01.30.08 thequest UPdate

thequest family,

In taking some time to look back over last year, I remembered making a promise to keep something in front of us. Something that I actually had learned a lot from. As I look back over the last couple of months, it dwindled off my radar.

It certainly deals with our theme of "branching out." It gives us the confidence from God Himself about one of the things we are the most fearful about--Sharing our Faith in Jesus with others. Many have the notion that evangelism is hard, scary and reserved for those who are gifted. The results of this kind of thinking cause us to shy away from spiritual interaction with lost people and it is not at all what the Bible teaches us.

Here are four TRUTHS rising from the Scripture:


The Authority of God (Matthew 28:16-20). Every believer has Jesus residing in them and therefore has His authority according to the Great Commission. Jesus said, “All authority is given me…”, and I am sending you to share the truth about me with others, make disciples, baptize them and teach them. He ended with “…behold, I am with you always…”. Every believer has the authority to share the good news of Christ.

The Power of God (Acts 1:8). Acts 1:8 specifically teaches us that the power of the Holy Spirit is given to every believer for the precise purpose of sharing Christ with the world. This powerful witness is not reserved or limited to a few, but is given to all (see Acts 2:38-39).

The Mind of God (1 Corinthians 2:16). Paul truly builds confidence in our ability in evangelism when he writes of the believer’s reliance upon the Spirit is a real confidence builder regarding evangelism. The principle is that the Spirit of God knows everything. We have the Spirit of God living in us. The Spirit of God freely gives us thoughts that we are to voice. Therefore, Paul concludes that we have the mind of Christ! The context is all about evangelism (see 1 Cor. 2:1-5).

The Words of God (Matthew 10:16-20, Mark 13:9-11, Luke 21:12-15). These are parallel passages which give us tremendous promises regarding evangelism. Jesus instructs us to not worry about what we are to share or how we are to share it. In Mark 13, Jesus tells us not to worry beforehand about what to say or how to say it. In Luke 21 He instructs us to make up our minds not to worry. In the Matthew and Mark passages, we learn that the Spirit will give us the words and method but in the Luke passage the Word teaches us that Jesus Himself will give us the words and methods to use.

The Godhead takes an active role in teaching us that we have no reason to worry; they will instruct us and give us the confidence, words and methods at just the right time. Jesus promises that if you simply speak what is given to you to say, that none of your adversaries will be able to contradict or refute you.*

This was first shared with us by our brother Ed Waken and we are better for it. Let's have our Holy Spirit eyes on as we walk through our days...and share the stories of how God is using you!

Press on,

Mike


* From the article Conversations Not Conversions first published in thechurchplanter- full article HERE