“All things work together for good to them that love God….” Romans 8:28

Every moment the great Refiner is waiting to add some new touch to your strength and beauty, and fit you for a higher place in His eternal life.

At first glance these two words may seem to mean the same, and doubtless they can be used interchangeably; but each word has its own connotation, and I have chosen these to express two different approaches to the situations we face in life. When God’s Spirit controls a man, it enables him in every circumstance to respond in obedience to the voice of God rather than to react in the flesh. Much damage is done to our lives and to the testimony of God in the earth when we fail to respond in faith with a love for the truth in every circumstance.

When you are forgotten or neglected or purposely set at naught, and you don’t sting or hurt with the insult or the oversight, but your heart is happy, being counted worthy to suffer for Christ—that is dying to self.

Evangelism is one of those doctrines that everyone believes but very few practice. It is a doctrine, by the way, and one of the main fundamentals of the faith. I have an exercise for you in this issue that will stretch you “real good.” You will need a partner for this workout. This exercise will help you deal with issues of pride and fear of man. In fact, aside from the reality that many of God’s people have no power to witness, fear of man is the greatest reason why so many do not ever go and tell the gospel.

Let me explain the title of the exercise. There are many different ways that we evangelize. There is tract evangelism, open air evangelism, street evangelism, and so on it goes. So what is cold door evangelism? It is when you go up to a door, where you have never been before, and attempt to get inside to present the gospel. This may sound rather scary at first. It probably is to those who have never done it. Remember, this is supposed to take you out of your comfort zone. That is what exercise is all about. 

In this issue of the Remnant we are presenting an exercise that can be done privately or corporately. Because I have given encouragement for private seasons of fasting before, this time we will focus on the corporate aspects of these principles. There are many examples of what God has done in response to a people who became serious about seeking Him. They are recorded in the Bible, and they are recorded in the historical records of the past. The devil does not want God’s people to get a glimpse of the power of these exercises. He has done well at keeping most of the church blind to them. For the next few minutes, I would like to pull the curtain back and give a challenge to the many churches that read the Remnant. You have in your hand the possibilities of a total transformation of your fellowship and even your community. I pray that the Spirit of God will cause a holy hush to settle down over many as you read and consider this exercise.

From Golden Counsel, 1899

An old writer said that some books are to be tasted, some to be swallowed, some to be chewed and digested. The Bible is one that you can never finish with. It is like a bottomless well; you can always find fresh truth gushing forth from its pages. “No Scripture,” said Spurgeon, “is exhausted by a single explanation. The flowers of God’s garden bloom not only double, but sevenfold; they are continually pouring forth fresh fragrance.” Hence the great fascination of constant and earnest Bible study. I thank God there is a height in the Book that I have never been able to reach, a depth that I have never been able to fathom.

It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit of which I have not lost, for more than fourteen years. The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord.

The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit.

A Condition of Being Filled with the Holy Spirit

The Lord has given many promises to His people, but He generally attaches some condition to their reception. We often go without the realization of the promises because we do not seek to fulfill the conditions. He has said in Phil 4:6-7, “Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God; and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Scores of Christians never know the peace of God, because they carry their anxieties and worries instead of taking them to Christ in prayer, joined with thanksgiving.