The way of the Lord is justice and righteousness, summarized by Jesus as loving God and our neighbor. This is to be our nature as members of God’s family, and this theme is repeated throughout Scripture. However, the Old Testament also makes it clear that legalism cannot create such kingdom people – we need transformed hearts, a new covenant. Legalism relies on human ability, but the prophets looked forward to the coming of a Messiah who would fulfill God’s promises through the power of God.
Continue reading “The Importance of Evangelism”Month: April 2022
Sharing the Gospel with the Spirit’s Words
As described earlier, the Spirit led people to speak the gospel in ways that listeners needed, and He gave them power for the task.. Another way to picture this is as two different ways of speaking – words powered by human abilities, and words powered by the Spirit. The events at Pentecost showed people being given power from the Spirit, but He also continued to enable them to speak effectively after that.
For example, Peter boldly stood before the crowd at Pentecost and proclaimed Jesus even though he previously shrank from even being associated with Him. Such boldness continued as he confronted the very Jewish leaders who had earlier intimidated him. It also empowered other believers when they prayed for boldness in Acts 4, and the result was that they were filled with the Spirit and spoke the word boldly (v 31).
In another aspect of the Spirit’s power, Peter’s bold speech not only communicated well, it touched the hearts of his listeners (Acts 2:37). In a similar manner, Stephen, filled with the Spirit, later spoke such that his opponents “could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking” (Acts 6:10).
Both of these are clear examples of the Spirit empowering believers to speak the gospel effectively, but there are many more. The power to go, to speak prophetically, to speak beyond one’s station, to live aligned to the words spoken, to refute opposition, to speak in love and with Godly wisdom, and so on.
References to these things run throughout Scripture once you look for them, but one of the clearest statements is when Paul is reinforcing the Thessalonian’s faith and recounting how they had originally come to salvation through Paul’s words. He described them as accepting his message as the word of God rather than the word of man, and that it was at work in their lives (1 Th 2:13).
It seems that we can proclaim the gospel in many ways, but for people to accept it as the word of God, it must be shared with the Spirit’s power rather than just human wisdom and abilities. Then it can work in their lives.
Speaking with the Spirit’s power doesn’t guarantee success, but we still need to seek His help to reach into the darkness of today’s world. We still need the power from on high that Jesus promised.
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