We need to be enlightened within. We need to spend considerable time learning to listen and to touch others' feelings. If we do not learn this lesson well, we will encounter problems in our service. We have to try our best to listen. When a person is speaking, can we hear what he is saying? Do we understand his words? In order to understand others' words, it is not enough for us to be undisturbed outwardly. The Lord must deal with us in a fundamental way. Our subjectivity, thoughts, and feelings must be dealt with. We can skip many things, but we can never skip the basic dealings, without which no one can serve the Lord in a proper way. Without experiencing the basic dealings, we cannot even read the Bible properly. There are certain qualifications to reading the Bible. One cannot just exercise his mind. It takes more than a smart mind to read the Bible. Basic dealings are indispensable. Without such dealings, a man can outwardly listen to every word that others are saying, but he will be in total darkness within; he will not understand anything. A brother may talk to him for a whole hour, yet he will not know what is being talked about. How can he be expected to render any help? We are God's vessels. We should know when a man is hot or cold, well or sick. We are the measuring stick. But when we are off, we give the wrong diagnosis.

There is a prevalent misconception among Christian workers that the most essential thing is to be able to speak. Far from it! The Lord's work has to do with our spirit, not just with our words. We have to identify the spiritual problems plaguing the brothers and sisters, and we have to know how to deal with them. If we are not clear within, we will not understand their inward condition. How can we render them any help at all? How do we know if a sinner is saved when we preach the gospel to him? Do we judge only by the words of his mouth? Are his words the only means of discerning his condition? No, we know his condition through our inner registration. How do we know if a person is of the Lord? Do we judge him merely by a few words, such as, "I believe in Jesus; I am saved"? Do we baptize a person simply because he has memorized a formula? No, we make judgments based on our inner registration. We are the measuring stick. We test an unbeliever according to this measuring stick, and we also test a child of God according to this measuring stick. How do we know whether or not the spiritual condition of a child of God is healthy? If we are walking in the light of the Lord, we will know. Brothers and sisters, we must be dealt with by the Lord to the point that we become His measuring stick. If we are off within, we will easily make a wrong judgment, and once we make a wrong judgment, we will spoil His work. This is the reason that we must walk in the light inwardly; we must have genuine light within us. What a tragedy it is that many brothers and sisters are not only dark within, but they are even incapable of sitting down and listening to others. Brothers and sisters, we have to learn to be calm. We have to learn to hear what others are actually saying. We have to open ourselves and allow the affairs of others to enter into our hearts. We must have a keen inner registration within ourselves before we can discern the real problems of others. Only then can we render them the proper help.