I caught asking myself the question, how will you evangelise in 2024? If the word “evangelise” makes sense to you, just remember it might not make sense to some other people just like the number “9” might look like “6” if you stand at their side of the world .
Some weeks ago, I attended a leadership conference on Charismatic. One of the things we discussed aligns with this question. The question again is “how will you evangelise in the year 2024? In a nutshell, how will you share the good news of Jesus in the context of your environment and generation in this period?
My moving to the UK has created the emphasis on the need to widening my vocabs as a prerequisite to actually communicating in a multicultural environment where different words mean different things to different people, but before i get into it, let me paint two scenarios:
Scenario 1: I met a young lady within the age bracket of 19 and 23. In an attempt to identify her with a belief. Kindly note that my intention was not to categorise her. I asked, “what would you say about yourself in terms of religion?” Her response was, “I can't really say I believe in anything. My parents are christians but I have never been to a church.”
Scenario 2: A church organised an outreach meeting and tagged the meeting “Spiritual Readings”. The church environment was full beyond capacity that they had to divide the people who had turned up into groups to be ministered to. One of the church leaders, after commending the organisers said, “that was a powerful meeting but let’s kindly revert to the church lingual for the next edition. The next edition came and the same program with the same agenda and same expected outcome called the meeting by the church lingual as requested “Prophetic Word Service” but this time, not only that, no single non church member showed up, most members did not show up themselves.
When I took time to meditate on these two scenarios, I suddenly realized what the Holy Spirit was driving at when He asked me this question last year, “how will you evangelize in the year 2024?” How will you share the gospel to the lady in scenario 1?. She has never been to a church. How will you pass the good news message to anyone who has never seen the need or come across the bible? How will you also communicate this to someone who sees the church as a place not good for them?. This is what Isaiah 60:2 says about gross darkness.
“For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.”
We talk about revival and also ask for this, but our desire for this will be defeated if our intention is to make the church feel better without the redemption of more souls into the kingdom of Heaven. In act 2:17, Peter Predicted (Prophesied) God’s plan for this age and time “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;”
Many just assume the ..all flesh part is talking about only Christians. As much as I agree that the prophesy part has to be done by the church, I also believe God will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh, every nation, tongue, language, culture, but He will lead them to the church. If the church however, is not equipped to receive and disciple them. The church might turn them away because of how they might be perceived, hence, we could be in danger of working against God’s plan for this season. I want to believe this is the reason the revival we have so much talked about didn’t happen 20 years ago. We are, however, now slowly beginning to see the glimpse of this glory.
The Holy Spirit has been waiting on us to get it right. This is the season of the Holy Spirit with His manifestation through the church (Christians) but in some other dimensions the church is not familiar with. The prophet Joel predicted “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.”
God wants to move the wealth to the church, make individuals who will fund the gospel, make Christians who will influence nations’ policies, Christians who will shift cultures. The church however must remember the people (..all flesh) cannot turn away from sin before they meet Jesus Christ, no individual, system or any form of teaching that puts emphasis on works of righteousness before the gift of righteousness has the capacity to save. None. Romans 5:8 reminds us that “But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
We cannot be preaching Christ, yet preventing many from entering the kingdom because of the perspective we hold about the same faith we are so privileged to have received. It is the season of new things. A season which no generation has ever experienced. It’s going to be gloriously new.
If this challenges your perspective, causing a shift in your understanding or creating the reason to enlarge your heart, kindly share, leave a comment and subscribe. Remember It is the best time to be alive and I love you but the Lord loves you more than I do.
We must do the needful. The grace of God is sufficient to all men including me. Hallelujah......
The Grace of God is sufficient to all men, including me. Halleluyah..