Sunday School lessons on Personal Evangelism and Soul Winning. Each Christian should pray for a burden and opportunity to reach the lost. Be ready to act on every chance God provides to have an interaction!
Ideally, each interaction with a lost person will include one or more of four basic elements:
- Rejection of the “Man-Fearing” Spirit - “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matt. 10:26)
- Recommend Simple Scripture (Either Verbally or a Tract) - “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Isa. 55:11)
- Relate Your Testimony (First-hand Witness) - “Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defense which I make now unto you.” (Acts 22:1)
- Request More Time (An invitation to Prayer, Bible Study, Church, Salvation) - “But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.” (Rom 10:20)
Consider these outreach elements “additive.” In other words, without rejecting the man-fearing spirit, one will not give the Gospel to another. Without the Word of God, a lost person can hardly understand why your testimony matters. The Holy Spirit, the Word of God, and a Christian's testimony all can work together on the heart of another. In all of this, a lost person may not even know how to respond, so it may be left up to us to ask! Would you like to learn more from the Bible? May I pray for you about anything? Would you like to visit our church? Do you want to know your sins are forgiven?
It is certain that the Holy Spirit draws people to the Cross. We may never know how many before us have planted seeds and watered. That said, it is my feeling that door-step conversions happen all too rarely in this day and age. On the other hand, the investment made in a personal bible study, such as the Basic Bible Truths often tend toward great results for the Kingdom of God. I ask people, “Would you like to learn enough about the Bible to make up your own mind?”
We must also be better at discovering where a person might be in relation to the Gospel. Dr. Pat Briney (University of Arkansas, Microbiology) first instructed me in these four questions. He called his the Four Presuppositions of Paradigms. Mine differ slightly in their wording, and I tend to call them “four worldview filtering” questions. When speaking to someone about spiritual things, we must be on the alert to catch clues towards answering these questions. Jesus Christ used very similar questions with the Samaritan Woman at the Well. In some cases, but certainly not always, we may even ask them directly!
- Does Anything Exist Beyond Our Senses?
- If So, Does a Higher Power Exist?
- If So, Which Higher Power (or Powers)?
- If So, Where Do You Base This Knowledge?
I call it meeting a person at the point of their disbelief.
Logically speaking, a person may only occupy one of four possible quadrants on a classic 2×2 matrix. They may be saved and know it, not saved and not know it, or any combination of the two. While the numbers of people in any particular quadrant may seem few, it remains important for us to realize the possibility!
Notice the influences across the bottom of the diagram. The left-hand column is under the influence of Sin, Satan, and Self. The right hand column is influenced by the Holy Spirit of God. This bears out logically, in that the Holy Spirit will never cause a Saved person to doubt their Salvation - that comes of worldly influences. On the right hand side, when someone is Saved, even if they are doubting, they will have a testimony. Saved people will remember a time when they were confronted with the Gospel. Those memories will include at least a few details. A complete lack of any testimony should serve as a warning flag.
