A while ago while evangelising on the streets I had a special encounter with a young man who was in Amsterdam as a missionary. In my church, we use a soulwinning script for evangelising, which is very handy and helps to stay on track, focus on the main points and not get tangled into lengthy discussions. The goal with that is to preach the gospel to everyone in the most effective way.
So, we start off with 2 main questions, the first being: has anyone ever told you that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life? (you’d be surprised at how many people have never heard that before) and the second question is: if you were to die today are you sure without a shadow of a doubt, that heaven is your home?
So, on that Saturday we went out on the streets and I spoke to this missionary. While the young man answered the first question with confidence and joy, telling me about the fact that he knows that God loves him. He told me that he was raised in church and was in Amsterdam as a missionary. I engaged in a conversation about that and then asked him the second question.
See, one thing when I go soulwinning is that I don’t care about people’s titles. You could be an evangelist, pastor, missionary, apostle, etc. I will still ask you both questions. The man started to think about the second question and honestly responded that he was not sure about it.
We therefore continued the script and prayed together.
For some reason, I could not get the conversation out of my mind. This man truly had a love and heart for the Lord and wanted to do what pleased Him. He was open to learning more about it and yet at the core of it my heart broke for him. Broke for the fact that he was unsure about where he would spend eternity, trying to work his way up rather than working out of the assurance that he has. I do believe before we start working for God we need to be established in our relationship with Him.
In Matthew 3:13-17 we find the story of Jesus getting baptised. Here we see in verse 17:
And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
By this time Jesus had been living on earth for about 30 years, with no recorded miracles, healings, deliverances, etc. Yet, God says this is my Son in whom I am well pleased. He didn’t start to be pleased with Him because He performed miracles but He was already pleased with Him as His Son.
Therefore, before we start doing 1000 things for the Lord we need to understand this foundational thing. God loves us, God loves you. This is the main thing and something that is forgotten along the way. God loves you and He loves you with unconditional love. He doesn’t love you because you were listening to worship, reading the Bible, and praying in tongues for 7 hours. He just loves you.
All the other things mentioned are a result of our love for Him. For me that means because I love Him, I read my Bible to get to know Him better and spend quality time together. Because I love Him I pray, commune in general and do the things that matter to Him. This is something that stems out of my love for Him. But those actions won’t make Him love me or you more. God loves us and already shown it by giving us His only Son to hang on the cross for our sins.
Another thing that is important to keep in mind is that God is well pleased with you. He was pleased with you before you had the tremendous church, the mindblowing ministry, became a bestselling author, etc. He is pleased with you as His child (bear in mind God loves everyone, yes but only calls those His children who receive Him; John 1:12).
The encounter with this young man showed me the importance of a foundation in our relationship with God. The importance of finding our identity in God before we start to do all things for God. We must know that God is pleased with us and that He loves us. This is what we need to know first. For me, this was a reminder and something I will keep close to me. Do you have any experience with this?
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