Mathew 28:18-19 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:.
DAILY READING Acts 5:17-42; Deuteronomy 25-27; Job 16
Edward Payson was an American Congregational preacher in the 18th century. One Sunday, when there was a storm, he found he had only one person in his audience. That still didn’t deter him from preaching. He must have preached down fire and brimstone, because his one audience got quickly converted. This convert later told Payson, “For whenever you talked about sin and salvation, I glanced around to see to whom you referred, but since there was no one there but me, I had no alternative but to lay every word to my own heart and conscience!”
We may not be able to preach to the entire world, but we can start where we are with who we can; one person at a time. It has been said “Every soul with Christ is a missionary; every soul without Christ is a mission field,”
In preaching the Gospel to those around you or serving in the church, you may often wonder if you are really making any real difference. This can be so especially if we are not seeing any immediate effect of our spiritual labor. But you have to know there is a grand plan God is working out. Though we may not see the immediate effect this side of Heaven, Lets us trust that God is working out His grand plan.
Billy Graham is said to have shared the gospel with more people than anyone else in history. As of 2008, Billy Graham’s estimated lifetime audience, including radio and television broadcasts, topped 2.2 billion. In other words approximately 2.2 billion people have heard the gospel from Billy Graham’s mouth.
it is interesting to note the chain of events that culminated in the great harvest of souls under Billy Graham’s ministry. Part of the chain of events that led to this great harvest of souls started a century even before Billy Graham was born. In the mid-1800, a Sunday school teacher, Edward Kimball decided to personally visit and share the Gospel with the boys in his Sunday school class. One young man, in particular, who didn’t seem to understand the gospel was a concern to Kimball. So one Saturday he went to the shoe store where he was stocking shelves and spoke to him about the importance of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. That young man was Dwight L. Moody, that day he received Jesus Christ as his Savior. In his lifetime, Moody touched two continents for God, with thousands professing Christ through his ministry.
Under Moody ministry, one man’s heart was touched for God, Wilbur Chapman, who later became an evangelist and preached to thousands. In one of his meetings a professional baseball player named Billy Sunday got converted. Deeply touched by the Gospel Billy Sunday quit professional baseball and became part of Chapman’s evangelistic team. Later on Billy Sunday began his own evangelistic crusades, and under his ministry, another young man was converted whose name was Mordecai Ham. Mordecai who would also become a preacher, one day went to Charlotte, North Carolina to preach, a lanky young man, who had heard some people planned to go and interrupt the meetings, out of curiosity, decided to also go to see what would happen. This young man was Billy Graham, that night Billy was intrigued by what he heard. Returning another night, he responded to the invitation and was converted.
You never know what impact the one person you are preaching to now can make eventually in the chain of God’s plan. Let us therefore trust The Lord of the harvest who has the full plan for His kingdom. Let’s be obedient to preach to anyone and everyone He leads us. He alone knows the end from the beginning.
The Spirit brought Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch who was reading the Scriptures and needed someone to help him understand. (Acts 8:26-35). The Spirit gave Philip the right words to say, to bring the eunuch to salvation. The vibrant church growth witnessed in Ethiopia in the early centuries after Christ, is linked to this Ethiopian Eunuch’s conversion. .
God has a well mapped out strategy for the building of His Kingdom, each time we obey The Holy Spirit and share the Gospel we are connecting those chains, we may not immediately see the larger picture, but we trust that God is at work, connecting the dots together,. And each time we are disobedient to preach we may be breaking the chain and frustrating God’s grand agenda. Think about it. Everyone has an important part to play in the overall plan. Let’s not be the weak link, Let us not break the chain.
Let us be sensitive and obedient to move and obey each time The Holy Spirit is prompting us to preach to someone. We may never know the vital role such persons may eventually play in God’s overall plan. But as we obey, we can be sure God is bringing His grand plan to pass.
PRAYER: Lord, Please help me to be obedient to the promptings of The Spirit to preach The Gospel to those you are leading me to. May I never be ashamed of your Word, May I preach The Gospel always in season and out of season in Jesus Name.
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Whenever God places a demand on you, He is only positioning you to receive more from Him.
[ADAPTED FROM THE BOOK FAITH CLASSICS]