New Evangelism
These last days, God's Kingdom is moving a new evangelism. It's not anymore purely scare tactics that force you to choose between the fires of hell or comfort in heaven. People who "accept" salvation by choosing heaven's comfort often make an intellectual decision--they don't want to suffer hell. That's smart. But God's Kingdom is now offering a new evangelism--receiving Jesus because they fall madly in love with him.
Romans says, "If you believe in your heart...you'll be justified (and saved)." It's not head belief that really saves; it's heart belief. And God's Kingdom is now pointedly disseminating that. Receiving Christ out of a fanatical, mad, and desperate love for him and what he does and has.
Receiving the Kingdom
The Kingdom of God is within you, says the Master. If it's in you then you should act it out now. You should be a Kingdom person. A sure connection with God is seeking His Kingdom first. And his Kingdom is all about Jesus and the Jesus righteousness. So, the salvation issue really is, are you a Kingdom person? If so, then you shouldn't be affected by the world or any worldly concern anymore. You should be living the Kingdom LIFE now. You cannot be Kingdomly and worldly, too--which is what many Christians are.
Jesus showed us how a Kingdom person lives and operates in the world. He didn't just live so we can put him on a pedestal and say, "Wow! Look at what the God-man can do! God is great" He lived here so we can emulate him (he says anyone who believes in him will do what he did and even do greater things). Thus, he says he is the Way and Life. In short, we should live his LIFE--it's the only way to be genuinely a Kingdom person. A Kingdom person, though in the world, is not affected by it. For instance, Jesus was not rich and yet never had any problem with money. Worldly people do--even the rich. Even the church. The richer they become, the more they have problems with money. If you are a Christian and live the same as unbelievers--affected by worldly concerns--then you're not Kingdomly but worldly. And perhaps still without genuine salvation.
The Master declared: "You will have problems in this world. Yet, be happy--I've overcome everything in this world." The word overcome here is powerful. It means being unaffected by the world as Jesus wasn't. Yes, you need money and have to work to get it, but you don't work for money. Money is your servant. God designed money to be your servant--if you're a Kingdom person. And having money as servant doesn't mean getting rich as the world does. It means getting rich as Jesus was rich and yet looked poor.
Soon, you won't have to work to get money--God will produce it out of nothing as in Jesus' case, when we have completely learned that blessed are the poor in spirit.
Jesus' first teaching was, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Understanding and living this life is a prerequisite in God's new evangelism. One sharing the Word with people should have nothing of the world in him or her. He should have only One--the Lord Jesus. The believer moves about in the world, uses money, gets involved, but never affected by the world. Sharing the Word and life testimony should be one flesh. It's giving flesh to the Word, so that the Word really dwells with men.
Old and Worldly Evangelism
The old and earthly (and worldly) evangelism uses worldly marketing and the Word to grow their petty church empires. They dwell on techniques and strategies and targets and seminars to increase membership. But you see no LIFE. Many times, those who can speak or present well--though with rotten life testimonies--get more people and grow churches faster, even phenomenally, and it glorifies God to some degree.
But what really gets full glory is the denomination--how it's growing and prospering and becoming powerful and able to move mountains by throwing its weight around. And others envy it and wants the same achievements. All worldly. I see nothing Kingdomly in them all. Only man's glory which is like grass--glorious now, dried and burned tomorrow.
God's new evangelism shares the Word with a strong LIFE testimony backup lived daily and each moment (Word and LIFE are one flesh), shares complete truth, focused on Jesus alone, and then lets the prospect alone with God to do decisions. There's no follow up or invitation to attend church or fellowship. My Jesus never did them. He just shared the Word and left the prospect to himself or herself to decide. He didn't grow a church or denomination.
But the people genuinely desperate for the Kingdom LIFE they saw in Jesus pursued him and became the church. Jesus never followed them up or visited them or invited them to come to his Sunday services. He invited them to the Kingdom, which is a LIFE lived, not a place to go to every Sunday, and he explained how hard it is to be a Kingdom person. It requires genuine Jesus LIFE and DNA--real holiness that comes from God and is by grace. A real narrow road so few opt for.
If people you share the Kingdom LIFE with see it in you and become desperate, they may opt to pursue you, or pursue other church with the Kingdom LIFE in it. Real Kingdom leaders do not mind if people come to them or not, if they have big membership or not. Membership size means zero in the Kingdom. Good if you have it, good if you don't. What matter is the LIFE seen in you. That's God's new evangelism principle.
John the baptizer was a Kingdom person; he pointed people to the Christ and insisted that he decrease so that the Messiah would increase. And some of his disciples left him to transfer to the Jesus ministry, and it was all okay. You will not find that today. Church leaders fight to grab members.
This new evangelism is what builds God's Kingdom in the world these last days, and it will be the glorious church--without spot or wrinkle or any blemish or stain--that my Lord Jesus is coming back for soon. The rest are nothing but Satan's synagogues in sheep's clothing.
Soon, you won't have to work to get money--God will produce it out of nothing as in Jesus' case, when we have completely learned that blessed are the poor in spirit.
Jesus' first teaching was, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Understanding and living this life is a prerequisite in God's new evangelism. One sharing the Word with people should have nothing of the world in him or her. He should have only One--the Lord Jesus. The believer moves about in the world, uses money, gets involved, but never affected by the world. Sharing the Word and life testimony should be one flesh. It's giving flesh to the Word, so that the Word really dwells with men.
Old and Worldly Evangelism
The old and earthly (and worldly) evangelism uses worldly marketing and the Word to grow their petty church empires. They dwell on techniques and strategies and targets and seminars to increase membership. But you see no LIFE. Many times, those who can speak or present well--though with rotten life testimonies--get more people and grow churches faster, even phenomenally, and it glorifies God to some degree.
But what really gets full glory is the denomination--how it's growing and prospering and becoming powerful and able to move mountains by throwing its weight around. And others envy it and wants the same achievements. All worldly. I see nothing Kingdomly in them all. Only man's glory which is like grass--glorious now, dried and burned tomorrow.
God's new evangelism shares the Word with a strong LIFE testimony backup lived daily and each moment (Word and LIFE are one flesh), shares complete truth, focused on Jesus alone, and then lets the prospect alone with God to do decisions. There's no follow up or invitation to attend church or fellowship. My Jesus never did them. He just shared the Word and left the prospect to himself or herself to decide. He didn't grow a church or denomination.
But the people genuinely desperate for the Kingdom LIFE they saw in Jesus pursued him and became the church. Jesus never followed them up or visited them or invited them to come to his Sunday services. He invited them to the Kingdom, which is a LIFE lived, not a place to go to every Sunday, and he explained how hard it is to be a Kingdom person. It requires genuine Jesus LIFE and DNA--real holiness that comes from God and is by grace. A real narrow road so few opt for.
If people you share the Kingdom LIFE with see it in you and become desperate, they may opt to pursue you, or pursue other church with the Kingdom LIFE in it. Real Kingdom leaders do not mind if people come to them or not, if they have big membership or not. Membership size means zero in the Kingdom. Good if you have it, good if you don't. What matter is the LIFE seen in you. That's God's new evangelism principle.
John the baptizer was a Kingdom person; he pointed people to the Christ and insisted that he decrease so that the Messiah would increase. And some of his disciples left him to transfer to the Jesus ministry, and it was all okay. You will not find that today. Church leaders fight to grab members.This new evangelism is what builds God's Kingdom in the world these last days, and it will be the glorious church--without spot or wrinkle or any blemish or stain--that my Lord Jesus is coming back for soon. The rest are nothing but Satan's synagogues in sheep's clothing.
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