devotional – Page 40 – Prince Chimaobim

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 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.

THE GOSPEL DEFINED

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Wednesday April 5, 2023

THE GOSPEL DEFINED

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
ROMANS 10:9 (KJV)

You have been hearing of the term “gospel” and sometimes, we may get acquainted with a word thinking that it means something only to discover that we have been wrong about the meaning we have come to ascribe to the word. The word translated as gospel in the New Testament is the Greek “evaggelion” meaning “a good message; good news” and the verb “evangelizo“ meaning “to bring or announce good news”. Both words are derived from the noun angelos meaning “messenger”. The gospel is the story that tells humanity that Yahweh has finished the work of salvation in and through HaMashiach (the Christ). The gospel is the good news that Yahweh in came into the world in the person of Yahushua HaMashiach, was born of virgin birth by the power of the Holy Spirit, died, was buried, resurrected and ascended to the right hand of the Father and that salvation and eternal life is available in His Name. In I Corinthians 15:1-4, the Apostle Paul enumerated these basic ingredients of the gospel. The gospel is the good news that in the Lord Yahushua we are not just forgiven sinners but we are now new creations with the very life of Yahweh in us (see II Corinthians 5:17, 21). In the Lord Yahushua, we are made the righteousness of Yahweh. In the Lord Yahushua, we are heirs of Yahweh and joint-heirs with HaMashiach (the Christ) (see Romans 8:17). In HaMashiach, we have the power of attorney to use the almighty name of the Lord Yahushua to reign and rule on earth (see Mark 16:17).

THE ONLY REMEDY – THE GOSPEL

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Tuesday April 4, 2023

THE ONLY REMEDY – THE GOSPEL

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
John 3:36 [KJV]

Genesis chapters 3 shows us the fall of man. The consequence of that fall amongst other things was inheriting the destiny of damnation of the devil. If the devil is your lord, then you would be where your lord ends up. Isn’t that logical? Same is true if the Lord Yahushua is your Lord, then wherever He is, is where you will be also (see John 14:3). The fall of man condemned man to the lake of fire at the end of the age and in the interim to hell. Humanity’s condemnation to the lake of fire has nothing to do essentially to the sin of each individual. It has everything to do with the nature that humanity inherited from Adam. If it is possible to find one adult that is sinless, that human will still land in hell because he/she is a human being created with the nature of sin. This is very important for those who are very conscious of their self righteousness. There are those who believe that they are not sinners because they are not committing any known sin to them, but the fact that they were born by the coming together of a man and a woman has implicated them to the same condemnation of sinners. But the reality is that all have sinned (see Romans 3:23).

THE DESTINY OF MAN AFTER THE FALL

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Monday April 3, 2023

THE DESTINY OF MAN AFTER THE FALL

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Revelation 20:15 (KJV)

The end point for everyone that has not done something about their soul is the lake of fire. No matter how great on earth the person is. No matter what he/she has achieved on earth. When you close your eyes in death or at the close of the age as recorded in Revelation chapter 20, you shall be cast into the lake of fire. This is not to scare you but to inform you. This is not a religious talk but the reality of the human person. Just as you cannot deny the reality of physical death, even though you do not want people to die, so also you cannot deny the reality of the lake of fire. When man fell, he was condemned with the devil because at the fall, he submitted to the devil and acquired his nature. So, man was united with the devil at the fall and acquired his destiny also. The destiny of the devil is the lake of fire (see Revelation 20:10). When man submitted to the devil, his destiny also became the lake of fire (Revelation 20:15). Until each person personally does something about this destiny, nothing will be done. Until you personally respond to the Word of Yahweh and effect the change of your eternal destiny, nothing will change to that effect.