SHARING THE GOSPEL-Part Five
Sharing the Gospel with Faith, Continued

In our last nugget we spoke on the fact that throughout the New Testament and church history there has been signs and wonders that have followed the preaching of the gospel. We also mentioned that works without faith is useless. In this nugget we discuss what we mean by Sharing the Gospel with Faith.

We don't want to overemphasize the preaching of the gospel with signs and wonders to the extent that we are out of balance. We are not criticizing those who don't see the need for miracles, or for those who are sincerely sharing the gospel. There are many Christians who are winning people to Jesus without the outward manifestation of miracles, gifts of the Spirit. Of course, the greatest miracle is the story of a sinner turning his life over to Jesus.

There are some that say we do not need miracles today because we now have the Bible. The argument is the early church did not have the Word of God in written form so there was the need of miracles while sharing the gospel. It is correct, they did not have the Bible, instead they had the Creator in their presence, the true Word of God. Yet, God chose to use miracles to win people to Jesus.

Others argue that our testimony is powerful enough so we do not need miracles today while sharing the gospel. Our rebuttal to this is-Apostle Paul and Peter had amazing conversions and very powerful testimonies but signs and wonders followed their preaching.

 In Africa and South America there are tremendous revivals taking place and literally thousands of people being won to Jesus on a regular basis. There has been a tremendous outpouring of God's Spirit and signs and wonders following the preaching of the gospel. Because those sharing the gospel believe that God is a God of miracles today just as in the past and the knowledge that it will take miracles to deliver many people from the hold of the devil.

Some would argue that this is ok in those countries, but we don't need it in North America. But lets look at the fruit. Are thousands of people being won to Jesus in the USA and Canada? Are we seeing major revivals take place? Does God only want to heal and deliver the people in South America and Africa? It is the lack of faith that more are not won to Jesus in North America.

We are not only talking about amazing miracles or tremendous healings. What about something as simple as this:
While your sharing Jesus with someone ask the Holy spirit to reveal to you the real need of the person you are talking to. Ask the Lord to let you know what will touch their heart. Ask the Lord what the person's prayer need is, and then in faith ask the Lord to meet that need in an obvious manner so the person knows there is a God in heaven that cares about them.

This topic is much larger than we can cover in a few nuggets. We hope that this nugget will at least get each of us to consider that we need more faith while sharing the gospel-to believe that God can use our witnessing in some amazing ways. In ways greater than we have experienced ever before. As someone who is sharing the gospel in the streets of Seattle where the homosexuals, drug addicts, homeless, mentally ill, runaways, and others are, it is obvious it is going to take the miracle moving of God to change people's lives. We will be faithful to share, but we are asking for more of the Holy Spirit as we witness.

Our next nugget will be "Helping the Backslider"

Copyright Ó 2001 Richard D. Dover. All rights reserved.
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