This glorious message is all about reconciling people to our loving Father in heaven. 2 Corinthians 5:18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. (ESV) We are the presentation of the Father, we are the re-presentation of Christ Himself, and we get to be love wrapped in flesh to a world that is desperately looking for Him. “Why would the world want what you say you have if what you say you have isn’t even working for you?” Todd White.
What a privilege it is to imitate God, Ephesians 5:1, and it is not as hard as the enemy would have some think. God filled us with all of His nature and goodness, Romans 5:5. Growing in God is about constantly having our eyes more opened to what it is that we already have in Him. The word ‘evangelist’ in the Greek is –euaggelistés-a bringer of Good News, bearer of good tidings, and someone with a vocational calling from God to announce the good news of the Gospel. It is our joyous pleasure to love the hell out of people and not hold there trespasses against them. Our work in co-laboring is pointing out to them who God has fashioned them to be, we are to point out the gold in people and constantly encourage and pour out this limitless supply of power and love on them.We are to bring the power of God to set them free so they can live without the oppression, He empowered us to set the captives free for freedom's sake.
For too long Christians have not had the relevance that we should have. We should have a leg up in every realm of society, not to dominate, but to serve and bring heaven's flavor to earth. We get to be a blessing to all nations, as it says in Galatians 3:8. When we show up everything gets better, because the God of never ending goodness pours Himself out through us. We have all access to all the answers to the world's problems, all the authority to destroy hell on earth, and an unlimited source of joy and peace. All of heaven is in us and for us. “For to long the church has been answering questions that the world has not been asking,” Bill Johnson. When you are led by the Spirit, God uses you to answer the questions that they have been asking. Romans 8: 14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. (NASB)
Recently I was at a coffee shop. I ordered my drink and Holy Spirit gave me a word for the nice young lady working at the counter. She handed me my drink and I said, "This is your second job, right." She responded with a puzzled look and said, "yes, why do you say that?" I said, "I feel like God wants to tell you this. Your are working very hard and working two jobs, and He is very proud of you. God loves you very much, and an avalanche of His grace and provision is about to fall on you from your hard work." There was a bit more to it, but that was the basis of it. She immediately started crying tears of joy and gratitude saying how the word was exactly what she needed to hear. She started telling all her co-workers what just happened before I had even left the store.
When we are led by the Spirit we show up and answer the questions most prevalent on their heart. Then what happens pretty much every time is this, they immediately start asking the right questions about God. When we partner with Holy Spirit He unlocks their heart and opens it up for Truth and grace. Now they are asking the right questions and their heart is wide open for it, because a God that knows them in perfect detail was just revealed to them in power and love.
Being led by the Spirit does so much more in less time, and it is far more effective with far less effort. God showed up and answered her question with His powerful love, and destroyed the stress from the devil in her life. We carry all that the world is looking for. The world is desperate for healing, well the Healer has taken up residence in us and all we have to do is manifest the work He already completed on the cross. That young lady will be forever impacted, in such an amazing way, by one display of God’s love in her life. She won't remember my name, but she will always remember how Jesus rocked her world in a heartbeat. I could tell you hundreds and hundreds of testimonies of similar types of encounters. I’m not any more special than you, I just know God and I know who He has created me to be. My joy filled duty is to release the work He already completed on the cross, it really is that easy.
For too long to many Christians have turned evangelizing into, “trying to get people saved." Evangelizing is about being a living epistle that makes the Good News look so attractive that people observe and are drawn to something noticeably different in you. The word saved does not mean what most Christians even think it means. The word saved in the Greek is –sózó- to heal, preserve, and rescue. To be delivered out of danger and into safety; used principally of God rescuing believers from the penalty and power of sin – and into His provisions (safety). Most Christians think being saved is praying the sinners prayer (which isn’t even in the bible) and because you prayed the prayer your ticket to heaven has been punched.
Sharing the Good News is about people seeing our life lived and people saying, “I want what that person has.” People should be attracted to the peace we dwell in. The world should see His outrageous joy we dwell in and smell the sweet fragrance of Christ through us as He draws them closer to their true home, the heart of their loving Father in heaven. We just drop off gifts. The Holy Spirit is a better evangelist than us, so we do our part and just let Jesus drop off the goods through us and let Him do His part and lure people into Gods heart.
When Christians make their mindset to try and get people saved right on the spot, chances are that they will screw up something God has been doing in that person’s life anyways. Not everyone is ready to hand over ownership rights of their lives to Jesus, even though He paid for it and His life in us is our true identity, but everyone is ready to be encountered by His out of this world power and love. Carrying the mindset that we need to get this person saved right now is fear based and manipulative. Our business is to plant and water, God always brings the increase. Yes there is a time to lead people to Christ, but what should happen more often than us bringing it up is them bringing it up. I lead people in a confession of Christ in public places frequently, but it is never my goal to "get someone saved." My goal is to give them Jesus with His power and love, and say what God is saying and do what God is doing.
Colossians 4:5 Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. 6 Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person. (NASB) For too long people have seen Christianity as what it is not, but God is raising a generation that is and will display the Good News for what it truly is. And what it is, is that it is too good to be true. God is bigger and better than we think and our blissful co-mission is to present Him as He is. “…as He is, so also are we in this world.” 1 John 4:17.
God is love, so any encounter that someone has with the Father is simply an encounter with love and the world is desperate for Mr. Love. God has blessed us with the filter to see Jesus in the eyes of all, and especially the eyes of the lost. If you can’t see Jesus in the eyes of the lost, then you need a greater revelation of the cross. 2 Corinthians 5: 14-15 Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own. (Message) Everything changes when you begin to grasp the magnitude of what took place on that lovely cross.
This lost and dying world is just a “yes” away from eternal peace and joy in the presence of our Father. Christ hung on that cross for the person sitting next to you as much as He did for you. One violent act of love paid the price for any and all.
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