02/10 -- The Fire of the Gospel

Post date: Oct 30, 2017 5:34:44 AM

Gather the brothers and sisters together to have some prayers of the church, asking for the zeal of the gospel. All the brothers and sisters have to come together to call on the Lord, to ask God to stir up the fire of the gospel, so that everyone would acquire a zeal for the gospel. Oh, dear brothers and sisters, the fire of the gospel needs to be stirred up. If you do not stir it up, it will not burn. Please remember that according to God's ordination, the fire of the burnt offering on the Old Testament altar must not go out from morning to evening and from evening to morning. It was necessary for the priests to add wood to that fire continually. The priests had to be responsible to take care of it and to keep it burning…… They have to increase the wood regularly, stir up the fire regularly, and cause the brothers and sisters to become zealous for the gospel regularly. It is not right to go to a local church and find the brothers and sisters interested in spiritual things, yet cold towards the gospel. There is something wrong in this kind of situation. No matter how big a church is and how mature and deep in experience it is, it must have the fire of the gospel. …..

….. You have been meeting in that place for two or three years already, yet there are still only thirty or more brothers and sisters. There has been no increase in number for over a year. How can that be? As an elder, you have to rise up to stir up the fire of the gospel. You cannot rest in peace. You have to go to bed a little later and get up a little earlier. You have to pray, to call on the Lord to give the church the zeal of the gospel, and to have every brother and sister burning within. If you can stir up the fire, many works will follow. (The Elders' Management of the Church, Chapter 13, Section 4

In order to preach the gospel, we first must be a person for the gospel, having the spirit of the gospel. Next, we must pray. If we lack prayer, all our labor will be in vain. Therefore, we must pray. However, we should not pray for any specific persons; our prayer should be general. We should pray for the Lord to strengthen the spirit of the gospel within us so that the fire of the gospel would burn among us. Furthermore, we must pray for the Lord to give us a heart of love toward men, to give us a sense of urgency toward the thousands of people who are perishing every day, and especially to give us an interest in sinners and a desire to contact them. This kind of prayer fans the fire of the gospel into flame; the more we pray, the more the fire of the gospel will be burning in us. Eventually, when we see a sinner, we will be moved to tears, and we will love the unbelievers. The young saints should exercise in this way. If we feel nothing in our heart when we see people, the gospel tracts that we give them will be cold. However, if the fire of the gospel is burning within us, we will be burdened when we think of the unbelievers going to the lake of fire. Then every tract that we give out will touch people's hearts.

If the fire of the gospel is kindled within us, we will become crazy for the gospel and go everywhere to preach the gospel. The young people should be crazy for the gospel on their college campuses. Whenever they see an unbeliever, they should be enlivened, even to the point that they forget about eating and care only for the gospel. We should distribute gospel tracts and booklets every day. When I was young, there were always gospel tracts in my pocket. On my way to and from work, I would give them to the people I met. We should never be without gospel tracts, and we should give them to everyone we see. Whether we are in a store or eating in a restaurant, we should give out gospel tracts. If we are the kind of people who preach the gospel everywhere, we will see the effect of the gospel. The economical Spirit, the Spirit of power, will be upon us, and we will be full of power in the gospel.

What I have fellowshipped is the common way, the general way to preach the gospel. Every full-time serving one must have this experience. We must be on fire for the gospel, crazy for the gospel, for at least two to three years. All those who are crazy for the gospel will become thick-skinned, bold, not shy. If we have not already learned this spiritual lesson, we must make it up. All the young ones who are serving the Lord full time must be crazy for the gospel. (The Vision, Living and Work of the Lord's Serving Ones, Chapter 2, Section 1)