PARTNERING WITH THE LORD INVOLVES (6): LIVING OUT THE GOSPEL

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Saturday April 15, 2023

PARTNERING WITH THE LORD INVOLVES (6): LIVING OUT THE GOSPEL

Then, even if some are disobedient to the word, they will be won over without a word by the way you live, when they see your pure and reverent conduct.
I Peter 3:1B-2 (KJV)

Everyone of us has the privilege to live out the gospel in our day to day operations. With most people that are close to you, lifestyle evangelism is normally the most effective. It is normally a contradiction when you see one that is vocal about the gospel but whose lifestyle is directly the opposite. There is nothing that turns off children than to see parents that proclaim the gospel in words but their lifestyle at home is opposite the gospel. This is the reason so many children from Christian homes turn away from the Lord as soon as they left home. You have parents that are Christians in the Church but devils at home. No matter what you tell children, what they see you doing is what they are going to imbibe. Lifestyle evangelism is so critical at home, office and with close associates. People that relate with you on a daily bases will be drawn to the Lord more with your lifestyle than with words. When you have shown Christ-like character, it is easy to preach and be heard. So, as a Christian, your lifestyle is critical to the success of the gospel in your sphere of contacts. Your colleagues are watching you. You cannot take bribe, lie and cheat and then turn around to preach Yahushua to them. It is not possible to take such a person seriously. You will regard the person as a religious fanatics. But when someone has challenged you with a solid life of integrity, and the person talks to you about Yahushua, you are quick to listen.

PARTNERING WITH THE LORD INVOLVES (5): GIVING TO THE GOSPEL

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Friday April 14, 2023

PARTNERING WITH THE LORD INVOLVES (5): GIVING TO THE GOSPEL

But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
II Corinthians 9:6 (KJV)

The Lord Yahushua commanded us to preach the gospel to all the peoples of the nations of the earth. Nobody is exempted from hearing the gospel. By all means, we are to reach everyone with the gospel. The gospel is a very capital intensive enterprise. It require money to do even the least venture in respect to the spreading of the gospel. As we reach each person, materials to help them grow in the Lord Yahushua are made available which include tracts, handbills, booklets, pamphlets, books etc. Outreaches require public address systems, musical equipment, medical aids and equipment, etc. In the missions field, there is need to build churches, build houses for missionaries, provide amenities for the community, build schools, hospitals, etc. All these aforementioned are capital intensive projects that goes with preaching the gospel. Even in the urban areas, when you go out for evangelism, you will be met with real-time needs of people that needs to be attended to. In hospital evangelism, there are hospital bills of people who are well but couldn’t go home because they have not been able to come up with the hospital bill. These are real life needs we see in the harvest field. Beloved, Yahweh has put money into your hands not for you to live luxury lifestyle, but for the gospel. There are places you cannot go because of your engagements that your money can send someone to preach there. Missionaries are being sponsored. There are people in the most remote areas of India, China, Saudi Arabia preaching the gospel as missionaries. It takes huge finances to do all those.

PARTNERING WITH THE LORD INVOLVES (4): FOLLOWING THE NEW CONVERT UP

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Thursday April 13, 2023

PARTNERING WITH THE LORD INVOLVES (4): FOLLOWING THE NEW CONVERT UP

And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do.
Acts 15:36 (KJV)

This is called follow-up. Do you know you can collect the forms of those that gave their lives to the Lord during Church services and go to follow them up? Yes, you can do that. There is need for every new convert to be established in the Lord Yahushua and in the Church. However, for that to happen, work has to be done on them. Someone has to follow them up to ensure they attend Foundation Classes and get baptised in water. You can come in to check on them and ensure that they are established. You see the process of soul-winning is same like giving birth to a child. Whereas it is one person that labours and births a child, it takes the community to train that child. Same applies for each new convert. Whereas it is one person that preached and get that person saved, it takes every member of the Church to see that the new convert is established in Church. All hands must be on deck to ensure the soul is firmly established. Follow-up is very critical to this establishment.

PARTNERING WITH THE LORD INVOLVES (3): COMPELLING INVITATION

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Wednesday April 12, 2023

PARTNERING WITH THE LORD INVOLVES (3): COMPELLING INVITATION

And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.
Luke 14:23 (KJV)

To compel is to force somebody to do something. There are people you will meet, that they themselves don’t know what they want. It is reality. The Lord Yahushua says compel them to come to my house that my house may be filled. A compelling invitation to the Lord Yahushua and to the Church is an invitation that literally moves the invitees to the Church. You pull off every form of resistance to that invitation. “Oh I don’t have money to come”, you pull out cash and give for transport. You do everything to necessitate compliance to the invitation. Beloved, the Lord Yahushua has said that you should compel them to come. You should never attend Church without someone following you. When you go to Church and see any empty seat, then you are reminded of the instruction to compel them to come so that my house may be filled. Ensure that someone is going to church with you. “Come and see Yahushua today” and ensure that there is no objection to that invitation. You have all it takes to make a compelling invitation.

PARTNERING WITH THE LORD INVOLVES (2): PREACHING THE GOSPEL

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Tuesday April 11, 2023

PARTNERING WITH THE LORD INVOLVES (2): PREACHING THE GOSPEL

And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.
Mark 16:20 (KJV)

There is nothing sophisticated or special about preaching. Every believer is called to preach. To preach simply means to proclaim, to declare, to publish; to herald. When you talk to your colleague about his eternal destiny, and what the Lord Yahushua has done for him, that is preaching. Preaching is not for special people. It is not for pastors, evangelists, etc. No! A thousand times No! They were a minimum of 120 people that the Lord Yahushua gave the command to go and preach. They were not all apostles or teachers. They were just believers. Some of you go for lunch with your colleagues and all the while you are talking about your football clubs; that is preaching about your football clubs. You could even hear some people arguing about their favourite players from a mile away during lunch break. Beloved, that is exactly what preaching is all about. Instead of talking what does not have eternal value, why not talk about Yahushua HaMashiach. The time is very short. Make the most of every opportunity to help someone make a decision about where he/she would spend eternity.

PARTNERING WITH THE LORD INVOLVES (1): SOUL-TARGETED INTERCESSION

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Monday April 10, 2023

PARTNERING WITH THE LORD INVOLVES (1): SOUL-TARGETED INTERCESSION

Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.
Colossians 4:12 (KJV)

We are going to see how the individual believer can be involved in the gospel successfully. There is what each one can do on daily basis to see that people in his/her world are brought to the obedience of the gospel. Standing aloof on the sideline would be your choice not because you cannot be involved but because you have chosen to be irresponsible to your primary assignment. Today, please understand that you can be involved in soul-targeted intercessions. This is making a list of people who are unsaved in your sphere of contacts, and then taking them up in intercession. Why is interceding for the unsaved necessary? Every unsaved is a prisoner of the strong man. The Lord Yahushua says that you cannot go into a strong man’s house and plunder him without first binding him (see Matthew 12:29). The unsaved brother/sister is a prisoner of the strong man Satan and He would never let go his captives except a stronger than he comes and binds him. Glory to the Lord, in Yahushua HaMashiach beloved, you are the stronger man than Satan because greater is He that is in you (see I John 4:4). The least born again person if there is anything like that, is stronger than the devil because the born again person has the power of attorney to use the ever conquering name of the Lord Yahushua against Satan and he must bow.

WHAT IS PERSONAL EVANGELISM/SOUL-WINNING?

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Sunday April 9, 2023

WHAT IS PERSONAL EVANGELISM/SOUL-WINNING?

And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither.
Acts 16:13 (KJV)

Personal evangelism is One person talking to another person about his need for salvation from sin found only in the Lord Yahushua HaMashiach, with the purpose of bringing him to a decision. Soul-winning is all activities geared towards bringing someone to a decision for the Lord Yahushua HaMashiach (Jesus the Christ) and helping that person to be established in a local church. Evangelism is going into the field to harvest the soul and all the activities that ensures that the soul is established in Church is soul-winning. Soul-winning is a personal work which include:

Discussing the gospel or studying Yahweh’s word with a friend.

Giving someone a tract on a particular subject.

Telling and showing your neighbour the happiness of being a Christian.

Inviting someone to services with you (compelling invitation).

Canvassing for a gospel meeting.

Teaching a Bible class in someone’s home.

Visiting the home of a visitor to worship services (follow-up).

Gathering your neighbours into your home for a Bible class.

Bringing a friend to the church’s Bible classes.

Telling a fellow-worker (or student) about the Lord Yahushua, the way to heaven.

Planting the word in someone’s heart.

Writing a letter to a loved one expressing your interest about his/her soul.

Having someone with whom you are studying or with whom you would like to have a study into your home for a meal.

Encouraging a new member.

Exhorting one another to assemble in the scheduled services of the church.

Teaching, reproving and rebuking the worldly, the indifferent and the wayward among those who claim to be Christians.

Encouraging and strengthening the faint-hearted and comforting the bereaved among the family of Yahweh.

Visiting and admonishing those who forsake the assemblies.

Bringing cheer to and helping meet the needs of those who are elderly, sick, hospitalized or shut-in.

Volunteering for tasks that need to be done within the congregation: building maintenance, lawn care, etc.

Seeking and saving the lost.

THE ASSIGNMENT IS URGENT

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Saturday April 8, 2023

THE ASSIGNMENT IS URGENT

Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.
Revelation 22:12 (KJV)

When it comes to the task of soul-winning, we do not have eternity to fulfill the task. Time is short and the task is urgent. This is because, anyone not reached before he/she passes over to eternity is lost forever. The gospel is a rescue mission operation. Anyone without the Yahushua HaMashiach as Lord and Personal Saviour is racing to eternity in the lake of fire (see Revelation 20:15). These people are our friends, family, colleagues and associates. If we understand the horror of an eternity without the Lord Yahushua HaMashiach, then we should know the urgency of the task of soul-winning and evangelism. We have only a limited time to tell as many people as we can find. Why is the assignment so urgent? First, death is sure for everybody on earth and there is no specific time appointment. The only thing we know is that it is appointed for man once to die (see Hebrews 9:27) and after that judgment. The time of that appointment is not certain. So many people are being taken unawares by death and they pass into eternity without HaMashiach (the Christ). This is a horrific situation which is why the assignment is very urgent – to save people from ending in an eternity without Yahushua HaMashiach as Lord.

SOUL-WINNING IS YOUR PRIMARY ASSIGNMENT ON EARTH

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Friday April 7, 2023

SOUL-WINNING IS YOUR PRIMARY ASSIGNMENT ON EARTH

And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
Mark 16:15 (KJV)

When we say that something is of primary importance, we mean to say that it ranks first and that it is of first importance or value; that it is direct and immediate rather than secondary. If it is primary then it is the most important element of all considerations. As a believer, soul-winning is your primary assignment on earth. When you surrendered your heart to the Lord Yahushua HaMashiach, He would have called you home immediately; but He chose to leave you here on earth, why? It is because when you are born again, you become HaMashiach (the Christ) that your world sees; you become the extension of divinity to your sphere of contacts. You are now the light of your world; the salt of your world. They are lost and hopeless without you. Your presence produces preservation and illumination to your sphere of contacts. The instrument of that illumination is the gospel of the Lord Yahushua HaMashiach. 2 Corinthians 4:4 talks about the light of the glorious gospel of HaMashiach (the Christ). When you share the gospel, you are shining the light to your sphere of contacts. Your business/career is a vehicle to convey you to the people in your world. Your career/business is not your primary assignment. It is utter misplacement of priority to make your career/business as your primary assignment. Your business/career is only a point of contact for you to communicate the gospel to your world.

THE TIME IS SHORT

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Thursday April 6, 2023

THE TIME IS SHORT

Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
Revelation 12:12 (KJV)

The devil knows that he has but a short time but unfortunately so many Christians do not know that they have but a short time on this side of eternity. Today we are going to look at prophetic timeline and see why soul-winning is so urgent at such a time as this. Yahweh gave Daniel a vision of what He will do in the end times and it is commonly referred to as the seventy weeks of Daniel (Dan. 9:23-27). The seventy weeks of Daniel is the prophetic timeline of Israel as a nation and people. Whatever Yahweh is doing in the world today, Israel is the point of contact for it. Yahweh’s agenda is in relation to the covenant He made with the ancestors of Israel, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In prophetic language, one week is equal to seven years. So seventy weeks is equal to 490 years. Yahweh said that seventy weeks is given to Israel to finish transgression. This seventy weeks started from the 7th year of King Artaxerxes being April 3, 458 BC (Gregorian calendar). From 458 BC to the time the Messiah was cut off around April 3, 33 AD was 69 weeks. This vision of Daniel and the one given to Nebuchadnezzar are one and points to the same end time events. From the Vision of Nebuchadnezzar, the ankle of that image which prophetically is referred as the “Parenthesis” is the times of the gentles which is the age of the Church. One week was remaining from the vision of Daniel which represents the time (seven years of Anti-Christ) of Jacob’s trouble when the Anti-Christ will break the treaty with Israel and unleash persecution which will culminate in the second return of the Messiah.

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