We can only minister Christ after we have known Christ. We must be thoroughly broken by the Lord. Only then do we have a way to go on. We must ask the lord to give us a basic understanding, a knowledge of the basic revelation. We must know what Christ is like and what the Lord is like. Only then will our speaking of the Scripture be living.

When we translate the Christ we know into the words of the Bible and allow the Holy Spirit to translate these words back into Christ, we have the word of God.

Today the church is poor because the ministers are poor. We have to ask God for mercy and light so that we will realize the meagerness of our revelation. Today many works are conducted in an outward way; many exegeses touch only superficial things. We do not know Christ deeply enough. We are not dealt with seriously enough. This is why the supply of Christ is meager along our pathway.

God intends that all the things of Christ and concerning Christ be living in us. He intends that all these things be nurtured through revelation. His revelation can make the old things continually living in us. All the things of Christ have to be kept alive continually by revelation.

Only things that are kept in the realm of revelation are living, fresh, powerful, and full of life. We must bear in mind that all spiritual things become dead the minute they are separated from revelation.

Today we need to have the same revelation we had three years ago. Only then can we preach the same message. Ministry of the word does not depend on the words we have spoken in the past, but on the new revelation we have acquired in the present.

God has no intention of giving us small revelations. If God gives a man any revelation, that revelation is always great, and its scope and content are always rich.

If our mind can be like a servant standing at the door of God's light, waiting for its shining and looking for the interpretation of its meaning, it is the best servant of all.

The breaking of the mind refers to the breaking of the self-centered mind, the self-motivated mind and self-propelled mind. Once such a mind is broken, its usefulness is greatly increased.

The soul being one's life and the soul being one's organ are two entirely different things. God does not want our mind to be our life; He does not want it to control us. He wants our mind to be His servant. The soul that acts as one's life has to be broken. But the soul that acts as the servant of the spirit is necessary.

We have seen that the starting point of the ministry of the word is light. When light shines on us, it comes as a sudden flash of revelation that goes away quickly. If our thoughts have been dealt with by the Lord, this light from God will be retained in our mind. Our mind can then translate this light in our spirit into comprehensible thoughts. Such shining and fixation becomes our burden.

These are basic principles. We need light, we need thoughts, and we need inner words. After we have light from God and after this light is retained in our thoughts, we have to learn to pray for words before God. We have to be watchful. We have to pray and beseech Him before we will have the words.

The inner words are not long, yet they contain many riches. The riches they contain are as rich as the riches one sees in a split second. We are not given long speeches to deliver to others. What we receive may only be one or two sentences. Yet these sentences contain many spiritual things. These one or two sentences carry one outstanding characteristic - they are words that release life.

What then is a burden? First, a burden is the light we receive in the spirit, the thoughts that capture the light, and finally the inner words that supplement the light and thoughts. The last step of the burden is the release of the inner word. The combination of these three things make up the burden of the prophets. Burden is light plus thoughts plus the inner words.

Let us pay attention to this fact: We need light in the spirit and the retention of the light in the mind, yet we must also wait on God and read the Scripture to receive the proper words from Him. At such times we may receive a word. This word will make us clear within, open our inner eyes, and give us an inner assurance that we can now release this word. We must know how to utter these words before we can release the light and the thoughts that are within us. As soon as we have these sentences in our hand, we have the inner words. Before we have these words, we cannot release the revelation within us no matter how hard we try.

The more a person is short of the word of revelation, the more he has to wait on God. He should pray, fellowship, and wait on God with the Scripture open before Him. He should not wait on Him in an ordinary way. He should not pray in an ordinary way or fellowship in an ordinary way. Instead, he should wait on God, pray to Him, and fellowship with Him by opening his Bible before Him. It is easier for God to speak through the Scripture, and it is easier for us to receive His word of revelation through the Scripture. Once we receive a word from the Scripture, something is formed within us. We have one or two words that will bring salvation to a sinner or render help to a believer. These words become God's word. Although they are not God's written word, they are God's up-to-date word.

While one is speaking, how can he be certain that his speaking conveys to others the inner words that are hidden within him? He must exercise his mind to speak what he sees in his spirit. First he must have the light in his spirit. Then he must have thoughts to capture the light. Then he needs a word or two within him. Finally, he has to consider how he should speak. The Lord has given us two things, light in our spirit and the words in our inner being. When we speak, we push out the revelation with our own thoughts, and release it with our own words.

There are definite times and places for us to receive light. We receive light in the spirit, and we receive light during the times that we go through dealings. Hence, every dealing affords us a chance to receive more revelation. If we miss a dealing, we may be missing a revelation. If we receive a dealing from God, it means that we may be receiving a revelation, a new unveiling, from Him as well. We have to know God's hand.

We must have a specific goal in ministering to others: The goal is that they would know the Lord. All revelations are revelations of Christ. Unless a revelation is a revelation of Christ, it is not a worthwhile revelation. All revelations are given for the purpose of revealing Christ. We should realize that the ultimate goal of the ministry of the word is to lead men to know Christ.

We can only minister to others what we have cultivated in our spirit. If we have something but do not cultivate it to keep it alive, it does not do us any good. Even our own experiences from five years ago have to be kept and cultivated in the spirit. If they are kept in the spirit, our spirit can use them when we talk with others about them. The same can be said of the Scripture. If our spirit cannot use it, it cannot become part of our ministry.

In the church of God, a minister of the word should take the lead in suffering, not merely in speaking. If we cannot walk ahead of the church in the discipline of the Holy Spirit, we have no word to minister to the church. This is a very serious thing. We must be ahead of the church in the matter of trials before we can have something to minister to it. Otherwise, we can do nothing, and all of our ministry of the word is vain. We cheat ourselves as well as the church.

Every trial comes with its thorn-laced blow so that we can experience the thorn-laced grace. What we knew before was a thornless grace; what we know now is a thorn-laced grace.