Many churches today consist of small groups of believers whose number never seems to grow or increase. The attitude of many believers being "We are just holding out until the Lord comes."
Let me give you a picture of the true Church: "So mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed." Acts 19:20 "And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved." Acts 2:47
Question: Is the Word of the Lord growing mightily in your Church? Is it growing mightily in you? Is it being allowed to prevail "Over every power of the enemy?" Are people being saved? Are they being delivered from the powers of darkness? Are they TRULY being set free from sin and sickness? IS THE WORD WORKING MIGHTILY IN YOU?
The Lord is not coming for a church so weak that it has to just "hang on." No where in the life of Jesus do we see Him just hanging on against the powers of darkness. But rather we see Him Triumphant/victorious over every work of the devil. How can we be so blind as to let the devil manuver us into a "hanging on" experience. WAKE UP!! If Christ is truly in you, you will do the things that Jesus did, you will think as Jesus thought, and you will see a lost and dying world through His eyes. You will walk in total victory as He walked and one thing more. You will Do The Works That Jesus Did. So many of us want the power of God working in our lives but we are not willing to walk in the obedience that Jesus walked in. Every day of His ministry only one thought was in His mind. To Reconcile the World to God. What is the dominating thought in your life each day? Your job, your family, your home, worrying about world conditions, all these things are admirable and some perhaps necessary but "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, and all these things will be ADDED unto you". Matt 6:33
Jesus primary thought was the Kingdom of God and that it be filled with his creation, made in His image. Jesus was a Soulwinner. He did not have the attitude the "They know where the Church is, if they want to be saved they can go there." But rather, He went to them. He took the Word to them. Each soul was important to Him. Does the love for souls motivate you to go to the lost? Does it motivate you to do
without? (foxes have their holes, birds have their nests, but the Son of man has no where to lay His head) Does it motivate you to suffer or sacrifice to win another soul to the Lord. Jesus did. He gave up food, He gave up companionship, He gave up sleep, and on one accasion He left a great revival to reach a harlot in Samaria. The depth of your love can be measured by your love for what He loved, the Lost. Jesus said it is easy to love someone who can respond and love back, but it is an entirely different situation to love some one unresponsive, and seemingly unlovable. Romans 5:6 says that while we were yet sinners, (unresponsive, unlovable, unregenerate) Christ died for us. an example of this love is found in Mark 10:21
This young man came running and knelt before the Lord. Jesus knew before he ever came that he was not going to pay the price for salvation, that he was going to be rejected, But that rejection did not alter the Lords love for him. Verse 21 says clearly that Jesus loved him. Many today have trouble loving the bretheren much less loving the lost in the face of rejection.
You cannot be a Christian (Christ One), you cannot be filled with the same Spirit that Jesus Had, and not do the things He did, and love as He did. You must have the same priorities Jesus had and seek the lost.
Answer these questions to the Lord (You will have to one day)
1. How many souls have you led to the Lord in the past year?
2. How many souls have you led to the Lord in the past month?
3. How long have you been saved, and how many souls have you let to the Lord in that time?
Experience has shown that if you ask the average church-goer these quetions, their answer will be "That is what we pay the Pastor for, he is the soul-winner in our Church."
Friend, if this is your answer, you need to fall on your knees right now and ask the Lord for forgiveness. Ask Him to fill you with His Spirit to such an extent that it will spill over to everyone you come in contact with.
It is interesting to note that the Ministerial gifts recorded in Ephesians 4:11 were given to the Church and not to the world. The purpose of the Ministry is to perfect you, the body of Christ that YOU may be able to minister to the world. The Lord has told us over and over again that as believers we are to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. Nothing can relieve you from the individual responsibility of seeking the lost and leading them out of darkness unto His glorious light.
The whole context of the teaching in John chapter 15 concerning the vine and the branches is to instill in us that we are not just to produce fruit but MUCH fruit. in fact in verse 8, one of the marks of a true follower of Jesus is an abundance of fruit.
Often I talk with Christians who say, "I just can’t get my prayers answered. That is because they ask amiss, they pray in selfishness. If you want your prayers answered, then pray as Jesus did. Begin to pray that the Lord will use you to reach the lost, ask Him for lost souls. The Lord will move heaven and earth to provide what ever it takes for you to reach the lost. Anchor your needs to the heartbeat of Jesus in reaching out with the Gospel message. First John 5:14, 15 says "And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He heareth us. And if we know that He hears us, Whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him."
In Hebrews 12:2 we read these words about Jesus. "Who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Just what was the "joy" that was set before Him? Surely it wasn’t the cross, it wasn’t the beatings and rejection. His joy was in bringing many Sons unto Glory. Many Christians have lost the shallow joy they once had. Lay hold to the joy of the Lord. That only comes through unlimited obedience to His Word.
Get involved in sharing Jesus with everyone. The more you share Jesus with others, the stronger you will be in your own Spiritual Life. As I said earlier, "We are not just to "hang on" but we are to be overcomers. Revelation 12:11 says "And they overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb (Jesus part) and by the word of their testimony." (our part)
Get busy, share what Jesus has done in your life with others. Let His name sound forth from the market to the corner gas station, from skid row to the ivory towers, from every part of this land let the name of JESUS ring forth. In the book of John Chapter 6 verse 68 Peter asked Jesus "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the Words of eternal life." Where shall the lost go? YOU have the words of eternal life. Take it to the streets and lanes of the city, take it to the lost. Jesus did.
In the book of 2nd Kings chapter 7 verse 9 we read: "We do not well, this is a day of good tidings and we hold our peace." The men in that portion of scripture had before them all that was necessary to save a starving and dying people. They considered keeping it to themselves, but even they as heathens and outcasts knew that would not be right. You as a Christian have the BREAD OF LIFE, to share with a dying and Spiritually starved world. What will you do? "We do not well, this is a day of good tidings and we hold our peace.
Lord open our eyes.
