INTENTIONAL EVANGELISM: THE URGENT NEED

Awake [from your drunken stupor and return] to sober sense and your right minds, and sin no more. For some of you have not the knowledge of God [you are utterly and willfully and disgracefully ignorant, and continue to be so, lacking the sense of God's presence and all true knowledge of Him]. I say this to your shame. (1 Corinthians 15:34 AMP)

Excerpted From Our eBook WON by ONE)

Here's The Price That God Had To Pay Because The Need Was So Great:

"92% of All CHRISTIANS WILL DIE NEVER HAVING SHARED THEIR FAITH"  (Barna Research)

The human population of Earth reached 1 billion in the 1800’s, 2 billion in the1900’s, 3 billion in 1959, 4 billion in 1976 and 5 billion in late 1987. On October 12th 1999, the human population of Earth reached 6 billion. In my lifetime the population has doubled from 3 billion in 1959 to the 6,834,213,000 today. This doubling of population which occured over the last 40 years will never come close to happening again.That means it took 6000 years to reach the first 1 billion inhabitants and less than 200 years to grow to nearly 7 billion people for whom Christ died. There are now 700% more people alive today that lived the first 6000 years on Planet Earth. How will we reach them with the Gospel?  Who will tell them? 

But how are people to call upon Him Whom they have not believed [in Whom they have no faith, on Whom they have no reliance]? And how are they to believe in Him [adhere to, trust in, and rely upon Him] of Whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? (Romans 10:14 AMP)

What will your first words in Heaven be?  When you get to Heaven and you're standing in front of God, what will you say? "Hey, Dude of Dudes"? Or maybe, "Guilty as charged." Certainly not, "How did I get here?" Or "Holy, Holy, Holy"?


If the statistics above are true, maybe our first words to a Holy God after "Holy! Holy! Holy!" will be: "LORD, I could have got more! "

IMAGINE GOD LIVING IN YOU THROUGH YOU AS YOU

What are your thoughts when you read or hear—

“I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but CHRIST LIVING IN ME THROUGH ME AS ME.  The *ZoāLife which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself up for me”?  (Galatians 2:20 DLT)

Do You Think of a Hand in a Glove?

Sporting supply manufacturers and athletic supply stores always experience an uptick in sales of the latest boxing champions glove used in his most recent victory. As if the results were because of the brand of glove and not the hand in the glove. That’s where the Power is—in the hand in the glove.

That goes for every profession that uses gloves—dishwashers, doctors, surgeons, dentists, TSA agents and many others. There are many reasons we wear gloves. These include to keep your hands warm/dry and to prevent contact with other people and things (which may reduce the risk of catching germs and infections).

You might also wear gloves as a fashion statement or as a requirement for participating in an activity; such as baseball gloves for catching the ball or wearing gloves to keep your hands warn during the NFL playoffs in November and December. Or you might wear Kevlar gloves if you are a welder. For the rough and the tough jobs, Kevlar gloves will get the work done. These will not only keep your hands safe from cuts, but also from getting bruised from rocks and pricked from thorns. When you need to work with tough weeds, stone and even glass, these are the gloves to wear.

A hand in a glove is not as a head is to a hat. Since we are a species with and opposable thumb our hands respond to our thinking and desires. Yet, in the mean time, your hands automatically remain restfully available, but when needed they become instantly available without a moment’s hesitation. A head in a hat is not the same picture as a hand in a glove. Though a head in a hat may be covering and protecting a powerful brain in the skull, its thinking and commands cannot be accomplished without the exercise of the hand. Without a hand in the glove it doesn't do anything. It can't do anything.

Right after He entered Jerusalem to die Jesus said, "apart from me you can do nothing." Apart from Jesus we are like the glove–limp and useless. Only when Christ’s Life indwells us we are like the glove with His Hand in it. Jesus wants to us like a hand in the glove. Then He can use us to do all sorts of things through us. Are you a glove by itself or are you empowered as a glove with God’s hand in it?

Pentecost is the day when the outpouring of God's Spirit took place. His indwelling separates the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ from all the other  religions of the World. Pentecost is the day when the Christian Church began and the Lord gave His people His Power—the ultimate Hand in the glove. We are not Hand-in-Glove with God; He is THE Hand-in-the-Glove for us.

Now if we said to a glove, "Glove, just pick up that piece of paper." The glove can't do it on its own. It can't grab anything. But if I put my hand in the glove, you see that now the glove has dexterity and power. It has become a gifted, smart glove that can do many things.

It is the Power of the Elohim--the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit--that than becomes our new Source of Living. The Elohim name of God is first used in Genesis 1:1 and is used over 2500 times in the Old Testament. The Elohim is the Hand in the glove.

Certain relationships are spoken of as “hand-in-glove”. If people are hand in glove, they have an extremely close relationship. But unlike Christ being IN US to empower us, although friends empower us on a limited scale, they can often serve as God’s hand in our glove.

God always takes the initiative, but waits for us to respond to His ever-so-gentle promptings. We all know that His Hand IN the glove (us) that makes all the difference in the display of Power.

But we have this incredible Treasure in earthen vessels we call our body, so that the excellence and superiority, pre-eminence, supremacy and the incomparability of the Power displayed may be of God, and not from us; (2 Corinthians 4:7 DLT)

ALL HAVE SINNED AND MISSED THE INTENDED PURPOSE OF THE CREATION is how God puts it. We were designed to be His gloves. Being human, I know, we can only receive infinite Truth in finite doses. The only thing we can ever offer God is our capacity to be filled by the Elohim. The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to share where they come from--which is Christ In You. 

Can you grasp that God projected Himself out of Himself that He might be Himself in another dimension and He did this in accordance to the promises in His Word. Christ in us AS us is His motive. The Law has to do with doing; Grace has to do with being and our well-being. If God brings you to a thing of Romans 8:28, He will bring you through the thing of Romans 8:29.

Most of us pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that we hurry past it into unintended consequences. These negatively ripple their effects into our families and all we have and will come into contact with. As we walk in the Spirit, everyday will be Sunday to us and all who observe us. Then came Sunday and the stone was rolled away. What a remarkable, breathtaking, overwhelming thought. Amazing and humbling to say the least.

If we are really created in the image and likeness of the Elohim, then clearly it follows that there is nothing in Creation as near and dear to the heart of God as we are then what would it be? That’s why trying to imitate Christ is the ultimate form of merely pretending. To recognize Christ lives in the Believer is the ultimate truth for us to live out. It is imperative that we have appropriate responses to the spiritual events around us. We are not the sum of our parts and our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum total of the Father's Life IN US and it is our real capacity to accomplish His will in and through us.

Trying to grasp these Hand IN THE GLOVE truths of Christ in you with our finite minds is like trying to get a drink of water from a fire hose or attempting to suck up the oceans with an eyedropper. It can’t be done. Instead, we are to reckon upon it by faith. Logizamai is the Greek word for reckon. It means to take an inventory and to use the results to conclude that it is more than true. That is a spiritual faith operation for the Believer “in Christ Jesus”.

REMEMBER, CHRISTIANITY AS WE KNOW IT IS NOT JESUS' FAULT!

*Zoā is the Greek word for God’s pre-existent, uncreated Life—His Eternal Life that indwells every Believer.