When we speak as a minister of the word, we have to exercise our mind. We typically speak whatever comes to our mind; whatever we think of, we speak. Our mind controls our words. Yet our mind must have some substance; it must not be full of vanity or aimless thoughts. The basis of our thoughts is our memory. The raw materials from which we formulate our speaking come from whatever we have learned previously, whatever our mind is occupied with, whatever we have experienced and seen in the past, and whatever breaking work we have experienced. These materials are collected from the Lord. The work that the Lord has done and the breaking work that He has accomplished become the building blocks. We spend our whole life accumulating experience, discipline, teachings, and knowledge of the Scripture. These become accumulated deposits within us. When we stand up to speak for the Lord, God’s Spirit will direct our mind to search through our memory to put all the things we have acquired to use. In other words, the Holy Spirit directs our mind, while the mind directs the speaking. The mind supplies the speaking with the raw materials, and the raw materials come from the memory. If we do not have any experience, we have nothing in our memory; we cannot remember what we have never acquired. We can only remember what we have acquired. A certain thing that we remember may supply our mind with the right word to support our speaking. Behind the speaking there must be a good mind and good thoughts, which come from one’s memory. These thoughts are not extemporaneous or imaginary thoughts; they are acquired through one’s previous experiences.
Speaking is based on the mind, the mind is based on the memory, and memory is based on experience. When we stand up to speak, we can only draw from the resources we have collected throughout our life. The experiences we collect throughout our life are like goods in a storehouse. The Lord has brought us through many experiences; we have learned many lessons and seen many truths. All these are stored in the warehouse of our experience. When we open our mouth to speak, our speaking is built upon our experience. But how does our speaking build upon our experience? Our speaking is only related to our mind. We may want to say something, and as we are considering what to say, our mind will go to our memory storehouse. The storehouse of our lifetime experiences can only be accessed and retrieved by our memory. The memory is like the manager of the storehouse; it alone can retrieve what we have known and experienced. The mind then organizes these materials and releases them through our speaking. Here we see the importance of the memory. We must put the director and the materials together. Every ministry of the word begins from the Holy Spirit. But when the Holy Spirit speaks, He speaks through our mind. When the Spirit wants to say something, He first considers what the mind can afford Him. Whatever the Spirit wants to say, the mind must come up with the word. If the Spirit wants to say a certain thing first, the mind has to recall that thing first. Brothers, more and more we are realizing that our mind is not adequate for His use. We cannot recall what the Spirit wants to say, and we think of things that the Spirit does not want to say. This is a proof that our mind is not adequate for His use. A minister of the word only needs to speak once for Him; he will be humbled immediately. He will realize that he cannot make it by himself. He cannot recall what the Spirit wants, and he can recall what the Spirit does not want. His mind is like a flywheel that is misaligned with another wheel. On certain days he feels fine. Whatever the Lord wants to say comes out of his mouth spontaneously; he has the right word to convey the Lord’s utterance. During these times, his mind is like a flywheel that is well aligned. When the Spirit moves, his mind matches the move and follows the Spirit. But this does not happen all the time. The mind often does not function that well. The Spirit may want to say something, but the mind is too dull to think of the right words.
We must realize that the Holy Spirit dictates to our mind, while our mind dictates our words. If the Holy Spirit cannot dictate to our mind, our mind cannot dictate our words. When our mind dictates our words, it also requires the help of the memory. The mind does not come up with words of its own; it only recalls words. These words are not imagined or intangible. They are stored in the storehouse. We must first have a verse in our storehouse. The Lord must have dealt with us in a certain way already. When the need arises, the Lord will cause us to remember such a thing. Therefore, as we are preaching, we have to exercise our memory. The Holy Spirit directs the mind, and the mind searches through all our experiences in our memory and then releases them as the word. This speaking becomes a good ministry of the word. A healthy memory is very useful. It comes in handy and affords a person whatever he needs. In the ministry of the word, the Holy Spirit uses man’s mind to recall what he has learned. Without any effort on our part, the Spirit can call to mind something we have learned or seen and then place it in our mind. Our mind sees it once more and speaks it out. Many things are retained in the form of just a few words. If the mind is undisciplined, it is not able to recall these words, and the spirit is frustrated from being released. As long as one part of our being malfunctions, the spirit does not flow. We can still preach, but the spirit is not released. The release of the spirit requires the cooperation of a fully functioning mind and a fully functioning memory. As long as something is wrong with our mind or memory, we cannot function properly. This is a very serious matter.
Suppose we know what the Lord wants us to say. It may be something long that cannot be expressed in one word. Perhaps seven or eight words are required. The Lord wants us to speak these words, but we are afraid that we will forget them. Therefore, we try hard to remember them. When we come to the meeting, our mind is set on these seven or eight words. We tell ourselves that we have to remember them. Our heart is set on them, yet we often find that our memory does not serve us on that day. Our spirit is not released. The mere retention of the word in the mind is useless; such a word is powerless. When it is released, the spirit does not move. With a minister of the word, the functioning of the memory has to be something very spontaneous. If we try to muster it artificially, it will turn the other way when the Spirit calls for it.
A minister of the word needs not only a perfect mind but a perfect memory. Memory is like an electrical connection; as long as one end is broken, the electricity is cut off. When a certain part in our memory is blocked, the Lord’s Spirit does not flow out. As long as our memory is slightly cut off from the source, we are through. If we try to make our memory or mind the source, we are through. When the Holy Spirit is the source, our mind and memory can become very useful. It is when the Holy Spirit shines from within us that we realize how short our mind is. When light is lacking in our spirit, we become very proud of our mind, memory, and eloquence. These faculties may seem to be functioning very well. But when we are enlightened by the Holy Spirit, we realize the uselessness of our mind, memory, and eloquence. This is the reason that we have to pray; we have to pray that our memory would become the memory of the Holy Spirit and that God’s Spirit would be able to use it when He has need of it. When we speak, we may or may not be able to recall certain crucial words. The difference here is very great. If we recall these words, the utterance will be released, and the spirit will be released. But if we cannot recall these words, we will feel a burden like a big millstone upon our back. This burden will weigh heavily upon us, and both the word and the spirit will be quenched.
We have to exercise total concentration in making ourselves available to the Spirit. We have to gather everything that we have experienced in our life, all the discipline that we have learned, all the things we have read and heard, all the revelation we have seen in our life, and all the teachings we have learned from the light. We have to put them all before the Spirit and make them available to Him. They must be gathered together and made available at the same time. Originally, we were like a house with all the windows open to the distracting noise and color outside. Now the windows should be closed, allowing no outside influence. All the things we have acquired in our whole life should be at the Spirit’s disposal. Every time the ministry of the word is released in a strong way, the Holy Spirit takes up everything of our life and uses it within a period of five or ten minutes. Ministry of the word involves a price. Every release of the spirit involves a price. The outer man has to be shut out; all the windows to the outside have to be shut. We have to focus all of our memory; our whole being has to be kept under strict surveillance. At the critical moment, we must make everything available to the Holy Spirit. When this happens, we will have a powerful ministry of the word. There cannot be any disruption, distraction, or carelessness. We have to maintain our memory in top condition; our memory has to be on full alert every time we speak. We have to gather up everything in a way that has never been done before during our entire life. We should collect all the things of our life and make them available to the Holy Spirit all at once. This is the duty of the memory in the ministry of the word.
In order for the memory to have the adequate materials, we have to learn many lessons before the Lord and experience many things. Ministry of the word is based on the discipline of the Holy Spirit. Without the discipline of the Holy Spirit, we do not have the supply, and we have nothing to say. We receive the supply through the discipline of the Holy Spirit. As we increase our deposit gradually and continuously, there is room in our memory storehouse to keep the inventory. But if we have only received a little discipline from the Holy Spirit, we will have few lessons to draw from. There will be little place in our memory to direct our inventory, and we will have nothing for the Spirit to draw from. Therefore, the riches of the ministry of the word depend on the wealth of discipline that the minister receives. The more the minister learns his lessons and receives discipline, the more room his memory possesses to maneuver the goods, and the more materials his mind has from which to generate the words. In serving as a minister of the word, we must have substance to our words; we cannot speak vain words, and we must have enough memory to apply everything that we have learned in our lifetime to our speaking. If God’s Spirit is directing the speaking, everything we have learned in our life will be used.