Recently the meeting for the Lord’s table among us has very much improved. Is this because the brothers and sisters love the Lord more than they did a few months ago or they have more ability and stature of spirituality? No, it is due mostly to our learning and training. The brothers and sisters to some degree have learned the technique for the Lord’s table meeting. Along with the improvement there has been the anointing with the Lord’s presence. In the past we did not have the anointing with the Lord’s presence as much as we now do because we did not have much training and cooperation to meet the Lord’s need. The more cooperation we afford the Lord, the more He grants us His anointing with His presence. The more we are ready, the more the Lord will do through us. Therefore in the matter of bringing people to the Lord, we need the technique and training.
After we have the burden for someone, pray for him, and receive the anointing and the power from on high, what shall we do with him? In order to deal with a person, we must know how to categorize or classify him, just like a fisherman knows the categories of fish. If a fisherman classifies his fish, he will know what kind of bait to use. A certain bait may be good for one kind of fish, but to use the wrong bait will scare the fish away. If we classify people, we will know what they need.
To properly classify people, we must have the right technique. We would not be so foolish as to ask someone what kind of person he is. Rather, we can classify people by contacting them in a general way through conversation. We should be general and not make a display to them that we are religious, spiritual, or heavenly. People do not like to talk to angels or religious persons; this scares them. Rather, we must talk to people in a general, human way. Then by our general talk, we must learn to realize what kind of person each one is.
In the past I have given more than twenty classifications of people, but here it is sufficient to give only five main categories. The first is a so-called atheist, someone who does not believe that there is a God in the universe. It is easy to find out if a person is an atheist. The second category is people who are sinful and living in sins. These also are easy to know. The third classification is people who sense the vanity of this life. They always have the sense that life is vain, a vanity of vanities. The fourth classification is moral people, people who always pay attention to morality. The last classification includes professing Christians. If we know these classifications, it is easy to realize what category a person belongs to. Then we will know how to deal with him.
In principle, the best way to contact an atheist for the gospel is never to argue. Rather, we must touch his feeling. Atheists are strong in their mentality, but regardless of how strong people are in their mind, they have a certain amount of feeling concerning God. In their mind there is no God, and in their mouth there is no God, but in their heart there is a feeling. We should realize that many times when an atheist is saying there is no God, an inner voice within him is saying, “Suppose there is a God. What would you do?” There is an inner voice and an inner feeling. Therefore, we must learn not to argue with their mentality but strike their feeling in a nice way.
After touching their feeling, we should touch their conscience. Even atheists have a conscience, and in their conscience there is the consciousness that they are wrong in certain things. This is the ground for us to take to speak something that they may be convinced not from without but from within. A person is a human, not a lower animal like a bird or the cattle. Within man in God’s creation there are certain things according to God’s nature. Even if we do not have the words to express or explain it, we realize that within our human nature there is something that senses there is a God. We cannot explain this, but we sense it. A young man may be able to boldly say that there is no God, but the older he becomes, the more weakly he will say this. When he comes to the verge of death, he will have no more boldness to say there is no God. This is because the inner sense created by God within our nature becomes stronger and stronger as we grow older. The older we become, the stronger this inner sense is. There is no argument against this.
Someone may say to us that he still does not believe. However, we can tell him that within him is something that believes. This may cause him to not sleep for the whole night. In this way we pave the way for the Holy Spirit to work in him. Sometimes a strong person can say that for many years he was not convinced, but this inner voice was always speaking. Eventually, such a person will be convinced. There is no need to argue. Rather, we should learn to touch people’s feeling and conscience. This is the principle of speaking with an atheist. If we practice this, we will see that it works.