I hope you would also give me the freedom and the mercy to say something frankly and honestly to you all. Since I have been in America over twenty-two years, I have noticed that most of the Chinese are far inferior in speaking in comparison to the Americans because of the different educational principles in their cultures. Most American children learn how to speak and the mothers check on their speaking. The Chinese are the opposite. Even in their schools they do not train people to speak. The Americans may know only five percent, yet they can speak ten percent. The Chinese may know ten percent, but they cannot speak five percent. When I was listening to the testimonies in the meetings concerning the Life-study of the Bible, I noticed that the American saints are very smart in picking up funny thoughts many times, but they neglect the crucial points. They say things to make everyone laugh, but there are not crucial points to impress people. One brother said that every time he listens to my speaking, he always feels that I do not have the eloquence. However, this brother testified that after I was finished speaking, something of life and the Spirit had gotten into him.
In Ephesians 6:19 the Apostle Paul charged the saints to pray for him that he might have the utterance, and in Colossians 4:3 the apostle charged the saints there to pray that God would open a door of utterance. This word in the Greek for utterance is logos, the word. Speaking in the spiritual realm is not a matter of eloquence but a matter of utterance. It is possible that a person may be able to speak quite well and eloquently and still impart nothing. Another person may utter things in an awkward way, but in his awkward speaking the Spirit is ministered (2 Cor. 3:6). This is the biblical utterance, the logos. This is a word which is not for good listening, but a word that conveys “a diamond” to others. Public speakers are trained not to repeat too much, but in the ministry we are not concerned for the rules of public speaking. In the ministry we are serving people with Christ. When you speak, you must believe that the Spirit is speaking with you. You must follow the Spirit’s feeling as to whether what you have spoken has been really taken and received by the audience. Sometimes you may have repeated something twice already, yet in your spirit you have the realization that you did not get through on this point. Therefore, you do not save your “sermon” and you do not care for your good speech. You must care for the presenting of the “diamond” to people.
Sometimes the mother in a family must repeat herself many times to get the food into her naughty child. Many times I must repeat myself because of your “naughtiness.” I realize that the “naughty boys” did not get it. I do not care for good manners. I only care for my children getting the food into them. Many times in our past we sat under a very trained, educated, and eloquent pastor but after his speaking we went home with nothing. For the last ten years, however, many of you have been sitting under a kind of speaking which is awkward and repetitious, but when you go home you have the realization that an injection got into you which heals and nourishes you. In our reading of the Bible we must also take this way. We must repeat our reading to take care of a certain point repeatedly. In like manner, when you get into the printed pages of the Life-study, you should not pick up funny thoughts. You must pick up the crucial points.
I told the saints a number of times that in their corporate pray-reading of the Word they should not make fun or pray with funny thoughts to make others laugh. This means nothing and despises the meeting Spirit. We are pray-reading in the presence of the Lord, and even with the Lord inside of us. How could we pray in a “playing” way? This is wrong. In the same principle, in reading the pages of the Life-study messages, we must learn how to realize the crucial points. For example, when there is a message telling us that Jesus Christ was designated the Son of God we must consider what it means for Him to be designated. We must pick up this crucial point because today we are the same in principle as the Lord. He was there as a man in the flesh with the name Jesus. We also are men in the flesh, but within us we have the Son of God. According to the flesh Jesus is out of the seed of David, but according to the Spirit of holiness Jesus was designated the Son of God. We also need to be designated. Do not think that only Jesus needed the designation. Today all His believers in Him need the same kind of designation.
In my messages on Romans I mentioned clearly that this kind of designation of the Lord Jesus should also be our experience. Designation is actually our sanctification. Sanctification is to live out the Lord. Therefore, designation is to let the Lord live out of us. When He lives out of us, this living out is His designation. Now we can see that this is not just a doctrinal, objective point of theology that has nothing to do with us. According to the flesh our Lord is out of the seed of David, but according to the Spirit of holiness He is designated the Son of God. Theology would merely tell us that this shows that Christ has two natures—one according to the flesh and the other according to the Spirit. According to the flesh, He is the Son of David and according to the Spirit, He is the Son of God. This is very much like today’s theology. The seminary graduates are trained and taught in this way yet they never applied these things to themselves. The Apostle Paul, however, was not that way and we should not be that way. In Paul’s very opening words in the book of Romans he laid a foundation of sanctification. Even Jesus needed the sanctification, the designation. Therefore, we must learn that when we read a proper exposition or commentary of the holy Word, we should not read it as a newspaper. We must pick up the crucial points.