We have much to learn and practice concerning the preaching of the gospel. We will first consider the way to invite people to be saved. Some may say that this is very simple; it requires no training, and we know it already. Yes, we may know something about it, but there is a better technique for our practice.
First of all, we must trust in the Lord. We cannot do anything independently from the Lord. When we prepare to invite people, we must have adequate prayer about it. We need to pray to seek the Lord’s mind concerning whom we contact. Then we must pray for the persons who we feel it is of the Lord that we invite them. We must remember them, bringing their names to the Lord day and night. We need to pray in a prevailing way. Isaiah 45:11 says, “Thus says Jehovah, / The Holy One of Israel and the One who formed him, / Ask Me about the things to come concerning My sons, / And concerning the work of My hands, command Me.” In this verse the Lord gives us the ground to command Him. In a sense, He says, “I am your Servant. Give Me the order.” We must learn to pray in this way, saying, “Lord, while I am here remaining with You and looking to You, I tell You that You have to do something.”
There is the mysterious principle of faith in the universe. Faith honors the Lord, so the Lord always honors faith. To not have a living, prevailing, and powerful faith means that either we depend on ourselves or that we have an evil heart of unbelief. However, if we would not trust in and depend on ourselves, and if we believe, we will have the living faith to claim something, to command the Lord to do something. To command the Lord to do something means that we do not trust in ourselves and that we believe; the Lord will honor this faith. We need to pray in this way. All kinds of doubts come from the enemy. We must learn to believe and exercise a living faith.
Learn to pray for your contact with people, and learn to see how the Lord answers your prayer. Tell the Lord, “Lord, I need to see that You have saved at least one person I have prayed for.” Tell this to Him definitely, challenging Him a little. Then you will see that He will come in. We can even say, “Lord, while I am praying here, at this very minute, You must work in the heart of the person for whom I am praying. I am waiting to hear a testimony from him that something happened within him at this very day, hour, and minute.” Learn to prove the Lord, not as the people of Israel did in the wilderness with an evil heart of unbelief, but with a believing heart. If we have the living faith in prayer, we will have an impact in preaching. When we come to our friend, we will have the impact because we have prayed. Since we have commanded the Lord, we come to him with impact and assurance to tell him that he must be saved. This is the way to invite people. Luke 14:23 says that a master told his slaves not merely to invite but to compel people to come to his great dinner. Some versions translate compel as force or constrain. We have to compel, force, press, and constrain people to come.
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