F4S: Get On The Path To Soul-winning!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Get On The Path To Soul-winning!

When was the last time that you prayed for red hot passion, for holy zeal, for real fervor as your mind is renewed with truth, and for the pure fruit of love in the Lord? When was it that you last asked the Lord to cleanse away all worldly thoughts from your mind and to refill you with His Holy Spirit for His purpose.. and to lead you to someone open and ready to hear His Gospel? When did you last ask Him to give you a harvest?

Not at all bad stuff to pray for huh. Perhaps, for the benefit of others, you'd like to add to that list of witnessing requests below in the comments section. 

I will ask today and expect! Won't you join me? Sure, He can make this stuff happen. He can make what seems way too hard, simple! He alone makes people born again spiritually, not any of us, but we each have a part to play if you will. God leaves no believer out.   

Yeah, this is what has been on my mind today. Where is the passion for souls that the Church once had and where are the prayers and tears for lost souls? Who of us wants to wave goodbye to if you will, and permanently part with some loved one or friend? Not me!!!!

How must God feel when they put Him off.. or when we as believers put Him and His task for us off. You know that He thinks about this a lot too and feels for each one so much more! That's why there is an urgency about what we are and do. We minister what we are and our time is limited.  

It deeply bugs me when I have prayed for and explained the Gospel as clear as I can to some dear loved one or friend, and still they cling to dead religion or beer or their live-in-lover, or their career etc.. as their main hope for life. But that's when I must pray some more.. fervently!

Sounds kinda antiquated to use such old terms huh, but you know what I mean. Read the book of Acts and see what the Church used to be like. And sure we are seeing God move in some churches today, where people are being won to Christ, but there really isn't that many.

Have we gotten over It already—I mean over loving the Word of God and loving the people that He still loves? I hope not. He was passionate enough to die for em and for us? He still has a purpose for our lives. I believe that when we get back to Jesus and the "book of Acts kind of principles," we'll see Jesus working and His "book of Acts kind of results."  

It's just too early for getting over It!

We will see God's anointing touching hearts like in the book of Acts once again. Always makes me want to examine where I'm at with the Lord when I read the Word. Never want Christ to become my secondary passion ever!  

"I have somewhat against you, you have left your first love" ~ Jesus, Revelation 2:4

Yeah, I'll just say it straight. The devil and his buds really want to distract us so we'll not make the main Thing, the main Thing any longer. He wants us doing anything other than repenting or talking to Jesus.. anything other than studying God's Word and talking to unbelievers about Jesus Christ. He and his chums want the Church to get inverted to where we are looking in, In, INWARDS, not outwards. He doesn't mind when we are consumed with church politics or church building maintenance as the main things, or even with self and self-help books.

If the enemy can only get us hurting each other a bit, or divided, or fighting with each other.. if he can get us out of prayer with each other and quibbling over minor non-essential issues just long enough, then guess what? More people will, by default, end up streaming right on into his Hell.

But our Lord wants better things for us. He wants us to look up to Him and then look out ..onto the white fields that are ready. He wants us to overcome, to consistently act appropriately in faith, until together we bring closure on His Great Commission. The emphasis isn't really on us "doing" so much, but it's on Him. He empowers us for service. Salvation is of the Lord and we obediently cooperate with Him in this work. I find it much of the time fun and exciting! You never know where His great adventure will take you next.

Personally, I can hardly wait until that last person chooses to turn to Christ and then gets born again spiritually. Can you imagine? We'll be outta here then.. caught away in one sixth of a nano second!   

Our Great Example, Jesus, once told His disciples, "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work. Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours" (Jn. 4:34, kjv). Christ is a Finisher.. will we finish along side with Him? He is a Fisher to this day. Fishers don't really like to turn the boat around and head for the dock ..with empty nets. He's a Harvester too.. the same as He was while down here on earth. A harvester typically must roll up his sleeves and do some work during harvest time, even when he feels like doing other things instead. When it's harvest time on a farm, every other type of work ceases until it's all been brought in. It takes priority ahead of other things. You know how Jesus alone can save the lost, but Christ won't save the lost alone. He calls all of us Christians to be involved in witnessing. We're not a sluff-off slacker brigade. We are an every-member-doin'-their-part kinda army if you will, but not ever going to war against each other.

"It is time to quit fighting and go fishing!" ~ Freddie Gage

You remember how Jesus commanded people to, "Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 4: 17). Well, then after that in verse 19, Jesus called people saying, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." Yeah, that was specifically to Simon called Peter, and to his brother Andrew at the Sea of Galilee. Has He called you yet? Jesus looked to the Father telling Him about those on His heart, He practiced bold soul-winning, and then He also taught others using Scripture how to do this in love. Let's do the same!

Listen, please forget not that pit from whence you came! Do you ever think about where God rescued you from.. what you were like, or has too much time passed by? Others are in that pit today.. lonely, empty, guilty and afraid to die. They might say that's not so, but it really is so. I'm a debtor owing them love and the Gospel. God being my Helper, I never want to forget the pit and how I felt there, or those who were there when I exited because of grace (see Psalm 40:2). God, please give us a burden for lost people.. that supernatural, deep heart-felt concern for them in their hopeless plight! We want to feel what You really feel for em, to think what you think.. to do what you'd do. We want Your perspective and attitude today. Let Your Kingdom come on earth with power and uber-splendid glory, just as it is in Heaven ..starting inside us. Fill our mouths with Your compassionate Words. Amen! Hey gang, let's continue to worship the Lord full-on and stay on His path to soul winning. Let's help our Christian friends stay red hot on God's fishing path as well! Let's stop and respectfully listen to, pray with.. even pleading for, and weep with unbelievers wherever we find em. Christ would do that. Let's trust God to passionately use us to edify people and to transform unbelievers from the inside out! Jesus said, "He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters" (Lk. 11:23). Man, that's so in-or-out, so with-or-without, so either-or.. isn't it. He claimed to be God and the only Way for you to get into Heaven and He sure wasn't a liar or crazy. There's a lot to lose. Are you certain that you are in Christ ..and I don't mean in some religion or church.. gathering people to Him for His Kingdom? One more important question: Do you want to be sure that you know Christ, not just know about Him? ~kurt