Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person. Colossians 4:5-6
Most Christian workers struggle with evangelism and so rarely do it. We spend most of our time with Christians and minister to each other as evidence of our faith. We go on mission trips to evangelize but do little where we are. Before going abroad, Christians need to ask themselves, "How is God using me now in evangelism in my neighborhood, my workplace and my campus?"Crossing an ocean will not make it easier to share.
Misconceptions’ concerning what evangelism is and our personal responsibility to share inhibits God’s use of our lives to take the gospel to the world. God gives kingdom purpose and opportunity to everyone He calls. We don’t have to go overseas either. Home, school and work are perfect opportunities to share God and what He has done for you. We don't live or work at church. We live and work among the natives. And that is just where God wants us.
Open Blind Eyes
How can I do that? How can I open the eyes of the blind? The answer of course is that in ourselves we can't. 2 Corinthians 4:6 says, "It is God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' who has shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." It is God who created light in the beginning with an omnipotent, "Let there be light!" And it is God who now can open the eyes of the spiritually blind, but he can use you to accomplish His Holy purpose!
It is the plan and design of Christ to use our witness in opening of the eyes of unbelievers. Acts 26:18 says that Christ sends Paul to do it: "I send you to open their eyes."
Christians are partners with the Holy Spirit in the opening the eyes of the blind. We can do two key things:
· We can pray for God to open the eyes of the blind.
· We can speak words of truth about Christ so that when the people's eyes are opened there is something to believe.
The Holy Spirit never opens the eyes of the heart until there is gospel truth in the mind to believe. That's our job. We put the truth of Christ into a person's mind with a testimony, we pray for the miracle of spiritual sight for the blind. And God in his time and in his way says, "Let there be light!"
Turn darkness to light
It is Christ’s desire that through our testimony unbelievers may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Our friends will never treat the darkness as something strange until their eyes are opened. Darkness is their native land. If their eyes were opened to know light they would turn from darkness to light. And so it is in the spiritual realm. Where there is spiritual blindness people are at home in the darkness of sin. If you say, "Hey, turn on the light, you're going to hurt yourself, they won't know what you are talking about. First the eyes must be opened. Then they will turn and walk in the light.
The power of Satan is broken by the Spirit of truth. So when the eyes are opened to see Christ the way he really is, and to see God and the world and sin and righteousness and heaven and hell the way they really are, then the power of Satan is broken. Through our witness God aims to open the eyes of the blind and to deliver them from Satan because the only way Satan can hold you is by deceiving you about what is really desirable.
Through you and me when we testify to the truth of the gospel, we can help open the eyes of the spiritually blind, help them turn from the darkness of sin the power of Satan to the light of righteousness. We can help them know that all their sins be forgiven and that by faith, not legalistic burdens, they can personally know the grace, mercy, and light of Jesus Christ. Then they too can reflect His light to those around them.
Scripture to Claim:
But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; 17rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, 18to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me. Acts 26:16-19
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