ARE YOU FULLY PREACHING THE GOSPEL ?
--
THE GOSPEL IS NOT MERELY INFORMATION.
The title of this article comes from the writing of Paul the Apostle. (Romans 15:19) Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. Paul includes signs and wonders in the power of the Holy Spirit, as part of preaching the gospel. Preaching the gospel means demonstrating God’s power as well as speaking about it.
God told the Prophet Daniel in the last days knowledge would increase. (Daniel 12:4) That is certainly happening in our time on the internet. How do we differentiate our proclaiming the gospel of Jesus from all of the other information out there? By demonstrating the power of the gospel.
I was a taxi driver at one time in my life. I became concerned I was not preaching the gospel enough. I picked up a young Asian man and took the opportunity on the trip to explain the gospel to him. I made no impression on him at all. He laughed. When he had gone I complained to the Lord that it seemed I was wasting my time. A verse popped into my mind. (1Corinthians 4:20) For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. After thinking about that for a while I decided I would offer to pray for every sick person who got into the Cab.
Over a period of about two weeks I must have prayed for around thirty people with all sorts of ailments. Some people declined the offer, many said Yes. I prayed with one guy for his business problems. A strange thing began to happen. The number of passengers with serious and terminal illnesses began to increase. It got to where every time I pulled up at a house I was expecting a seriously ill person to come out. To be honest with you I began to get over whelmed with the responsibility. I was out of my comfort zone and level of faith.
Most of the time I had only a brief time to pray before we reached the destination. I did not see results and had to take the answer to the prayer by faith. I did that seriously because I had prayed for some desperate people. I developed a bit of emotional burnout about it all, and decided to stop for a while. At that time I was at a taxi rank in Melbourne city awaiting a fare.
