In order to preach the gospel, we must be persons who are consecrated to the Lord and who are filled with Him. However, if we are to be filled with Christ, we need to give Him the ground to be the Lord in our being. We have received Christ as our Savior, but is He our Lord? How much ground does He have in us? If we cannot say that Jesus is Lord in the universe and that He is Lord within us, we will have little demonstration of the power of the gospel. The gospel is not spread by natural zeal or excitement. Rather, the gospel is Christ overflowing out of us. It is not sufficient only to receive the Lord Jesus as our Savior. We need to enthrone Him as our Lord. We need to yield to Him all the ground in our being. Only He must be the Lord and have the full ground and the complete authority in us. This is not the same as having an overcoming life or a life of consecration. It is a life that honors Jesus as Lord, a life that allows Him to have the ground in us and the authority over us. Although the Lord is meek, He must be Lord over all our affairs. We need to give Him all the ground and authority in our being.
On the negative side, we need to cast away any natural excitement. On the positive side, we need to receive Christ and give Him the ground in us so that He can gain us and fill us with Himself. The more ground we give to the Lord, the more He will fill us and occupy us. This will be our power and our gospel. Therefore, in order to preach the gospel, we must be persons who are consecrated to the Lord and are given to Him by accepting Him as Lord of all and giving Him all the ground in us. We all need to consider and receive this fellowship in a thorough way before the Lord.
Second, we must have proper prayers before the Lord. We should not only have much prayer but also have proper prayers before the Lord. A proper prayer is a prayer in which we touch God and God touches us. It is not merely to go before the Lord and to ask Him to do things. Such prayers do not touch God and cannot touch His throne. So that our prayers may touch God and His throne, we need to let Him touch us first. We need to be persons who are consecrated, who allow the Lord to be our Lord, and who allow the Lord to touch us. When we pray, the Lord will first touch us. He will touch our feelings, and He will touch matters that we have not completely surrendered to Him, matters in which we have not allowed Him to gain the ground in us, and matters that we have reservations about. When He touches us, we need to open to Him and let Him win. Otherwise, our prayers will be annulled. We should respond by saying, “Lord, I open to You and allow You to touch everything that You desire to touch in me. I want You to win. Whatever You touch, I turn over and surrender to You.” When the Lord touches us and we surrender in this way, we will be able to stretch out our hands of faith in prayer to touch God and His throne. Such prayer will be a proper prayer. When we open to the Lord, allow Him to touch every matter that He desires to touch in a thorough way, and turn over to Him every matter that He touches without reservation, our prayers will touch God Himself. Then our prayers for the gospel will ask the Lord not only to save souls but also to pour out the Holy Spirit from the throne upon thousands of sinners so that they may repent.
We sometimes pray long prayers without touching God or His throne. Such prayers, although zealous, are empty and improper because we have not allowed God to touch us. If we do not allow God to touch us, it will be difficult for us to touch God, and God will not easily let us touch His throne. Only when we surrender to the Lord and allow Him to touch our inner being will we be able to receive a burden from Him and stretch out our hands of faith in prayer to petition Him to carry out His burden and to issue a command from His throne. This is a proper prayer, and this is the kind of prayer that we need, which is based on our consecration to the Lord.
Third, we need to learn to be full of faith when we go out to preach the gospel. However, if we do not have a thorough consecration, if we do not enthrone the Lord as our Lord, and if we do not have proper prayers, it will be difficult for us to have faith. In order to have faith when we preach the gospel, we need a thorough consecration and proper prayers. If we have these two things, we will be full of faith no matter what our outward circumstances are. It is easy for the brothers who give messages to be affected by the outward environment. If a speaking brother sees that the meeting hall is only half full, he may become disappointed. If he notices that some people are falling asleep, his spirit may become suppressed. Satan may cause some of those listening to shake their heads so that the speaker will be unable to continue to release the word. Those who release the word of the gospel need to be full of faith in their spirit when they speak (2 Cor. 4:13). However, we need to realize that faith comes by enthroning the Lord and allowing Him to touch us thoroughly. If we are consecrated persons who allow the Lord to gain us and who pray proper prayers, we will speak not according to the environment but out of faith when we preach the gospel. When we see someone in the audience shaking his head, our faith will not be shaken; rather, we may say, “The first one to repent will be this person who is shaking his head.” When we notice that a few people are falling asleep, the faith in us may say, “If only a few words of God can enter into them, it will be sufficient to cause them to be saved.” Actually, some who fall asleep through the entire meeting may wake up for a moment, hear the words “Jesus is Lord,” and call on the Lord to receive salvation. This is not a hypothetical situation but a true story of faith.
We should never consider that those who speak highly of Christianity, who admire our meeting hall, or who appreciate the content of the gospel message will be saved easily. Many who say such things are not saved. Some others may have doubts about believing in the Lord or may not agree with what is spoken. They may even criticize our meetings. However, we should never put our trust in any of these things. Rather, we need to believe in God’s power. We need to be full of faith and be able to work without being affected by an opposing outward situation, because the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16). We do not need to care about people’s reactions; we only need to have faith in God.