The Parallels of the Blind – A Call To Soul Winning
Tim Downs
Reaching the lost has been my life since the day I received the Holy Ghost. I truly believe the Acts 1:8 experience, But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses
There is also a warning in the Bible about the end times. The Bible speaks of people who have a form of godliness, they don’t smoke, cuss, cheat, steal, they dress right, live right and come to church but they deny the power! Who are these godly people? What power are they denying?
I submit to you that the power is that which makes you a witness!
Now the Bible is clear about those people who have a form of godliness and deny the power, it says from such turn away!
When God gave me the Holy Ghost he gave me the power to become a witness. Even as a backslider I was a witness, I won many souls being backslidden, the reason I believe I still won souls is because the Bible teaches that God is not an Indian giver, when he gives you the Holy Ghost he will not leave you or forsake you, he is still alive in you and when you are backslid, the gift of the Holy Ghost is still in operation but you will have to repent to be saved. That Holy Ghost power is still working to make you a witness!
I have spent a great amount of time witnessing to people who have believed the doctrine of the trinity. These people, no matter how hard you try rarely see the truth. There is a blindness that keeps them from seeing it. There are scales on their eyes that veil the truth from them.
It’s interesting; I have spoken to Trinitarian people about the oneness and Jesus name baptism and shown them every scripture possible so there should be no question in their minds whether or not the Oneness is the truth. However after exhausting every scripture and truth, they always look at me and say I just don’t see it!
Now, these same people let’s say they were from the Assemblies of God, they can go to a Baptist believer and try and teach them about speaking in tongues, now the Baptist have a blindness that prevents them from understanding speaking in tongues, so when the Assemblies person tries teaching them about it they cannot see it.
Now the Baptist believer cannot see tongues but they can go to a Methodist believer and tell the Methodist person what they are missing out on, the Methodist believer will not see it but can go to the Catholic believer and tell them what they are missing. Each believer cannot see a portion of the truth, Assemblies, Baptist, Methodist and Catholic all have blindness, they can’t see what they are missing in the word of God but they can see what the person in another church is missing clearly. There is blindness that keeps them from having the revelation!
I have a question, what keeps us as Apostolics from being just as blind to something? What keeps us from not seeing a revelation of something we must do to be saved? Could we think we have all the truth about salvation as the others and we are missing something just as important? Just like all of the other groups of believers could we be blinded to something ourselves?
When speaking to Trinitarians I have found a common belief. When you are trying to explain to them about having to be baptized to be saved they almost always say “What about the thief on the cross he didn’t have to be baptized so neither should I”. Now, we as Apostolics know the answer because we have a revelation, we understand the thief didn’t have to be baptized because Jesus had not yet died for our sins and the dispensation of grace had not started yet.
Another thing the Trinitarian people say is, “Well if I have to be baptized to go to heaven and I was on my way to the church to get baptized and a car crashed into me and I died are you saying God wouldn’t allow me to go to Heaven”. The reason they say this is the same reason, they are blinded so they try and justify their wrong. Now we know God gives every person an opportunity to be saved at some point. I do not believe God would allow anyone to die on the way to getting baptized, the problem in this type of thinking is that at some point the person had the opportunity to be baptized and they rejected it and now years later they want to try and say God allowed them to die on the way to get baptized. It’s all blindness.
Now to my point. The Apostolics do this same type of justifying when it comes to what they do not have a revelation to see. For instance in the area of Soul winning, very few people I have ever met and asked if they have ever personally studied the subject of soul winning in the Bible have ever done it. All of the Apostolics for the most part have studied the Oneness, but maybe 1 out of 100 I have asked have ever truly studied soul winning in the Bible as a subject or doctrine.
Many have used the “Thief on the Cross” scenario when it comes to soul winning, only their thief on the cross is “Well the Bible says some plant and some water and God gives the increase”. Just as in the thief on the cross, yes the Bible says the thief was allowed into paradise without being baptized, but that didn’t mean we don’t have to be baptized, just as the Bible says some plant and some water, but that does not mean it’s and option, and we don’t all have to win souls!
People use this scripture as if some people only plant and some people only water. This is not true, we all MUST win souls! Sometimes we will plant, we hand an invitation to someone and try and get them to come. We did not win a soul, we planted a seed. Other times we lay hands on someone and ask God to give them the Holy Ghost, God did not fill them at this time; we did not win a soul we watered. That is the process of planting and watering, not every time you go try and win a soul will you win one, sometimes you will plant sometimes you will water!
There are other times you must win someone; it takes 3 things to win a soul. It takes a lost person who is hungry, a soul winner who will compel them and a merciful God who will forgive and fill them with his spirit!
Another common excuse is age, some say well I’m too young to win souls, or I’m too old to win souls. This is a deception from the enemy. As with the Holy Ghost there is no age limit on receiving it, kids 3 years old have received it and elders in their 80s-90s and older have received it. Now the Bible does not say they shall receive power to become witnesses as long as they are between the ages of 20-60!
I know of a boy who is 6 years old who personally has won 6 souls! I know of a many in his 80s who personally wins souls on a regular basis. The common factor in both is they are willing to go to the field of harvest to reach the lost. Age is no excuse; if a person has the Holy Ghost and they are still breathing they can win the lost!
The bottom line is this, there are multitudes going to hell, we have the truth, we have the power to witness and reach them, if we hide our talent we shall be lost!
Could it be that the reason our churches are not full today with sinners is because we have believed a lie from the enemy that allows us to justify not winning the lost? EVERY SOUL, let me make it clear EVERY SOUL who has the Holy Ghost MUST be winning the lost! Yes, there are many ways to win souls, our way is not the only way, however we must understand what it means to win a soul.
Soul winning is not inviting people to church, soul winning is not teaching a Sunday school class, soul winning is not ushering, music, hostess, going on outreach, being a prayer warrior. All of these things are needed, but they are not souls winning they are ministries. Soul winning only takes place when a soul winner compels someone who is lost to repent and be baptized and God when God fills them with the Holy Ghost their soul has been won!
I challenge ever person who reads this to STUDY in detail the subject of winning souls and what the fate of those who never do win others will be, I believe there is a revelation of soul winning that the church needs to get a hold of in these last days!
Just think if we could truly get a revelation of soul winning, our churches would be filled, the Kingdom of God would be full of people who we snatched from the lake of fire!
So here is a question for all of you. When is the last time you took time to just go out and personally win someone by compelling them to repent and be baptized? When is the last time you personally won a soul?
You may say, well I’m scared to talk to people; I’m just not that kind of person that can talk to strangers. The Bible says that God did not give us the spirit of fear, therefore the enemy must have given that. We know if he can get you to be afraid you will not win souls and the Bible says he that knoweth to do good and does it not it is sin! Don’t allow the enemy to keep you believing a lie, get out there and win someone; reach them before it’s to late!
Ezekiel 3:18
When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
2 Corinthians 5:11
Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;
Galatians 4:16
Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?
Evangelist Tim Downs
Gowinsouls.com
Answeredhere.com
727-512-0567
The above article, “The Parallels of the Blind – A Call To Soul Winning” was written by Tim Downs. The article was excerpted from www.gowinsouls.com web site. October 2009.
The material is copyrighted and should not be reprinted under any other name or author. However, this material may be freely used for personal study or research purposes.
