 
### Evangelion

Copyright 2020 Emmanuel Oramah

Published by Emmanuel Oramah at Smashwords

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Unindicated scriptural quotations are from King James Version ( **KJV** ). Other indicated references include:

**AMP** – Amplified Bible

**ESV** – English Standard Version

**MSG** – The Message Translation

**NCV** – New Century Version

**NIV** – New International Version

**NKJV** – The New King James Version

**NLT** – New Living Translation

**NRSV** – New Revised Standard Version

**TLB** – The Living Bible

**YLT** – Young's Literal Translation

Interlinear Transliterated Bible.

All from PC Study Bible V.5, Copyright ©1988-2007, Biblesoft®.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Prologue

Chapter One – The Great Solution to the Great Problem

Chapter Two – The Instrument

Chapter Three – The Gospel Message and Focus

Chapter Four – Types of Evangelism

Chapter Five – The Process of Soul Winning

Chapter Six – The Tone, Appearance and Attitiude of an Evangelist

Chapter Seven – The Center of Soul Winning

Chapter Eight – The Season, Environment and Reasons for the Ministry

Chapter Nine – The Challenges of the Ministry

Bibliography

About Emmanuel Oramah

Other books by Emmanuel Oramah

Connect with Emmanuel Oramah
Acknowledgements

In many ways, this is the most exciting book I have written because it deals with God's main heartbeat, the salvation of souls. My sincere gratitude goes first to the Almighty God who saved my soul and has given me the burden to be a source of salvation to others. I wish to appreciate my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Oramah for their unalloyed support and prayers.

Many thanks to Mr. Ilechukwu Emmanuel for challenging me to take up this responsibility. I will not fail to acknowledge the prayers and immense help from Rev. Felix C. Obiorah (PhD.) in many ways. To everyone that has believed and invested in me, you are the reason this book came through. God preserve you.
Prologue

According to the dictionary, the word evangelism means sharing news of something in other to convince someone to join or otherwise accept. The English noun is coined from the Greek verb _'evangelizo,'_ which means _'to announce good news'_ and the gospel itself is from the Greek word _'evangelion,'_ which is interpreted to mean _'a good message/news.'_ According to Barclay, the word evangelion has three meanings in Greek, which includes; the reward given to a messenger for bringing good tidings; the sacrifices made to the gods when such good tidings were received; and finally, it came to mean the good tidings themselves. Vine, _et al._ stated that this all-important word, in the new testament, denotes the 'good tidings' of the kingdom of God and of salvation through Christ, to be received by faith, on the basis of His expiatory death, His burial, resurrection, and ascension. According to Broocks, _"the gospel is the good news that God became man in Jesus Christ. He lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died-in our place. Three days later, He rose from the death, proving that He is the Son of God and offering the gift of salvation to those who repent and believe in him_." In other words, the death He died was the death we deserved to die because of the life He lived, which we were supposed to live, but failed to.

Hence, **Christian evangelism** is simply the process of proclaiming Christ's death and resurrection with the intention and sole aim of reconciling man with God through Him and for Him. However, there is more to discover about this than just the above stated definition. First, it should be noted that evangelism is a calling for every believer in our Lord Jesus Christ by virtue of their belief on the truth that Christ is not just the Saviour of the world but the only way to God. Then it is also a ministry that a believer can receive from the Lord as a gift according to Ephesians 4:8. Before we begin to delve deeper into this high calling and every other thing that goes with it, we will first look at what caused the separation and why there is need for reconciliation between God and man. With that in mind, we can properly comprehend the magnitude of the task and its accompanying challenges. The truth is, _"Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved._ _And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations_ _, and then the end will come" (Matt. 24:12-14) NIV. Emphasis is mine._

We are presently in that period, which precedes the end, also known as the last days. Therefore, in a world where most believers have resorted to going after already converted souls to have a 'church switch' instead of going for the lost souls to have a 'kingdom switch,' it has become very necessary and important too that we get to know our calling and ministry properly and its purpose. If that is downplayed, we might miss the expected results that God wills to achieve through us at the end of the day. It is a wonderful privilege to be used by God to convey this message in this manner because there have been very few books written on this subject over the decade. In fact, in the exact words of Yohannan, _"I encourage you to go to the average Christian bookstore sometimes and look at the titles spread all over the shelves. The majority of them are about how to fix your life. But how many books are about half of the world going to hell? How many books do you see talking about the needs of millions in unreached areas? There must be a harmony in developing our intimate walk with the Lord and our Passion for the Lost. If I really know Jesus who gave His life on the cross and shed His blood to save sinners, how can I not want to save people? How can I say that I know Jesus, or how can I enjoy a life of deeply loving Jesus, and not be compelled to do whatever I can to reach the lost world? We should not become unbalanced by all the deeper life teaching, that we forget the reality of the lost world."_

This is hence an exhaustive guide to world evangelization written for the unbelievers to appreciate and embrace salvation by grace through faith in Jesus the Christ, and for true believers to comprehend properly their role in God's kingdom business as disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. _"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:8-10) ESV_.
Chapter One

The Great Solution to the Great Problem

Based on what has been said to be the sole aim of Christian evangelism, which is reconciling man back to God, it is obvious that there must have been an enmity between God and man. Was it so in the beginning? No, it was not. Man was not just a friend of God in the beginning but God's son; His living image as well as His representative on earth. In fact, God handed the whole earth over to man to oversee as his domain of influence. The Scripture says, "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth" (Gen. 1:27-28) NKJV. Therefore, the Psalmist was speaking plainly, when he wrote, "The heavens belong to the Lord, but he has given the earth to all mankind" (Ps. 115:16) TLB.

Somehow, along the line, man disobeyed God and disregarded His command by eating of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, which God asked him not to eat. Because of this single act of disobedience, man fell from glory and was separated from his Creator. By this act, man handed the enemy rights over his freedom and over the kingdom God gave him to rule. Since a holy God cannot have intimate relationship with a sinful man, God's intention of overseeing the earthly kingdom through man was somewhat thwarted. Myles Munroe gave a good description of man's state after the fall with this analogy: _"Whenever a citizen of a country is convicted of a crime against the state and is about to be incarcerated, one of the first things the government requires is that he surrender his passport. A passport is one of our most significant symbols of citizenship because it is an official document that identifies our legal status as a citizen of a specific nation. It grants us the freedom as citizens to travel outside our country and still enjoy all the rights and privileges that we have at home. In requiring a citizen to surrender his passport, the government is saying, "You are under judgment and during that time have forfeited your citizenship rights." Citizens have the right to move freely, earn a living, own property, buy food, drive on the streets, pay taxes, and receive the benefits and services provided by their government. A citizen who is convicted of a crime has fallen out of favor or position with the government. During the terms of the sentence he must forgo many of those rights and privileges, particularly freedom of movement. Incarcerated prisoners must endure great restrictions of their personal freedom. The correctional system owns them and controls every aspect of their lives from the time they get up in the morning, to when they eat, what they do during the day, and when they go to bed. This was Adam's experience when he disobeyed God's government. When Adam sinned, he lost his favored status. In other words, Adam fell out of position with the government and had all of his citizen rights cancelled. God took away his "passport" and Adam became a prisoner of darkness, a slave to sin, and was ruled by a "warden" named Satan. Every human being has been held captive in this precarious predicament. This is the universal human dilemma: Until we are enlightened and set free by Christ, we are all prisoners in the kingdom of darkness. All of us are born in a prison of sin and darkness. Because of our sinful nature inherited from Adam, we are unrighteous. Being unrighteous means that while we are still created "in God's image" (although somewhat marred), "we have no Kingdom rights." Our citizenship is non-existent until our unrighteous condition is removed."_

However, God, who is love, could not forever ignore the sinner in his sin and still be love. Therefore, God's reaction toward sin has to reveal his character quite as much as His reaction toward the sinner. This is how huge the problem was. In fact, Morgan as quoted by Paxson stated the problem this way: " _We speak of law and love, of grace and truth, of justice and mercy and so long as sin does not exist, there is no controversy between any of these. If there be no sin, law and love are never out of harmony with each other, truth and grace go ever hand in hand; justice and mercy sing a common anthem. If law be broken, what is love to do? If truth be violated, how can grace operate? In the presence of crime, how can justice and mercy meet? This is the problem of problems. It is not a problem as between God and man. . It is not a problem as between God and angels. It is a problem as between God and Himself."_

Paxson hence added, _"let us think deeply into this greatest problems created by Adam's sin. How would God satisfy the claims of His love and His holiness? His holiness must condemn sin and command the sinner to depart. His love must open its arms to the sinner and bid him come. A holy God could not tolerate sin; a loving God could not turn away from the sinner. God could not desert the sinner; but what should He do with the sin? God's attitude toward sin would reveal His true character quite as much as His attitude toward the sinner... The reconciliation was effected through the self-provided, suffering reconciliation of God in Christ. 'Mercy and truth are met together: righteousness and peace have kissed each other.' Thus the antimony in the divine Being itself was dissolved."_ Hence, the gospel is actually a medium through which God invites man to be reconciled back to Him through Jesus Christ His Son.

We conclude that man became God's enemy because of sin; but what actually is sin? According to Stott, _"The New Testament uses five main Greek words for sin, which together portray its various aspects, both passive and active. The commonest is hamartia, which depicts sin as a missing of the target, the failure to attain a goal. Adikia is 'unrighteousness' or 'iniquity,' and ponēria is evil of a vicious or degenerate kind. These terms seem to speak of an inward corruption or perversion of character. The more active words are parabasis (with which we may associate the similar paraptōma), a 'trespass' or 'transgression,' the stepping over a known boundary, and anomia, 'lawlessness,' the disregard or violation of a known law. In each case an objective criterion is implied, either a standard we fail to reach or a line we deliberately cross...The emphasis of Scripture, however, is on the godless self-centeredness of sin. Every sin is a breach of what Jesus called 'the first and great commandment,' not just by failing to love God with all our being, but by actively refusing to acknowledge and obey him as our Creator and Lord. We have the position of dependence, which our createdness inevitably involves, and made a bid for independence. Worse still, we have dared to proclaim our self-dependence, our autonomy, which is to claim the position occupied by God alone. Sin is not a regrettable lapse from conventional standards; its essence is hostility to God (Rom. 8:7), issuing in active rebellion against him. It has been described in terms of 'getting rid of the Lord God' in order to put ourselves in his place in a haughty spirit of 'God-almightiness.'"_

Moreover, sin is the effect of a cause. **Sin can be said to be a product of unbelief in God's personality, which can either be due to ignorance, outright refusal to accept knowledge or misapplied knowledge due to beclouded understanding**. According to Bruno, _"Sin is not just a minor inconvenience. When we sin, we are shaking our fists at the God who made us, telling him that we doubt that he is good and don't believe that he can be trusted."_ Apostle Paul hence wrote, _"This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart" (Eph. 4:17-18)._

Eve, for instance was ignorant of who God already made her: That was why the devil could capitalize on that to make her doubt her maker. Sin eventually resulted and death followed. Overcoming the temptation to sin is rooted in tackling the cause, which is unbelief and not in facing the devil per se. This issue of unbelief in the God of truth has been the major source of disobedience to His will and principles to this day. Secondly, unbelief is the choice one makes in the futility of one's mind because of beclouded understanding or outright ignorance. The result is always a deliberate deviation from the right and selfishness or self-exaltation. **Yes, the devil of course has a hand in sin through temptation but not as much as the human choice and decision through his desire-driven will**. Apostle James put it this way: _"But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death" (James 1:14-15)._

Notice from the above passage that desire goes ahead of enticement or temptation. Man is not created to know all things but the total submission of his will to the will of God, to live for the pleasure of his Creator, (which ultimately deals with pride or 'Mr. self' in him) can make up for his areas of ignorance and consequently solve the problem of unbelief. According to Morris in his book ' _Understanding and Overcoming Temptation,'_ _"In the Scriptures, God presents three inseparable and essential factors for overcoming temptation._ _These three factors are the knowledge of the truth, the power of the Holy Spirit, and faith. The_ _challenge is to know the truth, to understand the power of the Holy Spirit, and to access this power by_ _faith through believing the truth and trusting in the Holy Spirit. It is not entirely possible to study these_ _factors in any correct order because they are so interrelated. The Word reveals to us the person and_ _work of the Holy Spirit, yet the Holy Spirit reveals to us the meaning of the Word. We trust in the_ _Spirit by faith and yet faith is a fruit of the Spirit..._ _God has given us the truth through his Word and the power through the Holy Spirit, but our part is to_ _exercise faith through our will. We must remember that these elements are interrelated and_ _inseparable. Faith is our responsibility, yet it comes by_ _hearing and hearing by the Word of God._ _Faith is an act of obedience on our part and a fruit of the Holy Spirit's work in our lives. Our will_ _must obediently exercise faith, and yet faith is what drives our will to obey. We might think of an_ _automobile to see the interdependency of these factors that are required for victory. The engine is the_ _truth. It must be correctly engineered and in good condition. The Holy Spirit is the gasoline that gives_ _power. Faith is the electric current that ignites that power, and our will must turn the switch. This_ _illustration, of course, does not attempt to fully demonstrate the importance and interrelation of truth,_ _the Holy Spirit, faith, and our obedient will_." The Scripture says, _"The secret things belong to God, but those things which are revealed belongs to us and our children forever that we may do all the words of this law" (Deut. 29:29) NKJV._ Hence, Paul wrote with this same conviction, _"But you have been anointed by [you hold a sacred appointment from, you have been given an unction from] the Holy One, and you all know [the Truth] or you know all things. I write to you not because you are ignorant and do not perceive and know the Truth, but because you do perceive and know it, and [know positively] that nothing false (no deception, no lie) is of the Truth" (1 John 2:20-21) AMP._ However, before one submits, one has to believe God first: _"...for he who comes to God must come believing that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him" (Heb. 11:6) NKJV._ Therefore, submission to Gods will is only for believers and they alone should expect His reward and salvation as a result. Not just believing that God exists, but also that He sent His only begotten Son to come and die for our sins and confessing Him as Lord and Saviour. _"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Rom 10:13)._

Now here is the next problem: _"How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent?" (Rom 10:14-15a)._ Before Christ came, so many prophets, priests and preachers were used by God to proffer a solution to the problem of man's alienation from God. This is because it has distorted God's unbroken fellowship and relationship with man, hence God's ruler-ship of the earth through man became a herculean task. However, their ministry only brought temporal solution to the problem. This is because, after believing in their message, man would have to perform some physical rituals to be reconnected back to God, which would only last as long as the man remains obedient to God, and never wipes away the sin but rather covers it. Hence, the same perfect Job, who the Scripture recorded would always offer sacrifices for the purification of his children still remarked, _"If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my warfare and service I will wait, till my change and release shall come. [Then] You would call and I would answer You; You would yearn for [me] the work of Your hands. But now You number each of my steps and take note of my every sin. My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and You glue up my iniquity [to preserve it in full for the day of reckoning]" (Job 14:14-17) AMP._ The Bible explains it further this way; _"The old system of Jewish laws gave only a dim foretaste of the good things Christ would do for us. The sacrifices under the old system were repeated again and again, year after year, but even so they could never save those who lived under their rules. If they could have, one offering would have been enough; the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all and their feeling of guilt would be gone. But just the opposite happened: those yearly sacrifices reminded them of their disobedience and guilt instead of relieving their minds. For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats really to take away sins. That is why Christ said as he came into the world, "O God, the blood of bulls and goats cannot satisfy you, so you have made ready this body of mine for me to lay as a sacrifice upon your altar. You were not satisfied with the animal sacrifices, slain and burnt before you as offerings for sin. Then I said, 'See, I have come to do your will, to lay down my life, just as the Scriptures said that I would.' After Christ said this about not being satisfied with the various sacrifices and offerings required under the old system, he then added, "Here I am. I have come to give my life." He cancels the first system in favor of a far better one. Under this new plan we have been forgiven and made clean by Christ's dying for us once and for all. Under the old agreement the priests stood before the altar day after day offering sacrifices that could never take away our sins. But Christ gave himself to God for our sins as one sacrifice for all time and then sat down in the place of highest honor at God's right hand, waiting for his enemies to be laid under his feet. For by that one offering he made forever perfect in the sight of God all those whom he is making holy" (Heb. 10:1-14) TLB._

Therefore, at a point, God was fed up with the failures of man to keep to His standard, (which was impossible because of the sin principle at work). He had to execute the redemption plan, which He made even before the creation of the world according to the Scriptures. In other words, man's redemption was not an afterthought in Gods' mind. _"Long ago, even before he made the world, God chose us to be his very own through what Christ would do for us; he decided then to make us holy in his eyes, without a single fault-we who stand before him covered with his love. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us. And he did this because he wanted to! Now all praise to God for his wonderful kindness to us and his favor that he has poured out upon us because we belong to his dearly loved Son. So overflowing is his kindness toward us that he took away all our sins through the blood of his Son, by whom we are saved; and he has showered down upon us the richness of his grace-for how well he understands us and knows what is best for us at all times. God has told us his secret reason for sending Christ, a plan he decided on in mercy long ago; and this was his purpose: that when the time is ripe he will gather us all together from wherever we are-in heaven or on earth-to be with him in Christ forever. Moreover, because of what Christ has done, we have become gifts to God that he delights in, for as part of God's sovereign plan we were chosen from the beginning to be his, and all things happen just as he decided long ago" (Eph. 1:4-11) TLB._

In this light, Bruno summarized his _'The Whole Story of the Bible in 16 Verses'_ this way: _"_ _God created a kingdom, and he is the King, but he made human beings to represent him in that_ _kingdom. Adam and Eve rejected this call, which led to sin and death. But God promised to defeat the_ _Serpent through the seed of the woman, who is also the seed of Abraham. Through Abraham's family,_ _and specifically Judah's royal seed, David, the covenant blessings would come to the world. Because_ _all people were guilty and deserved death, the sacrifices of the Mosaic law revealed more clearly_ _their need for a substitute—the suffering servant. Through the servant and the work of the Spirit, God_ _would establish a new covenant and give lasting life to his people in the new heavens and new earth._ _Jesus is the One through whom all of these promises find fulfillment, first in his sacrificial death as_ _a necessary and just payment for sin and then in his victorious resurrection and reign as King. This_ _great story will find its culmination when the redeemed from every tribe, tongue, and nation gather in_ _the new creation to live with God forever."_ Hence, the Bible states precisely, _"Our words are wise because they are from God, telling of God's wise plan to bring us into the glories of heaven. This plan was hidden in former times, though it was made for our benefit before the world began. But the great men of the world have not understood it; if they had, they never would have crucified the Lord of Glory. That is what is meant by the Scriptures, which say that no mere man has ever seen, heard, or even imagined what wonderful things God has ready for those who love the Lord. But we know about these things because God has sent his Spirit to tell us, and his Spirit searches out and shows us all of God's deepest secrets" (1 Cor. 2:7-10) TLB._

So, God carried out His plan by sending His only begotten, sinless Son to not only bring the message of His kingdom and its admission requirements, but also to lay down His life and become the propitiation for our sins, hence being the only bridge through which man can easily reconnect back to God according to the Scripture. **At the cross, God in Christ achieved self-satisfaction through self-sacrifice and self-substitution so that through divine propitiation, human redemption, justification and reconciliation back to his maker could be achieved, so that the redeemed, justified and reconciled should live a life of self-denial and self-giving unto God first, then unto his neighbour.** This is actually the message of the cross of Christ in brief, as much as was revealed in the Scriptures. The Bible says, _"God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into this wicked world to bring to us eternal life through his death. In this act we see what real love is: it is not our love for God but his love for us when he sent his Son to satisfy God's anger against our sins" (1 John 4:9-10) TLB._ Therefore, Paul, by revelation, declared the extent of Christ's work on the cross: _"And you who were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh (your sensuality, your sinful carnal nature), [God] brought to life together with [Christ], having [freely] forgiven us all our transgressions, Having cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the handwriting of the note (bond) with its legal decrees and demands which was in force and stood against us (hostile to us). This [note with its regulations, decrees, and demands] He set aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to [His] cross. [God] disarmed the principalities and powers that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him and in it [the cross]" (Col. 2:13-15) AMP._ This great provision of God for the salvation of humanity is what the Bible calls the mystery of godliness. _"Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory" (1 Tim. 3:16) ESV._ A close examination of this mystery is necessary so that we can have a better understanding of how mysterious it was for God to redeem humanity without charge. This mystery of godliness is so described because it was hidden and is still beyond reason (though not contrary to it), yet of deepest importance to Christianity. It is all about Christ and has six wonderful aspects.

First, **He was manifested in the flesh**. The Bible makes it clear that Christ, who is the word of God became flesh and lived with us (John 1:14). It is indeed awesome and mysterious how the word of God, which is God Himself could fertilize the seed of the woman, contrary to nature, in other to be completely God and completely human at the same time in one person. It pleased Him to do so in other to save mankind in the flesh, yet sinless. Hence, John could declare with all boldness by the Holy Spirit, _"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." (1 John 1:1)._ We may think, God would have just spoken or waved from heaven and if need be, even swore an oath by Himself to save us, just like Naaman thought Elisha would have done to heal him of his leprosy in 2 Kings 5:11. Nevertheless, He decided to take our form to save us because that was the only way and His ways and thoughts are higher than ours (Isa. 55:9). **He was vindicated/justified in/by the Spirit**. To vindicate means to lay claim, to clear from an accusation, suspicion or criticism or to justify by providing evidence. After He was baptized in the Jordan River, God had to vindicate Him in the Spirit (Matt. 3:16-17) in other to mark Him out for the ministry He was to undertake. He was also vindicated when God raised Him from death (Rom. 1:4, Acts 2:24, 1 Peter 3:18). This is yet another mystery because we never imagined how God would have to be vindicated first before dying for our sins to be marked out for ministry and also after then as an evidence to be cleared of accusation and suspicion. However, at the end of the day, His vindication was for our justification (Rom. 4:25; 5:1). **He was seen by the angels.** Christ was attended by the angels throughout His life and ministry. Even after his resurrection He was first seen by the angels before appearing to the apostles. The angels knew what He came to do but could not decipher how it was going to happen and how it was going to be of immense benefit to the human race (1 Pt. 1:12). Is it not a mystery that even the heavenly world, from where Christ came, was interested in this awesome intervention of God in time? The angels could not imagine that He was even made a little lower than they were (Heb. 2:7-9). The spectacle of His human form, death and resurrection held them in rapt gaze. They could not but wonder at these things. They never imagined the King of kings and the Lord of lords descending to such a low estate in other to accomplish what He willed. **Christ was proclaimed among the nations.** What the angels came to know by seeing, the nations came to know by preaching. He killed the hostility of man with God and at the same time destroyed the wall of partition between the Jews and the Gentiles (Eph. 2:11-21). It is this mystery of the gospel that Paul took time to explain in chapter 3 of Ephesians. **Christ was believed on in the world.** Who would have thought that the world, which was lying in wickedness (1 Jn. 5:19), would honour this message of salvation and believe it (Acts 13:48)? Christ Himself made it clear He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matt. 15:24). However, His death and resurrection meant forgiveness for all men by the will of the Father (1 Jn. 2:2). It was strongly improbable for the Gentiles to believe this message because to them, it was foolishness (1 Cor. 1:23). Again, this is a wonderful mystery, which we ought to hold in great awe. **Christ was taken up in glory.** This is among the remarkable mystery of godliness, because it was an event, which had not happened elsewhere, and was the crowning grandeur of the work of Christ. No event of more splendour has ever occurred in the history of the universe, of which we have any knowledge, than the ascension of the triumphant Son of God to glory after having accomplished the redemption of humankind. His ascension was to fill all things (Eph. 4:10) since all things were made through Him and for Him (Col. 1:16). Not just His ascension, but also His incessant work at the throne of God as our great high priest and mediator (Heb. 7:25, Rom. 8:34, 1 Tim. 2:5), where He promised to return from in glory for His church someday, that makes it even more profound a mystery. This great mystery is without controversy, implying that it is certain and undeniable. It is the mystery of godliness because only through Christ, who is the subject and object of it can we be reconciled back to God.

Therefore, the Bible makes it clear that God has already chosen us to be believers and bearers of this truth. _"For those whom He foreknew [of whom He was aware and loved beforehand], He also destined from the beginning [foreordaining them] to be molded into the image of His Son [and share inwardly His likeness], that He might become the firstborn among many brethren. And those whom He thus foreordained, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified (acquitted, made righteous, putting them into right standing with Himself). And those whom He justified, He also glorified [raising them to a heavenly dignity and condition or state of being]" (Rom. 8:29-30) AMP._ Paul told the Thessalonians, _"But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thess. 2:13-14) NKJV._

When Christ was here, God was doing the work through Him in other to fulfil this purpose. Hence, Jesus said, _"My father has been working until now, and I have been working" (John 5:17) NKJV._ Apostle Paul also wrote, _"Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5:18-19) NKJV._ Now notice some points from the scriptural citation above:

  1. It is God's will to bring everyone back to Himself.

  2. He started the actualization of this goal ultimately through Jesus Christ and wills to continue it through us.

  3. Through the death and resurrection of Christ, God forgave the sins of the whole world not just that of believers. Hence the Scripture says, _"And He Himself is the propitiation of our sins, and not ours only but the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2) NKJV._

Believing in whom God has sent enables us to access the gift of God's forgiveness in Christ, which consequently ushers us into life everlasting as His children (John 1:12), because the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men (Titus 2:11). However, many have either ignored it or taken it for granted. Physical death after acceptance of this immeasurable but free gift becomes only but a translation into glory or change of address to an eternal residence; the dwelling place of the Most High.

Before Christ ascended into heaven, He formally and officially handed over the relay baton to us. That is what we know as the great commission. He said, _"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age, Amen" (Matt. 28:19-20) NKJV._ The book of Mark puts it this way; _"And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned" (Mark 16:15-16) NKJV._ Hence, Jesus told His disciples, _"You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you" (John 15:16) NKJV_. I wish to clearly state that even though it is the believer that is to go into the entire world and preach the gospel, it is still God doing His work through him on Christ account. Jesus says _, "- for without me, you can do nothing" (John 15:15) NKJV. "For it is God who works in you both to will and to do His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13) NKJV._ Therefore, we are not just working for God we should be working with Him. Apostle Paul said, _"For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence" (1 Cor. 1:26-29) NKJV._

Understanding this truth will enable us to put God first and avoid any form of 'mechanical evangelism' as I may term it. We just have to make ourselves available; God inhabits us and does His work. Though we have our own part to play but not without the owner of the business, God. Jesus reminds us, _"For it is not you who speak but the Spirit of your father who speaks in you" (Matt. 10:20) NKJV._

I will also like to point out here that Christian evangelism is the duty of believers not just anyone. Of course you cannot talk about who you do not believe in not to talk of convincing someone to agree with you. You ought to be convinced that the Lord can save first, before you can go on to preach that to anyone. Although being filled with the Holy Spirit is very important in this ministry but it is not the pre-requisite. The first thing is to believe. Remember that before Christ's disciples were sent by Him to go and preach, they had not yet received the gift of the Holy Spirit just like the Samaritan woman that ran into her country to convince her people; they only believed. Therefore, once anyone believes that Christ came in the flesh, died on the cross for our sins and was raised on the third day by God for our justification, and confesses it, one is automatically an evangelist by election of grace. " _For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom. 10:10) NKJV._

Therefore, one is not only made righteous and saved after believing, but also called to spread the good news of the kingdom. Paul hence wrote, _"And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, "I believe and therefor I spoke," we also believe and therefore speak" (2 Cor. 4:13) NKJV._ This same spirit of faith that Paul talked about was what Apollos had in Acts 18:25 that gave him the boldness to speak in the synagogue concerning the way of the Lord, which as of then, He had not yet understood fully or known properly according to the Bible. Believers in Christ would therefore be used by God to solve this great problem of man's alienation from His maker simply by being available for the great commission, having the same spirit of faith.

Chapter Two

The Instrument

No one embarks on any form of assignment without the necessary tools or else failure to accomplish it becomes inevitable. We therefore need to consider carefully the necessary instrument or tools for evangelism. It is a general knowledge that evangelism involves words, which are either written or spoken. Now the value and efficacy of any word is formed by two major factors or components; the **wisdom** embedded in the word and with which it was spoken or written and the **power** or force that backs it up, which will determine what it will accomplish eventually. These two components determine the worth of every message, and both are still the necessary instrument of evangelism.

Let us proceed to examine the sources and demands of these two instrument of the ministry. However, before then, it must not escape our minds that these tools are not just the necessary instrument of the ministry but the salt that makes the soup edible. Also at the end of this chapter, we are going to discover why Jesus sent His disciples first to the Jews when they have not really learnt much from Him and why He had to give them authority to act on His behalf before then. We are also going to see why Jesus decided to choose Paul to reach the Gentiles with the gospel. Jesus is fully aware of the required tools necessary to reach these two groups of people.

Wisdom

Wisdom in ordinary sense is the ability to apply relevant knowledge in an insightful way, especially different from that in which the knowledge was gained or the ability to make a decision based on the combination of knowledge, experience and intuitive understanding. In theological sense, it is the ability to know and apply spiritual truths. In the words of Packer, _"wisdom consists in choosing the best means to the best end and God's work of giving wisdom is a means to his chosen end of restoring and perfecting his relationship with human beings for which He made them."_ Beyond these definitions, wisdom in evangelical sense can be said to be the complete belief and trust in God's message and redemption plan, which does not appeal to human reason and common sense and convincing others to agree with you with both words and corresponding action. First, what is the source of this kind of wisdom and how can it be obtained? The Bible answers, _"If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of giving God [who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or fault-finding and it will be given him" (James 1:5) AMP._

There are two kinds of wisdom: worldly and godly wisdom. You do not get into this assignment with human wisdom unless you are headed for failure. This is because, the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing (1 Cor. 1:18). To the people in the world, the gospel is in fact an unphilosophical nonsense. That is the more reason God has to save whosoever believes it. _"For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe" (1 Cor. 1:2) NKJV._ Therefore, for you to be a part of this ministry, you have to first become foolish in the world's reasoning as you go ahead accessing the wisdom from above. The Bible assures that, if you can ask in faith, you will receive. Becoming foolish in the world sense starts with believing in Jesus the Christ and embracing the truth He offers. This is because, _"In Him all the treasures of [divine] wisdom (comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God) and [all the riches of spiritual] knowledge and enlightenment are stored up and lie hidden" (Col. 2:3) AMP._ How do you know you have received the wisdom from above? You know God has released this wisdom into you when you are no longer stuck with words in relation to how to say what you have to say and when your actions are in line with the message. The Bible tells us that, _"The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing, to yield, full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy" (James 3:17) NKJV._ This is not a mystery because, _Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true wisdom. "All who obey his commandments will grow in wisdom. Praise him forever!" (Ps. 111:10) NLT. "For the reverence and fear of God are basic to all wisdom. Knowing God results in every other kind of understanding" (Prov. 9:10) TLB._

Wisdom demand

The gospel is meant for two kinds of people: The Jews and the Greeks. The Jews represent those that have been taught about God from childhood but unfortunately, they do not really know God as they ought. They feel they have known too much. However, _"the man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God" (1 Cor. 8:2-3) NIV._ The Greeks represent the Gentiles who have little or no knowledge about God and were/are not even expecting a Saviour. As far as these two categories of people existed in the former times, they are still very much around at present and are the ones that are to be reached with the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Jews need to understand and embrace the mystery of godliness, which is that, _"God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles,believed on in the world, received up in glory" (1 Tim. 3:16) NKJV._

The Greeks on the other hand actually need to experience true freedom that lies in the accurate knowledge of the truth according to John 8:32. Of these two categories of people; the Jews that are interested in tangibility (ie. Sight appeal/substance) and the Greeks that are mainly interested in sensibility of reasoning (ie. Mind appeal/philosophy), whom do you feel can be reached more with wisdom on the table? The Greeks of course. " _For the Jews request a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom" (1 Cor. 1:22) NKJV._

All that is needed to face the Greeks is wisdom from above. Let me take our minds back to the historic salvation of the Jews from the land of Egypt. When Moses was sent to the Israelites, God gave him a sign with which to convince them that it was the God of their fore- fathers that sent him to them, which they believed. However, when he came to Pharaoh with same signs and wonders, Pharaoh was not too thrilled, especially since his magicians could do a similar thing. If you study chapter 7 of Exodus, you will discover that God intended to use those multiple miraculous signs, which He performed through the hands of Moses, primarily to bring judgement on Pharaoh and his people and not just to convince them because, after all, they do not even know who God is in the first place. The Bible says, _"Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness. But Pharaoh said, who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go" (Ex. 5:1-2) AMP._ That is why in the light of the gospel, Jesus is the wisdom of God and through Him, God has destroyed the wisdom of the wise (1 Cor. 1:15 & 24). The Greeks/Gentiles are to be made to understand that Jesus Christ became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption according to 1 Cor. 1:30. Do not worry about how they will be convinced and never apply the wisdom of men in other to sound convincing. God knows what to do with the message you have passed to them in their heart. Paul was sent to this group of people and he had this to say; _"And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Cor. 2:1-9) NKJV._

When Paul came to these people, they were expecting to hear of a new idea, discovery or invention not about 'one Jesus the Christ,' whom they were not even expecting in the first place. They were interested in knowing about the latest in the world of philosophy and science. However, Paul had to first make it clear to them that in as much as he was a well-respected Jewish Lawyer and of the Pharisee sect, he never came to prove a philosophical point. All they should expect from him was nothing more than the testimony of the wisdom of God; Jesus Christ. Apart from the Greeks or Gentiles, the Jews also are to be reached with wisdom. Hence, Jesus tells His disciples, _"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves" (Matt. 10:16) NKJV._

As a believer, you have been translated from the kingdom of darkness to God's kingdom and so you are not only hostile to the former kingdom but a target of it. Jesus had to use the sheep and the wolf as His illustrative animals because while one is herbivorous, the other is carnivorous and so, naturally, they should not be found breeding on the same ground. This should be so with believers and unbelievers. In addition, just as the wolf goes after the sheep, so does the enemy seek the soul of every believer in Christ. As believers going out to reach the world, this has to be in our minds always. Why did Jesus use the serpent and the dove to illustrate how the believer should deal with the wolves? From the Scriptures, you will agree with me that the serpent, which is a symbol of deception (based on scriptural first mention), is often used to refer to the devil while the dove, a symbol of peace is used to represent the Holy Spirit. What Jesus is trying to tell the believer through these analogies, is that he is being sent to a group of people that will always seek to terminate him in other to halt the message and stop it from spreading further. Therefore, he has to match the devil that works through them in wisdom and on the other end frustrate their efforts by being faultless amongst them just like Himself that they could not fault. However because the devil has the advantage of age and experience over men, believers can only be ahead of him with the wisdom from above. To this end, Jesus left us with this encouragement: _"Therefore, settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist" (Luke 21:14-15) NKJV_. The implication of this promise is that there is no special skill required before a believer and disciple of Christ can reach out to the lost. All that is needed is connection and proper alignment to the source of the message.

Power

According to the dictionary, power is defined as the ability to do something or act in a particular way, especially as a faculty or quality. Power is also the capacity to direct or influence the behaviour of others; the cause of events; the physical strength or force exerted by someone or something or the energy that is produced by mechanical, electrical or other means and used to operate a device. The business dictionary defines power as the ability to cause or prevent an action, make things happen; the discretion to act or not to act.

From these definitions, we can draw that power is an inherent ability that seeks to be exerted by the bearer. Again, every form of power has a source. For instance, the source of economic power is money; the sources of political power are money and people whereas electrical power is dependent on the movement of electrons in a conductor or an electrolyte. Although some factors or elements can be employed to either generate or energize/amplify these forms of powers, the mentioned sources form the backbone without which nothing happens. This will enable us to have a better understanding and be able to distinguish between power source and generator or energizer. For instance, while the moving electrons in a conductor or the ions in an electrolyte are responsible for the electric current that flows through the conductor or the electrolyte, a dynamo machine can be used to generate the electric current in the conductor. Let us see how this works before we proceed.

From my knowledge of Physics, the dynamo uses rotating coils of wire and magnetic field to convert mechanical rotation into a pulsing direct current. It consists of a stationary structure called the 'stator,' which supplies a constant magnetic field and a set of rotating windings called the 'armature,' which turn within the field. The motion of the wire within the magnetic field causes the field to push on the electrons in the metal, which in turn creates or generates electric current in the wire. The dynamo is driven by steam engine, which is the energizer.

From this illustration, we can draw a clear analogy as we consider the spiritual power of a believer. However, I want to state clearly that all powers are from God: be it natural, supernatural, physical or spiritual. God is the force behind every motion. The Scripture says, _"God has spoken once, twice I have heard this: that power belongs to God" (Psalm 62:11) NKJV._ When God sent Jesus to the earth, He anointed Him with the same power. The Bible says, _"How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him" (Acts 10:38) NKJV_. This was obvious from all that Jesus accomplished here on earth. While Jesus was on earth, He gave men _'exousian,'_ which can best be interpreted to mean authority, right or privilege, for two reasons. First to become God's children. The Bible says _, "He came unto His own and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them He gave power to become the sons of God, even to them hat believe on His name" (John 1:11-12) NKJV._ With this power, every believer in Christ automatically has the right to call God his Father.

Secondly, Jesus gave His disciples the authority to deal with the devil and evil spirits in His name before He sent them out to preach. According to Matthew's account, _"And Jesus summoned to His twelve disciples and gave them power and authority over unclean spirits, to drive them out and to cure all kinds of diseases and all kinds of weakness and infirmity" (Matt. 10:1) NKJV._ Jesus would not do this ministry alone even with all the powers that He had received from the Father and so He had to impart it to His disciples. All they had to do on encountering any demon or infirmity was call on Him. It became obvious that the presence of Jesus Christ with His disciple was not only responsible for the power they exercised but also the courage and boldness with which they exercised it. Therefore, Jesus was both the power source and the generator to them and hence He was called _'Immanuel'_ meaning _'God with us.'_

When Jesus was about to leave them and ascend into heaven, He knew that once He leaves them, the power they received from Him may become dormant and the courage and impetus to exercise it will no longer be found in them. Therefore, He gave them a promise: **"I will send you a power generator that shall not just be with you but shall be in you."** He told them, _"But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8-9) NKJV._ The Greek word for this power is _'dúnamin,'_ which is still the same word from which dynamo was derived. It is now very clear that the kind of power Jesus talks about here is the refresher and booster kind. You receive the power of God immediately you are born again. However, that power may remain dormant without the baptism in the Holy Spirit and constant infilling by the same Spirit, which boosts it or causes it to be expressed in a certain way. This same Holy Spirit expounds God's word more clearly to you, giving you the impetus, courage and boldness to preach it. Jesus says, _"If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever: the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him,_ _for He dwells with you and will be in you_ _" (John 14:15-17) NKJV. Emphasis is mine._ From the above Scripture, you will see clearly that Jesus spoke about the Holy Spirit as His Spirit. He continued to say, _"I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. These things have I spoken to you while being present with you, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name. He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you" (John 14:18, 25-26) NKJV._ What a promise, what a consolation! For the fact Jesus said it, you can count on it because He will do just that.

Power demand

Between the two categories of people that are to be reached with the good news, the Jews are a group of people that God chose as His own. He calls them His first-born. He told Moses, _"And you shall say to Pharaoh thus says the Lord, Israel is My son, even My firstborn" (Ex. 4:22) NKJV_. Because of this, God has manifested His power to the Jews in diverse ways starting from the days of their ancestors to this day. All that God seek is to get them to believe in Him and obey His instructions as His own chosen people; yet most of them would not listen to Him. Hence, the Bible says, _"But to Israel he says: "All day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people" (Rom. 10:21) NKJV._ The Jews received wisdom from God as a special gift and so they are not in want of wisdom. They know what to do at each point in time and how to go about it. Moreover, they are a people that not only love studying but they invent what others study. This is because God blessed them with wisdom. Paul told the Romans _, "From the point of view of the Gospel (good news), they [the Jews, at present] are enemies [of God], which is for your advantage and benefit. But from the point of view of God's choice (of election, of divine selection), they are still the beloved (dear to Him) for the sake of their forefathers. For God's gifts and His call are irrevocable. [He never withdraws them when once they are given, and He does not change His mind about those to whom He gives His grace or to whom He sends His call.]" (Rom. 11:28-29) AMP._

Because you cannot beat the word of God, the Jews achieved a great percentage of discoveries and inventions as well as technological advancements that we enjoy today. In fact, according to Steven Silbiger's _'The Jewish Phenomenon,'_ _"One-third of American multimillionaires are tallied as Jewish._ _Twenty percent of professors at leading universities are Jewish._ _Forty percent of partners in the leading law firms in New York and Washington are Jewish._ _Thirty percent of American Nobel Prize winners in science and 25 percent of all American Nobel winners are Jewish."_ Yet they are just about 2% of America's population.

When Moses was sent to deliver the message of liberation to the Jews from the hands of their taskmasters, he had to use a sign to convince them to believe that the God of their Fathers sent him. Likewise, when Jesus came to them with the message of salvation and admission into God's kingdom, they asked Him, _"What sign will you perform then, that we may see it and believe you? What work will you do?" (John 6:30) NKJV._ All the miracles that Jesus did amongst the Jews was meant first to glorify God and then, to make them believe His message. He told His apostles, _"Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves" (John 14:11) NKJV._ Irrespective of His claims and proofs, some Jews still questioned the source of His power. However, in response to this, Jesus told them plainly, _"If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? Because you say I cast out demons by Beelzebub. And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges. But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils" (Luke 11:18-22) NKJV_. He still made it clear to them that once anyone believes in Him, the person can do even greater things than He did. _"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it" (John 14:12-14) NKJV._ Here Jesus was not talking about the prayer of petition or supplication but the kind of prayer in which command is used over the creatures and situations in His name and on His behalf. In another place where He spoke concerning petition, He said, _"And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full" (John 16:23-24) NKJV._

Moreover, after His resurrection, He legally regained man's lost dominion mandate and so all authority in heaven and earth, which are His has been delegated to the church to act on His behalf and reclaim their place on earth (Matt. 28:18-20). Therefore, although God cannot be commanded, because all power belongs to Him, creature and situations can be commanded by believers in the name and by the authority of His Son Who became the firstborn from the dead. From verses 15 through 18 of John 14, Jesus had to tell the disciples why His departure to the Father would cause them to do greater works. His Spirit would be sent to them. All they have to do is believe in Him and obey Him and they can confront situations and challenges in the field of duty. Applying this, Peter and John were able to heal the crippled man at the beautiful gate (Acts 3:1-8) and Paul could command the evil spirit to leave the slave girl in Jesus' name (Acts 16:18).

Therefore, for anyone to effectively perform the duties of an evangelist and operate effectively in the office of an evangelist not just as a calling, but also as a gifting, he must be properly equipped with wisdom and working power. Paul prayed for the Gentiles, seeing what it is going to take them to engage in this spiritual exercise and not breakdown or relapse along the line: " _For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory_ _, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man_ _, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:14-19) NKJV. Emphasis is mine._ If you compare Paul's prayer with Jesus' statement in John 14: 15-21, you will discover that both contain same elements and constitute what is expected of every believer after believing. Three basic truths can be drawn from here:

  1. Every believer needs to be filled with the fullness of God, since we are created to be living image of God not a photocopy. This will enable him to operate as God on earth.

  2. For this to happen, Christ has to dwell in the believer's heart by faith, with the believer living with the consciousness of the indwelling presence of Christ in his inner man always (Col. 2:9-10).

  3. This will not only make him grounded in the love of Christ but will attract the reinforcement of his inner man by the Holy Spirit Whom God will cause to do mighty works through Him.

Remember, the presence of the Holy Spirit in the believer's life is not just the source but also an enforcement to the power of God in Him. Hence, he should not settle at getting wisdom alone, but also desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit because, _"The kingdom of God is not just talking: it is living by God's power" (1 Cor. 4:20) TLB._ I am certain that from what the Scripture tells us in Luke 11:13, God is willing to release His Holy Spirit to whomever that acknowledges, desires and asks of Him. _"Because, [It is He] Who has qualified us [making us to be fit and worthy and sufficient] as ministers and dispensers of a new covenant [of salvation through Christ], not [ministers] of the letter (of legally written code) but of the Spirit; for the code [of the Law] kills, but the [Holy] Spirit makes alive" (2 Cor. 3:6) AMP._ He committed this ministry into our hands through Christ, and so will not deny us of any of the requirements for effective performance and representation. Moreover, I know that, _"With God's power working in us, He can do much, much more than anything we ask or imagine" (Eph. 3:20) NCV_. All we have to do is to keep obeying the Lord's command. The first law in heaven and on earth is the law of **obedience.** The Scripture says, _"Bless the Lord,_ _O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word! Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will! Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion._ _Bless the Lord, O my soul!" (Ps. 103:20-22) ESV. Emphasis is mine. "In the days of His flesh [Jesus] offered up definite, special petitions [for that which He not only wanted u but needed] and supplications with strong crying and tears to Him Who was [always] able to save Him [out] from death, and He was heard because of His reverence toward God [His godly fear, His piety, in that He shrank from the horrors of separation from the bright presence of the Father]._ _Although He was a Son, He learned [active, special] obedience through what He suffered. And, [His completed experience] making Him perfectly [equipped], He became the Author and Source of eternal salvation to all those who give heed and obey Him_ _, Being designated and recognized and saluted by God as High Priest after the order (with the rank) of Melchizedek" (Heb. 5:7-10) AMP. Emphasis is mine._

Apart from obedience to the Lord's command, power cannot be exercise or applied without the primary and vital ingredient, faith. That is why one cannot please God without Faith (Heb. 11:6) and everything that does not come from faith is in fact sin (Rom. 14:23). Moreover, our faith in Jesus Christ, as those born of God, is the victory that overcomes the word (1 John 5:4); not our struggles, because God has made us more than conquerors through Him (Rom.8:37). Therefore, obedience has to be borne out of faith to please God. When Jesus said these signs shall follow them that believe in Mark 16:17, the Greek word He used there was _'pisteuo,'_ which means 'to have faith.' It is derived from the word _'pistis'_ (i.e. faith), which is derived from the primary verb _'peitho'_ (i.e. to convince [by argument, true or false], to assent [to evidence or authority] or to rely [by inward certainty]). Sometimes all you need is to trust God, other times you need more than just trust; you need substantiated trust. You need conviction and persuasion to get things to change, especially as a mature believer. At maturity, your miracles often manifest after conception, incubation and delivery of the received word of God, which produces it either for your personal experience, or that of someone else. This is because Christ should be fully formed in you as a mature believer so that you can digest solid food properly (Heb. 5:14), and sometimes regurgitate for babes to feed off (2 Tim. 2:15). Paul was operating as a mature believer when he said to the Galatian converts _, "My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you, I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone; for I have doubts about you" (Gal 4:19-20) NKJV_. It is then important we examine this necessity more precisely because it is indispensable unto the preacher and the recipient of the word of God. A good understanding of faith is expedient for daily living and ministry, especially since the just shall live by faith (Hab. 2:4, Heb. 10:38, Rom. 1:17).

Hebrews 11:1 gave a clear definition of what faith is. However, one may want to ask, "Why is this not working for some believers or why does it not work all the time as expected for every believer?" The answer is not farfetched; lack of understanding and sometimes improper application. Let us look at some scriptural references. The Bible says, _"Jesus said to him,_ _"If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." (Mark 9:23) NKJV. "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1) ESV._ " _(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification" (Rom. 4:17-25). "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love" (Gal. 5:6) NIV. "We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints— the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel" (Col. 1:3-5) NIV._

A close look at these citations gives us the clear picture of the complete composition of Christian faith and helps us to understand Heb. 11:1 better. **The Christian faith is initiated by belief in the truth (Mk. 9:23), animated by Love (Gal. 5:6), anchored on hope (Col. 1:4-5, Heb. 11:1) and substantiated by obedience with full persuasion (Rom. 4:20-21)**. The reason most believers do not see the manifestation of God's power even after receiving God's word and speaking it, is not because they do not believe or even hope that what they are saying will come to pass. It is because they lack full persuasion or conviction that what they believe is undeniably true and will definitely not fail to manifest as a result when acted upon. When faith is tested, the level of conviction is what is tested. That is why the test develops or produces perseverance (James 1:3). Even after receiving the word of God, it has to be mixed with faith to produce the desired result. The Bible said of most of the Israelites, while they were in the wilderness, _"For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it" (Heb. 4:2) NKJV._ Concerning preaching the gospel, full persuasion enables you to go on knowing fully well that the job of conversion and deliverance is not yours but God's. The Bible says it is the Lord that gives the increase at the end of the day (1 Cor. 3:6); so why worry when what you say and do is not in your name but in the name of Jesus Christ to the glory of God? The Bible said of Samuel, that the Lord was with him as he grew up and would not allow any of his words to fall to the ground (1 Sam. 3:19). For that to be the testimony about a man, aside the grace of God at work in the life, two major things are involved on human part: namely, complete obedience to God and faith. After we have heard clearly from God and obeyed his instructions, what we need then is not an increased faith, as the apostles requested in Luke 17:5, but full persuasion that the faith we have will produce the needed or expected results.

Persuasion is not just being sure of what you know and believe but taking the necessary steps convincingly as evidence or proof of being certain. A quick analysis is important here, for better understanding. Persuasion was derived from the Greek word _'peitho,'_ which means to rely (by inward certainty) or to assent (to evidence or authority) as we have seen earlier. However, in Rom. 4:21, the Bible talks about 'full persuasion.' The Greek word here is _'plerophoreo.'_ This is also quite different from 'full assurance' (Grk _: plerophoria_ ) as was mentioned in Heb. 10:22. Nevertheless, both are related in function. The former means 'to carry out fully (in evidence) or to make full proof of,' while the later means 'entire confidence in.' Again, _'plerophoreo'_ was coined from two Greek words _'pleres'_ (complete/covered over) and _'phoreo'_ (to have a burden/to wear as a clothing or a constant accompaniment). Therefore, _'plerophoreo'_ literally means 'to fully have as an accompaniment, bear as a burden or wear as a clothing.' Moreover, _'plerophoria'_ (full assurance) was derived from _'plerophoreo'_ (full persuasion). According to Vine _et al._ , the former is the noun while the latter is the verb. In other words, _'plerophoreo'_ (full persuasion) finishes what was initiated by _'plerophoria'_ (full assurance) on matters of faith. Persuasion is more like the proof or evidence conceived within a man first and assurance is being confident that the evidence is true and will show up eventually. Assurance is being confident on the reality of the proof even if it does not yet appear visible. On the other hand, faith without persuasion is having confidence and being sure of what you cannot prove beyond doubt or being confident of (and maybe even boasting of) what you are not totally convinced about and hence cannot prove. It is like saying _"if God be for us, who can be against us" (i.e. Rom. 8:31)_ , whereas God was not there in the first place. Faith with just full assurance in it is being confident of what is existent but has not crystalized or taken form in a person. It is faith standing on one leg. Another way to look at it is that, assurance is like knowing that there will be a meeting at a particular time and place based on an information from a reliable source and believing it completely. Persuasion is coming to the meeting venue at the appointed time, arranging the seats and sitting down there, even when no one has shown up at the scheduled time because you are convinced about the veracity and integrity of the source of the information based on encounter. It is then clear why full assurance is the noun and full persuasion is the verb (i.e. action word). **The potentiality of your faith is a function of your assurance level but the productivity is dependent on the extent of your persuasion.** Therefore, without persuasion, "I know" may result to "I thought." Persuasion is the faith component that drives it to yield results. It determines the shelf life of the faith. Persuasion enables and propels you to believe God beyond what you expect now like the three Hebrew boys in Dan. 3:16-18 and the heroes of faith in Heb. 11:13. With full persuasion, you are very certain God never fails even when the status quo is saying otherwise. It is being certain that your situation cannot invalidate the word of God, even when it refuses to change; because you know that the word of the Lord has been tried/purified seven times (Ps. 12:6)and it cannot fail. Full persuasion is the aspect of faith that strengthens the believer during trials and tough situations. With it, Job could stand and declare, "I know my redeemer lives... and though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" (Job 19:25; 13:15). This is possible only when faith is guarded by full persuasion and guided by both revelation and experiential knowledge. This kind of faith, which is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen, comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Rom. 10:17). It is not different from the faith through which you received your salvation (Eph. 2:8). It only needs to be grown to greater dimensions and fervently exercised at every point in time with complete conviction, especially as a preacher of the word and not just a recipient. This is because receiving results require your faith in God but producing certain kind of results as a believer requires what the Bible calls the faith of God. " _And Jesus answering saith to them, 'Have faith of God; for verily I say to you, that whoever may say to this mount, Be taken up, and be cast into the sea, and may not doubt in his heart, but may believe that the things that he saith do come to pass, it shall be to him whatever he may say" (Mark 11:22-23) YLT._ However, without faith in God, God will not release His faith to a man. Remember _, "_ _If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is smal"l (Prov. 24:10) NKJV \- "but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits" (Dan. 11:32)._ Therefore, " _Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love" (1 Cor. 16:13-14) NIV._
Chapter Three

The Gospel Message and Focus

Generally, the gospel's focus is to bring men into the kingdom of God through Christ Jesus who is the wisdom and power of God and who brought grace and truth to us. Jesus the Christ was made the only way into this kingdom where God reigns in experience.

The message of the gospel is basically; believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, accept Him into your life to fix you up, repent from your sins and forsake them, confess Him with your lips and love Him with all your heart by obeying whatever He says for proper spiritual growth. Let us then proceed to examine these gospel aspects properly.

The focus

Let me start by reiterating this all-important point, that the earth is the part of God's kingdom, which He gave man to rule in as His representative. According to Myles Munroe, God's Original purpose and intent was to rule that which is seen (visible world) through the unseen (His Spirit) living with the unseen (spirit) of man inside of the seen (body) on the scene (the earth. When man fell from glory, he lost this dominion and influence to the devil. Since then, the devil has been in charge of the world systems, and has turned whatever God meant for good to evil purposes until Christ came, spoiled principalities and powers and obtained back the lost mandate on man's behalf.

In other words, God built systems on earth and made man the manager of those systems according to the Scriptures _: "The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's; But the earth He has given to the children of men" (Ps. 115:16) NKJV._ David therefore mused, _"When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are people that you should think about them, mere mortals that you should care for them? Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority—the flocks and the herds and all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents" (Ps. 8:3-8) NLT._ This God did after creating man according to Gen. 1:28.

The devil took advantage of man's ignorance of who he has been made to be, deceived him into believing a lie and succeeded in collecting the managerial position from him. Since the devil is a specialist in orchestrating evil, he went on to turn the systems of God to another system full of evil organs. Consequently, God went on to execute His redemption plan as revealed in Ephesians chapter 1. The devil was actually aware of this according to the curse that God placed on him at Eden in Gen. 3:15, but never knew of how it was going to happen. Hence, God returned the mandate to man, making it accessible through Christ. However, this is not going to happen until man takes action to reclaim the mandate, because he ignorantly handed it over to the devil. What God did by sending His Son was to produce a legal platform or basis on which that dominion mandate can be reclaimed.

When Christ came, he came with a message that is focused on the kingdom of God that can be accessed only through Him. The kingdom of God is God's domain of influence and functionality. This implies that any life that allows God to have total influence on it is already a part of His kingdom or a host of it. _"Asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He replied to them by saying, the kingdom of God does not come with signs to be observed or with visible display, Nor will people say, Look! Here [it is]! Or, See, [it is] there! For behold, the kingdom of God is within you [in your hearts] and among you [surrounding you]" (Luke 17:20-21) AMP._ What this simply implies is that Jesus the Christ is the embodiment of God's kingdom that was dwelling among men (Col.2:9), and thence was called _'Immanuel'_ (God with us). When allowed, He could dwell in them and according to the Scriptures; He is the one that will usher men into heaven at last. Hence, Paul gladly remarked, _"God has sent me to help his Church and to tell his secret plan to you Gentiles. He has kept this secret for centuries and generations past, but now at last it has pleased him to tell it to those who love him and live for him, and the riches and glory of his plan are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ in your hearts is your only hope of glory" (Col. 1:25-27) TLB._ Therefore, when Jesus sent His disciples to preach, He told them, _"As you go, proclaim this message: The kingdom of God has come near" (Matt. 10:7) NIV._ What this actually implies is that what the people has been expecting has finally arrived and all they have to do is receive it in the person of Christ. This takes us to the message.

The message

Paul clearly stated the message of the gospel in his letter to the Corinthian church by the Holy Spirit. The Bible says, _"_ _Now let me remind you, brothers, of what the Gospel really is, for it has not changed-it is the same Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then and still do now, for your faith is squarely built upon this wonderful message; and it is this Good News that saves you if you still firmly believe it, unless of course you never really believed it in the first place. I passed on to you right from the first what had been told to me, that Christ died for our sins just as the Scriptures said he would, and that he was buried, and that three days afterwards he arose from the grave just as the prophets foretold" (1 Cor. 15:1-4) TLB._

Now this is exactly what the gospel says and it is obvious that God is the author of the gospel, Christ is the theme and man is the intended recipient. Again, the gospel is not a social information or just a religious assertion to reform society or stir emotions but God's message to save sinners, translating them from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of Light. Hence, it emphasizes repentance from sin and belief in God's provision as the criteria for entrance into the kingdom of God. Therefore, the Bible says, _"After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" (Mark 1:14-15) NIV._ _"But the righteousness based on faith [imputed by God and bringing right relationship with Him] says, do not say in your heart, who will ascend into Heaven? That is, to bring Christ down; or who will descend into the abyss? That is, to bring Christ up from the dead [as if we could be saved by our own efforts]. But what does it say? The Word (God's message in Christ) is near you, on your lips and in your heart; that is, the Word (the message, the basis and object) of faith which we preach, because if you acknowledge and confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart believe (adhere to, trust in, and rely on the truth) that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Christ) and so is justified (declared righteous, acceptable to God), and with the mouth he confesses (declares openly and speaks out freely his faith) and confirms [his] salvation" (Rom. 10:6-10) AMP._ All that it takes to access this kingdom of God is embedded in this message. That is why Jesus makes it clear that God's kingdom is no longer far-fetched; it is already here with us. You do not need to look for it elsewhere. To make it easier to comprehend, Jesus says, _"I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except by (through) Me" (John 14:6) AMP._ Accepting Christ, by believing He died for our sins with the heart and confessing Him as Lord with the mouth, ushers us into eternal life. That is the message of the gospel. Nothing is to be added to it and nothing is to be removed from it. Again, it should be noted that belief in the gospel message must be accompanied by confession before anyone can be saved. Can someone actually believe that Jesus died and rose from the death and refuse to confess Him as Lord? Yes. The chief priests and the soldiers for instance knew and believed that Jesus rose from death; but did they confess He is Lord? No. The Bible says, _"While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, "You are to say, 'His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.' If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day" (Matt. 28:11-15) NIV_.

In addition, confession should not be of anything else but that Jesus Christ is Lord. It is not just affirming Christ's Son-ship, but confessing His Lordship that saves a man after believing. This has a lot of implication to the salvation of a soul because by confessing His Lordship, a believer gives Christ His rightful position in his life. Recall that these same soldiers that guarded Jesus tomb made a striking statement at the sight of the incidents that accompanied His death. The Bible says, _"The soldiers at the crucifixion and their sergeant were terribly frightened by the earthquake and all that happened. They exclaimed, "Surely this was God's Son." (Matt. 27:54) TLB._ Even demons are on the same page _. When He had come to the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way. And suddenly they cried out, saying, "What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?" (Matt. 8:28-29) NKJV._

Therefore, believing in the supernatural and just affirming the Son-ship of Jesus the Christ is not enough to constitute the salvation of the soul. On the other hand, it is possible to confess the Lordship of Christ and still not believe in Him. Belief can only be manifested through corresponding actions. You cannot say you believe in someone and your actions are speaking otherwise, unless you never truly believed at first. Jesus could not stand the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and certain followers of His that proclaimed His Lordship yet would not produce the corresponding fruit. He says, _"You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: "'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'" (Matt. 15:7-10) ESV._ _"The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you?" (Luke 6:45-47) ESV._ _"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness" (Matt. 7:21-23) ESV._

Confession however, should be willful and deliberate, not forced or compelled. For instance, even the demons believe there is one God and that Jesus is His Son (James 2:19, Matt. 8:29); and they are included in the every tongue that shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil. 2:19). However, that would not save them because it is no longer a willful act but a demanded one, as everyone will eventually have no other option than to do the needful someday. Kendall puts it right when he said, _"It is not a question of whether men will confess that Jesus is Lord—it is only a question of when. They will do it now voluntarily or someday involuntarily. They will do it now willingly or they will do it then unwillingly. They will do it now by faith or they will do it on the Last Day by sight. Today God uses persuasion. One day He will use force. Men may win the battle, but God will win the war. 'Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.' The confession that all men will utter at God's final judgment is precisely the confession they are called to make in the here and now."_ Therefore, it is a privilege to do this now before it becomes too late. Hence, " _As God's partners, we beg you not to toss aside this marvelous message of God's great kindness. For God says, "Your cry came to me at a favorable time, when the doors of welcome were wide open. I helped you on a day when salvation was being offered." Right now God is ready to welcome you. Today he is ready to save you" (2 Cor. 6:1-2) TLB._

Furthermore, Jesus the Christ stands for many virtues, but for the purpose of reconciling man to God, He brought grace and truth: He is in fact the embodiment of the two virtues. Since Christ is the focal point of the gospel, the message of the gospel can be said to be the message of grace and truth _. "In the beginning [before all-time] was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. And the Word (Christ) became flesh (human, incarnate) and tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile) among us; and we [actually] saw His glory (His honor, His majesty), such glory as an only begotten son receives from his father, full of grace (favor, loving-kindness) and truth. For while the Law was given through Moses, grace (unearned, undeserved favor and spiritual blessing) and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:1, 14 & 17) AMP_.

The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ should contain two vital elements; grace and truth. However, for the sake of the unsaved, who are to be reached, the gospel should simply be, "salvation is obtainable as a result of God's grace manifested in and through the death and resurrection of Christ and can be received by believing this truth and confessing with the mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord." Paul was speaking to the Ephesian elders about how strongly he has held on to this gospel despite the challenges he was to face in Jerusalem. He said, _"And see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God" (Acts 20:22-24)_ _NKJV._ Apostle Peter advised the believers in this light. He said _, "As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God" (1 Peter 4:10) NKJV._

Therefore, the believer is actually a trustee of God's many-sided grace as the Amplified Bible renders it. Hence, Paul said _, "We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain" (2 Cor. 6:1) NKJV._ The grace of God is responsible for our salvation and God has released the same grace to every believer in Christ; but it must not be taken for granted. That is why as soon as anyone accepts the grace of God through Christ Jesus as a gift from God, he has to be further made to understand the purposes and demands of the grace, which is the second element of the gospel: **The truth.** According to Maldonado, _"Christians today tend to preach to the world only one side of the cross: Christ died for us... and that's it! This is the message of salvation in which He takes our place; from there we simply wait the rest of our lives on Earth until we get to heaven—to streets of gold and crystal seas. Everything seems to indicate that while we are on Earth there is not much to do except to pray, worship, and maybe announce the Gospel of salvation to others. But we do not preach the other side of the cross which is the one in which we must die in order for Christ to live in us."_ The Bible says, _"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works" (Titus 2:11-14) NKJV._ This is the function of God's grace and the truth that should be properly told the new believer and the misled, who are the next client of the gospel. The grace of God therefore ushers, accepts us into the beloved, and enables us to live our lives as the beloved of God.

In conclusion, the gospel's focus is God's kingdom accessible through belief, acceptance and confession of Christ Jesus as Lord, following repentance from dead works. Nevertheless, in as much as salvation is a product of grace, success as a believer and a follower of Christ on earth is obtained through the application of the grace demand, which is the truth. On the other hand, the gospel of grace precedes the gospel of truth but the two makes a complete dose, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Again, we have also seen that the gospel is not only meant for the unsaved, but also for the misled.
Chapter Four

Types of Evangelism

Preaching the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ is achieved either by direct or indirect means. This is because as far as God is concerned, _"this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations and then the end will come" (Matt. 4:14) NKJV._ Actually, God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). I believe that Peter was alluding to God's statement in the Scripture saying _, "Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?" says the Lord God, "and not that he should turn from his ways and live?" (Ezek. 18:23) NKJV._ Therefore, God is willing and ready to accomplish this through us by all His approved means, be it direct or indirect, provided we make ourselves available for the ministry. Let us consider these two aspects of this noble task before we may proceed in our discussion.

Direct evangelism

In direct evangelism, the preacher interacts and deals directly with the unbeliever. Jesus and His disciples had to mostly minister directly to the unbelievers since the gospel was still at its early stage then, and there were limited means with which they could reach the unbelievers at that time. The accompanying challenges of direct evangelism is that the preacher of the gospel can only minister to as many as he is able to meet. As a result, they had to travel to different areas and regions usually by boats, ships or on foot, which normally would take them much energy and time. The only exceptional cases were when the Spirit of God had to transport the individual from one place to another for a specific purpose, as was the case of Philip in Acts 8:39-40, after ministering to the Ethiopian eunuch. Although some of the early apostles used the indirect medium like letters to dissipate the gospel in those days, which has been fortunately passed down to us today, that was mostly after they had ministered directly to the people in those areas and possibly had established churches there as well.

In recent times, direct evangelism methods include; house to house witnessing, outreaches, evangelical crusades, etc. Direct evangelism is not just in the preaching but also in the exemplary living for the Bible says, _"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven" (Matt. 5:16) NKJV._ This is because our Lord Jesus Christ that lives inside of us and who we preach is the light. " _In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men" (John 1:4) AMP._ Hence _, "Once more Jesus addressed the crowd. He said, I am the Light of the world. He who follows Me will not be walking in the dark, but will have the Light which is Life. As long as I am in the world, I am the world's Light" (John 8:12; 9:5) AMP._ Therefore, since He now dwells in us, all we need do is allow Him to shine through us in every respect. Hence, Paul admonished Timothy, _"Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this, you will save both yourself and those who hear you" (1 Tim. 4:16) NKJV._

Therefore, before ever you even launch out to reach out to the lost, you should first watch your own life to ensure it does not contradict your message or else you end up misleading the people you are meant to convert, thereby causing an eclipse. Hence, the Bible says of Jesus in the book of Acts; _"In the First book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen" (Acts 1:1-2) NRSV._

Take note of the process: **He began to do and then teach**. Therefore, in this matter, your actions should precede your voice, because what the people are expecting is not just to hear your good words but also to see your good works. So as a minister of the gospel, it has to show not just in your words but also in your character and attitudes since you have to be an example of the kind of life that is expected of a true believer in Christ Jesus. Secondly, you have to strive to live the life of Christ not just for those that hear you to be convinced but also for the salvation of your own soul. Hence, Paul said of himself _, "Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified" (1 Cor. 9:25-27) NRSV._ In addition, Jesus says, _"Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:19-20) NRSV._ Therefore, you can ask yourself same question that Paul asked the Jews, _"You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say, "Do not commit adultery," do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonour God through breaking the law?" (Rom. 2:21-23) NKJV._

Indirect evangelism

In this type of reaching out, the minister has no direct interaction or dealing with the unbeliever. He makes use of other mediums and means to reach out to the unbelievers other than the direct dealing. This is what is mostly obtainable in recent times. Indirect evangelism saves lots of time, energy and resources and is responsible for the speedy and universal spreading of the good news. The advancement in science in technology has helped matters in this light. The indirect means includes; printing and distribution of Bibles, tracts and other gospel materials, financial support of missionaries, distribution of megaphones and other gospel equipment, sending of relief materials to war/famine/natural disaster-stricken areas, sponsoring crusades and outreaches, sponsoring media evangelism and most importantly praying for the lost and those in the field of mission. Through these and many more ways, your impact can be felt in the kingdom.

In as much as you have to endeavour to be involved in direct ministration to the unbelieving world, the indirect means of reaching the unreached should never be neglected. This is because, you must not be everywhere at every time but God is counting on you at every point in time to be an instrument of reconciliation to every part of the earth. God is aware of the technological advancement of this age and is counting on us to use whatever means and medium available for the advancement of His kingdom. Remember, it does not matter what it takes from us, in as much as it brings pleasure to God. Therefore, while the devil is busy sponsoring evil the world over through his agents, we should allow ourselves to be used by God to keep depopulating the kingdom of darkness by every means. It is going to cost you, " _But rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy" (1 Peter 4:13) NKJV._ Hence, Paul said _, "For I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Rom. 8:18) NKJV. "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord" (1 Cor. 15:58) NKJV. "For God is not unrighteous to forget or overlook your labour and love which you have shown for His name's sake in ministering to the needs of the saints (His own consecrated people), as you still do" (Heb. 6:10) AMP._ Therefore, as you support God's work and workers, He is taking note and your payday will definitely come. God is a rewarder (Matt. 6:33, Heb. 11:6).

Another important aspect of outreach that needs to be considered is the area of cultural conquest. This involves getting into the lives of the lost world. Sometimes, the converted tend to go back to their former lifestyle not because they do not find the Christian life interesting but the demands of their surrounding environment or the worldly pull around them will not permit them to make a permanent decision and live the way they should. This worldly pull tends to cause many to revert to their original belief systems because of fear of survival, excitement and the need for acceptance. For instance, High, in his book _'Kings and Priests,'_ gave an example of a Muslim adherent that he preached to. According to High, _"After I carefully explained the difference between Mohammed and Jesus, I asked him if he understood. He said he did. I then asked if he believed what I had told him. He said, "You have spoken the truth to me. I agree with you." I then asked if he would like to receive Christ, have his sins forgiven, and have his name written in the book of life. His response was typical. He said, "I am a Muslim. My family is Muslim. I work for a Muslim. I must provide for my family." Even though he clearly understood the Gospel message, the threat that he would be considered an outcast and not be able to survive in this life kept him from making the right decision about the life to come. If the economy of his country was controlled by God's kings rather than Muslim businessmen, culture may not have won._ _Rather than preaching against the problems, what do you think would happen if we began_ _providing alternatives? I am not naive enough to believe that we will ever win every time. However,_ _wouldn't it be nice to see some positive alternatives for a change? Rather than complaining about all_ _the rotten movies, let's put some muscle behind our dissatisfaction and create movies that are_ _uplifting, morally encouraging, and spiritually challenging._ _Rather than complaining about the video games children are playing with all the killing and_ _violence, let's make some games that teach the right things, like the principles of the Word of God._ _Rather than complaining about Walt Disney's decline into humanism, evolutionism, and_ _spiritualism, why not create a family entertainment complex that extols the glories of the Kingdom to_ _come?_ _Rather than languish under the economic servitude of mortgages and high utility bills, why not_ _believe God for witty inventions that will transition wealth and give economic independence to the_ _Christian community?_ _Rather than complaining about the condition of our educational system, why not develop_ _curricula ourselves that will challenge and motivate young believers to excel intellectually so they_ _might rise to leadership positions?_ _Rather than watching the Third World harvest wither, why not take real investment opportunities_ _and jobs to those who need them and watch as the standard of living is raised and the economic_ _power within these nations makes a shift to God's kingdom?_ _"_ Therefore, with that, High did not just hint the problem but proffered solutions that will work if considered and carefully applied with the aim and targets in mind. Because apart from the pull of family belief/religion, High also highlighted that, another major issue is, _"technology is running faster to deliver ease of sin and the cares of this world than we are running to respond to it."_

Finally, whether we engage in direct or indirect evangelism, we should be very careful how we carry ourselves. Paul explained this clearly: _"For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us" (2 Cor. 4:5-7) NKJV._ The Holy Spirit hence advises, _"So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say; we are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do" (Luke 17:10) NKJV. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of ourselves; it is the gift of God not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:8-10) NKJV_. _"For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world" (Phil. 2:13-15) NKJV._ Therefore, let us humble ourselves and allow God to use us. _"And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father" (Col. 3:17) NLT._
Chapter Five

The Process of Soul Winning

Soul winning is the full package of which evangelism is a part. Soul winning involves convincing someone to come out of the kingdom of darkness and get admitted into the kingdom of light, then making sure the person has been transferred and finally settling down to get the individual or group of people acquainted with the principles and demands of the kingdom. Therefore, soul winning involves not just evangelism/witnessing, but also follow up and discipleship and that makes up the complete assignment. Therefore, a soul winner not only convinces the unbeliever to believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and be reconciled to God, but also goes on to ensure that he understands the ways of the Lord and grows thereby through follow up. Then finally, the believer is acquainted with the demands of a follower of Christ and the huddles and challenges of the Christian journey through discipleship. Jesus expects us not just to be evangelist but soul winners and that is why he had to tell his apostles, _"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:19-20) NKJV._

Soul winning can be likened to giving birth to a child and feeding him with milk at first until he attains a certain level of maturity after which he then begins to feed on other kinds of solid food. Peter the apostle was writing to the newly born in Christ when he said, _"Rid yourselves therefore of all malice and all guile, insincerity, envy and all slander, like new born infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation- if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good" (1 Peter 2:2) NKJV._ Apostle Paul also stated _, "And so brothers and sister I could not speak to you as spiritual people but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready" (1 Cor. 3:2) NRSV._ What the two apostles knew was that _, "solid food is for the mature, for those faculties have been trained by practise to distinguished good from evil" (Heb. 5:14) NRSV._

The milk stage of Christianity is when basic elements or elementary principles of Christ is taught a believer. However, if the spiritual faculties become undeveloped over time, the believer will eventually fall back to dead works because his carnal nature is still in control, which makes him to often live by feelings. Every believer should be made to understand that what is transformed completely when he becomes born again is his spirit man. The soul and the body become subject to transformation overtime by the words of God that become settled in the mind. God admonishes us, _"And do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Rom. 12:2) NKJV._ " _For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace" (Rom. 8:6) NKJV._

In soul winning, the gospel of grace is preached first and then the gospel of truth, which has to do with the principles and demands of the kingdom. This will enable a believer to know and fully comprehend what is involved in following Christ. He is then taught that in as much as the Christian journey is a joyful and victorious one, it is not devoid of challenges that must be faced and surmounted joyfully too. This is the complete gospel that Jesus instructed us to herald. The purpose is to make every newly admitted soul into the kingdom grounded in the Christian faith. Soul winning is done through a three-step process that needs to be carefully observed for effectiveness in the ministry.

Reaching up

God Himself assigns this ministry to us and He is still the one carrying it out through us as we have seen earlier. Therefore, before ever we can embark on this noble task, we have to first commune with God, inquire how He wants the work done, and receive the unction to function according to His will and directives. As a soul winner, you are about to get into the kingdom of darkness and get someone out of there. This can only be achieved not just by the wisdom of words but also by the power of the Holy Spirit because, _"No one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house" (Mark 3:27) NKJV._ So you are already in for a strong battle but the good news is that victory is certain if you first submit to God (James 4:7). Jesus Christ had to set an example for us. The Bible says _, "Now in the morning having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place and there He prayed. And He was preaching in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and casting out demons" (Mark 1:35, 38) NKJV._

You may need just the wisdom of God to preach Christ to an unbeliever but you need the power of God to deal with the devil that enslaved him. Apart from that, God convinces the sinner to repent. Therefore, you become ineffective and incapacitated without Him, for without Him you can do nothing (Matt. 15:5). Therefore, in as much as you have the power of God in you, you need to generate it in the place of prayer before you proceed to minister to lost souls. This is because some of them are demon possessed and cannot be won over to the kingdom of God unless the demons are bound and bundled out. That is why every soul winner has to first, reach up.

Reaching out

This involves preaching Christ to the unbeliever. Much of this has been discussed earlier and will be continued later. This is the basis of the message: " _He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21) NKJV. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23) NKJV._ Therefore, " _If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:8-9) NKJV._

In preaching the gospel, the focus should not be on the problem (sin) but on the solution God provided (Jesus Christ) and how this can be accessed. Reaching out can be carried out directly or indirectly as we have seen earlier but one can actually proceed from indirect to direct evangelism provided Christ remains the centre of the whole process. Again, you must not start preaching the gospel with "let us pray" or "repent for Christ is coming soon." Just like Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter 8 and Jesus and the Samaritan woman in John chapter 4, you can commence with ordinary discussion, a testimony, a song or even an action and before anyone is aware of what you intend to do, you have gone far in the message. This is because some people may not condone or permit you to even open your Bible or preach explicitly to them. That is why, you have to let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom (Col. 3:16) and you have to be as wise as the serpent while being harmless as the dove (Matt. 10:16). The fruit of the Holy Spirit that we produce and the observable goodness and mercies of God in and through our lives should be enough to draw the unbelievers to God through Christ in us.

Reaching in

This is the complete discipleship of the believer. This is when the believer is taught to observe all that Jesus commands. This level of soul winning is very critical and delicate because that is when a believer is grounded in the faith. Hence it demands that the soul winner should be a mature Christian and an ardent student of God's written word bearing in mind that, _"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for correction, for reproof, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Tim. 3:16) NKJV._ Hence Paul advised Timothy and is advising every soul winner, _"Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly dividing [rightly handling and skilfully teaching] the word of truth" (2 Tim. 2:15) NKJV._

In discipleship, the believer is taught the principles of God's kingdom and the challenges that one will definitely encounter as a follower of Christ. At one time, Jesus was teaching His disciples, He told them, _"These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good sheer, I have overcome the world" (John 16:23) NKJV._ Paul remarked _, "For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ" (2 Cor. 1:5) NKJV._ The problem here is that only few people are mature enough to disciple others even in today's church. Only a handful settles down to properly understand the ways of the Lord to be able to relate same to others. The Hebrew believers were having same issue. Hence, the Holy Spirit sadly remarked, _"For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God" (Heb. 5:12) NKJV._ A believer should not continue to depend only on the message of God through other believers. Every soul winner should be, as a matter of necessity, a custodian of God's word and principles. _"Therefore, let us go on and get past the elementary stage in the teachings and doctrine of Christ (the Messiah), advancing steadily toward the completeness and perfection that belong to spiritual maturity. Let us not again be laying the foundation of repentance and abandonment of dead works (dead formalism) and of the faith [by which you turned] to God" (Heb. 6:1) AMP._

Nevertheless, you cannot learn the way of the Lord properly without first submitting to Him in all sincerity. The story of Apollos in Acts 18:24-27, is a very good example of someone that not only sought to know, but also allowed himself to be properly discipled. He was not puffed up by how much he had known already but humbled himself, and a mature Christian couple expounded the way of the Lord more clearly to him. Little wonder God used Him so mightily that the Corinthian church had to contend over him in 1 Cor. 1:12. It is also important to note that even though he did not know the way of the Lord that much, he never lagged in zeal towards the work of God. Similarly, you do not have to know everything before you go out to witness. All you need is the wisdom and power of God, which are fortunately accessible in Christ. However, if you fail to grow up, you may not go far in the ministry and the master will not assign more work or higher duties to you. " _For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more" (Luke 12:48) NKJV._ This is because _, "In a wealthy home there are dishes made of gold and silver as well as some made from wood and clay. The expensive dishes are used for guests, and the cheap ones are used in the kitchen or to put garbage in. If you stay away from sin you will be like one of these dishes made of purest gold-the very best in the house-so that Christ himself can use you for his highest purposes" (2 Tim. 2:20-21) TLB._

If you have grown to an extent, you need to be very careful because, _"There is no use trying to bring you back to the Lord again if you have once understood the Good News and tasted for yourself the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, and known how good the Word of God is, and felt the mighty powers of the world to come, and then have turned against God. You cannot bring yourself to repent again if you have nailed the Son of God to the cross again by rejecting him, holding him up to mocking and to public shame" (Heb. 6:4-6) TLB._ Therefore, as a believer, in as much as you are still in the process of spiritual growth and has not yet known enough as you ought, keep on preaching Christ and sharing your testimony and never at any point deviate from the faith nor turn away from your allegiance because, _"when a person has escaped from the wicked ways of the world by learning about our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and then gets tangled up with sin and becomes its slave again, he is worse off than he was before. It would be better if he had never known about Christ at all than to learn of him and then afterwards turn his back on the holy commandments that were given to him" (2 Peter 2:20-21) TLB._ The reason is this: _"If anyone sins deliberately by rejecting the Saviour after knowing the truth of forgiveness, this sin is not covered by Christ's death; there is no way to get rid of it. There will be nothing to look forward to but the terrible punishment of God's awful anger, which will consume all his enemies. A man who refused to obey the laws given by Moses was killed without mercy if there were two or three witnesses to his sin. Think how much more terrible the punishment will be for those who have trampled underfoot the Son of God and treated his cleansing blood as though it were common and unhallowed, and insulted and outraged the Holy Spirit who brings God's mercy to his people" (Heb. 10:26-29) TLB._ Therefore, as a mature believer, _"Never lag in zeal and in earnest endeavour; aglow and burning in spirit; serving the Lord" (Rom. 12:11) AMP._

Furthermore, reaching-in should also precede reaching out even though it still comes after then. This is because there is an aspect in which the believer sits at the feet of the Lord to be guided properly in His ways by the Lord Himself through His Holy Spirit or by mature believers and this comes before he goes out to preach or even disciple other brethren. Therefore, it can be said that every soul winner has to reach up first, then he has to be personally reached before he begins to reach out after which he has to reach in by teaching others to observe all that the Lord commands. Hence, reach up, reach-in (personally), reach out, and when you cannot reach in (unto other believers), arrange for it. A true church elder or any other mature believer can be asked to continue from where you stopped. Only you must keep doing your part. If you cannot beat them, do not join them or even refrain from engaging them, but arrange to have them beaten because Jesus got your back. Yes, you may not be able to finish the whole process but you must get involved. Remember _, "Godly men are growing a tree that bears life-giving fruit and all who wins souls are wise" (Prov. 11:30) TLB._ So keep on doing your own part, God knows how best to accomplish His work. Apostle Paul said, _"I planted, Apollos watered but God [all the while] was making it grow and [He] gave the increase" (1 Cor. 3:6) AMP._ The business of soul winning is every believers' task whether mature or immature. God remains the head, and the centre of all the processes involved.

Finally, evangelism or witnessing involves preaching the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to unbelievers out there while soul winning involves ensuring that sinners not only hear the message, but also show signs of repentance and belief in our Lord Jesus Christ while confessing Him as Lord and Saviour. However, they may go back if not followed up and discipled to join in the ministry. So just like production is not complete until the final consumer gets the product according to economists, soul winning is not complete until the soul is not only followed up, but discipled to be grounded in the truth. The reason this book deals more on evangelism is because it is the first step and there may not be a second chance to make the first impression. Moreover, _"how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher" (Rom. 10:14) NKJV_.

Restoration of lagging believers

Let me start by stating clearly that just as we have stages of human maturity physically, we also have such stages spiritually. In the church, there are babies, children and adults. The New Testament Apostles like Peter and Paul captured the three groups of individuals in their letters (1 Peter 2:2, Eph. 4:14, Heb. 5:12-14). Since these maturity levels exist in the body of Christ, the church has to wake up to the responsibility of making sure that none gets lost and that the lagging ones are restored to the fold. Therefore, Jesus placed huge emphasis on this when He repeatedly addressed Simon Peter in John 21:15-17. He spoke to Peter three consecutive times and each time Jesus implored him to feed and tend the flock (first, the lamb and then the sheep), which He was leaving in his care, if he had to prove his love for Him. Every member of the body of Christ is important to our Lord and hence none should be neglected or abandoned in any way.

Now, since there are different levels of maturity among the believers and there is every possibility that some can slip away, how then do we recover those that gets missing or lost along the line as a result of carelessness on our part or deliberate departure from the body by them? Jesus captured the three categories of people and hence gave us a clue as to how they can be restored in the parables He told in Luke 15:3-32. He called them the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost or prodigal son. Let us see how we can categorize these as the babies, the children and the adults, which may not necessarily be the literal implication of the parable, but certainly will serve as a thoughtful analogy. The parable was actually an illustration of God's positive attitude towards sinners, seeking to have them return back to Him. But the reason I decided to use this parable to buttress my point is because; from the parable, it is noticeable and note-worthy that Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees and scribes whose knowledge of the law and connection with the Abrahamic covenant has caused to become conceited, self-righteous and self-sufficient. Secondly, the lost sheep escaped from the sheepfold, the lost coin got missing in the house and the lost son left his family on his own. This is an indication that these 'missing items' actually got missing from their groups under the care or watch of someone. Let us see how these items relate not just to unbelievers but also the lagging believers. It is worthy of note that certain persons may physically be in church but in their minds, they are already lagging behind.

The lost coin

In the parable of the lost coin, the first thing to notice is the nature of the lost item, everything else follows. The item is an inanimate object: a silver coin. First, it is small and inanimate but important. Therefore, the loosing of the invaluable coin could be as a result of carelessness or negligence on the part of the owner or keeper, especially since there are more coins available. Again, for the coin to be located, the owner has to do a thorough search and the initiative to locate it would totally be that of the owner. This means that the coin would remain lost if the owner failed to look for it painstakingly. This I believe is a good representation of lost babies. According to Hagin, in his book, _'Growing up Spiritually,'_ _"babies are characterized by innocence, ignorance and irritability and I want to add totally dependent, unaccountable and irresponsible for anything."_ Babies always like to be carried around, fed always and played with. These and other features make winning them back into the sheepfold a little difficult task because they will not return back on their own and they must be pampered and seriously catered for or else they will remain lost and even get into a worst state as dust and rust, representative of worldly lust and pull, engulfs them. Jesus said, _"When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first." (Luke 11:24-27) NKJV._ That is why it is very necessary to take proper care of the newly born in the Lord, always feeding them with the sincere milk of the word of God until they grow up and so Jesus commands, _"feed my lambs"_ (John 21:15).

The lost sheep

The item in this case is an animal: a sheep. It is not just living but can initiate an action on its own. Sheep look for greener pastures and can go any length to get one. Sheep recognizes the voice of its owner and bleats most often. Sheep follows its owner wherever he goes so long as he leads them towards the direction of green pastures but may tend to go after another person that offers it choice food at any time. In addition, the owner or shepherd of the sheep guards it against wild animals and looks out for any form of attitudinal change in the animal at any point in time arising from tiredness, hunger or sickness. Now in this case, the initiative is partly that of the sheep and partly that of the owner or shepherd but the shepherd has more responsibility here.

Among the three categories, the children, which according to Kenneth E. Hagin, are unsteady, curious and talkative , are hence the most likely to be regarded as the sheep with respect to the parables in the passage. They tend to move with the trending situations, talk about themselves, others and everything else in every manner and seek to have everything properly explained out to them and sometimes will want to experiment to find out the truth if permitted or in the absence of their parents or guardian. These are some of the basic characteristics of both physical and spiritual children. They can be easily led astray by appealing messages. When they stray away, they continue to bleat until the owner locates them unless they are grazing somewhere else in the company of other strange sheep or have been taken by wild animals. When the sheep gets lost, the shepherd has to search diligently for it especially in grassy areas or near water. Therefore, it is very important that a shepherd tries as much as he can to be close to his sheep and in this case, tend it so that peradventure the sheep gets missing, it can return to or bleat on hearing the voice of the shepherd. Sometimes the children stray away due to lack of proper care and concern by their parents or guardians and sometimes due to a pleasant food, situation or company somewhere else that will end up leading them astray and keeping them far away from their original flock before they know it. Therefore, Jesus commands, _"tend my sheep"_ (John 21:16). Therefore, in keeping the children, food is necessary but proper care and attention is very important and in winning them back, love and care are tested tools.

The lost son

In this case, the missing item is a human being. He not only has complete faculties like every other person but also the free will to make a choice or to decide on what to do. A son has a right to part of his father's possessions if he is not the only son. A son assumes responsibility for all his actions, and would want to make resolutions at any point in time. He assumes that since he has come of age, he is mature enough to do whatever seems good to him. What he does not recognize is that in a way, he is still dependent on the father so long as the father is alive and that regardless of his experience, personal wealth, academic status or level of understanding, his father still has an edge over him because that is his root. The point I want to pick out from the story of the prodigal son was that the decision to leave and to return to his father was solely his. The initiative was totally from his end. The son in this story can be likened to the mature believers that decide to backslide on their own. If you take a closer look at it, you will notice that the father did not go about looking for him like in the previous cases, where the woman went in search of the lost coin and where the shepherd left the rest of the sheep to look for the missing one. However, when he decided to return home, he was not just welcomed but celebrated. The Bible makes this clear: "For it is impossible [to restore and bring again to repentance] those who have been once for all enlightened, who have consciously tasted the heavenly gift and have become sharers of the Holy Spirit, and have felt how good the Word of God is and the mighty powers of the age and world to come, if they then deviate from the faith and turn away from their allegiance — [it is impossible] to bring them back to repentance, for (because, while, as long as) they nail upon the cross the Son of God afresh [as far as they are concerned] and are holding [Him] up to contempt and shame and public disgrace." (Heb. 6:4-6) AMP. The initiative to repent and return is solely theirs. All the soul winner has to do is to keep praying for the backslidden, hoping that someday, he will realize his wrongs by the workings of the Spirit and retrace his steps. Nevertheless, for the meantime, the son should be told the whole truth; he should be given solid food. Jesus again commands _, "feed my sheep" (John 21:17)_. Therefore, our Lord asked _, "Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing" (Matt 24:45-46) NKJV._ Finally, the Bible says, _"[My] brethren, if anyone among you strays from the Truth and falls into error and another [person] brings him back [to God], Let the [latter] one be sure that whoever turns a sinner from his evil course will save [that one's] soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins [procure the pardon of the many sins committed by the convert]." (James 5:19-20) AMP. "But if any of you causes one of these little ones who trusts in me to lose his faith, it would be better for you to have a rock tied to your neck and be thrown into the sea." (Matt. 18:6) TLB._ So Apostle Paul warned _, "Do not let yourselves be [hindrances by giving] an offense to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God [do not lead others into sin by your mode of life]; Just as I myself strive to please [to accommodate myself to the opinions, desires, and interests of others, adapting myself to] all men in everything I do, not aiming at or considering my own profit and advantage, but that of the many in order that they may be saved" (1 Cor. 10:32-33) AMP._
Chapter Six

The Tone, Appearance and Attitude of an Evangelist

In this business of preaching the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, your tone, attitude and appearance matters a lot and they go a long way determining your impact. Since evangelism is not just a proclamation, but is aimed at convincing someone else who happens to be an unbeliever or a misled to believe in or return to Lord Jesus Christ, these three elements of our personality must not be ignored. First, let us consider the tone. The Bible says, _"Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God." (2 Cor. 5:20) NKJV._

To implore means, 'to beg urgently or earnestly' or 'to entreat.' Every man has a will, which leads to choices that even God would not alter without his permission, especially since He created us free moral agents and not robots. In preaching the gospel therefore, we appeal to the unbeliever earnestly to return to God through His son Jesus Christ. The unbeliever should be made to understand that God has forgiven him of all his wrong doings on Christ's account and demands nothing else from him other than to believe in his heart that his sins were written off already and then confess with his mouth that Jesus is the Lord. Some people out there feel that they would have to be punished for their sins after all, even if they repent today. We are to go and convince them that our Lord Jesus Christ, on the cross, has already paid for their sins. That though they may not escape the consequences in the flesh, their spirit will be saved once they believe on Christ who has the power to save anyone that belives in Him. They may not just believe you; but you have to plead with them with all your might because as a matter of truth, they are in a kingdom where the boss offers them pleasurable things of this world in exchange for their souls, thereby holding them captive. So you have got to sound convincing before they listen to you since their minds have been blinded by the god of this age, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them (2 Cor. 4:4). The aim of your appeal is for them to open their hearts. Once they do so, the light of the gospel will shine through and God takes over from there. Therefore, a true preacher of the gospel of Christ ought to focus on Christ and what He has done to solve our sin problems and bring us back to God, rather than the sinfulness of sin. Although in the course of your message, you need to point out the dangers of continuing in one's sin but your major focus should be on the cross, the remedy for sin. On one hand, **the dangers ahead of the unbeliever should be your driving force not your initial message.** On the other hand, in as much as God is making his plea through us, the gospel should not be compromised or sugar-coated and as the unbeliever is being persuaded to be reconciled back to God, he has to understand the reason for the appeal, which is that, _"While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now He commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which He will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed, and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead" (Acts 17:29) NRSV._ Hence, Paul, by the Holy Spirit stressed the need to take this message seriously: _"As God's partners, we beg you not to toss aside this marvelous message of God's great kindness. For God says, "Your cry came to me at a favorable time, when the doors of welcome were wide open. I helped you on a day when salvation was being offered." Right now God is ready to welcome you. Today he is ready to save you" (2 Cor. 6:1-2) TLB._

On the other hand, the attitude of an evangelist should be that of compassion for the lost and tolerance. Apostle Paul declared, _"For the love of Christ controls and urges and impels us, because we are of the opinion and conviction that [if] One died for all, then all died; And He died for all, so that all those who live might live no longer to and for themselves, but to and for Him Who died and was raised again for their sake" (2 Cor. 5:14-15) AMP._ The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is that of someone who left His glory, made Himself of no reputation and laid down His life to save us (Phil. 2). He is expecting us to do the same for His name sake. Paul said, _"For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; Now this I do for the gospel's sake, that I may be partaker of it with you" (1 Cor. 9:16, 19, 23) NKJV. "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20) NIV._ The same way the word of God, which saves the soul of a man, is to be received with meekness according to James 1:21, and should be dispensed also with meekness. The Bible says, _"And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient._ _In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will" (2 Tim. 2:24-26). "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed" (1 Peter 3:15-16) NKJV._ Apostle Paul saw this ministry as a do or die matter. He took it personal and was so eager and determined to accomplish it for the Lord by every means. When Jesus was here, He never dissociated from sinners. He took the message of God's kingdom even to their homes. He made it clear that the sinners were His clients (Matt. 9:12). _"For the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10) NKJV._

Therefore, as a soul winner and an evangelist, your attitude towards the unbelievers should not be that of hostility because they do not belong to the sheepfold. Show them love, care and respect and prove to them that what God is against is their actions. Let the love of Christ compel you to go out of your way to win souls for God. Just like God did not give up on you until you got saved, you have to act with the same attitude towards unbelievers. Paul was very clear about this issue. He said, _"To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to men under the Law, [I became] as one under the Law, though not myself being under the Law, that I might win those under the Law. To those without (outside) law I became as one without law, not that I am without the law of God and lawless toward Him, but that I am [especially keeping] within and committed to the law of Christ that I might win those who are without law. To the weak (wanting in discernment) I have become weak (wanting in discernment) that I might win the weak and over-scrupulous. I have [in short] become all things to all men, that I might by all means (at all costs and in any and every way) save some [by winning them to faith in Jesus Christ]" (1 Cor. 9:20-22) AMP._ People become comfortable and willing to listen if they can actually connect with you and feel the goodness and mercies of God flowing from your bowel. Be a good communicator as well as a meek listener. This entails being responsible for what you say as well as what is understood. Be very accommodating and allow the fruit of the Holy Spirit to be seen clearly in your life. As a gospel minister, people will definitely abuse you, revile you, snub you and say all manner of things to demoralize you. You have to know that the devil works through them to frustrate you and make you give up on your duty. Your reactions, (which should always be positive), will determine how well you are going to fare in the ministry and how many souls you are going to win for the Lord. High level of tolerance is required in this battle. You should exercise the tolerance towards sinners not towards the devil responsible for any of their rebellions. That is why the Bible enjoins you to put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil (Eph. 6:11). For the unbeliever, the Bible advises, _"If it is possible, as much as depends on you live peaceably with all men. Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good" (Rom. 2:18, 21) NKJV._ Jonah was an example of a man that had a wrong attitude and heart disposition towards His clients but God corrected him with a practical lesson. At the end of the day, the Lord God had this to say, _"Then the Lord said, "You feel sorry for yourself when your shelter is destroyed, though you did no work to put it there, and it is, at best, short lived. And why shouldn't I feel sorry for a great city like Nineveh with its 120,000 people in utter spiritual darkness and all its cattle?" (Jonah 4:10-11) TLB._ Do not let your ministry end with a question mark like that of this son of Amittai.

Finally, your appearance should depict what people should turn to not what they should turn from. By appearance, I mean your outward adornment. If you dress the same way the unbeliever dresses or even worse, as we see these days, what do you expect at the end of the day? It is very important you dress good and not seductively; moderately and not rascally or extravagantly. Concentrate more on your inward adornment but do not neglect your outward appearance because according to psychologists, 60% of communication is non-verbal. For instance, one of the days I was reaching out, I was putting on a vest with an inscription, 'Keep Fighting.' While interacting with a teenager, she unexpectedly said, "Go and remove that vest first before you can preach to me, because fighting is a bad way to live." I immediately asked her whether she has heard of the good fight of faith (1 Tim. 6:12). She intended to challenge my message with that, but the Holy Spirit immediately put the right words in my mouth to counter her position in the same context. I would have spent a lot of time explaining to her how the Christian life generally is a continuum of battles between the flesh and the spirit (Gal. 5:17, 1 Cor. 9:26-27); believers and the devil (Eph. 6:5) and so on, which was why I liked the inscription. However, the good fight of faith concept was enough antidote for the misconception, at least for that moment. You can see that even what you are putting on as a preacher is passing a message across to people; and because they are not yet in the fold, your perception and understanding is different from theirs and it makes a lot of sense. Brush your teeth so well that people may even become attracted to you because of the whiteness of your teeth. Cut your nails and have a clean shave if you are male. For females, dress to heal not to kill. Wear some perfume, if you notice you are not smelling good. These things, as irrelevant as they may sound, matter a lot especially in these modern times, and hence should never be ignored if we must be successful in this business of soul winning in the world of today. Not just in church, but at all times and in every place, let the people see Christ through you always. In fact, _"Let all men know and perceive and recognise your unselfishness (your considerateness, your forbearing spirit). The Lord is near [He is coming soon]" (Phil. 4:5) AMP_. It is true that Christ has set us free and he that the son of man sets free is free indeed (John 8:36), _"But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak" (1 Cor. 8:9) NRSV._ This is so that you can boldly declare, as Paul, _"We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry" (2 Cor. 6:3) ESV._

The need for attitudinal versatility

The questions that seek to be answered in this case are; what about those that do not believe there is God in the first place or refuse to accept that we can only gain access to Him through His Son Jesus Christ? What about the backslidden believers or even the misled Christians? These million dollar questions need to be addressed carefully.

The truth remains that the gospel of Jesus Christ is meant for everybody but it should be carefully noted that the ways of reaching out to different groups of people differ based on need and hence, as a preacher or teacher of the message, there is need for what I refer to as 'attitudinal versatility.' This is because people from different backgrounds hold different philosophies and beliefs and can never be reached using the same general method. Nevertheless, the bottom line is, **Love wins all.** The special groups we need to consider carefully in this section are the atheists, the non-Christians, the mislead Christians and the backslidden believers. How can we effectively win these souls for our Lord Jesus Christ?

The atheists

In ' _mere Christianity,'_ Lewis, who was formerly an atheist, wrote, _"Christianity tells people to repent and promises them forgiveness. It therefore has nothing (as far as I know) to say to people who do not know they have done anything to repent of and who do not feel that they need any forgiveness. It is after you have realised that there is a real Moral Law, and a Power behind the law, and that you have broken that law and put yourself wrong with that Power—it is after all this, and not a moment sooner, that Christianity begins to talk. When you know you are sick, you will listen to the doctor."_ The truth of the gospel can never make sense to an atheist because he never even believed there is God in the first place. The Bible talks about these kind of persons: _"Their moral understanding is darkened and their reasoning is beclouded. [They are] alienated (estranged, self-banished) from the life of God [with no share in it] this is because of the ignorance (the want of knowledge and perception, the willful blindness) that is deep-seated in them, due to their hardness of heart [to the insensitiveness of their moral nature]" (Eph. 4:18) AMP_. Yes, that is their spiritual state. However, your mission is not to go spell this out to them neither should you confront them with such a message as, _"That man is a fool who says to himself, "There is no God!" Anyone who talks like that is warped and evil and cannot really be a good person at all,"_ according to Psalm 14 and 53 verses 1 (TLB). You will only end up sending them all away.

The spiritual state and its accompanying consequences of no one should be your first message if you seek to win a soul. This is because you were no better. " _Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation" (_ Col. 1:21-22 _)_ NIV. You were once in the same spiritual condition until God had mercy on you, and so you have to extend the mercies of God to these ones too. This is God's advice; _"Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one" (_ Col. 4:5-6 _) NKJV._ That is what is expected of us if we must make the kind of impact that our Lord Jesus Christ made while He was here. It enables us to reach even the difficult and skeptical individuals and groups.

The non-Christians

Looking at the story of Saul that later became Apostle Paul, you will surely have a clear grasp of what it can take to convert a non-Christian, especially a fanatic of some other religion, to believe and be a follower of Jesus Christ. It took a divine encounter with our Lord Himself for Saul to be converted. Later in his ministry, he wrote to the Roman believers stating clearly how deeply he was concerned about the spiritual state of his brethren that he has not failed to pray earnestly for their salvation. He said, "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes" (Rom. 10:1-4) NKJV.

Apostle Paul did not come to this understanding until he encountered Jesus Christ personally on his way to capture the believers at Damascus. That was when he was 'un-masked' spiritually. After then, he felt sorry for the situation and fate of his Jewish brethren. The situation has continued to this day not just among the Jews but some others. To win the non-Christians, one has to apply wisdom and engage in unceasing prayers for them because it will take both the wisdom and power of God to get at them. You have to start from small acts of charity and then proceed to kind and graceful words; and then to welcoming attitude and exemplary lifestyle before you may dish out the message in a more general way. After then, you can move on to the basic specifics. Whatever it will take to make them believe that the love of God is made perfect in Christ should be fully spelled out in your words and attitude towards them. In speaking with the non-Christian, you have to proceed from the known to the unknown. This implies that you have to first know some things about what your audience believe and practice, before you can introduce Christ to them.

Being acquainted with their beliefs is very important in other to knowing what they do not believe that they should and the ones they believed ignorantly. For instance, to reach out to a Muslim, you have to know some basic facts about them. According to Walter, _"_ _Islam_ _is the name of the religion that came out of the revelations and teachings of Muhammad. Islam is_ _the Arabic term for "submission."_ _Muslim_ _is the name given to one who adheres to the religion of Islam._ _Muslim_ _is a cognate of_ _Islam_ _, and_ _means "one who submits." The Muslim submits to the will of Allah as revealed by Muhammad._ _Allah_ _is the Islamic name for God and cannot be translated easily into English. One Muslim writer_ _defined it thus: "The word means the unique God Who possesses all the attributes of perfection and_ _beauty in their infinitude." Muslims feel strongly that the English word 'God' does not convey the real_ _meaning of the word 'Allah.'_ _Muhammad_ _was an Arab born in the city of Mecca in AD. 570 (died AD. 632). He claimed that he was_ _the prophet to restore true religion and the praise of Allah throughout the world, just as Jesus Christ was_ _a prophet in His time for His people. Muhammad means "the one who is praised."_ _Quran_ _(also spelled Koran or Qur'an) is Arabic for "the recitation," and refers to the collection of_ _revelations supposedly given by Allah through his archangel to Muhammad and preserved as the Islamic_ _scripture. Muslims believe in the Law of Moses, the Psalms of David, and the Injil, or gospel of Jesus_ _Christ. However, they believe that those Scriptures were superseded by the scripture given through_ _Muhammad, and that the Bible used by Christians and Jews is a distorted version of those other_ _scriptures. Wherever the Bible contradicts Islam, the Muslim says the Bible is incorrect._ Sura _refers to_ _the divisions within the Quran, and roughly corresponds to our "chapter." The Quran contains 114_ _revelations, each composing one sura or chapter. The shortest revelations appear first, the longest ones,_ _last. There is no chronological arrangement in the Quran. Also important in Islamic literature is the_ Hadith _, Arabic for the "collected traditions." These are the supposed words of Muhammad and are the_ _customs that provide source material for the intricate political and social structure of Islam."_

Again, you have to be patient with these groups of individuals for you to affect their lives through the gospel. According to Zacharias,"A Christian should be prepared to defend the inerrancy of the Bible, the deity of Christ, and the supremacy of Christ. A Christian who witnesses to a black Muslim should be prepared for a lengthy dialogue but should also feel comfortable, because black Muslims have been taught to be respectful and tactful. They have a useful familiarity with the Bible and will often make reference to specific Scriptures. The Christian should also be able to highlight those Bible verses and passages that represent the universality of the gospel message. Finally, a Christian's motivation for approaching black Muslims must be to make friends rather than simply to win a theological debate. In order to effectively witness about Jesus Christ to black Muslims, a Christian must be willing to be changed by the relationship to the same degree that a Christian expects a black Muslim to be changed by adopting the Christian faith. In the exchange of ideas with Muslims, the Christian becomes more aware of the rudiments of the world and the Muslim gains the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. I have never seen a black Muslim accept Jesus Christ from one encounter. However, some of the most dedicated Christians I know have been saved out of the Nation of Islam."

The whole book of Hebrews is a clear illustration of this process. Remember, they hold a different view and their views should not be immediately condemned and discarded or ignored but corrected with wisdom and in love. Otherwise, you might end up in a tragedy that would have been averted through application of wisdom. You have to agree first with them on certain areas of their belief that is true before they can even listen to you. When Apostle Paul went to Athens in Acts 17 from verse 22, he used this tactic to capture their attention and before they knew what he was up to, he had already began preaching the gospel to them and they were all calm.

The misled and the backslidden

In recent times, the word of God has been diluted and misconstrued and consequently misinterpreted in some congregations. This is because of certain obvious reasons. Sometimes, a man can just pick a fragment of the Scriptures, interpret it outside context based on the way it appeals to his philosophy and suits his intentions and desires, thereby drawing men away from the truth. Other times, people may influence men of God to preach what will suit them and what appeals to them thereby causing these men to adulterate the word of God. These are part of the signs of the end times. Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy concerning this in his second letter to him. He said, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables" (2 Tim. 4:3-4) NKJV. This is what is obtainable today and so the Bible enjoins us, "Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing [rightly handling and skillfully teaching] the Word of Truth" (2 Tim. 2:15) AMP; that is one of the sure ways to save them that hear us and ourselves according to 1Tim. 4:16. Therefore, to be able to reach out to the misled, you have to make sure you are standing steadfastly on the truth so as not to be a part of the deceit and consequent tragedy. The fact remains that, some of these people will disagree and argue seriously with you, but that should not scare you away from them at first. You have to defend the truth at all cost and you should be sensitive enough to detect when your message is not making any positive impact due to a deliberate effort by your listener to kick against the truth. The Bible warns, "But avoid stupid and foolish controversies and genealogies and dissensions and wrangling about the Law, for they are unprofitable and futile. [As for] a man who is factious [a heretical sectarian and cause of divisions], after admonishing him a first and second time, reject [him from your fellowship and have nothing more to do with him], Well aware that such a person has utterly changed (is perverted and corrupted); he goes on sinning [though he] is convicted of guilt and self-condemned" (Titus 3:9-11) AMP. "For it is impossible [to restore and bring again to repentance] those who have been once for all enlightened, who have consciously tasted the heavenly gift and have become sharers of the Holy Spirit, and have felt how good the Word of God is and the mighty powers of the age and world to come, if they then deviate from the faith and turn away from their allegiance — [it is impossible] to bring them back to repentance, for (because, while, as long as) they nail upon the cross the Son of God afresh [as far as they are concerned] and are holding [Him] up to contempt and shame and public disgrace" (Heb. 6:4-6) AMP. Therefore, however possible, "Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching" (2 Tim. 4:2) NKJV. "But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will" (2 Tim. 2:23-26) NKJV.

Be aware that some of these people have only believed what they have been taught as the truth of God's word and so you have to go close to them first. Your goal should be to re-direct them to the truth of the gospel. Some of them have gone very far that you have to pray earnestly for them to retrace their steps by acknowledging the truth. Some of these people believed something else because of pressure from family or friends and so you have to become more like a family for them to listen to you. That is why it is very necessary that in this ministry, our eyes must come down to take note of the cause of each peculiar situation in other to know how to commence the process of winning a particular soul. The devil is keen on leading as many as he can astray because he has but a while to do his thing. Therefore, the Bible clearly tells us, "But the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some in the church will turn away from Christ and become eager followers of teachers with devil-inspired ideas. These teachers will tell lies with straight faces and do it so often that their consciences won't even bother them" (1 Tim. 4:1-2) TLB. Therefore, it should not be a shock to us when we see people backsliding from the faith these days because the Bible is very clear on the reason for this situation. Hence, the Scripture admonishes us, "Let no one deceive or beguile you in any way, for that day will not come except the apostasy comes first [unless the predicted great falling away of those who have professed to be Christians has come], and the man of lawlessness (sin) is revealed, who is the son of doom (of perdition)" (2 Thess. 2:3) AMP.

Experiences of life and preachers of heresy are some of the major contributors to the backsliding of so many believers and so they need not just the gospel because they have heard it repeatedly. Some of them may need to be encouraged, loved and cared for while some others need to be counselled. All we should do as preachers of the gospel is to keep sowing the good seed of the undiluted word of God in love and prayerfully expect a harvest of lost souls. It may look like we are making little or no progress in this course now but God is involved in it and with Him, nothing is impossible. Always remember that you are leading these people to Christ or back to Him not your congregation or denomination, and so do not allow the advertisement of your local assembly take preeminence in your message and mission. Therefore, "Stand steady, and don't be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Bring others to Christ. Leave nothing undone that you ought to do" (2 Tim. 4:5) TLB.
Chapter Seven

The Center of Soul Winning

God's Love is the central theme of the gospel message. In fact, Love is 'Gods pill' in the gospel for man's ailment. Without love, Jesus would not have come in the flesh to save mankind through His death and resurrection and the gospel would have been meaningless and pointless (John 3:16, Rom. 5:8, 1 Cor. 15:14-19). Love was the driving force of God's forgiveness and remains His driving force in the salvation of humanity. It should also be the driving force for soul winning. Soul winning cannot be taken seriously without a clear understanding of the Father's Love. The Bible says,"For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again" (2 Cor. 5:14-15). NKJV _._ Therefore, it is important we get it right now as individuals, family and church.

The dictionary's definition of love is primarily based on strong affection and feeling. However, as close to the bull's eye as it may sound, this is half- truth. It is also said that there is true and false or fake love. Well, this also sounds real but it is simply theoretical. Again, love should not be misconceived as just a strong affection/feeling or else it becomes reduced to ordinary emotion with limits. An emotional attraction or attachment to someone is an incomplete and a misleading definition of love. While that may describe some kind of love, it can only be misleading. Actually, in Greek, four loves exist: the _eros_ or sexual love; the _filia_ (also _Philia_ ) or the friendship love; the _storge_ or the affectionate love; and the _agapē_ or divine love, otherwise called charity. However, the love of God ( _agapē_ ) is the limitless and unconditional love that can only be understood by a child of God and believer in Christ Jesus. According to Stott, _"if we are looking for a definition of love, we should look not in the dictionary, but at Calvary. If God had sent a man to us, as He had sent the prophets to Israel, we would have been grateful. If He had sent an angel, as He did to Mary at the annunciation, we would have counted it a great privilege. Yet in either case, He would have sent us a third party, since men and angels are creatures of His making. But, in sending His own Son, eternally begotten from His own being, He was not sending a creature, a third party, but giving Himself. Love in its true essence is self-giving. Secondly, the value of a love gift is assessed both by what it costs the giver and by the degree to which the recipient may be held to deserve it. A young man in love, for instance, can give his beloved expensive gifts, maybe beyond what he can afford, because he considers she deserves them, and more. But God, in giving His Son, gave Himself to die for His enemies. He gave everything for those who deserve nothing. So love in its true essence is undeserving and unconditional. The authenticity of God's love lies in the truth that He did not just give Himself, but in doing so, took the pain of yielding up control over Himself and things to the enemy for a while. He did all that, knowing fully well that there is every possibility that most of the sinners He died for would snub Him and go their way."_

Moreover, God is not a debtor to anyone. Whatever He gives is out of His Love. He said it Himself; _"I owe no one anything. Everything under_ _the heaven is mine" (Job 41:11) TLB._ Again, according to Barclay, _"this agapē_ , _this Christian Love, is not merely an emotional experience which comes to us unbidden and unsought; it is a deliberate principle of the mind, and a deliberate conquest and achievement of the will. It is in fact, the power to love the unlovable, to love people whom we do not like. Christianity does not ask us to love our enemies and to love men at large in the same way we love our nearest and our dearest and those who are closest to us; that would be at one and the same time impossible and wrong. But it demands that we should have at all times a certain attitude of the mind and a certain direction of the will towards all men, no matter who they are."_ This is the kind of love that is most needed in the life of every believer in Christ, because that is the love that goes out of its way to save the lost. In John 21:15-17, a striking and significant conversation ensued between our Lord and Simon Peter. The Bible says, _"_ _So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas,_ _lovest thou (Grk.: agapas)_ _me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that_ _I love(Grk.: filoό)_ _thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs._ _He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas,_ _lovest thou(Grk.: agapas)_ _me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that_ _I love(Grk.: filoό)_ _thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas,_ _lovest thou(Grk.: fileís)_ _me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that_ _I love(Grk.: filoό)_ _thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep." (Emphasis is mine. Greek is from interlinear transliterated Bible)._

Now, let us carefully examine the rigours of this dialogue and its apparent implication. Jesus was using the word love in the _'agapē'_ sense while Peter on the other hand was using it in the _'filia'_ sense, until the final question, in which Christ had to use the same term Peter has been using all the while. It is hence noteworthy that _'agapē'_ is completely divine and can only be understood and consequently shown by a man that has the Holy Spirit functioning in him. Apparently, at this time, Peter have not really caught the revelation of _'agapē,'_ which the Bible says can only be shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5). He was obviously conversant with brotherly love (Grk.: _filadelfían_ )at the time. Stephen was able to ask God not to hold the sin of stoning him against the perpetrators of the act because he was full of the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:55-60). For this reason the Bible says, _"But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness_ _(Grk.: filadelfían)_ _, and to brotherly kindness love_ _(Grk.: agápeen)_ _. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 1:5-8) NKJV. (Emphasis is mine. Greek is from interlinear transliterated Bible)_

Let me continue by stating clearly that **God is Love**. If we can always see it from that perspective, it will go a long way in cleaning the mind of fallacies and repositioning it for a better understanding. The Bible says, _"God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him" (1 John 4:16b)._ Let us consider these few major, but often neglected points about love.

God's love is deeply dimensional

According to the prayer of Apostle Paul for the church in Eph. 3:14-21, two major points can be drawn about the love of God. The first, as stated in verse 17-18, is that the love of God has at least dimensions of breadth, length, height and depth. The second point, which shall be looked into later, is that it is beyond mere scientific or head knowledge but can be known in experience. For now, let us dwell on the dimensions. The Bible says, _"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:17-19)._

This was Apostle Paul praying for the church to know and understand the dimensions of the love of Christ. The word of God has given us revelations of these dimensions of the love of the Father through the Son and it is so deep and profound that it takes spiritual encounter and experience to comprehend it. It is therefore with much trembling that I deliver to you what the Holy Spirit has unveiled to me as the revealed dimensions of this inestimable and all-encompassing love. Though the Love of God is beyond comprehension, at least with our limited faculties, He did not leave us blank as regards the implications thereof; but has revealed them to us in His word. The first dimension as revealed in the Scriptures by the Holy Ghost is that God gave the most precious and highest gift of His only begotten Son as a proof of his love for humankind. The Bible says, _"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16) NIV. "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:9-10)._ This may sound simple but it is the height of God's love for us; that He would not send an angel or a holy Prophet, but His only begotten sinless Son. Only God by His Spirit can help us to understand what it took Him to come down through His Son and die for humankind. Jesus Christ was sown as a seed to die in the ground to produce fruits unto God. The consequence of this great and awesome gift of God's Son is that believing in Him is the only means of receiving God's quality of everlasting life, eternal _Zōē (dzo-ayʹ)_. The Bible says, _"And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life" (1 John 5:11-12) NKJV._

_Zōē_ is not just eternal life, but **eternal God life**. It is more than just life without end, which we might chose to call immortality. If we all believe in life after physical death, then everyone born of a woman has life unending. The question is, of what quality will the life be? This eternal God life that we receive through His Son has distinguishing characteristics and the Bible did not leave us in the dark concerning that too. Look at this Scripture; _"God "will give to each person according to what he has done."_ _To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life_ _. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism" (Rom. 2:6-11) NIV. Emphasis is mine._ What the Bible is saying here is that in this eternal God life is embedded, among other qualities, glory, honour and immortality. That is why the Bible says that it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2). The depth of this love, which is the second dimension, is that He gave us this great and sacrificial gift not as His friends but as His enemies. Look at this, _"For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:6-8) NKJV. "For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on_ _us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should_ _become heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:3-7) NKJV._ Now, can you imagine how it feels to love your enemies? Little wonder Jesus said, _"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt. 5:43-48) NIV._ Only God's love can be expressed towards one's enemy. We go a step further in this and we discover that it does not stop at that.

There is yet another dimension, which can be said to be the third dimension of this love. This is it: _"He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Rom. 8:32) NKJV._ This sounds rhetorical, does it not? Yet, until we encounter and embrace this love with understanding, we cannot answer it to ourselves. It is like God asking Jeremiah, _"Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?" (Jer. 32:27, NKJV)._ It takes a man who knows the Lord by experience to be able to give an appropriate answer to that question. This revelation of the love of God is the only antidote to life's fears according to 1 John 4:18. Christ is the greatest gift that can be given and so what else should threaten our trust on the authenticity of the Father's love? Absolutely nothing. Every fear of life is dispelled in the presence of a clear understanding of the love of God through Christ Jesus. These _'all things'_ include things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Pt. 1:3) and they are accessible through knowledge. Two inestimable gifts that we receive as a consequence of this dimension of love are reconciliation to the Father and adoption as His children. The Scripture says, _"Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation" (Rom. 5:9-11) NIV. "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore, the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:1-2) NKJV._

The fourth dimension of God's love is of equal importance and should be taken seriously by every believer. It goes thus, _"And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us" (Rom. 5:5) NIV._ God did not just reveal and give His love to us as a precious gift but He goes on to pour it into us by His Spirit as His children. By doing so, He would not leave us loveless. The same way He does not just require us to obey Him but gives us the enabling grace to do so, He did not just love us lavishly but also gives us the ability to love Him and others as well. His love flows into us when we receive His Spirit so that it can flow through us. In other words, the love with which a believer loves is the love of the Father flowing through him. With the Holy Spirit in us, we can live in love. With this understanding, Apostle Paul declared, _"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:35-39) NKJV._

Again, it takes a believer who understands the profundity of God's love and has thrown himself into it to boldly and confidently affirm that he is inseparable from the love of the Father. It means nothing can make him doubt the eminence of this love. Even in the face of death he can say, "I still know and believe God loves me immensely and I know I am more than conqueror." At this level of comprehension, the love of God has become a substance to be related with not just a theory or principle to be grasped. This is the reciprocity dimension of the love of God. It means that only in having an unambiguous comprehension of this dimension and tapping into it, can a believer live a life of love towards God and men; even at questionable circumstances. Believers should always bear in mind that when God told His people that He loved them with an everlasting love (Jer. 31:3) He meant every word. It is left for us to know that love and connect to it so that it can flow through us. The Word says, _"And the Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed." (Deut. 31:8) NKJV. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you;_ _and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age._ _Amen" (Matt. 28:19-20) NKJV. Emphasis is mine._

God's nature in us is the root of our love.

As earlier stated, God is love and from the book of Gen. 1:27, man is created in God's image when He transferred His nature into him (Gen. 2:7). In other words, God made man a spirit being that lives in a body. So the spirit of man is God's aspect in him since God Himself is Spirit (John 4:24). Since God is love then His children should naturally be creatures of love. Nevertheless, only the recreated man in Christ Jesus can function as supposed since the fall of man. Aside that, man's heart became desperately wicked because of the fall (Jer. 17:9), which brought about the first destruction of all men (except Noah and family) by God (Gen. 6:5-7). However, when we receive Christ, there is a spiritual genetic transformation, we then become sons of God through Him (John 1:12-13). God's nature is recreated in us and then we can walk in love as living images of the Father (Eph. 2:10; 4:24, Col. 3:10). We are predestined to conform to Christ's image as belivers, according to Rom. 8:29, but not until He is first formed in us (Gal. 4:19).

God's love is unconditional

The differentiating factor between love and likeness is 'reason.' Love, unlike likeness is predicated on nothing. The Bible says, _"But God commandeth His love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8)._ God loved us and showed it even when we never had Him in mind; when we were not even close to a percentage ready to reciprocate. In fact, God loved us when we were still His enemies. Jesus therefore commanded us, _"love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you" (Matt. 5:44b)._ In other words, Jesus was saying, "love like your Father does." It is not an easy thing to do, especially when insult and disgrace are being incurred in the process, but it will be worth the forbearance in the end.

God's love is sacrificial

Christian love could have some elements of emotions, but it should be more than 80% commitment depending on the demands of the situation. Loving someone sincerely entails treating the person kindly regardless of what he did or is doing. That is why it is easier said than shown. The part of love that has to do with feeling is based on the fact that we are humans and in the flesh. According to Hetland, _"We usually define love as an_ _emotion. We assume we love if we feel good, and we don't love if we feel rotten._ _But God's love for us is not based on feelings; it is based on a decision. It is a_ _gift given to those who are not worthy of such love. It is like the love of the father_ _towards his prodigal son. The father was never legally bound to give shelter and provision to a wicked and rebellious son. And yet he did." He even gave more by restoring him to a_ _position of honor and privilege."_ Unfortunately, so many believers have continued to build their love around emotions, and it has not and will never yield the expected results because the major part of the whole has been neglected. That is the reason some Christians are offended easily and will not condone the excesses of other believers or unbelievers. God's Love is more of commitment/sacrifice. All the essentials of love like compassion, forgiveness, mercy, sacrificial giving etc. find their place in commitment. While the emotions may appeal to the heart if available, the head should uphold the commitment/decision in every situation. Feelings can vanish at a slight provocation. In fact, any one that would love God and men sincerely, as commanded, must have to bear in mind that the business of love is not profit motivated. You may end up getting not even a kudos from anyone at the end of the day. The feeling aspect of love is normally the commencing point especially in relationships and marriages but may disappear along the line, which is why commitment is of paramount importance. For instance, when Adam first saw his wife, he was pleased and knew Eve was practically part of him. However, in as much as the feeling should be upheld or maintained, the concentration should still be more on the area of commitment, even in close relationships, because that is the sustaining aspect of the venture when everything else fails, including trust.

God's love does not change or grow.

God's Love is always 100% from the beginning because God, the originator, does not change or grow. It does not depreciate neither does it exceed 100%. However, the basic elements of love for humans, which are emotion/feelings and commitment, can adjust quantitatively based on demand. What I mean by quantitative adjustment is that there are times when feelings increase, commitment reduces, and there are times when feelings go down, then the commitment has to, of utmost necessity, be increased to fill the void. Once the void is left unfilled, it affects the attitude of the heart, and that is when communication becomes ineffective and relationship begins to dwindle. Sometimes, feelings may get to zero level. Then, commitment should scale up to 100%. At that point, it involves more of sacrifice at the expense and detriment of the initiating party. Paul hence said to the Corinthian church, _"And I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved" (2 Cor. 12:15) NKJV._

The increase and decrease of the feeling component is found mainly in family relationships and friendships. Love for the lost and one's enemies may tend towards 100% commitment, which in simple terms is less of self and more of others. Regardless of the extent or kind of love, the components never change, but the relative proportion of the components may adjust based on need. Eros, for instance, is built around emotions; hence misleading, and often short-lived. Like Lewis rightly pointed out, _"nobody can always have devout feelings: and even if we could, feelings are not what God principally cares about. Christian love towards God or towards man is an affair of the will. If we are trying to do his will, we are obeying the commandment, "Thou shall love the Lord thy God." He will give us feelings of love if He pleases. We cannot create them for ourselves, and we must not demand them as right. But the great thing to remember is that, though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not. It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him."_

It takes God functioning in us to love sincerely.

This is because, it is the Holy Spirit, who is given unto us, that sheds the love of God abroad in our hearts (Rom. 5:5). Therefore, without the born again experience, one can only exhibit incomplete love, which is bound to fail. Whoever does not have the indwelling presence of God's Spirit in him can never exhibit complete love : _"For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose" (Phil. 2:13, NIV)._ In most cases, such a one is bound to love only those that would reciprocate and those one chooses to love. To this end, Jesus admonishes, _"But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them._ _And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same._ _And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back._ _But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil" (Luke 6:32-35) NKJV._

God's love is to be expressed first towards God and then towards people.

Jesus puts it this way; _"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first commandment. And the second is like it: 'you shall love your neighbour as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and prophets" (Matt. 22:37-40)._ From this Scripture, you can easily picture what love covers. What Jesus meant by 'the second is like it' is that there is no one that practically loves God that will hate his neighbour because our love for our neighbours is borne out of our love for God. Remember, we are to love God with all our hearts, soul and mind. The only way this can be possible is in complete obedience to His instructions (John 14:15, 21, 23-24; 15:10; 1 John 2:5; 5:2-3), of which loving others is primary. The Bible clearly says, _"If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also." (1 John 4:20-21)._ Obedience to God and sacrificial kindness towards men are hence two proofs of the Christian love.

Love is the first law of family relationship

The family is where love is learnt and nurtured. Therefore, God uses the family relationship to illustrate His relationship with His people and His nature. In this sense, it is worthy of note that a man does not and cannot reflect the complete dimensions of God without the woman. In other words, what God is in one person, man is in two individuals. That is why when a man and a woman are united in marriage, they become one flesh; especially since the woman was made from the man. However, in this union, the man is the first and is therefore the head of the wife. Pertaining to this, the Bible says, _"But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is the man and the head of Christ is God" (1 Cor. 11:3)._

From God's perspective also, love should flow down the way headship does while submission should flow up. Hence, in several places where family conduct and life were treated in the Scriptures, such as Eph. 5:22-23, Col. 3:18-20, Titus 2:4 and 1 Pt. 3:1-7, emphasis is placed on the simultaneous flow of both love and submission in their supposed directions. The truth remains that in most cases (though there are exceptions), the more you submit to whoever you should, the more love and compassion you can experience naturally: especially when the submission is not demanded. Generally, men respect those above them, love those below them, who willingly submit to them and contend or compete with their equal. A good understanding of this will indisputably reduce schisms and strife often encountered in families and groups. Let me put it this way again; with total submission, love can be received easily. A believing wife, through submission, can even win her unbelieving husband. The Bible says, _"Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives" (1 Peter 3:1-2) NIV._

Apart from this unidirectional movement of love and submission, bidirectional movement is also necessary especially in fellowship. Hence, the Bible also speaks of the reciprocity of love and submission. _"Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honour giving preference to one another" (Rom. 12:10). "Submitting to one another in the fear of God" (Eph. 5:21)._ In this second situation, there is need for a unanimous submission of the church as a single body to Christ and his purposes. This is because the church is the bride of Christ (Rev. 19:7; 21:2, 9). For this to be achieved, in as much as there are leaders, everyone has to see others as brethren (Matt. 23:8) and members of a whole, the body of Christ. This way, unity is ensured and there the Lord commands the blessings and life evermore (Psalm 133:3). For this reason, Apostle Paul warns, _"For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought, but think soberly as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same functions, so we being many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another" (Rom. 12:3-5)._

Love can neither be created nor destroyed but can be received or downloaded and shared.

This can only be grasped if the truth about God being the subject of Love has been well understood. Similar to the law of conservation of mass/energy, this can be said to be the 'Love Principal Principle' because it is the pivotal point of what can be explained about love. Love can neither be created, because God is love (1 John 4:16), nor destroyed because love never fails (1 Cor. 13:8); but can be downloaded through the Holy Spirit who sheds it abroad in our hearts when we permit Him (Rom. 5:5, Luke 11:13) and shared with people, friends and enemies alike (Rom. 12:10, Matt. 5:44b). It should also be noted that from the logical explanation above, this principle accommodates the subject as well as the objects of love, with the former taking precedence. The implication of this is that God, who has no beginning, is love and the author of it. He is the one that imparts it into His children through His Spirit. This empowers them to long for Him with their whole being and extend the love to every other person. Only then can one be said to be God's true son/daughter and His representative. No one can really show love to people without the Holy Spirit functioning in him. Love is the fruit of the Spirit in the life of a believer and so it is not natural to love. It is actually spiritual to exhibit the love of the Father at every point.

Love animates the Christian faith

In the words of Barclay, _"more people are won for Christ by the appeal to the heart than to the head. Faith is born, not so much from intellectual search, as from the uplifting of the Cross of Christ. It is true that sooner or later we must think things out for ourselves; but in Christianity the heart must feel before the mind can think."_ This is the reason love is more of a verb than it is a noun. It is more of an action than it is a term. Faith comes through the reception of the Word of God (Rom. 10:17), but the Love of God animates it. The Bible illustrates this clearly: _"Dear brothers, what's the use of saying that you have faith and are Christians if you aren't proving it by helping others? Will that kind of faith save anyone? If you have a friend who is in need of food and clothing, and you say to him, "Well, good-bye and God bless you; stay warm and eat hearty," and then don't give him clothes or food, what good does that do? So you see, it isn't enough just to have faith. You must also do good to prove that you have it. Faith that doesn't show itself by good works is no faith at all-it is dead and useless. But someone may well argue, "You say the way to God is by faith alone, plus nothing; well, I say that good works are important too, for without good works you can't prove whether you have faith or not; but anyone can see that I have faith by the way I act"_ ( _James 2:14-18_ ) _TLB. "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love" (Gal. 5:6) NIV._

Therefore, without the Love of God in the heart of a man, faith becomes meaningless or dysfunctional (1 Cor. 13:2). This is because, without a clear revelation of this love, fear will not allow the love of God to find expression through us. Apostle Paul, in first Corinthians 13, gave us a number of qualities that the Christian love should possess and that I believe is the central thesis of the good news in deed. This can be summarized thus; _"_ _Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm" (1 Tim. 1:5-7) NKJV._ _"_ _Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law" (Rom. 13:10) NIV._ The Scripture therefore encourages us thus; _"_ _My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth" (1 John 3:18)._

Love is the golden chain of all the Christian virtues

It has been established from God's word that the source of God's love is His Spirit in the heart of the believer and that He imparts this love in the believer by shedding it abroad or pouring it into our hearts from where it flows out (Rom. 5:3-5). The Bible talks about Christian virtues as the fruit (not fruits) of the Spirit. _"_ But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law" (Gal. 5:22-24) NKJV. It is a single fruit, which has divisions just like an orange (if I may be permitted to illustrate this with a physical fruit). This fruit is love and then joy and the rest. Stressing the need for spiritual growth, Apostle Peter gave definite and elaborate steps towards achieving that, which aids our understanding of the place of love. He said by the Holy Spirit, _"_ Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble." (2 Peter 1:2-10) NKJV. Emphasis is mine.

From this, we can see the place of love in Christian growth as well as the place of faith. The Christian journey starts with receiving the love of God in Christ through faith and gradually it climaxes to showing the same love to the world around us as His Children. However, certain virtues has to be carefully added to the faith to build up what then becomes the fruit of the Spirit, which love then binds together. Love holds all the virtues in place just like the outer skin of an orange, which cements and binds the divisions of the fruit into a single fruit. In other words, the love of God has to be first received by faith; and like a bag with dimensions, it receives every other Christian virtue and then ties them up after binding them together. Therefore, for any detected lack in virtue, the love of God in the believer was first untied or punctured and the virtue was given up or affected. It is never tied up again until the virtues are completely incorporated. The challenge is that if it remains untied or punctured, other virtues can be affected or lost too because a little leaven leavens the whole lump (Gal. 5:9). Any defect in the character of a believer is first a defect in the love of God in Him. Therefore, the Bible says, _"_ Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity" (Col. 3:9-14) NIV. _"_ Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law" (Rom. 13:8-10) NIV. Hence, with Paul the Apostle, _"_ I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:16-19) NIV.

Love is God's pill in the gospel

One may say, how are we certain that God loves us when He would not allow us to play around, at least for a while? Now the truth remains that sin is dangerous to our whole make up according to God our maker and I do not believe it is okay for anybody to question or oppose that; since it is coming from our maker Himself. At least, no one knows what is good or bad for the product better than the producer does. Therefore, God knows the right antidote to our illness and that is what He is offering us in His love. The Bible hence says specifically, _"_ _Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives" (Heb. 12:3-6) ESV._

Love is the pill God gave and is still giving us to enable us be His children in deed. Pill is not sweet most times and may be difficult to swallow, yet the sick needs it to get well. We are all sick of this disease called sin (Rom. 3:23, 1 Tim. 1:15), and that is why Jesus came to deliver this pill to us in full dose. God's love is the grace of God and the truth in a single pill. **Administered by the mercy of God, the love pill, which has grace as the coating and truth as the active ingredient should be swallowed only through faith to produce salvation in any man.** The visible part of true gospel is grace: that is what the Bible says has appeared to all men. However, what grace has in stock is the truth and that is what it delivers to the receiver (Tit. 2:11). Hence, Paul would speak by the Holy Spirit as he administers this pill to the church, _"I appeal to you therefore, brothers,_ _by the mercies of God_ _, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Rom. 12:1-2) ESV. (Emphasis is mine)._ The truth remains that before the grace of God is shown any man, it has to be through His mercy. God's mercy is what holds back the judgement we deserve for His grace to reach us, which is the favour we do not deserve. Notice from Heb. 4:16 that at the throne of grace, you obtain mercy first before finding grace. God's mercy is the doorway to His grace. They are inseparable. Jesus the Christ, who in person is the Living Word of God made flesh is God's grace and truth, packaged in one person and sent to the world (John 1:14). Notice also that people coming to Him for help during His earthly ministry did not ask for grace but for mercy (Matt. 7:15; 9:27, Mk. 15:22). Therefore, the Bible implores us to look for the mercy of the Lord even as we keep ourselves in the Love of God (Jude 21). This is how the Holy Spirit has carefully arranged it for our understanding in the Word: _"For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when_ _the kindness and_ _the love of God our Savior toward man appeared_ _, not by works of righteousness which we have done_ _, but according to His mercy He saved us_ _, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,_ _that having been justified by His grace_ _we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly,_ _that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works._ _These things are good and profitable to men_ _" (Titus 3:3-8) NKJV. Emphasis is mine._

First, He reveals to us what the pill is (... **the kindness and love of God our Saviour)** and by what means it is administered (... **according to His mercy** ). Then He clearly spells out what is being offered in this love (... **having been justified by grace** ). Of course, we were not left in the dark as regards the meaning of being justified by His grace (... **the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior... we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life** ). The Holy Spirit then points out what the grace requires from men if received appropriately, (... **that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works** ). Notice that being careful to maintain good works, which is the truth of the gospel, is only to be constantly reminded those who have believed in God. Finally He assures us of the profitability of this pill (... **these things are good and profitable to men** ). With and for love God saves us, forgiving us unconditionally and with it He disciplines and corrects us. The truth aspect of the gospel as we have seen earlier involves God's discipline and the price for the glory that will be revealed, which must be understood and embraced by every believer in Christ. God's discipline is meant to keep us on course for our good not for His benefit. It is not to satisfy His anger that He disciplines us, unlike some earthly parents. It is to prepare us for life in the kingdom of God and to sustain us there.

Again, the love of Christ is beyond mere knowledge. We keep knowing this love experientially, on daily basis, until we meet Him in glory. Paul said by the Holy Spirit, _"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and_ _to know (Gk.: gnoόnaí)_ _this love that surpasses_ _knowledge (Gk.: gnoόseoos)_ _— that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." (Eph. 3:16-19) NIV. (Emphasis is mine. Greek is from interlinear transliterated Bible)._ There are two levels or kinds of knowledge intentionally pointed out by the Holy Spirit in the fully loaded passage. The first is the Greek word _'ginosko'_ from which _'gnoόnaí'_ was derived. The second type of knowledge is _'gnosis'_ from which came ' _gnoόseoos.'_ Now, _'ginosko'_ signifies 'to be taking in knowledge; to come to know, recognize, understand, or to understand completely.' Such knowledge is obtained not by mere intellectual activity, but by the operation of the Holy Spirit consequent upon acceptance of Christ. When the Bible says, _"But the man who loves God is known by God" (1 Cor. 8:3)_ , it is talking about this kind of knowledge. _'Ginosko'_ is also the knowledge used to convey the idea of the union between a man and a woman that often results to conception (Matt. 1:25). The same experiential knowledge is what produces eternal life in us (John 17:3). We can therefore see clearly, why it surpasses _'gnosis.'_ _'Gnosis'_ is primarily "seeking to know; an enquiry or investigation" (according to Vine, _et al._ ). _'Gnosis'_ denotes mere knowledge (as in knowing science/truth) while _'ginosko'_ implies an active relation between the one who knows and the person or thing that is known.

Therefore, you see, the love of God is beyond scientific or theoretical explanation and understanding. It flows directly from the heart of God to the believer's heart continuously. In other words, it is an experience that involves the Spirit of God and the inner man and so cannot be exercised outside Christ. This is God's pill for us to be healed as sinners, sustained as his children and nourished as believers. It is the 'oil of our engine' as Christians, without which we will definitely break to a halt or continue as noisemakers. As believers, we do not just show the love of God, we live and operate in it: not because we feel like but because it operates in us and animates our faith. Hence, the word says, "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing" (1 Cor. 13:1-3) NIV. _"_ And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ — to the glory and praise of God" (Phil. 1:9-11) NIV.
Chapter Eight

The Season, Location, and Reasons for the Ministry

" _I charge [you] in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by (in the light of) His coming and His kingdom: Herald and preach the Word! Keep your sense of urgency [stand by, be at hand and ready], whether the opportunity seems to be favourable or unfavourable. [Whether it is convenient or inconvenient, whether it is welcome or unwelcome, you as preacher of the Word are to show people in what way their lives are wrong.] And convince them, rebuking and correcting, warning and urging and encouraging them, being unflagging and inexhaustible in patience and teaching" (2 Tim. 4:1-2) AMP._

This passage has largely dealt with the issue of season for evangelism. The truth is that there is no special time or season to reach out neither should it be done at one's convenience. Part of the reasons for this is well stated in verses 3-4 of the same Scripture. We are already in the last days and so preaching the gospel should be our main stay anytime and at any place. The days are evil and a good number of the world population has not been properly reached or even reached at all with the gospel. Hence, Jesus told his disciples, _"The harvest is ripe but the labourers are few. Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest" (Matt. 9:37-38) NKJV._

In as much as we ought to always pray God to stir the hearts of other believers to get involved in this ministry, we ourselves should makes ourselves available to be used by God for the furtherance of the gospel at each point in time. Not just with words of our mouth but with our actions. Apostle Paul instructed by the Holy Spirit, _"Walk in wisdom towards those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one" (Col. 4:5) NKJV._ From this instruction, it should be noted that in preaching the gospel, how you say it is as important as what you are saying. The best way to be an effective minister of the gospel whether consciously or otherwise is to always, _"Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers" (Eph. 4:29) NKJV._ Once you follow this instruction, you will discover that at every point in time, you are reaching out and you actually find it less difficult persuading people to turn to the Lord. Again, the wisdom from above is displayed in like manner according to James 3:12-17.

Secondly, it is the Spirit of God that stirs or prepares the heart of men to receive the gospel and that is why we should always submit to His leading especially as regards location. If the Holy Spirit forbids you to preach the gospel at a certain place, just as He did to Paul and Silas in Acts 16:6, never push it; willingly accept His leading and never question His authority. Remember, it is God's harvest. It is His work and He is the preparer of the field and the giver of the increase. That is why it is very important we get attuned to the voice of the Master at all times. Some hearts are not yet prepared to receive the gospel, and regardless of the method you may employ, it will be like pouring water on a rock. You will end up making little or no impact and at the same time wasting precious time and energy. However, in as much as the Holy Spirit does not forbid you to preach at a particular place at a particular time, whether it is welcome or not, still preach, though with wisdom, which is profitable to direct (Eccl. 10:10). Who knows, the seed may fall on a fertile ground and grow or who knows, you may be watering an already sown seed in someone's heart. Therefore, the instruction is, preach the gospel at all times at every place unless the Holy Spirit forbids you to.

The next issue that we must look at beyond this point are the reasons for the ministry. Why should we preach the gospel with such urgency and seriousness? There are several reasons why it is not just necessary but indispensable to be a preacher of the good news as a believer especially now. Listen to Apostle Paul: _"For if I [merely] preach the Gospel, that gives me no reason to boast, for I feel compelled of necessity to do it. Woe is me if I do not preach the glad tidings (the Gospel)!" (1 Cor. 9:16) AMP._ Should it be so for every believer or was it just for Paul? Why did the disciples of Christ keep on doing this work irrespective of the challenges they encountered on their paths? In fact, the more they were oppressed, the more they kept on with the ministry. The Bible says, _"Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went" (Acts 8:4)_ NIV. Why would they not abandon the gospel even at the point of death? The reasons are not far-fetched.

We preach in obedience to the great commision.

Before Jesus ascended into heaven, He gave an instruction to His disciples, which is today called the great commission and which by His grace, has been passed down to us. He instructed, _"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; lo, I am with you always, even to the close of age. Amen" (Matt. 28:17) NKJV._ On one occasion during His ministry, Jesus disclosed to His disciples what glorifies God. He told them, _"By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples" (John 15:8) NKJV._

The only way we can show our love to God and be His friends and true followers is by heeding His instructions (John 14:15; 15:17, Luke 6:46). Witnessing is a major way of showing God that we Love Him and that He is our Lord.

The days are evil and the time is running out.

We are already in the perilous times and one of the ways we can be safe from the corruption of this present age is by preaching the good news. The Bible says, _"Look carefully then how you walk! Live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless, but as wise (sensible, intelligent people), making the very most of the time [buying up each opportunity], because the days are evil" (Eph. 5:15-16) AMP._ The reason God is delaying the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is so that every people will get to know about Him and perhaps believe the message of our preaching and repent according to 2 Peter 3:1-9. Jesus made it clear that, _"this good news of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then will come the end" (Matt. 24:14) NKJV._ God is a just judge. Therefore, He seeks to make everyone aware of His sacrifice and will and the only way to escape His judgement and is counting on you and I to carry out the task. The more we spread the gospel, the more we take heed to ourselves in this perilous time and the closer the return of our Lord Jesus Christ becomes. We are made to understand by the Scriptures that to facilitate the coming of the Lord we have to take the goodnews of the kingdom of God to the ends of the earth and then we can pray, "Thy kingdom come."

To demonstrate the power of God on earth

After the resurrection of Jesus, God gave Him all the powers in heaven and on earth, which according to Psalm 62:11 belong to Him. _"And Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is given unto me in Heaven and in earth" (Matt. 28:18)._ What we learn from this passage and other related ones like 1 Cor. 1:24 and Phil. 2:9-11 is that **all the powers of God is now only available in Christ.** Therefore, if you have Christ in your life, you have the life and powers of God resident in you. However, these powers will remain restrained in you unless you chose to exercise them. The Gospel is the power of God to save souls. Paul declared, _"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first and also to the Greek" (Rom. 1:16)._ He therefore went on to instruct Timothy, even as we are being instructed this day; _"If you will stir up this inner power, you will never be afraid to tell others about our Lord or to let them know that I am your friend even though I am here in jail for Christ's sake. You will be ready to suffer with me for the Lord, for He will give you strength in suffering" (2 Tim. 1:8) TLB._

The presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives will enable us to easily draw from, stir up or push on the power of God in us. This is not only to minister to the lost but also to do extraordinary things even greater than the ones Jesus did according to His assurance in John 14:12, giving us the strength to bear sufferings and tribulations for Christ's sake.

To attract the complete joy and blessings of Christian living

Every one of us is saved by God to be instrument of salvation to others that are yet unsaved not just to escape hell; otherwise, we would have died at the point of receiving Christ into our lives. The only thing that guarantees our incessant joy as Christians is our attitude towards the great commission. It not only releases the joy of the Lord in us but also causes God and heavenly hosts to rejoice with us. The Bible says, _"I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over a sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance" (Luke 15:17) NKJV._ Now imagine what you have achieved for yourself by making God and the heavenly hosts to rejoice. You can then understand why Jesus had to tell His disciples, when they returned from preaching the gospel with great joy due to how God manifested His powers through them and how the devil submitted to them, _"Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are enrolled in heaven" (Luke 10:20) AMP._

Apart from the joy that is triggered in your spirit on seeing an unbeliever turn to the Lord, your joy becomes fulfilled on seeing him grow and become mature Christian. Hence, Paul wrote to the Philippians, _"Fill up and complete my joy by living in harmony and being of the same mind and one in purpose, having the same love, being in full accord and of one harmonious mind and intention. Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus: [let Him be your example in humility]" (Phil. 2:2 & 5) AMP._ Therefore, there is an unending joy in his ministry, which is going to be all ours if we key into it by making ourselves available for the Master's use. Moreover, for us to enjoy the Christian journey at all odds, we have to get involved in the ministry of reconciliation. Then we can be sure of a greater reward if we faint not. To this end Paul wrote, _"And see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God" (Acts 20:22-24) NKJV._

These are just but few of the key reasons for which we have to keep on doing the work. May the Lord give us understanding heart to discern the great rewards, for which he that wins souls is reckoned as being wise (Prov. 11:30).
Chapter Nine

The Challenges and Blessings of the Ministry

The ministry of reconciliation is not an easy one since it is actually a direct attack on the kingdom of darkness. The evangelical path is filled with serious challenges ranging from mockery and abandonment to accusation and direct attack. One of the reasons Jesus asked His disciples to wait for the promise of the Holy Spirit was to be endued with power, which produces courage, (which is said to be the form every other virtues assumes at the point of test), and boldness to face whatever challenge they are going to encounter in the ministry. Again, that was why He made it known to them in Matthew 16:24 that for them to be His disciples, they must first of all deny themselves and then take up their crosses and follow Him. He said, _"They will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake" (Matt. 24:9) NKJV. "You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends and they will put you to death" (Luke 21:16) NKJV._ Why should it be so? Jesus said, _"If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (John 15:19) NKJV._ Even our Lord Jesus was not accepted by His own people. They queried at the time, _"Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not His mother Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?" So they were offended at Him" (Matt. 13:55-57) NKJV._ Hence, John the Apostle reported, _"He came to His own and His own did not receive Him" (John 1:11) NKJV._ For this reason, the Bible says, _"Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his work" (Matt. 16:24-27) NKJV._

Therefore, Paul had to pre-inform the Philippian believers about the consequences of believing in the Lord and the cross they have to bear for His name sake, which is what we always have to bear in mind as true soldiers of the Lord: _"For to you it has not been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him but also to suffer for His name sake" (Phil. 1:29) NKJV._ As a true believer and preacher of the undiluted word and sound doctrine of Christ, you will face challenges even in the household of faith. Paul admonished Timothy concerning this _, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry" (2 Tim. 4:3-5) NKJV._ Therefore, when you are faced with oppositions and persecutions even right inside the church, do not be surprised or disappointed at all, because we are already in those times Paul talked about. Moreover, we must obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29). So the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul says, _"But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts" (1 Thess. 2:4) NKJV._ What then should be our attitude towards the challenges we must encounter in the course of sharing the gospel? First, we should expect the challenges and prepare our minds for them. Then we should rejoice amidst the challenges. Jesus says, _"Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Matt. 5:11-12) NKJV._ We should fix our eyes on Jesus Christ and follow His example. The Bible implores us, _"Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb. 12:2) NKJV._ Rely on the Holy Spirit for assistance and utterance. The Scripture says, _"Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should say for the Holy spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say" (Luke 12:11-12) NKJV. "And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints — and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak." (Eph. 6:17-20) NKJV._ Be confident, courageous and enduring. Because, _"He who is in you is greater than He who is in the world" (1 John 4:4) NKJV. "Therefore, do not cast away your confidence which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise" (Heb. 10:35-36) NKJV._ Do not be retarded but keep on doing the good work. Although it may seem God is no longer concerned, _"But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one" (2 Thess. 3: 3) NKJV. "Faithful is He Who is calling you [to Himself] and utterly trustworthy, and He will also do it [fulfil His call by hallowing and keeping you]" (1 Thess. 5:24) AMP._

Confronting the fears

Fear, which is a strong unpleasant emotion caused by actual or perceived danger or threat, is a major retardant, not just in the kingdom business but also in the kingdom life. The Bible reveals three major kinds of fear that can be experienced by a kingdom citizen especially in the line of kingdom duties. Jesus highlighted those while sending out His apostles for the kingdom business. _"A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household!_ _Therefore do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. "Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops._ _And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul._ _But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered._ _Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows_ _" (Matt. 10:24-31) NKJV. Emphasis is mine._

From the Scripture, we can understand three major kinds of fear. They include the fear of accuracy of knowledge or reliability of information (vs. 24-27), fear of being persecuted to death (vs. 28-30) and fear of life's needs (vs. 31). The last verse can be expanded with another Scripture. Then He said to His disciples, _"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing._ _Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?_ _And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith? "And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you._ _"Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom._ _Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Luke 12:22-34) NKJV. Emphasis is mine._ After that Jesus ascended to heaven, the Father sent the Holy Spirit to be with us and to dwell in us, same way a balloon, which is inflated by air, can float inside the same air. He does a lot upon and within us, including the handling of the fear factor. The Bible says _, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (2 Tim. 1:7) NKJV._

For the fear of persecution unto death, the Spirit comes upon us to empower us to be bold and courageous in confronting any challenge and opposition while witnessing for the Lord. Therefore, in this ministry, the Holy Spirit upon a believer is responsible for the power to confront oppositions and to perform other wonderful works of God. The Bible says, _"But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8) NKJV. "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God" (2 Tim. 1:7-8) NKJV._

For the fear concerning life's needs, the Holy Spirit within us reveals the Father's love to us, helping us to understand more accurately, how much God loves us, and cares for our needs. _"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:18-19) NKJV. "And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us" (Rom. 5:5) NIV. "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?_ _He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?_ _Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:31-39) NKJV. Emphasis is mine._

For fear of the accuracy of knowledge or authenticity of information, the Holy Spirit within gives us sound mind (i.e. the mind of Christ) by reminding us all the teachings of Christ and revealing the truth to us more explicitly, just as the Lord promised. _"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you" (John 14:26) NKJV. "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you (John 16:12-15) NKJV. But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him" (1 John 2:27) NKJV. "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For "who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ" (1 Cor. 2:12-16) NKJV._

Any of those expressions of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer is enough to expel fear. The Bible has already made it clear that perfect love casts out fear. The revelation of the love of God to the early church was behind their selling of personal possessions and delivering the proceeds to be shared among everyone in the community, not considering their future and unforeseen needs. _"Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles' feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need" (Acts 4:32-35) NKJV._ By the power imparted on the Apostles in Acts chapter 2 by the Holy Spirit, they gained boldness and courage to preach the Word and perform signs and wonders. Then in Acts chapter 4, when the rulers, elders and scribes of the people arrested and questioned the apostles concerning the power and the name with which they preached and performed miracles, they made an observation from their defence. It was the Spirit of sound mind at work in them. The Bible says, _"Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus" (Acts 4:13) NKJV._

The blessings of the ministry

The Scriptures give us the numerous benefits of getting involved in this kingdom duty. Some of these includes _, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who pro-claims salvation, who says to Zion, "your God reigns!" (Isaiah 52:11) NKJV? "Therefore, whoever confesses Me before men, him I will confess before My Father who is in Heaven" (Matt. 10:32) NKJV. "And the teachers and those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness (to uprightness and right standing with God) [shall give forth light] like the stars forever and ever" (Daniel 12:3) AMP. "This is a faithful saying, For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him, If we endure, we shall also reign with Him, If we deny Him, He will also deny us" (2 Tim. 2:11-12). "So let us go out to him beyond the city walls [that is, outside the interests of this world, being willing to be despised to suffer with him there, bearing his shame. For this world is not our home; we are looking forward to our everlasting home in heaven" (Heb. 13:13-14) TLB._

Apart from the above-mentioned benefits, evangelism and soul winning helps a believer to always perform self-examination and overcome temptations that do pop-up on daily basis. In the words of Moris, while explaining the roles of accountability in overcoming temptation, _"_ _When a person teaches or writes on these subjects, he will feel a great sense of_ _being held accountable by his listeners or readers to practice what he preaches or live up to what he_ _writes. Can you imagine the pressure on the apostle Paul to show a continual attitude and practice of_ _divine love towards others after writing 1 Corinthians 13? Believe me, it is with "fear and trembling"_ _that I write on this subject of temptation, and it brings to mind the fear Paul expressed when he said,_ _But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway_ _(1 Corinthians 9:27)."_

Final Word

I will like to close with these words, which were part of Paul's letter to the Colossian believers and I certainly consider it to be all there is to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Its earlier part consists mainly of the body of our message and the later part, an admonition and a consolation to the evangelist or minister. _"Christ is the exact likeness of the unseen God. He existed before God made anything at all, and, in fact, Christ himself is the Creator who made everything in heaven and earth, the things we can see and the things we can't; the spirit world with its kings and kingdoms, its rulers and authorities; all were made by Christ for his own use and glory. He was before all else began and it is his power that holds everything together. He is the Head of the body made up of his people-that is, his Church-which he began; and he is the Leader of all those who arise from the dead, so that he is first in everything; for God wanted all of himself to be in his Son. It was through what his Son did that God cleared a path for everything to come to him-all things in heaven and on earth-for Christ's death on the cross has made peace with God for all by his blood. This includes you who were once so far away from God. You were his enemies and hated him and were separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions, yet now he has brought you back as his friends. He has done this through the death on the cross of his own human body, and now as a result Christ has brought you into the very presence of God, and you are standing there before him with nothing left against you-nothing left that he could even chide you for; the only condition is that you fully believe the Truth, standing in it steadfast and firm, strong in the Lord, convinced of the Good News that Jesus died for you, and never shifting from trusting him to save you. This is the wonderful news that came to each of you and is now spreading all over the world. And I, Paul, have the joy of telling it to others. But part of my work is to suffer for you; and I am glad, for I am helping to finish up the remainder of Christ's sufferings for his body, the Church. God has sent me to help his Church and to tell his secret plan to you Gentiles. He has kept this secret for centuries and generations past, but now at last it has pleased him to tell it to those who love him and live for him, and the riches and glory of his plan are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ in your hearts is your only hope of glory. So everywhere we go we talk about Christ to all who will listen, warning them and teaching them as well as we know how. We want to be able to present each one to God, perfect because of what Christ has done for each of them. This is my work, and I can do it only because Christ's mighty energy is at work within me" (Col. 1:15-29) TLB._

The summary and conclusion of the whole matter is this; **if you can show God to people in word and deed and get them to open up to Him, then you have met God's requirement as His representative here: but first, you have to surrender the vehicle (your body) and the steering (your will) to Him. With that, you become not just God carrier but His manifester on earth.** Therefore, _"Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh" (Jude 21-23) ESV._

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About the Author

Emmanuel Oramah is a child of God with passion for the lost and the misled in the word of the truth. He is an Industrial/Polymer Chemist and graphics designer by training. As a vibrant teacher of God's word, he has authored a number of books, which include _I am your Conscience_ and _Beyond the Ordinary_ to the glory of God. He began teaching at a very tender age and has grown in revelation and experiential knowledge of the Lord over time.

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