In the previous messages we have seen the first three crucial steps of the work of the New Testament priests of the gospel. These are steps that every New Testament believer should do and can do. The New Testament believers are all priests of the gospel of God. As such, they all need to go and preach the gospel to save sinners and offer them as sacrifices to God. Moreover, they need to continue to nourish and take care of the new believers and also to teach and perfect them until they all can do the work which the gifted ones do for the building up of the Body of Christ.
According to the revelation in the New Testament, these three crucial steps of the work of the New Testament priests of the gospel are not to be carried out according to our natural way. According to our natural ability, it seems that every believer can preach the gospel to save sinners, nourish and take care of the new believers, and teach and perfect the saints. However, according to our spiritual faculty, this is not true. The work of the priests of the gospel is not something that we can do naturally; rather, it requires training. For this reason, I earnestly hope that from now on the churches will begin to train the saints so that they will know how to preach the gospel. Preaching the gospel is not simple; it involves a great deal. First, we need to know who the Lord Jesus is, what His salvation is, and how He, as God, passed through His processes to accomplish redemption and become the life-giving Spirit to be our salvation. We also need to know the three parts of man-spirit, soul, and body, how man fell and became flesh, how the flesh, which is related to the natural soul-life, became corrupted to the uttermost, and how there is a part within man, the human spirit, that has been preserved for God. The foregoing is only a small illustration by which we may understand that preaching the gospel requires training, not only in truth and knowledge but also in experience and skill.
Much consideration should be given as to how to open our speaking to others, how to present them with the gospel, and when to lead them to pray. When we preach the gospel to others, we should not ask them if they believe or whether or not they want to be saved. We must always be in spirit to lead them to believe, repent, and be saved, and we must lead them to call and pray with their spirit. Furthermore, we should not ask them whether they want to be baptized. We should simply help them to be baptized. Some people do not possess such skills, so when they speak the gospel to others, the more they speak, the more others do not believe. When we speak the gospel to someone, if we cannot lead him to believe in the Lord within half an hour, we should stop, leaving the rest for the next visit. Concerning these techniques, we also need practice.
Furthermore, to nourish the new believers also requires us to be trained. We need to be like a mother cherishing her own children, not demanding of them, but supplying them. When we go to visit someone, instead of giving him “a long face” we should be amiable and cheerful with a smiling face. We must be those who are released; our spirit is opened, our heart is rejoicing, and our mouth is full of praise. If we are worried, miserable, or burdened with sin when we go to nourish someone, we cannot be successful because we are still not released and are still under the bondage of Satan. Hence, when we go to visit and nourish others, we must first pray until we get through and clear all the obstructions. Then we will be those who are released, without any burden, without any bondage, and without any sadness, but joyful and satisfied. If our entire being is released while visiting others, they too will be released and rejoicing. This also is a small illustration to show us that we need to be trained in different aspects when we go to nourish the new believers.
Then, we also need to teach and perfect the saints, and this requires even more effort. It is one thing to beget, another thing to nourish, and still another thing to teach. To beget is not easy, to nourish is more difficult, and to teach is even more complicated. Therefore, we need training in order to be successful. In the previous message we saw that for attending a group meeting, the first thing to learn is to be open. We must be an open person, with our heart, our hands, our eyes, and our mouth open. We need to become so open. Someone may come to the group meeting with his mouth sealed and his heart shut, and he may sit there with his entire being closed. Then when others pray, he does not make a sound, and when others speak, he ignores them. His coming to the group meeting will only drag down others. If most of the attendants come in this way, there is no way to have a group meeting. Hence, before coming to the meeting, we need to begin to pray and praise from our home and on the way. Then when we come to the meeting, our entire being will be open.
In addition, we need to learn to fellowship. Sometimes we do not open our mouth to speak one word. At other times once we open our mouth, we begin to tell stories and speak endlessly; this is not right. In the matter of intercession we also need training. It is best for our prayers to be short, to the point, and not verbose. In the prayer which the Lord taught the disciples, every clause and sentence is genuine and relevant, neither long nor verbose (Matt. 6:9-13). In prayers of faith, the words are simple, hitting the point. Likewise, in the group meetings we should learn to ask relevant questions. After someone asks a question that is related either to truth or to life, everyone should try to answer mutually according to what each one knows. There is some amount of spiritual deposit in the brothers and sisters. Having loved the Lord and experienced much of Him for many years, we should all have some accumulated riches. Whenever someone brings up a question, everyone should speak from what he knows. You speak, I speak, and everyone speaks. In this way, not only do we give an answer to the one who asks the question, but we also render help to every attendant in the meeting. The result is that everyone is taught, and at the same time everyone enjoys the riches of the Body of Christ. Therefore, the best way to learn the truth and to grow in life is through everyone speaking, everyone teaching, and everyone learning in the group meetings. With fifty-two weeks in a year and attending at least one such group meeting per week, how much perfection in truth and in life we will receive year after year! The spiritual riches accumulated in the brothers and sisters can then be passed on from generation to generation, and the riches that remain in the churches will be boundless. This is absolutely something that cannot be substituted by any individual. We need to have such a beginning among us, to lay down a foundation, and to receive much training.
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