Our word must be backed up by the spirit. But in order to release a spirit that is pure and clean, we have to go through dealings. One thing is certain: The kind of spirit that we have determines the kind of expression of the Holy Spirit that we bear. The kind of nature that we have dictates the aspect of the Holy Spirit that we express. The manifestation of the Holy Spirit is different in different persons. Just because we have the same Spirit does not mean that we have the same manifestation. The Spirit who flows to others bears the characteristics of the channel through which He flows. When the Holy Spirit flows, He carries along with Him the characteristic of the person who bears the flow, and He reaches men in this way. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is expressed in one way through one person and in another way through another person. One person can have one kind of ministry while another can have another kind of ministry. The Holy Spirit was expressed through Paul in one way and through Peter in another way. The same Holy Spirit was manifested in Peter and in Paul. It was the Holy Spirit in both cases, but the manifestation in Peter carried Peter’s flavor and characteristic, and the manifestation in Paul carried Paul’s flavor and characteristic. This is very clear. The Holy Spirit does not annul the human elements in each person. God never annulled the human elements within each writer of the Bible. When one person is filled with the Holy Spirit, he has one kind of manifestation. When another person is filled with the Holy Spirit, he has another kind of manifestation. Not everyone has the same expression and manifestation. When the Holy Spirit fills a person, He carries the very characteristic of the person himself.
Brothers, do you see our responsibility? If the Holy Spirit reached others through the word alone, without any relation to our human nature, we would have no responsibility in the matter. If we only had to carry the Holy Spirit with us and convey it to others, without any involvement of our human elements, we would not have much responsibility; we would only need to carry Him. But the experiences of many saints show us that the Holy Spirit reaches other men with the special characteristic of the bearer. Since this is the case, our spirit needs to be pure; it has to be dealt with. Otherwise, others will receive improper elements. We have to realize that the human factor is a great matter. The Holy Spirit does not operate independently or in an unprocessed manner. Our nature has a role to play. The Holy Spirit does not annul our nature; rather, He is released with our nature. The Lord said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38). The Lord’s word indicates that one must first drink the water, and then the rivers of living water must flow out of his innermost being. J. N. Darby points out that the innermost being refers to the deepest part of our being. It is out of the deepest part of one’s being that the Holy Spirit flows; the Holy Spirit flows out together with the person. When this water reaches a person, the Holy Spirit carries this person’s characteristics with Him, and flows to others this way.
Therefore, we have to learn to take the dealings. When the cross comes to us, it should not come in vain. As the cross works on us, we receive more carvings and dealings, and our being is purified even more. Every trial brings more purification. The more fire we have, the more cleansing we receive. The more trouble we suffer before the Lord and the greater such trouble is, the more our spirits are purified, and the purer will be the expression that the Holy Spirit assumes. A particular aspect of our character often goes through some dealings, but the work is not complete, and there are still impurities. As a result, others touch the Spirit of God at the same time that they touch the impurities. When we come across a minister of the word, we often find that he has God’s word, and his spirit is released. Yet, at the same time, his own person is too conspicuous; he is not broken enough. The breaking he has received is not thorough enough. The Holy Spirit is released through him, but at the same time his own characteristics are released as well. Brothers, our responsibility is too great! If the Spirit of the Lord worked absolutely independent of man or if the Holy Spirit rejected anyone who is flawed in any way, the matter would be much simpler. It would be easy to tell the difference between the work of the flesh and the work of the Spirit if the Lord put us aside as soon as we were off just a little. But the trouble today is that the work of the flesh is still within us. Even though our spirit is not pure enough, God does not reject us; He still uses us. Many who are proud are under the illusion that they are useful and that they have passed the test. They are wrong. God often uses a person even though there is still weakness in him. We have to realize that the more God uses us, the greater our responsibility is. If God would not use us, we would have much less trouble. But the Lord often uses us even though He knows that we are unqualified. The Holy Spirit does not operate independently today. He is not being released apart from man. This is a deep principle in the work of God. When the Holy Spirit reaches out, His reaching is done in conjunction with man’s spirit. The Lord takes man up, together with all of his characteristics, in His release.
We should be in fear and trembling all the time. Even though the Lord may use us, we must not forget that we are still unqualified. We have to remember the gravity of our responsibility. If something is wrong with us, the flaws that are in our spirit will be mixed in with the word of the Lord. One day the Lord will shine His light in us, and we will prostrate ourselves before Him and say, “Nothing that I have said in the past was up to Your mark.” Anyone who receives any light will be deeply conscious of his past failures. Indeed, God’s Spirit may have accomplished some amount of work through us, but our person is still wrong; we remain an impure vessel before the Lord. We are not a perfect vessel. In the hand of God we are a contaminated vessel, and we need deeper dealings. When a man receives the light, he discovers his shortcomings; he realizes that his very person is unusable. When the word is released, the spirit must also be released. Therefore, we need to ask for mercy and grace so that everything would be under the discipline of the Holy Spirit. Every day we must learn to accept the discipline of the Holy Spirit. Without this, our spirit will not be useful. The Lord may want to make us a minister of the word; He may be working in us every day. All the dealings, trials, and occurrences in our environment are for the purpose of increasing our usefulness in the Lord. All things work together to make our spirit purer and more perfect. They work together to bring about a purer flow when our spirit is released and to increase the usefulness of our spirit. Today God may grant us mercy and allow His Spirit to be released through us, and we may think that we are now a great servant of the Lord. We may be puffed up. We may think that all is well, without any realization that His selection was merely provisional in its measure.
We must realize that the training of a minister of the word is a daily matter. It is also a lifelong work. The words we speak may not improve, but our spirit can improve. Perhaps the words we speak are the same as the words we spoke ten years ago. But when we speak the same words today, our spirit is different from the spirit we had ten years ago. A young man must never think that he can give the same message as an older man. He can speak the same words, but he does not have the same spirit. Some brothers repeat the same things they spoke twenty or thirty years ago. The words are the same, but the spirit is different. We should never be concerned with whether we have the same words but whether we have the same spirit. While we can speak the words of some older brothers, it is not easy to have their spirit. It is not enough for a minister of the word to have the word alone; he must also have the spirit. The Lord said, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63). When a minister of the word stands up to speak for the Lord, not only must his words be pure, but the release of his spirit must be pure as well. It is not a matter of whether or not we can say the words, but of whether our release of the spirit is pure.
The issue is not our eloquence. What is at stake is the kind of spirit we convey when we speak. One realm justifies a man as long as he is clever, eloquent, and wise. But another realm demands nothing less than the Lord’s chastising hand and the discipline of the Holy Spirit. The two belong to two entirely different realms. The second kind of word can only be “beaten out” through the hand of the Lord. Words are beaten into existence; they are wrought into one’s being. Every day the Holy Spirit “beats” the word into a person’s being. If we are going to preach a message today, it is not enough to simply deliver the word. We may think afterwards that our message was wonderful, and we may feel very good about ourselves. We may think that we can continue to preach the same message. We may think that our words are not much different from those who have the genuine ministry. Yet none of our speaking will result in anything. In fact, we are living in a different realm. Others might have told us about a truth, and we might have received it. Since that time, we may be speaking about the same truth, but our speaking does not lead us anywhere. The words can be the same, but if we do not have the proper spirit, there will be flaws in the release of our spirit. The Lord’s words are spirit and life. This is why our spirit must be dealt with by the Lord. Our person must be carved and molded before our spirit can be released in a proper way. When the word is released and the spirit is released, praise the Lord, the Holy Spirit is released as well. This is the way of the ministry of the word. Without such a release, we will be like scribes teaching the Ten Commandments. The trouble with this kind of teaching is that everything is doctrinal, didactic, and expositional. If the spirit is not involved, everything is vanity. God has to work on us until our spirit is released whenever the word is released. Sometimes there is the need of extraordinary release. But not every instance requires such extraordinary effort; only a few times do we need such special outbursts. During these times the Holy Spirit bursts out and operates in a strong way. Unless we have such an experience, the message we preach will not match the preaching of the apostles.
We must understand the responsibility of the church today. God has entrusted His Christ to the church with the intention that the church would communicate this Christ to others. God also has entrusted His Holy Spirit to the church with the intention that the church would communicate this Holy Spirit to others. God also has entrusted revelation and spiritual blessings to the church with the intention that the church would communicate the same to others. This is God’s intention. This is God’s plan. The church is the Body of Christ on earth. Just as a body expresses a man, the church expresses Christ. The desires of the head are expressed through the body. Without the body, the head cannot express itself. Similarly, without the church, Christ cannot express Himself. In this age God is blessing men through the church. As such, the church carries a heavy responsibility. We should never think that everything is in heaven today. We can never forget Pentecost, and we can never forget the cross. The situation today is entirely different from that in the Old Testament. Malachi 3:10 says, “Bring the whole tithe to the storehouse that there may be food in My house; and prove Me, if you will, by this, says Jehovah of hosts, whether I will open to you the windows of heaven and pour out blessing for you until there is no room for it.” This was the principle in the Old Testament. The blessing was in heaven. But today the blessing has come to earth. The Spirit will rapture the church from earth to heaven. Protestantism has forgotten the position of the church, while Catholicism has tried to usurp God’s blessing with carnal hands. Today we have to ask God to open our eyes to see that all spiritual blessings are now in the church. The church can now dispense these blessings to others.
Today the church is in the business of dispensing. The book of Ephesians shows us clearly that the blessings have descended while the church has ascended. All the spiritual things are now in the church. What is a minister? A minister is one who dispenses these spiritual riches to others. The church has enjoyed and received all these riches. All the riches of Christ are now in the church. Today the church dispenses to others the Christ it has received. A minister is one who dispenses to others the Christ he has seen and received. We must never be so fallen as to consider everything to be far away. Many people pray as if the church has never ascended to the heavens. They beseech as if the Holy Spirit has never descended to the earth. That is not the church. Romans 10:8 says, “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.” Brothers, if we have the light, we can transmit the same divine light to others. If we have God’s word, we can convey the same word of God to others. The matter depends on whether or not we are willing and happy to do this.
For years God has been looking for sanctified vessels to transmit His word. This does not mean that God will not use us unless we are perfectly sanctified. For the past two thousand years, countless fleshly hands have touched God’s work, and countless carnal hands have contaminated His work. Brothers, within us, we know very well what we were ten years ago. We can only say that we were carnal men. Yet God still used us. We know very well what kind of a person we were twenty years ago. We can only say that we were filthy and sinful men. Yet God still used us. We should never be so foolish as to think that we are useful to Him just because God has used us. More and more we are realizing the gravity of our responsibility. “O Lord, even while we are being used, the self is contaminating, defiling, and corrupting Your word. We have mingled our sin and filthiness with Your work. There is little separation now between the work of the Spirit and the work of the flesh. Lord, we have sinned. Forgive us. Be merciful to us.”
The Lord has committed Himself to the church. His way is with us. Today God dispenses all that He is to others through man’s spirit. We should pray that our spirit would be acceptable to the Lord. We cannot boast of our work in the past. We have no reason to remain in our impurity; we have no reason to remain in our carnality or fleshly ways. We must remember that God has entrusted Christ to the church. He has entrusted the Holy Spirit, His word, and His light to the church. Today the church can dispense light to men; it can dispense the word, Christ, and the Spirit to men. The trouble is with our impurity and our mixture. We must realize our responsibility. When we speak well, everything will be well. When we do not speak well, everything will not be well. The responsibility is entirely on our shoulders. The word has to go out. The Holy Spirit has to go out. The spirit has to go out, and light has to go out. A man must be brought to the point where he can become a sanctified vessel.
If we realize what the church is, we will spontaneously realize what a minister is. A minister is one who dispenses to others through the word what God has entrusted to the church. The responsibility of a minister is greater than any other kind of responsibility. If the flesh remains an impure mixture in us, we do not have a way to go on. We will only destroy God’s work and damage it. God needs men, yet we cannot be His servant or His minister. May the Lord have mercy on us. We have to know the proper way to go on. When our word goes out, light has to go out with it. We have to dispense such a strong word to others so that they can do nothing but see the light and fall on their face.