The Harvest Now conference was held over four days. There were so many reminders and tools/keys shared. The theme of intimacy with God kept coming through and God chose to spend much of the four days 'fixing the harvesters' with many people deeply touched. Many decisions were made for Jesus at the youth outreach on Thursday night, and the outreach evenings on Friday and Saturday nights. Speakers included Andrew Cannon (UK), Jacqui Ford (Australia), Ben Hughes (NZer based in America) and Daz Chettle who are evangelistically gifted, and Wes and Janet Chambers who are the senior pastors at Living Waters Church. We also listened to Ben Fitzgerald (USA) and Jeri Hill (USA) via the internet. One of my highlights was hearing the stories of how God had radically transformed people’s lives. If God could help those people, then He can save everyone in Christchurch!
Intimacy with God is key, as sharing with others flows from our intimacy with God. Knowing who we are in God, adopted and an ambassador, and being filled with his power gives us the strength (Acts 1:8) and passion to share. Being loved gives us love to share. We need to be in love with God first, not the ministry He has called us to. We need to listen to God, so our words are his words.
Let’s pray for revival to happen again. As Christians experience intimacy with God again and dedicate themselves wholly to Him and his purposes, they become ambassadors and conduits for Him. Revival and increased evangelism go hand in hand. Let’s pray for revival so Christians’ desire to fulfil God’s purposes, and the Great Commission is recognised as the Great Commission, not the Great Suggestion.
Conversations: Chat with people. The only difference between a normal conversation and sharing the gospel is the content. Our aim is to get the barriers down, so speak with peace.
Share the Gospel: The power is in the gospel, not your story or personality so be sure to share the gospel. It is the truth that sets people free. Your story can help as people need to know how Jesus has impacted your life but be sure to share the gospel. Don’t think you need to find someone more suitable than you. The power is in the gospel. Share your life with people (1 Thes 2:8) so they can see how God impacts your life.
Sharing prophetic words from God
Jesus gave us the keys to the Kingdom (Matt 16:19) that He had been given (Isa 22:22). Let’s pray like the Church in Acts 4:30, “Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus”, and be like Paul who used a demonstration of the Spirit’s power rather than persuasive words (1 Cor 2:4). Harvest Now shared the key of using prophetic words. Jesus’ use of a prophetic word to the Samaritan woman (John 4) led to her being saved and her community. It was prophesied in Joel 2:28-29 that people would prophesy, and Paul exhorted Christians to be eager to prophesy (1 Cor 14:39). We can expect to hear God’s voice (John 10 - sheep hear shepherd’s voice) and God can draw people to himself through prophecy (1 Cor 14:24). Tips:
You’re likely to only get a small piece of info (image, word). Ask God what that piece of info is about to get a bit more info to share. Then speak it out and more might flow from your mouth after that.
Has something the person is wearing caught your attention? Has something in the room caught your eye or distracted you? Ask God what He wants to say to the person with that as the launch pad.
Prophecy is to edify, strengthen, encourage and comfort (1 Cor 14:3-4) so if you perceive something in the negative, in love share an answer rather than the problem.
Ask if what you shared resonates with them.
It’s time to fight for our family
God wants His kids back. We need to invite people to ‘come home’. Let’s pray, “Break my heart for what breaks yours” and start caring. Based on 7.7 billion in world and about 2.7 billion Christians, 101,000 of the 153,000 that die each day in the world are not going to an eternity with God. That is about 70 per minute. We need to be warriors and take spiritual ground forcefully, and work in love and peace with people. We need to go bold, zealous and operate in peace. We need to love people into the kingdom. Like a police person has authority when they wear their uniform, God has given us authority. Let’s get on with the job.
Calling people home to God: A lady shared a vision she had had at 1am of there being a bridge between NZ and Australia and Jesus walking arm in arm with NZers towards Aussie, and arm in arm with Aussie’s over to NZ. Janet Chambers (Living Waters pastor) shared how it was similar to a vision she had had a couple of weeks prior, of angels wearing sashes with ANZAC written on it. This was interpreted as NZ and Aussie helping each other evangelistically. So we linked arms alternating NZers and Aussies. People prayed for NZ and Australia to return to God, and for Aboriginal evangelists to rise up. A group of young Maori men did the haka to call Aboriginal evangelists to rise up. I found myself singing over and over a Maori stick song which we sing at school and looked up the translation which fitted perfectly: “E aue, ka mate au, E hine hoki mai ra” which translated says, “Alas I will die; Oh darling, return to me.” I interpreted this as Jesus saying He has died and paid the price, and is calling NZ and Australia to return home, to his whanau.
Get free, stay free, help others get free.
We need to get free from any strongholds holding us back from being able to share the Gospel. We need to break our agreement with anything negative that we have ‘agreed to’. You can say, “I break my agreement with….” Perhaps some time in your past you got embarrassed speaking and said, “I’ll never do that again”, or had a traumatic experience and concluded something untrue about yourself. Some people don’t have the right to use their voice because in their past something happened and they were made to promise to keep a bad secret or weren’t believed by someone in authority. Agreement with these thoughts or statements need to be revoked as demons latch onto such things and cause fear and prevent us from completing God’s mission.
We need to put on the armour of God for our protection: truth, righteousness, gospel of peace, faith, salvation, and the word of God which are all in Jesus. If persecution comes, be like a duck and let it run off and keep on swimming.
Success
Work for the approval of one – God.
Store up treasures in heaven – the treasures are the people in heaven who you helped along their journey.
Success is obeying God’s command to go and make disciples. Sharing Jesus is your success separate to their response.
The gospel must be shared in love (1 Cor 13).
Base ‘results’ on people getting linked in with a church home, not just a prayer said.
Be faithful in the little, like David who overcame smaller obstacles before larger ones.
Go and try. If you feel rejected 20 times, then you succeeded at sharing 20 times!
Stumbling as you try is not getting it wrong. Keeping your mouth shut is getting it wrong!
Character
Your character (fruit of spirit) is really important, not just that God demonstrates His power through you.
Try again: Like Simon who hadn’t caught any fish all night we should say to Jesus, “But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” Luke 5:5.
Within a church: Those gifted with evangelism must remember that all the roles of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are important to equip Christians to do their works of ministry (Eph 4:11-12).
Gospel v. Karma: All have done bad so deserve bad but Jesus’ grace means all can have good despite having done bad. Jesus took what we deserved and gives us what He deserved.