There is another matter to which many can testify. When you preach the gospel to someone, you may think that if you can make the message logical and clear to him, he will then believe in the Lord. In actuality, however, you may speak one sentence, and he will argue back with three sentences; you may speak five more sentences, and he will argue with ten. You will not win the argument. On your part you wish to make him clear by speaking to him. Yet the more you speak, the more confused he gets and the more disturbed you get. But, praise the Lord, we have now found a secret. When we preach the gospel, it is better to speak just a few words; the less we speak, the better. If someone has a demon in him, when you speak, you rouse up the demon. The best way is to help him open his mouth to call on the Lord.
There is a brother who truly knows how to preach the gospel in this way. One day he met someone on the street and greeted that person with a smile, saying, “Sir, let me tell you, I have Jesus! You also need Jesus! Will you please call with me? Call, ‘O Lord Jesus!’” Unexplainably that person began to call with him. Then the brother asked him to call “O Lord!” a little louder. This was the way this brother preached the gospel, and many were saved. What is the reason? The reason is that when you call on the Lord, the demons are chased away. Do not think that this is superstition. The demons particularly usurp the human mind. When you call on the Lord, the demon in your mind is chased away. Moreover, when others call on the Lord with you, their spirit is unconsciously opened to the Lord. When their spirit is opened, the Lord, who is the living Spirit, enters into their spirit, and they are saved. Many brothers and sisters can testify to the fact that the quickest and most effective way to preach the gospel is to help people call on the Lord Jesus. When they call on the Lord Jesus, their reasonings are gone, and they cease their arguing.
Amazingly, when a person calls on the Lord Jesus, his speaking is changed. Before he called, he said there was no God; but after he calls, “Lord Jesus,” he confesses that there is God.
Furthermore, the Bible shows us that when we are offering sacrifices to God, that is, when we are giving thanks to God, we must also call on the Lord. Whenever your heart is touched by the Lord’s grace and you give thanks to the Lord, you must call on the Lord from deep within. The thing that most glorifies the Lord and gives Him the utmost thanks and praises is our calling on the Lord. When you call on the Lord, the Lord truly gets the praises and thanks.
Let us look at Isaiah chapter twelve, which is a very sweet chapter. It begins with, “God is now my salvation” (v. 2). It does not say, “God has saved me”; rather, it says that God is my salvation. God Himself is the salvation. Therefore, if you want to receive the salvation of God, you have to receive God Himself. “God is now my salvation; / I will trust and not dread; / For Jah Jehovah is my strength and song, / And He has become my salvation” (v. 2). I am convinced that these words were uttered in exclamation and were cried out from deep within the spirit of the writer. Because he cried out in this way, he enjoyed the riches of the Lord in his spirit.
Thus, he went on, “Therefore you will draw water with rejoicing / From the springs of salvation” (v. 3). How do we draw this water? The well of salvation is God Himself, and we come to draw water from this well by calling, “O Lord! O Lord Jesus!” When you call on the Lord in this way, you are drawing water with joy from within. In other words, you are drinking again the water from the springs of salvation.
“And you will say in that day, / Give thanks to Jehovah; call upon His name!” (v. 4a). We should not only give thanks but also call. “Make His deeds known among the peoples; / Remind them that His name is exalted. / Sing psalms to Jehovah” (vv. 4b-5a). In the original language, the last sentence means to shout loudly unto Jehovah. Therefore, do not consider that to shout is not refined; this concept is wrong. To be sure, in the Bible there are phrases such as “shout with joy,” “cry out and shout,” “sing,” “cried with a loud voice,” and “call on the Lord!”