We must minister the word of the Lord with a burden from the Lord, having an open spirit to receive burdens and release burdens from God, receiving revelations from the Lord and speaking with a burden, and serve the Lord in the ministry of the word with a burden from the Lord.
Lord Jesus, we love You and we open to You. We exercise our spirit to deal with anything that hinders us from seeing You. May we have a clear revelation of Your economy. Unveil us, Lord, to see what is on Your heart. We give You our speaking. We give You our serving God. May we minister the word of God in much prayer and fellowship so that we may have a burden from the Lord. Grant us to have Your burden and speak with a burden to the ones around us! Amen!
As believers in Christ, we need to be open to the Lord day by day, for there’s a marvelous transmission taking place moment-by-moment. God is supplying the Spirit of grace bountifully, and we should be receiving and dispensing the Spirit of grace continually.
As we exercise our spirit in our daily living, even while doing this and that, we receive the transmission of the Spirit of grace. Oh, grace is with our spirit, and when we turn to our spirit, we enjoy grace, we partake of grace, and we are filled with grace!
We even receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness, and we reign in life! Amen!
As we remain under the continual dispensing of grace, we are filled with grace, and the words we speak to others are full of grace.
Our daily Christian living will be the living of grace, for we will live and do all things not in and by ourselves but by the grace of God which is with us.
Our daily Christian living will be the experience of grace, for we will enjoy God as grace in all things, even through sufferings. As we enjoy grace, as we partake of the riches of Christ in spirit, we have the stewardship of grace, the dispensing of grace.
Grace will simply flow from us. This doesn’t mean that we will do a great work for the Lord; rather, it means that we will carry out God’s economy by dispensing grace to others.
We will simply be channels of supply to others. When we are with them, we will minister grace to them.
We will have some words of grace to dispense to them for their growth in life and for their enjoyment of Christ. May the Lord make us such ministers of the word who give grace to those who hear!
We must Minister the Word with a Burden from the Lord: Receive Burdens and Release Burdens in Prayer and Fellowship and Speaking
One thing we need to pay attention in our ministering of the word is the burden; we must minister the word with a burden from the Lord. We need to have a burden from the Lord for those we speak to.
His burden needs to become our burden. We cannot speak the same word to all men, and we cannot convey the same message to everyone; there must be a burden from the Lord concerning those we speak to.
To receive a burden from the Lord, we first need His light. We need to exercise our spirit and receive light from the Lord.
When the Lord shines on us in our reading of God’s word, He televises the vision of the facts in God’s word into our being.
The word becomes real and living to us, and we receive not doctrine but the living truth, shining truths. When we have the light from the Lord, we will receive the thoughts of the Lord, and we will even have the words of the Lord to speak to others.
The Lord impresses us with something, even burdens us with something, and we cannot but speak what He puts on our heart.
The condition for us to receive burdens from the Lord is having an open spirit; we must learn to receive burdens and release burdens through prayer in our intimate fellowship with the Lord (Luke 1:53; Psa. 27:4; Isa. 59:16; Col. 4:2).
We need not just to work for the Lord but to pray; prayer and work are inseparable, for without prayer there is no work (Jer. 33:2- 3; Isa. 62:6-7; Acts 6:4). We need to give ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word.
If God gives us a prayer burden, He wants it to be uttered; burdens are released only through utterance (Mark 7:29; Heb. 5:7).
We need to open our spirit to the Lord, turn our heart to Him, sense what He wants us to speak and pray, and release His burdens through our prayer and through our speaking.
If we cannot pray aloud in our home, we need to find a place where we can utter our burdens as the Lord did, in an audible way (Mark 1:35; Luke 6:12; Psa. 4:1; 5:1-3; 77:1; 102:1; 116:1; 142:1; S. S. 2:14).
We need to pray audibly even if it means praying in a low voice. We cannot have a burden merely in our mind or in our spirit; we need to utter it and release it, for God wants our burdens to be articulated.
May we open to the Lord, pray to Him, and let Him impress us. May we ask Him to give us words to speak to others. In the morning, may we let Him hear our thoughts, our burdens, our desires, and our needs.
May we let the Lord hear our voice in our personal time with Him; as we speak to Him, He will impress us with what is on His heart.
On the one hand, we need to receive revelation and light from God’s word; however, these alone do not constitute the ministry of the word.
We also need to be renewed in our mind and understanding, but even if our mind is clear, we may still not be a minister of the word because we do not use appropriate words. We need to have words from God.
To receive a burden from the Lord is to receive light in our spirit, the thoughts that capture that light, and finally the inner words that supplement the light and thoughts.
The last step of the burden from the Lord is the release of the inner words.
We need to have a burden from the Lord when we speak to others, for when we have God’s light, His thoughts imprinted into us, and His words of revelation given to us, and we utter His words, that is the burden, and others will receive God’s life and light.
This involves not only our prayerful study and consideration of God’s word but even more, our speaking to the Lord, praying to Him, and audibly voicing our prayer and concern to Him, opening to Him so that He may impress us with His burden.
Lord Jesus, we want to be those who minister the word of God with a burden from the Lord. We open to You. May our spirit be open to God so that we may receive burdens from God. Amen, Lord, impress us with what is on Your heart. We come to You in Your word to receive the burden from You. Speak to us in Your word. We want to speak back to You the word You speak to us. May we learn to receive burdens and release burdens through prayer before You. Oh Lord Jesus, keep us in an intimate fellowship with You throughout the day, especially as we come to Your word. Televise the reality of Your word into us to become the truth. Keep us in a prayerful atmosphere and attitude as we seek to minister God’s word. Amen, Lord, we want to receive Your burdens, be filled with Your word, and utter Your burdens through our speaking. May we find a time and place to pray to You audibly, even if it means praying in a low voice. May we learn to articulate the burdens You give us. Lord Jesus, infuse us with Your burden and release Your burden through us!
Receive Revelations to have the Burdens from the Lord and Speak with the Words from the Lord
According to the Bible, the revelations that the prophets received were the burdens that they received; without burden, there is no ministry of the word, no prophesying, for the building up of the church (see Isa. 1:1; 2:1; 13:1; 15:1; Zech. 12:1; Mal. 1:1; Acts 6:4; 1 Cor. 14:4b).
What Isaiah saw and received was not only the word of God but the burden of Jehovah. The word of God and His burden are one organically; the word, the vision, and the burden are one.
Similarly, in Zechariah 12:1 we are told of the burden of the word of Jehovah. May we receive a burden from the Lord and utter this burden to others.
Our burden is to release God’s revelation to man, and God’s revelation is released through the words of revelation that God gives to us (2:11-16).
If we minister the word of God, our concern must be not only that we know the doctrines but even more, that we have God’s speaking.
What matters is not the topic of our speaking but having a burden from the Lord which comes out of God’s speaking to us (Mal. 2:7).
It is not a small thing to speak the word of the Lord with a burden from the Lord.
The Lord shows us things in His word; He shines on us, He impresses us with particular matters, and He also shines on the situation and need of others.
As we open to the Lord in spirit, receiving His revelations and being infused with His burden, we can speak this burden to others according to the need to minister Christ to them.
We who are learning to minister the word must bear people’s condition before God, sense their condition, and know what God wants to speak to them (Exo. 28:29-30).
Our speaking the word to others is not merely the uttering of our vast knowledge of God’s word and the ministry of the word; rather, we are before the Lord concerning the condition of those we speak to, we seek His revelation, and we want to speak the burden the Lord has for them.
If someone is a sinner, we want to bear his condition before the Lord and minister Christ to him for his salvation.
As we sense the needs of those we speak to, we will have a burden from the Lord to speak something for them to love the Lord, consecrate themselves to Him, and go on with Him, according to the need the Lord shows us in our spirit.
If those we speak to love the Lord but are not willing to give themselves to the Lord and receive His dealing, our burden should be for them to consecrate themselves to the Lord and be dealt with Him.
As we seek the Lord and minister His word, our concern should be for us to have God’s speaking in our speaking.
It does not matter the reaction from others when we speak; what matters is that we have a burden from the Lord and we release this burden to them.
Speaking is not easy and cheap; it is not merely us imparting some doctrines, but bearing the responsibility before the Lord to know others’ needs and bring them before the Lord to receive a burden from Him and speak according to this burden.
The greatest problem, however, in the administration of the church and in the ministry of the word is not having a burden from the Lord.
We may do things for the Lord in the church life and we may serve the Lord without a burden from Him.
Without a burden, all our activity will be dead and ineffective; with a burden, we will be living and flourishing. When we have a burden from the Lord, we are dealt with by the Lord, for the self decreases an dis dealt with.
There are things that our burden will not allow us to do, and there are areas that will require our being dealt with before we can release our burdens.
But if we serve only according to obligation instead of serving with a burden, such service will cause us to lose the Lord’s presence (Mal. 3:14; Deut. 4:25).
Some may serve the Lord mournfully, being sad that they have to do it, or simply because they have to serve the Lord, not being at all happy.
May we open to the Lord for Him to deal with our inner being as we receive a burden from the Lord and speak to others according to this burden.
May we allow the Lord to shine on us, deal with our self and natural abilities, and flow through us as we discharge the burden the Lord gives to us in our spirit.
May we not walk mournfully before the Lord, and may we not serve Him only because we have to. Whenever our service becomes a matter of fulfilling an obligation, our service has already degraded.
Wow, even in our service for the Lord, we can be degraded, and degradation can come in among the saints as we serve them not with a burden!
How much do we need to be before the Lord regarding our service to the Lord and our ministering of the word so that we do not bring in degradation or spread degradation in the church life! Amen!
Lord Jesus, we exercise our spirit to touch You, be open to You, and receive revelations from You. Grant us something fresh and new, a new seeing of who You are and what You want to do today. We want to live and serve according to a burden from You. Save us from not having a burden from the Lord in our ministering of the word. May we release God’s revelation to man! Amen, Lord Jesus, give us the words of revelation so that we may release God’s revelation to man, thus discharging the burden from the Lord! Save us from merely imparting some doctrines or Bible knowledge to others. Save us from serving You without a burden from You. Oh Lord Jesus, we want to have Your speaking. Speak to us. Speak through us. May our ministering of the Word and our service to the Lord be full of burden, full of God’s presence. Keep us in Your presence, always contacting You about things. May our living and work be living and flourishing as we remain under the divine revelation and live in God’s presence. Oh Lord, we love You! We are one with You to speak what You speak!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers on this topic, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 53, “The Ministry of God’s Word,” ch. 12, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Ministry of the Word and God’s Dispensing for God’s Economy (2026 March ITERO), week 5, “Cooperating with the Lord to Carry Out His Economy by Being His Faithful Stewards Who Minister the Word with a Burden from the Lord and Who Coordinate with One Another in One Accord” – day 3.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Pray to fellowship with Jesus, / Speaking nothing in pretense; / Ask according to the spirit, / Praying by the inner sense. / Pray to fellowship with Jesus, / List’ning earnestly to Him; / Be impressed with His intentions, / Yielding to Him from within. (Hymns #784 stanzas 4-5)
– Lord, speak to me, that I may speak / In living echoes of Thy tone; / As Thou hast sought, so let me seek / Thy erring children lost and lone. / O lead me, Lord, that I may lead / The wandering and the wavering feet; / O feed me, Lord, that I may feed / Thy hungering ones with manna sweet. (Hymns #903 stanzas 1-2)
– We have a most glorious King; / The heavens, He says, are His throne; / All worlds are His mighty domain, / All kingdoms His scepter shall own. / He dwells with His people below, / He loves in their trials to share; / We dwell with the King for His work, / His burden we willingly bear. (Hymns #904 stanza 1)
