I never allow words or someone’s actions or way of speaking distract me from offering them the gospel. I present it and leave the rest up to God. The worst thing they can say is no, and I can handle that. What I can’t handle is the thought of having bloodstained hands on Judgment Day because I didn’t witness to them.
By Michelle Mihalakis
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“Simon Peter said unto them, I go a fishing” (John 21:3).
If we carefully read the above referenced story, we will realize that Peter didn’t catch anything that day. You’ve probably been fishing in the natural, but have you been fishing in the spiritual sense? There is a correlation between fishing in the natural to fishing in the Spirit.
The first rule of fishing in the Spirit is that you have to be able to spot the fish. How do we identify them? Gal. 5:19-21 says, “Nov the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murderers, drunkenness, revelings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” So it is actually very easy to spot the fish of today. No, they’re not turtles or crawfish, but they are fish!
We often make the mistake of assuming that someone won’t be saved before we even witness to them. Sometimes we’re presumptuous by assuming someone won’t receive the gospel. Many times people miss out on the greatest “catches” simply because they don’t see through eyes of faith. The eyes of the flesh will try to discern or judge someone outwardly, but God looks on the heart.
Jesus spoke about the parable of the sower in Matt. 13:18-23. He told about the different types of hearts on which the seed of the gospel is sown. Some hearts are stony, which means they have shallow soil over their rocky hearts that receives the Word “with joy,” but when trials come, they’re offended and don’t continue living for God. Then there’s the person who is caught up in the riches of the world and “is choked by the word.” “Good ground” describes the heart that understands the Word when he hears it, and is obedient and fruitful as a result.
The determining factor in the parable of the sower of whether someone made it to heaven was the ground in which the seed was sown. The ground is representational of the heart of man. The heart is where understanding and emotion can be found, and it’s where faith can have its full effect.
The contents of the heart determine where we spend eternity. Jer. 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” He goes on to say in the next verse, “I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” We cannot judge what is going on in the heart or mind because we have no idea unless the person or God reveals to us a problem.
Soul winning is not a mind reading event or an inspection of goods. It is done by faith. John wrote in chapter 4, verse 23, “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.”
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