The moment one gets back to the fold of Jesus Christ you are immediately commissioned to the “GO YE” message. It is either a relative, friend, preacher, evangelist, minister, who prayed for you or asked for other souls to come to Christ since they are already in Christ. Raphael R. Roker said, “Give me souls or I die.” Burk Parsons said, “Give me Scotland or I die.” John Hyde said “Give me souls or I die. Apostle Joshua Selman and his Church also prayed; “Give us revival or we die.” It is easy to ask all that but are we ready for what it takes?
Apostle Joshua Selman said that after praying with his Church/Ministry the Lord responded. Son, I am willing to give you revival but only if you are ready to die. The first death as we all know is when you encounter Christ. There is a dying that happens progressively. The Lord told him the fire of revival can only be pour to dead and dry wood. So, one has to die to two things. The first one is dying to SIN and the other one is dying to SELF. Romans 12:1 “…that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God…”
A living Sacrifice is one who is ALIVE but DEAD to Sin. This is a clear reference about the two deaths which are essential to every believer. When we get born again, we are all excited and would want to win our friends relatives to Christ. We think we are ready, but are we? We all want to go ye unto the world and do exploits because somehow, we have heard great stories from the ones already doing exploits and this is very good. It is however good to learn, realize and accept to surrender ourselves to be used of the Lord. It is not enough to give your life to Christ and seat and warm the pews in Church. We should be willing to take the next step which evangelizing to others.
Salvation is work and each of us should be willing to do the works of the Lord before it is dark (It is too late). John 9:3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God would be displayed in him. 4While it is daytime, we must do the works of Him who sent Me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”… Our Lord King and Master worked; since we are His followers, we also do the work He did and much more because He promised to help us do so. He went about preaching, healing, encouraging, rebuking, correcting, and evangelizing too. John 14: 11Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me—or at least believe on account of the works themselves. 12Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I am doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13And I will do whatever you ask in My name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. The statement that ‘no pain no gain’ is all familiar with us, Even in evangelism we must sacrifice pleasure for treasure and therefore there is some sacrifice we need to make. In the New Testament Paul had to sacrifice to live a life which is not pleasurable. We know he preached (evangelized ) successfully and wrote about three quarters of the Holy Bible… 2 Corinthians 24Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea. 26In my frequent journeys, I have been in danger from rivers and from bandits, in danger from my countrymen and from the Gentiles, in danger in the city and in the country, in danger on the sea and among false brothers’ …Apostle Paul went through all those challenges but he still stood his ground and served in evangelism with a lot of passion and zeal.
If we are fully committed to the Lord, Our Savior Evangelism will be one of our urgent needs because we do not wish anyone to be left out as we advance with Christ. We are therefore sure that God will help us do His work.2 Chronicles 16:9 For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him. I know there are people who encountered God without anyone evangelizing to them, but it is paramount for the Church of Christ to do the great commission. Rather put it this way; if someone Evangelized to you before you came to Christ. What if they never bothered?
There is a great rejoicing when a soul comes to Christ or when a person surrenders their life to be born again. Their life is brand new. We all want to please our superiors and, in this case, here it is our Master Jesus we ought to be concerned to please. We are on earth for a season and for a reason. Jesus saved you so that together as a team you accomplish some mission. One of the greatest and urgent need is to help others come to the knowledge of Him and become sons in the Kingdom of God just like you are. John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:1 John 3:1. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore, the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
Jesus died so that we all could go back to His Father who is also Our Father. We are now siblings to the greatest Name on earth and we should always make some efforts to yield something tangible for Christ who died for us in encouraging others to come to Him. God exalted the Word (Jesus) above all other Names. Psalms 138:2 I will worship toward Your holy temple and praise Your name For Your loving kindness and Your truth; For You have magnified Your word above all Your name. Philippians 2:8 ‘And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross. 9Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name above all names, 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,…
Everyone who has accepted Christ as their personal Savior has a personal encounter and experience of a NEW LIFE hence the reference of being born again or second birth. That is the only way we gain eternal life. John 3:4-7Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ As we go around doing evangelism, we should equip the new converts with the knowledge of the new birth. I have experienced with a lot of concern people assuming that just because they have been attending Church and even serving in Church they are automatically “Real Christians” but we all know it is just a way of convincing ourselves that it is okay. This kind of believe is dangerous because unless someone applies John 3:4-7 above or Romans 10: 9, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will not be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation; it is all in vain.
Sometimes it feels so bad and saddening when you see people practice mere religion and traditions of men in the name of Christianity. Brethren we ought to approach evangelism very prayerfully because much as we want to do it, we need to be discerning and having revelation. Generally, we require wisdom from God, and will we not ask of Our God who gives it to us liberally? James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach’, and it will be given to him. Another aspect of Evangelism is being equipped with the Word of God. Just like Jesus Our Master said “ It is written “ We need to be position to say too “It is Written” Everyone who has ever Evangelized has encountered or met with people who are difficult to deal with. My advice to any person interested in the great commission is that it is of great importance to have the Word at your fingertips. My experience is that mostly the Holy Spirit is always ready to give you a Word for that specific season but if you are not so equipped it may pose some challenge. There are those who will also want to waste your time with unnecessary argument so be on the alert. In case you meet such people be quick to end the discussion and move to the next person who is willing to listen. We do not have to fight or quarrel with anyone to convince them to receive Christ or the new life.
It is also a great idea to have some back up support especially if you are doing Evangelism alone or if you got born again not too long ago. This can be your Pastor, your spiritual parent, or another evangelist; at least have someone standing with you in prayer. Ephesians 4:11And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14that we should no longer be children, tossed to and from and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Above scriptures display that the Church has different callings and verse 16 says every joint supplies. All the above are necessary in the body of Christ. Most of us know already what their calling is and therefore it is important to be faithful to our calling. Interesting enough none of the above callings is exempted from Evangelism even though all are not called in the office of an Evangelist. I have seen some Christians who function in some of those offices neglect Evangelism which is not a good thing. I know somehow, they are mistaken that they climbed the ladder from Evangelism to just preaching but bringing souls to Christ is and will always be a priority to God.
I wish to encourage all of us to make this “PRIORITY” of the Kingdom of God a important part of us because I am sure there is room for all humanity to come to Christ. It does not matter the age, size, color, race, location of origin. 2 Peter 3: 9 ‘The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.’ At least everyone knows someone who is not born again; so, it is my prayer that we help snatch them from everlasting fire through evangelism.
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