EXCERPTS
What are we talking about?
It’s simply the most important
issue facing the Church since the day of Pentecost. Without outstanding
conversions, an assembly will lose the vision of the Kingdom of God and the
heart of its message. When the Christ-given mission of preaching a powerful
Gospel to bring souls to salvation is neglected, the only thing left to do
is call in the receivers - the Church has become spiritually bankrupt. If
the Church no longer communicates God’s heart to a dying world it ceases to
be legitimate.
Miracle Conversions
- what are we talking about?
We are certainly not talking
about people, more or less Christian, coming from other churches and giving
a false impression that the church is advancing the cause of God’s Kingdom.
We are
not talking about those who come forward at a meeting, but need to be asked
ten times before they come again. We are not speaking of people who agree
with the Gospel, in general, but who are not prepared to change their way of
life.
We are
also not talking about those who say they are “open”, nor about those who
always seem to be getting closer but who never seem to arrive.
When we talk of outstanding conversions, we mean ordinary people, from all
sections of the community, who have been living an unconverted life, whether
happily or unhappily. These same people, having experienced a genuine
encounter with God, are now committed to living for Jesus, without shame or
compromise . They do so with Bible in hand and take their place faithfully in
their local church, serving God with joy and with all their hearts.
We need such
conversions!
Is the Holy Spirit capable of
this today, as in days gone by? Of course He is! But will God’s people
work with Him today, to see them become a reality? And how do we get
involved? If these questions vitally interest you, you are now ready to
discover what has happened in the life of those who were gloriously saved in
the New Testament.
Conversions that fall from
heaven
From time to time, we come
across something amazing - a person who has been converted sovereignly,
without any human intervention involved. God simply did everything Himself.
This is
what happened with Saul of Tarsus. In his particular case, the Holy Spirit
could not use a Christian. Each time Saul saw one, he would “blow a fuse”,
either killing him or throwing him into prison.
His hate for Christians made
him unapproachable. Imagine his reaction, if, unwittingly, a Christian met
him on the street and invited him to a Gospel service. It is difficult to
think of a civilised and peaceful conversation.
However, as Saul was destined
to play an important role in God’s plan for the rapid spreading of the
Gospel and the establishing of the early church, the Holy Spirit had to work
on him differently. Had something not been triggered off in him at the
martyrdom of Stephen? Saul was there; he approved of the crime. The
killers even left their clothes at the feet of Saul before committing their
murderous act. Paul seemed like a judge looking on as the executioners
carried out his sentence.
A testimony of Christian
courage and words anointed by the Holy Spirit can always trouble the hardest
heart. When Stephen, before breathing his last breath, called upon the name
of Jesus and asked that He forgive his assassins, what happened in the heart
of the cloak-room attendant? Who really knows?
After this sad event for the
church, persecution was intensified. What suffering and hardship this meant
for those who had to endure it, but what a promising sign for what would
come next. I have often said regarding outreach meetings I conduct, “I
prefer that an unconverted person leave a meeting upset, slamming the door
as he leaves, than him leaving at the end, half asleep, saying: ‘It was
OK.’”
The
storm before the calm
At a series of meetings I held
in the beautiful town of Uzes in the Gard region of France, a fifty-year-old
man, who did not know the Lord, accompanied his Christian wife to a meeting
on the Friday night. He went home furious, accusing his wife of having set
him up. He was convinced that his wife had told me, beforehand, all about
his life and that my message was directed straight at him. This was
absolutely not the case. I did not know his wife. An amazing thing
happened - the husband came back on the Sunday morning. I was at the door,
welcoming the people as they arrived; but when he saw me, he refused to
shake my hand or even acknowledge me. Fortunately, I am not someone who is
easily offended! However, I never expected that making the appeal for
salvation, his hand would go up to give his life to Jesus. Today this good
looking man from the south of France, lives wholeheartedly for God with his
wife. Ecclesiastes rightly says, “Just as you do not know the path of the
wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do
not know the activity of God who makes all things”. (Eccl. 11.5).
Let’s go back to Saul. Two
years had passed since the death of Stephen and Saul’s hatred of Christians
was at its peak. Jesus had told his disciples to be witnesses of His
resurrection in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria and beyond. Their tormentor
was hot on their heels as they went out.. One day, he left Jerusalem to go
to Damascus, but he did not arrive, at least not as the same man who set
out. He was involved in a very serious road accident - Jesus ran headlong
into him! It was in the dust of this unsealed road, that Saul would die to
his old life but what really happened? God simply said, “That’s enough” and
He struck him from his horse, blinded him by a powerful heavenly light, and
spoke to him audibly. What an incredible personal experience and it produced
a marvellous conversion that one can only dream about!
When Judas, (not the traitor),
and Ananias finally found Paul, they only needed to do the follow up. Jesus
had already, comprehensively, taken care of his conversion.
What
about today?
Does this kind of conversion
still happen today? Absolutely. Whether it is the businessman who reads
the New Testament left by the Gideons in a hotel room, the young man who,
while listening to music, is shaken by a spiritual experience that he
doesn’t understand, or the woman who cries desperately to God from her heart
for her family. God can answer sovereignly and supernaturally.
When the Holy Sprit brings
people, saved in this way, to us, we are surprised to see all that has
already been done without our intervention. It is like a neighbour who
brings us beautiful vegetables from his garden. He has worked the soil,
planted the seed, watered the plants, harvested the fruit, but, it is us who
enjoy it. Our role, now, is to help this brand new born-again believer to
build his spiritual life on the Word of God.
A sovereign conversion, like
that of Paul’s, causes much amazement and joy for Christians. We love to
see the Holy Spirit at work! However, it is not because God directly gets
involved that Christians can do nothing to help bring about this kind of
conversion.
What do
you want me to do for you?
Two men were sitting by the
side of the road, begging. They had no choice, they were both blind,
brothers in affliction, bonded together by the bad hand that life had dealt
them.. Their deep need was clearly evident to everyone. However, when
Jesus passed by he asked them a very important question, “What do you want
me to do for you?” (Mt 20:32). It was obvious, but Jesus wanted them to
express the intensity of their desire to get back their sight. With a cry
coming from their innermost being, they answered, “Lord, may our eyes see”.
Now that
the power of their desire had been released, Jesus was able to do the
miracle and their eyes were opened.
One of the greatest secrets of
outstanding conversions is to be “consumed” by the passion of seeing them
happen. God responds to this intense specific desire rather than to a more
general desire to see the Gospel spread or the church grow. Preaching the
Gospel is an activity that can become theoretical and mechanical. Winning a
soul to Jesus must be a real passion. Paul, consumed by this fire, showed
that he had understood the secret, “I have made myself a slave to all that I
might win the more” (1 Cor 9:19).
This burning flame, in a human
heart, is both an expression of love for God and for people as well as faith
in the work of the Holy Spirit. It will keep us on the true course of God’s
plan for men. Secondary things will remain secondary. The salvation of men
will remain the heart of our message and our primary mission as Christians.
It will keep us from any form of super-spiritual escapism or elite mentality
and will open the door to seeing real fruit and not imagined ones.
A church that is impregnated by
this passion will get moving. It will engage in powerful intercession which
will reach up to the very throne of God. This is the church that runs
meetings that people outside of Christ want to come to.. The vision of this
kind of assembly will affect every area of activity and will motivate its
members to look for lost souls in their sphere of influence and bring them
to Jesus.
Each person touched by this
passion for the lost, cannot imagine a Christian life without experiencing a
breakthrough in conversions to Jesus. Deep within his heart, there is a
cry, “God, give me a soul”.
When Christians and churches
become consumed by this burning desire, conversions which fall from heaven,
and every other type of conversion for that matter, are possible.
God at
work
A lady started coming to our
church and after several weeks I had the opportunity of meeting her husband
- he was a tall Finnish man named Raoul. He didn’t mind his wife and two
sons coming to meetings but he would never come himself. After a few
conversations with him, I reached the conclusion that this man was
unreachable. He reasoned that he could not accept a God who creates man,
knowing that he would go to hell. It was impossible to explain to him the
love of God and man’s free will and accountability. When I returned from a
number of weeks of overseas ministry, I heard the most amazing news: Raoul
had been saved! The following Sunday, I could not believe my eyes when I
saw him, with his arms outstretched to heaven, praising God with his whole
heart. At the end of the service, I ran to ask him what had happened. I
will never forget his answer! One night, he had gone to bed as usual.
During the night, he had a dream in which he simply saw the sad face of
Jesus who turned away from him, without saying word. He woke up troubled,
“Was it God, whom he had rejected, talking to him for the last time?”, he
wondered. Deeply shaken by the experience, he got out of bed and down on
his knees, he asked for forgiveness with all his heart and gave himself to
Christ.
Aren’t these conversions, which
fall from heaven, marvellous! I long to see them and I want to pastor a
church that fervently expects them to happen. Sometimes I wish they were the
only kind. But there are others which we need to understand as well.
Let’s just remember that Jesus
wants to know how genuine we are in the thing we desire most. He says to us
today, “What do you want me to do for you?”
First
secret
: Cultivate in
your own heart and life a passion for lost souls.
Ministers
of Reconciliation
« What’s
my ministry? » This question is asked by countless, well-intentioned but
frustrated Christians who feel that somehow they are not fulfilling God’s
purpose for their lives. They sincerely want to be effective for God but
don’t know how to go about it. Understanding your ministry is absolutely
vital if God’s purpose is to be fulfilled. By the end of this chapter you
should never have to ask this question again.
Paul was a man on a
mission. He had a very clear idea of what he was called to do and the
course he needed to follow. To a group of church leaders from Ephesus he
spoke these words, “But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to
myself, in order that I may finish my course and the ministry which I have
received from the Lord Jesus” Acts 20:24.
What a life! What
motivation! What purpose! Not many Christians I know could say the same.
How can you talk about finishing your course when you don’t know which one
you’re on, and how can you accomplish your ministry when you don’t know what
it is? “WHAT’S MY MINISTRY?” I hear someone screaming.
The conclusions that we
will reach in this chapter are X-rated – you must be “over 18” to accept
them. You will most definitely need maturity. They are not for
self-seeking, easily-wounded, spiritually immature Christians. If you read
on, you will do so at your own risk!
The super
plan of a super God
What is God’s purpose
anyway? If you listen to some preachers, it’s to make you feel good or, at
least, to make you feel better. Charismatic Christianity has tended to
reduce the eternal cosmic intention of Almighty God to this. Could someone
please explain to me the difference between the spirit of the age summed up
in the phrase, “If it smells good, eat it” and the mentality of many
Bible-believers, “If it feels good, it’s God”?
While “feeling better”
is always a positive thing, it’s hardly God’s primary objective on this
earth.
Paul enjoyed soaring to
heavenly heights in dealing with this question. In Colossians 1:19-22, he
sums up the whole divine plan, “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for
all the fullness to dwell in Him (Jesus) and through Him to reconcile all
things to Himself”. There it is! If you can somehow be part of that, you
will have a fulfilling life and accomplish your ministry.
If you have read this
book up to this point you will not be expecting systematic theology from
me. However, with this passage in Colossians, we are at the heart of
Christian theology. God’s fundamental purpose is reconciliation. He
created a world of which man is the central figure. That world has become
estranged from Him through spiritual adultery with Satan. God wants His
creation back and in particular, the creature He created according to His
own image.
Reconciliation is what
God is all about.
This is where Jesus’
death on the cross and His ensuing resurrection fit in. By this
extraordinarily powerful act, God broke the spiritual seduction the devil
had over creation. As an adulterous woman who returns to her husband
heartbroken for her infidelity, so Man returns to God to be reconciled to
Him.
God’s super plan could
be portrayed by the following simple graphic:
This is how most evangelical Christians understand the Gospel. It does
not, however, tell the full story.
What about
us?
Paul goes much further
on this question in the most wonderful of passages,
2 Corinthians 5:18-20. After giving
us one of the classic verses of the whole Bible (verse17, “Therefore, if any
man is in Christ he is a new creature...”), in the following three verses,
he uses the “magic” word no less than 5 times – reconciles, reconciling,
reconciliation.
The apostle would be totally unhappy with my diagram above. Step by
step, he sets out the unfolding of God’s plan.
1.
God is in Christ reconciling the
world – v19
2.
God reconciled us to Himself
through Christ – v18
3.
God commits to us the ministry of
reconciliation – vv18,19
4.
God commits to us the word of
reconciliation – v19
5.
We beg you
(the world), on behalf
of Christ, be reconciled to God-v20.
According to Paul, then, while Jesus has established the basis for
reconciliation with God, He doesn’t personally exercise the ministry of
reconciliation. He has delegated it to Christians who now carry this
responsibility, on His behalf. That is what the Scriptures say.
Here is how Paul would represent
God’s super plan by a graphic:
Quite simply, this plan
cannot work without ministers of reconciliation.
Can we
face this truth?
Spirit-filled believers
have looked closely at the Bible’s teaching on spiritual warfare and,
together with our rich revival culture, have developed what I would call a
“heavenlies” view of soul-winning. This implies that for souls to be saved,
victories have to be won against spiritual forces of wickedness “in the heavenlies”, following which God will sovereignly pour out His Spirit “from
the heavenlies”.
While there is truth in
both of these premises, they have produced an unfortunate mentality at two
levels. Firstly, the Christian assumes that the more he experiences
manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the church, the more unconverted
people, out in the world, will get touched themselves and get saved.
Secondly, he assumes that the more he does battle with demonic
principalities and powers, the more he can expect unsaved people to be
present in the service the following Sunday.
We can represent this mentality by a
diagram as well:
According to this
mentality, God pours out His Spirit on the Church. The Church binds the
devil and then, God pours out His Spirit on the world.
What’s the problem
here? There’s no bottom line from the church to the world. There’s no
Gospel! We’ve eliminated the need for ministers of reconciliation dealing
with the devil and with the Holy Spirit but not with people. We’ve become
too “heavenly” and people are too “earthy” for us. We don’t want to run the
risk of being rejected by humans so we’ve eliminated the need to go to
them. We’ll let God do that and we are, in fact, saying to Him, “You’ve
entrusted us with the ministry of reconciliation, but we don’t want it, so
we’re handing it back. Do it without us.”
Now, this is very
serious, indeed.
While the Gospel is
still very present in our theology and in our teaching, it is fast
disappearing from our Christian ministry. We devote our lives to people who
have already been reconciled and forget about those who aren’t. Then comes
the inevitable question, “Lord, what’s my ministry, I’m feeling spiritually
useless?”
Please
fasten your seat belt
There are
three bombshells in this passage in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 and I would like
to go easy with you as I deal with each of them. I could sum them up by
saying they involve His ministry, our gifts, their needs.
1.
HIS MINISTRY
The word
in the passage which changes everything is that small pronoun Paul uses,
“US”. Those who have been reconciled are “US” and those who have been
entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation are also “US”. He is not
simply speaking about himself, using the royal “we”, or about the apostles,
or about Christian leaders called “ministers”. Everyone reconciled by God
through Christ is included. “US” is “US”!
This, in fact, means
that Jesus’ revelation to Paul at his conversion on the road to Damascus
applies to all Christians, born again by the Spirit of God, “But arise and
stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you to appoint you a
minister and a witness…to open their eyes so that they may turn from
darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, in order that they
may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been
sanctified by faith in Me” (Acts 26:16-18).
Jesus wasn’t calling
Paul to join the ranks of a special class of ministers. He was committing
to him the ministry of reconciliation, that same ministry which he had
already committed to His 11 disciples in saying, “Go into all the world and
preach the Gospel to all creation…” (Mk 16:15).
Dear reader, this
ministry of reconciliation has not been committed to “THEM” but to “US”.
Isn’t that good news for
all of us! We all have a ministry and it’s nothing less than reconciling
people to God. But are we all exercising our God-given ministry?
2.
OUR GIFTS
We all
have the same ministry, but I hear you thinking aloud, “What about our
gifts, we don’t all have the same gifts!”
Hold on tight, there is
more turbulence in the air!
As Christians, we have
placed a premium on personal giftings – discovering them, developing them
and expressing all that God has given to us. We have often reasoned along
these lines – God has given each of us a different ministry according to the
gifts we have received. If we can discover our gifts, we will be able to
understand our ministry and live a fulfilled Christian life.
My great problem with
this logic is that, in Scripture, God’s priority is anything but
self-development, self-expression and self-fulfilment. These are New Age
priorities. God is only interested in self-death, the very opposite of what
many Christians understand. God gives grace to humble people, not
self-fulfilled people.
This explains why
Christians can come to church and sing the most beautiful choruses that
express total dedication to God, laying down their lives as living
sacrifices and then, at 12 noon, go home to live very ego-centred lives.
The point was feeling good about singing the song, not changing the way they
live.
I am amazed at how many
Christians sincerely want to serve God but do very little at all. What
counts seems to be feeling noble desires, rather than doing something about
them. It’s the “feel good” factor gone crazy.
Paul uses the word
“ambassador” to speak about those to whom the ministry of reconciliation has
been entrusted and we will come back to the significance of this a little
later.
Imagine for a moment the
President of France sending an ambassador to New York to represent Him and
the nation at the United Nations. After a few months, the President hears
that his ambassador is now driving a yellow cab in the streets of New York.
He rings him up and says, “Hey, I sent you to be my ambassador, not to drive
cabs”. The ambassador replies, “But I enjoy driving and I’m a very good
driver. What’s more, I like talking to strangers. In, fact you shouldn’t
complain because I am working for you – I tell my passengers that Paris is a
beautiful city and that they should go and visit the Eiffel Tower next
summer.” The President will say, “I don’t care what you like or don’t like
doing. I’ve sent you there to do a job for me, not to do what you want.”
With all our emphasis on
expressing our giftings, aren’t we doing the same to God?
Paul had a totally
different approach – we have all received the same ministry. As we have all
been empowered by the same Holy Spirit to perform it, we are to undertake
this ministry with all the resources we have at our disposal, both natural
and spiritual. For Paul, gifts don’t determine whether we are ministers of
reconciliation or not. They are tools given to an individual for him to
perform the ministry in a specific way. Whether he is prophesying, healing
the sick or involved in administration, he must be doing it in the context
of the mission entrusted to the Church and to every Christian – reconciling
men to God.
This takes all the
pressure off “discovering your gift” which troubles many Christians in
church. If they can’t preach, sing or play the piano, they often torture
themselves unnecessarily, praying, “Lord, what is my gift?” When they
understand
2 Corinthians 5, they can get to
work with what they have because unreconciled people are everywhere.
3.
THEIR NEED
The first
lesson we have drawn from this passage was – we all have the same ministry.
The
second lesson was – gifts don’t determine the ministry. They are workmen’s
tools.
The third
lesson is – the needs of unreconciled people will determine what we do.
The
Greek word translated “ministry” could also be translated “service”.
Serving basically means adapting oneself to the other to be able to help
him. A servant cannot do what he pleases but adapts himself in order to
respond to the needs and desires of his master.
If we are to exercise
the ministry of reconciliation, it is not an opportunity to “feel good”
about ourselves. We are concerned about what the unreconciled person needs
from us that will help him to be reconciled to God.
If a singer sings to
develop his singing ministry but the need of the unsaved person isn’t a
song, who is serving who?
I once listened to a
street preacher who, with Bible in hand, was crying out on a street corner about the blood of Jesus. He was certainly doing something similar to Paul
years ago in Athens. The problem was that, not only were people not
listening to him, but when they heard him, their pace quickened to get
away. His courage was remarkable and, certainly, arriving home that evening
he would have prayed, “Thank you, Lord, for the strength you gave me to
preach your Word publicly today.” However, was he really serving the
unsaved people on the streets? Theologically, perhaps, but in doing what he
was doing, he wasn’t helping them to be reconciled to God.
A minister of
reconciliation does not ask himself the question, “What are my gifts?” but
“What are their needs?” Once he has an answer to that question, he will
begin to develop tools and strategies to respond to those needs with the
view of winning that person to Christ.
My car
washing ministry
Having recently arrived
in the south of France from Australia, I was performing a real Aussie ritual
one sunny Saturday afternoon – I was washing my car. As I was hard at work
in a small car park in front of our block of flats, a lady pulled up in a
car next to me. She was a neighbour I had not yet met. Getting out of her
car, the lady said in a joking manner, “You’re doing a great job. When
you’ve finished you could do mine as well,” and off she went. I’ve noticed
that people often say that when you wash your car in a public place. I
thought to myself, “I’ll fix you lady”. When I finished my car I started on
hers. Half way through, the lady came out onto her balcony and saw me
washing her car. She shouted for the whole neighbourhood to hear, “I don’t
believe it! He’s doing it. I never expected that. That’s incredible! I was
only joking. Soon as you’ve finished come up and have some coffee!” I
finished quickly before any other neighbours could rush down to get me to do
their car as well! A few minutes later, I was sitting in the lady’s lounge
room with her husband having coffee and sharing with them about why we had
come to France and the love I had for Jesus.
The opening I probably
wouldn’t have had putting a tract in her letter box came by washing her
car. It was a much more need-orientated thing to do. Does that mean I have
a car washing ministry? I think not. My ministry is to try to reconcile
people to God and I’ll do it any way I can.
His
Excellency, the Ambassador of Christ
In an incredibly
impersonal world where people need to feel self-worth, many Christians have
looked for it through Christian service. However, by definition, service is
self-abasing. As we have seen, ministry is not an opportunity to feel
useful, or gifted, or appreciated by others. The ministry of reconciliation
has been given to every Christian for one purpose only – reconciling
estranged people to God.
Yet, God places great
honour on the one who diligently fulfils his mission – He calls him “an
ambassador” (2 Cor 5:20). An ambassador, at the time of the Roman empire of
Paul’s day, was a direct representative of the Emperor himself who would
often send his most trusted man into a troubled province to re-establish the
Pax Romana (Roman peace). That ambassador would have to live for a time in
the midst of a people who were not his own, far from his beloved country.
He was not there for recreational reasons or personal business. He was on a
mission with very clearly defined goals. When he spoke, he spoke with the
full authority of the Emperor and he knew that Rome, and the one who sent
him, would be judged solely on his conduct. When someone from that province
wished to gain Roman citizenship he would have to apply to the ambassador
who had the power of granting that prized status.
It isn’t difficult to
see why Paul uses this title when referring to Christians fulfilling the
ministry of reconciliation. God has set up an embassy in the troubled
province of this world to establish His peace in the hearts of men and
women.
Every Christian is an
ambassador and every Christian is a minister in God’s super plan to
reconcile Man to Himself in Christ. It deeply affects me when I think about
it. Reconciling people to God is our life calling. Who could give his life
for a more noble cause?
I am so very mindful of
the Christians who played a role in my being won to Jesus. While I know it
was a work of God, I remain eternally grateful to them for having served me
in my reconciliation to the Father. If some have given me a chance to share
forever the glory of God, how much I also want to give that same opportunity
to others!
We often say that we
come into this world with nothing and we will leave it with nothing.
However, that isn’t quite true. I’m heaven-bound and the one thing I can
take with me is those I have won to Christ in this life. None of us knows
how many years God will give us before we go to that other shore. This is
the reason I want to make every year count and, when my number’s up, I can
go, knowing that I have “finished my course and accomplished the ministry
which I received from the Lord Jesus”.