When you decide to do this kind of reading, you must also decide to cease all your unnecessary talk, your murmuring, your complaining, and your gossiping (Matt. 12:36; Eph. 4:29). When you answer the telephone, you should learn to keep your conversations to as few sentences as possible. In Jeremiah 15:19 Jehovah told Jeremiah, “If you bring out the precious from the worthless, / You will be as My mouth.” At that time Jeremiah was disappointed, and he complained to his mother and then to Jehovah (vv. 10, 18). It was then that Jehovah told Jeremiah, in reference to his speaking, to bring out the precious from the worthless. In Zephaniah 3:9 in His salvation to the Gentiles Jehovah promised to “change the language of the peoples / Into a pure language.” This indicates that all God’s people need to have their language changed into a pure language. According to my experience, if we talk too much, our talk will annul our capacity to teach. If we will reduce our talk, our capacity to teach will be increased. If we would carry out the mutual teaching in the vital groups, we must terminate our idle talk and concentrate our entire being on one thing: learning the truth so that we will be furnished, equipped, and completed to have the capacity and also the capability to teach.
It is true that capacity comes by birth, but we all need to realize that we have had a second birth, and our second birth is still in the process of the delivery. Although you might have been regenerated many years ago, you need to realize that you have not come out of the womb yet; you are still in the “womb” of the Holy Spirit. This is why we need to be renewed (Eph. 4:23; Titus 3:5). Renewing is the continuation of our second birth. The result of being renewed is transformation (Rom 12:2). Transformation is the continuation of regeneration. We need to be transformed because we were not thoroughly and completely regenerated. Our regeneration is not entirely thorough. If our regeneration had been thorough, we would not need transformation. Transformation is the continuation of our incomplete regeneration. The more we terminate our unnecessary talking, the more we are reborn, and the more capacity we will have for the learning and teaching of the truths of the Bible.
We must also learn not to speak any sentence that is not worthwhile. We need to restrict our speaking, especially toward our children and our spouse. Then we will realize that every day the Lord is building us up in one thing, that is, to speak for Him. If you will practice my fellowship for six months, your capacity to prophesy, to speak for the Lord, will be increased.
We also need to learn to speak in the “official” way. We need to learn to speak loudly, slowly, clearly, and “officially,” in a weighty way that imparts some definite points of the truth to others. Otherwise, our speaking will not convey anything definite to the hearers.
Whether we are old or young, we should not consider the meetings as a small thing. The meetings are not a small thing. They are gatherings in the Lord, with the Lord, and before the Lord. Hence, whatever we do, we must do it full of reverence, with a holy fear. In the meetings whatever we speak, whether in prayer, in calling a hymn, in offering praise, or in prophesying, we must do it “officially”; that is, we must speak loudly, properly, and slowly so that everyone can hear and everyone will listen and receive something. Otherwise, we will become a burden and a deadening factor to the meetings. To speak something in the meetings is absolutely different from speaking in any other kind of environment or circumstance. In the meetings our speaking is before God; thus, it is holy.
Too often our speaking is full of wasted words. In contrast, the speaking of the Lord Jesus in the four Gospels was brief, fitting, purified, clean, and without wasted words. When we stand up in the meetings to speak for the Lord, we must have the assurance that what we are going to speak is something with weight, with light, and with the life supply. Furthermore, we must learn to speak in an “official” way.
First, you need to make a decision to read the Life-study Messages in order to learn the truth. I strongly recommend that all the saints read quickly through the Life-studies on Genesis and the fourteen Epistles of Paul. After reading those messages, you will be different. Second, you need to stop all your unnecessary talk. Under the Lord’s inner restricting, you should learn not to speak unnecessarily to anyone, but just to talk to the Lord. Often I have the desire to speak to my wife concerning a certain matter. However, many times the inward prohibition is there, telling me that I do not need to speak to my wife concerning that matter. Sometimes I disregard that prohibition, and afterward I regret and confess to the Lord, asking Him to forgive me for speaking something that is unnecessary. We may not say anything sinful, and we may not criticize anyone; we may want only to relate some information to people. However, often the Lord will inwardly prohibit us from doing this. If we will go along with the Lord and cut off our unnecessary talk, the Lord will use our mouth to speak His word. Our mouth will be sanctified for the speaking of the word of the Lord.
Third, whether we speak to our spouse, to our children, or to the brothers, we need to learn to speak only what is worthwhile. Fourth, we need to learn to be “official”; that is, we should learn not to speak lightly, but carefully, speaking every word in an “official” way.