LOVE FINDS A WAY
BY MARK HANBY & V. ARLEN GUIDROZ
Eighty per cent of all soulwinning done in the United Pentecostal Church is accomplished, not by veteran members, but rather by new converts who have had the Holy Ghost six months or less!
Properly speaking, this situation defies all normal logic and bespeaks serious spiritual imbalance. In our quest for understanding, however, the causes behind this astonishing paradox are more dearly understood when we remember the sweet relief of righteousness, overwhelming peace and tremendous joy that accompanied our own initial baptism, firing us with a frantic urgency…. Oh blessed first love’ What beckoning call of evening wooed you to take your flight from my lean and hungry soul?
The untrained spiritual children teach us that soulwinning is not an educated art or concept nor can it be guaranteed by following a set of rules. It must be the result of something personal and powerful stirring within us. The weak, retreating disciples in Gethsemane became the powerful mountain-moving patriarchs of the newborn church after receiving the Holy Ghost. These formerly bewildered disciples,
recognizing their own inability to fulfill the kingly charge of their departing Master, “Go ye into ALL the world and preach the gospel to EVERY CREATURE” (Mark 16:15), tenaciously clung to this solitary ray of hope: “Ye shall receive POWER after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you … and ye SHALL be witnesses unto me. (Acts 1:8).
I. EXCUSE ME, LORD
The common church member today usually comes to soulwinning class well armed and doesn’t hesitate long before exploding with a number of excuses with which he is obsessed. Hiding his slothfulness,
carelessness and faithlessness, he offers these remarks as an answer for his fruitlessness:
“I have a shy nature
“I never have been able to talk to people.”
“You know I’m very reserved.”
“I don’t think we should push people.”
“The folks on my block are just not interested.”
“I live in a very strange neighborhood.”
“My job’s had me tied down lately.”
“I just can’t get my house work finished, and I think it’s more important to keep a home than to be out beating the streets all day.”
“My children demand so much of my time.”
“It seems to me that all we do is go to church; aren’t we ever supposed to have any time for ourselves and our family?”
“I’ve tried and tried, and it’s no use.”
“The Lord didn’t call me to knock doors.”
“I thought we paid the preacher to do the visiting.”
“I couldn’t sell a glass of water to a man dying of thirst-let Henry do it–he could sell a snowball to an Eskimo!”
Is There A Reason Why You Should Not Be A Soulwinner?
It seems they have forgotten the old scriptural adage,…”If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daffy, and follow me” (Luke 9:23).
“He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me, is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37-38).
Many try to make their excuses sound legitimate by using justifiable, normal human activity as a ‘reason’ for not attending to God’s spiritual business. The Lord, however, is certainly neither fooled nor impressed by those who constantly fabricate excuses and He exposes both the fallacy of and the judgment for their unrighteous activity in Luke 14:16-24.
“Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many:
And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.
And they all with one consent BEGAN TO MAKE EXCUSE. The first said unto him, I have bought apiece of ground, and I must needs go and see it I pray thee have me excused.
And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.
And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.
So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in hither the poor, and the
maimed, and the halt and the blind.
And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou has commanded, and yet there is room.
And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.
For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper” (Luke 14:1624).
No Excuse
We are compassionately and clearly warned by the foregoing parable that the Lord cannot accept this type of excuse but will rather choose a different group of people to replace those who were first bidden to the supper.
Few will argue against the right of a man to buy and see a piece of land, and it is unreasonable to ask that a farmer not try the oxen he has purchased. And who among us would deny a man the blessing of
spending time with his wife and family? However, these fine activities become mere baseless excuses when offered as reasons for not obeying the many all-inclusive and exclusive commandments of our Lord, such as:
” . . . Thou shall love the Lord thy God with ALL thy soul, and with ALL thy mind. This is the first and great commandment” (Matthew 22:37, 38).
Such a fervent and comprehensive statement brings again to our minds one of the ‘Laws of Grace.”
“But seek ye FIRST the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).
All decent and upright things may be done in proper time and in proper order, but NOTHING takes pre-eminence over our responsibility to save lost and dying men.
11. SILENCE IS IMPOSSIBLE
No man tells the river where to flow or the wind where to blow. The river does not wait for hills to be moved or for valleys to be dug. It automatically flows to the lowest point and the rushing of its power
sends its streams around hindrances, over insurmountable obstacles, and through thickets that even a rabbit could not negotiate. Tumbling the tattered debris before it the watercourse carves out a channel on its way to the oceans. Though crooked and twisting, we may be sure that ‘the river always finds a way!”
Living Water Must Flow
The third chapter of Acts discloses to us the story of the healing of a lame man at the ‘Beautiful Gate,’ followed by the unparalleled preaching of Peter when he brazenly condemned the sons of Abraham for
denying the Holy and Just One and accepting a murderer instead. He further denounced them for killing the Prince of Life and then excited them with the unbelievable tale that God actually raised Him from the dead. The bold fisherman refused to apologize for being a witness of that resurrection and further commanded every hearer to repent and be converted.
He then explains to all of the inquirers and agnostics that through the name of Jesus the lame man has been made well. Blazing into the fourth chapter, the uneducated Simon, filled with the Holy Ghost and fire, delivered an invincible rebuttal against the stuffy high priests and scribes, by majestically unveiling the foundation truth that the unorthodox stone which was set at naught by the religious world of his day had become the Head of the corner.
With this torrent of condemnation blasting their bitter hearts, the chief priests took counsel as to how they might rid themselves of these fearless preachers. Now it seems, that the overwhelming influence of
the religious leaders of that day should have easily outmaneuvered and stopped the mouths of these simple fishermen. And when these stung high officials had threatened and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus, the warning should have been enough.
With a lion-like boldness these ill-bred, uncouth laborers fearlessly faced the elite mob who had successfully executed their Master. With the Spirit surging like a pounding surf in their hearts, the disciples explained their unusual position saying in effect “We can’t help it We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. SILENCE IS IMPOSSIBLE”‘
Soulwinning: A Result Not A Rule
Hence we are instructed by example that soulwinning is not a rule that can be made or dictated but rather a result of uncapped spiritual pressure built up in the hearts of conscientious and concerned men and women. At any given time, in any given place, this inner fire may erupt into a POWERFUL WITNESS of what Jesus Christ has done, and is now doing.
IL LOVE WILL FIND A WAY
Love for mankind in the heart of a true saint is not a passive feeling but an active energy.
It is no more possible for a renewed man or woman to be silent about the power of salvation than for a skinny branch to support the weight of a flying elephant or’ a single man by himself to throw a dam across the mighty Amazon. Can one person stop an avalanche by spreading out his arms or has history shown us a man who has harnessed the winds and tied them at his feet? Could we by thinking drain the oceans dry or move the mighty Teton Mountains to the east? Can a child pick up a fallen oak and stand it in its place again, or can a mother bring to life her stillborn babe? NAY! So neither can circumstances, ridicule, excuses or any reason stop the POWER WITNESS of a fervent child of God!
Can Hell Withstand My Love?
Let us take a moment now, and slow our restless attention to a thinker’s walk; to be spiritually wise we must “let these things sink down into our ears” (Luke 9:43-45), hearing what the “SPIRIT sayeth to the churches.” There is no debate about God’s knowing our uncertain works; the pertinent question is, however: do we understand the simple meaning of the Spirit as when Jesus pointedly declared that the very gates of Hell could not withstand the righteous bombardment of a glorious Church? (Matt 16:18).
Have we then hidden our timid spirits among the shallow rushes of passive acceptance, whimpering that revival days are past? Are we sighing, “Just so we can somehow manage to hang on till He comes?”
We must rise up from these slimy pallets; our patient Master “hath somewhat against us!” He did not ask degrees of education or worlds of understanding.. . only a fresh new FIRST love. We also clearly understand that any means or methods proposed without love are not only impractical but utterly useless.
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not LOVE, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not LOVE, I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not LOVE, it profiteth me nothing” (I Corinthians 13:1-3).
The Power of Love Within You Promising crowns, thrones and worlds without end to all who will follow Him, our magnificent Lord omnipotently strides to the forefront of this generations’ seething holocaust and sternly reminds our cowering hearts of the unlimited. Apostolic power lying dormant within us.
“Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you” (Luke 10:19).
“Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8).
With LOVE twisting their manly hearts, Peter and John found time for the begging cripple (on their way to prayer meeting) and delivered to him a portion of the power they personally possessed: “Such as I have give I thee.” Nothing more was needed and nothing less would suffice.
Love does not seek for assistance, only for acceptance. Without it we shall always find excuses and with it we will always find a way.
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THE ABOVE MATERIAL WAS TAKEN FROM THE POWER WITNESS AND PUBLISHED BY THE GENERAL HOME MISSIONS DEPARTMENT UNITED PENTECOSTAL CHURCH, HAZELWOOD, MISSOURI, PAGES 27-30.
THIS MATERIAL MAY BE USED FOR STUDY & RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY.
