First things first in Divine Evangelism

Messages for December 2018: Our Month of: The Ingathering

Message for Sunday 2^nd December, 2018

Theme: Understanding Divine Evangelism

Topic: First things first in Divine Evangelism

Introduction: once again, I welcome you to the Month of December; our month of The Ingathering. Ingathering insinuates harvesting fruits of seeds that have been sown for a period of time which are due for harvest. As a matter of fact, some are overdue for harvest to the point of decadence. We are thankful that grace and truth came by the Lord Jesus Christ so that we can undo our mistakes and receive a restoration of all that would have been lost to us otherwise.

In this great month therefore, we shall be looking at divine evangelism which simply means evangelism that is of God. The reason we are taking time to qualify the noun is because what some may term evangelism may not be so called with God. We are therefore going to be looking at evangelism from divine perspective. First things first insinuates the step by step demands of evangelism from God’s perspective. There is first what to become before what to do and we will find some of these things in the story of the Life and Ministry of Jesus Christ; some of which are listed here.  

Steps to effective Divine evangelism: When we look at the story of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can easily receive a template of how evangelism is meant to be. As a matter of fact, He is referred to in God’s word as the express image of the invisible God and the first born of every creation in Colossians 1:15-18. We also learn that all things were created by Him and for Him and that by Him all things consist. He made all things both visible and invisible including thrones and dominions. All things were made by Him and for Him. This explains His audacity of telling the Jews that before Abraham was; “I am”. They considered Him a blasphemer when He said this because they were withheld from recognizing His true identity because of the Kind of assignment He was to carry out which is the redemption of the human race from the dominion of the kingdom of darkness. Looking at His lifestyle when he walked the sands of time therefore, we learn a lot of lessons on how to carry our evangelism God’s way. The following are therefore some steps we could glean from Him:

1.     Submission to God: This is the quality of yielding to or accepting a superior force or the authority or will of another person. It is to be subject to a particular process, treatment or condition. Jesus lived in total submission to the Father’s authority. Jesus said He did nothing of his own but allowed the father to lead Him every step of the way in life. He proved this when He submitted to John’s Baptism in demonstrating His righteousness. He also allowed the Holy Spirit to lead Him into a forty day fast and then was tempted by the devil and overcame the devil. Apostle Paul said of Him that we should let His mind set become our mind set because even though He was God, He did not wrest positions with God but made Himself of no reputation and became obedient even to death. That was submission. See Mt.3:13-17; 4:1-11; Mk.1:35; Jn.5:19-20, 30.  

2.     Dedication to God: This is the quality of being committed to a task or purpose. The Lord’s purpose was to save His people from their sins. He was so committed to the task that during His earthly walk, as soon as His ministry began after he was baptized by John, He went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil. As he concluded the journey of His earthly destiny, He knew it and prayed to the father that He had finished the work the father sent Him to do and that was to give eternal life to as many as would receive it. See Mt.1:21; Jn.17:1-4; Mt.4:12-17, 23-25 and Acts 10:38.

3.     Decision to worship only God: Jesus Christ was solely committed to worshipping only the father. He refused to compromise His stance and maintained this godly value and remained that way until it necessitated a gruesome unjust murder on the Cross by His detractors. What the enemy meant for evil became our redemption story. See Mt.4:10-11; Jn.5:30; Acts 8:32-35 and Isa.53:7

4.     Total surrender to walk in only the ways of God: He fulfilled the prophecy of Moses that God was going to send His people a prophet like him and when He comes, they should hear him. Moses was an example of one who totally surrendered to God to the point God recognized him as the meekest man on earth. To be meek towards God is to be docile towards Him. You cannot have your own opinion; you will only represent the opinion of heaven just as the ambassadors we have been called by God to be. When the time came, God told His closest aides Peter, James and John to hear Him. Just like Moses He became the meekest man on earth during His earthly journey because of His total surrender to walk in the ways of God. See Ps.103:7; Deu.18:15; Mt.17:5; Acts 3:22; 7:37 and Heb.3:1-6. His total surrender to God is what made the Holy Spirit distinguish His ministry.

5.     Intimacy with the Holy Spirit and His guidance: He was so intimate with the father that the Father personally mentored Him. Every waking moment of His time was spent with the father except when He was ministering to the disciples and multitudes. As a result of this, He was able to say that He only did what He saw the father doing and that because the father loved Him, the father would show Him even greater things than He already did that the Jews may marvel. See Jn.5:19-30 and Mk.1:35.

6.     Taking steps to save the lost: Jesus went everywhere preaching and demonstrating the word of God. He also raised disciples and commissioned them to go and do likewise. See Lk.4:38-44; 10:1-11 and 17-20; Mk.10:1; 5-15; Mt.28:18-20; Mk.16:15-20 and Acts 1:1, 8.

7.     Preaching and teaching the word of God: All that Jesus Christ taught was the word of God. He never taught the philosophy of men; only the word of God by the most creative strategies to the point that people wondered at the gracious words that proceeded from Him. In addition, His words were so packed full of the wisdom of God that people wondered and said concerning His ministry that where did He get such wisdom from because they knew Him that He never got a formal education. Apostle Paul calls it the wisdom from above; the hidden wisdom of God from the foundation of the world. See Lk.4:16-22; 1Cor.2:1-8; Mt.7:29 and Mk.1:22.  

8.     Demonstrating the word being preached: The Lord demonstrated the word preached with signs following. The people thus grew in their faith to the point that they were using the hem of his garment as point of contact for their miracles. See Mk.5:1-20; Mt.14:34-36 and Mk.6:53-56.

9.     Harvesting at every given opportunity: When the Lord walked the sands of time, He harvested at every given opportunity. For instance there was the chance meeting he had with the woman at the well of Samaria in Jn.4 which gave Him the opportunity to teach of the harvest and true worship of God which blesses us until today. When He was done with the woman, she became a publisher of the gospel to the point that the entire City gathered to hear the Lord preach. She was the trigger of the awakening to God that broke out in Samaria that day.  

10.                        Keeping the robe of humility on: In spite of all the power that the Lord walked in, He kept His garment of humility on so much so that He never took any step on His own. Everything He did was in obedience to the Father thereby setting a standard for us to follow. Jn.5:19, 30 and Philippians 2:5-11

I believe that these above steps of the Lord Jesus Christ has set forth for us an example to follow in our walk with Him if we are going to stand in the place He would have us stand in bringing in the harvest in these end times. 1Pet.2:21-25.

Meanwhile there is someone reading this blog that cannot begin to take any of these steps because they are not yet saved and therefore not on the discipleship journey yet. If you are that person and you desire to start, you can do so right away by saying the following prayer out loud in faith and you will be born again and begin to prepare to harvest for the Lord along with His reaper angels today:

Heavenly Father,

Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’ name! Amen.

Congratulations! For more information and resources that would help you grow in this new life, please visit our website at www.kingdomheirsministries.org and our blogs at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com and follow us on twitter at alero_nanna and on face book on www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl www.facebook.com/khmii2015; www.facebook.com/thewellbeingcenter. Or www.facebook.com/kingdomjointheirsfamily email:  jointheirsfamily@gmail.com.