TAKING THE SHEPHERDING WAY
TO PREACH THE GOSPEL AND REVIVE THE CHURCH

SERIES Two
The Outflow of the Vital and Revived Living—
Preaching the Gospel by Visitation Weekly

Message Eight
The Follow-up Revisiting

Scripture Reading:

Luke 12:42     And the Lord said, who then is the faithful and prudent steward, whom the master will set over his service to give them their portion of food at the proper time?

Acts 2:46        And day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they partook of their food with exultation and simplicity of heart.

VISITING PEOPLE AGAIN AND AGAIN

To fulfill our priestly duty we have to learn to be energizing. The first thing we have to do is to get sinners saved. God has chosen thousands of people on this earth and has ordained them to be the sons of peace, but we have to go out to visit people to find these sons of peace (Luke 10:1-6).…In Luke 10 the Lord told the seventy that He sent them out as lambs in the midst of wolves (v. 3). It is hard to say just by one visit whether a person is a son of peace or a wolf. We must go back to visit people again and again. (The Advance of the Lord’s Recovery Today, ch. 10)

If some doors will not open to us, we need to go and visit them again. In Taipei some homes were visited four or five times. When the saints visited one home for the fifth time, the host of this house told them that he admired their endurance and that he was ready to be baptized. A number of genuine believers were produced by our going to them again and again with longsuffering. When we go to visit others in a proper way, the Holy Spirit goes out with us. (The God-ordained Way to Practice the New Testament Economy, ch. 9)

If they are not at home but working in the factory, we may need to go visit them in the factory during the time that they have a break. Our preaching of the gospel is not just the outward form of knocking on doors. We must visit people and gain them where they are.

GOING WITH GOD’S AUTHORITY

When we go to visit people, we go as priests of God with God’s authority. When we go in this way, our speaking will be with authority. Only the Spirit knows what we will speak. If we live a life of the priesthood, we will go out to preach the gospel with much prayer. Then our going will be our being sent out by the Lord. When we visit people, we will always say something instantly to meet the instant need. When someone answers the door we may say, “We were sent by Jesus Christ to come here to pass on grace and peace to you.” When we speak in this way, the person to whom we speak will respond in a positive way. He may say that he wants grace and peace and that he would like to know who Jesus Christ is.

NEEDING MUCH PRAYER

If we go out to visit people in a loose way without much prayer and only tell them that the church sent us here to preach the gospel, they will turn us away. We must go out to visit people with much prayer and with much realization that we are not ordinary persons but God’s priests. When we visit someone with the gospel, we may tell him, “God sent me to see you to make you rich.” When we tell someone that we are coming to make him rich, he will be happy. We are telling him the truth. We came to make him rich in salvation, rich in Christ, rich in grace, rich in peace, and rich in many other things. He is a poor person, but we have come to make him rich. The point I am making is that the Spirit knows how to lead us to speak a particular word. Quite often, we do not need to say too much to someone. After a little conversation, he may be ready to pray to receive the Lord.

GOING BACK TO THEM FREQUENTLY TO FEED THEM

We need to take the preaching of the gospel as our duty and do it regularly, constantly, and continuously. It is best if we would make a budget of our time.…We should not go out and get too many people baptized in one day. That would be foolish because we could not take care of all of them. We need to exercise “birth control” in our preaching of the gospel. We should just go out one or two nights a week until we can get two or three people baptized. Sometimes in one night we may get three baptized in one home—a husband, his wife, and their son. After baptizing them, we should stay with them for a long time and then go back to them the next day. We should not go to knock on more doors because these three babies are enough for us to care for. We should go back to them frequently to feed them and to care for them. Mothers know that their feeding of their little ones must be regular, constant, and continuous. We should go back to visit these new ones again and again until we realize that they are settled in the Christian faith. (The Advance of the Lord’s Recovery Today, ch. 10)

TREATING THE NEW ONES AS BABES

We all have to learn the secret to be the proper feeders. When you go out to hold home meetings, you must treat the new ones as babes. Then you have to learn how to talk to these babes. If a new one asks a question concerning science, you must talk to him as you would talk to a babe. If you talk in a natural way, saying, “Sir, I am sorry. I do not know anything about science,” you are talking as to a man and not as to a babe. You have to realize that even if he is a professor, spiritually speaking, he is a babe. Therefore, you should not treat him as a professor, but as a babe in Christ. This is not easy to learn. In your attitude, in your tone, and in every way, you must be as one who is talking to a babe. (The Exercise and Practice of the God-Ordained Way, msg. 19)

RAISING UP THE NEW ONES WITH THE WORD OF GOD

The first thing we should inject into the new ones is that our Savior is the Spirit and that we as saved ones have a regenerated spirit. We need to spend at least three or four home meetings to impart this matter into them.

The second category of things we should impart to them must be the basic practices of the Christian life. As Christians we should read the Bible, the Word of God. We should pray to God, which is to breathe in God. Also, we should have morning watch. Every morning we should rise up early to have a time of morning watch with the Lord. We must also teach them how to practice morning watch by reading some verses and then pray-reading these verses. You have to charge them to attend the Christian meetings. Then you also have to help them to do the same thing that you did for them, that is, to preach the gospel to others. These are the basic practices of the Christian life.

The next matters we should cover with them are all the different items of God’s salvation. God’s salvation is all-inclusive, and within God’s salvation there are many different items. There are the washing away of our sins, the forgiving of our sins, redemption, reconciliation, justification, regeneration, and so forth.…You have to take care of all these matters, and to do so will require many weeks. (The Exercise and Practice of the God-Ordained Way, msg. 21)

BEARING REMAINING FRUIT

We need to spend time with them, caring for them as our babes.…We may need one or two years to take care of them. Then they will grow. We will bring forth fruit, and our fruit will remain. Bearing remaining fruit is a long-range labor. It does not depend on luck, but upon our diligence, patience, persistence, faith, prayer, and labor. If we love the Lord and desire to live for His kingdom, we will go persistently and regularly to preach the gospel and care for the new ones that we gain. (The Exercise and Practice of the God-Ordained Way, msg. 4)