Without exception, God first comes to touch our mind. Second, God touches our emotion. If people had no emotion, no one could be saved. To be saved is truly an emotional matter. We can preach the gospel to a chair, but it cannot be saved because it has no emotion. Whenever God touches our mind, He always follows to touch our emotion. Therefore, the best way to preach the gospel is first to bring a little knowledge about God and Christ and then to tell people about God’s love and mercy. This touches people’s emotions. Do not argue too much. I observed a brother who is an expert in gospel preaching. He never argues with people. He tells people, “Friend, you have to know God. You need Jesus.” If someone argues, the brother simply says, “Oh, God loves you. The Lord Jesus loves you and is waiting for you.” The first few words touch the person’s mind; then all the following words touch his emotion. Sometimes there is no need to touch people’s mind purposely. You can simply preach about God’s love. This one “stone” will kill two “birds.” Eventually, people’s minds will be touched, and their emotions will be stirred up. The mind is first, and the emotions are second.
Third, God touches the conscience. In order to know how to deal with people in God’s way, we have to learn this. After we say something about God’s love, when people’s emotions are stirred up by our preaching, we need to say something about God’s law and people’s sins. This hits the conscience, causing people to condemn themselves. The two easiest ways to preach the gospel are to preach concerning God’s love and to preach concerning people’s sins.
Then when the mind is enlightened, the emotions are stirred up, and the conscience is convicted, a person makes the decision to believe. This decision is the exercise of the will, which is the last step. However, I know many persons who, after listening to the gospel, were enlightened by God in their mind, touched in their emotion, and convicted in their conscience. Eventually, however, their will would not cooperate. They hardened their will like Pharaoh. Exodus says many times that Pharaoh hardened his heart and even God hardened his heart for a purpose. When the heart is hardened, what part of it is hardened? It is the will. To harden the heart is to be stubborn in the will. We need these four steps: the mind enlightened, the emotion stirred up, the conscience convicted, and the will submissive. Then we can deal with God in a good way.
These four steps of God’s dealing are good not only for unbelievers but also for His dealing with us. This is why the New Testament tells us that after we are saved, our mind must be transformed by renewing. To be renewed is simply to be enlightened. First, our mind must be enlightened. Then the New Testament tells us many times that we have to love the Lord. The first steps of God’s dealing with us as believers are that our mind is renewed and our emotion is stirred up to love Him. Then our conscience always needs to be convicted. We need to be convicted that we are wrong, we are short of God’s glory, and we are disobedient to God. We need this kind of conscience. Eventually, we have to make the decision by our will to seek God. Our mind must be enlightened, renewed, and transformed; our emotion must be stirred up and encouraged; our conscience must be convicted; and our will must be soft and submissive to make decisions. These are the steps in God’s dealing.
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