Soul Winning… We Know Too Much! (Pt.2)

By:Paul Joseph

It’s impossible to hide the love of God and the truth of Jesus. If you have made Him the Lord of your life, it’ll be all over you, like a beautiful aura. “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Mt 5:16). There’s a light about you when you obey Him and when you walk in His love. Let’s face it, we have found something worth dying for, and we’re dedicated to live for it.

The devotion to soul winning starts from the conviction of our salvation. “Restore into me the joy of Thy salvation. Then sinners shall be converted into Thee.” (Ps 51:12,13). Once we realize the joy of having been redeemed, and how Jesus paid for us to enter into the kingdom of God, and to live by a new set of laws based on Agape love, which gives us freedom, joy, peace, and a new life, we can’t help but exude that joy and want to share it with others.  “Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” (1Pt 1:8). It’s like a young man or woman who’s found the love of their life, about to get married and they can’t be silent about it. They’re just bursting with excitement; they’re filled with new dreams, new visions, new love, and they want to tell everyone about it!

That’s what witnessing our faith should be all about. We should be able to recollect the joy of our salvation every single day, and share that happy news with everyone we meet. Our own testimony alone is probably the most powerful proof that we have to share with others. To be able to say, “I was living a life of confusion, depression, anger and frustration, whereas now I have peace, I have direction and I’m filled with joy.” That alone will bring a listening ear and open up anyone’s heart, because that’s what they’re looking for too.

We can all drop that little seed of God’s Word into an empty heart, then cover it up with the loving warmth of God’s love, trusting God’s Spirit to bring forth the miracle of new life! We may not be able to win them all, but we can plant seeds everywhere we go. The rest is up to the Holy Spirit. But He needs a seed to start with. “Preach the Word; be instant in season, out of season.” (2Tim 4:2). 

We’re all missionaries. Jesus wants to speak to them through our lips, and use our hands and our feet to spread the good news of the kingdom. We must make ourselves available.  We should all be concerned about sharing God’s love. We don’t have to look far to see the state of the world, how everyone is caught in a web of lies, people are confused, depressed and simply lost.  Everyone out there is walking around with a heavy heart, scarred with offenses and bruises they can’t get over. They’re hungry to live a better life, to find answers to the deep rooted problems they’re facing; whether in their relationships, their marriages, in raising their children, etc. And we have answers, such simple answers, yet filled with healing, true love, and true freedom. Each one of us has within us the power to help our fellow man, to relieve his stress, his fears, and give him peace, joy, and a light unto his path.

It’s really selfish not to share freely what we have been given freely.  We must reach out to the lost, the condemned, the depressed, the unloved, the unforgiven, the unwanted. We will, one day, give an account before God according to what we have done for Him. (See the parable of the talents.) Not what our church has done, but what “I” have done. We must look at the body of Christ as personal, with a personal responsibility and accountability to walk out His love. Christ walks through each and every one of us. Christ alone can save this world, but Christ can’t save this world alone!

Social media can be deceiving and we can get tricked into thinking that because we are posting a few Christian quotes, that that is enough of a witness. I am not minimizing the power of witnessing through writings, but for witnessing to be genuine and truly effective, it has to be a personal heart to heart witness to really reach a person deep inside. A little post here and there is not really soul winning.

Unless we personally share the gospel, we’re not really a “doer” of the Word and we can’t really grow and stay alive spiritually. James said, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.” (Ja 1:22-25). We need the fresh interactions of ‘doing’ the personal one-on-one, to actually shine Jesus to others, to keep us alive and growing, to be a light in darkness. “No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light.” (Lk.8:16). 

Once we have made  a concerted decision to be a soul winner, that decision is behind you. You’re now a full-time witnesser. You don’t have to face that obstacle every time. But it won’t be firm and cemented in our conscience until we do it. We’ve got to commit ourselves to love on people, to encourage and lift them up. Once we start, it becomes easy to find something good to highlight about them, and they become a listening ear, and you can share the good news. “Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in Heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in Heaven.” (Mt10:32,33). (To be continued)