Crowns for the Wise

"He who wins souls is wise."

Proverbs 11:30

Randy Gunnip

Harvest Time Publications P. O. Box 1334 Colleyville, Texas 76034

Crowns for the Wise

ISBN 0-9666779-1-9 First Printing, March, 2001 2001 Randy Gunnip All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in Whole or Part Without Written Permission is Prohibited. Printed in United States of America. All Scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted. Published by: Harvest Time Publications P. O. Box 1334 Colleyville, Texas 76034 (817)485-6452

Acknowledgements

o successful endeavor is accomplished alone. At every juncture of the journey, there are people who encourage you, inspire you, motivate you and challenge you to press on, to pursue your vision, to never give up. I have experienced this in my professional life, in my personal life, in my ministry life... and I've experienced it in the preparation and writing of this book. Soul winning is the passion of my life. I am very grateful to all of the people who have had a significant part in the creation and writing of my passion. To four proven and faithful men of God who inspired me and gave me invaluable information in the research stages... Dr. Jimmy Simple, Director of State Mission Commission, Baptist General Convention of Texas. Dr. Bailey Stone, Director of Evangelism, Baptist General Convention of Texas. Dr. George Worrell, Director of Evangelism (ret.), Mississippi Baptist Convention. Dr. Roy Fish, Distinguished Professor, School of Theology, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas. To my good friend, Mr. Bill Wilkinson, president of International Fellowship of Christian Businessmen, who is a great soul winner and tremendous example. I appreciate the sincere encouragement Bill consistently gives. To Evangelist Victor Small and his wife, Billie, for their commitment to pray daily for me and the completion of this book. Victor was able to direct me to valuable sources of information on evangelism. To my special friend Dr. Nasir Saddiki, founder of Wisdom Ministries, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Nasir's personal support of my soul winning ministry and his hosting me on TBN have been a great encouragement. To Sam Martin, one of the greatest soul winners of our time. To Patrick Morley, author of the book, The Man in the Mirror. To my good friend, Mike Evans. As an evangelist for over

30 years, his ministry is responsible for millions coming to Christ. Mike's passion to see people saved is a great inspiration to me to reach every person I can. Mike shared with me many soul winning experiences and scriptures. To the creative writing team who made my dream a reality: To project editor Pat Blais, who has overseen this project from start to finish with editorial skill and special expertise. To editor Elizabeth Prestwood, whose considerable talents we could not have done without. I am also grateful to my brother, Robert W. Gunnip for his editorial input early in the project. To Kelley Majors for her artistic input and cover design. To artists Dain Hampton and Dan Pomeroy for their graphic illustrations. Thank you all for helping with the most important objective...winning souls.

Introduction
"He who wins souls is wise." Proverbs 11:30

here is more to heaven than just getting there. Yet, studies

show that the majority of Christians live as though they are satisfied to simply have a ticket to heaven. But there is a higher purpose to our time herea purpose that involves a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and then sharing that dynamic relationship with others. It is called soul winning. The greatest and highest mission for any Christian is to win souls. It is the greatest passion of God Himself. It is the Great Commission that Jesus gave us before He left this earth. It is the highest way to demonstrate our love for God and the people He created. It is the key to the brilliant lifeone where the power and presence of God are guiding you, providing divine wisdom and power to conquer life's challenges. Paul said in Ephesians 6:8 that any good thing a man does, God will repay him in this life. When we become soul winners, something dynamic happens which does not happen beforehand. By making our life's mission to seek those who are lost, we are enthroning Jesus in our hearts more deeply. We are exalting Him and following Him more intimately. We are surrendering ourselves to accomplishing His most important mission. We are letting Him live His life through us. In essence, the power of God is permeating our very life. We become His mouthpiece, His hands, His feet, doing His bidding with His power. By committing ourselves to God's true agenda, we become soldiers of Christ and He cares for us as a compassionate general would care about his soldiers. Soldiers who lay their lives on the line to accomplish the
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mission are not expendable. They are valuable. Their commander will see to it that their needs are met, that they are well cared for and that they have all the tools they need to accomplish their mission. In the same way, Jesus must have special thoughts of a loving relationship, of close friendship and of continual regard for those who willingly and wholeheartedly take up His cause (Alexander Maclaren, D.D., The Victor's Crowns, Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York, p. 50). Because when they do, He responds with protection and provision. In fact, just like a soldier watches the backs of his comrades, God watches ours. The Word says He goes out before usHe leads the wayand His glory becomes our rear guard (Isaiah 58). When we live in such close communion with Jesus, following His lead, He makes a way for us and protects us from the enemy who would try to catch us unaware. He also sees to it that we are fully equipped to fight and win the war. Isaiah 1:19 promises us that if we are willing and obedient, like a good soldier is, we shall eat the good of the land, which means we will be blessed. Instead of our having to chase after the blessings of God, the blessings will begin to chase us. They will come on us and overtake us because God is so thrilled with our true labor leading people to Christ. If we let Jesus live His life through us, we will make His mission our mission. We will then touch the heart of God and change the hearts of people. For, as William Evans has written, "There is no Christian, however humble or insignificant he may feel himself, or others esteem him to be, who is not appointed by the Spirit to be a winner of souls" (Personal Soul Winning, p. 5). After the end of our lifetime, when we are in heaven standing before the judgment seat of Christ, we will be rewarded crowns based on what we did with our talents, abilities and opportunities. Within that context, how many people we lead to Christ will greatly affect the extent of our reward. Those who are wise follow the example of Jesus Who came
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Introduction

to "seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). Those who are wise receive the crowns for the wise. We all want to shine, to have our lives count for something and a truly wise man will. A wise man's brilliance will never be extinguished, even by death, if he has heeded the exhortation of the prophet Daniel: "Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever " (Daniel 12.3). Winning souls isn't as hard as many Christians think, nor is it an option. When you love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, then it becomes easier to win souls. Yes, there are things to know and understand from His Word concerning it. Yes, there are ways to share your faith that are comfortable and easyand I'll teach you these. But when you truly love God, the life of Christ on the inside of you will naturally spill over onto others. You can't help but win souls! Embark on a journey with me...a journey to change the way we've lived.. from focusing on our own lives to being consumed with the lives of others.. from pursuing our own agendas to pursuing God's highest agenda.. winning the lost.

Randy Gunnip

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Contents
Introduction Chapter 1 There's More to Life Than Just Living It Liz's Story Chapter 2 Going After Real Rewards Pat's Story Chapter 3 Run to Win It Is Never Too Late vii

13 22 25 36 39 53

Chapter 4 Loving PeopleYour Greatest Mission, Your Greatest Reward 55 Reaching the Taxi Drivers 63 Chapter 5 Working God's Plan to Reach the Lost No Heart Is Ever Too Hard Chapter 6 How to Be an Effective Witness Lisa's Story 65 78 81 91

Chapter 7 The Heart of Soul WinningLearning to Pray for the Lost 93 Because Someone Prayed 104 Chapter 8 The 3-Step Process of Soul Winning The Couple at the Party Chapter 9 Living A Life of True Significance 105 124 125

Chapter 10 Get Started Now Sources of Gospel Literature

141 150

Chapter 1
1

There's More to Life Than Just Living It

ot long ago I had the privilege of spending the day with Sam Martin. Sam is a 78-year-old man who has spent his lifetime leading people to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. From his youth, he has been a soul winner. As a teen, he led Pastor and Evangelist John Osteen to the Lord. As I witnessed just one day in the life of this modern-day soul winner, I was amazed. He was so genuine, so real, so caring, so alive! When I picked him up at his Houston home, he told me that we had a divine appointment. The Holy Spirit had told him so. I looked into his face and knew it too. This man had something I needed and wanted more of in my life. As we arrived at the hotel, I began seeing what I longed for unfold. When we stepped out of the car and greeted the bell captain, Sam said to him, "Hi, I'm Sam Martin. I want to tell you about a friend you need Who will never let you down. I'd like to give you something. If I do, will you read it?" That's all he said, and he gave the man a tract. We entered the restaurant lobby. As the maitre d' greeted us, Sam said, "Hi, I'm Sam Martin. I want to tell you about a friend you need Who will never let you down. I'd like to give you something. If I do, will you read it?"

Crowns for the Wise

That's all he said, and he gave the man a tract. As we were seated, Sam greeted the waiter. "Hi, I'm Sam Martin I want to tell you about a friend you need Who will never let you down. I'd like to give you something. If I do, will you read it?" And on he went. Every person with whom Sam had any contact, he offered them the opportunity to meet the Lord Jesus Christ. He never missed a single one. All day long I watched a man in action who truly loves His God and people. As I observed all this, I evaluated my own life. I am a soul winner, but I've never addressed the issue of salvation with every single person I've encountered. Obviously, I could do more. Then, I thought of all those people Sam talked to... and wondered who it was in their family or circle of friends that was praying for them...that caused God to send Sam, a laborer of the harvest, across their paths. That got my attention. Think of the souls that would be saved if we all acted like Sam. Wouldn't it be wonderful if someone yielded to the Holy Spirit in Nebraska (or wherever) and began telling your sister or brother or mother about Jesus? And wouldn't it be even more wonderful if you yielded to the Holy Spirit and began to tell someone at your workplace...someone who happens to be the friend, dad or cousin of someone who has been praying for a Christian to witness to them? If we all won souls, multitudes would be saved, their lives made whole, their families restored and, most importantly, they would have a relationship with Jesus Christ for eternity. And they would have the key to life and to everything we all truly want out of life... health, happiness, joy, peace, genuine friendships, prosperity, success...all the goodness of God.
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There's More to Life Than Just Living It

That is what God has always had planned for each of us. God Has More of Everything for You! Life is no accident. God had an orderly design, an objective, a reason for creating us. God's plan not only covered the overall scheme of life: the balance of nature, the stars, planets and sun being held in place, and so on. But God's plan is individual and personal. You are in His plan. Before He ever created the world, He knew you and had a purpose for your life. "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world" (Ephesians 1:4, New International Version). Before the worlds were framed, before the stars were set in place, before you were even conceived in your mother's womb, God had an overall design and objective for you. This plan is a plan for good and not for evil, a plan which will bring you great joy, unshakable peace and tremendous blessing (Jeremiah 29:11; Psalm 139:14-18). It is a plan which will bring you the deepest sense of fulfillment in this life and the greatest reward in the next. It is an awesome plan that cannot be improved upon by anything we can conceive. God has always wanted your life to be better. He wants your marriage to be better, your personal fulfillment to be peaked, your heart's cry to be answered, your job to be fulfilling. In short, He really wants your dreams to come true. However good your life is, God has more for you! But you have to access it. You have to conform to His plan. You have to live your life so that what is most important to Him is most important to you. You have to re-prioritize your life so that your priorities match His priorities. You have to become a soul winner. When you do, you will have found the key to the brilliant lifeone where the power and presence of God are guiding you, providing divine wisdom and power to conquer life's challenges.
15

Crowns for the Wise

Paul said in Ephesians 6:8 that any good thing a man does, God will repay him in this life. When we become soul winners, something dynamic happens which does not happen beforehand. By making our life's mission to seek those who are lost, we are enthroning Jesus in our hearts more deeply. We are exalting Him and following Him more intimately. We are surrendering ourselves to accomplishing His most important mission. We are letting Him live His When we become soul winners, life through us. In essence, the something dynamic happens power of God is permeating which does not happen our very life. We become His beforehand. By making our life's mouthpiece, His hands, His mission to seek those who are feet, doing His bidding with lost, we are letting Him live His His power. By committing ourselves power of God is permeating our to God's true agenda, we very life. We become His become soldiers of Christ. In a mouthpiece, His hands, His feet, sense, we step out of the doing His bidding with His civilian ranks of Christianity power. and enlist in God's army. As a result, He cares for us as a compassionate commander would care about his soldiers. Soldiers who lay their lives on the line to accomplish the mission are not expendable. They are valuable. Their commander will do everything he can to see that their needs are met, that they are well cared for and that they have all the tools they need to accomplish their mission. In the same way, Jesus must have special thoughts of a loving relationship, of close friendship, and of continual regard for those who willingly and wholeheartedly take up His cause, for those who voluntarily enlist (Alexander Maclaren, D.D., The Victor's Crowns, Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York, p. 50). Because when they do, He responds with protection and provision. In fact, the Word says He goes out before usHe leads the wayand His glory becomes our rear guard (Isaiah 58).
16

life through us. In essence, the

There's More to Life Than Just Living It

When we live in such close communion with Jesus, following His lead, He makes a way for us and protects us from the enemy who would try to catch us unaware. He also sees to it that we are fully equipped, possessing everything we need to win the war. Isaiah 1:19 promises us that if we are willing and obedient, like a good soldier is, we shall eat the good of the land, which means we will be blessed. Instead of our having to chase after the blessings of God, the blessings will chase us. They come on us and overtake us because God is so thrilled with our true laborleading people to Christ. God established this pattern in Deuteronomy 28:1-2: "Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God." God wants to bless us right here, right now. Proverbs 11:3031 reaffirms this fact: "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise. If the righteous will be recompensed on the earth, how much more the ungodly and the sinner." To be recompensed is to be rewarded. This scripture is not merely stating that it is wise to win souls, but it says that a soul winner will experience a wisdom concerning the affairs of this life that is not necessarily readily available to others. Daniel 12:3 is another confirmation: "Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever." The world highly esteems people who have the brilliance to create billions of dollars in net wealth, even though their private lives may be in shambles. One of the earthly rewards for being a soul winner is a rare wisdom that causes you to shine in all the affairs of life...how to deal with your family, friends, business,
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Crowns for the Wise

ministry, finances and health. This wisdom produces success and is attractive to the unbeliever. He wants to know what is different about you. He sees not only your success, but he sees that you know things he does not know. Not only that, you seem to know them innately, as if you have inside information! This "inside information" is the wisdom of God. Let me give you an example. One time, years ago, the Lord woke me up at 1 o'clock in the morning and told me to call a client in Laredo, Texas. My first thought was, But Lord, it is 1 o'clock in the morning! I can't do that. But I knew it was God's voice on the inside of me telling me to do it. So, I obeyed. After I spoke to my client, I learned that he was about to enter into a business deal the next day. I knew I needed to be there, so I told him not to do anything until I got there. I caught the next flight to Laredo later that morning. What occurred that day, as I advised him in his business decision, optimized his business interests and forever altered my life financially as well. But the point is, God took special care of my interests. I believe it is because I put His interests, His mission and His passion first in my life. This kind of success, tempered with a godly love and respect for people, will attract the world to us and provide a wide open door for telling them about Christ. In 1 Chronicles 4:10, the Bible records an interesting prayer a man named Jabez prayed to the Lord, "Oh, that that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!' So God granted him what he requested." Jabez was an old covenant believer and it sounds like he understood the principle of the overtaking blessings God mentioned in Deuteronomy 28. What would happen if a new covenant believer asked and believed for the same thing? Could it be there are unclaimed blessings for you and me? And could it be that even though we may have had a painful start in life, we could end up blessed, influencing others for Christ and bringing
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There's More to Life Than Just Living It

honor and glory to God? Could it be that God wants to expand our influence so that we can win many, not just a few, to Christ? Absolutely! The truth is, our Christian life comes more fully into focus when we accept the call to be soul winners. Jesus said, "Freely you have received, freely give" (Matthew 10:8). In order to experience the abundant life of Christ fully, you must freely express His gift of eternal life to others, by turning them to Christ. The greatest gift you have received, if you are a Christian, is the gift of eternal life. You have been ransomed, redeemed and translated out of the power of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son (Colossians 1:13). Every person who is born into the world has the right to this same gift, but how will they know unless someone tells them? (Romans 10:14-15). If you ask God to expand your realm of influence like Jabez did, you will get involved in the most exciting, exhilarating, fulfilling mission available, which is giving others a chance to accept Christ. Remember what it was like when you made Jesus the Lord of your life? Everything that previously seemed hopeless suddenly started brimming with hope. Purpose and meaning came into your heart. Destiny began to give birth... and soon expectancy began to unfold. This is the story of almost every believer. Yet, for some reason, our hearts become cluttered with life. We become so busy achieving, attaining and acquiring, that we miss learning how to simply receive the unclaimed blessings reserved for the faithful. What believers need to learn today is how to get back to the plan...God's plan...and extend the greatest gift of all to those who have not yet received it. Becoming a Christian is the greatest gift we can receive on earth. Few would deny the difference it has made in their lives. Few would deny its ability to affect their lives. Yet, telling others is something that we resist doing, even though it opens wide the door to tremendous blessings. Sam Martin hasn't resisted. And God has blessed him. Sam
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Crowns for the Wise

has enjoyed the rewards and blessings reserved for whose who walk in God's plan. Special Rewards Reserved for the Faithful God wants to reward you, not only with blessings here on earth like wisdom in your affairs, but with heavenly rewards in eternity. God has reserved special rewardsattainable by every Christianthat will be granted on a great reward day in heaven. Those rewards will eclipse even the highest earthly rewards, those that come from being a Nobel Prize winner, or an Olympic Gold Medal winner, a Medal of Honor winner, or any other possible reward. These eternal rewards are metaphorically expressed in the Bible in the form of crowns. We become candidates for these crowns when we fulfill His plan in our life and in the lives of others. The crowns are representative of a life of blessing now on earth and later in heaven as rewards we will throw at Jesus' feet as worship and honor to Him. Nonetheless, the majority of Christians are satisfied to simply have their ticket to heaven. They joyfully anticipate the day when they will pass from this life into the glorious presence of God. But there is more to heaven than just getting there. In 2 John 1:8, the Bible admonishes us to, "Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward." A full re-ward is available and we can receive it if we will choose to be faithful and passionate. To choose to be diligent soul winners will help set us on course to receiving a full reward. The nature of God's reward system is a greater capacity for enjoying life, both on earth and in heaven. Why would anyone aim for less? If someone told you that your labor would earn ten million dollars or ten thousand dollars, wouldn't you choose the ten million? That is what God
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There's More to Life Than Just Living It

is telling the church. There is a full reward to be received and you can be a contestant. Scripture foretells of a glorious day when we will bow down before our Lord and Savior in worship and adoration, and throwing our crowns at his feet, we will say, "You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created" (Revelation 4:11). Matthew Henry's commentary on this verse says that we will cast our crowns before the throne, giving God the glory for the holiness with which He had crowned us on earth. He says that we owe Him all the honor and joy, all the grace and glory because His crown is infinitely more glorious than ours, and that it is our glory to glorify Him. Whatever honor and glory we receive from our rewards will be our love offering to Him, because He created us and without Him we can do nothing. Sam Martin understands the richness of God's Word and His rewards. He made the choice years ago to seek God's wisdom, to experience the fullness of God. I, too, have made that choice. For a truly wise person, earthly success will not be enough. A truly wise person will seek to win the incorruptible crowns God has reserved for the faithful and the wise. A truly wise person will win souls (Proverbs 11:30). The real measure of a man's wealth is what he has invested in eternity. My heartfelt desire in writing this book is to show you the powerful blessings that will flood your life if you will choose to be wise and win soulsthat you will get more out of life than just living it, letting the years pass you by. God is eager to pour out His blessings. He searches the earth just looking for people who will receive His goodness. If you will consider the contents of this book, chapter by chapter, you will not only begin to desire to win souls, you will learn the easiest and most comfortable ways to do it. It is certainly not hard. Just think if someone had resisted telling you.

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Liz's Story I was raised in church, so from the time I was small I was taught to love God. But I never really knew Him personally. When I was 13, I went to a large high school. There I met Roxanne, a Christian who loved God. Looking back, Roxanne sowed seeds of the gospel in my life, but never pushed. My sophomore year I met Beth Anne. She too sowed seeds, as did Carol. Two weeks before my 16th birthday, I felt drawn to open my Bible and read it. I had never done that before. I didn't even know how to look up Bible verses. I didn't understand the chapter and verse concept. I "accidentally" opened my Bible to 1 Corinthians 13... the love chapter. I was amazed that I could understand it. It was so beautiful, so pure. A week later I met Ronnie. He was a Christian, and not bashful at all at taking me to gospel singings for dates. It was a whole new world to me. A month later I was saved. The message had pricked my heart. Ronnie had been bold. I'm grown now, married to a strong Christian man I met in college and have two children. Ronnie and I are still friends, but more importantly, I have lived for Jesus now for almost 22 years. Before I was saved, I was a scared, confused 16-yearold whose parents had divorced. My world had crashed.

Jesus' great and mighty gifts didn't end with your salvation. That was just the beginning of what He wants to give you, and do through you.

Jesus brought peace, love and answers. He has guided me through all the decisions of my life...what to major in, where to go to college, whom to marry, where to move, when to have children, where they should go to
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There's More to Life Than Just Living It

school...every day, every decision. I'm so thankful to Roxanne, Beth Anne, Carol and Ronnie. They told me about Jesus. Their reward will be great.

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Chapter 2
2

Going After Real Rewards

alvation is the greatest gift we will ever receive on this earth. It is the first and foremost opportunity God offers us. When we receive this gift, it alters the entire course of our lives in a greater way than even the choice of whom we marry. The power that comes from one simple decision to become a Christian is staggering. And God made it so easy to receive. Titus 3:4-8 confirms that our salvation is the kindness and love of God appearing in the form of His Son as a gift, one that cannot be earned. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." In His wisdom and mercy, God knew that without Him we were helpless, spiritually bankrupt and hopeless. Thus, He freely gave His Son to anyone who would desire a relationship with Him. Once we receive God's free gift of salvation, He offers us a second opportunityto become a worker for Christ. The Scripture says, "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10, New International Version). Our salvation is not by works, but we have been saved so that we can do the works God prepared in advance for us to do. The Apostle Paul reminds us that since the kindness of God has appeared in the form of free salvation, we are "to be ready for every good work" (Titus 3:1). He continues his message,

Crowns for the Wise

saying, "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" (verse 8). "Every good work" means that no good work is excluded. The phrases "affirm constantly" and "maintain good works" denote a continual, ceaseless, habitual declaration to do good works. He concludes by saying that a lifestyle of good works is profitable. The Bible also says, "Whatever you do"that means any thing you do in lifeyou are to "work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving" (Colossians 3:23-24, New International Version). To do the workswhatever they areearns rewards in direct proportion to your labor. Winning souls is part of your being a worker for Christ...it should be a natural part of your day-to-day life. Your Realm of Influence Becoming a worker for Christ is not a call to drop your present vocation and go into the full-time, fivefold ministry of either an apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor or teacher. God has not called everyone into the fivefold ministry, but He has called everyone to do good works. We all have varied vocations. We all wear different hats. We are employers, employees, professionals, business owners, husbands, wives, parents, Christian ministry workers, children, brothers, sisters, friends. And each of these stations has various activities and responsibilities. To become a worker for Christ is to fulfill these stations "as unto the Lord." That is, to seek the wisdom of God and the mind of Christ. It is to do them with a spirit of excellence. When we receive God's wisdom, appropriate it and pursue excellence, it creates a platform of success that draws people to us so that we can influence them for Christ.
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Going After Real Rewards

My friend Howard Pierson received a tremendous revelation of this not long ago. Howard attends the men's weekly Bible study I started in my community. He came to the group one morning just after having been inducted into the Air Commander Hall of Fame. In Viet Nam, Howard was a Lt. Colonel in the United States Air Force. As a Top Gun fighter pilot who had been awarded Distinguished Flying Crosses, Airman Medals of Valor and Gallantry Crosses, plus many other decorations for heroism, Howard was a "blood and guts" kind of guy who would fly suicide missions and come back as a celebrated hero. Like a lot of fighter pilots, however, he was a drinking, hellraising, macho man whom the women loved. Even the other pilots thought he was the greatest Air Force pilot in Viet Nam. It wasn't until many years after Vietnam that Howard became a Christian. Because of that, today, he directs his passion and intensity toward serving the Lord. That October morning at our Bible study, as Howard spoke of the honor he'd received, he said, "It is a wonderful honor to be inducted into the Air Commander Hall of Fame, but none of that counts for eternity, because I wasn't living for the Lord in those days." Suddenly, it hit me. He wasn't seeing how God could use it to impact people today. I exclaimed, "Howard, you're wrong! It all counts! The reason is because every one of those guys who flew with you respects you. You put your life on the line. You got the job done. You saved a lot of lives. You went to war and became an American hero! Your peers respected you. Because you have their respect, you have a platform of success that gives you credibility. Now you can go to each one of them and tell them how Jesus has changed your life. They will listen to you. God will use it all, Howard, and give you credit for it in heaven if you will use it now to lead those guys to Christ." That day Howard's entire perspective changed. He saw the
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Crowns for the Wise

truth. The world worships success. Your success attracts people to you and becomes a platform for sharing Jesus with them. If you do everything wholeheartedly so that you become successful at your task, you create a platform of credibility and favor with people, which makes them open to hearing about Jesus. When people respect you, they will listen to you. God's plan is so wonderful. He created us for this very reason: to glorify Him through our good works (Matthew 5:16). This is our purpose in life. The good works do not earn our salvation, but they do earn rewardsright here on earth and later in heaven. The Great Reward Day If we will live our lives as wise men and women and win souls, we will experience the most rewarding life Christ has to offer us now, in this lifetime. And when we die and step into heaven, by the grace of God, we will experience another kind of reward when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ. You may have cringed when you read the words "judgment seat of Christ." Many people do because it brings up negative thoughts and images of condemnation and failure. This is due to an unfortunate and inaccurate understanding of this wonderful event. The judgment seat for those who become Christians, or believers, will be a joyous occasion, because judgment for the believer will be based on rewards, not punishment (read Revelation 7:14; 20:11-15; 1 Thessalonians 1:10). The gospel is a redeeming, not a condemning message. Jesus said, "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:17). Those who have received and believed the message of the gospel are redeemed, not condemned. Therefore, for them, facing the judgment seat of Christ is not something to fear. The purpose of judgment for the Christian is to be
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Going After Real Rewards

motivational, not fearful. Its purpose is to give us incentive and inspire us to good works. The Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:9-10, "Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the When we are coronated at the judgment seat of Christ, 'that judgment seat of Christ, it will be each one may receive the grander than the coronation of things done in the body, according to what he has any earthly king or queen. done, whether good or bad." We have been saved so that Christ might live His life through us. We will be rewarded to the degree that we have allowed Him to do so. The evaluation of the believer's life that takes place at the judgment seat of Christ relates to how we have conducted ourselves since our salvation. A study of the word judgment seat confirms this: The Greek word for judgment seat is bema, and it means a platform or raised place. W. E. Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (1981, Fleming H. Company, Old Tappan, New Jersey) explains that the term was used to denote "a raised place or platform, reached by steps, originally that at Athens in the Pnyx Hill, where was the place of assembly; from the platform orations were made." References to this usage are in Matthew 27:19, John 19:13, Acts 12:21, 18:1217, and 25:6. The term bema, has several usages in the Bible, but in this context it is the place of judgment and awarding of rewards at the Greek athletic games, for it appears this is the meaning Paul referred to in his writings: "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body
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and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified" (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing" (2 Timothy 4:7-8). What was Paul saying? He was saying that the same qualities which make an athlete a winner earn heavenly rewards, metaphorically spoken of in the form of crowns, for the Christian. In his commentary of 1 Corinthians 9:26-27, Theodore Epp states: "In Paul's day, freeborn Greek citizens were the only ones allowed to compete in the games. For the heavenly crowns, only born-again ones are eligible to be contestants. Salvation is the starting point, not the goal. We do not strive to enter into salvation. We enter into salvation by faith, and then we work to win the crowns" (Harlan D. Betz, The Nature of Rewards at the Judgment Seat of Christ, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1974, p. 29). It is good to consider our ways...to reflect on how we think, what we speak, what deeds we perform and what our motives are. Our rewards for all eternity depend on how closely we walk in the footsteps of Jesus and let Him live His life through us. At the judgment seat this will be reflected in what we have to worship Jesus with...no crowns, a few crowns, or many. On that day, as we stand before the great throne, we will be judged.

Our thoughts and motives will be judged (Hebrews 4:12-13). Our words will be judged. Jesus said, "But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken" (Matthew

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12:36, New International Version). That which is spoken in privategossip, grumbling, complaining, backbiting, judging and criticizingwill be shouted in public, for "there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known" (Luke 12:2).

Our faithfulness will be judged. God has given each of us talents, abilities and opportunities. Matthew 25:13-30 records the parable of the talents. Jesus used this parable to teach us that we will be held accountable for our talents, abilities and opportunities. He also illustrated that we are all equally responsible to use our gifts, regardless of how much or how little we receive. In other words, we are responsible for what we are given.

Jesus used another allegory, the parable of the laborers in Matthew 20:1-16, to illustrate this point. We will not be able Our rewards for all eternity to make excuses: "I am not as depend on how closely we walk talented as Joe Christian." Or in the footsteps of Jesus and let to shift blame: "I never got to Him live His life through us. At preach to thousands, it is not the judgment seat this will be my fault I led no one to Christ." Our reward is not reflected in what we have to based on the length of our worship Jesus with...no crowns, service, or how talented we a few crowns, or many. are, but on our faithfulness to the opportunities afforded us. Everyone will receive his own reward according to his own labor (1 Corinthians 3:8). In light of all this, God will hold us accountable for our faithfulness to do the works He ordained for us to do. It is not that we will be punished for sin, but that we will forfeit our rewards for our lack of temperance, stewardship, accountability and responsibility, for Jesus cautioned "Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown" (Revelation 3:11). At the judgment seat of Christ, we will either be rewarded for our faithfulness or we will face Christ with no offering of
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gratitude for the costly salvation He gave us. What utter disappointment to walk away empty-handed, saved from hell, but not having received any of the extra rewards for being a faithful, dutiful and loyal worker in His kingdom. What futility to have no love offering to cast at Jesus' feet. The opportunities for earning those rewards will have been squandered by our unfaithfulness or consumed by fire because we lived our lives chasing success rather than winning souls and letting success chase us. But if we are obedient and win souls, oh, how wonderful that will be. When we are coronated at the judgment seat of Christ, it will be grander than the coronation of any earthly king or queen. With our crowns we will worship the King of kings. Wood, Hay and Straw According to 1 Corinthians 3:8-15, there are things that will be consumed because God is going to test the foundation of our works. The Apostle Paul said: "As a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire." Jesus is the foundation. Each of us builds on that foundation, with either perishable materials, which will be burned up at the last day, or with imperishable materials which will endure. Winning souls is imperishable. Wood, hay and straw represent any works we do which do
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not originate with God and will be burned up. Jesus set the example. He said: "I am able to do nothing from Myself [independently, of My own accordbut only as I am taught by God and as I get His orders]. Even as I hear, I judge [...as the voice comes to Me, so I give a decision,] and My judgment is right..because I do not seek or consult My own will [I have no desire to do what is pleasing to Myself, My own aim, My own purpose] but only the will and pleasure of the Father Who sent Me" (John 5:30, The Amplified Bible). Jesus submitted His will to His Father's will and made Himself accountable to God. In setting this example, He said, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me" (Matthew 16:24). So wood, hay and straw represent anything not built on the foundation of Christ, or, that does not follow the example He set. We are required to learn to hear the voice of God, make ourselves accountable to God, and deny our own will so that we can accomplish His will. When we do not do these things, we can become deceived thinking that much of what we do is of eternal value when it is not. For example, church work which is done because we feel pressured to do it is not Christlike. Building ministries for personal gain rather than for the benefit of others is not Christlike. In fact, doing any good work for personal gain does not exemplify the life of Christ and will not be rewarded. Wood, hay and straw are anything built apart from our total surrender to God's will. Gold, Silver and Precious Stones Gold, silver and precious stones represent just the opposite. The only works which will pass the test of the fire are those
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which result from our intimate relationship with God. Intimacy with God entails personal, private time spent getting to know Him through the Word, through prayer, through hearing His voice and through depending on His power within us to accomplish His will. Intimacy with God is based on love, loyalty and commitment, not fear, pressure or obligation. We will be confident in our ability to correctly discern the voice of God when we are able to say, like Jesus, "I do not seek my own will, my own aim or my own purposes." True ministryworks built on the foundation of Christwill be out of the overflow of our personal relationship with God.

That which stands the fiery test, that which was built of gold, silver and precious stones, will become an eternal testimony of faithfulness, a crown of incorruptibility, and the commendation of his Lord, "Well done, good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:21). Jesus taught that it was better to gain the kingdom of God and build an imperishable treasure in heaven than to lose one's soul and gain the wealth of the world, which can be stolen or destroyed by rust and moths (Matthew 6:19-20). He lived what He taught by totally surrendering His will to His Father's will and to eternal purposes (John 5:30). In Romans 12:1-2, we are exhorted to do the same. Our total surrender to Christ is the test of His Lordship in our lives. If we do not obey Him, we cannot honestly say He is our Lord (Luke
34

We will be confident in our ability to correctly discern the voice of God when we are able to say, like Jesus, "l do not seek my own will, my own aim, or my own purposes." True ministryworks built on the foundation of Christwill be out of the overflow of our personal relationship with God.

That which was built through wood, hay or straw will be incinerated like trash, leaving the believer sad that his efforts produced little or nothing of eternal value, and leaving the Master little for which He can commend him.

Going After Real Rewards

6:46-49). The foundation of everything we do as Christians must be Christ. No other foundation will stand the fiery test and earn for us special crown rewards in eternity.

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Pat's Story Being raised in church, I was devout in my faith and wanted to serve God with all my heart, but my relationship with Him was distant and impersonal. I had always believed God was someone I would get to know some day after I made it to heaven. If I died without the stain of sin on my soul, my salvation would be sure, so I sought to live a morally clean life. But 24 years ago, at age 27 I was diagnosed with cancer and came near death during surgery. Believing my life had been spared for a purpose, I experienced a deep desire to know the truth about salvation. I agonized over the question haunting my mind: What if I had died, would I have gone to heaven? I knew that Jesus died for the sins of the world, but I never felt connected to Him or to God. I also believed spirituality wasn't something a person wore on his sleeve. I thought religion was a private matter. But in my thirst to know the truth, I met several people who talked openly about their "personal relationship with Jesus Christ." Their boldness to speak of such a personal issue piqued my interest. Soon, after listening to several people's stories, I told God that I wanted this personal relationship but that I didn't know how to have it. God answered my questions by sending more and more people into my life who knew Jesus this way. I didn't seek them out, they seemed to be seeking me out! Over a period of several months they led me to a completely different understanding of the gospel. Salvation was not about me, it was about Him and what He did in my behalf I discovered that while Jesus had died for the sins of the world, it was my place to accept Him as my personal Savior. When I did this by faith, trusting in God's forgiveness, suddenly God was no longer distant and impersonal. I had a direct relationship with Him through Jesus Christ, and Jesus became my closest and most loyal friend. Now I can talk to Him about anything, any time, and He talks to me.
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What I learned about salvation came as a direct result of people being bold enough to tell me about their personal experiences with Jesus. Twenty-four years later, I am still grateful that someone cared enough to witness to me.

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Chapter 3
3

Run to Win

o run the race of our liveswinning soulsis to fulfill our highest mission and express God's greatest passion. It is the kind of life that is built upon a foundation of gold, silver and precious stones. It is the kind of life that, through the graciousness of God toward us, can win crowns for the wise. When Paul spoke of running the race to win the prize in 1 Corinthians 9:24-25, he said that athletes practice strict discipline to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. The key qualification for earning incorruptible crowns is temperance. To be temperate is to show restraint in thought, action or feeling. Jesus said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matthew 16:24, King James Version). Therefore, these incorruptible crowns cannot be achieved by Christians who are living a loose, wanton lifestyle. "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 Savior 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). A carnal person, one who is impure and immoral, will not be one who is longing for the appearing of Jesus Christ. His

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thoughts, his decisions, his desires and his actions will not be wrapped up in eternal things, but in the things of this earth. The one who yearns for the appearing of Christ will temper his life with restraint in all things which displease his Lord. Another key to obtaining an incorruptible crown is humility. It takes the power and grace of God to be a worker for Christ, and one cannot have the power of God when pride is in the way. God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5). Humility is that quality which causes a person to do uncommon things in a common way. A humble person aspires to do great things, but he does them quietly and without fanfare. A humble person knows that it is Christ in him Who enables him to do anything that is of eternal significance and value. The story Warren Wiersbe and Lloyd Perry tell about missionary Hudson Taylor in The Wycliff Handbook of Preaching and Preachers is a fine example of true humility. Taylor was invited to speak at a large Presbyterian church in Melbourne, Australia. The moderator of the service introduced him in eloquent and glowing terms, telling the large congregation all that Taylor had accomplished in China. After listing his accomplishments, the moderator presented him as "our illustrious guest." Taylor stood quietly for a moment, and then opened his message by saying, "Dear friends, I am the little servant of an illustrious Master." Humility does not mean one thinks little of himself. It means he doesn't think of himself at all, but thinks of Christ. John the Baptist, speaking of Christ, passionately cried out, "He must increase, and I must decrease" (John 3:30). John understood that he could get in the way of God. Perhaps that is the best description of pride. It is the weakness of a man who thinks he is of any significance apart from the power and grace of God working in and through him. "The more humble a man is in himself, and the more
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obedient towards God, the wiser will he be in all things, and the more shall his soul be at peace." (Thomas a Kempis). A wise person will not only take care of business in the affairs of this life, but he will also understand that it is those things which are eternal which are the most significant. This life is but a vapor. Vapor is short-lived. Perhaps that is why the Bible speaks of incorruptible crowns. Incorruptibility refers to permanence, which refers to eternity. Obedience, humility Humility is that quality which and temperance are eternal causes a person to do values. To aspire toward uncommon things in a common winning crowns for the wise, way. A humble person aspires is to be heavenly minded, not to do great things, but he does earthly minded. The Bible lists these crowns. While not all scholars agree on the number, they all agree they are incorruptible. For example, some Bible scholars say there are five crowns: the crown of incorruptibility, the crown of righteousness, the crown of life, the crown of glory and the crown of rejoicing. However, most Bible scholars group the last four crowns under one heading: the crowns of incorruptibility. In other words, the crown of incorruptibility is not an individual crown, but the general description of the other four crowns, all of them being incorruptible. I concur. Most Bible commentaries also emphasize the fact that the importance of a crown is not the crown itself, but what it represents. Each crown stands for the type of labor for which the believer receives it. In the following pages I will teach you about each crown and while only one is of key importance to our study of soul winning, it is reasonable to conclude that someone who cares enough to win souls may gather the other crowns along the way. The Crown of Righteousness
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them quietly and without fanfare.

Crowns for the Wise

The first crown, mentioned by Paul toward the close of his life to Timothy, is the crown of righteousness. "For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing " (2 Timothy 4:68). Notice that Paul was not ashamed to say that he anticipated a reward for his labor! Neither was he ashamed of modeling this attitude to his protege, Timothy, knowing that "to a laborer, his wages are not counted as a favor or a gift, but as an obligation (something owed to him)" (Romans 4:4, The Amplified Bible). Furthermore, he states that the reward is reserved for all who anticipate and love the appearing of the Lord. Therefore, anyone can be a candidate for the crown of righteousness. The crown of righteousness represents a pure soul which remains blameless. In anticipation of the coming of the Lord he "purifies himself, just as He is pure" (1 John 3:3). Nothing inspires purity and holiness before God and decency and integrity before men like the expectation of the Lord. No one would want to be found carnal and corrupt on the day of His return. While every believer freely receives the gift of righteousness (right-standing with God), only those who keep themselves pure will receive the crown of righteousness (Romans 5:17). The key word is keep. It is possible to receive salvation and not receive this reward. A pure Christian is not a perfect Christian, rather he is one who, when he commits sin, does not keep sinning. He repents and keeps himself pure. He is one who deals honestly with others, one who is chaste in word, thought and deed. He is undefiled by the world. The Christian who keeps his life pure and is obedient to the Word of God can expect the crown of
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righteousness. He can anticipate the joy of worshiping at Jesus' feet and saying, "I kept myself pure and I offer my purity to You as a gift because I love You!" The Crown of Life The crown of life is awarded for enduring temptations and trials. Two Bible passages reference the crown of life. First, James wrote: "Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him" (James 1:12). Second, John wrote in Revelation 2:10, "Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life." The crown of life is the reward for those who remain faithful to the Lord through hardship, including the possibility that the hardship may lead to death (martyrdom). James made a curious statement concerning this kind of adversity. He said: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything" (James 1:2-4, New International Version). Perseverance, or patience, as the King James Bible calls it, is not an inherent quality. Patience is a quality which must be developed, and it is developed through trials and tribulation (Romans 5:3). It is easy to be patient when we are not being tested. But tests prove us. We will all face tests and trials because we are redeemed people living in an unredeemed world. As Christians, we are traveling in opposite directions of the world, and this creates resistance. Some common trials Christians face are:

Persecution at home for our faith. A Christian wife who

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lives with an unbelieving husband may face attacks because he resists her lifestyle, because he belittles her faith or because he refuses to repent of his own sin. He may even forbid her from attending church or Bible studies. Believing children living with unsaved parents could face the same type of criticism and assaults on their God-given freedom.

Persecution at work. A Christian who practices a godly lifestyle and godly principles of business will most likely bring resistance and criticism from his unsaved coworkers, or even from his boss. Persecution through the world. At its worst, persecution in the world may come in the form of imprisonment for our faith, or even martyrdom. Although Americans do not usually face this type of persecution, we face it through the continual chipping away at our religious freedoms, and through the moral decay of our nation. We are pressured to be "politically correct," and to accept alternative lifestyles. To concede is to condone sin, yet, to resist is to bring persecution. The trial of our faith, through a temptation or test. We have a spiritual enemy, named Satan, whose only purpose is to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). When he maneuvers with circumstances to do one of these three things, we are obligated to resist him. These trials could include, but are not limited to, sickness, disease, financial ruin, family ruin, sin, drugs, immorality, mediocrity, laziness, hatred, unforgiveness, overindulgence and so on.

According to the Scripture, faithful endurance As persons of faith, we are of temptations, tests, and trials committed to a good report and resisting the inclination to retaliate or rebelbrings the to maintaining a good spirit in temporal reward of the midst of tests and trials. undisturbed peace and composure in the face of
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adversity, and earns for us the crown of life. The Bible calls these "light afflictions" and contrasts them with the "eternal weight of glory" they will produce on judgment day. If we are faithful, Jesus will see that the scales tip in our favor and for His glory (2 Corinthians 4:17-18). "In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:6-7, New American Standard). The New International Version adds even more clarity: "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faithof greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by firemay be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." In the last chapter, I explained that fire will destroy wood, hay and straw, but it only purifies gold. This is a metaphor that says gold is more durable than wood, hay and straw. In this passage, Peter is saying that, ultimately, even gold will be destroyed because everything of this world is temporal. Gold signifies earthly riches and represents the highest standard of earthly values. As the New International Version states, our faith in God is of more value than gold, because gold is not eternal.

The purpose of tests and trials is not to destroy us, but to enable us to develop patience, to appropriate the power and the love of God, and to walk in the Spirit rather than the flesh. Tests and trials mature and complete us so that we will lack nothing.

Life brings times of trial and hardship which we endure through a love for Christ. As persons of faith, we are committed
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to a good report and to maintaining a good spirit in the midst of tests and trials. As we triumph, we experience the joy of victory and qualify for the crown of life. The Crown of Glory It is fitting that the Apostle Peter introduces the crown of glorythe crown awarded to the faithful shepherd and feeder of the flock. When Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him and Peter responded affirmatively, Jesus said, "If you love Me, then feed My sheep " (John 21:15-19). Peter later wrote: "Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away" (1 Peter 5:2-4). The dearest things to the heart of God are His sheep. That's why He reserves a crown for everyone who genuinely reaches out to His sheep...who feed His flock as either a:

Sunday school teacher cell or home group leader Bible study leader intercessor a counselor an elder or anyone, in any capacity, who feeds His sheep

Jesus' love for His sheep runs deep. He identifies with His sheep. When He confronted Saul, the persecutor of the Jews, on the Road to Damascus, He did not say, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute the Jews?" He said, "Why do you persecute Me?" (Acts 9:4). When we take care of Jesus' sheep, we are directly ministering to Him! First Peter 5:2-4 is a clear indication of His heart. When you lead or oversee members of a flock, by being a
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good example, by modeling godly behavior, then He promises an imperishable crown of glory. God loves it when we encourage His people. Hebrews 3:13 says, "Exhort one another daily...lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. " Anyone who feeds the flock of God through encouragement, teaching, Bible study, leading by examplewith a godly and right attitudeis living in such a way as to be awarded the crown of glory, because those actions pour the Word of God into the sheep and mature them in Christ. Hebrews 6:10 promises us, "For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. " Ministering to the flock of God flows directly from one of the two great commandments. The first great commandment, He said, is "To love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. " And the second is like it: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:38-39). Ministering to the sheep is a by-product of loving your neighbor as yourself. It means meeting their needs as you would want to have your needs met. The Crown of Rejoicing The final crown is directly related to our study of soul winning. It is the crown of rejoicing. The Apostle Paul mentions this crown in 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20. Addressing the believers he had personally won to Christ, Paul said, "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus are our glory and joy."

To commandeer an immortal soul from the eternal fires of hell is to save the most precious heavenly commodity. It is the most holy service one can render to God and it is the most honorable sacrifice one can give to man.
Christ at His coming? For you

He mentions this crown again, in Philippians 4:1:

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"Therefore, my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved." Notice here that although he does not use the term "crown of rejoicing," Paul couples the thought of a crown with joy. The fullness of joy in heaven will be seeing those who, through our personal influence, are safe in the presence of the Lord forever! I believe it is the most significant crown a believer can attain because of what it representsall the souls you have led to Christ through your soul winning activities, either directly or indirectly. There are four reasons why I believe the crown of rejoicing is the most significant crown. The first reason is the cost involved. God paid the absolute highest price possible. He sacrificed His only Son, Jesus, for all mankind. Jesus' blood was more than enough for you and me and for every person to be redeemed from living an empty life and then spending eternity in hell. If the price alone were the sole determinant, then the crown of rejoicing is clearly second to none among the crowns. The second reason is the mission. Following His The greatest treasure we can Father's example, Jesus build in heaven is souls won to reaffirmed the significance of soul winning by making the Christ. Great Commission the chief and primary commandment to the Church. This mission is both individual and corporate. In response to our obedience, I believe God compensates us with the most significant reward a believer can achievethe crown of rejoicing. The third reason is that souls are the only thing that we will be able to take to heaven. when we leave this earth, we will leave behind our houses, our cars, our bank accounts, everything. The greatest treasure we can build in heaven is souls won to Christ. Nothing is more valuable because souls are eternal. To commandeer an immortal soul from the eternal fires
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of hell by leading him or her to Christ is to save the most precious heavenly commodity. It is the most holy service one can render to God and it is the most honorable sacrifice one can give to man. The fourth reason is the glorious splendor of the reward. No other crown offers an eternal reward of extraordinary brilliance like the crown of rejoicing. Daniel 12:3: "Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever." If we lead others to Christ, we shall shine in heaven like stars...many stars! Only one other condition can make us shine in such increasing and continuous glorybeing a believer. Proverbs 4:18 promises us that, "The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day" (New International , Version). By accepting Christ we begin to shine in increasing splendor until we are as bright as the sun, but that is only as bright as one star. By leading others to Christ, we experience no limit to the glory and splendor God bestows on us. He describes it "as the stars"plural and limitless in number"forever and ever," an inconceivable glory.

Daniel 12:3 paraphrased: "Those who turn many to righteousness shall shine like the stars forever and ever."

All throughout Scripture a star is a symbol of royal dominion. In the book of Revelation, Jesus made a promise to him who overcomes temptation and tribulation that is directly related to dominion. In chapter two, verse 28, He said, "And I will give him the morning star." The morning star is not the gift of Christ, for every Christian possesses Christ through the work of redemption (1 John 5:10-13). Rather, the morning star is the brilliance of being like Christ in royal splendor! It is another inconceivable reward of being an overcomer and a soul winner.
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In 1 Thessalonians 2:20, Paul said those whom we lead to Christ are our glory and joy. So, every soul you win to Christ is your glory and your joy. This glory is part of your special eternal reward. It is part of the eternal weight of glory and the shining brilliance you will exude in eternity as you throw your crowns at Jesus' feet. God wants us to fully realize how important winning souls is to Him. Just think about the efforts He has put forth to get us to do it. He even created a special crown for it! A glorious crown! In direct reference to Daniel 12:3, Sam Martin calls a soul winner "A BRIGHT STAR MAN!" A bright star man is one who leads many to righteousness. He will shine in heaven like the stars forever and ever... stars that are multiplying second by second as the universe continuously expands. The greatest way to honor God is to highly esteem what He highly esteemsand saving a soul from hell is obedience to the chief and primary command of Christ to win souls. It glorifies Him. It honors Him. It demonstrates our love for Him. Proverbs 11:30 says, "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is God becomes our debtor when wise."

The most gratifying fruit of the tree of life is a soul won to Christ. "He who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins" (James 5:20). What better fruit can a Christian bear? Jesus said that we glorify Him when we bear much fruit. What is more valuable than a living soul?

we labor for His kingdom. We become more usable to Him when we make His agenda our agenda.

Every person we win to Christ will be in heaven with us when we receive our eternal reward. This reward will not be a momentary honor, esteem, respect or recognition, but it will last for eternity. Our crown of rejoicing is what we will lay at Jesus' feet as our offering of love, devotion and respect to our King
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our offering of love to Him! We will say to Him, "I was not selfish with the gift of salvation. I offered it to everyone I knew, because I love You." Run Life's Race Start a new course today. Start running after souls. Start running to minister to the needs of others. Start running after righteousness and true holiness. This is the race Paul was talking about. It is the race he ran. Your quest will run you directly into persecution and hardship, but at the same time God will run after you to bless you. God becomes our debtor when we labor for His kingdom. We become more usable to Him when we make His agenda our agenda. Be wise! Make your talents, your energy, your efforts, your creativity, your compassion and your time count for eternity. Those who seek only to shine in this life, to gain fame, glamor and fortune, the glory of which will all fade, are not wise. The heroes of today can become the scandals of tomorrow. We have seen it happen often with Hollywood actors, professional athletes and even famous preachers. Even the brightest star in the celestial heavens is just a ball of gas which will eventually burn itself out. We all want to shine, to have our lives count for something and a true wise man will. A wise man's brilliance will never be extinguished, even by death, if he has heeded the exhortation of the prophet Daniel: "Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever" (Daniel 12:3). Those who are wise follow the example of Jesus who came to "seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). Being willing to share the gospel, being willing to ask God to teach you how to naturally and comfortably share such a powerful and life-changing choice, is all that's required to become a soul winner for Jesus. When you put God and His passion for every soul to be
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saved first in your life, He quickly moves into the middle of your life with blessings. He is longing to bless you, and when you live in obedience to His Word, He can. Be willing to touch the heart of God and move the hearts of men. When you love God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind, then it is easy to win souls.

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It Is Never Too Late After church one day, as was my custom, I dropped by the local nursing home to talk to, encourage and minister to these sweet, old, often discarded citizens of a past era. Today, I felt a prompting to go beyond my usual rounds to the far rooms in the back of the facility. Led to one of the very back rooms, I approached an old woman who, upon further inquiry, turned out to be quite senile, as were several of the others I approached. Regardless, I asked each if they knew Jesus loved them, smiled, and moved on, not receiving any response, except wild, raving sounds. At the back of the room, in a rocking chair, sat another old woman with obviously blind, opaque-blue eyes, rocking gently. I knelt down, repeating the question I had asked the others. A loud, "What?" was the reply. "Did you know Jesus loves you?" I shouted in the nearly deaf woman's ear. She listened intently as I shared Jesus and the plan of salvation with her. As it turned out, the woman had been a world traveler, looking for God all her life. As she prayed a simple salvation prayer with me, her face lit up with such joy, as she said, "You know, I have searched all my life for God...and now I have found Him." I left her there in her chair, rejoicing in the privilege of being used by the Lord to be His tender hand, reaching out to answer the heart-cry of a dear, old woman at the very end of her life. All I did was take the time to ask and harvest a soul. Barbara

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Chapter 4 Loving PeopleYour Greatest Mission, Your Greatest Reward

4

o receive the crown of rejoicing is the greatest special rewardand it came from the most costly sacrifice. Jesus Himself purchased every person's salvation with His own blood. John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." To tell others this good news is our greatest mission. It is what Jesus instructed us to do in Matthew 28:19-20. How can we deny Him? "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." When Jesus gave us the Great Commission, he laid out for us our greatest mission...and our greatest reward. By repeating Himself almost to the point of redundancy, Jesus emphasized the importance of this mission.

Matthew 24:14: "And 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." John 15:27: "And you also will bear witness, because you

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have been with Me from the beginning."

Mark 16:15-16: "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."' Luke 24:46-48: "Then He said to them, 'Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things."' John 20:21-22: "So Jesus said to them again, 'Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you. 'And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. "' Acts 1:8: "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."

Jesus had made His message clear. There was no way the disciples could misunderstand that their job was to announce the Good News to everyone. Not only had Jesus made the message clear, but most of the disciples had been personal witnesses to the crucifixion and knew of the resurrection firsthand. The message of salvation was fresh. Jesus was the long awaited Messiah. Salvation, which had been long awaited and long anticipated, had come. Armed with this bold, personal testimony, they enthusiastically and passionately passed the news along. There was nothing else to do other than spread the message as quickly as possible. The result of their conviction and their passion to share it was massive growth in the early church. Luke, the writer of the book of Acts, begins where he left off in his gospel by recording the initial fulfillment of the church's mission statement in Matthew 28:19-20. While the gospels
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record the acts of Jesus during His earthly ministry, the book of Acts records the acts of the apostles and the first disciples of Christ after His resurrection. Interestingly, the key word in this book is growth. The early believers not only grew in their knowledge of Jesus and the Scriptures, but their numbers also grew daily. Acts 2:47 says the believers were "Praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." Acts 5:41-42: "So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the The believers in the early church Christ."

not only grew in their knowledge Acts 16:5: "So the of Jesus and the Scriptures, but churches were strengthened in their numbers also grew daily. the faith, and increased in
number daily. "

This growth pattern can also be seen in the following verses: Acts 1:15, 2:41, 4:4, 5:14, 6:7, 9:31, 13:49 and 19:20. Although signs, wonders, miracles of healing, and more can be seen as well, they were not the focus. The focus was church growth because they recognized soul winning as their first duty and responsibility. It was how they grew. Their primary focus was personal witnessing, not evangelistic meetings. No one was exempt from witnessing, regardless of his position or title. The pastor, deacon, elder and the lay person all accepted soul winning as his or her first and primary function. The mission has not changed. Our job is to announce the same good news. Unfortunately, winning people to Christ is foreign to many believers. For the most part, the church neglects the unchurched masses. Jesus said that the harvest of souls is truly plentiful, but the laborers who want to bring them in are few (Matthew 9:37).
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The average church member seems comfortable with his church attendance and with resting in the assurance of his salvation. As a result, the average church member is missing out on his greatest mission and his greatest reward. Not only does the individual Christian miss out, but the church misses out as well. Since a large portion of the church neglects the ministry of soul winning, they do not experience the blessing of growth. Church growth follows soul winning and new births into the Kingdom of God. It does not follow signs and wonders. The by-product of new believers The fact that God rewards the being added to the church is soul winner with a crown the signs and wonders that indicates what an honor it is. many churches seek. Jesus The fact that soul winning is never said that He came to Jesus' central commandment to demonstrate signs and wonders! He said that He the church tells us that it is our duty. came to "seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). Then He commissioned His disciples to do the same. "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19). To seek signs and wonders is to miss the mark. To seek souls is to hit the mark. The reason most Christians have never led anyone to Christ is not because they could not or would not, but because they have never fully realized that it is their privilege and their duty as Christians. The fact that God rewards the soul winner with a crown indicates what an honor it is. The fact that soul winning is Jesus' central commandment to the church tells us that it is our duty. One of the best indicators that a person is a Christian is that he wins the unsaved. A person who truly understands what he has been saved from will want to see others saved as well. Second Corinthians 5:20-21 explains that we are God's spokespersons and that it is our responsibility to tell others about the free gift of salvation: "Now then, we are ambassadors for
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Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." Jesus went to the cross, now we are to take up our crosses daily and follow Him. The cross is sacrificing for the sake of the mission. Soul winning is the mission of the church, therefore, soul winning is the mission of every believer. Even though soul winning (or evangelism) is our duty, it is only one aspect of a balanced Christian life. The balanced, healthy Christian lifestyle revolves around evangelism, fellowship with other believers, discipleship, ministry to the saints and worship. A believer who develops in one or more of these areas without developing equally in the others will lack balance in his Christianity. The imbalance will drain his spiritual, emotional and physical energy and render him ineffective. Balance is the key to a healthy and effective Christian life and ministry. Remembering the importance of balance, we must also remember that soul winning is the Great Commission. The early church knew this well and worked diligently to fulfill their Godgiven mission. Since Jesus said that the job is massive but the laborers are few, we must answer the question, why, for the most part, do we not follow the example of the early church? The missing link is attitude. God is not complacent, apathetic or passive. Rather, He is compassionate and passionate. To God, each lost person is a lost child. What parent would not go to the greatest lengths to find and restore a lost child? Develop Your Compassion for the Lost When we find out God's deep passion for peopleto save them and bless themthen we can adopt His attitude, receive His compassion and be passionate about winning the lost. God's passion for people is most easily seen in how He
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interacted with His own chosen people, the nation of Israel. Historically, Israel was a nation of people who sometimes served God, but mostly rebelled against Him, disregarded His love and turned to idol worship. For example, the book of Judges records how, during a 400-year span, and in seven distinct cycles of sin to repentance, Israel set aside God's law for what was right in their own eyes (Judges 21:25). This pattern is seen throughout the Old Testamentfrom Genesis to Malachi. Israel's history is a picture of a roller coaster ride. Sometimes they were upserving God and enjoying the blessings of God. Other times they were downworshiping idols and reaping the consequences of their disobedience. While Israel's heart grew colder and colder with each cycle, God's heart remained hot with passion. With earnest longing and affection, He said, "How can I give you up, Israel?...My heart will not let me do it! My love for you is too strong" (Hosea 11:8, The Good News Bible). The New Living Translation puts it this way: "Oh, how can I give you up, Israel? How can I let you go?...My heart is torn within me, and my compassion overflows. " Isaiah 30:9 and 18 give another account of the rebellion of Israel and the passion of God to have her restored in spite of her hard heart: "For this is a rebellious people, faithless and lying sons, children who will not hear the law and instruction of the Lord...And therefore the Lord [earnestly] waits [expecting, looking, and longing] to be gracious to you; and therefore He lifts Himself up, that He may have mercy on you and show loving-kindness to you" (The Amplified Bible). God's love is boundless and unchanging. Even today, He ignores rejection and continues His passionate pursuit of the object of His affectionmankind. Even the most rebellious cannot escape the quality of God's love. Jeremiah 31:3 says: "The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: 'Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you."
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Deuteronomy 7:7-8 says: "The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt." The Berkeley Translation of Deuteronomy 7:7-8 uses the expression "fastened His love" for "set His love." This paints a picture of God permanently gluing Himself to the object of His love. In other words, nothing can change Him. He won't budge or bend. God loves the murderer, adulterer, child molester, thief and extortioner. He loves everyone, regardless of his or her sin. He does not love the sin, but He does love the sinner. There is no sin conceivable that will cause God to stop loving the sinner. His love is constant, continuous, endless, enduring and undying. These are some of the qualities of God's love for Israel in the Old Testament. What about today? What hope of God's love do the vilest of sinners have? Romans 5:5-8 states the answer: "Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. 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." God clearly shows us that He has fastened His love upon us. Now we need to fasten our love on the unsaved. The Apostle Paul said that the love Christ has for sinners is a constraining factor (2 Corinthians 5:14). It confines us to one attitudeto love the sinner. We need to tap into that same compassionate heart of Christ that will not let go, that loves in spite of not because of. No amount of earthly gain can make up for the inexpressible
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loss of a single person's soul. Luke 9:25 reveals the value God places on the soul of one person: "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?" The value of one saved person outweighs all the wealth, resources, talents, abilities, education, knowledge, power, accomplishment of the entire human race combined. There is no comparison. If you were to add up all the wealth and assets you have acquired, it just would not compare to the value of winning one soul to Christ, nor could it compare to the tremendous experience of personally seeing to it that a person will get to spend eternity in heaven worshiping Jesus. There's simply nothing on earth like it! The Christian lifestyle needs to be balanced. As stated before, the balance revolves around evangelism, fellowship with other believers, discipleship, ministry to the saints, and worship. And while each of these components is important, according to the Word of God, the Great Commission of the church is soul winning. The Great Commission of the church is the mission of every Christian. The other four components of the Christian faith are essential, but they are not the passion of the Great Commission. God's passion is for souls. The believer whose passion is soul winning will be a person after God's own heart. Jesus said "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels" (Luke 9:26). Jesus is looking for how often you tell the lost about Him. That is the sign that you are not ashamed of Him. That is the sign that you finally have the same passion as God. The lost must be won at all cost! Yield to His greatest mission for your life, remembering to balance evangelism with fellowship, discipleship, ministry to the saints and worship.

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Reaching the Taxi Drivers Because of my profession, I travel a great deal. I'm always needing a ride to and from the airport. For years someone took me and picked me up. But in recent years, I've opted to take a taxi...because I have a strategy. Almost every time I have to go to the airport, I call a taxi. And I always pray for the driver to be someone who is not a Christian, maybe someone who is Muslim or from the Middle East. When I get in the taxi, I start small talk...and eventually always present the gospel to them. I give them a copy of the book The Mystery of Eternity, and I give them a generous tip. I want them to know that I appreciate their service and I also see it as an opportunity to treat them the way God would treat them, with dignity and respect. Once on the plane and after I arrive at my destination, I often leave a copy of The Mystery of Eternity on the seat. I sign the book and write my phone number in it telling whomever reads it to call me if they have any questions. It is simply another seed sown, another opportunity to reach another person for Christ. Randy

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5

Working God's Plan to Reach the Lost

I
out.

n Acts 1:8 Jesus laid out His plan for accomplishing the church's mission of reaching the world with the gospel. "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." There are four parts to His plan which immediately stand 1. Jesus said that the plan will be carried out with the power of the Holy Spirit. 2. The plan will be carried out through witnessing. 3. The plan is universal. 4. The plan is systematic.

1. The Power of the Holy Spirit

The power to be a witness comes from the Holy Spirit Who lives on the inside of every believer. Even Jesus Himself never did anything in His ministry without a divine infusion of power. In Matthew 3:16-17, it is recorded that when Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit came upon Him. All His ministry followed this incident. It is reasonable to believe that if Jesus could not minister without the Holy Spirit, then neither can we. And the good news is, God does not command us to be witnesses without giving us

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the power to do it. The Holy Spirit is God's marvelous plan for empowering His children with His own ability, strength and wisdom. The Holy Spirit gives us the ability to act like God would act, go where God would go, do what God would do and say what God would say. Because of His empowerment, we are His mouthpiece, pleading with the lost to be reconciled to God. We are His hands extended to them and we are His feet taking His message to the uttermost parts of the world. But because we have natural bodies and we live in a natural world, we must be filled with the Holy Spirit to succeed. Thus, Ephesians 5:18 exhorts us to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit, because without Him we can do nothing (John 15:5). Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ has said: "To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to be filled with Christ. The Holy Spirit came to glorify Christ. Therefore, if I am filled with the Spirit, I am abiding in Christ..And if I am controlled and empowered by Christ, He will be walking around in my body, living His resurrection life in and through me" (Haddon Robinson, "On The Holy Spirit gives us the Target," Focal Point.) ability to act like God would act, It makes perfect sense that we cannot be effective witnesses without the power and presence of Christ.

go where God would go, do what God would do and say what God would say.

2. The Plan Is Carried Out Through Witnessing A witness is defined as one who gives testimony to something which he has personally seen, heard or experienced. Witnesses in a trial are not allowed to testify of hearsay; they must present evidence based on their personal knowledge. Every believer who has had a genuine, personal experience with Jesus can relate his testimony. Witnessing to the lost is as simple as relating to another
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person what has happened to you. How did you realize you were lost? How did God reveal Himself to you? How has your life changed since being saved? The book of Acts records how the Gospel was promoted in the early church. According to research by seminary professor Roy Fish, many of the disciples were not called of God to preach. Therefore, they were not preaching, they were witnessing, and as a result the people came under conviction of their sin and recognized their need for salvation (Roy J. Fish, J. E. Conant, Every Member Evangelism, Harper & Row, Publishers). It was not until the individual witnessing had taken place that there were large meetings where there was preaching (Acts 2:14). Many believers today defer their personal witnessing duty to mass evangelism, and it is easy to do. We hear stories of how many thousands of souls are won through mass crusades. However, it is interesting that there is only one mass crusade mentioned in the book of Acts. You can read about it in Acts 2:14-41. The rest of the gospel preaching is one-on-one witnessing. While mass evangelism has its place in Christianity, the fact is, most people come to Christ through personal evangelism. A missionary friend of mine, whose ministry spans more than 50 years and who has preached throughout most of the world, Every believer who has had a takes a poll most everywhere genuine, personal experience he goes of the Christians who were saved through mass with Jesus can relate his evangelism and those who testimony. were saved through personal witnessing. Everywhere he has conducted this poll, the results reveal, that 2 to 5 percent were saved through mass evangelism and 95 to 98 percent were saved through one-on-one witnessing. With these figures it is plain to see why Jesus commanded us to be personal witnesses. Jesus also gave us many personal examples in His own
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ministry. To name a few, it was one Jesus witnessing to one Nicodemus (John 3:1-21), one Jesus witnessing to one woman at the well (John 4:6-42), and one Jesus witnessing to one tax collector (Matthew 9:9). Then in Luke 15, He used three parables to illustrate the principle of personal witnessing. It was one shepherd after line lost sheep, one elderly lady after one lost coin, one father after one lost son. The Ripple Effect of Witnessing Recently I heard the following story told by a leading missionary/evangelist. This story illustrates the far-reaching ripple effect of our personal witnessing. I heard it like this: In Boston, Massachusetts, many years ago, there was a man named Edward Kimbell, who had a speech impediment and very little skill, but who was dedicated to ministering to the young boys in the Old North Church. One day he went into Holton Shoe Store and asked Mr. Holton if he could go to the back room and talk to the stock boy about Jesus. Mr. Holton said, "You certainly may, and God bless you as you go!" Mr. Kimbell went into the stock room, sat down on a cobbler's bench and talked to the young 13-year-old boy who was working in the stacks. He said, "May I tell you about Jesus?" The boy said yes, and Mr. Kimbell proceeded to tell him the plan of salvation. The boy accepted the Lord. That boy was D.L. Moody, the man who probably did more to advance the cause of Christ in his time than any other. D.L. Moody won a teacher by the name of R. A. Torrey to the Lord. R. A. Torrey later taught at Moody Bible Institute and Biola University, and also won a man named Billy Sunday, who became a premier evangelist in his day. Billy Sunday won a man named Mordecai Fowler Ham, who became an evangelist as well. In 1934, Mordecai Ham held a revival meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina. Years later, in the 1950s, Reverend Ham was
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reading through his old journals and came across this entry: "Revival meeting, Charlotte, North Carolina, failure. Nothing happened. Only one 16-year-old was saved. Billy Graham was his name." Only God knows the souls who have been won as a result One-on-one witnessing of all these men's Christian increases the kingdom of God witness. Look at the farlike no other tool. We may never reaching effect of the personal know the ripple effect of our witness of one man, Edward personal witnessing. Kimball. One-on-one witnessing increases the kingdom of God like no other tool. We may never know the ripple effect of our personal witnessing. Christian's Role: Witness! Witnessing also revolves around the word go. Jesus did not tell His disciples to stand on the shores and that the "fish" would come to them. He said, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." If you are going to catch fish, you have to go where they are. You go to them before you bid them to come to church. Every church should be a witnessing community. If your "fishing" is not producing any results, the fish are not hungry. Go where the needs are and the "fish" will bite! In areas of the world where people enjoy a good deal of prosperity and entertainment such as we have in the United States, people do not generally recognize their need for salvation, and Christians for the most part do not recognize the urgency of soul winning. As a result, ministry for many believers usually means participating in church activities, i.e., singing in the choir, serving on committees, teaching Sunday school and so on. These are all good and important ministry activities. It is good to participate in them, but they can never take the place of soul winning. We can be in the choir and win souls. We can
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teach Sunday school and win souls. We can fellowship with other believers and win souls. We have to worship God and win souls. The balanced, healthy Christian lifestyle revolves around all five of these areas: evangelism, fellowship with other believers, discipleship, ministry to the saints and worship. A believer who develops in one or more of these areas without developing equally in the rest of them will lack balance in his Every church should be a Christianity. The lack of witnessing community. balance will drain his spiritual, emotional and physical energy to be effective in each area. Balance is important to a healthy and effective Christian ministry. Whatever we do, we have to win souls as well. We have to be directly involved in people's lives and meet their true need. Jesus was always busy ministering to people with needs. This is a vital first key to witnessing. Everyone has needs. Ask God effective Everyone has needs. Ask God to send you some hungry souls. to send you some hungry Meet them at the point of their souls. Meet them at the point need with the gospel and the of their need with the gospel power of the Holy Spirit. and the power of the Holy Spirit. You may be the only Christian who comes into a certain person's life. If you neglect him, how will he ever hear the gospel? The late Dr. Jim Ponder, former Director of Evangelism for a large denomination in Florida, told the following story: When he was growing up in Fort Worth, Texas, a layman at the North Fort Worth Baptist Church named Brother Renfro went to his home every Saturday for many weeks to witness to him about trusting Jesus. One day Jim Ponder was walking home after football practice. Dr. James N. Morgan, the pastor of the North Fort Worth Baptist Church noticed him as he was driving by. He
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stopped and witnessed to him with much intensity. The following Sunday Jim trusted Christ and went on to become one of the best and most traveled evangelists in the world. That was on the north side of Fort Worth. On the east side, there was another young man who was unsaved, who regularly attended Sunday school classes. A Sunday school teacher by the name of Winifred Oxford, although she was not his teacher, called that young man every week, addressing his need to accept Jesus. She even sent her husband to talk to him about the Lord. She would not take no for an answer. At 18 years of age, after the personal witnessing of Winifred Oxford and her husband, that young man became gloriously saved at a church camp. That boy later accepted the call to the ministry and has traveled the world over for more than 50 years preaching the gospel. On the south side of Fort Worth, there was a man named Roy Perkins, a Sunday school teacher. He started telling a young man on the south side about Jesus. Every Saturday he witnessed to him, and the young man rebuffed him. Finally, he came to church on a Sunday morning after months of witnessing and Theron B. Ferris, the young man, got saved. Dr. Theron B. Ferris later became an outstanding missionary/evangelist. On the west side of Fort Worth, Dr. James Ponder later served as pastor at a church located near Weatherford, Texas. A young man came into Sunday school and filled out a visitor's card. The back of the card asked if he wanted a visit from the Sunday school teacher and he said yes. When the visitor's cards were turned in, Dr. Ponder asked if the Sunday school teacher had visited him. He said no, he hadn't had time. The next Sunday, the same thing happened. The boy asked for a visit and the teacher did not go. The third Sunday, the same young man visited a third time, obviously searching for Jesus, and asked for a visit the third time. For the third time that Sunday school teacher did not go visit him and tell him about Jesus.

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That young man's name was Lee Harvey Oswald, the man believed to have shot President John F. Kennedy in Dallas in 1963. That Sunday school teacher may have been the only one who could have reached Lee Harvey Oswald. Lee Harvey Oswald obviously had needsneeds no one took the time to meet. Jesus wants us to meet other people's needs. He wants us to love them as He does. He wants us to love them as we would want to be loved. Think of the biblical story of the paralyzed man in Mark 2:14. The Bible says that he was carried on a stretcher to the home where Jesus was teaching. The house was so full of people that his caretakers could not enter the door. So, they carried him to the roof, uncovered the roof and lowered him on his stretcher down into the presence of Jesus. Would this man have been healed and saved without the assistance of his friends? Most likely not since he was paralyzed. Just like this man's friends helped him, unbelievers need assistance from their friends. They need someone to help them get get in touch with their real needsalvation. The immediate need of every unbeliever is the salvation of his soul. Whether he denies it or not, he cannot escape the following facts: 1. There is a God (Romans 1:19-20). 2. Man is a sinner (Romans 1:21-22, 3:23; John 16:8-9). 3. God is offering salvation to man (Romans 10:9-10). 4. Judgment will one day come to man (John 16:11; Romans 2:5; Hebrews 9:27). Without the aid of believers pointing these facts out, a person will most likely never recognize his need for salvation. Above all, realize that witnessing is your personal responsibility. You must accept this responsibility, respond to the call and just do it!

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Then, when you have witnessed to someone, get him or her into church. Professor Roy Fish says, "The one main business of the church is witnessing, both private and public. Private witnessing is to be done by all, and the public is to be done by those whom the Holy Spirit selects" (Every Member Evangelism, p. 13). Unfortunately, we have looked to the church to reach If you are faithful to go and to the lost, but most unsaved witness the gospel, you will experience a generous portion people would not darken the door of a church. That is why of God's power in your we need to be witnesses in the witnessing. marketplaces of life. Before we ever invite them to church we need to witness to them. Soul winning happens in the marketplaces. Then, when we get them saved, we need to get them into church. Pastor's Role: Teach Witnessing Roy Fish also writes: "Pastors were given to the church for one primary reason: to enable individual members to become successful in winning the lost" (Every Member Evangelism, p. 17). The problem most pastors have is with motivating people. According to evangelism organization statistics, 95 percent of all new converts are made through someone who has been saved less than 12 months. A wise pastor knows that new believers make the best witnesses. He will encourage them to light the fire of enthusiasm among the rest of the church. Think about it: The first thing a baby learns to do is talk, and once he discovers his voice, he spends much of his waking hours babbling indistinguishable words. Similarly, the first thing a "babe in Christ" does is talk about Jesus. The second thing a baby learns is to walk. Perhaps this is why the Bible specifically mentions having our feet "shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace " (Ephesians 6:15), which means being prepared to share the Gospel everywhere we go!
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In other words, to be fully armed with the armor of the God, we have to be a soul winner. And brand new Christians have the boldness to speak about their faith like no one else. They talk about Jesus everywhere they go. Remember how easy it was to tell others how Jesus had changed your life when you were first saved? One of the pastor's first responsibilities to a new believer is to teach him to be a good witness by teaching him effective ways of relating his testimony. Roy Fish also writes, "The Lord has given every pastor to his church so that he may train the members in soul-winning, even to the point of going out on to the field with them and doing it by their sides, or helping them until they learn how. The skilled ones in turn are to help train beginners until there is a church full of skilled and successful soul winners. No one ever learns to win the lost by studying books or by listening to sermons" (Every Member Evangelism, p. 17-18). Witnessing was the way the gospel was spread in the early church right after the resurrection. The new converts could not help but boldly tell others about Jesus and about His power. It was witnessing, not preaching, that caused the majority of growth in the book of Acts. If you witness faithfully, you will experience a generous portion of God's power. In Romans 1:16, Paul said, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek." The gospel is the power of God. When you are speaking of the gospel to others, you are tapping into the power of God like no other time. This is why, as a believer, witnessing is one of the healthiest spiritual activities in which you can participate. Witnessing to others brings the power of God, the presence of God and the glory of God into immediate accessibility like no other spiritual activity. Witnessing sets you onto the path of fulfilling your personal destiny.

3. The Plan Is Universal

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The mission of the churchto reach the entire world with the message of the gospelis universal. In Matthew 24:14, Jesus said, "And 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. " Before the end of this age comes, the gospel of the kingdom will be preached to every nation in every language. No one will be excluded. The gospel is not for the Western world, for the Eastern world, or for the Third World. The gospel is for the lost in every part of the world! We are living in the most exciting time in the history of the earth. It is the window of time that the Old Testament prophets foretold... a time where there would be a great harvesting of souls.

We need to touch the lost with the gospel as if the end time harvest were already upon us.

The prophet Amos said, "Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt" (Amos 9:13). This harvesting will happen so fast that the sower (the plowman) will overtake the reaper. The prophet Joel also spoke of this accelerated harvest: "Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God; for He has given you the former rain faithfully, and He will cause the rain to come down for youthe former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil" (Joel 2:23-24). The latter rain represents the fall rains, which is the season to sow. The former rain represents the spring rains, the season to harvest. The timing of these two rains coming down in the same month is representative of a great acceleration in the harvest. Those who study biblical prophecy and watch the times agree that we are on the brink of this great harvest that will usher in the Lord's Second Coming.
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Therefore, the highest priority of this age is to win souls. It is paramount to God, and many believe that there is an end time anointing specifically available for the saints who have a heart for reaching the lost. To receive that anointing simply requires getting involved in winning souls. One minister friend of mine believes it is an "allencompassing" anointing. In other words, an anointing that encompasses every facet of your life. I believe this is true. The signs of prophecy coming to pass are evident in so many world events of the last two decades. We have witnessed the Berlin Wall come down, the fall of Communist countries throughout Eastern Europe, and the gospel rush in. Christian television programs are on the air in Russia and other Eastern European countriessomething that seemed impossible only 20 years ago. We need to touch the lost with the gospel as if the end time harvest were already upon us. We need to get out into the fields. There are many who need to be harvested, but there are few laborers who will actually do it. We have read that some people will sow and cultivate, but others will actually do the reaping. Then we read that the seeds that are sown will bear fruit, and that it is the harvester's job to put in the sickle when he sees the fruit is ripe for harvest. For the most part the church has majored on the behavior of the Christian rather than the mission for the Christian. The Bible does say we are to be a holy people, but Matthew 24:14 also instructs us to be a harvest people. Jesus cannot come until the gospel of the kingdom has been preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations. The more people who participate in harvesting the lost, the sooner Jesus can come.

4. The Plan Is Systematic

When we look at Acts 1:8, we notice that Jesus broke The highest priority of this age is to win souls. down the areas of our witness into three divisions:
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Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. Jerusalem was the center of the church at that time and it represents a person's immediate world: his family, friends, neighbors and co-workers. Judea and Samaria surrounded Jerusalem and they represent a person's individual world as it extends from their immediate world. Judea and Samaria also include getting involved in missionary work and supporting the gospel worldwide. After Jesus commanded His followers to go into all the world, first to Jerusalem and then into Judea and Samaria, He then directed His followers to witness to all these areas simultaneously. It was a systematic plan that we can follow. First, consider your immediate world and follow Jesus' example. He rarely ministered in the temple. The majority His of ministry was in the marketplaces of life. Many sources estimate more than 95 percent. The Gospels clearly show this. Many accounts reveal how He healed people right in the streets, such as the woman with the issue of blood, forgave sinners like the woman caught in adultery, He taught from hillsides and even from a boat floating offshore. His focus was not to reach those who were already seeking God in the synagogues. He concentrated on those who crossed His path as He went about His daily business. Second, move out into the Judea and Samaria of your life. Find ways to get involved in Jesus rarely ministered in the the kingdom of God in bigger way. Hook up with ministries temple. The majority of His reaching people outside of ministry was in the marketplaces your immediate circle of coof life. workers, family and friends. Hook up with ministries reaching people that you physically cannot. As you are led by the Holy Spirit, support the missionaries or projects your church sponsors. Sow your time, money, food, clothes and other gifts into mission outreaches and meet people's needs. Remember, reaching souls is the optimal goal. It is the highest mission.
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No Heart Is Ever Too Hard By the time I had finished college and gotten my first job in television, I was an alcoholic. My life was in shambles, only I didn't know it. The day I was fired was a wake-up call. For the first time I realized I needed help. I went through Alcoholics Anonymous. I even became a spokesperson for them. But something was still missing. I kicked my boyfriend out, got a new job that was great and a new apartment. Still, I wasn't fulfilled. Through the years Christians had witnessed to me. I thought those people were weak and needed some kind of crutch. I figured I was stronger. Why, I had even overcome a serious challenge. But something was pulling at my insides. A new friend at work began talking to me about God. My old reaction wanted to kick in, but something drew me to what she was saying. She invited me to lunch one day...then dinner one night...and told me about Christian television. She gave me a book to read. What surprised me is that I watched the programs she suggested and I read the book! One day she asked me if I wanted to make Jesus the Lord of my life. I was so shook up, but before I could stop myself I said, "Yes." After she prayed with me, I realized what had been missing for so long. I no longer felt incomplete. I no longer felt alone and that I had to run my life all by myself. It was such a relief. I had never been to church before, so I started going to my friend's church. I was amazed at all I didn't know that had been available all my life. I'm so grateful for all the people who witnessed to me and prayed for me. Not one word or prayer was ever a waste. I was so hard-hearted... but no heart is ever too hard for
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Jesus' love to penetrate. Today, I'm still in television, still free of alcohol and filled with Jesus. I'm hopeful every day...eager to tell others what God has done for me. Tracy

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6

How to Be an Effective Witness

us to reach the lost, he told us be Jesus commissioned1:8 records His instructions: "Buttoyou "witnesses." Acts 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." Witnessing is the second step of His plan to reach the lost. It is important to Jesus that we be witnesses and, like everything He's called us to do, He wants us to do it with excellence. He wants each one of us to be an effective witness, one which draws people to Him and to His great gift of salvation. First 1 John 1:1-3 expresses the role of a witness well: "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, concerning the Word of lifethe life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to usthat which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." Mistakenly, most Christians have substituted church work for harvest work. They have substituted doing good things for the urgent thing which is being a witness, and harvesting the lost

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into the kingdom of God. This is not the case when it is harvest time on a farm. You won't find anyone doing spring cleaning, sewing, clearing the back 40 acres or painting the barn. While all these chores may be necessary, they are not the urgent need. When harvest time comes, everything else is set aside to tend to the harvest so it does not over-ripen or spoil in the field. Harvesting is so urgent that the whole family pitches in. How much more should we as God's family be tending His harvest! Witnessing is a powerful tool to harvesting. Just as you cannot have a harvest without sowing seed into the ground, neither can you harvest a soul into the kingdom of God without witnessing. Witnessing is telling others about your personal experience with Jesus Christ. Your personal experience with Jesus is that He has changed your life. Because of Him you no longer have the desire to do the things you used to do. Jesus has changed your heart, your desires, your dreams, your goals, your family, your health, your marriage. Exactly how He has changed your life is your personal testimony. Telling unbelievers your personal testimony is witnessing. When you witness you are speaking to a lost person about your personal knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. If these elements are not part of your conversation, you are not witnessing. Witnessing has nothing to do with church work, nor does it relate to doing good things, like giving financially to supporting mission work. Rather, witnessing requires personal, active involvement of a Christian in the life of a sinner. This means you have to associate with people who might live a different lifestyle than you do, people who may not be pleasant to be around. It is one thing to say, "Isn't it terrible how that man mistreats his wife and children?" It is another thing entirely to take time to befriend him, to have compassion for his pain, and to gently and meekly
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show him a better way. This is how you become actively involved in the life of a sinner. Witnessing requires compassion, understanding and kindness. It takes stepping out of your comfort zone. Witnessing also requires practicing the presence of Christ. A Christian who offers lip service but lives an ungodly lifestyle will have no power to influence others. Christ-likeness magnifies the power of God in your life while sin dilutes it. How can you effectively convince someone that Jesus can change his or her life if you have not allowed Jesus to change yours? When Missionary E. Stanley Jones asked Mahatma Gandhi how Christianity could be more acceptable in India, Gandhi said, "I would suggest, first, that all of you Christians...begin to live more like Jesus Christ." Jesus never condoned anyone's sin, but He did show compassion, understanding and kindness. To practice the presence of Christ is to live in close communion with Him. It is to live a lifestyle of prayer and repentance from sin. To practice the presence of Christ is to abide in Him and let His

Witnessing is a powerful tool to harvesting. Just as you cannot have a harvest without sowing seed into the ground, neither can you harvest a soul without witnessing.
Word abide in you (John 15:1-8).

Witnessing also calls for the power of the Holy Spirit. It takes supernatural power to exemplify Christlike compassion and to express Him to the world. We cannot represent Christ under our own power. We do not have that kind of power. We might be able to be likable, personable, polite and professional in our manner and communication, but these are human, not divine, qualities. Jesus said that our power to be witnesses would come from the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). To be an effective witness also means we must face our fears. Fear of witnessing does not come from not knowing how. It comes from a life that is not fully yielded to the Holy Spirit.
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According to the words of Jesus, proof of being filled with the Holy Spirit is an overflow of witness: "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning" (John 15:26-27). The Apostle Paul made himself a slave to the gospel so that he could win many to Christ. He wrote, "For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more" (1 Corinthians 9:19). Jesus instructed us in Matthew 4:19, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." The idea of being a follower of Jesus is to follow Him closely, Fear of witnessing does not to follow His lead, to imitate come from not knowing how. It His lifestyle and to obey His comes from a life that is not fully commandments. Jesus was a yielded to the Holy Spirit. fisher of men. The more closely you follow Him and the more intimately you develop your relationship with Him, the more you will become a fisher of men.

Three keys to being an effective witness: 1. A consistent prayer life 2. Consistent Bible reading 3. Obedience to the Word of God.
If witnessing is a weak area for you, then you need to practice more of the presence of Christ. Develop a more intimate relationship with Him. Intimate human relationships are developed by doing things which nurture and foster the health and closeness of those relationships. To develop a more intimate relationship with Christ, we must do those things which will foster intimacy. Those activities are: maintaining a consistent prayer life, consistent Bible reading and obeying the Word of God. Let us examine these in more detail.

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1. Consider prayer. There is nothing more valuable as a Christian than to experience God's presence and hear His voice. Getting answers when you need them, getting ideas for reaching the lost, receiving the wisdom you need to face life's challenges these blessings and more come through prayer and through intimacy with Christ. Spend time with the Lord every day. Begin your prayer time by praising Him and worshiping God. Speak to Him what the Word says about Him. "Father, I worship You. You are the great I AM. You are the Holy One of Israel. You are the Most High God. I honor You. I love You. You are so Holy." Continue, lifting Him up in worship and adoration. As you do, His presence will come. You will be able to sense His presence and it will be very precious. The Bible says when we praise God, He is in our midst. He inhabits the praise of His people (Psalm 22:3). During this time of enjoying His presence make your petitions to Him, whether they are about you and your family, or about people you are reaching out to. This is also the time when answers will come. You will hear His voice in your spirit...and the answers will then come to your mind. It may be something you asked Him about yesterday, or last week. But the point is, prayer needs to be more than making petitions to God. Prayer is intimacy with Christ. He wants to speak to you as much as you want to speak to Him. Prayer is critical to our lives. "Prayer bathes the soul in an atmosphere of the divine presence" (Charles Finney, Prevailing Prayer, Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 1965, p. 45.). Prayer waters the clay of our hearts, keeping us pliable in God's hands and keeping us teachable. Prayer keeps us humble. Prayer keeps us dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit and helps us give God the control of our lives. Billy Graham's wife, Ruth Bell Graham has said, "Pray when you feel like it, for it is a sin to neglect such an opportunity. Pray when you don't feel like it, for it is dangerous to remain in such a condition."
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Prayer is a mighty instrument for getting God's will done on earth. The devil would rather have us wear ourselves out in church work than wear our knees out in prayer. A prayerless Christian is an ineffective Christian, and therefore an ineffective witness. 2. Bible reading refreshes our memory as to who we are in Christ and enables us to overcome negative self images, negative self esteem, fear and lack of motivation. The Bible straightens up our attitudes and judges and corrects our motives. Someone once said that it is more important to let the Bible read you than to merely read the Bible. God's Word is the one thing that goes down to the inner recesses of our hearts and digs out the truth about ourselves so that we can correct what is unhealthy and destructive both to ourselves and to others. The Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn't. It is impossible to practice the presence of Christ without a consistent spiritual diet of the Word of God. In his book, How to Study the Bible for Yourself Tim LaHaye lists seven things memorizing and studying the Bible can do for you. It will:

give you victory over sin help you overcome worry give you a confidence in sharing your faith speed up the transforming process assist you in discovering God's will for your life help in your other Bible studies outfit you for unlimited service to God.

(Tim LaHaye, How to Study the Bible for Yourself Irvine, CA: Harvest House Publishers, 1976.) 3. Being a doer of the Word is critical to walking in His presence. The book of James warns us that a person who is not a doer of the Word deceives himself (James 1:23). James also says, "But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the
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work, this one will be blessed in what he does" (verse 25). You cannot live a lie and succeed in God. Even Jesus said, "Why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do the things which I say?" (Luke 6:46). Evangelist Oswald Chambers has said, "The best measure of the spiritual life is not its ecstasies, but its obedience." The presence of God cannot be practiced in an atmosphere of disobedience. The presence of Christ is maintained through acknowledging His omniscience and acting, speaking, and thinking as if He were right there with you every minute of the day. Once we recognize that Jesus knows what we are thinking, sees how we are acting and hears what we are saying, our behavior will change. When you take the presence of God and His anointing with you to work, into the marketplaces of life, your coworkers will see it and sense something special about you. Matthew 5:14-16 says, "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. " Do not be a dimly lit Christian. Your light has the power to transform others: "Steer clear of the activities of darkness; let your lives show by contrast how dreary and futile these things are...For light is capable of 'showing up' everything for what it really is. It is even possible (after all, it happened with you!) for light to turn the thing it shines upon into light also" (Ephesians 5:11-13, The New Testament in Modern English). Shine in the marketplace so your co-workers will see the light in you, glorify God, and be transformed. Faithfulness and Preparedness An effective witness must be faithful, not necessarily successful. Many times Christians do not witness because they do not see immediate results. But God never commissioned us to be responsible for the results. He only commissioned us to be
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faithful to witness. Our job is simply to tell. It is the Holy Spirit's job to convict the person of his sin. Remember, a witness who takes the witness stand in a trial is not responsible for the outcome of the trial. He is only responsible for giving testimony to what he personally experienced. Spiritual pride cannot enter the picture if the results are left in God's hands. Then, when a soul is won into the kingdom, God gets the glory, not the Christian! Train yourself to think like a soul winner ... always think about how you can win souls. This brings us to the final point of what it means to be an effective witness. An effective witness must be prepared. The ability to share the testimony of how Jesus has changed your life in an accurate, brief, but concise, manner is a very effective seed planting tool. It is best to write it out in 175 words or less. In his book Witness, Take the Stand!, Ralph W. Neighbour, Jr., writes that in 175 words you can briefly:

Explain what your life and attitudes were before you accepted Christ. Explain how you realized your problem. Tell how you became a Christian Tell what being a Christian means to you.

(Ralph W. Neighbour, Jr., Witness, Take the Stand! Baptist General Convention of Texas, Dallas, Texas.) Neighbour also gave the following seven facts to consider when preparing your witness:

God honors preparation! Begin by writing it out. Keep it short. How long does it take to sow a seed? If your testimony is longer than 175 words, you will not use it and the [unbeliever] will not listen. It is amazing what one can say in one minute if proper preparation has been made.

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Keep to the point. You are not explaining how to be come a Christian, you are reporting something which has happened to you. The testimony should be free from exhorting; that is, you should avoid expressions like, "You ought to have an experience like this too!" Include the factual details, but remember you must primarily communicate an invisible experience which can not be observed. A person can make a public profession of faith, but still may not comprehend why he did. A blind person would not know rainbows existed unless someone who could see described them! Avoid negative remarks, derogatory comments about other religions. Such comments seldom help and often do great damage. Ask yourself, "If I were not a Christian, what would this mean to me?" Put yourself in his/her place. Do not "brag" about your pre-conversion sins.

Neighbour also cautions "carefully consider the words you use." Avoid Christian jargon because unfamiliar terms lose their impact. Use language with which the listener will be familiar. Some examples are listed on the following page:

Christian Jargon
I was lost. I was saved. I was convicted.

Replace With Phrases Such As:

I realized that I was living a sinful life and would go to hell when I died. I realized that when I died I would go to heaven instead of hell. I felt guilty and remorseful for of my sin. what I had done. I was ready to make it right with God. I realized the blood Jesus in the blood. shed on the cross was His way of taking the punishment I deserved.
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I was washed.

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These are just a few examples. You can think of more. It may be helpful to listen to yourself talk for a few days and make note of Christian terms you use in your daily conversation. Make a list of those terms and think of alternative ways of saying the same thing in a way unbelievers will identify with and comprehend. It is just one more way of training yourself to be an effective witness.

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Lisa's Story I started working for Randy Gunnip in January, 2000. Shortly after joining his team, he told me he had written a book titled The Mystery of Eternity, and that a national magazine had printed the story of his conversion to Christ. He asked if I wanted to read them and I said yes, which I did. A week later, Randy asked me if I had any questions. At that time I didn't. About two or three months later he asked again and I said, "No, I don't have any questions, " but I remember that what struck me about his testimony was that he had said he had had the best of everything most of his life, but a time came when he realized something was missing. I identified with that because I had been missing a father figure ever since I was a little girl. At the same time, I felt something else was missing. I didn't know my purpose in life. I worked hard, but I was like a robot. I would wake up...go to work...come home...the next day I would do the same thing, day after day. A feeling that something was missing kept nagging me. Finally, on September 13, 2000, Randy called me from his cell phone to ask me to make a phone call for him. He wanted me to notify someone that he had a testimony tape to give her. I said, "May I listen to it before I give it to her? I'd like to hear that testimony." He said, "I'll just give you a copy." I thought, "Wow, this is great!" Then, obviously recognizing my interest, he said, "Lisa, have you ever made Jesus the Lord of your life? " "No, I haven't." "Would you like to now?" "Well, yes, I would." Randy said, "Get Kathy," who is his executive secretary and
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a dynamic Christian, "and go into my office where it is private. Close the door, and we'll pray right now." In a few seconds Kathy and I were in Randy's office on the speaker phone and he prayed with me to accept Christ. I got so excited. Suddenly I realized that I now had a heavenly Father, and that even though I've always worked hard, now I do my best so that my Father in heaven will be proud of me. I learned later that Randy and Kathy and some other Christians on his staff had been praying for me all those months. I'm so glad they did. Receiving Christ is the best thing that ever happened to me, but reading Randy's testimony and reading The Mystery of Eternity became the catalyst. They got me thinking. Before, I had no sense of purpose. Now, my purpose in life is to tell everyone I know that Christ can change their lives just like Randy told me.

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7

The Heart of Soul Winning Learning to Pray for the Lost

he way Lisa was saved is how most people get saved. First someone has to pray. I had been praying for her, and so had several people in our office. In time, it yielded a harvest. Just like Lisa's, a person's path to salvation is usually not short term. First, you plant a seed, cultivate the relationship, continue to pray and pursue them, and then you harvest their soul when the time is right. It is a principle from the Word of God that God does nothing in the earth unless someone first prays it into existence. This raises prayer to a level of importance not many recognize. Because of this truth, unless we pray, the lost will go to an eternal hell. Unless we pray, God's will cannot be done on earth as it is in heaven. Unless we pray, our destinies will not be fulfilled. Unless we pray, our lives will lack the power to do what God has commanded us to do. God needs our cooperation. No wonder the Word of God commands us repeatedly to pray: "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). "With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints" (Ephesians 6:18, New American Standard).

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"Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:41, New American Standard). The one thing that will reduce the odds of the lost dying in an unredeemed state and going to eternal damnation is prayer. Prayer, like no other activity, will affect your soul winning efforts, whether you are planting the seed, watering the seed or harvesting the seed (1 Corinthians 3:6-7). Prayer oils the wheel of your soul winning efforts. Prayer is the labor pain that brings new babes in Christ into God's family. In other words, prayer is supernatural, spiritual firepower! "We are assured that when we are praying for the salvation of others, God will hear those prayers and is pleased by them" (George Barna, Evangelism That Works, p. 145). "Prayers for the felt needs of the lost have a higher priority than the prayers for the needs of the saved. The reason is simple: The needs of believers are cosmetic needs. This is not to say that the needs of believers are not important to God. They are. But unbelievers have a more vital, essential need. Their eternal destiny hangs in the balance. To believers, a crisis is a temporary problem affecting their comfort level this side of heaven. To unbelievers, it is either heaven or hell" (Ed Silvoso, That None Should Perish, Regal, A Division of Gospel Light, Ventura, CA, p. 84). The number one reason why people go to hell is not because of the severity of their sin. It is not because of the hardness of their hearts. It is not because of their rebellion against God. The number one reason why people go to hell is because no Prayer is supernatural, spiritual one was praying for them. firepower! There is no greater negligence than "prayerlessness." If we are too busy to pray, then we are too busy for God. If we do not pray, we will not see the need for gathering His lost children into His family.
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The Heart of Soul WinningLearning to Pray for the Lost

Prayer Changes Things Prayer changes more than you can see or realize. First of all, it changes you. When you spend time in prayer, you give the Holy Spirit the opportunity to influence your heart. The more you pray, the more your heart will begin to be compassionate and sensitive to the lost around you. The more you pray, the more you will catch God's heartbeat for the lost. If you are not agonizing over the lost souls of the people you deal with every day, then you have not spent enough time praying for them, because prayer cultivates compassion. As a mother who agonizes over a child gone astray, desperately wanting him to get his life back on track, God has shown His pining for the lost by sending His Son to die for the sins of mankind. When we find out God's deep passion for peopleto save them and bless themthen we can adopt His attitude, receive His compassion in our hearts, and be passionate about winning the lost. God demonstrated His love for us in that He died to save us while we were yet sinners, rejecting, spurning, and despising Him. This is the hope that we have to give to othersto God demonstrated His love for those who have not yet us in that He died to save us received the message of the while we were yet sinners, gospel. God clearly shows us rejecting and despising Him. that He has fastened His love This is the hope that we have to upon us. Now we need to give to those who have not yet fasten our love on the unsaved. We need to tap into received the gospel. the compassionate heart of God that won't let go. Prayer is the only thing that will change our hearts to line up with God's heart for the unsaved. Prayer Changes Circumstances The person we are praying for may be in dire straits, seeking
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answers for his dilemma. But when we pray, circumstances begin to change. Prayer opens the door for God to move in his behalf and deliver him. When we pray, God dispatches angels to work in behalf of those for whom we pray. "The angels!what are they all but servants, spirits who render service to God, who are hour by hour being dispatched on errands of ministration for the help of us who are destined to have salvation as our heritage?" (Hebrews 1:14, The Arthur S. Way Translation). Nothing brings a lost sinner to God like the demonstration of His power to deliver his life from destruction. Prayer Changes People Prayer softens the hearts of hardened unbelievers to receive the love of God. It is been said, "Don't talk to your neighbor about Christ until you talk to God about your neighbor."

Where there is no vision to evangelize our neighborhoods and cities, the people perish.

Jesus spent so much time in prayer because He knew the time He spent talking to God about people did more for them than the time He spent talking to them about God. We see this is true when we study His personal habits. Prayer took priority over physical rest (Luke 6:12), over His social activity (Matthew 14:23; Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16, 6:12) and over His physical appetite (He fasted for long periods of time to access and release spiritual power, Luke 4:2; Matthew 6:18, 25, 31). Prayer was not an obligation for Jesus; prayer was His connection to His heavenly Father. Prayer empowered Him with the Holy Spirit. Prayer was His key to obedience to God (John 5:30). Prayer for another person is his only hope to awakening his spiritual hunger. In his fallen state, man is spiritually bankrupt. The problem, however, is that unless he is aware of his spiritual bankruptcy, he has no demand for salvation. Prayer awakens his spiritual hunger, and it provides the spiritual answers he needs. Because man is an eternal, spiritual being, he has spiritual needs;
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however, for the most part, unless he is in some type of crisis where he needs someone larger than himself, he remains oblivious to his spiritual needs. In other words, his spiritual needs lie dormant until something or someone creates in him a demand. First Corinthians 2:12-14 says: "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." Spiritual things are foolishness to the person who is focusing on natural things (family, finances, career, etc.). Prayer awakens the awareness of his deepest need; it creates the spiritual demand. Prayer gives the Holy Spirit access to illuminate his mind so that he can see his need for salvation. Also, man is inherently in enmity against Godhe wants to be his own god. Prayer breaks down this spiritual antagonism and opens his heart to accept and believe the gospel. Prayer produces the spiritual environment through which the unsaved can understand the gospel. Prayer softens the ground of his heart so that the seed of God's Word can take root, grow, and bear fruit. Evangelism without prayer is as effective as preaching to a brick wall. I have a friend, Ron Knott, a retired Delta Airlines pilot and businessman, who is a prolific soul winner. He uses a method called "The Five Most Wanted Souls." With this method, you take a 3" x 5" sheet of paper and list the five people you would most want to see come to Christ. Keep the sheet of paper in a handy place, a place where you will come across it several times a day. Each time you see that piece of paper, call those names out to the Lord and thank Him for bringing them into His Kingdom.
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Ron says that the first year he used this method he named four family members and one co-worker. After one year of consistent and continuous prayer, four out of the five were saved. The second year, all five had come to the Lord. How long would it have taken if he had never started praying? No one knows. But we do know that nothing will happen unless someone prays.

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Following is a sample of The Five Most Wanted Souls list. You may want to make a copy, cut it out, and pass it along to your fellow Christian soul winners. The idea is to place it where you will come across it often, preferably two to three times a day. Whenever one of the five people you are praying for comes to the Lord, replace his or her name with the name of another person you want to accept Christ. This way you will always have at least five people you are expecting to be saved. Of course, you could always have more than five, but this method helps keep soul winning at the forefront of your thinking and praying. "Prayer walking" is a helpful key to winning your neighbors to Christ. (Prayer walking is a term that has been coined for walking your neighborhood or some other geographic region and praying over that area.) How often do we really tell our neighbors about Christ? Prayer is the key that makes soul winning effective. Pray for your neighbors during your private exercise time. It is effective, as well as enjoyable. Here is a recommended plan: 1. Start with your street and expand to other streets as time permits. 2. Learn the names of the families at each address. 3. Walk the street and pray a general prayer over the salvation of the households and that their overall needs and welfare be met. Command a blessing on the households individually and the street and neighborhood in general. 4. Ask the Lord to open the door for you to develop relationships with your neighbors. 5. Get to know your neighbors. Develop friendships and perform acts of kindness as opportunities arise. As relationships develop, so will the opportunities to witness for Christ, pray for them and minister to their needs.

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By prayer walking, you can become a prayer lighthouse in your neighborhood. Your non-Christian neighbors consequently become prospective Christians and you are putting the power of prayer to work to change their lives. Prayer Is Doing Spiritual Warfare for Men's Souls So, not only does prayer change things, circumstances, and people, but prayer changes the spiritual atmosphere around those for whom we pray. Second Corinthians 4:4 says that the reason people do not believe the gospel is because the god of this world, Satan, has blinded their minds. Prayer removes the blinders. Intercessory prayer stops the influence of the devil and frees them to believe and receive the gospel. It is spiritual warfare on their behalf. Praying is making war on your knees against the spiritual enemy of men's soulsSatan. The kingdom of Satan must be torn down so that the kingdom of God might prevail. As new testament believers, we should be assaulting the gates of hell. Jesus said that hell's gates would not prevail against us, so there is no reason not to be on the attack. Sometimes it is a battle just to get into prayer, and the soldier often surrenders or deserts before he gets there. If you lack a desire to pray, then the best way to develop that desire is to pray! Several years ago I heard an excellent message on the power of prayer. In this message, the pastor said that prayer had to begin with discipline. You do it simply out of obedience. It may be awkward, and seem dry and ineffective, but do it anyway. Then he said that discipline will turn to desire, because whatever you give your attention to becomes your desire. If you discipline yourself to pray, if you attend to prayer, prayer will become your desire. Finally, that desire turns to delight. Once you have established a habit of prayer, it becomes your lifeblood. You realize that you cannot be happy unless you have prayed. Talking to God and letting God talk to you becomes your
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delight. Effective praying must begin with the will of God. First Timothy 2:1-4 clearly and concisely states that the will of God is for all men to be saved. The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit saying: "Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." God desires all men to be saved. This makes praying for the salvation of another person easy, because the will of God is already established. First John 5:14-15 says, "Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him." Praying in accordance with the will of God gives us the assurance that God will grant our requests. God's Word is His will. When we pray the Word of God we are praying exactly what He Prayer is making war on your wants. I have written out two prayers based on the scripture knees against the enemy of which I use for praying for the men's soulsSatan. The lost. They have been the most kingdom of Satan must be torn effective. To make sure that I down so that the kingdom of am praying the perfect will of God for another person, I take God might prevail. the scripture, insert the person's name, and use it as a confession of faith. You can use this prayer from Psalm 1:1-3. (Male and female pronouns may be used interchangeably): is blessed of God because (he) walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in
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the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but (his) delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law (he) meditates day and night. (name) shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever (he) does shall prosper. Another prayer is from Ephesians 1:17-20 from The Amplified Bible: I always pray the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, that He may grant (name) the spirit of wisdom and revelationof insight into the mysteries and secretsin the deep and intimate knowledge of Him, by having the eyes of (his) heart flooded with light, so that (he) can know and understand the hope to which He has called (him) and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints. And so that (name) can know and understand what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places. These are such powerful prayers. There is no greater power on earth than the power God exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead. Can you imagine the difference that kind of power would make in the lives of people for whom you pray? Jesus commanded us to take up our crosses daily and to follow Him. A cross signifies sacrifice. What better sacrifice is there than to lay down your own daily agenda for a short period of time to pray for the lost? My friend, Ted Robertson, a very successful businessman in Tulsa, Oklahoma, demonstrates a lifestyle of prayer and prayer evangelism. He takes up his cross daily beginning at 5:30 a.m. He begins by reading the Word of God, which renews his mind to the thoughts of God. Then he prays: "God, today, send
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someone across my path to whom I can witness, minister, and/or harvest into Your kingdom." This manner of prayer has been effective. Ted has won many people to the Lord consistently, year after year.

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Because Someone Prayed Last year, in the Spring of 2000, I was in a car accident and experienced serious whiplash. For months, I went through physical therapy, getting my neck and back well. At one of my appointments, as I lay on the table having my neck and back worked over, I started small talk by asking a question, "Young lady, do you have a family?" I was just being friendly, but I'm always looking for that open door to share the gospel. "Well, I have a fiance. And he wants to be with me all the time. He loves me so much. " "Do you go to church?" "Funny you should ask that. No, I don't normally go to church. But my boyfriend has been taking me to a Christian Center every week. I like it, but I don't understand it. I was raised in church, but it was not like this one." "Would you like me to explain it?" I asked. "Yes, please do!" "Well, you keep working on my neck and back and I'll explain everything." After I presented the gospel, I asked her if she was ready to be saved. She was thrilled, and said yes. After we prayed, I gave her a copy of The Mystery of Eternity, to further explain the decision she had just made. Before I left, I boldly told her, "If you feel the same way about your boyfriend as he does you, I wouldn't let him get away!" Obviously, her boyfriend had planted seed...and prayed. I got to do the harvesting. Randy

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The 3-Step Process of Soul Winning

he Scripture clearly points out that soul winning is a process consisting of three parts: planting, watering and harvesting. Paul instructed the Church in 1 Corinthians 3:6, "My work was to plant seed in your heart, and Apollos' work was to water it, but it was God, not we, who made the garden grow in your heart" (The Living Bible). This three-step process unfolds over time the same as harvesting a crop does in the natural realm. A farmer does not reap a harvest on the same day that he plants the seedand neither do we. The seed must germinate, take root and have time to grow. Then, when the crop is fully grown, it is harvested. We also see that it is God's responsibility, not ours, to make the garden grow. Too often, Christians become frustrated because they do not understand this process. Perhaps the misunderstanding has come from the term soul winning. Maybe we feel that if we do not win a person to Christ the first time we talk to them that we have not been effective. Nothing could be further from the truth. To overcome this misunderstanding and frustration we need to understand the three-step process Paul explained. Consider the condition of a person's heart who has not heard the good news. Sin has hardened him, just like heat and a lack of rain dry up the ground. Sin has caused it to become compacted and impenetrable. Just like the earth, his heart needs to be tilled,

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softened and made ready for seed. Hosea 10:12 refers to this as breaking up the fallow ground of the heart. This is a process that must be completed before a person is ready to receive the seed of the Word. Consider the following graphic illustration of this concept.

1 = Hardened heart (Does not believe in God) 2 = Wonders if there is a God 3 = Believes in God, but does not serve Him 4 = Wonders if God is interested in him 5 = Wonders what Jesus has to do with God 6 = Discovers that Christianity says that Jesus is God 7 = Recognizes his lifestyle opposes Christian lifestyle 8 = Becomes convicted of his sin 9 = Sees no way he can change 10 = Recognizes his need for a Savior to change him 11 = Ready to give up control of his life 12 = Prays and accepts Christ As you can see from the graphic illustration, at one, the person is hardened and he does not believe in the existence of God. At 11, he admits his need for a Savior and is ready to accept Christ. Each interval in between represents a different stage of receptivenessa link in a chain. Twelve represents his acting on his faith in Jesus Christ. No one except God knows at what stage of receptiveness a person is.
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Every time a seed is plantedevery time the fallow ground of a person's heart is tilledanother link in the chain is added which moves him closer to accepting Christ as his Savior. Once we recognize that people do not move from 1 to 12 with one seed, or one cultivating activity, it makes it easier to witness. It is important to realize that witnessing is our only responsibility, the results are God's responsibility. Planting Your Seed Of the estimated 2 percent of Christians who have made soul winning their lifestyle, the number of seed planting/ witnessing activities averaged is only once a month, or 12 times a year. Only 5 percent of Christians have ever witnessed to another person about Christ. That means only 5 out of 100 Christians have experienced the greatest joy available to them as believers. A mere 2 out of 100 Christians in the United States actively plant seeds and witness; and the average number of people they witness to is only 24 per year (2 Christians x 1 witness per month x 12 months = 24). This is just the seed sowing. The actual harvest is even lower. This is not going to get the job done. Ninety-eight percent of the Body of Christ is not obeying the Great Commission. Ninety-eight percent of the Body of Christ is not being faithful in one of the most important areas of Christian obedience. Yet, obeying is so easy. The first step in the three-step process is sowing the seeds. Second Corinthians 9:6 instructs us: "But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully." John 4:36-37 says: "And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true: 'One sows and another reaps."' Anyone can easily plant seeds with little or no training. All you do is witness to someone. Witnessing can be as simple as sharing printed gospel informationsuch as a book, testimony article, leaflet, or tract that details the gospel message
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just like Sam Martin did that day we were in Houston together. I have learned from my own experience, and from some of the most widely respected professors of Christian theology and evangelism in our country, that Christians who witness without leaving written material to reinforce the impact of their witness are only 50 percent effective. In other words, a tract or book makes your witnessing twice as convincing. That's why it is so critical that you stock up with gospel literature...books, tracts, leaflets and testimony articles, that you can freely give at a moment's notice. You have to be ready at all times. This is essential to being a true soul winner. Being prepared to witness is a life decision as serious as the decisions we make concerning our vocation, our education, or whom we marry. These Those who witness without decisions take prayer, leaving written material to planning and preparation. The reinforce the impact of their Christian who makes a life witness are only 50 percent decision to be a soul winner effective. In other words, a tract will not be depending on "chance." He will have or book makes your witnessing twice as convincing. prayed, plannedby having gospel literature on hand and prepared. Everywhere he goes he will be looking for opportunities to sow seeds into the lives of others. Recently I was returning home a few hours early from a business trip in Atlanta, Georgia. When I checked on flights to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, there were three, but one flight, #1083 just seemed to stick out to me, so I decided to go standby since it was three hours earlier than my regularly scheduled flight. Also, a business associate happened to be on this flight. He said, "That's the flight I'm on! I have many free upgrades I will never use, so I'll give you an upgrade and we can sit together in first class." I said, "Okay, that would be nice." Unfortunately, there were not two seats together. We had
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hoped to ask the person seated next to him to change seats with me. When we asked him, he said he wanted to stay in the window seat. The passenger next to my upgraded seat assignment was well settled, so we sat apart. Next to me was a young lady in her early twenties, but we did not speak much after the initial polite greetings until we were well into the flight. Not knowing where she stood with the Lord, I struck up a conversation, looking for an opening to find out. Learning her name was Laurie, I said, "Laurie, what is it that you do?" "I'm a law school student, but I haven't decided what area of law I'm going to specialize in yet." I said, "It's kind of sad, but one of the most profitable forms of law practice in the United States today is family law, because of the high divorce rate." She concurred. Seeing this as my opening to find out where she stood with the Lord, I said, "The reason for such a high divorce rate is the lack of a spiritual foundation that holds a couple together through the tough times." "That's exactly what my parents tell me! You see, I'm Jewish and my boyfriend is a Christian. My parents tell me it could never work between us because of the difference in our religious beliefs." "Laurie, do you mind if I ask you whether you are a devout Jew? I mean, are you set in your spiritual beliefs?" "No, I'm not." The open door was so obvious I could have started laughing with joy, but I maintained composure and continued to plant seed in her life. Her boyfriend must surely be praying for her, I thought. Knowing there is a portion of The Mystery of Eternity written specifically to reach Jews, here was my chance to give it to her, but I had already given away all the copies I had with me. Her next statement made it clear to me why!
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She said, "I'm going to see my parents now. We are giving my dad a surprise birthday party." If she had read it before she saw them, it might have come up at the family functions and that may have been upsetting. I said, "Laurie, I'm a Christian author and I wrote a short book called The Mystery of Eternity which explains the Christian faith. Would you be interested in reading it?" "I certainly would! Thank you!" I asked her to write down her name and address and then I promised to send her one. When I got back to my office, I wrote my name and phone number in the front of a copy of the book and told her if she had any questions she could feel free to call me. Then I had an inward impression to include a copy with my name and phone number for her boyfriend so he can see the seed that is being planted in her life. I asked my secretary to send the two books to her. Do you see how easy it is to find an opening to plant seeds of the gospel in a person's life? Once you make it a life decision to be a soul winner, opportunities will be all around to touch people for Christ. That is why it is so important to stock up with gospel literature so you can reinforce the impact of your seed sowing. Laurie may not remember much of what I said to her, but she can refer to a book over and over again. The information is right there in her hands. Being an effective soul winner means you make a life decision to do it. This means you have your radar on all the time, looking for open doors to impact people for Christ. Once you make the decision, you need to learn how to use gospel literature effectively. For example, tracts are designed mostly for people you do not know personally. Tracts are great for giving to someone you have never met, like Sam Martin did. They are more direct, which is why they are not the best choice for witnessing to someone you know. If you do use a tract, write your name and phone number on
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it along with a note for them to feel free to call you. Sam writes such a note on every tract he hands out. If you want to reach an acquaintance or a co-worker, give them a book. A book is received as a gift and is far more personal. You are passing on Once you make it a life decision something that has touched your life. When you give a to be a soul winner, book, write a note in the front, opportunities will be all around sign it and include your phone to touch people for Christ. That number. When you write your is why it is so important to stock note, tell them how the book up with gospel literature so you changed your life or affected can reinforce the impact of your you. Share a part of yourself. Then follow up a week later. seed sowing. Call them, or stop by, and ask if they have any questions. It is so easy and comfortable to witness this way to someone you know. If you know someone who is not close enough for you to hand a copy of a book, then mail it. Practice what is called "Postal Evangelism." Simply write a note in the front like you would if handing it personally, drop it in the mail, and a week after you expect them to have received it, call and ask if they have read it and have any questions. I often give people a copy of The Mystery of Eternity. This 36 page book was designed to be used specifically as a seed. After I give it to someone, I usually give them a week to read it, and then follow up by asking them if they have any questions. It gives me an opportunity to share the good news of Jesus, and it increases the probability that my witness will take root. Following up is a cultivating process. Cultivating protects the seed. People know you care when you give them such a gift, and they respond to that. You can also plant seeds by giving your testimony, which is testifying of how Jesus has affected and changed, your life.
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The overall principle of seed sowing is simple: You cannot have a harvest unless you sow seed. Watering Your Seed The second stage of soul winning is watering your seed, or cultivating it. Jesus understood this principle. He was sinner friendly. In fact, that is one of the things for which the Pharisees criticized Him the most. Nonetheless, many Christians limit their close associations and friendships to other Christians. Perhaps this is because of the scripture which says that to be friends with the world is to be an enemy of God (James 4:4). However, this scripture is not saying that we cannot have friends in the world. It says not to be friends with the world. There is a difference. If we limit our associations to Christians who are already living in the light, how can we be a light to the world? Light shows up best in the darkness. Years ago, someone coined the phrase "friendship evangelism. " Friendship evangelism is an effective cultivating tool that takes thought, planning and effortand it works great with friends who are in the world. Don't think of yourself as being "out to get the unbeliever to church," or "to get him to Christ." This mindset compares to a flash flood on ground which has not received rain for months. The sun and lack of watering have hardened the ground until it is like cement. A flash flood will only run off the surface and wash away any seeds that have been sown. The seeds will not take root. Remember, the first step in the process: You have to break up the fallow ground first. Just like the parched earth, in order to effectively become softened, the ground needs a slow, steady rain so that it be tilled and receive seed. This process takes time and prayer. Friendships take time. They must be nurtured. So, talk regularly to your unsaved friend. You initiate the
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friendship; do not wait for him or her to take the first step. Discover common interests and plan activities together. As you do, be genuine and show sincere interest. Truly listen when he speaks. Your sincerity will demonstrate God's unconditional love, which will show him that God accepts him right where he is. Always treat him with dignity and respect, as you would someone you deeply admired. Open your home to him. Let your friend observe your godly lifestyle and experience God's love through you. Love him into the kingdom rather than trying to preach him into the kingdom. This does not mean you condone the sin. It simply means you do not have a condescending, critical or judgmental attitude because of his lifestyle. There are many ways to cultivate the hearts of people we meet. If we will look at the fields of our lives, we will identify some group of people with whom we share a common denominator. From that we can determine a cultivating approach that is appropriate. For example, the most common fields are: relatives and family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, fellow members of civic, professional, or social organizations, political associations, fellow travelers, new acquaintances, customers, doctors, lawyers, dentists and so on. Each of these groups represent fields where you can cast seeds through witnessing. Just think about your workplace. Not all of us are called to go to China, but most of us are called to go to work. The workplace is a natural habitat to find the lost. For most people it is their biggest mission field. It is a captive mission field. At work you can get acquainted with many people, all the while identifying those who need salvation. They are special because they are the ones whom God has entrusted to you to reach. Regardless of whether your co-workers are Christian or not, however, your witness in the workplace is important. Remember to be a good example to everyone, but pay particular attention to those who have not yet trusted Christ. You may not be able to preach the gospel at work, but you can always live the gospel. You can exemplify a work ethic that
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glorifies God and draws people to you. Like I wrote about Air Force Pilot Howard Pierson, your excellence of work creates a platform that draws people to you. In fact, your witness can even be tested by the excellence of your work. Also, take your breaks and lunch hours with the people you are trying to reach. Get to know them. Ask about their family members. Be genuinely interested in their concerns. Recognize special occasions in their lives such as birthdays, anniversaries or graduations. Be a friend to the degree that it is appropriate and opens the door for you to witness. We literally spend 2/3 of our lives in the workplace, so what could be a better harvest field? Then, there's your neighborhood. Being a good neighbor is an excellent door opener to establishing friendships with nonChristians. One person I know makes it a habit to put his neighbors' newspapers on their front porches. He also picks up cans and trash from the street while he makes his morning walk every day. People notice and appreciate it. Through these simple acts, over time, he has met every neighbor in his 100-home development. His neighbors like him and this gives him favor when sharing his concern for their eternal souls. His wife also finds ways of creating a greater sense of community. Together, their shining light gives them tremendous favor and their neighbors are receptive. Families are another tremendous harvest field. If there is anything the Bible teaches about family, it is that God wants to save them all (Acts 16:31). Too often family events are limited to weddings, funerals, and occasional, but far-between visits. Change your strategy. Identify those relatives who are outside the family of God and make a sincere attempt to socialize with them, and establish a more common bond. Invest your money in meals, sports events or group activities that can facilitate getting together. By sharing your generosity, you are demonstrating your genuine interest. Opportunities will surely arise to share Christ. Whether in your workplace, neighborhood or family,
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cultivating sincere relationships with non-Christians is linking life with life. Ralph W. Neighbour, Jr. has written in his book Witness, Take the Stand! that "such friendships give the nonChristian the concrete opportunity to see Christ's presence within the Christian. Cultivation may take days, months or years before we see the fruitfulness of it. Cultivation takes prayerful patience, but is absolutely essential for the harvest." In order to reach all of the fields in our lives, we must have a cultivating mind-set. This comes about by being excited about our own relationship with Christ. By being grateful for Who Christ is to us personally, our very demeanor will exude the joy of being saved. We are God's messenger. There is no one else. Ask yourself, "If not me, then who?" It is a sobering question that makes us realize the value of your witness. Ezekiel 3:16-18 graphically states just how important our witness really is: "Now it came to pass at the end of seven days that the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 'Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me: When I say to the wicked, "You shall surely die," and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand."' With a heartfelt attitude toward the sinner, we must enter the fields with the compassion of Christ ready to rescue unbelievers from the fires of hell. If not us, then who? Harvesting All three components of soul winningplanting, cultivating and harvestingare equally important. As we saw in the graphic at the beginning of this chapter, each step moves a person closer to accepting Christ. So each component is essential. First, the seed is planted. Then, it is watered. Then comes
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the harvest. Although it is certainly possible to go from seed planting directly into harvesting, the usual process is one, two, three. Therefore, harvesting is the culmination that completes the miracle of the salvation event. Recently, however, I did take someone from the seed planting stage right into harvest. I was at a restaurant with my friend Bill Wilkinson, who is president of an international Christian organization and, as we finished our meal, I saw a waitress who was obviously upset. I had never seen her before and did not know where she was spiritually, I just knew I had an opportunity to bring God into the picture when I saw what happened. I observed that she answered her cell phone, talked a few minutes, became very upset, hung up and then went to a With a heartfelt attitude toward corner table and sat alone crying. I sensed compassion the sinner, we must enter the for her and told Bill, who had fields with the compassion of Christ ready to rescue his back to her, that we needed unbelievers from the fires of hell. to minister to her. As I approached her respectfully, I If not us, then who? said, "Miss, I couldn't help but notice you were crying. I'm a Christian. Is there anything I can pray with you about?" She said, "Oh, yes, you can. That was my boyfriend. He and I have a baby together and he just broke up with me. He's moving out today." I said, "Miss, God loves you and has a plan for your life to bless you, not to harm you." Bill and I witnessed to her for several minutes about the love and forgiveness of God. She allowed Bill and me to pray with her right then and there to receive Christ as her Lord and Savior. Then I gave her some names and phone numbers of seasoned Christian women who could disciple her and pray with her when she was in need. That was one of those situations where I was able to win her soul at first try.
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While that was a joyful and rewarding experience, most of the time when I witness it is in the sequential flow of seed planting, cultivating and harvesting. The Law of the Harvest Once we harvest a soul for the kingdom of God, we must never underestimate the value of that soul. God's law of harvest is an amazing phenomenon. Genesis 8:22 tells us that as long as the earth exists the law of seedtime and harvest will function and produce the miracle of multiplication. It says, "While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest...shall not cease." This exciting principle is God's method of increase. The harvest is always greater than the seed which is sown. Again, think about a farmer. We know that while he may sow a few sacks of wheat seeds, he will harvest fields and fields of grain. And one sack of harvested wheat used to make wheat flour might provide enough for a family for a few weeks or months. However, if the sack of harvested wheat were used as seed instead of being made into flour, it could provide enough for hundreds or maybe thousands of families. It is the law of harvest: The harvest is always greater than the seed sown. An excellent example of how this applies to souls is the life of Reverend Billy Graham, the great Protestant evangelist who is said to have won millions to Christ through more than 60 years of ministry. In his autobiography, Just As I Am, Reverend Graham writes that he was born on November 7, 1918, near Charlotte, North Carolina to William Franklin and Morrow Coffey Graham. The eldest of four children, he was raised in a Christian home and regularly attended the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. In 1934, an evangelist preached a series of revival meetings in Charlotte, which Billy's mother attended. Mrs. Graham had invited Billy, but he was not interested,
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although news of some controversy surrounding the meetings piqued his curiosity. A family friend named Albert McMakin had also invited Billy, without immediate results, but he persisted. Finally, Albert offered to let Billy drive his vegetable truck into town for the meeting, loaded with as many people as could fit. Billy agreed just so he could drive the truck. The first night of the revival, Billy became aware of his own sin and his need for a Savior, so he accepted Christ and committed his life to Jesus. The seeds of the gospel sown The Law of the harvest is: The in to Billy Graham, as the harvest is always greater than result of one friend's one-onthe seed which is sown. one persistence, reaped far more than the soul of one 16year-old boy. Because of seeds sown, untold millions have been saved through the ministry of the Reverend Billy Graham. It may have never happened if Albert McMakin had not planted seed in his life. That is the law of the harvest: The harvest is always greater than the seed sown. Here's another example. The sister of a dear friend of mine ran around with a group of kids from the north side of Fort Worth back in the 1940s when they were all teenagers. One of those young people was Sam Martin, whom I introduced to you in Chapter 1. At that time, Sam was an ordinary guy, but even then he had a soul winner's heart. One night before the group went out, Sam said, "I want to stop by the New Isis Theater. There's a popcorn boy who is not part of the crowd, and I want to tell him that Jesus loves him." They went by the theater and waited while Sam witnessed to the boy. The young man became convicted of his sin, recognized his need for a Savior and soon after that night, he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Years went by and people forgot about the popcorn boy. In February, 1999, my friend flew in from Mexico, where he'd been on a mission trip, to attend the memorial service of the
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Reverend John Osteen, who had served as pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, and who had gone home to be with the Lord. Lakewood Church has thousands of members and is known for its worldwide support of missionaries. Many of the world's most well known preachers were in attendance including Pastor John Hagee from San Antonio, Pastor John Bisagno of the First Baptist Church of Houston, Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, Jr., R. W. Shambach, Richard Roberts, T. L. Osborne and many more. Dignitaries, including the Mayor of Houston, some Senators and Congressmen, were also there. According to the final count, there were 9,000 people inside the 8200 seat auditorium, with thousands more standing outside. Several hundred flags flew proudly on the premises hailing the nations where Lakewood Church had labored to bring the gospel. At the service, my friend leaned over to his wife, and referring to Daniel 12:3, he said, "Think of all the stars Brother Osteen is going to have in his crown! Think of the millions and millions of people he has won to Jesus directly, through personal witnessing, and indirectly through his ministry. Think of the ripple effect of his ministry. Look at all the people whose lives he has affected for the kingdom of God. Think of all the stars he will have on his crown of rejoicing!" His wife said, "Honey, lean over just a little," motioning for him to look across the aisle. As my friend did, his wife said, "See that little white-headed man? He is sitting there quietly, humbly. No one will even mention his name today." Although, that is what my friend's wife said, later, Dodie Osteen did recognize him.

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My friend's wife continued, "That's your friend Sam Martin. For every star that John Osteen has, Sam will have that many, plus one, because he won John." John Osteen was the skinny, unknown popcorn boy at the New Isis Theater. Not only is the harvest always greater than the seed sown, the reward is also greater. Harvesting a Soul vs. Witnessing to a Soul There is a difference between witnessing and soul winning. Witnessing is limited to seed planting and cultivating activities. When we witness, we usually do not lead the person to Christ. Soul winning, or harvesting, takes place when the person actually gets saved. This means he is convinced of his sin, he recognizes his need for a Savior, he knows he cannot save himself and he understands the gospel to the point that he accepts the price Jesus paid for his sin.
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Jesus spoke extensively about being harvesters of souls. In Luke 10:2 He said: "The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest." In John 4:38 He refers to seed planting, watering and harvesting: "I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors." In Mark 4:28-29 He also refers to the three-step process : "For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come." Yes, Jesus wants us to witness to the lost...and He wants us to harvest those souls. There are many who need to be harvested, but there are few laborers who will actually do it. We have read that some people will sow and cultivate, but others will actually do the reaping. Then we read that the seeds that are sown will bear fruit, and that it is the harvester's job to put in the sickle when he sees the fruit is ripe for harvest. Part of the job of harvesting is discerning whether or not the person is receptive, or ripe for harvest. The Holy Spirit must have completed the job of convicting the person of his sin before he can be led to Christ. Neighbour also says in his book that, "The Holy Spirit is responsible for this admission, for He is sent to reveal rebellion, and 'convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment.' This presalvation work of the Spirit is called the 'period of conviction.' It happens to every person. A sincere Christian friend will observe it as the quickening of interest, a willingness to discuss spiritual matters, restlessness, even unusual rebellion." After I have witnessed to someone, befriended him and shown genuine interest in him, I usually give him a copy of The Mystery of Eternity. A week later I will contact him again and ask him questions that will get him talking about what he read. I
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will find out how much he understands about the gospel and what Jesus did for him on the cross. Then I turn to page 35 of the book, which lays out the biblical method of salvation and say, "Can we read this together?" By this point I have established enough of a relationship that he readily says yes. After reading the steps of salvation, I ask him, "Would you like to go through these steps for real?" No one has ever told me no. This has been effective in winning people to Christ. Here are the biblical steps to being saved. You can use these in leading someone to Christ. 1. Acknowledge: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" (Luke 18:13). 2. Repent: "Unless you repent you will all likewise perish " (Luke 13:3). "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out" (Acts 3:19). 3. Confess: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). "That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9). 4. Forsake: "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him...for He will abundantly pardon" (Isaiah 55:7). 5. Believe: "He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned" (Mark 16:16). 6. Receive: "He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name" (John 1:11-12). If you discern that your friend or loved one is ready, ask him, "Would you like to go through these steps for real?" Let his
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responses be your guide. Always respect his boundaries and give him the freedom of choice. Respect his time. Don't try to harvest him if he is not ready. Not only must his heart be receptive, but the timing must be conducive to discussing making a lifechanging decision. Remember, this is the most important decision your friend or loved one will ever make. Avoid arguments about doctrine. Keep the conversation on the personhood of Jesus and the person's need for a Savior. Keep it simple. If you get too deep into theology or into the Bible, you will lose him. Finally, if he does not seem interested, stop. Say something like, "Let's stop now, but would you just think about the things we've talked about? Maybe we can talk about it again some other time." Always be respectful. Get Them Into Church After you have witnessed to someone, your next job is to get him into a church. You might begin by inviting him to your home group. Sometimes people feel uncomfortable in unusual surroundings and a home group is more personal and private than a large church gathering. Many churches have established home group meetings especially for this purpose. If your church does not have one, you may talk to your pastor to see if he is willing to introduce and implement this concept in your church. Remember to remain available to your new friend. Pray for him regularly. Prayer builds concern in your heart for him. Prayer also builds the relationship. Your love, concern and sense of responsibility to that person will grow through prayer. Contact him often. Introduce him to new friends who will also love and nurture his faith. Continue to provide a Christian example. Finally, remember that you are always witnessing, if not by your words, then by your actions. People are always watching how you live. Ralph Neighbour says it this way: "Witnessing is life and lips!"

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The Couple at the Party My wife and I were recently at a party and noticed a couple sitting off to themselves talking to no one. So we sat with them and began talking. We really hit it off. During the next two hours we talked about everything...from traveling to food to all kinds of interesting topics. We truly enjoyed each other's time. But because I'm always on alert if someone isn't a Christian, I also asked questions that could give me a clue as to their spiritual condition, questions like, "Do you go to a local church?" I'm always very kind, never pushy or intrusive. But I don't want to miss an opportunity to find out if someone needs the Lord. Through our conversation I learned that his wife was a Christian, but from his answers, I gathered that he probably wasn't. I also found out that he was one of the wealthiest men in the country. Before the evening was over he knew that I was a businessman and a Christian author. I asked them if I could mail him a copy of The Mystery of Eternity, and if I did would he read it. They said yes, and gave me his address and private phone number. I planted a seed with conversation. I watered the seed by mailing my book. I will continue watering that seed as the Holy Spirit directs. I will continue praying for that man. And, I will look for the opportunity to harvest his soul. That's how it works...you look for opportunities everywhere you go. Randy

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Living A Life of True Significance

His plan our lives. He does not God never abandonsgive up on for or run out of provision. change His mind, us God never tells us we are too young or too old. He perseveres to the end, enabling, empowering, providing for and motivating us to press toward the mark of the high calling in Christ. The mystery of Christianity is that Christ is in us, working with, in and through us to carry out His plan. Hebrews 13:20-22 confirms this: "Now may the God of peace... Strengthen (complete, perfect) and make you what you ought to be, and equip you with everything good that you may carry out His will; [while He Himself] works in you and accomplishes that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, the Messiah " (The Amplified Bible). For everything He's called us to do, including soul winning, He has already equipped us to succeed. Colossians 1:27 says, "To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Philippians 2:13 says, "For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." Everything God does, He does through us. Everything we do that is of eternal significance, we do through Him working in us. On the contrary, everything we do on our own is of little or no eternal value. The saddest people are those who seek their

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entire sense of significance and purpose from worldly sources such as personal success, status, beauty, wealth and the approval of others. They are sad because the fulfillment received from these sources is fleeting. Where does one go when he has achieved his goal? The truth is, these things can be addictive. When they become our source of happiness, enough is never enough. We will always want more. The following story is a great illustration. In May, 1996, a journalist named Jon Krakauer participated in an expedition to the top of Mount Everest. Twelve of his coadventurers died in the highly publicized descent, a story that Krakauer relates in his book Into Thin Air. He begins his account by describing his feelings on May 10, 1996, as he reached the highest point on earth. "Straddling the top of the world, one foot in China and the other in Nepal, I cleared the ice from my oxygen mask, hunched a shoulder against the wind and stared absently down at the vastness of Tibet. I understood on some dim, detached level that the sweep of earth beneath my feet was a spectacular sight. I'd been fantasizing about this moment, and the release of emotion that would accompany it, for many months. But now that I was finally here, actually standing on the summit of Everest, I just couldn't summon the energy to care...I snapped four quick photos...then turned and headed down. My watch read 1:17 P.M. All told, I'd spent less than five minutes on the roof of the world" (Jon Krakauer, Into Thin Air, New York: Doubleday/Anchor Books, 1997, pp. 3-4). Once Krakauer reached not only the pinnacle of the world, but what he thought was going to be the pinnacle of exhilaration and success, there was nothing to do but descend the mountain and return to ordinary life. What a sad commentary, but an excellent revelation. This
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story speaks volumes. It speaks of the momentary satisfaction which comes from temporal success. Saint Augustine said, "O God, our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee." Nothing will satisfy us until we look to God for our satisfaction. That satisfaction comes from yielding to His plan, both His universal plan and His individual plan. While mankind seeks to make a plan for success and work the plan, God already has a plan for each and every individual life... a plan that already guarantees more success and satisfaction. His plan for winning the lostHis desire to have every soul savedis the key to a life of fulfilled destiny and true blessing. It yields honor and rewards in this lifetime and a crown of rejoicing in heaven. Over and over again the Scripture is clear: The main priority in the mind and heart of Godthe central theme of His overall planis to win the lost. Saving His family is God's central and primary task. When we, as His children, witness to the lost, "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:20, New International Version). When we accept our personal responsibility to be soul winners, we place our destiny in Christ's hands. His power, His glory and His blessings will then follow us not only to accomplish His plan to take the gospel to every person, but to accomplish His personal, unique and individual plan for our lives. When we become soul winners, we step into the realm of divine destiny both individually as Christians and corporately as the Body of Christ. Ephesians 2:10 reveals the only true life of significance, fulfillment and success: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. " Jesus said that He came so that we might have an abundant life (John 10:10). God's plan for our individual lives is one of contentment, fulfillment and significanceit is an abundant life.
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When you make what is important to God important to you and you walk in God's plan for your life, it generates excellence in everything you do. When you make His plan your number one priority, then you will truly lead the most significant life possible. First and foremost, we are called to be a witness 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We are called to model Christlikeness to the world; and we are called to plant seed, cultivate and harvest as we go about all the affairs of life. Earthly Rewards for the Soul Winner Jesus said, "If anyone serves Me, him My Father The main priority in the mind will honor" (John 12:26). To and heart of Godthe central honor someone means to highly value or esteem that theme of His overall planis to win the lost. person. It also means to give support to the endeavors of another. When we honor God's business, He honors ours. In my own life, I am aware that God has opened many doors in my career that I could never have opened. I attribute this blessing directly to my commitment to serving Christ and to being a soul winner. But His blessings are not limited to financial success or material things. The presence of the power of God in your life is another major benefit of soul winning. All the power and glory of God are present during Holy Spirit-directed witnessing and soul winning activities. God shows up when you talk about Him. Romans 1:16 talks of this power: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek." When we are not ashamed to share the Good News of Christ, His power and glory will rub off onto every other area of our lives. Hundreds of books have been written about how to be successful, many of which have received worldwide acclaim and have achieved record sales. However, none of them has
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promoted soul winning as a key to success. Yet, the Word of God states in Proverbs 11:30 that he who wins souls is wise. Soul winning "is the wisest end to which wisdom can be put" (N. A. Woychuk, A.M., Th.D., Building Gold, Silver and Precious Stones, p. 121). Who would have thought that a key to having wisdom and to operating successfully in this world would be to tell people about Jesus Christ. It sounds foolish, but God takes the foolish things of this world to confound the wise (1 Corinthians 1:27). God's wisdom is a greater treasure than silver and gold. Silver and goldGod meeting your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesusis basic. Extra blessings come as we become more committed messengers and stewards of When we accept our personal our time and resources. responsibility to be soul winners, Blessings of health, enjoyable we place our destiny in Christ's long life, a happy, satisfying marriage, children who serve hands. and love God, a vocation that we love and enjoy, an extra measure of financial success these can become the byproducts of a life devoted to obedience and soul winning. The truth is plain: When we go about doing God's business, He gets directly involved in our business. But the greatest earthly reward is that we become more Christlike in this life. Jesus came as a servant to all. He was meek and humble of heart. In becoming Christlike, we must remember that it can only happen through God's grace, and that we receive nothing, except it be from God. God is looking for those who will allow themselves to decrease so that He might increase, and show Himself strong in and through them. Genuine humility, authentic Christlikeness, is unconscious. It is an attitude of servanthood, of obedience to God, and of meekness that says, "If I receive a reward for anything good I have done, I will give it back to my Lord, because I can do nothing without Him. He deserves all the honor and all the
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glory." According to Romans 8:29, we were predestined to become like Christ: "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." As likenesses of Christ, we are His vessels through which He accomplishes His mission on earth. "For we are His The greatest earthly reward is workmanship, created in that we become more Christlike in this life. Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them " (Ephesians 2:10). Our yielding to these good works pleases God more than anything next to our becoming His children. Our one goal in life should be to please God, to make Him happy, and to glorify Him through our good works. "Be of Good Cheer" I would be remiss if I did not mention the other side of this coin. Although God does want to bless us exceedingly, becoming a soul winner is not the golden ticket to a life without trouble. Jesus said, "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 cheer, I have overcome the world"(John 16:33). The Amplified Bible says, "I have deprived it (the world) of power to harm you." The Apostle Paul said that all who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12). In Acts 14:21-22, the Scripture tells us that Paul encouraged the believers in Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, urging them to continue in the faith because they "must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." When we link arms with God to accomplish His mission, we become a threat to the kingdom of darkness. We will get resistance from
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the devil, from the world and even from our own fleshly, carnal natures (our three spiritual enemies). The beauty of the plan is that Jesus equips us with the ability to overcome. In Luke 10.19, He said, "Behold! I have given you authority and power to trample upon serpents and scorpions, and (physical and mental strength and ability) over all the power that the enemy [possesses], and nothing shall in any way harm you" (The Amplified Bible). We have nothing to fear. With the resistance will come the power, grace and ability to prevail over it. Christians are not in this world to survive, but to conquer. In the meantime, we can enjoy and glorify God with the rewards He bestows on us. Looking to the Future When we please God, we invest in our future. Hebrews 9:27 tells us that each one of us is appointed once to die, and then we will face eternal judgment. In other words, life is for keeps. This is no dress rehearsal. There are no time-outs or instant replays. Every second brings us closer to the judgment seat of Christ. In comparison to eternity, our life is but a puff of smoke. James says, "For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away" (James 4:14). We only have one life to offer to God to be used for His purposes. Our only opportunity to maximize our rewards on the most important day of eternity is now. Remember that the purpose of judgment for the Our reward will be for our Christian is to motivate him to faithfulness to utilize our talents, make the most of his present abilities and opportunities to opportunities. At the judgment promote the kingdom of God on seat of Christ, according to 2 earth and to increase God's Corinthians 5:9-10, every Christian will stand before family in heaven. Him and be evaluated. "Therefore we make it our
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aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." We will be judged for what we have done since our conversion to Christ (not for what was done before.) Christ Himself will be the Judge. This tells us that we will be judged both fairly and with mercy, because the One Who died for our sins will be the One Who judges us. We will be judged by One Who loves us with an everlasting love, and by One Who sought us out with compassion to save us, not to condemn us (John 12:47). "The Christ of the throne is the Christ of the Cross"(Erwin W. Lutzer, Your Eternal Reward, Moody Press, Chicago, p. 26.). Even though He will deal with us in love, so will He hold us accountable. There will be no hiding, no excuses, no blaming of others and no twisting of the truth to make ourselves look better. The One Who knows everything is the One Who will evaluate us. How will we be evaluated? Jesus illustrated how in the parable of the talents. He taught us that every person is born with a portion of talents, abilities and opportunities to be used for the purpose of his Master. In the parable, the servants who invested and multiplied their talents, abilities, and opportunities for the Master's sake were rewarded. The servant who buried his talent was reprimanded. He displeased the Master. Christians will face their Master, Jesus, at the judgment seat of Christ. Here they will each receive rewards according to their labor (1 Corinthians 3:8). Hebrews 6:10 says: "For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name." Our reward will be for our faithfulness to utilize our talents, abilities and opportunities to promote the kingdom of God on earth and to increase God's family in heaven. On the other hand, Christ warned the church at Philadelphia, "Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no
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one may take your crown" (Revelation 3:11). Although the judgment will not be punitive, it will be possible for us to forfeit our rewards, either by neglect, unfaithfulness, or by failing to use our God-given opportunities and talents. Woodrow Kroll said, "We are not stripped of rewards as an erring soldier is stripped of his stripes" (Woodrow Kroll, Tested by Fire, Neptune, NJ.,: Loizeaux, 1977, p. 108). This would be degrading and, since we will not receive any heavenly rewards on earth, it would be impossible to be stripped of them. The lack of rewards will be our judgment. God wants us to work diligently toward earning the rewards He has reserved for the faithful. What will we be judged for? We will be judged for the quality of our life, for our stewardship and for our motives. "For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, you are God's building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is" (1 Corinthians 3:9-13). The criteria by which Christ will evaluate us is motive. Wood, hay and straw represent perishable materials, motives which are not pleasing to Christ. These works will burn up. There will be no eternal reward for them. Gold, silver and precious stones represent imperishable materials, motives which are refined by fire, not destroyed by it. These works will stand the test and earn eternal rewards. Only that which is godly will withstand the test of fire. Think of the disappointment that will be experienced by those whose entire life's works disintegrate to ashes in front of their Lord and Savior because of wrong motives or well-intentioned,
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but misdirected, labor. Again, remember that the purpose of the judgment seat of Christ is to motivate us to do the best we can with what we have TODAY! It is not to frighten or intimidate us. We will also be judged for how we impacted the lives of others for Christ. This is a qualitative, not a quantitative evaluation. Some may have the potential to reach more than others, and they will be judged based on their potential, not on the numbers of people reached. It is what we do with what we have been given that God will examine. Knowing this, how can you maximize your rewards on that day? By making God's number one priority your number one priority. Being a witness and a soul winner is your greatest mission and ensures your The purpose of the judgment greatest reward. Jesus said, seat of Christ is to motivate us "Freely you have received, to do the best we can with what freely give " (Matthew 10:8). we have TODAY! You will not experience life fully on earth until you express it freely to those who do not know Christ. The most significant, fulfilled life is one which is lived for others and not for self. God always reserves special rewards for those who are faithful. In Matthew 6:20, Jesus promised that our reward will be great. He also mentioned our reward in Luke 6:23, 35, and Hebrews 10:35. Second Peter 1:10-11 talks about an abundant entrance into heaven: "Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." An abundant entrance is not an ordinary entrance. The Greek word for our entrance alludes to when Roman generals were given triumphal parades as a reward for some victory or conquest. God promises a triumphal entry into heaven
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for the believer who is diligent in the way he lives for Christ. If that were the only reward, then it would be enough to make soul winning a priority. Perhaps the triumph is over our flesh, which is too lazy to pray for the unsaved, or too comfortable to go out of its way to reach them for Christ. Perhaps the triumph is over the devil who wants to take them to hell with him. In Luke 14:14, Christ promised that sacrificial works would be repaid. I have read the following statement more than Jesus said, "Freely you have once and unfortunately do not received, freely give" (Matthew know who originated the 10:8). You will not experience thought, or I would recognize him or her. But the thought life fully on earth until you express it freely to those who do bears repeating. "The greatest tragedy next to dying without not know Christ. Christ is to stand before the judgment seat of Christ empty-handed, having never won a single person to the Lord." Where is the triumph in this? Receiving True Rewards On judgment day, the reward will far outweigh the sacrifice. "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:17-18). "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'" (Matthew 16:2425). Losing your life for Christ's sake is the way to find life, purpose and reward in heaven. Mankind has a way of rewarding others for exemplary achievements. Perhaps one of the most outstanding reward days
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was the day Sergeant Alvin C. York was lauded for his achievements as a World War I hero. Drafted into the United States Army in 1917, York served valiantly, in spite of being a conscientious objector. At the battle of the Argonne Forest in the fall of 1918, as a member of the 82nd Division, he killed 25 Germans, knocked out 35 machine guns and captured 132 prisoners almost single-handedly. As a result of his valor, York received the French Medaille Militaire and Croix de Guerre. He was awarded the Italian Groce de Guerra and the American Medal of Honor. Marshall Ferdinand Foch, Commander of the French Northern Army on the Western Front, told him, "What you did was the greatest thing accomplished by any private soldier of all the armies of Europe." When the war was over, York came home to the adulation of the American people. Paraded through the streets of New York City to the cheers of hundreds of thousands of admirers, York's reward day unprecedentedly closed the New York Stock Exchange. Eight years later, speaking before the First Presbyterian Men's Club in Nashville, Tennessee, Sergeant York said, "I do not care to be remembered as a warrior, but as one who helped others to Christ." He obviously knew that the rewards he will receive in heaven for being a soul winner will eclipse many times over the honor of earthly rewards. Make no mistake about it, the judgment seat of Christ will be a day of great celebration and accolades. On that day, when each one receives his rewards, we will present them back to the King as our worship, as our token of love, stating, "Here, Jesus, this is what I did for You because I love You. I didn't live for myself, I lived for You, for promoting Your purposes and plans." "Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: 'You are worthy, O Lord, to receive
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glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created'" (Revelation 4:9-11). Since making the commitment to be a soul winner, my priorities have changed. My heart has changed. Every thought, every action, every decision I make is directed toward one event the judgment seat of Christ. Above any earthly wealth, beyond all human recognition, more than any earthly or eternal reward, I want to hear Jesus say, "Well done, good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:23). Jesus' central and primary command has become my most pressing imperative because I want to please Him on that day. Making the Commitment to Be a Soul Winner Without the same compassion for lost souls that God has, it is impossible to be an effective, anointed soul winner. We need to fasten our prayers and soul winning efforts on those who are outside of Christ for whom God has a burden. We have heard of paying the price, but we need to pray the price. We need to ask God to impart an extra measure of His compassion so that our prayers are not self-serving, but others-serving. By doing so we will share His burden for His lost children. Here are some practical steps toward receiving God's compassion:

Present yourself to God to be a witness and a soul winner.

Romans 12:1-2 says: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 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." Since Jesus has made the only restitution which God can accept for sin, there is no other sacrifice we can offer, except the sacrifice of our bodies and lives to serve God's purposes.
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However, Romans 12:1-2 is very clear: We must purposely offer ourselves to serve God's purposes. "Moses challenged Joshua to 'present himself to the Lord for service.' To present oneself carries enormous implications: Total allegiance; making oneself utterly expendable on behalf of God" (W. Phillip Keller, Joshua, p. 56-57).

Make a commitment to be a soul winner.

To optimize your life, you have got to commit to being a soul winner. Commitment is the key to accomplishing any goal, whether it is an educational goal, a career goal or a personal goal. Unless we are committed, many obstacles and distractions can keep us from accomplishing our goal. A person will not win souls unless he or she commits to it. Other desires and other activities such as family, social, personal, career or educational commitments will take precedence. We must be committed.

Ask God to help you develop a soul winner's heart and special soul winning skills.

The heart of a person who dedicates himself to winning souls is made up of different "stuff" than the person who does not. He has compassion for the lost. He is not self-centered. He is not condemning or judgmental. His heart is set on the things of God, not on the things of this earth. He looks for ways of blessing others, not for ways of being blessed. The person who dedicates himself to winning souls educates himself and develops better, more effective ways of accomplishing the task.

Ask God to give you the energy and the passiona burning desireto reach the lost.

It takes effort to step out of our comfort zones. We need energy to go beyond what we are presently doing, and the passionmotivation to do it. God is the source of these forces. If we ask, He
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To optimize your life, you have got to commit to being a soul winner.

Living A Life of True Significance

will gladly impart them to us. But our motiveto obey the great commissionhas to be out of our love of God and out of His love flowing through us to the world. Our motives must be pure, from the heart of compassion for the lost, with Christ on the throne of our life, not self. I want the kiss of God on my cheek, like a proud Father's kiss, stating His approval and His gratitude for my contribution to His agenda and the pure heart from which that contribution flows. Think about the following statements from Revelation 3:1416. Jesus said, "And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, 'These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth."' What is so distasteful about being lukewarm that would make Jesus spit it back up? It is the fact that a person had the chance to be hot and he chose to be lukewarm. Apathy is the result of either being hot and cooling off, or of turning away because the heat was too much to bear. Either case is distasteful to Jesus, because in both cases, the person had the chance to be passionate. Christ is calling us to occupy ourselves with building treasure which will not burn up, but will stand the test of the fire (1 Corinthians 3:11-15). Do not run from the heat of conviction. It is the heat of the presence of God which burns away all that is not pleasing to Him (Hebrews 12:29). God is only impressed with our commitment to love Him and honor His Word....and He has told us to win the lost. Every Christian has a divine calling to be a witness. Making a commitment to fulfill this special service enlists us as a soldier of Christ. We are commissioned into the Army of God, not to be on the sidelines, but on the front lines of the battle for the souls of men. Christ's central command to all believers throughout the entire world, throughout all the ages, imperialistically leaves no
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room for civilian ranks. We are all called to be soldiers of Christ in the combat corps of God! God's church is meant to be militant, engaged in warfare, assaulting the very gates of hell to advance the kingdom of God on earth. The power of Satan will never be able to withstand the assault of God's church offensive. However, at the time of this writing, more than 95 percent of Christians are still in the civilian ranks. With less than 5 percent of Christians as active soul winners, the Great Commission has become the great omission in the church today. Earlier we mentioned that those 2 percent who are active soul winners only witness on the average of once a month, or 12 times a year. It would take each one of them 30 years to reach the number of people one person could reach if he or she witnessed every day, 365 days for one year. The harvest is truly plentiful but the laborers are few (Luke 10:2). This was not the case in the early church. "For four hundred years the Christian church had no great preacher by rhetorical standards. The first great preacher was Chrysostom. Yet during those centuries, Christianity conquered the Mediterranean world by the faithful witness of the common believer" (Warren W. Wiersbe and Lloyd M. Perry, The Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching and Preachers, Chicago: Moody Press, p. 5). If Jesus said that the harvest was plentiful and the laborers were few, where are you? Are you willing to use the remainder of your life committed to carrying out God's central and primary command? Are you a person to whom God's will is paramount? Are you utterly determined to serve God? It has been asked before. If you do not have the heart of a soul winner, what kind of heart do you have?

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Chapter 10
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ow is the time to win souls. Each of us needs a starting place where we can be faithful. Making both a daily and weekly commitment is a good starting place. If you are a beginner, make a daily commitment to participate in soul winning activities for at least 15 minutes. Depending on your schedule, you may want to commit to a half hour, an hour or more daily. Obviously, the more time you spend, the more souls you will touch for the cause of Christ. Wherever you start, however, you can increase your soul winning ministry by increasing the time you spend in soul winning activities. Obviously, since interceding for the lost is the heart of soul winning, part of our daily time should be spent in prayer. In fact, interceding for the lost should be the number one priority. Do this first every day. In addition to your daily commitment, make a weekly commitment to share the gospel, including gospel literature, with at least one person per week. Do not limit yourself to one. The methods and tools from this book may allow you to do more, but one is a good starting place. If you are already a veteran soul winner, you can use the information in this book to reach more people than you ever have. The point is, now is the time to embark on the most exciting and significant life available to you as a Christian. You have read all the reasons why God wants you to win souls. Everything is fresh on your mind. Don't put it off. To help you, I have designed an action plan for

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implementing a soul winning ministry. It is easy to do and will be invaluable in helping you focus on objectives, and then meet those goals. But before I explain this powerful tool, I must stress that an effective soul winning ministry will not only take a commitment on your part to pray for the unsaved, to witness to them and to be willing to lead them to Christ, but it will take a financial commitment. Gospel literature is not free, but the cost is small compared to the value of a lost person's soul. You have read the testimonies of several people who have come to the Lord as a result of someone giving them a book or other piece of literature that touched their hearts. Where would they be if someone had not invested money as well as time in their lives? I have determined, much like King David did in the Bible, that I will not do anything for God that does not cost me something. In 2 Samuel 24:21-24, David displayed this unselfish attitude that we are to emulate. "'Why have you come, my lord?' Araunah asked And David replied, 'I have come to buy your threshing floor and to build an altar to the LORD there, so that the LORD will stop the plague.' 'Take it, my lord, and use it as you wish,' Araunah said to David 'Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and you can use the threshing tools and ox yokes for The real measure of a man's wood to build a fire on the wealth is what he has invested altar. I will give it all to in eternity. you, and may the LORD your God accept your sacrifice.' But the king replied to Araunah, 'NO, I INSIST ON BUYING IT, FOR I CANNOT PRESENT BURNT OFFERINGS TO THE LORD MY GOD THAT HAVE COST ME NOTHING.' So David paid him fifty pieces of silver for the threshing floor and the oxen. David built an altar there to the LORD and offered
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burnt offerings and peace offerings. And the LORD answered his prayer, and the plague was stopped " (New Living Translation). I cannot emphasize enough that you must stock up on gospel literature. Always keep gospel books, leaflets, tracts and testimony articles on hand. Always give gospel information that includes explaining the steps to accepting Christ, such as The Mystery of Eternity, so that they understand clearly how to become a Christian In order to be an effective witness, you have to be ready all the time...to follow up with written material, to give something personally or to drop it in the mail. All of these activities will be recorded in a notebook. To get started, purchase a notebook. Make it a size that's comfortable to you, one you can keep accessible in your briefcase, or with your Bible so you can review it daily.

I cannot present burnt offerings to the LORD my God that have cost me nothing.

Label it "My Soul Winning Ministry." It will become your action plan and your diary of soul winning. Next, divide the notebook into sections: I. Prospects/Personal Contact A. Family Members B. Personal Friends: a list of those whom you have an established relationship with and know very well. C. Casual Friends: a list of the people to whom you want to witness through direct, personal relationship. These are the people with whom you will cultivate a relationship and friendship. They could include new co-workers, a parent on your son's baseball team or other members of a club or organization you attend. D. Strangers: a list of people you have only met once. They may be someone you met on a plane, on vacation or at the doctor's office.
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E. Neighbors: a list of the people who live in your neighborhood or subdivision that you've had the opportunity to meet. II. Prospects/Postal Evangelism: a list of the people to whom you want to witness by mailing gospel literature, such as a book. A. Long Distance Family Members B. Personal Friends: These are your close friends that you know well, but live further away. You may not see them as often as those who live in your city. C. Strangers: These could be some of the same people on your personal contact list you've met only once. D. Acquaintances: These include people you know through your work but do not live near. They could be people you don't see very often, such as those you see at regional business meetings or annual conventions. E. Old Friends: These are people you maybe went to high school or college with, once worked with, or once lived near. Next, make your lists. Your notebook would look something like the following: Section 1: PROSPECTS/PERSONAL CONTACT/ Casual Friends Name: John Doe Address: 1XXX Street City: Fort Worth, 76XXX Phone: 817-XXX-XXXX Met at/Date: Marketing Divisional Meeting 3/23/01

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How to Pray Going through divorce.

1st Contact 3-23-01 Talked at M.D. mtg.

2nd Follow Up Action 3-30-01 Lunch mtg. Talked. Gave him copy of "The Mystery of Eternity."

3rd Follow Up Date Saved Action 4-07-01 Called. 4-15-01 Asked if he had Prayed at questions. Wants lunch. to meet for lunch again.

Section 2: PROSPECTS/POSTAL EVANGELISM Name: Jane Doe Address: XX 7th Avenue, #XXX City: Chicago 60XXX Phone: 123-XXX-XXXX Met at/Date: Chicago Flight 4/26/01
How to Pray 1st Contact 2nd Follow 3rd Follow Up Action Up Action 4th Follow Up Action Date Saved

Mother lives in Dallas & has cancer. Jane is a CPA in Chicago.

4-26-01 Talked on flight Gave her "Mystery of Eternity."

4-27-01 Spent extra time praying for her mother.

5-3-01 Called to see if she had questions about book. Said no. Mother is worse.

5-5-01 Mailed card. Encouraged her about her mom.

5-30-01 She called! Talked about book & we prayed.

As your list of "pre-Christian" prospects grows, focus on five a week. Pray earnestly for those five and listen to the Holy Spirit as to what your next step should be ... mailing a book, making a phone call, setting up a lunch meeting. Obviously, you can modify the format, but the idea is to
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have a written plan, a record of activity, a place to jot down what and how you are praying for them and then a place to celebrate the victory ... a soul won for the glory of God! The most important principle to remember is that you cannot harvest if you do not sow, and if you really want to be a soul winner then you have to plant seed, plant seed, water, water and plant some more seed. As your soul winning ministry matures you will be planting seeds all of the time everywhere you go. Also, your list will be growing daily. As you go about your everyday life, you will be planting seeds with strangers, with business contacts, with your neighbors, with fellow parents at school meetings and so on. When you are planting seeds, you must not forget to follow up. Call them and ask if they have any questions. Check to see if they are ready to accept Christ. Also, while you are cultivating, you have to be simultaneously planting seed into new prospects. So, as you are following up, cultivating and praying for your five each week, remember to continue to sow seeds into new people that you will add to your notebook. Never stop this cycle just because you haven't harvested someone you've been witnessing to. Someday you will... or someone else will. Stay focused on abundantly planting seed and continue to cultivate...and the harvest will come. Don't Go at It Alone There is power in numbers. It was true when you were a child on the school playground, and it is true in the realm of the spirit. The power of teaming up with other Christians to accomplish a goal is unbeatable. Jesus spoke of this power in Matthew 18:19, "Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven." So don't go at it alone. Team up with other Christians to accomplish the Great Commission. If you are currently involved
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in a home cell group, then take part of your weekly meeting to pray for the lost... specifically those on your lists. Ensure that evangelism is part of your corporate mission... since it is God's mission and a critical part of a healthy growing church. Encourage one another and strategize together how to reach those you are praying for. Be creative. Perhaps, if you have one to three friends you regularly meet with for lunch to fellowship and pray, make soul winning a part of your purpose of gathering together. Or, you and a friend can even pray over the phone together once a week, review the progress of the people on your lists and encourage one another in your soul winning efforts. These types of corporate strategies encourage you in your commitment to win souls. They keep you consistent and focused on your commitment. When you are mutually accountable to others, it helps you succeed at any objective. If you are experienced at winning souls, start a prayer cell group in your church to pray for lost people. Take your meeting time to pray, but also to teach and train others in how to win souls. Take people out witnessing with you, so you can literally show them ideas of how to share their faith. Share your experiences and impart the vision, the passion and the ability to express your faith. You might even use this book as a training tool. Week by week you could go through the chapters, much like a Bible study, going deeper into the scriptures and application of the principles. When experienced soul winners take this initiative, they spark a fire in their church. A pastor cannot train each and every member of his congregation, anymore than he can do everything else in the church himself. It takes church members serving, teaching and training each other to ensure everyone matures in their Christian walk and that everyone's needs in a local body are met. When they do this, the multiplication of reaching more souls is staggering. Think about it. You and I as individuals may not be able to
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lead millions to Christ, but we can become a mentor to many other believers. We can use the message of this book to train thousands of believers and facilitate a greater harvest. That was my motivation for writing this bookto win souls and to inspire Christians everywhere to do the same. Your teaching others can facilitate multitudes coming into the kingdom of God. Couples can even take soul winning on as a mutual objective. In other words, they can pray together over their lists and witness together, as well as separately. As they pray, they will be united spiritually in one accord. That unity will strengthen their marriage and relationship. There is no better way to enrich a marriage than to have mutual spiritual objectives and to achieve them together. What a wonderful way to grow closer in your relationship to each other and to God. As you pray for people and then see them come to Christ, you will be giving birth to heavenly offspring. What a heritage to create. And it never ends. When your life is over, and you step into heaven, the impact and affect of the seeds you planted and the souls you harvested keeps multiplying for generations to come. Your influence in the earth keeps on growing and living. The impact of living a life sowing seeds and witnessing is never ending. It is as eternal as you are, and you will be rewarded for all of the souls harvested, long after you are gone. However you decide to begin, there is no greater honor you can give God than to win souls. It is His passion and your mission. As we discussed earlier, our Christian life does not come fully into focus until we accept the call to be soul winners. Jesus said, "Freely you have received, freely give" (Matthew 10:8). In order to experience the abundant life of Christ fully, you must express His gift of eternal life freely to others, by turning them to Christ. The greatest gift you have received, if you are a Christian, is the gift of eternal life. Everyone has the right to this same gift, but how will they know unless someone tells them? (Romans 10:14-15). Winning souls is not hard, nor is it an option. When you
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love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with your entire mind, then it is easy to win souls. It is easy to please God. When you truly understand what it means to love God, and when you have committed yourself to His primary mission, the life of Christ inside of you will naturally spill over onto others. Winning souls will become natural. Just as offspring are the natural result of a healthy marital relationship, so will new believers born into the family of God be the natural result of your love relationship with Him...you cannot help but win souls...you cannot help but receive crowns for the wise.

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Sources of Gospel Literature New Life Publications P. O. Box 593684 Orlando, FL 32859 Chick Publications P. O. Box 662 Chino, CA 91708-0662 909-987-0771 American Tract Society P. O. Box 482008 Garland, TX 75046-2008 l-800-54-TRACT (548-7228) www.ATStracts.org Jews for Jesus 60 Haight Street San Francisco, CA 94102-5895 See ad on next page for The Mystery of Eternity. NOTE: The author worked diligently to give credit for direct quotes. If we have failed to give credit to someone for an original thought, it was not our intention.

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About the Author Randy Gunnip, Senior Vice President of one of the world's foremost financial and investment institutions, is a financial advisor and principal of the Gunnip Group, Fort Worth, Texas. He is one of a select group of Certified Investment Management Analysts in the United States, having completed an advanced training program at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton College and was certified in 1995 by the Investment Management Consulting Association. In 1997 and 1998, he ranked number one in his firm out of over 10,000 financial advisors in the opening of new large Investment Consulting Services accounts. He began his career after receiving his bachelor's degree in accounting from Texas Christian University in 1969. After college, he joined the U.S. Navy as an officer and aviator, ranking first in his pilot training class. Randy became a Christian in 1975, a decision that charted the course of his life. In 1988, he began a personal soul-winning ministry, and in recent years has served as chairman and board member of an international missionary ministry, and vicechairman of the International Fellowship of Christian Businessmen. He has authored several Christian books and articles, as well as written and published a newsletter for several years. He is a sought after public speaker by Christian organizations as well as the investment world. He and his wife, Grace, have two married sons, Scott and Matt, and live in Colleyville, Texas. e-mail: r.gunnip@aol.com