People need Jesus! So many feel unloved, are lonely, depressed, addicted to drink/drugs/food, sin-sick, afraid, struggling in their bodies, unable to make ends meet through legal means, etc. And we have THE ANSWER!
We are called to help those around us (our neighbors, families, friends, co-workers, etc.) and those that we are sent to (someone in the grocery store that you feel led to go to, someone you feel led to reach out to and invite to coffee, etc.) to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. I remember first learning this truth as a teenager after reading II Corinthians 5:17-18 and oh how it excited me! God has given every Christian the ministry of reconciliation.
It's not that we go to others and tell them how wrong they are, how icky and full of sin they are and how they are going to hell if they don't clean up their act and get like us. We get to bring them good news that God has ALREADY done everything that it took to reconcile them to favor with Himself and given them a way out! The work has already been done! All they have to do is accept it by receiving what God did for them through His Son Jesus in His death, burial and resurrection.
"And he [Jesus] said unto them [the disciples], 'Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues.'" - Mark 16:15, 17 KJV
"As thou [God] has sent me [Jesus] into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world." - John 17:18 KJV
"Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." - II Corinthians 5:20 KJV
Remember that it is God's will that all men be saved and come into the knowledge of the truth (I Timothy 2:3-4). It wasn't mankind's grand idea to try to get others saved and we don't have to rely on ourselves to get results.
The Apostle Paul was a great example of an ambassador for Christ and he traveled to spread the good news to others often going into very dark places where the good news had never been preached. And with all of his eloquence and his grand testimony of how God saved him from being a murderous hypocrite (Saul) on the road to Damascus, I find it interesting what he said in I Corinthians 2:4 about his time preaching to those at Corinth:
"And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
The Greek word for demonstration (apodeixsis) means to point your finger at something or to point something out. To exhibit or to display or to show off. So, an interpretive translation of the latter part of that verse from a wonderful Greek scholar is: "I came with a display of power so outstanding that it really showed off the power of God."
God exhibits His power through Christians in many ways. Just some examples I can think of right now are:
He shows us things that will happen before they do
He uses our testimony to move the heart of others
He gives us inside information about the person we are ministering to
He uses us to heal the sick and/or cast out demon spirits
and so much more!
We put God in a box wayyyyy too often that things have to happen in a way that we have seen or heard before! HE IS GOD! His thoughts and His ways are higher than ours.
I heard a story recently wear a seasoned woman minister named Cindy was sent to a young lady that was caught up working in adult films. As the minister began to speak to this woman, she learned that the young lady was a pastor's kid. Cindy told her that unconditional love does not fail and that God has not left her and he loves her even in all of her transition and difficulties. Another person that was with her suddenly felt like they had a word for the young lady (that was very odd in my humble opinion). Cindy told the other woman to go ahead and give the word. The woman then said, "I see you eating a pickle." The young lady then walked away from them and went to the bathroom and when she came back, she showed them a picture of her and her father eating pickles together. Apparently, that was something that they did together and it was such a special memory that the young lady had that picture with her. That started a moment of transformative change in that young lady who ended up being saved and restored.
The gospel is the power of God (Romans 1:16)! God is just as willing today to stand behind and back up His Word with supernatural manifestations of His power as He was 2,000 years ago! As we spark conversations with others and share the good news of Jesus Christ, we don't have to be afraid of how people may respond or what the outcome will be. We can look to the Lord to "show off"-- He's more than willing to exhibit His power to them because He wants them to experience it!
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