From our observation of the new ones’ coming to the Lord’s table meeting, we found that the sweetest part is the fellowship with some light refreshments after the meeting. This time of fellowship has many advantages. First, the brothers and sisters can have more contact with the new believers. Through more fellowship and contact, the new believers’ real situation can be known. This is very helpful to new believers. It can cause them to become stable in Christ and in the church. Moreover, during the fellowship with refreshments the new believers can be invited to visit the meeting hall, through which they can be introduced to the church service, causing them to further know the church life.
Not only did a great number of new ones attend the meeting, but the way they entered the meeting hall was also orderly. There were about two thousand people who came. The attendance of two thousand people proves that there are five or six thousand people in the background, and most of these five or six thousand have meetings in their homes. This is indeed encouraging.
From the new believers’ testimonies we see that the result of preaching the gospel through door-knocking is unlimited. One brother testified that after he was saved, his cousin and his colleagues were all saved. How wonderful this is! When the gospel goes out, it can be widespread. We believe this has no limits. Another brother testified that while he was knocking on a door, the friend there was about to commit suicide. If the brother had not gone that day, that friend might have already committed suicide. This truly encourages us, as we feel that this way is not only workable but also excellent. There may not be another way by which the gospel can be widespread in such an unlimited way.
Furthermore, some testified that they were considering to become Christians but did not know how, and they were hoping that someone would visit them. The brothers and sisters were there at the right moment. This situation can be compared to the Lord sending Peter to visit Cornelius’s house in Acts 10. On the one hand, the Lord wanted Peter to go, while on the other hand, the Lord had already done all the preparation work in Cornelius’s house. Therefore, when we little “Peters” go to knock on doors, there are already quite a few people waiting for us. This situation also proves that if we had knocked on doors selectively and not from house to house, it would not have been possible for us to have such results. If we still followed the old ways to publicize in the newspapers, put out advertisements, and invite people by phone, we would not have had this kind of result. At the same time, the gospel could not have been so widespread and so properly preached. Preaching the gospel through door-knocking is truly positive and profitable.
In His Word the Lord has shown us knocking on doors from house to house. Matthew 9:36 says of the Lord Jesus, that “seeing the crowds, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and cast away like sheep not having a shepherd.” The Lord told His disciples that they needed to pray: “The harvest is great, but the workers few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest that He would thrust out workers into His harvest” (vv. 37-38). In this short passage, on the one hand, the Lord likened God’s chosen people to sheep, while on the other hand, He likened them to His harvest. The sheep have to be found, while the harvest has to be reaped and brought home.
In both the Gospels of Luke and of Matthew the Lord said that He sent forth His disciples as lambs in the midst of wolves (Luke 10:3; Matt. 10:16). What the Lord said here seems to be contradictory. He first said that these people were His sheep, harassed, cast away, and not having a shepherd. On the other hand, He said that He sent the disciples out into the midst of wolves. However, the Lord Himself explained, seeming to say, “I send you out. Simply go from house to house and do not be selective.” Then He said, “And if a son of peace is there, your peace shall rest upon it” (Luke 10:6). Such a son of peace is one who was chosen and predestinated by God before the foundation of the world. Hence, this shows us that although there is a pack of wolves, the sheep of God are among them. It may look as if all of them are wolves. However, the sheep are quietly and securely hidden in the midst of the wolves. These sheep are the sons of peace. If we rely only on putting out newspaper advertisements and making telephone calls, we may never be able to find them. Instead, all that we find may be wolves. However, if we go out knocking on doors from house to house, there will be many sheep, the sons of peace, waiting for us.
We thank the Lord for revealing this way to us. I hope that the brothers and sisters in the church will be able to knock on the doors of the whole world from house to house. This all depends on whether or not we would do it. On the one hand, we are reluctant to stir people up to serve full-time, but on the other hand, we hope that there will be a group of college students who can serve the Lord full-time after graduation. Figuratively speaking, they are a “suicide squad” with a spirit of the gospel, using The Mystery of Human Life as a weapon, spreading the gospel from Taiwan, through Thailand, Burma, India, the Arab world, then to Greece, all the way to Asia Minor, the Aegean Sea, then to Eastern Europe, and to Egypt, South Africa, and so forth. By that time, there will be gospel stations and local churches all over the world. The gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole inhabited earth, and then the end will come (Matt. 24:14).
Having the gospel preached to the whole earth indeed makes us excited, but it also means that we must experience much hardship and suffering, such as not being able to eat and to sleep well. However, there will be sweetness in bitterness, and bitterness in sweetness, and at the end of the bitterness, the sweetest part will come—the coming of our Lord. The Lord’s coming requires our hastening. If we do not hasten His coming, He will not come back. In order to hasten His coming, we have to prepare the environment on the earth. It is not until the environment is well prepared that He will come back.
For the past two thousand years, Christianity has indeed tried to do something on the earth according to the Bible. However, the overall situation of Christianity on the earth today is not very encouraging. Hence, the Lord has raised up His recovery on the earth, which is not motivated by men. For the past twenty-five years, besides the churches in the Far East, the Lord has raised up more than five hundred fifty local churches in the other big continents. Who did this? We have not employed any preachers, and we have no missions nor any fund-raising, but the Lord has led us to spread from continent to continent in this way. This has all been done by the Lord. When we recall how a meeting sometimes requires interpretation for ten or fifteen languages, it is difficult to imagine how much the Lord has done through His recovery.
Door-knocking truly can bring in all kinds of people, and the result is immeasurable. Therefore, wherever we are, we have to practice door-knocking. After going door-knocking for a month, we can gain at least two or three brothers and sisters. We may then form a group with them and go out to knock on doors again. After knocking for a month, eight or ten will definitely be gained. Knocking again for a month, thirty may be gained; then knocking for another month, sixty can be gained. If it goes on like this, the result will be tremendous. If the saints in the recovery in various places hear this, aim at this, and practice this, then the propagation and increase of the Lord’s recovery will be unlimited.
Some may ask, What if there are false believers mixed in the midst? In principle, it was not that first the tares were sown and then the wheat. Rather, the Bible says that the wheat was sown first, and then the tares came (Matt. 13:37-40). Therefore, there are always the real ones first and then the false ones. In that sense, the existence of the false ones proves that the real ones already existed. Ten false ones may indicate the presence of one hundred real ones. The Lord Jesus told us in Matthew 13 that the seeds were sown here and there, but in the end, tares (a kind of weed similar to foxtail) grew in the midst of the wheat. Where did these tares come from? Probably the only answer is that they were spread by the blowing of the wind. It is amazing that the wind sent the tares only to the wheat field but not to the cotton field. I believe it is not easy to find the reason for this, and any explanation may not be accurate. It is very meaningful that the Lord Jesus used this as a parable. What He meant was that we should not be afraid of speaking or of knocking on doors. Rather, we should knock on as many doors as possible. We should baptize anyone who wants to be baptized. We have to believe that among those who are baptized, the number of the false ones will be far less than the real ones. If one hundred people are baptized, perhaps only one of them will be false. Therefore, do not worry. Simply take courage until one day all the doors on the earth will be visited by knocking.