Pastor, if you haven’t read The Ministry Of God’s Word by Watchman Nee yet, you need to put this on your To Do list. It’s one of the very few books I have labeled a must read for pastors (you can read all about it in my book review by clicking here). Here are a few more quotes from this fascinating book.
“There is no assurance that the Word previously anointed by the Holy Spirit will again be anointed each time it is spoken. Let us remember that the Word of revelation we earlier received is not guaranteed to always be such a word whenever it is uttered. The Word remains, but revelation does not linger. You may repeat the Word, yet you cannot repeat the revelation or the anointing. Revelation and anointing are in God’s hand. You can only repeat the words, you cannot recall revelation.”
“A minister is one in whom there is light, revelation, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. When he arises and speaks on the Bible, God is willing to speak through the Bible. This is how a minister supplies the church with God’s Word.”
“One reason for the prevailing impotency of the church is that our Lord does not find a way through us.”
“Do not be a professional preacher. Once you turn professional you speak not because you have something to say from God but because you are obliged to utter something.”
“Serving the church with God’s Word is ministering the Son of God. … If the Bible is divorced from the Person of Christ it becomes a dead book.”
“The task is not simply presenting a book to men, rather is it presenting the Son of God in the Book.”
“What you preach must be what you truly know.”
“The Word of God is not something people hear by just being present. Physical presence does not insure the hearing of the Word.”
“You are sure that the Lord wants you to minister this Word and He will providentially arrange the time and opportunity for you to deliver it. And thus the Word you preach shall become Christ in others. This is the ministry of the Word in us.”
“One cannot minister the Christ one does not know, nor can one serve with only a fragmentary knowledge of Christ. Ministry cannot be based on fragmentary knowledge. … For God to reveal His Son in us is not the result of research or searching; it is entirely a matter of mercy and revelation. It is an inward seeing, an inner knowing. And thereafter the Bible becomes a new and living Book.”
You can read other quotes from this book by clicking here, here, and here.
Some folks asked that I post a couple of things I shared in my message this morning about the ninth commandment: You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
Craig T. Owens 