In order to preach the gospel by visiting people in their homes, we have to devote ourselves to the Lord. Knocking on people’s doors is difficult. We do not know what kind of people we are going to meet when we go out to knock on doors. We need the wisdom to deal with all kinds of people. Furthermore, the more we talk, the more mistakes we make. To go out to preach the gospel by knocking on people’s doors requires a life on the highest plane. Whether or not someone allows us to come in to speak to them depends on what we say to them at the door. We need the wisdom to speak the right words. We need to learn a great deal.
Paul said in Colossians 1:28 that he announced Christ, “warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man full-grown in Christ.” The phrase “in all wisdom” means a lot. It shows that Paul did not preach the gospel concerning Christ in a simple way. He preached the gospel in all wisdom. Paul had a way to convince all kinds of people to receive the Lord Jesus. Brother Nee told us that whether someone is saved or not depends upon what we say to them. When we are speaking the gospel to someone, our speaking should stop at a certain point and we should guide them into prayer. A long prayer is not necessary. With a short prayer, a person can be saved. Good salesmen are trained not to speak to people with their own words but with the words that their company trained them to speak. They are trained to stop talking with their clients at a certain point; otherwise, they will lose the deal. On the other hand, they do not close the deal too quickly. We need to preach the gospel in the same way, doing it in all wisdom.
Since Paul preached the gospel in all wisdom, as an apostle he surely perfected the saints to do the same thing. In 1953 and 1954, I carried out a training in Taipei with four main sections: the gospel, life, truth, and the church. In the section on the gospel, I shared with the saints concerning the discernment of people. We have to discern if the person to whom we are speaking is religious, atheistic, or immoral. Based upon the kind of person he is, we can speak a particular word to him to bring him to salvation. We need this kind of perfecting. The training we had with the saints in Taiwan in 1953 and 1954 had some success. That was the reason that we had so much increase in the beginning of the work in Taiwan. Within five or six years our number increased from about four hundred to forty thousand. We may not have brought anyone to the Lord for years because we were not perfected to preach the gospel. We need to be willing and ready to be perfected for the preaching of the gospel. I do not know how to operate a camera properly because I do not have the heart to learn. Likewise, we may not know how to preach the gospel because we do not want to learn.
The Lord told us in John 15 that Christ is the true vine and we are His branches. The branches of the vine tree have to bear fruit; otherwise, they will be cut off (vv. 2a, 6). For a branch to be cut off from the vine tree is a serious matter. For us to be cut off from Christ as the vine tree does not mean that we will be lost but that we will lose the genuine enjoyment of Christ. As a branch of the vine tree, you cannot enjoy the vine tree if you are cut off from it. We may claim that we are enjoying Christ, yet we may not have borne fruit for many years. I doubt that such “enjoyment” is the genuine enjoyment of Christ. If the branches are abiding in the vine tree, they will surely bear fruit. If they are not bearing fruit, something must be wrong.
Because God’s salvation has room for more people, the Lord Jesus told us, “Go out into the roads and hedges and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled” (Luke 14:23). Some have criticized our preaching the gospel by knocking on people’s doors by saying that we mostly gain the lower-class people. This is according to the Lord’s word in Luke 14. The Lord Jesus told us to go to the hedges. The lower-class people are at the hedges, not the upper-class ones. The Lord Jesus also told us to compel them to come in. Throughout my Christian life I have seen many people get saved by being compelled. If we preach the gospel to people by asking them to receive the Lord and giving them a choice, they will not choose Christ but the Devil. However, if we compel people to believe by directing them to receive the Lord without giving them a choice, many will receive the Lord. We need to learn to do this compelling work so that many can get saved. The angels were not charged to preach the gospel of grace. Only we human beings have this right. We have the right to compel people to receive the Lord.
Furthermore, I have the right in this fellowship to compel you to devote yourself to the Lord. We all have to devote ourselves to the Lord by a vow. The more we compel others, the more results we get. The more gentle and “spiritual” we are, the less results we have. The brothers who are “crazy” in the gospel and compel people to receive the Lord are the ones that get the results. Brother Nee told us that we could not get people saved if the skin on our face is thin. If we are going to get people saved, the skin on our face must be very thick. Then if someone rejects us, we are not bothered. The more we are rejected, the more we will compel others to believe in the Lord Jesus. We have to devote ourselves to the Lord in His love to compel people to receive Him as their salvation.