When we speak for the Lord we should remember that behind the spoken words we must already have three other things present: Enlightenment, thought, and the words within. Wherever we are speaking, in a ministry setting or conversing privately with individuals, what is it we must do? We must have received from the Lord and hold on to the one or two sentences which have been given to us that they may be, as it were, the inspiration for all the other words. Due to their typically intense concentration, we must dilute them to make them receivable by people. It is like hammering a big rock into many bits. As we speak, we break and grind the strong words within us into small pieces, and then deliver them little by little. We must learn how to cherish and nourish those we speak to so that they are sufficiently able to digest our revelation and thought. But we must understand that it is never sufficient only to employ the words of the Bible alone. The words of the Scriptures by themselves become mere doctrines. The basis for ministry is revelation—the words within, the inner enlightenment received, delivered through the words of the Bible without. If one has a shortage of inward revelation and merely tries to expound the Bible, his source will be of a very low degree. We should not only talk about Paul’s experiences; we must see them ourselves before we have the ministry of the word. These four factors—of revelation, thought, the words within, and the spoken words without—must be joined together by an inward experiential, organic flow of life from the Spirit before the glorious ministry of the word begins.

Dear brothers and sisters, are you aware of these two worlds? In the first realm are the scribes who merely have the letter; in the second realm are the ministers of God’s word. What you release must be what you truly know. You need to be brought by God to a place where you can touch the inside world, the divine and mystical realm. In the other world where there are merely the common material happenstances, no one can know the Lord Jesus nor the Bible. Only the world of inward touching is effective, for only there is the effectual word of God. Be aware brothers and sisters, the man who touches the Bible does not necessarily touch the word of God. It is a fact that to touch God’s word one needs to touch the Bible. But touching the Bible alone is not enough. We should ask the Lord, “Oh Lord, let me see Your word behind the words; let me see Your light in the light; and let me receive revelation in Your revelation.” If we fail to touch what lies behind, then our words have little to offer to people, for we cannot communicate Christ to them.

This should impress upon us the absolute necessity of having the outward man broken. Unless the outer man is broken, no one can serve as a minister of God’s word. The outer man must become transparent to the release of the Spirit. We eventually must be able to declare that our words are not our own; that they flow from the hidden realm. The imprisonment of the Spirit of the Lord mingled with our human spirit by the opaque and deadened natural life of the soul must be terminated. This is a costly and time consuming process. But the Word of God, who is a Person, who is also the Life Giving Spirit, is well able to separate the soul from the spirit and to bring the discernment, in the light of the Word, as to the origin of the thoughts and intent of the human heart. Then it will not be possible for the enemy of God to subtly bring forth a speaking resident only among the scribes and Pharisees lacking entirely in spiritual value. It is then that we will be able to declare along with the Lord, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I am speaking to you are spirit and are life.”

May it be so with many of us as we seek to terminate this dark and evil age.