I went to a city wide prayer meeting last night and it was super insightful and helped put words to things I felt but couldn’t articulate. The prayer part was about how to engage spreading the gospel. The overall response on as to why people aren’t doing it was fear. Fear of how one would be perceived, fear of rejection, etc.

This has been something on my heart too and definitely worth addressing openly and honestly and without judgement. I’ve worked a couple different sales jobs in the last few years and one thing I learned is people don’t want to be “sold”. Like no one wants a gimmick or an inauthentic pitch. I realized my best sales experiences were when I 100% believed in what I was pitching and shared from an authentic place-being real, sharing my personal experience. So much in communication is unspoken, I think like 80% so you’re “selling” what you’re selling even by gestures, facial movements, etc. If I even had a shadow of a doubt about myself in the pitch my sale wouldn’t go well. There is a bit that can be gleaned from the idea of sales in spreading the gospel.

My last job gave the potential customer an experience before they bought anything and this made the company stand out from others and was a natural tool in selling the product. A few months ago I was invited to go on “treasure hunts” with my friends. Treasure hunts are gatherings where a group of us who know Jesus and walk with Him would meet and we would worship and then ask Holy Spirit for direction, words, who and where and then go out in groups of two or more and go find God’s treasure. His treasure is people at a park, or Kroger or wherever Holy Spirit directed and then we would approach them and ask if we could give them words from God as they are His treasure. This was a very interesting experience…I think nearly every time I was partnered with a young person in their teens and these ones are on fire for God, what a way to get sharpened! Sometimes in approaching people we would be rejected but oftentimes people were open to us praying or giving them a word from God. I think this is an awesome and gentle way to evangelize to people for those of us just starting out. I think there is this feeling of I don’t want to be the guy on the street corner with the bull horn telling people to repent or they’re going to hell but I’m not doing anything to spread the gospel at all so where is the middle ground? Giving someone a gift, especially the gift of a word from God can be life altering and definitely plants a seed.

There are people who are super gifted at approaching people anywhere and just launching in and what I’m discovering is that the delivery is often in the person. I’ve met people who are so so on fire for God and have this super infectious personality and they seem to be able to say anything to anyone and boom! It’s on! But many people are more reserved, especially if this is something they haven’t done before. I’ve heard quite a bit of criticism and snickering remarks for those of us not out there evangelizing the streets but my heart feels that quiet or loud judgement is not the Father’s heart at all for people that want to evangelize but don’t know how. The church is waking up to her call and I feel there needs to be a lot of grace for what it looks like to spread the gospel and getting frustrated or angry that people aren’t doing it isn’t the answer. But formats like last night, meetings where anyone who knows Jesus from all over the city could come and discuss openly and honestly how and even maybe where to do it is super helpful and motivating. A guy I knew at one point stood up and gave an awesome fiery speech about how we need to be out there not meeting here and that was good too. It was a kick in the butt to hear that. And people were grateful for it. I watched a lot come up afterward and thank him for his words of challenge.

The bible says we should desire spiritual gifts but especially the gift of prophecy. I feel like modern day evangelism is a good reason as to why. If you go up to someone and can quick pray and get a word from the Lord for them and it hits-man, it’s on for them! I’ve experienced this myself and given words like this. To receive a word from someone from the Lord that the person delivering has no idea what it could mean to you but its specific for you and means the world to you-that can be a life changer! And we are called to plant seeds. I mean, it’s a great “in” to give a quick encouraging word and then, if they want more awesome but oftentimes that may be enough and they may need to sit with that word for awhile before getting more. It’s not our job to grow the word but to plant the seeds.

One of the first times I did this we went up to a man and he was immediately sort of in awe/spooked…he said something like, “why’d you pick me?” And we just told him, God highlighted you. He retorted with something like, “I’m a little paranoid so I’m just wondering why me?” We had to go over this a few times as he couldn’t get passed it. As he talked it became quite apparent that he is often overlooked and so as we shared the words we were hearing for him this suspicious look he had dissolved into a look of acceptance and being seen. It was a beautiful moment.

Last night’s meeting was a microcosm of the church in the west and a picture of hesitancy and complacency and at the root of that, a fear as to why the harvesters aren’t in the field. A open and honest place to discuss that reticence along with a few swift kicks may be what we need as a body to get out there. Most of all, we need to be the change so my prayer is for opportunities and personally for people to go out there with. I want a second. I’ve done it alone and Jesus even sent His disciples out in twos so a second is a given. (Verse that says where two or more are gathered there I am with them.) I get a holy fire that can come over me when I’m with a fellow believer and the presence of the Lord gets stirred, man I was feeling it at that meeting last night-just this deep desire for people to know Him, know who He is. If you’ve been someone in the church for a long time, take a step back and try to view this as an outsider looking in…you’ve sat most of your life in a seat getting fed from someone else. You’ve learned scriptures and verses and ways to apply them for years! And likely, you haven’t done much with said knowledge besides apply it to your life…it’s sort of like where do I start and why? And the why is huge! If you again, step back and consider all that the Lord has done for you in your life I think you’ll quickly discover the why. Not just because people who don’t know Him will go to hell as that is a fear based approach and not very heart changing for someone, like I can watch a scary movie and be scared for awhile but not really an impetus to change my life but if I instead watch a movie about forgiveness or the transformation of someone’s life due to love, that stays with me-that can alter my life. If we take a “love vs fear” approach at spreading the gospel we are getting to the heart of the gospel. Old testament prophets focused on fear but we are under the new covenant and Jesus died for us out of His deep deep love for us so that we could come out of the curse of Adam and as Jesus resurrected into new life so can we now, in this life! And that’s the beautiful message of the gospel of Jesus! Like life in Him is resurrection life! The power that rose Him from the dead NOW LIVES IN US!!! SO as we go out as harvesters I’m praying too that we begin to see His resurrection power meet us as we step into the unknown, the unfamiliar-the risk of all of that.)  I’m also praying that our beautiful Lord Jesus empowers people with a fire that just makes them bold and then they see evidence of Him with them somehow.

I think we need to have a lot of grace for each other to get out there and share what has worked and not worked. Probably no bullhorns…just sayin.

I wrestled with the lack of motivation to spread the gospel…maybe that sounds terrible but when people were like people will go to hell if we don’t share, that didn’t resonate with me. A scare em into salvation approach didn’t appeal to me because that’s not been my experience at all. I mean, I think people tried that with me but it didn’t sustain me. And there is a whole ideology out there today that believes there is no hell. It is impossible to scare someone out of something they don’t even believe in! Not until I began to realize that God in heaven saw me, cared for me, sent His Son to die for me, wants to have a relationship, a personal relationship with me did my heart begin to change and then I deeply and still do desire a personal relationship with Him and spend time on that relationship.  A love vs fear approach. If I sit back and consider all that my life is I know that I’m even still alive only because of Him, in fact, literally any good thing in my life is due to Him, not me. And His show of love for me. This is the good news! This is the gospel! We have the potential to have a very intimate and personal relationship with the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE!!! Are you kidding me?! This is a truth worth spreading! This will quickly light your heart on fire to get news of Jesus out there. But for me, I had to connect the gospel to me and my life to desire to share it. And by the way, I’m not doing great at getting out there and sharing it but I am taking risks and asking for opportunities and practicing taking the ear buds out and music off when I’m out and about so I can be aware of if Holy Spirit is highlighting someone. Recently, I prayed for someone who was in a wheelchair, I didn’t ask what was wrong, I just asked if I could pray for her. She said yes, I prayed and when I finished I saw her face kind of fall as her condition didn’t change. I’m continuing to pray for her as that look is haunting me. And I’m now praying as well for the gift of healing. These are lessons. And asking why she didn’t get healed…a lesson. And an opportunity to grow not get down cuz it didn’t happen.

Pray for the risks! Pray for the opportunities! And take them when they come. Our loving Father in heaven will meet your weakest efforts. You can trust Him. He will help you.