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Churchwork
01-16-2006, 01:31 PM
The Minister of the Gospel


There are at least six approaches to the preaching of the gospel. The preaching may lay stress on love, righteousness, judgment, sin, the world, or vanity. Yet whatever approach one may use, each needs the working of the Holy Spirit. The result of the Holy Spirit’s working is one; which is, that it causes people to capitulate. The true gospel will always convict and convert. Whoever thinks that he does God a favor by believing is being totally foolish. If one really sees the gospel, and regardless whether he meets with love, righteousness, judgment or whatever, he is always "softened up" by the Holy Spirit.

Whenever we preach the gospel we must set before the people the straight path. The issues surrounding the world as well as service must all be resolved. Let us see that the center of the gospel is God, not we ourselves. It is not what we get, but what God gets. As a person receives salvation, he must recognize that henceforth all belongs to God. As soon as a person is saved, we should tell him that hereafter he is no longer an independent individual but that he now belongs to the body of Christ as one of its members. Therefore, he must learn to listen and obey.

If the Church fails to walk in this way, it will forever remain below standard. According to truth, the Church is always obedient. But sometimes we ourselves need to return and learn obedience. If we who are God’s workmen walk aright we shall work all these matters through with the newly saved. The saved must have a good beginning.

The gospel is not only to be preached but also to be lived by us who preach. It must be seen as well as heard. Preaching is not as powerful as martyrdom. The latter gains more people than the former.

The true story is told of a sister in the Lord who was only about 19 or 20 years old. For the sake of the Lord she was exiled to Siberia to be punished. On the way in the train she comforted her family by telling them, "Do not weep for me, weep for those without God. What I have far exceeds what they have. For in loving my Lord, I gladly suffer for Him. My suffering can never be compared to what my Lord had suffered." At that time there was a thirteen-year-old lad sitting nearby. He was greatly moved upon hearing these words of hers. And as a result he believed in the Lord and later on he became one of those who was greatly used of God in the southern part of the Russian Empire.

Strictly speaking, we workers need to be the kind of men portrayed in Acts 2 before we can preach the word of Acts 2 which they preached. What we must do today is more than preach God’s word; we ourselves must have an impact upon the people. And were the gospel to be propagated in such fashion, a fleshly person would dare not come to the church. People with such a life as those in Acts 2 will have an impact upon the assembly and will pass on their zeal and joy. Life is a matter of consciousness, of sensation. You may shake hands with someone and fail to touch any spirit in him. You are unable to touch the real person. But if that person carries with him the things of God, he will cause others to touch those very things. A person with God’s life enables others to touch life.

All God’s appointed ministries have the Lord’s word. A person with ministry usually carries within him some weighty words. These words constitute his burden. Even though sometimes the burden seems light, yet the more it is discharged the more it is increased. It can be likened to a woolen ball whose string you draw out. The more you draw it out, the more woolen thread you will have. All worthwhile ministries are ministries with burden.

Some while speaking speak from their mind. Their mind is actively turning all the time. So that what is spoken are mere words, empty words. As people listen, only the sound enters them, but not the spirit. All true ministries must have burden in the words uttered. A man with true ministry goes forth with a heavy burden inside him, but when he returns home his inside is light, for the burden has been discharged. If a person has no burden, his speaking or preaching is of no use, no matter how actively he uses his brain or how eloquently he speaks with his mouth. A ministry has its ministerial burden. The painful thing is that sometimes when one comes with a burden he may not find an audience that will receive the words. This results in carrying back the burden he had originally come with.