The work of the gospel is not an activity produced out of incitement. It is not the result of stirring up the saints in their natural man to become fervent for the preaching of the gospel. Any result produced by such incitement has no eternal value because it is not of the Holy Spirit. Our gospel work should be the result of receiving a burden from the Lord. Thus, we all should allow the Holy Spirit to impart this burden into us so that we all can bear this burden together in one Body before the Lord.
Although we have no desire to compare ourselves with others, we need to admit that in traditional Christianity many gospel meetings and revival meetings are supported by little spiritual reality. They lack a spiritual base, spiritual weight, and spiritual content.
According to the book of Acts, the church preached the gospel for the first time on the day of Pentecost. For the preaching of the gospel on that day, the believers had a strong and weighty spiritual base. This base was so strong that it enabled them to accomplish God’s desire. If the believers had merely held an outward activity by being stirred up in their natural man, it would have been impossible for them to have the result that they had. Therefore, we need to see that if the church’s preaching of the gospel today is to be full of spiritual weight and is to have authority over people for the accomplishing of God’s desire, we must have a spiritual base as strong as the one that the disciples had on the day of Pentecost.
We realize that all activities produced by stirring up the natural man not only lack eternal value but also do much damage to the practical service of the church. Thus, in the past we did not stir up any kind of zeal or excitement in the saints through incitement or promotion. At the present time, even though we desire to have an enlarged work of preaching the gospel, we have no intention to stir the saints up to do something out of their natural zeal. Therefore, we all need to abandon the excitement that comes by the stirring up of our natural man.
We need to see that the church’s preaching of the gospel on the day of Pentecost was based on the burden that the disciples received from the Lord. Thus, we too should receive a burden from the Lord. At that time, the disciples may not have had the words to describe this burden. They may not have known that the burden they had received was that the Christ who was in their spirit would be discharged and released into thousands of people. Although they had received this burden, they may not have had this realization.
After the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples, a multitude came together, and Peter, standing with the other disciples, testified and led thousands of people to salvation (Acts 2:6, 14-21). After this, the disciples must have realized that their burden was to release Christ, whom they had known, followed, experienced, and gained, from within them into many people. The burden that they received was Christ the Lord, and they had to impart Him into others. They may have had such a realization only after preaching the gospel and leading thousands to salvation.
Concerning the gospel meetings, we should not be stirred up and excited or enthusiastic in a natural way. Rather, we all need to go before the Lord to receive a burden from Him inwardly. Such a burden is not merely for us to be zealous concerning the salvation of sinners, but for each one of us to be filled with the Lord Jesus and to bear Him to others. In order to impart the Lord Jesus into others, we need to be filled with Him as our burden, and we need to be able to discharge Him as our burden into others.
If we have received nothing from the Lord, we will have no burden to discharge into others. A cargo ship or aircraft must first be loaded with various goods as its “burden” before it can transport and unload the goods at its destination. Therefore, we need to receive the Lord as our burden, to be loaded with Him as the heavenly cargo, before preaching the gospel.
We need to see that the burden we have received is not what most people consider to be the burden of the gospel. The burden of the gospel that we have received is Christ the Lord Himself. Jesus is the gospel (Acts 5:42; 17:18), and without Him the gospel amounts to nothing. Therefore, to preach the gospel is to preach the Lord Jesus (2 Cor. 4:4-5). Such preaching is carried out not merely with words but by persons. Hence, our preaching depends on the kind of person we are. In order to be those who bear the Lord Jesus to others, we must be filled with the Lord Jesus. Our desire is to impart into others the Lord Jesus with whom we have been filled.
Our work of the gospel is not merely a work of being stirred up or being zealous to save sinners for the Lord. Our work of the gospel is to receive the Lord Jesus as our burden from God, to be filled with Him, and to bear Him in our spirit and discharge Him to others so that we can impart Him into them. The Lord Jesus whom we impart is the gospel that sinners need, and whoever receives Him receives the gospel and receives salvation. We all need to have this revelation. Unless we receive the Lord as our burden, we cannot have a weighty gospel work.