Question: In our preaching of the gospel, we find that it is harder for the local people, the Taiwanese, to receive the gospel than for the Mainlanders, those who migrated from other provinces of mainland China. What should we do about this?

Answer: The reasons that preaching the gospel to the local Taiwanese is not as easy as preaching the gospel to the Mainlanders are as follows. First, the Mainlanders are easily touched in their emotions to receive the gospel because of their unsettled situation, whereas the Taiwanese are living and working in peace and contentment. Since everything is going well with them, they do not have the heart to receive the gospel. Second, in Taiwan the practice of idolatry is extremely prevailing. Due to their change of environment, however, the Mainlanders have lost their idols, and even their idols have proved to be of no effect. Hence, they are more willing to receive the gospel. Therefore, the brothers should pray much for the spread of the gospel in Taiwan, asking the Lord to bind the strong man, to plunder his goods, and to release the souls of the native people (Matt. 12:29). Third, language is a factor. Those who are from the Mainland do not know the local dialect. Moreover, when some local people are saved, they may not understand the Mandarin that we speak in the meetings. Although we have translation for them in the meetings in which messages are given, we do not have any translation in the prayer meetings or fellowship meetings. This is really hard for them. Several indigenous brothers also said that they can understand only half of the Taiwan dialect and half of Mandarin and that if we were to use Japanese, they could understand everything. Thus, language is really a problem.

Therefore, we need to receive the burden to pray for the native brothers. For the gospel to spread on the island of Taiwan and for us to proceed on this pure path, there should be some native brothers who are raised up by the Lord; ones who have a clear knowledge of the gospel, of the salvation of the Lord, and of the ground of the church, as well as the burden for the gospel. Take the Philippines as an example. In the Philippines we read the Bible in Chinese and speak the Chinese language. Therefore, there is no way for the Filipinos to be saved and brought into the church life. Here in Taiwan, if we could preach, speak, and sing in Taiwanese, or if Mandarin quickly were to become more popular, it would be much easier for the local people to be saved. However, this is not something that can be attained in just two or three years. Therefore, I really hope that some local brothers will be raised up soon who know the Lord’s way, have some spiritual experiences, know the ground of the church, and have a burden. Then, with the fellowship and help from the brothers who are from the Mainland, the Lord’s testimony will be propagated in Taiwan in a strong way.

Question: We say that when we preach the gospel, we have to completely forget ourselves and not care for our feelings. But if our gospel friend is not willing to listen to us and wants to leave, what should we do?

Answer: A man is wonderful, living, and full of feeling. A man is different from a bench because a bench does not have any feeling. Many times when we preach the gospel, we cannot say that we do not have any feeling. Yes, we do have some feeling, but we need to have wisdom. When others are indifferent and non-responsive, we cannot simply say, “That is fine. If you do not listen to me, I will speak to the bench.” Those who preach the gospel from the podium must have the ability to speak something that can draw people’s attention and capture them. Once a person is captured he will not think about leaving.

A person’s attention is always divided and scattered. Hence, we need to use one or two sentences to arouse his attention and stir him up. This may be likened to fishing. After the fishermen cast their net into the ocean, they pull it in slowly. Some people can use just one or two sentences to capture others and cause them to stay. Once people are willing to stay, we can sow the seed and put something in them. The great evangelist C. H. Spurgeon, who was called by some “The Prince of Preachers,” was preaching on the platform one day. He said, “You see, here is a man whose feet have grown into his heart, and whose heart has gone into his feet.” Many people were shocked when they heard this, and their attention was drawn. In this way Spurgeon was able to capture people’s attention from the very beginning. Then at the end he spoke the gospel into them. Therefore, when we preach the gospel, first we have to stir up people’s interest, and then we have to sow the seed of life into them.

Some words spoken on the platform are for touching people’s emotion, and some are for enlightening people’s mind. However, if the words merely touch man’s emotion or enlighten his mind, they still will not work because they are not the words of life. When a person’s heart is touched and his mind is enlightened, and even the preacher himself does not use his mind but speaks a few words from his spirit so that they are infused into the person’s spirit, this is something of life-the word of life. The effect of touching someone’s emotion will pass away quickly, and the effect of enlightening someone’s mind will change with the passing of time. However, once life enters into a person’s being, it will not go out so easily. It is hard for a person who speaks from the podium to supply everyone’s spirit from the beginning of his speaking to the end. On the day of Pentecost there were almost no words that touched people’s emotion, and there was only a limited amount of speaking that enlightened people’s mind. However, the primary thing that Peter did was to sow spiritual reality into people. In a gospel message that lasts an hour, if we can sow something of spirit and life into people for just ten minutes, this can be considered strong preaching. It takes a farmer much effort to till the ground, but it takes him comparatively little effort to sow the seed. What does it mean to sow the seed into man? When a person’s emotion is touched, we sow the words of the gospel into him, not words of emotion or knowledge, but words of life.

Question: When we tell some people about God, they say that we are speaking about some natural phenomenon, and when we tell them that man has a spirit, they say that we are merely describing a psychological phenomenon. What should we do in this situation?

Answer: After we have spoken the truth to a person like this, we have to pray for them. We need to learn to pray for specific people. After we have prayed adequately, we can pray in a stronger way, saying, “O God, we ask You to stretch out Your hand to do something in him.” We have to understand that everyone who gives excuses is deceiving himself. Almost all excuses are not the real situation. We have to know that the real situation is one thing while excuses are another. It is easy for men to hide the real situation by giving excuses. They not only cheat others but also deceive themselves. Thus, we should not believe their excuses unless we see that what they are saying is the real situation, because men always express their reasoning according to their own mind.

For example, suppose there are two brothers who are arguing with each other. The real situation is that they are arguing. Yet if these two brothers are not enlightened to see the fact that they are arguing, but only see their reasons for arguing, they will continue to argue. If we want to help them, we have to pray for them: “O Lord, save them from all of their reasonings. No matter how reasonable their argument is, it needs to be condemned.” The more we reason, the more we justify ourselves. If we cannot help them by this ordinary prayer, we need a stronger prayer, saying, “O God, we ask You to stretch forth Your hand to break their reasoning.” Amazingly these two brothers then may become sick. When others ask, “Why are they sick?”, no one will be able to find the cause. At that time we would have to tell them, “Brothers, even though the doctor cannot find out the cause of your sickness, your sickness is still a fact.” In this way, they will be enlightened.

Therefore, when we preach the gospel, if someone tells us that what we are speaking about is but a natural or psychological phenomenon, we should not be affected by them; rather, we should pray. Then if he becomes sick, we will tell him that regardless of whether it is a natural phenomenon or a psychological phenomenon, his sickness is a fact. Although we cannot persuade him to believe in the Lord by our speaking, we can pray for him until he believes. Hence, we have to pray in a particular way for some specific ones. When these ones are saved, many others will follow and the gate of the gospel will be opened wide.
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