We have a huge
assignment. We have a seemingly
impossible job to accomplish. God has
called us to be about world evangelism.
To reach to the furthest and most dark places in our world. As a pastor the enormity of my task often
leaves me discouraged. How will I reach
my lost neighbor? How will I reach that
lost teen-ager? How will I help that
struggling family? It seems, at times,
that it is not even worth trying. I
might as well bunker down, stock up on food and ammo and wait for the end. God has not called us to this kind of
existence. God has not called us to be
exclusivists, pacifists, pessimists or pewists
(I made up that word. DEF: one
who only sits in a pew/church and does nothing).
I have been thinking a lot about this whole evangelism
thing. Why does it seem so difficult,
unnatural, and stretching at times?
Well, I have the answer. We are
forgetting the Holy Spirit factor.
Too many Christians are running on empty. We are just making it. We are taking it a day at a time. We are saved, but there is nothing exciting
or contagious about our salvation. There
is no overflow. So, we simply exist as
Christians while a world around us goes to hell. We make occasional guilt-driven attempts at
evangelism that most often end unsuccessfully.
We then blame it on the hardness of people around us and again
isolate.
I think that we need to take care of the core issue. We are running on empty. God never intended for you to run on
empty. He gave us a cure for this - the
Holy Spirit.
When you are saved you experience the infilling of the Holy
Spirit. It is an amazing thing. He brings confidence of your salvation,
conviction of sin, and stakes claim to your life.
I am Pentecostal!!! This
means I believe in a subsequent work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the
believer. It is the overflowing of the
Holy Spirit. When this happens to you
and I we are filled with boldness and power to accomplish the task at hand -
evangelism of the world. It is the Holy
Spirit Factor. The overflowing of the
Holy Spirit makes evangelism natural, powerful and effective. If you read the first seven chapters of Acts
you will see a group of cowardly disciples turned into a band of warriors. It was the Holy Spirit Factor.
God wants to fill you fresh and new. D.L Moody was asked why he spoke on the need
for the continual filling of the Holy Spirit to which he replies, "I need
the continual filling of the Holy Spirit because I leak." I right this blog to encourage you to take
time to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
If you are continually filled I guarantee you that you will like the
things that begin to flow from you and so will the world around you.
FYI: My blogs are written without edit or rewrite. They are intended to simply be a raw
expression of my thoughts. Please excuse
grammar and spelling.
