have many thoughts about it.
Yet, when you come to minister the word, you have to humble yourself before God and say, “Lord, if You do not give the word, there is nothing I can do.”
Oftentimes you have to pray, “Lord, if You do not give the word, I will not speak. I will not try to speak. You have to give it, because it is Your responsibility. My responsibility is only to take it from You, deliver it, and not corrupt it or alter it. That is my responsibility.”
Our Lord Jesus said, “I cannot speak out of Myself.” I believe this is an attitude that all who minister the Word of God must have. Unfortunately, unconsciously, we think we have the word. We think we can speak out of ourselves.
So I think the first thing is a right attitude. The right attitude is, “I do not have the word. I have to go to my Master and ask Him to give me a word.”
How does the word come to you? I think there are three different ways that a word of God may come to you, and maybe there are more.
First of all, the Word of God comes to you when you wait upon the Lord, when you are studying the Word, when you are meditating before Him, when you are looking to the Holy Spirit to open up His word and illuminate it to you.
While you are doing this in your daily life—it may be in your daily reading, or it may be a specific time when you are waiting upon the Lord, reading the Word, and meditating upon it—a word comes.
Suddenly, you find that some verse, some word, or some thought seems to spring out from what you have read, meditated upon, and prayed over.
When that word is given to you, it seems that instead of you trying to get the word, the word gets to you. It begins to touch you very deeply. Sometimes it brings you to repentance. Sometimes it gives you great joy. Sometimes you find yourself afflicted by that word. Sometimes you are tested by that word.
You find that word finds you out. You are not what that word is, and you have to be adjusted by God. Or sometimes you find that word comes to you with such power and light that it literally begins the work of transforming you. In other words, the word came to you.
God has spoken.
Brothers and sisters, God is a God who speaks. We do thank God for that. If God were not speaking, no one would know Him. No one would know what His will is.
But thank God that He is One who speaks. He not only spoke in Old Testament times to our fathers through the prophets; He not only spoke in His Son, in perfect fullness; but today He is still speaking.
The way He speaks today is such that He will never speak what He has not spoken before. When He spoke in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, that was His first speaking. But they were pieces and bits, fragments.
When our Lord Jesus came into this world, He who is the Word became flesh. He is the Word. When God spoke in Him, that speaking was complete and perfect. It was full.
Of course, our Lord Jesus said the Holy Spirit would come and remind you of what He had spoken, and that there were many things they could not receive then, but the Holy Spirit would bring them to them. So we find that by the end of the first century, we have the New Testament completed. In other words, God has spoken everything that He wanted to speak.
There is the faith once delivered to the saints. So, brothers and sisters, we have to remember that God will not speak today anything extra to what He has already spoken and delivered to the saints once for all.
If there is any new teaching or new doctrine, anything that God has not spoken once and inspired in the Holy Scriptures, then you know it is not from God. Whoever is speaking that is a false prophet; it is an abomination in the eyes of God.
But that does not mean that because God has spoken, all you need to do is research what He has spoken and then speak it. It may be correct. It may be orthodox. But it is letter.
God has spoken once, and in Psalm He said, “God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this.” So you find that He has to speak again. He has to speak to you personally and intimately.
The Holy Spirit has to take the Word of God that was once spoken and speak to you again. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.”
So you find that the logos in the Bible becomes rhema to us. Only when it becomes rhema—that is, direct, personal, living speaking to you—do you have the word. You have got it.
Let me use an example. The Apostle Paul, when he was Saul the Pharisee, knew the Old Testament so well. Yet he did not see Christ.
He interpreted the Old Testament according to the best Jewish tradition, and according to the best Jewish tradition, the result was that he found that Christ Jesus had to be crucified and eliminated. That was the conclusion. You can see that even when you study the Bible, you can come to such a conclusion. It is terrifying.
But then on the road to Damascus, of course, the Lord met him. He spent three years in Arabia. What was he doing in Arabia? We are not told, but I think we can safely say that this Pharisee, who knew the Scripture, realised that he had read the Scripture all wrong.
So he had to go to the desert, alone with God, and try to learn from God anew. In other words, he was trying to read the Scripture in the light of Christ. It became a living book to him.
One day he read Genesis, and he read God’s promise to Abraham: “In thy seed shall all the nations be blessed.” Suddenly, the Spirit of God spoke to him and said, “Do you see? It is singular: seed, not plural: seeds.”
Ah, brothers and sisters, when that word was given to him, we have the letter to the Galatians. That is where the message came from.
When you want to deliver a message, you need that word given by the Lord. When that word comes, you know that the Master has entrusted a message to you to bring to the church of God. That is one way to get the word.
There is a second way. The second practical way of getting the word is like the high priest.
You remember that on his breastplate were the names of the tribes, with the twelve precious stones. Underneath that breastplate, there was a pouch, and, of course, there were two stones: one was Urim and the other Thummim.
The high priest would go before the Lord to find the will of God for the people. How did he get the Word of God for the people? How did God speak?
In the case of Moses, God spoke to him face to face. But this was not the way you find God speaking to the nation of Israel after Moses passed away. It was through the high priest.
Every time something had to be decided, the high priest would go before God bearing the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. In other words, he bore the people of God before God.
As he stood before God, you find that the Urim and Thummim would work. One means lights, and the other means perfections. How did they work? We do not know, and there are many different ideas.
Some say it was like casting lots. Others say that when the high priest went before God, these two stones would shine and shed light upon the names of the twelve tribes. With the letters of the tribal names and the two stones, the Hebrew letters were completed; then, by light and darkness, the will of God was spelled out.
We do not know exactly how it worked, and it has been lost. But anyway, I think the principle is very clear. Sometimes you get the word by going to the Lord, presenting God’s people before Him, and reading them in God’s light.
Brothers and sisters, especially when you are with a local assembly, you are with the people there. You more or less know their situation and condition. But still, you cannot simply decide what to speak.
In other words, need is not the prime consideration. It is a consideration, but it is not the decision. You need to bring the needs that you know of to God. Bring the people to God. Study them before God. Study them in the light of God. Pray for them before God.
As you bring the people before God, study them, and wait upon God for His light to shine upon the situation, brothers and sisters, the word is given.
When you bring the message to the people, you will find that it fits the people. It speaks to the people.
If we have, say, ten sermons ready, and wherever we go, we simply take one out from our notebook, we do not care who the people are. We just give them what we have.
Sometimes they are children, and you feed them solid food. Sometimes they are grown up, and you feed them milk. You are not distributing the food in season.
The only way you can distribute food in season is to bring God’s people into the presence of God, study them, pray over them, and ask the Lord to shine light upon them. This is the way that you get the word.
There is a third way, and the third way seems to be the easiest way, or the quickest way, because it does not involve you that much. It is almost like the Old Testament prophets.
Sometimes, when you are listening to somebody or when you are walking, suddenly you find that God begins to speak to you. A burden comes upon you, or a vision is given to you. By vision, I mean something you see in your spirit.
A burden, a word, or a vision may come upon you, like the Old Testament prophets. When such a thing comes to you, you begin to be burdened. You begin to pray over it and meditate over it, and it becomes a word for God’s people. That is another way.
There are different ways that the word can come to you. In a sense, whether it comes when you are waiting upon the Lord and reading His Word, whether it comes when you bring God’s people before God, or whether it comes as if in spite of you, one thing is the same: revelation is the basis of the ministry of the word.
I do not know whether this is the right definition or not. It is not mine. Inspiration gave us the Bible; revelation gives us the word.
The Bible is inspired—God-breathed. But after God has breathed, we need to receive revelation from Him. That is, the logos has to become rhema. How does logos become rhema? The truth becomes living word through revelation. God reveals something.
Revelation is in our spirit. In Ephesians 1:17, you find that Paul was writing this letter to the Ephesians. As he was writing it, in his heart he was in the third heaven, because he was taken up to the eternal purpose of God. That is a third-heaven vision.
His heart was so full of that, and he was trying to put it down in words and deliver it to the saints in Ephesus. But when he started, immediately he felt it was a hopeless situation.
He felt that even though he had received a revelation from God, if the people who received that letter did not have the same revelation, all they would receive would be letter. It would not be living.
So he put aside his pen, fell before God, and started to pray. He asked that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father, would grant us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of God.
In other words, he found that revelation is a must. Paul, in spite of the revelation he had received and in spite of the words God had given him to express that revelation, knew that the people receiving those words might not come into revelation.
The only thing needed was that God would grant them the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Dear brothers and sisters, when you come to spiritual things, you just cannot grasp them by yourself. There is no way. It has to come from God. It has to be revealed to you.
If it is not revealed to you, brothers and sisters, you may be like Nicodemus. You think you are pretty close to the kingdom of God. You think you have seen it. But the Lord Jesus said, “Not only are you not close by; you have not seen it at all. You do not know where it is.”
We need to acknowledge that when we come to the things of God, we are utterly helpless. We need revelation.
By revelation, we do not mean something new and strange, extra to the Bible. Revelation simply means a quickening into life of the word that God has already spoken. We need revelation.
To whom will God give revelation? Why is it that God does not give revelation?
Remember our Lord Jesus. When His work was rejected by the people among whom He laboured so much—Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum—the Lord Jesus said, “Father, I thank Thee that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes.”
The reason why we do not get revelation is because we are too wise. We are too clever. We think we know.
But if we come to the Lord in a childlike spirit, brothers and sisters, there is no reason why He will not give us revelation.
We have a Chinese proverb. I do not know how to interpret it, but the proverb goes something like this: if you are too wise in the world, then you have little or no intuitive knowledge.
Children have intuitive knowledge. They live by intuition because they have no knowledge. But we grown-ups live by knowledge. Because we love to manage by knowledge, our intuitive power does not work very well.
Why? Because we analyse, and we try to think for ourselves what is beneficial to us, even though we know in our hearts what it should be. So you find that we complicate everything. That is the reason why we do not receive revelation.
If we come to God in childlikeness, brothers and sisters, there is no reason why we do not receive revelation. We do not receive revelation because we have so many preconceived ideas. If we put aside all these ideas, revelation will come. It is not that difficult.
First of all, we need revelation. But remember, revelation is something happening in your spirit.
After we are born again, we have a new spirit, and the Holy Spirit reveals something of God in our spirit. When the Holy Spirit reveals something of God in our spirit, suddenly, without explanation, you say, “I see it. I see it.”
Something is given to you—something spiritual, reality, eternal, something that is life and power. Something is given to you in your spirit.
But after the word is given, after you receive revelation in your spirit, there is a problem. The problem is that you cannot explain it.
In your spirit, you are full, but when you try to talk with people, you are stuck. Not only that, but when God gives you a word, it is almost like lightning. A light flashes.
If you do not try to fix that light, you forget it very quickly. What is in the spirit is something you see at a glance, in the twinkling of an eye. Suddenly, you wake up and see something.
But that something cannot be explained. Because it cannot be explained, your mind does not really understand it. Therefore, it can be easily lost.
Sometimes, as our brother mentioned yesterday, when God begins to give a word to you, it is good to write it down immediately. Even though you do not know what it means, write it down. That will help you.
But then you will find that the revelation has to be translated by the thoughts of your heart. In Ephesians 1:18, it says that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and so on.
The revelation given in your spirit has to shine upon your thought. The eyes of your heart are the mind; thought is the mind. So it has to shine upon your mind, enter into your thought realm, and let the thought try to sort it out, dissect it.
It is as if light goes through a prism and is separated. So he says, “What is the hope? What is the glory? What is the power?” and so forth.
This is something that needs to be done. When God gives you light or revelation, before that light disappears, let your mind begin to work. Take that light in and try to think it out.
Some people say, “We should not use our mind.” Well, you should not start with your mind. But God gave us a mind that needs to be used; otherwise, God should have created us without a mind, and I think it would be much better.
Our mind gives us so much trouble. The mind is the battlefield of spiritual warfare. But God gave us a mind because He is a great mind, and He wants us to use our mind.
But remember: never begin with the mind. The mind is a servant, not a master. It can serve the Master’s will, but it is a very wicked master.
Here you find the second step: a word is given, revelation is there, and then you need to have that revelation enlighten your mind so that you may know what has happened and be able to explain it to people.
When you are able to explain it to people, it sticks. You will not forget it. But the problem now is with the mind.
Sometimes you find that God’s light has come, but your mind may be a lazy mind, a wandering mind, or a mind full of corrupt thoughts and things. You find that your mind cannot meet the need, cannot take the light and turn it into thought. So our mind becomes a problem.
Brothers and sisters, this is why our mind needs to be renewed. Scripture speaks about the renewing of the mind.
When we are first saved, what happens? Repentance is a change of mind. Your mind was minding the world, and you thought that was wonderful. By the conviction of the Holy Spirit, you begin to see your sins.
You thought highly of yourself, but when the Spirit of God convicts you, you begin to think poorly of yourself. You change your mind.
Before, you felt you had no need of Christ. You were good enough. But now you begin to find that you need a Saviour. That is repentance: a change of mind.
Because of this change of mind, the Holy Spirit is able to give you birth. But in giving birth, it is in the spirit, not in the mind. “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
Our spirit was dead. That is why the Holy Spirit had to work through the mind. With repentance and faith, the Holy Spirit begets us, and that means that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Born of the Holy Spirit is the human spirit.
Our dead spirit was quickened into life, renewed, and our connection with God the Spirit was made. At our new birth, the change is in the spirit. The soul is affected somewhat, but there is no drastic, basic change.
In other words, even though in repentance there is a change of mind, that change is superficial. It is not a drastic change. So you have a new spirit, but you still carry an old mind, and it is very evident, because you still feel things the old way. You still think selfishly.
We need the renewing of the mind. Our mind needs to be renewed. How is our mind renewed? Romans 12 says:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
In verse 1, it says, “Present your bodies a living sacrifice.” In verse 2, it says, “By the renewing of your mind.” Our mind is renewed when we consecrate ourselves to God.
You cannot renew your own mind. But when you give yourself to God, when you consecrate your life to God, saying, “Lord, my life is Yours, not mine. I give it back to You, that which You have redeemed. Use it. Do with it whatever You want to do,” then you find that your mind is renewed.
You think differently now. What you treasured before, you look upon as dross. What you despised before, you now think is the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. Your mind is completely renewed.
When your mind is renewed, your thinking is renewed, your viewpoint is renewed, your evaluation is renewed, and your whole life is changed. Brothers and sisters, we need to have a renewed mind. It is important because without a renewed mind, even when revelation is given, you are stuck there with the old mind.
Not only does our mind need to be renewed; it needs to be disciplined. In 2 Corinthians 10:5, every thought has to be brought into obedience to Christ. That is discipline.
Oftentimes we find that our mind is not disciplined. If our mind is not disciplined, it will wander. Our mind has a very short span of attention. You may think of something for a minute, and then your mind goes somewhere else.
If that is the kind of mind you have, you will never be able to get through with the Word of God. Or your mind may be very lazy. If our mind is lazy, brothers and sisters, what can God do?
I think it was D. L. Moody who said, “God will never save a lazy person, and Satan has no use for a lazy person.”
We need to have our mind disciplined. Discipline takes time and perseverance. You have to pay the cost to discipline your mind.
Thirdly, you have to exercise your mind. In Hebrews 5:14, you find those who have their senses exercised to discern good and evil. In Philippians 4:8, we are told to think on the things that are honourable and good. Think on these things.
You have to exercise your mind. The more you exercise your mind, the keener it becomes. This is not only true with earthly knowledge; it is also true in spiritual things.
The more you exercise your mind—always under the direction of the Holy Spirit—with a mind that is exercised, disciplined, and renewed, brothers and sisters, when the light comes and revelation comes, you are able to translate it into thoughts. You begin to see what is there.
Now, after you have the word and after you have some thoughts, the next step is to organise these thoughts and put them in order.
I have to remind you that a well-organised message does not necessarily mean a powerful message. But I have to acknowledge that a well-organised message is easier to take in.
This is the part over which you have to agonise and sweat. That is where perspiration comes.
Do not think that you can simply speak extemporaneously—that you never prepare, but just stand up and the Spirit of God will speak through you, so you do not need to perspire at all. In other words, all inspiration and no perspiration.
I remember somebody said, “What is a genius? A genius is ten percent inspiration and ninety percent perspiration.”
Well, this is where you perspire. Do not perspire before that.
This is where you cannot be lazy. You have to search the Scripture and find the texts. You can use a concordance if you want to. You can use a dictionary if you want to. You can read some commentaries if you want to.
But do not do these things before you get the word and the thought. Our problem is that we try to read a commentary to get the thoughts and the word, and then pass it on. That is wrong.
We need to get the word first—not only the word first, but also the thoughts first. Do not have a word and then go into commentaries. If you do that, you lose the light and get human light.
But after you have the word and the thoughts, and when you are organising them and putting them into order so that they may be more easily received by people, this is the time you perspire over it.
You search the Scripture, look up the references, and use some commentaries to broaden your thoughts, enrich your thoughts, or sometimes even correct your thoughts. This is the way that you use commentaries.
Then you find that a message is ready. It sounds easy or difficult?
There are two conditions. When you are in the process of preparing the message, there are two things absolutely essential. One is that all the time you have to depend upon the Holy Spirit.