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An important portion of the Word related to door-knocking for fruit-bearing is in Luke 10. Verses 3 through 6 say, “Go; behold, I send you as lambs in the midst of wolves. Do not carry a purse, nor a bag, nor sandals; and greet no one on the way. And into whatever house you enter, first say, Peace to this house. And if a son of peace is there, your peace shall rest upon it; but if not, it shall return upon you.” In these verses the Lord told the seventy that He sent them out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Then He gave them instructions not to carry a purse, a bag, or sandals and not to greet anyone on the way. Also, He told them what to say first when they entered a house. They were not supposed to say, “How are you?” but “Peace to this house.”
The son of peace in verse 6 is the very God-chosen and predestinated one. Among so many people, this one is a son of peace predestinated by God. Now God has sent you to gain this one. If a son of peace is there, your peace shall rest upon him. The trainees who were there in Taipei saw and experienced this. They saw many sons of peace upon whom their peace rested. Verse 7 says, “And in that house remain, eating and drinking the things from them, for the worker is worthy of his wages.” You do not owe them; they owe you something. In Taipei some have tasted this experience already. The visited ones eventually prepared lunch for our trainees. The way of door-knocking — visiting people — was first invented by the Lord Jesus.
The burden of this chapter is embodied in the following six points, which are the qualifications of door-knocking for fruit-bearing: aggressive desperation, absolute consecration, uninterrupted abiding in the Lord, full saturation with the word, prayer for the filling of both the essential and economical Spirit, and going with the authority of Christ. If you are such a person who would pick up the new way and do it according to the trained way, I assure you that you will have a big success. The old way and influence of Christianity among us will be overcome.
For years many of us have been drugged persons. A person who is drugged is numb. He does not have any feeling. Some of us did not bear any fruit for twenty years yet still felt that we were okay. Many of the churches have been under a drugged situation for years. We all have been meeting in our localities week after week and year after year with hardly any increase. We need to be warned to wake up. We have been wrong. Any branch that does not bear fruit will be cut off (John 15:2, 6). Is this not serious?
We have talked much concerning abiding in John 15. But have we entered into the reality of abiding in John 15, and do we realize the seriousness of not bearing fruit? To take a branch away from a tree is serious. After being taken away, the branch loses everything of the tree. You may still be meeting in the name of Christ and have no realization that you have been taken away already. In this fellowship I do not care for the expounding or interpreting of the Lord’s word in John 15. Rather, I hope that you would be impressed with the seriousness of not bearing fruit. Any branch that bears no fruit will be taken away. You may have been taken away unconsciously already under your drugged situation. You may say that you enjoy Christ, but where is the enjoyment if you have not borne fruit and have been cut off from the vine tree? How could you enjoy the vine tree? This is solemn. We all have to see how much we have been fooled and drugged by the tradition, the background, and the surrounding of today’s Christianity. Millions of Christians are drugged, but we have to be different.
Saints, wake up! As a brother among you, I am shouting, sounding, and even crying to you — you have to wake up! If the Lord is real and the Bible is a true book, it is solemn and serious to be a Christian without bearing fruit. You may have been cut off, taken away, already. This is why you may not have had any enjoyment of Christ for years. You got cut off from Him. The elders and co-workers need to consider this. We may have been in the Lord’s recovery for many years, but what have we been doing? We may have been carrying out things in a drugged way, and we may even be drugging others.
Have you ever seen a fruit tree in an orchard that did not bear fruit year after year? Would the husbandman still keep that tree? He would not just cut off the branches but uproot the entire tree. God intended to uproot Israel because Israel did not bear fruit for years (Luke 13:6-9). How about the church today? Look at today’s Christianity. Four of the five major denominations in Protestant Christianity are decreasing in number. These are the Episcopalian, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Methodist denominations. Only the Southern Baptists are increasing, but their rate of increase is still very low — only about 1.4 percent yearly. The rate of increase among the Assemblies of God runs first only at six percent yearly, while the United Pentecostals have had an increase of less than five percent yearly. This is still too low.
In the past twenty-three years the highest rate of increase we had was around forty percent. But in the last ten years, since we suffered from the defamation of some books, our yearly rate of increase has dropped to about three percent. We have blamed the opposition and have taken the excuse of the opposition for our barrenness, but do you believe that with the apostles there was no opposition? Why would we not wake up to do something? It is time for all of us to wake up, especially the elders and co-workers. We must take another way.
Recently, the Midwest area called a gathering for those who had been in the full-time training in Taipei to train some of the other full-timers and anyone available to go. For three days fifty saints went out, and they baptized over forty. Saints, wake up! There is a way. Do not think that there is no way. Thank the Lord that He has shown us the way. Fifty saints going out and baptizing over forty people within three days should be enough to wake all of us up. Would we remain in a drugged situation? If I were one of the elders or co-workers, I would tell the saints that from now on I will go out to knock on doors morning and evening, every day of the week. Our main work from now on is to knock on doors. If you went out in such a desperate way, do you not think you could gain one per day?
To have aggressive desperation, you have to be “crazy.” If a person is in a burning building and is desperate for his life, he will jump out of the window. If we do not get someone baptized within a short period of time, we need to be desperate to “jump out of the window,” to do anything and everything it takes to get someone baptized. Why would we not go out in this way? All the elders need to “go on strike” from their congregation and go out to knock on doors. Then every home you gain will be a “chapel.” After one year you can set up one hundred “chapels.” Some of the homes you go to may even prepare a dinner for you. The trainees in Taipei reported that some homes even gave them gifts. They felt that they owed the saints something.
Saints, wake up! Now is the time. The elders need to realize that the church is not theirs. The church is the church of God (1 Cor. 10:32), the church of Christ (Rom. 16:16), and the church of the saints (1 Cor. 14:33b). If the saints will not fire you as their “pastor,” you need to fire yourself by the new way. Blessed are all the elders who fully give themselves to go door-to-door. The elders should leave some of the prayer meetings and the Lord’s table meetings to the saints and go to knock on doors. After a month of going door to door, you can have the Lord’s table in the homes you gain. The elders need to go to create the increase, and their wives need to give up all their opinions and follow their husbands to knock on doors. You do not need to close the hall. The hall is not yours. It belongs to the saints. Just go to knock on doors. You can gain sixty within a short time and have the Lord’s table with these new ones in their homes. Where there is a will, there is a way. Do not say there is no way; there is a way, and the Lord has shown us the way. He has dedicated this way; He has cut this way.
Matthew 25:14-30 is a parable for faithfulness. The slothful slave seemingly did not do anything wrong. He did not lose anything. What the Lord gave him, he kept throughout all the years until the Lord came back (v. 25). He even gave the Lord a message pointing out that the Lord was a hard man, reaping where He did not sow and gathering where He did not winnow (v. 24). Did the Lord justify him? He did not. Right away the Lord condemned him. He said, “Evil and slothful slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I did not winnow. Therefore you should have deposited my money with the money changers and when I came, I would have recovered what is mine with interest” (vv. 26-27). The slothful slave should have taken the Lord’s word solemnly; he was not desperate. Just to keep what the Lord gave you is not sufficient. He wants the interest, the fruit.
These are some solid verses in the New Testament concerning our destiny. Do you believe that the Lord is real? Do you believe that He will come back? Do you believe that one day He will ask you to give an account? Why are you not solemn? Why are you not serious? Why are you not desperate? Will you just keep what the Lord gave you, not go back to the world, and stay away from sin? You may be a good Christian coming to all the church meetings and keeping all that the Lord has given you. But in this parable the Lord said that He wants to recover what is His with interest. This should be enough to cause us to be desperate. Do not say that it is too hard, that the opposition is so prevailing. This is just an excuse. This is like telling the Lord that He is a hard man, reaping where He did not sow and gathering where He did not winnow. You may take this excuse, but the Lord will never take it. The Lord will take your excuse as a condemnation to you. It is quite possible that we could be this slothful slave.
Paul says that he solemnly charged Timothy by the Lord’s appearing and His kingdom (2 Tim. 4:1). His appearing is seen in Matthew 25 with the slothful slave. The kingdom is a kingdom of reward or punishment according to what we have been and what we have done since we were saved until He comes back. In 2 Timothy 4:8 Paul says that he will be awarded with the crown of righteousness by the Lord, the righteous Judge. Paul seriously warned and charged Timothy, not by love nor by kindness but by the Lord’s appearing and by His kingdom. You will be either rewarded or be punished by the righteous Judge righteously at His appearing. This is serious.
Since I saw this fifty years ago, I began to be serious. This seriousness has kept me many times from backsliding and from being slothful. One day He will see me, and I will meet Him. In His appearing, I have to give Him an account, and He will decide whether I will receive a reward or a punishment in the coming kingdom. It is a solemn thing. Do not think that it is all right if you do not bear fruit for years. I hope that this word will stir up your aggressive desperation. As a human being, I must believe in the Lord Jesus; as one of His believers, I must love Him; and as one who loves Him, I must bear fruit. This is serious. No need to say at His coming, at His appearing, even today if I do not bear fruit, He will cut me off, take me away from all His riches, from all His supply, from all His enjoyment. Then at His coming I will surely suffer loss (1 Cor. 3:15). I will have to suffer punishment for one thousand years in the manifestation of the kingdom.
The second qualification is to consecrate our body (Rom. 12:1) to go out to visit people by knocking on their doors. This surely needs your body. You may have offered yourself to the Lord many times in prayer, but your prayer may not have issued in a practical consecration of your body. What is the practical consecration of your body to the Lord? It is to bear fruit. As a branch, you should not be occupied by anything. You should be pruned. Get away from all the preoccupations so that you could be spared and completely unoccupied to bear fruit. I do not mean that you have to drop your job or forget about your living. We have to have a job to make a living. Just spend the amount of time and ability needed to make a living. Do not have any intent to make more money to make yourself rich. Forget about that. That will preoccupy your body from bearing fruit. All of us can spare some time for the sake of bearing fruit. We do not need to work more than what is necessary to make an adequate living. Why do you need to work more so that you can drive a more expensive car? Could you not save some time to knock on doors? Do not save time to gain dollars but to gain souls, to gain persons.
You may feel that you need to do cleaning on the weekend and that you need to mow your lawn. I agree with you. But sometimes you have to forget about your lawn. You promised the Lord to go out two hours a week. Do this first. Then use the rest of the time to mow the lawn. Take this way. If you would take my word, you may discover that you have more than two hours to go out. You may not realize how much you are enslaved in cleaning your home and in taking care of your lawn. Is there any pleasure in just taking care of your living and your house? But if you go out and within two hours baptize two persons, you will come back dancing. You will be addicted to that. You will have no patience to wait until next Saturday, but you will go the next day. You may even forget about the Lord’s table to get others baptized.
Is the new way an impossible way? No, it is an altogether easy way. The Lord said that His yoke is easy (Matt. 11:30). The only problem is that we would not put our neck into His yoke. Absolute consecration is to mean business. A husband needs to take care of his wife and of his children and their education, but thank the Lord, it is not so hard to get our children educated in the United States. There is no excuse for not going out to bear fruit.
To be in the Lord’s new move is not just to learn the way from the training in Taipei. The way does not work without a right person. You must be a right person who always abides in the Lord. To abide in Him means to be one with Him. If you abide in Him, He promises to abide in you. You are in Him, and He is in you. You are just one with Him. Between you and Him there is no middle wall, no break, no interruption. When the Lord sent His disciples to go out, in a sense, that was He Himself going out. When the disciples went out to visit people, that was the Lord going out, so peace was with them. If you are a person abiding in the Lord all the time uninterruptedly, when you go out to knock on people’s doors, that is the Lord’s knocking. That is the Lord’s gracious visitation. You bring the Lord with you, you send the Lord to them, and you share the Lord with them. Every chosen one, every God-predestinated one, is a son of peace. They will be happy to receive what you would share with them.
The Mormons go out, but they do not have such a Lord. This depends on your uninterrupted abiding. In our training in Taipei, we do not only tell the trainees how to spend their time at the homes, but we also give them some basic points they have to build up. They must be persons abiding in the Lord twenty-four hours a day.
A word from a child in elementary school does not bear the weight as the same word from someone in junior high school. The same word out of a high schooler is weightier than that out of a junior higher. The word of a college graduate is much heavier and more full of weight than the same word from a high schooler. If the elders would take the new way and be trained to go out and do things according to the trained way, they will speak the same words from the same book, The Mystery of Human Life, but their word will be much weightier than the same word from the young ones.
Suppose a brother among us, one who is older and has the maturity and constitution in the divine life, knocks on people’s doors and sits down to speak with a young man only eighteen years of age. This young man will respect this brother’s every word because he is aged, experienced, and learned. This brother’s very person, the way he reads, and the way he speaks will catch him. If you know little about the truth and just go out with the little book to repeat it, there will not be much weight, much life, or much light. Thus, all the door-knockers should be fully saturated and soaked in the word.
I am a little concerned that many who have bought the Life-studies of the New Testament have just put them on their shelves. You have to get yourself soaked with the Life-studies. Every day at every available time you should read the messages. Do not put them on the shelf. It is good to scatter the Life-studies throughout your house. Turn to any page and read when you have even a little time. Every page has something. Every page is a pot of water. If you read it, you will get soaked and saturated. This is building up yourself to make yourself so qualified, full of the proper divine knowledge of the divine truth. Then you will be so weighty when you speak to people. This makes a great difference. This is not like two well-dressed young men from the Mormon church talking to people with no divine truth to convey. When we go out, we not only have a proper appearance, but we also have the Lord with us and have the building up of the word in our being as a person soaked in the holy truth. This makes a difference. This means a lot. A person who is weighty may go to a home and only sit while someone else talks, but even his sitting means something. All the angels will admire, and all the demons will shake at his presence. The angels will be happy with such a person.
Acts 11:24 refers to the inward filling of the essential Spirit, and Acts 4:31 refers to the outward filling of the economical Spirit. In Acts 11 Barnabas was one filled with the Holy Spirit essentially and inwardly, so many people turned to the Lord. In Acts 4 the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit outwardly and economically, so they spoke the word of God with boldness. To be filled essentially and economically with the Spirit always requires a thorough confession. We have to admit that we are all sinful persons. We are regenerated, but we are in the body, in the flesh, and are still living on this earth with many dirty things. Physically speaking, how many times do you wash your hands? A doctor told us that doctors get sick less because they exercise to wash their hands frequently. If you want to avoid sickness, you had better wash your hands twelve times a day. You have to make a thorough confession many times a day. You may have had the filling of the Spirit, but your long face to your wife spoiled it, so you have to make a thorough confession to get yourself adjusted, to get yourself cleansed, to get yourself right with a right atmosphere; then you will once again enjoy the filling of the essential Spirit. Do this all the time.
Many of your prayers may only be for good jobs, good cars, or a good education. Those prayers make your person dirty. Forget about that. Use twenty minutes every day to make a thorough confession: “Lord, cleanse my mind, cleanse my thinking, cleanse my emotion, cleanse my loving of anything other than You. Lord, cleanse my will, my decision, my intention.” Get yourself fully cleared up. You will surely have the Spirit filling you up inwardly, essentially, and outwardly, economically.
If you have the previous five points, you are surely equipped, qualified, and ready to go with the power and the authority of Christ. To go to knock on doors means that you command the door to open. Sometimes you have to say, “Door, I knock; you open.” When the man is there, give the commandment, not verbally but silently: “Man, listen to me. Let me in.” While you are reading The Mystery of Human Life, tell the angels and demons that you are reading to this one with the authority of the ascended Christ. Many trainees in Taipei experienced this. They were surprised that the people were like lambs. They follow your directions to believe and be baptized. In the past when we talked to people, we did not have this realization. We did not exercise the very right we have been given. We had no intention to exercise our authority to command them to be baptized. Rather, we would tell the new ones that they could wait to be baptized. We gave up our right. Where was your authority to baptize new ones immediately into the Triune God?
Many of the trainees can testify that baptizing the new ones immediately after they received the Lord really worked and really made people happy. It changes people. In a Buddhist home, after the parents got baptized, with the little children standing by, they said to the idols of Buddha, “Buddha, we have Jesus now. We don’t want you, and we don’t need you. You have to go.” Then the parents did away with the idols in the children’s presence. This is wonderful! This is the authority of Christ. We go out with a position. We are the ambassadors sent by Him with authority to get people (2 Cor. 5:20). When you go out like this, all the demons will flee. The devil will be gone, leaving the person under your hand just like a lamb.
The way of the training must be matched by these qualifications. The way of training can only work out something with qualified persons. When we talk about door-knocking, we are talking about this kind of door-knocking, not the kind practiced by the Mormons. You have the Lord, you have the word, you have the Spirit, and you have the Lord’s authority. You go out with these four things. Do you not have the Lord? You are one with Him; you abide in Him. Do you not have the word? You are soaked and saturated with the word. Do you not have the Spirit? You are filled with both the essential and economical Spirit. Do you not have the authority of Christ? You are His ambassador. You have Christ the Lord, His word, His Spirit, and His authority to go out, so you are a fully equipped soldier. Who can resist you or stand against you? This is the way we go out.
I hope that the co-workers and elders would go out this way. Forget about giving messages in the halls. We have been doing that for years. That did not do much. Thank the Lord for these qualifications of door-knocking for fruit-bearing: aggressive desperation, absolute consecration, uninterrupted abiding in the Lord, full saturation with the word, prayer for the filling of both the essential and economical Spirit, and going with the authority of Christ.
