A minister of God’s word is one who has received the revelation of Christ. This means that it has pleased God to reveal His Son in him. One must not only be able to speak the word with his mouth but must know in an inward way that Jesus is indeed the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of the living God. This statement only takes a few minutes to memorize, but the Lord said, “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in the heavens” (Matt. 16:17). The knowledge of Christ is a matter not of words but of revelation. A minister of the word is one who receives mercy from God to have a revelation concerning God’s Son. He is a man to whom God has chosen to reveal His Son; he has a basic revelation that enables him to know who Jesus of Nazareth is. When a man has seen the Son of God, all holiness, righteousness, light, and life pass away under such a vision, and only Christ remains.
Nothing in this universe can compare with Christ. No spiritual thing can compare with Christ. Christ is all and in all. Apart from Christ, one cannot find life, light, holiness, or righteousness. Apart from Christ one cannot find anything. Once God brings a man into the revelation of Christ, he will realize that there is nothing outside of Christ. Christ is everything. He is God. He is the Son of God and the Word of God. He is love, holiness, righteousness, salvation, redemption, freedom, grace, light, and work. Christ fills all. All that we have seen in the past cannot stand up to the light of the Lord today. All things will pass away. Nothing can stand up to this great revelation. Moses is gone. Elijah is gone. Peter, James, and John are all gone. Only Jesus remains. He fills all and is all. Christ is both the centrality and the universality. God’s center is Christ, and God’s universality is also Christ. He is the center and the universality.
When a man is brought to Christ and has a knowledge of Him, this basic experience will enable him to know God’s word and to minister Christ to others. In order to serve, to minister Christ to others, and to supply others with Christ, a man must have the revelation of Christ. Every minister of Christ must have the revelation of Christ. He cannot supply others with what he has not seen himself. He cannot minister to others a Christ that he does not know. He cannot supply others with a fragmented knowledge of Christ. Such a “fragmented” Christ cannot constitute the basis of ministry. A ministry is not built on the basis of a fragmented knowledge of Christ. Since the day of Paul and Peter, everyone who has a ministry of the word before God has had a fundamental revelation of Christ. A man must be brought on by God to the point where he knows God’s Son face to face in the deepest part of his being. To him, Christ must be the One who transcends all, is all, and fills all. Only then can he minister such a Christ to others. From that day forward, he can minister Christ to others. From that day forward, the Bible becomes a living book to him.
Do you see what I am saying? God’s revelation enables us to know Christ. A man can say with his mouth that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and the Anointed One through reading the Bible. But this does not mean that he has touched Christ. A man can understand something about Christ through studying the Bible, but this does not mean that he has the revelation. Many are “pressing” Christ along the way, but they do not necessarily touch Christ. Today what we need is God’s mercy. We need His light and His grace. God has to grant us mercy and grace and reveal His Son in us. It is not a matter of studying and researching but a matter of mercy and revelation. It is a matter of inward enlightening, inward discerning, and inward knowledge. This is what it is all about. From the day we receive mercy and revelation, the Bible becomes a new book, a living book. The words which were once unintelligible are now transparent. Before, the more we talked about things related to the Bible, the more we did not seem to understand them. They seemed logical, and yet we could not comprehend them. But once we see Christ, they become very clear to us. God’s written word becomes obvious and transparent. We are inwardly clear; we are inwardly enlightened. We know Christ in an inward way, and we begin to understand the Bible. This fundamental revelation of Christ enables us to know who Christ is.