Evangelism is a biblical mandate, a blessed privilege, and a binding responsibility on the church of God (Mark 16:15). The fate of Christ-less souls headed for an eternity of the blackness of darkness in the fury of the flames of God’s fierce anger forever should motivate us to urgently occupy ourselves with the sobering task of doing all that we can to have compassion and snatch them from the fire with holy fear (Jud. 1:23). To be used of God in this sobering task, we must consecrate ourselves to the mission of the church in reaching the lost and study to train ourselves how to be effective in this war against Hell.
I fear that this is precisely because of a lack of consecration to the will of God, and a lack of diligently using the means and tools God has disclosed in His Word that much of the professing church is weak, lacking, or even almost useless in evangelism. Seeing our great need and lack of obedience in this area, without deep heart repentance and a total consecration to the will of God we cannot be useful in evangelism (cf. Rom. 12:1-2, 2 Tim. 2:21). Isaiah had to be purged before being used by God as an effective mouthpiece for Kingdom proclamation (Isa. 6:5-8). If you’re walking in known disobedience to God you must take the log out of your own eye before you preach repentance to others (Mat. 7:3-5). Otherwise, your evangelism will be hypocritical and void of the true blessing of God.
Upon securing a clean conscience before God, and consecrating yourself to the mission of reaching the lost with the Gospel, you must be diligent to show yourself approved to God as a worker who rightly handles His blessed Word (2 Tim. 2:15). As useful as they can be, and as much as God can use them, you don’t need to attend conference after conference to learn how to evangelize effectively. God’s Word is sufficient to train us for the task (2 Tim. 3:16-17). I am convinced that although God raises up good men to train the Body of Christ in evangelism, ultimately, the true equipping and enablement must come from above –and God’s primary means of sanctifying and equipping His people is through His written Word. Study to know God through His Word!
It is not enough to study the Word in order to present your arguments and lay forth your case, or to study merely to preach. You must soak yourself in the Word of God until it burns in you like a fire ready to explode (Jer. 20:9). Your goal in studying Scripture must be to draw close to God, to know the living God. Once your evangelism flows out of a deep, experiential knowledge of God your words will flow forth like an overflow of living truth that testifies not of information you learned from a book, but of a living relationship and deep personal experience with Jesus Christ (Acts 4:13).
Evangelism is nothing less than intense spiritual warfare, and our primary weapon is the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God (Eph. 6:17). A soldier that is a novice in handling his sword will not be as effective in battle as the seasoned warrior who knows how to handle his sword due to countless hours of practice. If we have to fumble around in our Bibles all the time looking for answers to people’s objections, and are slow to draw the sword, we may lose the battle at times and fail to dash to pieces the strongholds of Satan in the minds of fallen men (2 Cor. 10:4-5). You must know your God, for the battle is the Lord’s (1 Sam. 17:47). And you must know your primary weapon, since the God who fights on our behalf uses means to accomplish His ends.
In addition to knowing God, walking with a clean conscience, abiding in the word of Christ, and knowing the Bible with as much diligence as your time permits you devote to study, it is absolutely vital that you live a life of prayer. Brethren, without prayer evangelism is useless. If you march out to the battle without consulting the Lord, thinking you can do something for God, you are marching out to a fool’s slaughter. Hell will laugh at you if you are not clothed with the power of Christ. You cannot accomplish in the flesh what can only be accomplished in the Spirit.
Scripture commands us to pray for the salvation of lost men (1 Tim. 2:1-4). If God commands us to pray for the lost to get saved, that means He promises to deliver. However, if we are to see the fruition of such prayers, we must pray with faith, expecting God to save. This is a necessary key to effective evangelism and so many completely ignore it. The Lord Jesus, in teaching us about prayer, stresses repeatedly the necessity of truly believing and expecting that God will answer. “And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” (Mat 21:22) “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mar. 11:24) We must pray and expect that God will answer and save souls, and we must persevere in such prayer continually (Luk. 11:5-8, 18:1).
Not only should we pray for the salvation of souls, but we should also pray for power from on high to evangelize effectively (Luk. 11:13, Acts 1:8). Too many brethren who I consider to be true Christians know very little or nothing about this clothing of power from the Spirit of God to be witnesses to Jesus Christ. We are commanded to be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18). I am convinced that there is a difference between the indwelling Spirit that every child of God has and the clothing with power that comes from subsequent immersions and fillings of the Spirit. The book of Acts makes this clear [1]. Church history also testifies to the fact that men who were serving the Lord as evangelists and preachers who found their ministries largely ineffective and without much power, after deeply personal experiences with God in the secret place (many times it is so personal to them that they greatly hesitate to share many details), came out clothed with fresh power, revived in their relationship with God, and consequently saw waves of salvation follow their evangelism.
To know God, to know His Word, and to abide in the secret place of prayer are some essential keys to effective evangelism. If you are discouraged because of a lack of fruit in your present efforts to evangelize, perhaps it would be profitable for you to return to these foundations and examine yourself to see how you are lacking. Sometimes our lack of fruit is directly related to failure or unfaithfulness in the most basic things.
[1] If you are interested in studying this subject, I recommend the book “Joy Unspeakable” by Martyn Lloyd-Jones. While I don’t necessary agree with all the specifics of his teachings on the subject, I do believe he is correct about subsequent experiences of being filled with the Spirit of God that are distinct from regeneration. In the book, he surveys the book of Acts focusing on the outpouring of the Spirit. I also recommend a Bible study done by Tim Conway called “Filled with the Spirit: Baptism or Filling?” It can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfXpTbW5hQ0 or on www.illbehonest.com.
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