Listening is not an easy matter. When a brother is trying to explain his problem, how much do you understand of what he is saying? Sometimes when many people listen to the same person at the same time, there are as many impressions of that person's problem as there are listeners. You may have one impression, and another may have another impression. Many impressions are formed. It would be disastrous if there were the same diversity of impressions in relation to matters of the truth. Listening to others is a very basic training, and one of the basic qualifications for a worker is to be able to understand what others are saying. Others come to you with a burden on their shoulders; they try to unload their problems to you and expect some help from you. What would happen if you misunderstood their words or if you missed their problem altogether and gave them an answer based on what was in your mind the previous two days? Some have their mind on a certain theme for a couple of days. When a sick brother comes to them, they speak on the matter that they have been meditating on because their mind is full of thoughts on that subject. When a healthy brother comes to them, they bring forth the same thoughts. When another brother in distress or in joy comes along, they tell him the same thing. They cannot sit down quietly to listen to what others have to say. If a worker of the Lord cannot listen to what others have to say, how can he expect to render help to others? When others are speaking, we have to listen carefully. We have to understand what they are talking about. Our work is more difficult than that of a doctor diagnosing his patient. At least he has a laboratory where he can make tests to aid him in his diagnosis of various cases, whereas we have to make our diagnosis without any such aid. Suppose a brother comes and talks to us for half an hour, relating all of his problems to us. We may have no idea how he has been living, what his family background is, or what his condition before the Lord is. Ten minutes, twenty minutes, or half an hour is a long time. If we cannot listen to what he is saying, how can we expect to render him the proper help? Every worker of the Lord has to build up a proper habit; we must have the capacity and the ability to sit down to listen and understand what others are saying. This is very important, and we have to pay much attention to this exercise. We have to learn to understand what others are saying as soon as they open their mouth. We have to be very clear about their condition, and we have to have a clear diagnosis of their case. We must have clear discernment and assurance. Only then will we know whether we are qualified to handle the need. Sometimes we know that the condition of our brother is beyond our ability to help, and we should tell him honestly that we are not the right one to help him. But we should know where he stands and where we stand as soon as he speaks. This is the first thing we have to do; we have to hear and understand what others are saying.

Second, we have to hear and understand what others are not saying. We have to discern before the Lord what others have refrained from saying. We have to know what a person has not said, that is, the things he should tell us but which have been kept back. Naturally, it is more difficult to get a clear perception of unspoken words than of spoken ones. After the first kind of words are spoken, we still have to listen to the second kind, the kind that are not spoken. When people come to talk with a worker about their affairs, it is not unusual for them to tell half of a story and to refrain from divulging the other half. This tests the worker's competence. An incompetent worker will not be able to discern what is not spoken. He may even project thoughts which were never in the heart of the speaker. This problem arises in his own mind, not in the mind of the speaker. Some preexisting concepts may be in his mind, and he may project these concepts into others, even though they have never spoken of such a thing, either from their heart or from their mouth. We have to exercise clear discernment before the Lord to know what a person has said and not said. Often a man utters things that are off the subject while omitting things that are crucial to the subject. How is it possible to know whether crucial words are being left out? We will only know if we have passed through sufficient dealings with the Lord. When a brother comes and says something to us, we must not only be clear about what he is saying, but also about what he is not saying. We must know what is roughly being referred to when he keeps something back in his words. Then we will have confidence before God, and we will know how to help, exhort, or rebuke the brother. If we are not sure of anything within ourselves and cannot hear what others are saying, always waiting instead for a chance to speak, we will only be burdened to say what we have to say. We will not know what others are talking about and have no way to render proper help to them. It is a fact that poor listeners are often less useful workers. This is a serious problem among many people; they simply cannot listen to others. They cannot discern what others have kept within themselves because they are too insensitive. It is impossible to expect such ones to "give...food at the proper time" (Matt. 24:45).