Australia’s Largest Christian News Site

Intention

To encourage preparation in the Gospel

Scripture

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”
– John 13:34-35 (NIV)

Reflection

I have been a Christian for many years, growing up in churches with a conservative evangelical background. The call to evangelise and share the Gospel has always been present.

There is often a personal challenge for believers in relation to evangelism. We know we’re meant to share the Gospel with others, but, even if we do this, it can be out of obligation or even guilt. I’m not talking to the natural evangelists among us, but perhaps this resonates with the rest of us.

So what needs to change?

Let’s first work through our biblical understanding. Often, we are presented with the great commission (Matthew 28:19ff) to go and make disciples as the reason for our existence. The problem with this is that we do not always build on the right foundation.

If our foundation is wrong, evangelism can become a marketing campaign. Our evangelistic approach can come down to persuasion — can we convince someone that the Gospel is true? If we only use the art of persuasion to lead someone to Jesus, someone else can come along and, just as easily, convince them of an alternative.

We know however that evangelism is more than this because, at its core, evangelism is about the work of the Spirit drawing a person to Christ. Our call is to love God and love others: it’s about what we carry in our hearts.

The great commission is about the call to make disciples, not just to win converts. Yes, a conversion experience is the beginning of a discipleship process, but, as is commonly known, the retention rates for new believers are low.

Australians are generally pragmatic; we look to see if something works before we commit. We are suspicious of big claims about anything, including the Gospel. What all people warm to is genuineness and loving care. Evangelism should be an outworking of love from our hearts to believers and unbelievers alike.

Love has both a vertical and a horizontal dimension.

We need the vertical dimension — loving God — because He first loved us, and this helps us with the horizontal call to love each other.

“Then the world will know” (John 17:23b) is a response to the call for oneness and, by implication, genuine love among believers. If the latter is occurring, the former will inevitably happen.

One challenge with this call to love is the individualism of our Western faith. We have not always demonstrated a loving community well. For example, the scriptures require us to be humble and vulnerable with each other, as in James 5:16 each of us is called to “confess your sins with each other”.  It is a two-way street. 1 Peter 4:8 continues, “Above all, love each other deeply”.

In conclusion, ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with love one for another and see how the Lord adds to our numbers.

Let love be your goal.

Video

Prayer

Father,

We thank You for Your unending love for each of us. We pray that our first love for You will be restored.

We ask forgiveness for when we have seen unbelievers as a project rather than as people that You love and give us a deep love for.

We pray for oneness within the Church and for a deep love between ourselves and our respective circles of fellow believers.

We rest and recognise that You go ahead of us and that it doesn’t all depend on us.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen

Author Bio

Jamie is married to Jillian and has three adult daughters and one grandson. He has had leadership roles in multiple prayer organisations and movements both within Australia and overseas for a number of years. He has ministered in over 50 nations around the world and has a call to father leaders. He is also the President of Unity College Australia and former South Pacific Leader for Transform World.

Prayer Points for GO20 Good News Sharing Month

1. Pray for five people during May and share the Good News of Jesus with them. Acts 1:8
2. Pray for a Revival and Transformation for our nation, and the proclamation of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in Australia. John 3:16
3. Pray that the Lord of the harvest will thrust out labourers into the Gospel harvest. Pray that God would use His people to reach one billion people around the world this May during GO2020. Mark 16:15

We invite you to support this Prayer Campaign to multiply prayer to see every believer become active in sharing their faith with friends and family. Every donation to the Canberra Declaration helps us promote prayer and make a stand for Family, Faith, Freedom, Life and the Good News of God’s love through Jesus Christ His Son.

[Donate Here]

Join us for our daily one-hour Zoom prayer call:

• DATES: Every night for the month of May
• TIME: 8PM AEST
• ZOOM URL
• ZOOM MEETING ID: 776881184
• ZOOM TUTORIAL

Daily devotions brought to you by the Canberra Declaration.