Our work for the Lord is often affected or governed by our mind. Sometimes, not knowing how to seek the will of God, we take our own thinking as His will, and thus we go astray. Determining our walk by obeying the mind is very dangerous. If in preparing to speak we rack our brains to develop many points, make outlines and divisions, anticipate reactions, present principles and parables, such a talk ends up being lifeless. Although it may arouse some interest in the audience, it cannot grant life to people. There is another function of the mind that, I believe, many servants of the Lord have misused—memory. How often in preaching do we use our power of recall! We memorize what we hear, and later preach what we have stored in our minds through this means. Sometimes we deliver to the people the biblical teaching we have memorized; other times we preach to people using our notes. All of this is the operation of the mind. However, I am not suggesting here that we ourselves have no experience of what we preach. Perhaps what we know and memorize are indeed the lessons that God taught us in the past, therefore, we have truly experienced them. Nevertheless, if we deliver them from memory or only through notes, they belong, undeniably, to the work of the mind. Why do I say this? Because shortly after we have experienced a certain truth, although originally it had been incorporated into our life, only the knowledge of that truth was stored in our brain. And if we later use the power of memory to recall and preach the truth we experienced in the past, our work remains in the realm of the mind. Now, since the mind and memory belong to the soul, our reliance on them means we trust in the power of the soul’s life. We are still under the control of the natural life. The three characteristics above are the most prominent works of the soul. Such works are not sin, nor are they totally ineffective in saving people; however, the fruits they produce are very limited. We must overcome these types of soul works by depending on the cross. The Lord Jesus taught us that our natural life, or soul life should, like a grain of wheat, fall into the ground and die. When we speak according to our experience, it is natural that we place great value on our talent, delight in our feeling, and trust in our thinking. But our Lord told us that we must hate this soul life; otherwise, by loving it, we will lose the power of the supernatural life of the spirit that God has given us. The death of the cross must work deeply in this area of our natures. We must be willing to surrender to the cross the soul life we so love, be willing to die with Christ in this area, in order to rid ourselves of the dependence on natural talent, feeling, and thinking, so that we may hate this type of work with all our heart. As we serve the Lord, we must consider talent, feeling, and thought as nothing. We despise this type of power of the natural life and are ready to deliver it to the death of the cross. If, on the negative side, we always maintain an attitude of hatred towards the soul life, we will learn experimentally how to depend on the power of the life of the spirit and thus, produce fruits to the glory of God.
The Way in Which the Crucified One Proclaims the Cross
Regarding the practical side, whenever the Lord sends us to a certain place at a certain time to testify of Him, we must again rid ourselves of the inclination to love and depend on our natural life, and be willing to set aside our emotion or sentiment. Even though sometimes we feel nothing, or we feel as cold as ice, we can kneel before the Lord and ask that the cross do its deepest work in us so that we can control our feeling—whether it be cold or warm in fulfilling the Lord’s commandment. We can also ask the Lord to strengthen our spirit. And as the soul’s life at that moment receives its fatal blow on the cross, the Lord will grant us more grace. Even though we know the truth we are going to preach, we dare not take it from our brain and deliver it to people. Instead, we will humbly prostrate ourselves before God, asking Him to bring the truth we already knew to life again. Thus, the truth will be imprinted in us anew so that what we speak is not merely a recollection of our past experience but a fresh experience of life. In this way, the Holy Spirit with His power will control what we preach. It is better to wait before the Lord before we speak, thus allowing His word (or sometimes what we already know) to impress our spirit anew. Even if we have little time, the Lord is capable of imprinting the message on our spirit in a few minutes. Such experience requires constant openness of our spirit to the Lord in our daily walk. We must emphasize this point, as it is the key to our success or failure. In the case of a backsliding believer, if we ask them to speak of their past experience, they can do so by the power of memory and may even speak quite appropriately. But we all know that the Holy Spirit will not operate through them. However, let us realize that the work we do by the power of memory is not much different from the preaching or talk of the backsliding believer. We must quickly recognize that work done with the mind, most of the time, is a waste of energy. For what proceeds from the mind can only reach the minds of other people. It can never touch the spirit nor give life. Old experiences, not renewed nor revived, are inadequate for our work. We must ask God to renew the old experience in our spirit. What we have just said is even more true with reference to preaching the salvation of the cross to sinners. It may be that we were saved a long time ago. If we operate only by the power of memory, won’t our message be too old and tasteless? But if we can see again in our spirit the ugliness of sins and taste again the love of the cross, we will thus be touched by the compassion of Christ so that sinners believe in Him, and we can vividly portray the cross before people (see Galatians 3:1) so that they believe in Him. How can we move others with the love and compassion of Christ if we ourselves are so hard and cold? It may be that when we proclaim the suffering of the cross, our heart is not at all touched and softened by such sufferings! Therefore, we must go to the presence of the Lord with our spirit open so that the Holy Spirit makes His word and message pass through our spirit, causing us to melt by His word before we deliver it. We should not depend on our feeling, natural talent, or our mind; rather, depend on the power of the Holy Spirit. Let His message impress the spirit of those who hear and also our spirit. Oh!
Illustrative image of Jesus on the cross and our sins coming upon Him
Every time we preach we must be like Isaiah, who always had the burden of prophecy before prophesying. When reading Isaiah chapters 13 to 23, we will notice that each prophecy is preceded by the word ‘burden’ or ‘oracle.’ This should be meaningful to us. Every time we proclaim the Word of God, we must first receive in our spirit the burden of the message that we must deliver as if we could not rid ourselves of the burden until our work is done. Furthermore, we must ask the Lord to give us the burden so that the work we do does not proceed from our natural feeling, talent, or mind. We must also go through the experience of Jeremiah: ‘Whenever I said, I will not remember Him or speak anymore in His name, then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot endure it’ (Jeremiah 20:9). How can we be careless when proclaiming the Word of God? We must first allow His word to burn in our spirit so that we cannot help but proclaim it. But if we are not willing to deliver the life of our soul and its power to death, we will never receive the word of the Lord anew in our spirit. If we, as servants, wish to be used by God to save sinners and revive saints—that is, to proclaim the message of the cross—we must let the cross first work in us: to make us, on the one hand, willing to surrender ourselves daily to death for the Lord and on the other hand, ready to place the power and life of our soul in the place of death—abhorring the strength that belongs to the natural life, not trusting at all in ourselves, nor in anything that comes from the ego. Then we will see the life of God and His power flowing into the spirits of people through our words. Despite all the preparations on the part of the evangelist or preacher, sometimes he may still fail. However, it will not be due to a total failure on his part. Why, then? Because of the oppression and attack of Satan.
The Oppression and Assault of Satan
Satan hates the preaching of the word of the cross. If we faithfully proclaim the Lord’s cross, we will suffer his opposition. He frequently assaults the messenger of the cross in the following ways. He can attack by weakening the health of the messenger — causing loss of voice and encountering many physical dangers — or by oppressing their spirit to the point of suffocation. He can work in the environment creating misunderstandings, opposition, and even persecution. He can disrupt the weather, preventing people from attending meetings. He can cause disorder or confusion in the meeting. He may incite dogs to bark or babies to cry. Sometimes he can operate in the atmosphere, making the meeting feel heavy, suffocating, oppressive, or gloomy. All these are works of the enemy that the messenger of the cross must recognize.
Since we have such an enemy and can encounter this kind of opposition, we must know the victory of the cross. The Lord Jesus on the cross did more than simply solve the problem of sin. There He pronounced the judgment of condemnation on Satan; there He defeated the enemy: “…so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Hebrews 2:14b-15).
“Having disarmed the powers and authorities [the Lord Jesus], made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:15). At the cross, Satan was defeated, for there he suffered the fatal blow. We know that “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work” (1 John 3:8). And where does this happen? The simple answer is: at the cross. We also know that the Lord Jesus came to bind the strong man (Matthew 12:29). Where? At the cross at Calvary, naturally. It is essential that we understand that the Lord Jesus won the battle at the cross. We must know:
The Victory of the Cross
We need to recognize that Satan is a defeated enemy. It follows that we do not need to be defeated and the enemy must not win. Satan has no right to victory again! He should have nothing but a total defeat of himself. Therefore, let us lift up the victory of the cross, both before and after we see the work of Satan. Let us loudly praise Christ’s victory. Before we begin to work, we can declare before the Lord: “Praise be to the Lord, for victory belongs to Him! Christ is the victor! Satan is already defeated! The enemy has been destroyed! Calvary is the victory! The cross is the victory!” We should repeat this until in our spirit we know that the Lord will win the battle again. We must stand at the foot of the cross, asking for victory and also the destruction of the works of the devil. We must ask that God cover us, and those who attend the meeting, with the precious blood of our Lord Jesus so that we are not attacked by Satan, but overcome him. “They triumphed over [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 12:11). Recently, while working in the province south of Fukien, the devil frequently attempted to oppress and assault me. However, the Lord taught me in this experience that I should stand firm at the cross and praise Him. Sometimes my spirit was deeply oppressed; I had no freedom, it was as if a thousand kilos were pressing on my heart. Other times, upon entering the meeting hall, I felt that the very air had been polluted by the works of the devil. In such circumstances, although I prayed fervently, I could not prevail. So, I began to praise Christ for His victory on the cross: I gloried in the cross and taunted the enemy, saying that he could no longer operate because he was a defeated enemy. Subsequently, I truly felt liberated, and the atmosphere of the meeting was also changed. Praise be to the Lord, for the cross is victorious! Praise be to the Lord, for Satan is defeated! We must know how to exercise, in prayer, the various aspects of the victory of the cross against the tricks, powers, and assaults of the enemy. Whenever there is opposition or confusion of any kind, we can declare the victory of the cross of Calvary.
Although sometimes we feel nothing, yet by faith, we claim His victory, and the enemy will be defeated. If we are truly united with the cross — allowing it to accomplish a deeper work in our life and service, trusting with all our heart in the victory of the cross — God will make us triumph in all places. May God lead us, unworthy servants, to be workers “who do not need to be ashamed” (2 Timothy 2:15)
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