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The preaching of the gospel is a simple commission that the Lord gave us before His resurrection and ascension (Matt. 28:18-20). However, in order to preach the gospel in an effective way, there are many things that need to be considered.
First of all, in order to preach the gospel in an effective way, we must forsake or be delivered from many things. What do we need to forsake, and from what do we need to be delivered? For us to effectively preach the gospel, there are at least four things we must forsake or be delivered from. The first thing is sins. If someone wants to preach the gospel powerfully and effectively, he must first get rid of sins in a noticeable way. He may have had some notoriously bad habits or a temper in the past. However, once he is saved and has a desire to preach the gospel, he has to show people clearly that he has been delivered thoroughly from all these things. If he does this, the gospel will go forth from him. If the gospel is not powerful in us, we cannot expect that it will be powerful in others.
Therefore, for a person to powerfully and effectively preach the gospel, he himself must first receive the dynamic gospel of the Lord (Rom. 1:16) so that he may be delivered from all his sins and bad habits. If we try to preach the gospel without getting rid of all our sins, temper, and bad habits before the Lord, it will be hard for us to have power in the gospel. For example, if we have a certain habit that our classmates or colleagues look down on, then we should not expect that our gospel preaching will be effective among them. Some brothers and sisters lack power in the gospel because they talk too much. They might be good in all other aspects, but they talk too much. Eventually, all their classmates or colleagues not only disapprove of, but even are disgusted with, their talkativeness. Hence, their gospel is not powerful because their talkativeness has not been dealt with. If their excessive speaking is dealt with, many people will receive their gospel. When we preach the gospel, we have to thoroughly deal with all the things that other people condemn or disapprove of.
This can be compared to Paul’s saying that he became all things to all men (1 Cor. 9:20-23). He did this so that he would not offend others. The basic reason for the lack of power in the gospel and for the failure in preaching the gospel lies with us. Many brothers and sisters cannot preach the gospel before men because they have many offenses that they have not dealt with. For example, although they may have offended their classmates or colleagues in the past, now that they are saved they still do not go to them to apologize, to ask for forgiveness, or to make restitution. This is the reason that they do not have power in the gospel. Only when we have thoroughly dealt with all these offenses will we have power in the gospel. This is not only the case with other people, it is the same with our family. We have to absolutely deal with every matter in which we have formerly wronged our parents, husband, or wife. If we have never had a thorough dealing before our family, we should not expect that the gospel will be powerful with them. This is impossible. Only when we have had thorough dealings will we have a powerful gospel.
Second, in order to preach the gospel effectively, we have to be delivered from the world. Being delivered from the world includes being delivered from our manner of life, our living, and so forth. A gospel preacher should be one who forsakes everything. The more he forsakes, the more powerful the gospel will be. This is why the gospel could be so powerful on the day of Pentecost—the disciples had forsaken everything. Today even though some people have received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, they still do not have the power of Pentecost. On the day of Pentecost the disciples forsook all things to follow the Lord, putting aside all their possessions, reputation, prestige, and family background. Hence, they received power. Of course, whoever receives the Holy Spirit’s outpouring will receive power, yet the Holy Spirit will come upon only those who have forsaken all things. The Holy Spirit comes upon us to empower us, but we must be those who forsake all things to follow the Lord. If we have not left all things to follow the Lord, even though the Holy Spirit may come upon us, no power will be manifested. Not only does the Bible tell us this, but church history also confirms this. Every time a person has forsaken everything to follow the Lord, the Lord’s gospel has been powerful in him. However, whenever we live a life of ease, we will lose the power of the gospel.
Those who are sent by the Lord to preach the gospel are the Lord’s called ones. One time in 1934 we had a time of powerful gospel preaching in Chefoo because all the gospel preachers that day had forsaken the earth and were filled from the heavens. Anyone who has never answered the Lord’s call to leave the earth has no way to be filled from the heavens. Every powerful gospel preacher is one who first answers the Lord’s call to forsake the earth, who is sent by the Lord, and who is filled from the heavens to preach the gospel to all the nations. Only this kind of person can be powerful in preaching the gospel.
Third, we need to be delivered from the self. To preach the gospel effectively, we need to be delivered not only from our sins and the world but also from the self. Many brothers and sisters lack power in the gospel because they care too much for themselves. Hence, if we want to have power in the gospel, we have to come down from our “throne.” Everyone has his own throne—the wife has her throne, the manager has his throne, the student has his throne, the parents have their throne, and the children also have their throne. We all have our thrones, and it is hard for us to come down from them. In short, because everyone has his throne, once they speak just a few words, others can recognize whether they are a wife, a manager, or a university student. However, a powerful gospel preacher is one who is without sins, without the world, and without the self.
Many people are very powerful in the preaching of the gospel, yet they do not have any flavor of the self. You may say that he is a prominent person, yet he does not look like one; you may think that he is a great teacher, but he does not look like one. No one can really tell what he is, because he does not have any airs. Suppose there is a sister among us who is a wife who always sits on her “throne.” Surely, this sister’s gospel preaching will be powerless. It is the same with those who are students. As long as we desire to keep and preserve ourselves, the gospel will lose ground and power in us. If we want to rise up to preach the gospel, we have to forsake our social position, our prestige, and our self.
Suppose there is a brother among us who is a high-school teacher and who has the burden to preach the gospel to people in the countryside. However, these countrymen are nighttime janitors who clean toilets. Will this brother be able to clean the toilets along with them? Most likely he will not be able to do so because he probably has not been delivered from his self. What does it mean to be delivered from the self? In simple words, it means that we do not live in ourselves, but we live “in” others. If you are a high-school teacher, when you meet a nighttime janitor who cleans toilets, you will not be in yourself; rather, you will be in him, and you will be the same as he. Then you will be able to gain him. Even if you are the wife of a rich man, when you meet the poor wife of a beggar, you will live “in” her and not give her the feeling that she is poor and you are rich. Rather, you will give her the feeling that you are the same as she is. Then you will be able to gain her. I do not have the boldness to say this in other matters, but it is really the case in the matter of the gospel. Suppose some brothers who are managers or bosses say to their subordinates, “You need to be saved. Do not think that it is enough to earn some money every month. If you do not believe in Jesus, you will go to hell after you die.” This kind of gospel preaching will have no effect. I saw a sister who told her servant, “You need to believe in Jesus. If you do not believe in Jesus, you will not be saved. It is terrible to go to hell.” This is similar to the emperor of Japan giving an order to his subjects. This kind of a gospel cannot be powerful. To be powerful we have to come out of ourselves.
We cannot say that all the Western missionaries who came to China in the early days were good, but the majority of them were very good. It is said that there were some missionaries who went to the villages to preach the gospel when they first came to Shantung. At that time many countrymen had lice on their bodies, and even their blankets were full of lice. These missionaries, however, did not mind. When they preached the gospel in the villages, they mixed in with all these countrymen. When they had to stay the night, they shared blankets with these countrymen because the poor people did not have extra blankets. After spending a night with them, the missionaries also had lice all over their bodies. However, because of this they gained many countrymen. Some countrymen were very poor. Outside of their houses they raised hogs, inside their houses they raised donkeys, and in the middle of their houses they had a millstone. At night those who preached the gospel slept within the periphery of the millstone. Beside them were the donkeys, and even at night the donkeys would eat grass. The situation was really miserable. However, each one of them was very willing to suffer. Although today we do not have that many problems in the city, the principle is the same. If we always maintain the attitude that others should accommodate us, the gospel will have no way to go out. Only when we are delivered from the self and accommodate others will the gospel be powerful.
Fourth, we have to be delivered from our self-consciousness. A gospel preacher should not have any self-consciousness, especially if he is one who preaches from the podium. A person who preaches the gospel from the podium and speaks for God must not be self-conscious. Everyone who preaches the gospel, whether he is preaching from the podium or he is preaching in private, has to lose his self-consciousness. For example, if we preach the gospel to someone on the way to the gymnasium and he is open to receive the gospel, will we be able to kneel down and pray with him at that moment? If we are self-conscious when we kneel down with him, our gospel will not be effective. It is not a matter of having a “thick-skinned” face; rather, it is a matter of simply not having a face. The more we are ridiculed, the more we are “faceless”; the more we are mocked, the more we preach the gospel. Some brothers really have a heart for the gospel, but still they cannot be delivered from their self-consciousness. Hence, even though they do a little preaching of the gospel, they are not released. Thus, power cannot flow out of them.
I believe that our being delivered from these four things— sins, the world, the self, and self-consciousness—will cause the gospel to be powerful. Therefore, we must thoroughly deal with all these matters. In order for the gospel to come out of us in a powerful way, we need to be delivered from these four things. If we hope that our gospel preaching would be powerful, we must carefully deal with these four matters, and the more dealings, the better. This requires us to be “thick-skinned” and even to be “faceless.” If we have been delivered from these four things, even without the definite outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we will still have some power.
Fifth, we have to receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8). In order to be effective in preaching the gospel, in addition to the dealings related to the four matters mentioned above, we have to pray diligently and exercise our faith to receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit strengthens our spirit. Without the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, our spirit cannot be fully released. If we want to release our spirit fully, we must have the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. However, without the above four deliverances, the power that comes through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit cannot be manifested. The standard for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was set on the day of Pentecost. If we want to receive the power of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we have to study the situation on the day of Pentecost (2:1-4). By the day of Pentecost, Peter, James, and John all had experienced being delivered from various things. No doubt, they were delivered from sins, from the world, and from the self. Moreover, they had no self-consciousness—they had even risked their lives to bear testimony for the Lord. Therefore, the Holy Spirit immediately came upon them. Once the Holy Spirit came upon them, they were empowered. This may be likened to a chemical experiment. Often when a certain element is added to another, tremendous power is produced, which induces an explosion. Many people pursue the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and even receive it, yet they are still powerless. Those who received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost had been delivered from certain things. However, today people who pursue the outpouring of the Holy Spirit often have not been delivered from these things. Thus, if we want to receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and have powerful gospel preaching, we first need to be delivered from many things.
Sixth, we need to have adequate prayer. In the preaching of the gospel, life is crucial, but prayer is even more crucial. Whether we are studying in school or working, if we want the gospel to be powerful with us, we need to gather together and pray to release ourselves, release the gospel, and release the souls of men. The more thorough our prayers are, the more powerful the gospel will be. Our gospel is not powerful because our prayers are not thorough enough. Hence, for us to have a powerful gospel, we must have adequate prayer. In every local church there should be a group of brothers and sisters who are so burdened for the gospel that they pray for the gospel so thoroughly that it seems as if they do not care for anything but the gaining of souls.
Seventh, we need to have a heart that loves the souls of sinners. This love is not inherent in us but is given by God; neither does this love come from us, but it comes through prayer. The more we pray for men’s souls, the more we will have a heart to love sinners. We will have the feeling that when a sinner’s soul is perishing, it is as if we are perishing. The reason why we do not have power in the gospel is that we do not have an adequate concern for people’s souls. If we want to be powerful in the gospel, we have to ask the Lord for a heart that loves sinners.
Eighth, we have to know how to use the words of the Scriptures. First of all, we need to be delivered from the four items mentioned above. Then we need the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, adequate prayer, and a heart that loves the souls of sinners. Finally, we need to know how to make use of the words of the Scriptures. If we can practice these eight points, our gospel preaching will be very effective. If we have already practiced the above seven points, when we share the gospel with people, we still will need to know how to use the words of the Scriptures. After a person is saved, we still have to nourish and establish him with the words of the Scriptures.
Therefore, we need to be familiar with several categories of truth in the Scriptures and use them precisely. The first category is concerning God, the second is concerning sin, the third is concerning the Savior, the fourth is concerning the way of salvation, the fifth is concerning repentance and believing, and the sixth is concerning the salvation of God. In other words, these few categories are regarding how a person can be forgiven and justified, have eternal life, and be made alive together with Christ. Then the seventh category is concerning the assurance of one’s salvation, and the eighth is concerning how a person ought to conduct himself after being saved. We have to be very familiar with all the verses related to these eight categories.
Concerning the Scripture verses for the above eight categories, I have done some arranging. In the first category, concerning God, we may use Romans 1:20 to show people that there is God. Acts 17:24-29 says that men might grope for God and find Him. In addition, Acts 14:15-17 is useful. The verses in this category prove the existence of God. If we can properly make use of these verses, they can be very helpful to us. The best thing to do is to prepare a small notebook and write down all these verses and memorize them so that we may apply them at any time. The second category of verses is regarding sins. These verses are Romans 3:23, 9-18; 5:12; 6:23; Mark 7:21-23 and Romans 1:28-31. We need to be well versed in these passages concerning sins, or even better, to memorize them. In particular, we should memorize Romans 6:23, which says, “The wages of sin is death.” We have to memorize every word and know the verse references clearly. The third category of verses proves that the Lord Jesus is the Savior. These verses include Acts 4:12, Matthew 1:21, and 1 Timothy 1:15.
The fourth category is concerning the way of salvation—the cross. These verses include 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Isaiah 53:6; John 1:29 Hebrews 9:22; and Matthew 26:28. The fifth category is regarding repentance and believing, which is the way to receive salvation. Mark 1:15; John 3:16, 36; Acts 2:38 and 16:31 can be used. The sixth category is about salvation, which includes forgiveness of sins, justification, having eternal life, and having peace. The verses for this category are Acts 10:43 Isaiah 1:18; 1 John 1:9 Romans 3:28; John 6:47; 5:24 and 1 John 5:12. The seventh category is regarding one’s realization of his salvation. These verses include Romans 10:9-10, 13; 1 John 5:13; John 3:36 and 5:24. The eighth category is about one’s living after salvation. For this category we can use Mark 16:16 and Matthew 3:8. We have to familiarize ourselves with all the verses of these eight categories.
Question: The brothers do not want us to pay too much attention to man’s emotion, but when we preach the gospel, should we put some emphasis on man’s emotion and try to touch man’s emotion? Should we also use our own emotion?
Answer: Preaching the gospel is not a matter of whether or not we should touch man’s emotion. The fact is that man has a spirit and a soul within him and that the major part of the soul is the emotion. Hence, in order for a person to be moved, we must first cause his emotion to be moved. Therefore, when we preach the gospel, we should stir up man’s emotion. However, we can do this only to a certain degree. After a person’s emotion is stirred, we have to minister the spiritual reality to him. It is useless to merely stir up people’s emotions without ministering to them the spiritual realities, because once they leave you, everything will be over. Thus, we have to stir up people’s emotions to an appropriate degree. Some use too much of their emotion, causing the whole meeting to have an emotional atmosphere, yet there is no solid seed planted into people. As a result, everything is in vain. If a person receives only a kind of excitement yet inwardly does not gain anything substantial, he will remain empty. However, sometimes even though the message itself is excellent, if the seed cannot enter into the ground, it will avail nothing. Hence, we should practice both within limits. We may illustrate this with farming. After we have tilled the ground to a certain degree, we have to sow the seed. Merely tilling the ground is useless; we must also sow the seed. Likewise, it would be futile to sow the seed if the ground were not tilled and loose. Without this, the seed cannot be sowed into the ground. Thus, both must be done in an appropriate manner.
Question: It is usually not so easy for a poor person to preach the gospel to a rich person or for a “lower-class” person to preach to a “higher-class” person. What should we do?
Answer: It is always difficult for the rich to forget that they are rich and for the poor to forget that they are poor. It is also not so easy for those who have high positions in society to forget their status or for those who have a low position in society to forget their status. However, for the sake of the gospel all people should come together, having no consciousness of whether they are rich or poor, highborn or lowborn. When we preach the gospel, we should not have the feeling that we are poor or lowly. Even if we are really poor and of a lowly birth, we should not care. All we care for is the gospel. On the other hand, if we are a rich person or a government official, we should not have pride in ourselves, because our goal is to preach the gospel. When we preach the gospel, we have to be delivered from ourselves so that we do not know what it is to be poor or to be lowly.
Question: If while preaching the gospel we speak too much and our words are too heavy so that the other party has some negative feeling, what should we do?
Answer: We all know that there are two ways to box. The first way is to give the opponent a blow. This way seems rough and heavy, but actually it does not hurt at all. The other way is to hit your opponent in a way that gives the impression that you just barely put your fist on his body. This way does not seem to be heavy at all, but when your opponent takes off his clothes at home, he will find that he has a bruise. It is the same with the preaching of the gospel. Sometimes we have to preach the gospel to certain people in a mild way so that we do not give rise to any negative feelings toward us. We need to practice speaking a heavy word but not in a rough way, just like the second way of boxing.
Question: In our preaching of the gospel, we find that it is harder for the local people, the Taiwanese, to receive the gospel than for the mainlanders, those who migrated from other provinces of mainland China. What should we do about this?
Answer: The reasons that preaching the gospel to the local Taiwanese is not as easy as preaching the gospel to the mainlanders are as follows. First, the mainlanders are easily touched in their emotions to receive the gospel because of their unsettled situation, whereas the Taiwanese are living and working in peace and contentment. Since everything is going well with them, they do not have the heart to receive the gospel. Second, in Taiwan the practice of idolatry is extremely prevailing. Due to their change of environment, however, the mainlanders have lost their idols, and even their idols have proved to be of no effect. Hence, they are more willing to receive the gospel. Therefore, the brothers should pray much for the spread of the gospel in Taiwan, asking the Lord to bind the strong man, to plunder his goods, and to release the souls of the native people (Matt. 12:29). Third, language is a factor. Those who are from the mainland do not know the local dialect. Moreover, when some local people are saved, they may not understand the Mandarin that we speak in the meetings. Although we have translation for them in the meetings in which messages are given, we do not have any translation in the prayer meetings or fellowship meetings. This is really hard for them. Several indigenous brothers also said that they can understand only half of the Taiwan dialect and half of Mandarin and that if we were to use Japanese, they could understand everything. Thus, language is really a problem.
Therefore, we need to receive the burden to pray for the native brothers. For the gospel to spread on the island of Taiwan and for us to proceed on this pure path, there should be some native brothers who are raised up by the Lord; ones who have a clear knowledge of the gospel, of the salvation of the Lord, and of the ground of the church, as well as the burden for the gospel. Take the Philippines as an example. In the Philippines we read the Bible in Chinese and speak the Chinese language. Therefore, there is no way for the Filipinos to be saved and brought into the church life. Here in Taiwan, if we could preach, speak, and sing in Taiwanese, or if Mandarin quickly were to become more popular, it would be much easier for the local people to be saved. However, this is not something that can be attained in just two or three years. Therefore, I really hope that some local brothers will be raised up soon who know the Lord’s way, have some spiritual experiences, know the ground of the church, and have a burden. Then, with the fellowship and help from the brothers who are from the mainland, the Lord’s testimony will be propagated in Taiwan in a strong way.
Question: We say that when we preach the gospel, we have to completely forget ourselves and not care for our feelings. But if our gospel friend is not willing to listen to us and wants to leave, what should we do?
Answer: A man is wonderful, living, and full of feeling. A man is different from a bench because a bench does not have any feeling. Many times when we preach the gospel, we cannot say that we do not have any feeling. Yes, we do have some feeling, but we need to have wisdom. When others are indifferent and nonresponsive, we cannot simply say, “That is fine. If you do not listen to me, I will speak to the bench.” Those who preach the gospel from the podium must have the ability to speak something that can draw people’s attention and capture them. Once a person is captured, he will not think about leaving.
A person’s attention is always divided and scattered. Hence, we need to use one or two sentences to arouse his attention and stir him up. This may be likened to fishing. After the fishermen cast their net into the ocean, they pull it in slowly. Some people can use just one or two sentences to capture others and cause them to stay. Once people are willing to stay, we can sow the seed and put something into them. The great evangelist C. H. Spurgeon, who was called by some “The Prince of Preachers,” was preaching on the platform one day. He said, “You see, here is a man whose feet have grown into his heart and whose heart has gone into his feet.” Many people were shocked when they heard this, and their attention was drawn. In this way Spurgeon was able to capture people’s attention from the very beginning. Then at the end he spoke the gospel into them. Therefore, when we preach the gospel, first we have to stir up people’s interest, and then we have to sow the seed of life into them.
Some words spoken on the platform are for touching people’s emotion, and some are for enlightening people’s mind. However, if the words merely touch man’s emotion or enlighten his mind, they still will not work because they are not the words of life. When a person’s heart is touched and his mind is enlightened, and even the preacher himself does not use his mind but speaks a few words from his spirit so that they are infused into the person’s spirit, this is something of life—the word of life. The effect of touching someone’s emotion will pass away quickly, and the effect of enlightening someone’s mind will change with the passing of time. However, once life enters into a person’s being, it will not go out so easily. It is hard for a person who speaks from the podium to supply everyone’s spirit from the beginning of his speaking to the end. On the day of Pentecost there were almost no words that touched people’s emotion, and there was only a limited amount of speaking that enlightened people’s mind. However, the primary thing that Peter did was to sow spiritual reality into people. In a gospel message that lasts an hour, if we can sow something of spirit and life into people for just ten minutes, this can be considered strong preaching. It takes a farmer much effort to till the ground, but it takes him comparatively little effort to sow the seed. What does it mean to sow the seed into man? When a person’s emotion is touched, we sow the words of the gospel into him, not words of emotion or knowledge but words of life.
Question: When we tell some people about God, they say that we are speaking about some natural phenomenon, and when we tell them that man has a spirit, they say that we are merely describing a psychological phenomenon. What should we do in this situation?
Answer: After we have spoken the truth to a person like this, we have to pray for him. We need to learn to pray for specific people. After we have prayed adequately, we can pray in a stronger way, saying, “O God, we ask You to stretch out Your hand to do something in him.” We have to understand that everyone who gives excuses is deceiving himself. Almost all excuses are not the real situation. We have to know that the real situation is one thing while excuses are another. It is easy for men to hide the real situation by giving excuses. They not only cheat others but also deceive themselves. Thus, we should not believe their excuses unless we see that what they are saying is the real situation, because men always express their reasoning according to their own mind.
For example, suppose there are two brothers who are arguing with each other. The real situation is that they are arguing. Yet if these two brothers are not enlightened to see the fact that they are arguing, but only see their reasons for arguing, they will continue to argue. If we want to help them, we have to pray for them: “O Lord, save them from all their reasonings. No matter how reasonable their argument is, it needs to be condemned.” The more we reason, the more we justify ourselves. If we cannot help them by this ordinary prayer, we need a stronger prayer, saying, “O God, we ask You to stretch forth Your hand to break their reasoning.” Amazingly, these two brothers then may become sick. When others ask, “Why are they sick?” no one will be able to find the cause. At that time we would have to tell them, “Brothers, even though the doctor cannot find out the cause of your sickness, your sickness is still a fact.” In this way they will be enlightened.
Therefore, when we preach the gospel, if someone tells us that what we are speaking about is but a natural or psychological phenomenon, we should not be affected by them; rather, we should pray. Then if he becomes sick, we will tell him that regardless of whether it is a natural phenomenon or a psychological phenomenon, his sickness is a fact. Although we cannot persuade him to believe in the Lord by our speaking, we can pray for him until he believes. Hence, we have to pray in a particular way for some specific ones. When these ones are saved, many others will follow, and the gate of the gospel will be opened wide.
