The Ministry of the Word

The Ministry of the Word sounds familiar to me and this has been a tagline for me in my official service in the literature distribution. Yet little did I realize that this has very deep connotations in relation to God's move on the earth today. When we were informed that there would be a Serving Ones Training in which we were to read messages from chapter 8 to 14 of the book by brother Watchman Nee, The Ministry of God's Word, I decided to read the entire book. I took that as an opportunity to dive into the truth which I used to distribute. Sadly enough, though I had been promoting that book in the past, I had not read it once. This was the time for me to read before the training.

As I began reading from chapter 1, I was ushered into the depths of the word of God. I could see things which I never saw before. The depth of the spiritual understand brother Nee had was amazing. If not for the Lord's special anointing I do not believe that any human can reveal such deep revelations. As I read the book, perhaps studied the book, word by word, phrase by phrase, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, page by page, and even chapter by chapter, I was altogether in a different realm. I am running out of words to describe the feeling I had while reading the book. On the one hand, I regret that I did not read that book earlier, yet on the other hand, I thanked the Lord that I did not read it earlier as I would not have appreciated it as I did this time. To read and understand this book, I am deeply convinced, one has to attain a certain degree of spiritual maturity. By the Lord's mercy, I have attained that and that's the reason why I could appreciate the Lord's speaking through the ministry of brother Watchman Nee.

The ministry of the word has very much to do with the minister himself. If the minister is not proper, there can never be the proper ministry of the word. The minister must have attained a certain level of learning, dealing, and substantial growth in life to be a vessel for the Lord to flow through. He must have light from the lord concerning the word of God. That light is the revelation the Lord reveals to him through the word. As he muses not the revelation and even prays over, the Lord will give him the thoughts which are being conveyed into the inner word understood by him. As he considers even more on the fine and minute detail of the word, the Lord would give him the outer word, the utterance, to describe the revelation in words intelligible and understandable to man, the target of the minister's ministry of the word. To pass through these processes require definite and specific learning and dealing from the Lord. The breaking of the outer man is of utmost importance here for the release of the word that can become the Rhema word to the hearer of the ministry of the word.

O how I long and desire to be such a minister of the word! Only the Lord can deal with me and perfect me to be such a minister of the word. The Lord in His mercy may grace me to be such a minister. From my part, with this aspiration, I would pursue the Lord in His word diligently and with much prayer. I am in the Lord's hands. May He mold me and shape me according to His heart's desire.

From the deep spiritual lesson I have learned, I was assigned to apply in a way of ministering the word in the Serving Ones Training conducted by the work in India for the responsible brothers in all the local churches. Twelve brothers were assigned to learn and exercise to minister the word, of which I was one to exercise as well. I took that as an opportunity to learn and practice whatever the Lord has taught me especially in the reading of the book, The Ministry of God's Word. I had prepared and prayed over the message assigned to me. I have no idea how much of my exercise had really benefited the brothers who listened to the word. Only the brothers may know and the Lord knows. But from my side, I really enjoyed the flow of life in my exercise to minister the word as we were taught so. 

Thank the Lord for gracing me the opportunity to learn and also to practice by exercising to minister the word of God to the brothers. I should and must exercise daily, and even all the days of my life to learn the word and minister the word to whoever the Lord would bring His people. 

Lord, grace me to be a minister of Your word!