Before a meeting for preaching the gospel, we must find the way to contact the person or persons for whom we have been praying, either by phone or face to face, and on the day before the preaching, we should confirm that he is coming. Then on the morning of the preaching, we should fast. This is not something legal, but I believe it will please the Lord. If we mean business, we will not break our fast in the morning; we will keep our fast in order to pray. When Brother Watchman Nee was young and still in college, he fasted for all three meals on Saturday. He practiced this for over a year in order to pray, study the word, and remain with the Lord. Then on the Lord’s Day he went to preach. His preaching was powerful with a real impact.
If we mean business with the Lord, He will mean business with us also, and we will have the impact. However, if we are indifferent with our preaching, the Lord will also be indifferent. The Lord can never work something out through lukewarm people; we must be cold or hot to the uttermost. We need to be “boiling” to the point that we “burn” people. How can we be boiling? It is by prayer and, if possible, though not in a legal way, by fasting. We should be burdened to fast and pray the morning of our preaching. We may pray, “Lord, the persons I have named before You so many times must be saved today. That is why I am here fasting. I have no interest in eating; I am already filled by this burden. I am full of Your work, so I have no interest and no capacity for eating.” If we do this, we will see the impact and the answers to our prayers. If we pray and fast, then our day of preaching will be a day for crossing a boundary line. Before the day of Pentecost, the disciples prayed for ten days. They did not do anything in those ten days but pray. We can see the impact of their preaching.
After fasting and praying, before the meeting we should go to bring the persons we have prayed for. It is better to go to them; we should not trust them to come or merely believe their promise to come. Many times our friends give us a promise in a polite way, but after the meeting they apologize and give an excuse why they did not come. Rather, we should go to them to bring them and accompany them. Compel them to be saved. This is our regular duty and responsibility. From this time, if the Lord wills, we should do this every month until He comes. Every month we should preach the gospel.
Some say that it is too much to expect one hundred persons to be brought in. In the sense of unbelief, I agree with this. However, if we will all fast for one meal a day until the meeting for preaching the gospel, two hundred people may be saved. This depends not only on the Lord but very much on us and how we cooperate with the Lord. If we do not believe, and we all say, “Oh, that is impossible; let us forget about that and go to sleep,” then not one person will be saved through us. This depends on how we cooperate with the Lord, with the church, and with one another.
If we have this practice in the preaching of the gospel, our life will be much improved. We will grow. For many years we may not have had much growth in life, but if we preach the gospel in this way, we will see the growth in life. Then the church will be increased both in quantity and in quality. The number of members is the quantity, and the growth of life is the quality. In the churches in the past, we learned the secret. For a long time many taught, preached, and built up, but there was no improvement. There was no result, and the brothers and sisters became tired of all those things. However, if we seek the Lord’s mind, He will impress upon us that we have to do the work of preaching; we must burden the brothers and sisters with the preaching of the gospel. Simply by preaching the gospel, the church will be revived. By preaching, the church comes into life. It truly helps.
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