Monday, December 22, 2014

The Problem Is Not Knowing The Truth, But Yielding To The Truth




“In preaching the gospel, always focus on the matter of the will. Belief must come from the will to believe. There must be a surrender of the will, not a surrender to a persuasive or powerful argument. I must deliberately step out, placing my faith in God and in His truth. And I must place no confidence in my own works, but only in God. Trusting in my own mental understanding becomes a hindrance to complete trust in God. I must be willing to ignore and leave my feelings behind. I must will to believe. But this can never be accomplished without my forceful, determined effort to separate myself from my old ways of looking at things. I must surrender myself completely to God. […] … it is God who draws me, and my relationship to Him in the first place is an inner, personal one, not an intellectual one. I come into the relationship through the miracle of God and through my own will to believe.” CHAMBERS

The struggle people have when they come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit is not whether the Gospel is true, but whether they will surrender to the Lordship of Jesus.  I have a friend who has been witnessing to a man from Iraq who lives in the U.S., let’s call him Amad.  Amad has given his life to Christ and my friend is discipling him now.  Amad’s mother, who still lives in Iraq, was angry about her son’s conversion, but now is asking questions.  Now, she wants to know more.  The Holy Spirit is working in her life.  My friend and Amad are going to Skype with her to share the Gospel.  The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth … He testifies to the truth, to the Gospel.  The Spirit will provide opportunity, we must be willing to speak the truth in love when given the opportunity.  

The question is not can my friend convince her of the truth, the question is, like for every other person, will she surrender her will to Jesus.  Pray for Amad and his mother.  When you share the Gospel with people, it is not your responsibility to convince them, to convict them to their sins, that is the work of the Holy Spirit.  No, your job is to tell them. 

(John 16:8-14) “And when He [ the Holy Spirit]has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; […]  when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.”

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

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