We must not waste our thoughts. We have to treasure and conserve every bit and every drop of our mental energy. The more powerful and enriched our thoughts are, the higher we will climb. We should never waste our thoughts on useless things. We can tell how useful people are with respect to the ministry of God’s word by the way they use their mind. If a man wastes and squanders his thoughts on vain things, how can he have any capacity for thoughts pertaining to God? A subjective person is useless because he constantly thinks about his own things, looks at his own surroundings, and is fettered by his own thoughts. The more his thoughts revolve around himself, the less he can put his thoughts to good use. We cannot allow our thoughts to constantly be wild, confused, unchecked, and untamed before God. We must not allow our thoughts to remain low by constantly walking according to the flesh, setting the mind on the flesh, and minding the things of the flesh. If we do, we will have little room in our mind for God. The ministry of the word needs the mind. If our thoughts have been dealt with, we will catch and retain the light when the word appears in our spirit. Light tends to run away. We often lament how hopeless our mind is in catching God’s light. As long as our mind is occupied with other things, God’s light runs away. Our thoughts must be like a servant waiting at the doorstep of the master. This is the pathway of the ministry of the word. We have to know this pathway. Bear in mind that light comes quickly. Many things are contained in its speedy flash. Only those whose thoughts are perfect, lofty, rich, and clear have the ability to retain the contents of that flash. Even then we should realize that there are still many things God wants us to see which we cannot retain. The perplexing thing is that we know that there is a speaking in our spirit and that this speaking has a certain significance. But we do not know what the significance is. We know that we have lost something, but we do not know what has been lost. Our mind is short in its useful capacity.
We should realize that even the sharpest mind in the world is short of capacity for God’s light. If we waste it on useless things, it will be even less productive. We should never allow our thoughts to freely roam; this is not wise. Light can only be retained by minds, and it is only useful in accordance with its retention in our minds. Light is spiritual and runs away easily. If we want to retain the light, our minds have to be powerful, rich, and strong. God is great, and our ability to discover the extent of His shining and speaking is limited. Therefore, when He shines, our thoughts must be rich. Even when we come to the Lord, we often feel that we are short and that our minds do not match the need. Many times we are conscious of the poverty of our mind. We lose many things and miss much shining. How much worse will our situation become if we waste our thoughts on distracting things!
We have to discipline our mind before the Lord every day. The way we use our thoughts is very much related to the way we function as ministers of the word. The ministry of the word has dried up in many people because they have wasted their thoughts. This is like a man who wastes his energy making wrong turns; he does not have any energy to take the right pathway. Many people waste their thoughts away; they have no energy left for the shining of the Spirit. Brothers, do not think that our mind is unrelated to the shining of the Spirit. We must realize that our mind is related very much to the shining of the Spirit. While it is certainly true that thoughts cannot replace the shining of the Spirit, they are necessary in order to understand the shining of the Spirit. Hence, we must not waste our thoughts at ordinary times. Many people engage their thoughts in unnecessary things. As a result, they cannot capture the light. A man is poor in his thoughts because he has too many desires. We have to learn to conserve our thoughts; we must not waste them. I am not saying that we should not use our minds. I am saying that we should not waste them on distracting things. Much mental energy can be wasted. If we waste our God-given mental capacity on unnecessary things, we will find that there is no capacity for the understanding of God’s word. There are many minor issues in the Bible, the discernment of which is not critical. We should not waste our thoughts on these things. Moreover, we should realize that we cannot solve every spiritual problem with our mind. We may be able to think of solutions, but we cannot solve them. Spiritual problems can only be solved by God’s light. Many people use up all their energy in trying to solve biblical riddles or spiritual problems. They waste their thoughts on doctrines and reasonings. Even if they think that they have solved these problems, others only come into contact with their thoughts when they touch them. The greatest loss comes with the inability to retain God’s light. The mind’s usefulness lies in its ability to capture the shining of God’s light as it breaks forth. A minister of the word must learn the important lesson of employing his thoughts in useful matters. He must put his thoughts in a suitable place where God’s light can shine. He should not put his thoughts in a place where God’s light cannot shine. We cannot see anything just by using our thoughts alone. God must first shine on us before we can exercise our mind. Do we see this way? We should not come to the Bible with our mind alone. Before we can exercise our mind to translate the light and before we see anything, God must first shine. But if our mind is open to Him, we will see God’s light, and we will take the first step in receiving God’s word.
May the Lord create ministers of the word among us. Without the ministers of the word, the church will always be poor. A man must receive the supply of God’s word before he can minister to the church. The problem today lies in man, in the channel. When God’s light shines on us, it first has to get through our mind. Light is in our spirit, but it first must pass through the mind. Since the light is in our spirit, how can we expect to have a powerful ministry if it is discounted as soon as it reaches our mind? This is a very basic issue. May the Lord grant us to know the way of the ministry of the word.