Hi Everbody!
Happy Monday!
I had a phenomenal weekend as I had attended a Revive Canada conference with Evangelist Shyju Mathew and let me tell you, there was soo much downpoured into my spirit about revival that although I’ve been praying for it to come here in Canada, I’m more than convinced that it is already in operation. I believe that God is setting the stage as we speak to break forth into the type of Revival that will become the largest in our lifetime and if you come from another nation…I just want you to know that this Revival I’m talking about isn’t just for Canada…it’s going to be global. That is what I’m believing for and I can already see it happening. I would like to say more, but I must remain silent and let the Lord do His work. There is soo much more in store that I’m currently excited and at the same time fearful for those not prepared for what will take place.
Setting that aside I went to church yesterday and my Pastor was talking about Evangelism in her sermon and how there is a gap in the church for this area. I cannot agree more with her on that one. In fact, the night after the Revive Canada conference the Holy Spirit had told me the same exact thing. Talk about confirmation. Evangelism in North America seems to have dwindled as of late because people are being swayed between wavering opinions with the enemies agenda to promote COMPROMISE.
How long must the Church compromise and waver between two opinions?
1 Kings 18:21
And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word.
I remember as I listened to my Pastor preach as she mentioned how Jesus told his disciples in
Matthew 4:19
Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
The Holy Spirit spoke to me during the service and said…”Evangelism is just like Casting a net, however, not many people like what they catch”, I thought…WHOA…ain’t that the truth!
via sfodan.wordpress.com/
We know that God can make us fishers of men and yet we don’t always seem to like what we catch in terms of looking at what’s caught in your net. Sometimes we expect to capture the most impressive and responsive individual to the Word which I liken to favourable big fish…but it’s the small fry fish that we typically get caught in our nets most of the time that seem to always be the first ones cast away when it comes to evangelism. Why is that the case?
I see these type of cast-away fish as those that are easily overlooked, easily ostracized, easily misjudged by prejudicial eyes which tend to be the ones that look irregular to the big fish that we as Christians seem to aim for. Some of these fish maybe deformed, or be of a different colour, creed, family, social economic status, some may even look like EMOs, Punk Rockers, Satanists, Witches, Occult users, homosexuals, prostitutes, adulterers, those that have mental disorders and some maybe of various religions including the atheists. These types of fish from what I’ve seen, seem very unappealing to us in regards to spreading the gospel of Truth…but these are the same people that God wants us to capture the most. They may seem unresponsive at first, but these are the ones that God will use for REVIVAL. This is what I’m sensing strongly in my spirit right now.
The Holy Spirit also posed an uncomfortable question to me which I will share with you. He asked me, “How far are you willing to cast your net?”. Has the Holy Spirit ever asked you that kind of question?
He revealed to me that although I’ve captured some through my blog, He seems to be implying to me that I can do better than this. I was incredibly Challenged that I didn’t answer His question right away….because obviously, I was assessing the price.
via flickriver.com
Dear Lord….I am feeling the fear of God rise each time I’m challenged by God’s mandate. It was a fearful question that I found I was not so readily available to answer right away, surprise surprise *gulp*. I’m sensing that I’ve got to prepare myself to be pushed in the uncomfortable zone to see this manifest through. My whole mind feels like it’s just trembling thinking about it. I won’t claim to be welcoming this mandate with open arms…because sometimes…it’s about pushing the bar and walking right into destiny. I thought about it and struggled with the answer…in fact I found myself wrestling with myself with the answer; however, I’d like to be brave and claim by faith here on this blog with much fear and trembling *gulp*, “As far as you want me to, Lord.”
As soon as I answered the Holy Spirit’s question…I began to see visions….and I’m just not looking forward to the rest to tell you the truth and yet with the encouragement of a friend, she tells me that “I am groomed for spiritual warfare”. *sigh*….I certainly hope so *gulp*.
Has anybody ever felt Challenged by the Lord like this???? What did you do? How did you answer?
I am one that doesn’t answer too rashly or too quickly when the Holy Spirit asks me a question….I have a tendency to assess the risks first and I always seem to look before I leap in faith lol. I guess it’s time to just Leap :).
prejudiced people
The Holy Spirit began to tell me and show me of what I’ve been able to accomplish with just my blog. Of course I do more than just blog about my faith…but this is just an example.
Some people may not know this, but ever since I’ve started to blog about my faith a year ago, I’d get private emails from readers who have told me that their faith has been revitalized, that they feel like after reading some of my posts they feel a lot stronger in their walk, some have even sought information about spiritual warfare, some have seen answers to their problems and others are just hungry to hear more on certain topics that I’ve posted which has given me an indication that social media is one powerful evangelistic tool. Of course you get the occasional hate mail…but that sort of goes without saying when you speak the truth.
One person I remember contacting me who wishes to remain anonymous works for the UN and has seen amazing breakthroughs in their workplace with the spiritual warfare posts I had posted, with one of them in particularly dealing with Hamans in the workplace and other such material. Some people contact me for material that they can read and where they can buy it, etc etc. And many people from my blog come from across the globe. In fact, more the 52, 000 people have viewed this blog according to my flag stats and these people come from 171 different countries! I mean…I haven’t even blogged for that long and even though the blog was open nearly 2 years ago, I finally got active last year in October and it’s only been a year since I’ve been writing regularly and yet so many people’s lives have changed in such a short period of time via Wpress.
If God can attract more than 52,000 people to one blog in one year…What say you in ten years? What say you with thousands of other Christians blogging????
A social media revival is indeed possible, People!
What I am trying to imply here is that we cannot underestimate the power of social media to bring about Revival. I think we have to look outside the box. Television will always be an effective form of evangelism, but there are other effective tools out there to bring people to one place with the gospel message and that is definitely social media. Social media is even more effective than magazines these days and with the use of the internet, anything is possible.
What I’m trying to say here is that we don’t have to over complicate Evangelism. We can cast our nets further than we’ve ever imagined before through social media since it is one place that seems to have mobilized the whole world to be gathered in one place through cyberspace.
You just don’t know who God will use to make a difference.
I remember back in the day (10 years ago) when my sister and I went out with a couple of friends of my mother from the UK to hand out tracts in the street in a popularly known dangerous neighborhood and it was an exercise that I kind of cringed at because honestly…I have never been moved by that form of evangelism personally in regards to myself and I had never done street evangelism before either. “Who says that street evangelism is fun?” is probably the most passionate about it…but I knew even in my Christian self…it did not appeal to me one single bit no matter how much I loved the Lord. I’m just being honest here folks. The idea of talking to strangers was one thing…but in a risky area…that did not appeal to me at all… Yes, I have to admit..it was not my cuppa tea, but I learned a few things during this exercise.
When I was with these two ladies from the UK who were obviously pros at this street evangelism thing, it was interesting to walk through and try it out and give this thing a whirl. We did get a few jokers out there who just accepted the tracts hoping to get a phone number at the end which kind of got on my nerves, but eventually my sister and I got the opportunity to evangelize to a Satanist. Yep, in all that hallabaloo, we encountered those that took the tracts without much conversation, some listened with an open ear and thanked us and some were mere jokers until we landed on a Satanist. A fish we did not expect to encounter in this exercise.
My sister and I did not expect that we’d actually encounter one at all since it seemed that the obvious target in the area we were in were “youth at risk”. Yes, there were a few brothas that just took the tract wanting my phone number…which also is another reason I was not interested in street evangelism, however, when we spoke to the satanist, I thought, “Wow! Now here is a real fish that I’d like to get saved!” Mind you I was an immature babe in Christ when this event happened so this is just a recollection of what happened.
The person thought that by confessing he was a satanist that we’d back off in prejudice and fear because he kind of smirked when he told us he was a Satanist…Much to his surprise, I was actually excited and forthcoming…because I was thinking “Here we go…finally someone worth it!” because I felt up for the challenge. Yes, a few people where just playas…not really serious about listening to the gospel of truth… only interested in a date which greatly discouraged me from continuing this type of evangelism after 2 hours of it on the first day…(I shake my head at these). The Satanist was surprised that we were not afraid of him and was completely in awe of how calm and welcoming we were…in fact he must have thought I was crazy between my sister and I, because I was really excited to tell him about Jesus. At first he wasn’t very forthcoming in taking the tract we had to offer, but when we talked to him about the love of our Lord Jesus, and noticed how passionate we were about talking about Jesus without judging him on his appearance or status quo, he became responsive. He even thanked us for sharing the message with him. The whole day seemed worth it to me after we talked to one of the easily ostracized fish in our day. I believe there is a party in heaven for each one that receives the gospel of truth and this was the method of evangelism I was doing when I was a babe in Christ 10 years ago.
I look back at this and think of it as a very fond memory that is bringing me back to where I am now in my walk. I question myself, Am I still as passionate as I was before? I know in my heart I’m passionate about the gospel of truth, hence the blog, but I must confess that I think what I am battling right now is Fear brought upon by over-thinking the whole persecution complex. I went through a round of it when I was a youth leader in my church that I realize what I experienced has affected me more than I realized…but God is saying, “Get over it, it’s not going to be the last time either”. UGHHHHHHHHH! well…can’t argue with the Almighty now can I?
Well, in the end I have to get over myself if the target is for the cast-away fish. I think that the message today is that as Christians, we love aiming for responsive fish to the gospel and get easily satisfied by those that willingly come to the Lord with less effort when the true Catch that God is aiming for is for the easily cast-away fish. These fish are actually easy to catch but we cast them away so easily because of prejudice.
I think that we have to re-think Evangelism and analyze who we catch when we Cast our nets and also consider that we maybe guilty in some areas of casting away fish that so truly need to hear the Word by so easily giving up on them after experiencing their initial rejection of the Truth. I’m not saying become aggressive and stalk people with the gospel, all I’m just saying is that our approach should be one that is loving and kind, appealing to those that are easily overlooked that tend to be the ones who feel ostracized by Christians who approach them with prejudice rather than with compassion. We cannot afford to speak about the gospel of truth with prejudicial hearts and condemning spirits. That will not appeal to them at all. Empathy and Honesty wrapped with Compassion will work better to reach the lost rather than being perceived as a bible-thumping Christian, Amen.
What do y’all think? Do you agree or disagree? I’d like to know your opinions.
Have a blessed day everybody!
Sherline's Watchu Thinkin' Blog 