Going out to visit people is the most effective way to spread the gospel for the kingdom of God. Actually, visiting people by knocking on their doors is not a new way but an ancient way. This way began from the garden in Genesis 3. Every Christian should knock on people’s doors to bring others the gospel. To knock on people’s doors means to visit people. To visit people by knocking on their doors is actually the God-ordained Christian way to spread the gospel that has been picked up by the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses to spread their heretical teaching. It is regrettable that the proper people, the Christians, have nearly given up the God-ordained way to spread the gospel. But now the Lord is leading us back to this way.
We have to take the way of going out to visit people by learning how to do it and by being trained. The greatest hindrance to our being trained to go out to visit people is our concept. We may be holding on to our past practice of preaching the gospel. Our past practice may have been good, but it is not nearly as effective as our present practice of going out to visit people. The first requirement of our being trained in the new way is to drop our concept. We must drop our concepts and pick up the instructions of the training. We cannot be trained by the Lord if we hold on to our old practice. If we would forget about our old way and pick up the Lord’s new way, we will see the positive results.
In the Lord’s new way we must be believing, assured, bold, and aggressive. We have been sent to visit people by the ascended Christ, and while we are talking to people, we are linked to Christ. We have the position and the authority of the ascended Christ to direct people to believe and be baptized. Because we have been entrusted with the authority of the ascended Christ to preach the gospel, we should not ask people questions. We should not ask, “Will you believe?” We need to direct them to believe. We should not ask others if they want to be baptized, but we need to direct them to be baptized. We need to be like John the Baptist who told people, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near” (Matt. 3:2). John the Baptist preached with an imperative, not with questions.
In our natural man we always want to be nice, good, and humble. We like to ask others, “Would you please believe in the Lord Jesus?” But if we ask others questions in this way, we will be rejected most of the time. Our asking of questions opens the door for rejection. We need to speak everything in the way of a command. We are the Lord’s heavenly ambassadors who have been committed with all the authority in heaven and on earth to baptize people into the Triune God. We need to direct people to repent and confess their sins. We need to lead them to pray. After a little prayer we need to tell them that they are now ready to be baptized. If we would exercise this divine authority, many of the people we visit will be like lambs. We will be able to lead them out of the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God. The most effective way to preach the gospel is not to ask questions but to direct people to repent, pray, and be baptized. When we baptize a person into the Triune God, he will become another person. Baptism changes people because we are baptizing them into the name of the Triune God, which is the sum total of the divine Being.
To go out to visit people for the spread of the gospel by knocking on their doors is altogether reasonable and logical. The gospel should be spread and preached, and the best way to bring the gospel to others is to go to them by knocking on their doors. All of us should take the initiative, and be bold to practice this. We do not need to get agreement from the church to visit people to spread the gospel. For the leading ones in a locality to require the saints to come to them in order to get their agreement to go out to knock on doors is wrong. We do not have to get the church to agree with us in order to breathe or to eat. In like manner, as branches of the vine we have to bear fruit, and we do not need to get anyone’s agreement to do this. We must bear fruit if we are to remain in the vine, so we all have to exercise our boldness to go out to visit people to spread the gospel for the kingdom of God.