.png)
In Preparation of the Great Commission:
When Jesus called His disciples the only words that He was telling them was, “Come and See” or “follow me”. When the disciples followed, they were being trained in the processes. He slept were His disciples slept. He ate what His disciples were eating. Doing things together helps evangelism. We should learn to pray together, share the word together, worship together, communicate together, preach together, read the bible together to become better in evangelism. Jesus was sharing the word and eating together constantly and always with His disciple. In so doing this His disciples gained confidence to preach the Gospel shamelessly with boldness, due to the practical training that they had received by staying close, walking and doing things with Him all the time. When a church stays close with their Pastor they will gain a lot of confidence in evangelism. Actually Jesus spend 95% of His time teaching His disciples and 5% preaching. Jesus walked with His disciple and did almost everything with them. There is no formal school that He enrolled them to get better and even gain confidence in their ministry. They learnt by seeing and staying together.
Visiting people that are hospitalized and broken hearted is important and good in strengthening them. I understand that we can not do it now because of Covid 19 but we can call and talk to the need during this time. This is a profitable way of using our beautiful and expensive phones. God will love it. If we would genuinely stand with people that are grieving, heartbroken, going through tough situations, even celebrating events and milestones of life in prayer and through the word of God whilst we cautiously and effectively build our bridge relationship we can evangelize and reach many with word of God (the Gospel, message of hope). Isaiah chapter 53, 54 and 61; Roman 10 and John 3 are theme chapters that can strengthened us in doing this. We should do all this with influence and power of the Holy Spirit. Acts 1:8-9 Jesus says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” The main secret in our Evangelism is the Holy Spirit first and not training though training is good as well. It is definitely a good practice to tarry (pray) until we are baptized with the Holy Spirit. Peter was a man of anger and fear, he did not have boldness. He blatantly refused Jesus when those that were beating and crucifying Him said He was one of the people that were with Christ. The disciple were uneducated though trained (Acts 4:13). When the Holy Spirit came upon them the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 Peter boldly spoke to the people at Jerusalem. Acts 2:14-15 “Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning!”” The power of the Holy Spirit plus training equals to a calm and effective evangelist.
I believe that secret to victorious and passionate life is in the power of the Holy Ghost (Luke 24:49, Acts 1:4-5, 2:33). It is important to note that when Peter received the Holy Spirit, he became so passionate. The disciples could not have fulfilled the great commission of the Lord with joy and inward peace if they had received the Holy Spirit. Immediately after day Pentecost and preaching to a huge crowd that gave their lives to Jesus Christ, they started experiencing persecution. They even jailed but they do not stop to preaching the gospel. In Acts 4 they were forbidden to use and speak the name of Jesus. Acts 4:19-21 “But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” So, when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them, because of the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done.” Jesus’ disciples were not educated but they were so passionate when they receive the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2). The Holy Spirit equips, comforts, inspires, helps, gives wisdom, and teaches things that we do not know (John 14:16)
When Paul was breathing threats and planning to murder the disciples of the Lord, he had an encounter with the Holy Spirit and suddenly he was converted from a passionate killer to a passionate preacher (Acts 9). To be passionate we should have a dipper relationship with the Lord. We should not quench the spirit of God. The experience of the Holy Spirit makes the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ so genuine. Because of the Holy Spirit Evangelism had to become a burning compulsion within them, purifying their desires and guiding their thoughts. The superhuman work for souls to which we are called demands supernatural help and enduement of power from on High. The infilling of the Holy Spirit will definitely change us. They were unlearned (Acts 4:19) but this did not hinder them at all because of the propelling power of the Holy Spirit. When we fully yield to the Holy Spirit and His control, we become passionate. The Holy Spirit will bring the truth hidden from an unbeliever and the revelation of Jesus Christ which will drive us to want to explain more and more. We must have the life of Jesus Christ in us by the Holy Spirit as His follower.
An evangelistic work without the infilling of the Holy Spirit is meaningless. We cannot give something away which we do not possess. If we have the life of God in us, then we will passionately give life of God. The very ability to preach, evangelize, witness, and to give away the life of Christ is the proof of its possession. It is only the Spirit of God in us that exalt the Son and draws people to the Father. We can not withhold that which we possess in the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Christ insists in making Christ known. We must die to ourselves first to live in Christ and give ourselves away in service and devotion to our Lord. When we have the Spirit it is the power to overcome the world.
We live by what we do. If we know what is important, we will prioritize it. Our prayer life is particularly important as we build our passion in Christ and for souls. We should continually converse with the Father and yield a Father and Son relationship. When God becomes our friend, we definitely want everyone to become his friend and to know Him. Jesus was constantly doing this and moving in prayer. Prayer gives strength to our life and our passion. This was the part of the secret life of Jesus. He went to mount Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-46), prayer gave Him power to fulfill the mission on the Cross. If we neglect prayer, we will lose passion. A prayer less Christian is a powerless and passionless Christian.
Reading scriptures will also make us passionate because scriptures are inspired of God (2 Timothy 3:16) “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,” Jeremiah 15:16 says, “Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.” Prophet Ezekiel says, “And He said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly, and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you.” So, I ate, and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness.” (Ezekiel 3:3). John says in Revelation 10:10 “Then I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter.” When you eat the word of God, you cannot keep it in your belly, you always want to share it. We should learn scriptures to heart and let them become authority to every word pronouncement that we make.
We should employ the principle of focus. Our focus will help our objective. Our focus also bring relevance to our mission and there by our passion. We should constantly search for lost souls and soon it will become a habit. The knowledge of knowing that the Kingdom of God is at hand will also help our focus. If we build and feed our faith, we will become passionate and also defeat our fear. It should be clearly noted that after acquiring the practical knowledge and receiving the power of the Holy Spirit disciples became passionate and unstoppable.
Understanding the price that was paid for each person on Calvary is particularly important. We should understand the waiting judgement and the awaiting crowns for us to effectively continue to minister. Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:7-9 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.”. If we continue acquiring Christ attributes and character our passion will never die.
Lastly when we are compassionate towards people and when we have got love for people, we definitely have great and unquenchable passion for souls. We should know that we are sent on the Great Commission (John 20:21). We are sent to give peace to the world that is in a huge turmoil.