THE GOD-ORDAINED WAY BEING THE MOST EXCELLENT WAY
My intention in speaking to you repeatedly about all these things is to change your concept. I feel that you are still neither pure nor poor within. In particular, most of the brothers who are over thirty years old still trust in their old natural ways. This training has clearly taught you not to speak many words and not even to take out the booklets, but just focus on the person and subdue him with one sentence. I believe that you young sisters have the faith. The brothers have a “big head,” so most of them waver between doubt and belief and still prefer to speak more. Actually, to speak more or to speak less is not the important point; what is important is whether or not we touch the person. This is the same as the principle of blessing others.
If our preaching the gospel by door-knocking can be as effective and as rich in content as injecting someone with a vaccine, then we can consider this step a success. Recently a brother testified that while he was riding in a taxicab, the driver told him that he had just been saved and that now he cannot drive recklessly as he did before because he felt God was forbidding him within. This proves that our injection is working in him. It is useless to merely teach people. Our way is to inject Christ into people as their life supply. Then spontaneously there will be a reaction in them.
Therefore, our training here is a research. We are studying how to improve the product, how to strengthen the word used for injection, and also how to improve our techniques. I believe that you all can confirm that the way given to you in this training is a refined and excellent way; furthermore, it is being continually improved. Please recall that at the beginning of this training, when you first went out to knock on doors to visit people, the result was not good, because you were not yet skillful. Now you have become experienced and the result is manifested. Therefore, what you need is to be poor in spirit and pure in heart and go out to knock on doors according to the instructions you have received in the training. This will bring in the best result.
THE PERSON NEEDING TO BE RIGHT
Of course, both the seeds and the techniques are important, but the person is even more important. The seeds have to be right, the techniques have to be right, and even the more we the laboring ones have to be right. Do you pray enough? Is your confession of sins thorough? Is your fellowship with the Lord transparent? Are you strong in your spirit? These matters will all affect the result of your labor. The seed is the same and the technique is also the same, but the laboring of one who is right will yield a richer harvest, while the laboring of one who is not right will not get good results. We also need to study the matter of how to be a right person. However, at most this training can give you only some basic instructions. What you need most is to continually practice on your own until you yourselves feel that you are right. The seeds in the Lord’s recovery are right and the techniques the training gives you are also right, but if your person is not right, then it is not workable. We must have the right seeds, the right techniques, and the right persons.
THREE BURDENS
Up to the present moment, we have already knocked on more than thirty-eight thousand homes, of which more than twelve hundred homes opened their doors while the others either did not open or had no one at home. There were one thousand and thirty-four persons who were baptized and 2,397 homes that want to be visited again. These ratios are quite high; they exceed the ten percent that I expected. But there are three matters that require our careful study. These are also three burdens that I wish to mention.
1. Taking the Family as a Unit
First, we need to make a slight change of direction in our practice; that is, instead of paying attention to individuals, we should focus on the entire family. This means that in our gospel preaching we must take the family as a unit. To do this, the best way is to gain the parents first. If the parents are not saved yet and the children are still in the custody of the parents, then when you baptize the children, problems may occur and lead to the parents’ opposition. But if you lead the parents to salvation first, then it is easier to gain the next generation. Therefore, we have to study how to lead the parents to baptism first and then gain the entire family.
Of course, you should not do this in a rigid way. Sometimes when you visit a home, the parents avoid you. Then you should not refrain from preaching the gospel to the children just because the parents avoid you. However, we hope to work on the parents first; then it will be easier to lead the children afterward. We want to avoid problems that may arise by neglecting the parents and working on the children first. We have to study this point carefully so that we may avoid this kind of problem.
(The Revelation and Vision of God, Chapter 10, by Witness Lee)
