What a fascinating book Watchman Nee wrote in The Ministry Of God’s Word. In fact, it’s one of the rare books that I called a must read for pastors (you can read my book review by clicking here). To whet your appetite I’ve been sharing some quotes from this book.
“This is an enormous task, a task which far surpasses human ability. Every servant of God must realize his incompetency. He should prostrate himself before God, knowing how incompetent he is in supplying Christ, even though he may be well able to speak on the doctrines or teachings of the Bible. Let us look to God’s mercy today. We need to reevaluate everything. We must see how absolutely useless we are. We are utterly helpless without His mercy. To be a minister of the Word is too serious a matter to be taken lightly. It is not an easy task which can be fulfilled just by reading the Bible so many times. A minister of the Word must be able to supply Christ and help people to touch Christ by his words.”
“To obtain a pure minister of the Word God has to so work in a person that his outward man is broken. Hence it is necessary for a minister of the Word to accept the discipline and control of God; otherwise he will surely destroy God’s Word by the mingling in of his own undealt flesh. … The Holy Spirit has been able to work to such a depth that when that man stands to speak, people hear the Lord speaking.”
“Ministry requires our seeing something before God and in freshness presenting this thing to the church. … Each time I minister I need to receive special revelation for the occasion. … Continuous revelation begets continual ministry.”
“The same message with the same delivery may not produce the same result; only the same anointing will.”
“God never intends to give us small revelations. If He grants revelation, His revelation is big; its scope and content is rich. How can anything inglorious come forth from the God of glory? The normal portion God gives man is a cup running over. God is forever rich, great, and all-inclusive.”
“Man’s mental strength acts like his physical strength. If his arm can only lift fifty pounds of weight, then he cannot handle anything heavier, not even one additional pound. So is our mental strength limited. If we exhaust its energy on other things we will have nothing left with which to spend on the things of God; and hence we will not be able to translate God’s light into thought.”
“In the things spiritual, natural eloquence is useless. God must give words. … Hence we must wait on God and read the Bible, asking Him to grant us the words. When the words do come, we are instantly assured of what we should speak today. … The greater the lack of revealed words the longer should be the waiting before God. Pray, commune, wait, and lay the Bible before God. This is not an ordinary waiting, nor ordinary prayer and communion. This is waiting before God with the Bible, praying to God with the Bible, and communing with God over the Bible.”
You can read the other quotes I’ve posted by clicking here, here, here, and here.
Near the beginning of Pleasure & Profit In Bible Study, Dwight Moody states the purpose of his book: “We cannot overestimate the importance of a thorough familiarity with the Bible. I try to lose no opportunity of urging people by every means in my power to the constant study of this wonderful Book. If through the pages that follow, I can reach still others and rouse them to read their Bibles, not at random but with a plan and purpose, I shall be indeed thankful.”
