THE NEW WAY REVEALED BY GOD—DELIVERING THE GOSPEL AND THE TRUTH TO PEOPLES’ HOMES
Whatever God does is always wise, and whatever man thinks is always foolish. In the Bible we cannot find the phrase come and hear the gospel. There is not such a thought in the Bible. The biblical concept is not one of inviting people to come but of telling us to go. Consider this: if the Lord Jesus had just sat in the heavens on the throne and sent the angels to invite people up to heaven to hear the gospel, no one would have been able to get there. Instead, our Lord came personally to bring the gospel to people. John 4 says that one day when He was going from Judea into Galilee, He had to pass through Samaria, but He purposely got off the main road and detoured to Sychar to bring the gospel to a specific place—the well of Jacob, which was near Sychar. This means He foreknew that the immoral woman would go there at noon to draw water. In the ancient times in the area around Judea, women usually went out to draw water in the evening as the sun was setting, and they would also go out in groups. However, because this woman was immoral, no one would have anything to do with her. As a result, she would not go out in the evenings lest people point at her and gossip about her. Therefore, she went out under the hot sun of midday to draw water when no one else was around. No one else knew, but the Lord Jesus knew and waited for her beside the well. You can see to what lengths the Lord Jesus went so that He could deliver the gospel!
Today the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses go out door-knocking, and even some in Christianity who love the Lord also go out door-knocking with gospel tracts. Our door-knocking, however, is different from theirs because we learn from the Lord. The Lord Jesus was the leading One in this matter. He went to Samaria, which was an improper place of mixture, not to contact a high-class person but to contact a low-class woman who had had five husbands and was now living with one who was not her husband. Moreover, the Lord went to Jericho, an accursed city, to deliver the gospel not to the house of a gentleman but to the house of a tax collector who was also a cheater and extortionist (Luke 19:1-10). Therefore, when we send out invitations asking people to come and hear the gospel, strictly speaking, we are not acting according to the biblical principle. God’s way is to deliver the gospel to people, but often our way is to invite people to come. When people come at our invitation, they are doing us a favor, so we have to give them thanks. When we go door-knocking, apparently we are bothering people, but in the end they will thank us.
This is a busy world; every family and every person is busy. Nevertheless, every evening and holiday many people are just busy watching television or reading the newspaper to fill up their time of boredom. If we go out door-knocking and visit them at these times, they will certainly be interested and welcome us in to speak with them. They are watching and reading the earthly things, but we are speaking to them the heavenly things. I believe they certainly will be attracted. There is a full-time trainee, a brother, who has gained one hundred seventeen through door-knocking. In eternity, I believe that many will thank him, saying, “How good it is that you came to my door one day and brought me the gospel! I really thank you.” When we look back on our own salvation, do we not thank those who brought us to the Lord? Even in the New Jerusalem, we will still thank them. I believe that many people will say to those who went out door-knocking, “If it were not for your coming to visit me every week for three months, I would never have been saved or have been able to participate in the new heaven and the new earth. I really thank you.”
The practice of going out door-knocking is God’s wise ordination, and it is the new way which is welcomed by people. This is very different from inviting people to hear the gospel. In principle, most people do not like to accept this kind of invitation, but they welcome our visiting them by door-knocking. We, however, must equip ourselves to be rich in the truth and full grown, matured in life. Especially when we go out door-knocking, we can no longer be children or speak like little children. As soon as we open our mouths, people will be able to smell the aroma of what kind of person we are. If someone is a college student, once he opens his mouth, it will be a college student’s aroma. If someone is an elementary school student, when he opens his mouth, it will be the aroma of a child in elementary school. Opening our mouth and speaking will immediately reveal or expose how much cargo we possess inwardly. Therefore, we must equip ourselves. At the same time we must pray to allow the Lord to fill us inwardly until our entire being is filled with the Lord and overflowing with the Spirit. Then, regardless of whether we go out door-knocking or attend a home meeting, it will not be simply we who go, but the Lord and the Spirit will go with us. Then we will be different.
(The Furtherance of the New Way for the Lord's Recovery, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee)
