It is very important that you understand, first of all, that what is presented here is simply a tool that you can use to help someone receive the Lord as life. But you must know how to use the tool. I am NOT going to give you a method that if you use it, it will always produce wonderful results. There is no such thing. Spiritual things are not a matter of methods or formulas. No, spiritual things are related to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is everything. For spiritual things you need a person with an exercised spirit, not a method. The Lord Jesus said, "I am the way." When you preach the gospel, He is the way. I am just presenting to you a tool you can use. But you must centre on the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit. This must be very clear.
If you practice this you will be surprised. I do not mean that this is the only way to preach the gospel. Oh no, far from it. This is only one way but by the Lord's mercy I have a little bit of experience that I can impart to you. There are many other ways of preaching the gospel. Perhaps you have something that we can learn that will help us. This is also very good.
Gospel preaching is very difficult. A healthy meeting with other Christians is very easy, very enjoyable. Why? Because we are all alive in spirit, we are all living people. We are in spirit and life. But when you preach the gospel one thing you must remember is that you are speaking to a dead person. Why do I say he is dead? Do I mean that he is a corpse? No. He is spiritually dead. He has no life and no spirit. When you speak to a dead person it is very hard. One thing you must realize. It is a very hard job. You are speaking to a dead person and you are to make that dead person alive. That is not easy. How can a dead person who is not spiritually enlivened understand any spiritual things. It is impossible. First you must speak the gospel to him to make him alive.
The gospel; what do you understand by the word gospel? The gospel is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, of a person. It is to impart this person, Jesus Christ, to that dead person. The gospel is powerful and living. It is a person. You need to impart the person of Christ to the person you are speaking to.
Suppose you start telling someone that he is a sinner, will he take it? For him to know that he is a sinner is something spiritual. He needs to be enlightened by the Lord to see this. If he is not enlightened nobody can convince him that he is a sinner. He will argue that he is a good man. Or suppose you tell him, "Jesus died for you on the cross." This also is a spiritual fact. In our Lord's table meeting we appreciate Christ's death for us on the cross very much. "Lord, how we praise and thank you that you died for us." That is spiritual talk about spiritual things. If you tell this to someone who is spiritually dead do you expect him to appreciate what you are saying? He won't appreciate it.
That is why you may find that gospel preaching is so hard. Whatever you say, people argue with you. In the end you are unsuccessful, exhausted and discouraged. Then you say you are not going to preach the gospel any more. The problem is that you have the wrong approach. Anything you talk to them about the Lord, about the Bible, is spiritual. You must be enlightened by the Lord to understand spiritual things so the question is how to get someone enlightened?
The Lord Jesus said, "I am the way ." You want to help someone to be saved? The way is a person. The first issue is how to help this person to touch the Lord. Don't tell him anything but bring him to touch the Lord. When he touches the Lord, everything is clear. The Lord is the way. So, what you are doing is helping the person to touch the Lord to gain the Lord, to experience the Lord, to see the Lord. Don't say anything else. Christ is the way, He is the life, He is the reality. All you need to do is to help him to touch Christ. When he receives and touches Christ his spirit will be enlivened. After that when you talk to him about spiritual things he will understand. Then the way will be open for the Lord to enlighten him.
So please remember: your task in the gospel is to how to help the person to touch the Lord Jesus Christ as a person. Don't talk about any other thing, nothing else but Christ. The Christ you present must be the living Christ, not the Christ you know about in your head, not the Christ that you read about in the Bible doctrinally, but the living Christ that you experience. Never forget that it is not you that gets the person saved. You cannot get the person saved, no way. It is the Lord, the Spirit that saves the person. The Lord must be there, the Spirit must be there.
I repeat: first, you have to bring the person to touch Christ. Second, it is the Spirit that gets the person saved, not you. You are but an instrument. It is the Spirit that enlightens the person. It is the Spirit that gives life. It is the Spirit that works. You do not work. You do not get a person saved. You are just a channel. You are the means through whom the Spirit works. This is very important.
This means that you must be in the spirit and take care of the spirit. The Spirit and your spirit are one so you must take care of your spirit. By taking care of your spirit you are taking care of the Spirit. In other words, during the whole process of preaching the gospel you cannot offend the Spirit and you cannot offend your spirit. Why, because the Spirit must be there working. The Spirit must be there but the Spirit is very sensitive, extremely sensitive. The Spirit must be there so you must take care of the Spirit and take care of your spirit also. Otherwise, you are wasting time. If the Spirit is not there it doesn't work because it is the Spirit that gives life.
What do I mean when I say you cannot afford to offend the Spirit? Suppose that while you are preaching the gospel, you look up and something distracts your eyes. This causes something else to go through your mind. This will offend both the Spirit and your spirit. After that when you try to speak you have no power behind you. You can speak but there is no life, there is no zip, there is no depth. What you speak is just empty words, there is no life. The Spirit is not there. You can preach a marvelous gospel but the person will not be saved.
So what should you do about terrible and nonsensical thoughts that come? Before you speak determine not to look anywhere else. Get your being ready before the Lord, turn to your spirit, and ask for forgiveness. Ask for the cleansing of the blood right then and there. Control your eyes, control your mind and, control your heart. Sometimes in the middle of speaking you may get distracted. Quickly turn inside, turn right away, ask for the cleansing quickly so that you do not offend the Spirit.
The next thing to take care of is the environment. When you preach the gospel you must provide a healthy environment. The Spirit is very sensitive. For the Spirit to work there must not be a distraction of any kind. For instance, if you are preaching to parents then you should arrange for the children to be taken care of. If they are running around there will be distraction and it will be very difficult for the Spirit to work. Of course, as you take care of the environment, you cannot be so formal. The Spirit doesn't work that way either. It should be very informal and relaxed but at the same time very sober. Be relaxed, have a meal together but at the same time take care of your spirit.
The next thing to take care of is the conversation. You need to control the speaking to bring it around to fit in the gospel. Of course the unsaved person will not likely be asking about the gospel. Suppose you are talking to someone from Columbia. It will be very easy for him to talk about Columbia. Then you could ask if there are churches in Columbia. He might have been talking about warlords but now you have brought it around to churches. "What kind of churches do you have?" See what I mean about controlling the conversation? You could ask what they do on Sunday. Use something like that to bring the conversation around in a very relaxed way. Then you can zero in to the gospel. If there are other believers present they should not interfere but to be very exercised in prayer.
You, yourself, need to take care of your own intention. You cannot be there just to catch him. A gospel preacher must love people. You must love that person and be concerned for him. You do not want him to perish so you are helping him to be saved. I'll give you an example: one of my patients had a heart attack when he was 36 years old. It was terrible so, medically speaking, I knew that his days were numbered. He would not live too long. As a doctor I can't just tell him that he is going to die. That would be passing a death sentence on him. But inside I was considering that if he didn't get saved soon he would be suffering for eternity in hell fire. If he was there, how could I answer him if he asked me why I never preached the gospel to him? So I was considering what to do.
One evening the Lord arranged that he was the last patient coming in. There was no one else waiting and it was very quiet, very relaxed. His wife was there too and when I began to speak she was very happy. I sat on the table and talked with him for about 15 minutes. When I asked him to pray with me he did. I told him to look at the time because this was his second birthday. He was happy and his wife was happy too but I was wondering if he had really touched the Lord.
A few months later he died. The next time his wife came in I asked her to tell me something about her husband after he prayed with me that evening. She said that he had changed. I asked her to tell me more. She told me that her husband never spoke to her relatives without getting mad at them, he always criticized them. After he was saved he was so good, so nice that everyone was surprised. Even he was surprised at himself because he had changed so much. I told her that I loved to hear that. It shows that he was really saved. I am so happy that I preached the gospel and the person was saved.
So, I would remind you again, you must take care of your spirit. The Spirit of God works through your spirit. Take care that there are no distractions outwardly or inwardly. Your mind must be clean and clear because the Lord needs to use your mind. If your mind is filthy and corrupt how can the Lord use it? If a dirty thought comes turn back to the spirit right away, ask for the Lord's forgiveness and the cleansing of His precious blood. Lastly, you must control the whole situation because the gospel is the power of God. The authority of the gospel is the authority of Jesus Christ. You must exercise authority, you must be in control. When the person you are speaking to believes he is obeying the gospel. That is why you have to be very careful about what you do, what you say, what you think, everything. You must be one with the Lord in spirit exercising His authority.
This also means that you should never ask the person what he would like to do. Tell him what to do. Never ask if he would like to pray-more than likely he will say no. Never ask if he would like to get saved. You are in control, tell him what to do and what to pray. This is very important. These are the important things to keep in mind when preaching the gospel: the spirit, the environment, the conversation, your intention, your whole being, and your authority. The gospel is not so simple because you have to take care of all these things. You have to practice this until it becomes a part of you.
Question: What if the person refuses to pray?
Answer: If he refuses stop. Don't beg the person to get saved. You want him to receive the Lord. This is very wonderful but if he doesn't want it, forget it. Invite the person to come to the Lord but don't beg. The Lord's things are too high, too precious. Don't make them cheap. My Lord is not cheap. If you don't want His life, forget it. Take it or leave it. You must have this attitude. If you want it I will spend hours with you but if you don't want it, not one second. Did the Lord ever beg the Pharisees to believe in Him? No!
Question: What if they would say, "How about another time?"
Answer: Another time is OK. We can meet another time. But if he refuses or wants to argue then no. People never receive the Lord through an argument. Don't waste your time. Never argue, never fight. It's up to the person preaching. That is why I say to you, you must be in control. They obey the gospel, they submit and they receive.
Question: What if the person prays with me? My concern is that if someone does what I ask them to it may just be to please me. How do I know if it's real? Maybe I just intimidated him.
Answer: Tell them not to do it to please you. Tell them, "Don't do this to please me. When you pray with me you must speak out of your heart. Your mouth and your heart are connected. Don't just speak through your mouth but speak through your heart and your mouth." Make sure you tell them to open their heart. The main thing is their heart. Take care of your own heart and of course you must be strong in spirit. When I help someone to pray I always tell him that I am opening my heart to him. I emphasize the word heart. I start to pray with one word, "Lord". I ask them to repeat after me. When he/she repeats the word "Lord" he usually just says it. I tell him, "No, that is not strong enough. You need to open your heart to the Lord. Repeat after me strongly. Lord! I open my heart to you!" Help him to touch his spirit and emphasize the word heart. Speaking in a strong way will help him to open his whole being to the Lord. "Lord! I receive You right now into my heart!" Again I emphasize the word heart. "As my life and my Savior!"
Of course you won't be able to get everyone saved the first time you try. If you can all the better but you may not be able to. Last night I was speaking to someone. I went through the whole thing very strongly. But when I asked her, "Now please close you eyes and pray after me" she said, "No!" She was strong to say no and I was shocked. But by the Lord's mercy and the abundance of His grace I still won't give up.
Question: I have exactly the same situation with a co-worker. He wants to talk to me about God all the time but when I ask if he want so pray he says no. Later he still comes back and wants to talk.
Answer: There may be hope. Continue to minister to him and pray for him. He did not totally reject. This is fairly common. I told the person last night, If the Lord would be here in person talking to you through His word, would you still say no?" She would not listen. I said, "You have to come to the Lord in His way, not in your way." "No!" I tell you she was firm. Wow! I was surprised. She said, "I don't want to change unless I mean it." I had done my best and she said, "No!" But still there is hope. She did not altogether reject.
I'll come to that later on - how to get the right person to preach the gospel to initially so that you can get some encouragement. You don't want to have failure after failure after failure so that you get discouraged. Don't do that. You should get the right person to preach to so that you get some encouragement. That is good. Never argue and never beg. When you get somebody saved you must have a view, I want to get this person saved into the church life for the Lord's economy and purpose. Your view is not just to get him saved from hell fire. That is too shallow. You have to get the person to love the Lord and to know the Lord so it's not easy. Out of two or even eight you may just find one so always pray, "Lord, lead me to the sons of peace." (Luke 10:6) Pray every day, "Lead me Lord, lead me Lord." Even now I still pray this way. Pray that the Lord will give you the sons of peace but never beg.