CONTACTING PEOPLE BY OURSELVES
DIRECTLY, PERSONALLY, AND CONTINUALLY
TO BEAR REMAINING FRUIT
Now I want to come to my point. If you would receive mercy from the Lord to live Him, to live for Him, and to preach Him to gain sinners for Him, just do it yourself. Do not trust in any preacher. Do not expect to get help from any speaker. Just gain people for the Lord yourself. Surely you can save one person within one year. I am burdened that we have a breakthrough in this matter. I am looking to the Lord that each one of you would make a decision to get one person saved for the church life every year. In the natural realm, it is normal for people to have children. But today for us Christians who love the Lord, it seems difficult to bring forth a spiritual child. The Lord told us in John 15 that He is the vine and we are the branches (v. 5). He appointed us to go and bring forth remaining fruit (v. 16). We all should desire fruit that remains.
In these recent years, we have stressed the truth concerning fruit bearing in John 15 again and again. We may have prayed, "Lord, we hate barrenness. We want to bear much fruit." But the bringing forth of fruit among us has not entered into the God-ordained, practical way. We are still mostly in the natural way. We may wonder what the God-ordained, practical way is. We need to realize that as believers, we must and we should bear fruit. We have to bring forth children. Then we must gain a certain amount of skill in bringing forth fruit. We have to learn how to bear fruit and to practice fruit bearing continually.
As believers, as members of Christ, and as branches of the vine, we must bear fruit. The Lord said that if any branch did not bear fruit, it would be cut off (John 15:2a, 6). To be cut off is not to suffer eternal perdition but to lose the enjoyment of Christ in the organic union with Him. It is serious not to bear fruit. Many of us, however, do not have a serious consideration about our barrenness.
Some brothers and sisters have been faithful in the recovery and for the recovery for many years, but I have observed that they have not borne fruit. They love the church, they are for the church, and they support the church financially, but they are not bearing fruit. They should realize that not to bear fruit is a serious thing before the Lord. The Lord wants us to have a spiritual life in the church, to go to the meetings, to worship Him, and to live Him. But what is all this for? If all the saints in the church were like this, yet no one bore any fruit, the church would eventually die out. If the people of a nation did not bear children, the nation would eventually become extinct. The most basic, crucial, and vital thing is for us to bring forth children.
By His mercy, I have found out that to bring forth spiritual children, you must make a serious decision to contact people directly. Do not trust in preachers and in preaching meetings. Just trust in your direct, personal, continual contact with people. I assure you that if you make such a decision, you will at least bring two people to the Lord yearly.
(Elders' Training, Book 10: The Eldership and the God-Ordained Way (2), Chapter 9, by Witness Lee)
