We also need to see that toward God the preaching of the gospel is the outflow of life. The gospel is the flowing out of the life of Christ from within us. It is the overflowing of God’s life for the purpose of bearing spiritual fruit. The fruit of a tree is the overflow of the life-juice in that tree. When the life within a tree has reached a certain level of maturity, the tree will spontaneously bear fruit. In the same way, the preaching of the gospel to lead people to salvation is spiritual fruit-bearing. Thus, it does not depend on our inward enthusiasm, excitement, and determination, nor does it depend on our outward toiling or activity. Although these matters have their place and value, the real preaching of the gospel depends on the overflow of the life within us. When the life within us overflows, there is a spontaneous producing of gospel fruit (cf. John 15:5).
If we would be those with the overflow of God’s life in order to bear fruit, we need to go to the Lord to have proper dealings with Him and a renewed consecration before Him. Many saints have consecrated themselves in a strong way at least once. This is especially true of the co-workers, elders, deacons, and responsible ones in the districts and groups, because of their desire to fervently preach the gospel and their service to the Lord. Nevertheless, we need to take every new situation or encounter as an opportunity to renew our consecration to the Lord. Thus, we should renew our consecration to the Lord and have deeper dealings for our purification before the Lord in order to participate in this gospel move. This is similar to offering a burnt offering.
According to the Old Testament, when a burnt offering was offered, it was presented before God, washed, and completely burned to ashes, and its ashes were placed beside the altar toward the east (Lev. 1; 6:10). This shows that after consecrating ourselves anew to God, we need to come before God to be enlightened by Him so that we can see where we have made mistakes and are defiled and where we need to deny the self and have deeper dealings in order to be cleansed. In addition, we need to prostrate ourselves before the Lord and let Him burn us so that He may rise up within us as life and gain more of our being. Whatever the Lord consumes, He gains, accepts, and replaces with Himself.
Therefore, we need to consecrate ourselves anew to the Lord by waiting for His shining, by confessing and receiving His cleansing, and by saying to Him, “Lord Jesus, everything I consecrate is for You. May You receive and gain every item.” We need to consecrate into the Lord’s hand item after item and turn everything over to Him. Through such a transfer of ownership, we will be thoroughly purified and will have room to be filled with the Lord.
The result of this consecration and dealing is the Holy Spirit’s filling. Whether or not we feel that the Holy Spirit has come upon us makes little difference; the value of our consecration remains the same. If we have genuinely consecrated ourselves to the Lord, received a strong shining and experienced a thorough cleansing, and allowed the Lord to gain us in every item, we must see that His gaining is a spiritual burning and that this burning is the pouring out and the filling of the Holy Spirit. The intense fire of the spiritual burning is the Holy Spirit coming upon us (cf. Exo. 3:2).
Whether we feel that we have been filled by the Holy Spirit or not, we need to believe that if we are consecrated persons who have received God’s shining and cleansing and have allowed the Lord to gain us item by item, God’s burning fire will burn us and purify us. Then we will be able to say before the Lord, “Lord, I give myself to You with no reservation. Although I have consecrated myself to You many times, I am here again strongly consecrating myself to You. Whatever sin, defilement, evil, or corruption You have found in me and would enlighten me to see, I will confess before You and seek the cleansing of Your precious blood. I believe that through my confession and the application of Your blood, all my uncleanness will be cleansed away. After being cleansed, I will present myself again under the shining of Your face without any reservation to allow You to consume and gain me item by item.” If we do this, we should believe that the Holy Spirit will come and fill us. On the one hand, the Holy Spirit as a burning fire will consume us, and on the other hand, the Holy Spirit as the ointment will fill us (Rev. 4:5; Exo. 30:23-25; 1 John 2:20, 27). When we have this kind of faith, we will be in a condition of overflowing and will be able to allow the gospel to flow out through us.
Gospel preaching has different levels. The preaching of the gospel that is the issue of having been dealt with by the Lord and having passed through the effort of spiritual battle is different from the gospel preaching that has not. There is also a great difference between a person who has been dealt with by the Lord and gained by the Holy Spirit and one who has not. Although we may be zealous and may make up our mind to exert our effort and do our best to lead people to the Lord, we need to realize that there can be much difference in the results of our leading people to the Lord.
If we are not persons who have been gained by the Lord, it will be difficult to lead others to be persons who are gained by the Lord. If we do not fight the spiritual battle, it will be difficult to plunder people out of the authority of Satan in a thorough way. We may be able to bring someone to the Lord, and he may believe and be baptized, but a great part of his being will remain under Satan’s authority because no one has prayed fighting prayers for him before the Lord. However, if we pray fighting prayers before the Lord, those whom we bring to salvation will not only receive the Lord but will also be thoroughly plundered from the hands of Satan. The outcome of these two kinds of gospel preaching will be very different.
In the same principle, if we have consecrated ourselves to the Lord, forsaken the world, are living for the Lord and allowing Him to gain us, are putting ourselves on the altar for the Lord to consume us, and are willing to let the Holy Spirit touch us item by item, our preaching of the gospel will be the flowing out of life from within. When someone hears our speaking and does not believe, it will be his decision. However, if he hears and believes, he will be a person gained by the Holy Spirit. The kind of person we are is the kind of child we will produce. Thus, the persons whom we bring to salvation will be the kind of person we are. This shows that preaching the gospel is a matter of our being. It requires us to be fighting persons and persons who flow out life.