In Taiwan I tried to teach the saints to stir up their spirit, but I was not clear about how to do it. Later when I came to America, I saw clearly that to stir up the spirit is to call on the name of the Lord. In Acts 2 Peter said that when the Holy Spirit is outpoured, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved (v. 21). Normally we understand salvation in a shallow way. However, when people asked Peter what they should do, Peter said, “Repent and each one of you be baptized upon the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (v. 38). This indicates that the blessing of salvation begins with the forgiveness of sins and consummates with the receiving of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Forgiveness is the initiation, and receiving the Holy Spirit is the consummation. The consummation of our salvation is to receive the Holy Spirit. If we have not received the Spirit, our salvation is not complete. Once we are saved today, we receive the Spirit. However, we need to fan our spirit into flame (2 Tim. 1:6-7). The way to fan our spirit into flame is to pray, to call on the name of the Lord.
It is strange that although we have already received the Spirit, if we do not avail ourselves of the Spirit, everything we do will be to no avail. Without the Spirit, our prophesying will be of no avail. Likewise, without the Spirit, our gospel preaching will be of no avail. In order to have the Spirit, we have to pray, and in our prayer we have to call on the name of the Lord. There is no need to be very proper when we pray; rather, we should be crazy. Fifty years ago, I was taught to be proper when I prayed. I was taught to be sincere when I knelt down, then to pray by the Spirit in the name of the Son to the Holy Father, asking for His grace and blessing. Later on I realized that this is dead prayer. In His prayer and preaching, the Lord Jesus did not keep any regulation or formality. When He preached, He had no podium or time schedule, and there was no program to His speaking. However, there was the power. We also should pray like this, not paying any attention to regulations but rather calling on the name of the Lord unceasingly.
In 1968 we began in America to exercise calling on the name of the Lord. In one meeting I said to the saints, “In your daily life try to forget everything and just call on the Lord’s name for ten minutes. Forget about your status and your work; just call on the Lord’s name. If you do not become burning, come and see me.” I still have the assurance today that if you call on the name of the Lord for only ten minutes, you will be burning. Young people who are on the campuses, if you are burned like this every morning, you will burn others when you are at school. Once the gospel is spoken or preached, there will be the Spirit.
Once when I was in elementary school, the teacher wanted us all to give a speech. I was so frightened that I was shaking and perspiring and did not know what I would say on the platform. Later when I was saved and called by the Lord, I was clear that one day I would have to minister and speak for Him. Therefore, I tried to think of ways to prepare myself. At that time I worked by the sea, and there was a mountain nearby. Behind the mountain it was very quiet. Every day, during my lunch break at noon, I would go to the back of the mountain to practice speaking to the sea. The result was that the more I practiced speaking, the better I became. However, one day a denominational group invited me to speak on the Lord’s Day. That was my first time to speak on the podium, so I prepared much at home before going. I spoke on “Behold, the Lamb of God!” At that time, facing more than three hundred people, I was very frightened. Moreover, as no one had ever taught me to use my spirit, when I spoke I did not use my spirit, so my speaking was to no avail. Later I became clear that in order to exercise the spirit, there is the need of praying, calling on the name of the Lord, and reading the Word. These are the sources of the power of the gospel.
Now we want to see what the mouthpiece and the outlet for the gospel are. The mouthpiece for the gospel is man. Moreover, the outlet for the gospel is the homes. We are the mouthpieces for the gospel, and our homes are the outlets for the gospel. If your home is not given for the Lord’s use, and you preach the gospel only individually, then there will be a mouthpiece but no outlet. Acts shows us that at the time of Peter, the disciples not only broke bread “from house to house” (2:46) but also announced Jesus Christ as the gospel “from house to house” (5:42). In Greek, the word announce is the verb form of the word gospel, meaning that they announced the gospel of Jesus as the Christ. If we announce the gospel of Jesus as the Christ from house to house, then all our houses will be speaking Christ. Hence, we should not only preach the gospel but also open our homes.
Luke 5 gives us an excellent example. The Lord Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi, who was a slave to money, and He called him to follow Him. Upon hearing the Lord’s calling, Levi left all, rose up, and followed the Lord. In this way he was saved. Once he was saved, he gave a great reception for the Lord Jesus in his house. However, he did not invite Jesus alone, nor did he invite prominent officials and famous persons. Instead, he invited many tax collectors and sinners (vv. 27-29). Because he himself was a vile sinner, he did not have good men as his friends but rather a crowd of wicked men, all of whom he invited to recline at table with the Lord. The Lord was the guest of honor, and all the other guests invited to keep Him company were sinners. This is a good example of opening the homes for the preaching of the gospel. Once we open our homes, the gospel will have an outlet; without the homes, the gospel will have no outlet. Now we have many mouthpieces, but what we need is the outlet. Hence, we must open our homes.
I hope that all the saints, especially those who are newly saved, will do this one thing—hold a reception for Jesus and invite all of your friends, even the friends who are disreputable. You and I do not have reputable friends. What we have are “sinner-friends,” such as drinking friends, gambling friends, dancing friends, playing friends, and deceiving friends. Seriously speaking, where can you find good people on this earth? All are sinners. We did not have good friends before we were saved, but after we got saved, the Lord Jesus became our good Friend. We should hold receptions at our homes for the Lord Jesus and invite our sinner-friends that they may receive the Lord Jesus as their Friend.
The Bible not only has examples of sinners preaching the gospel; it also has examples of “good men” preaching the gospel. In Acts 10 there was a good man, Cornelius. The Bible does not mention any sin of his; it speaks of only his good points. He was a devout man who feared God, gave alms to the people, and always prayed and petitioned before God. One day an angel came to him and said, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. And now send...for a certain Simon, who is surnamed Peter” (vv. 4-5). It is true that Cornelius was truly a good man, but he was not saved and still needed the gospel. Therefore, he needed to ask Simon Peter to come and tell him how to be saved. When Peter came, he was surprised because Cornelius was already waiting there, having called together his “relatives and intimate friends” (v. 24). Relatives and intimate friends is a very good expression and a good example to us.
The house of Levi, a tax collector, and the house of Cornelius are excellent examples to us. Regardless of whether we are slaves of money, like the tax collectors who were vile sinners, or we are those who often pray to God and give alms to the poor, like Cornelius, who was a virtuous person, we are all sinners before the Lord; we all need salvation. We also need to open our house and hold a reception for Jesus, inviting all our relatives and intimate friends. I believe in that day when the Lord Jesus was with the group of tax collectors, there must have been many who eventually were saved. Perhaps even all of them were saved. I also believe that those relatives and intimate friends who were at the house of Cornelius that day were also saved, with no one left out. Therefore, the way to contact people with the gospel is in the homes. If there are no homes, the gospel will not have a way. When there is a home, the gospel has a way.
The Lord as a great wind blew upon us and brought us to America. The elderly saints never thought about coming to America. When I was in mainland China, I felt it was very good to be there, especially in the three “norths”—North China, the northwest, and the northeast. We could go anywhere in those regions to work for the Lord, so why should we go to a foreign country and stay in a foreign land? In 1938 someone gave me two checks. One was 1,600 U. S. dollars for my fare to America; the other was 1,200 Chinese yuan for my family’s living expenses for one year. However, I did not have the burden and never even thought about coming to America. China is so vast and has many people. It would not have been possible for us to cover all the places or to exhaust our preaching of the gospel, so why would we think of coming to America? However, this was not up to us. Eventually the Lord blew upon me, and I was brought to Taiwan and then to America.
Whether or not it was your desire, the Lord blew upon you also and brought you to America. Today the Lord is like a great wind that has blown multitudes of Chinese to America. This is the Lord’s perfect will. If men do not leave their own land or soil, they will not believe in the Lord. However, since they have been uprooted and have come to a foreign country, it is easy for them to believe in the Lord. This is why on the college campuses it is easy for us to preach the gospel to the Chinese students. There are hardly any rejections; many have come to attend the Lord’s banquet, and nearly all of them have received the Lord. This is the Lord’s work.
The Lord saved Levi, a tax collector. This was Matthew, who later became one of the twelve disciples to preach the gospel to many sinners. In the vision that Cornelius saw, the angel did not tell him to invite his relatives and intimate friends. However, he did not hide what he had for only his family members to be brought to salvation. Rather, he invited all of his relatives and intimate friends. We need to take him as our model. When you young people go to the college campuses, you are there to hold a reception for Jesus. Just set out a few cold treats, and use half an hour to share the gospel with the friends. That is your home. Alternately, if you can get your parents’ permission, you can invite classmates over for meals and to hear the gospel. The gospel presented in this way will save young people from becoming vile persons, like the American hippies. In America it is dangerous for the young people to not believe in the Lord Jesus. If they do not believe, it is hard to know what they will do because there are all kinds of strange and bizarre things happening on college campuses. Only Jesus can replace those things. If parents are wise, they will definitely let their sons and daughters believe in Jesus.
Therefore, I hope that all of you will open your homes to give a great reception for Jesus, simply inviting “sinners” as your guests that you may preach the gospel to them. If you open your homes, it will not be a loss but a blessing to you. The Lord Himself said that He will show lovingkindness to thousands of generations of those who love Him (Exo. 20:6). Hence, for the sake of eternity, we all should open our homes and provide an outlet for the gospel of the Lord. In this way, the blessing will come not only to us but also to our sons and daughters for generation after generation.