how to evangelize in our days

7/31/2019 How to Evangelize in Our Days

1/14

PASTOR ALEXANDRE PORTELA

SAO PAULO - BRAZIL


2/14

INTRODUCTION

Objective: Spread the message of the cross

How? In order to lead the heart of the unbeliever to be pricked with themessage.Why? Because if he does not truly understand the message of thecross, he will never know the Lord Jesus Christ.How is it possible? With a powerful and prophetic revelation of the HolySpirit.

What happens nowadays?

The evangelism strategies are saturated. People have been fed upwith the same things and they do not listen to the messageanymore. Evangelists often are unprepared, without an objective andanointed MESSAGE. This anointing is only possible when weunderstand and believe the message of thecross. The Primitive Church had rather few resources, but had the HolySpirit in abundance and efficient evangelism strategies. Its preachingwas full of the presence of the Holy Spirit and the preachersalways succeeded, mainly because they understood very wellthe MESSAGE OF THE CROSS and believed it unconditionally.The effective evangelism is the only way to lead many captive souls toChrist. Every day, the devil plans strategies to divert man from God's

presence. It is our duty to seek God's GOOD strategies to reach thesesouls.


3/14

CHAPTER 1

Why is it our obligation?

Every single Christian, Who is really Born again, has a commonmission: to preach the gospel to every creature, beginning with yourneighbor. Regardless of the ministry that each onewill exercise, everyone has this obligation, in order to be obedient, tolead souls to Christ. This is possible through EVANGELISM. Inother words, it is necessary to speak the message. With the help of theHoly Spirit of God and a message simply and effectively enough, wewill be able to lead many lives to Salvation, through Christ.

What happens when we obey?

God wraps us with His anointing by the presence of the Holy Spirit(Acts 1:8). The more we obey Him, the more we receive of Hisanointing. With His anointing in our lives and an objective message ofthe Lord, many hearts will be pricked, and thus, many precious soulsWill be able to meet Jesus. When we are preaching underthis anointing, which is provided by the presence of the Holy Spirit,what happens is very peculiar: the listeners feel the presence of theHoly Spirit and will be very close to surrender tothe Lord Jesus. Although they might not believe themessage immediately, there will be a factor that cannot be denied:what they will feel is something unique, which is simply the presence of

the Holy Spirit. Thus, it is going to be fulfilled what was said by Jesus:For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am Iin the midst of them (Matthew18:20). The presence of the Lord thatthe listeners will be able to feel will be the actual proof of theexistence of God. Many of them might think: I do not believe Jesus,but what I ve just felt was very real. This reference is such importantin evangelism. In the course of some time, these people will

feel a need for more of that presence that they had felt before, like onewho is thirsty. They will not find anywhere else, unless in thepresence of God, when assembled in the name of Jesus. They will feel


4/14

the desire to seek God simply because of what they were able toexperience.

CHAPTER 2

What is necessary to evangelism?

First, one must understand the purpose of evangelism. The Churchnowadays has responsibilities as never before. This is a fact. Thepopulation has never been larger, the harvest has never been so ripeand wickedness never operated so much as today. Just look at thestreets, parks, buses, subways, schools, and an endless list of otherplaces and we can have no doubt about it. As representatives of God,our MISSION is to evangelize. When we are well AWARE and hungryfor evangelism, then we can take another step forward, which is tounderstand the message we are supposed to PREACH. At this point,we are faced with the revelation of this project: WHICH MESSAGEmust be preached?

This choice is more important, given that we are relying on thepresence of the Holy Spirit. Many evangelists around the world, evenmany ones who work tirelessly, unfortunately do not have an efficientmessage, then, getting little satisfactory results and they often getfrustrated.

When we get the right message, we have the fullness of the HolySpirit's presence. It should be noted here the main goal of the descentof the Holy Spirit: to help us to become effective witnesses of Jesus(Acts 1:8). The Holy Spirit, in evangelism, works with us as long as weare doing the RIGHT job. He will not work with us if we have anythingother than the genuine goal of glorifying Jesus. When we workproperly, He works with us. Many Christians receive the seal ofpromise and are full of God's presence, but do not know what to do

next. For this reason, they often are not able to bear fruit. If everyonewho is filled with the fullness of the Spirit knew what to do after


5/14

receiving the Lord's presence, we would reach the whole world in a fewdays, taking into account the resources we have AVAILABLEnowadays.

In short, we must be aware of the great need for evangelism, have themessage which is capable to prick the hearts of unbelievers and havethe presence of the Holy Spirit, which is possible only when we obeyHim.

CHAPTER 3

Becoming aware of the need for evangelism

In order to get hungry for evangelization, we must begin to observewith the eyes of Christ, the current situation of our world. We can startwatching the closest to us. We will find a kind of a great wildernessaround us: a large number of people without God. They are preciouslives that are perishing every day. Sometimes we want to evangelizethese people, but most of them do not listen to us. Why? Simplybecause the enemy of God has blinded the minds of these people andthus, put them in chains. They are captive and need immediaterelease. Jesus taught us how they can be delivered: by knowing thetruth (John 8:32). We reached the apex of this project: what is thisTRUTH?

This fact is EXACTLY the effective message, which is capable ofpricking hearts of unbelievers and providing them with suchdeliverance of all malignant chains.


6/14

CHAPTER 4

Which message is able to provide deliverance?

The only message that can destroy the chains that are imprisoningthousands of souls today is quite simple and straightforward: Jesus. Right now I can imagine the thoughts of some of you reading theselines: "How can this be possible? Preaching "Jesus"? But this is exactlywhat I ve been doing and..."Beloved reader, Jesus guarantees that every branch shall bear fruit inHIM (John 15:4). If we observe that this message is not being fulfilledin us, we must recognize that we need some kind of change. I, likemany ones, I've often got frustrated for not living this reality in my life. Ithought about quitting evangelism sometimes for not feeling myselfable enough to bear fruit. This is a mistake. Actually, this is the will ofthe enemy, that we no longer evangelize. Remember that we will onlybear fruit when we obey Jesus and we all know that His command is to

evangelize (Mark 16:15).

From this perspective, what we should do is to acknowledge ourfailures and pick up work immediately, but this time, so much moreaware. Remember that you will never be ALONE when you are readyto evangelize souls, because God's Holy Spirit will come upon you themoment you are available to obey Jesus in this undertaking. You willNEVER be alone!Regarding the message, the main objective of this book is to show agenuine revelation of God for our days. I would like to emphasize thatthis book has reached YOU because of the positive results that thisrevelation has provided. Countless people are touched every day bythe Holy Spirit, and this very moment you are reading these lines, theHoly Spirit is touching precious lives i many places around. I firmlybelieve that as you read these words, you can feel the presence of theHoly Spirit.Before you get this message that is capable of pricking the heart of the


7/14

unbeliever, it is necessary that you understand something about thereality of preaching today.

First, the enemy of God fights tirelessly to deceive mankind. He plansto overshadow two daily realities of today's world: the SIN and eternalDEATH. A man without God cannot neither think about sin nor think ofeternal death. They simply ignore these real things. The devil strives tohide the reality of sin, because if a man does not think of theconsequences of sin, repentance and forgiveness will never reach him.The result of sin is eternal death (Romans 6:23).

On the other hand, if a man thinks of the consequences of sin,

repentance can achieve him. Repentance is what we need to achieveforgiveness. The Holy Spirit is the only one who can convince thesinner of his sins. This is only possible when we preach the rightmessage! Remember, when you preach the right message, the HolySpirit will be present. When you preach on a testimony of healing orprosperity, your message can bring joy to someone and may evenarouse curiosity of the listeners, but soon that joy is stolen on the

occasion of the situations of life. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is NOTsupposed to glorify our personal experiences. HE only glorifies Jesus!Nowadays, the church is focused on preaching more about personalexperiences than on repentance. We preach about Elijah, Elisha,David, Abraham, Jacob and many other ones, but do not preachenough about Jesus. Remember: Jesus is the only one capable ofdestroying the fetters of the enemy. Only when man understands thisreality, he can be delivered. Only through Jesus! Our preachers,mostly, do not bring Jesus into the center of the preaching. They beginpreaching about Jesus and end up in David, for example, or even starttalking about Jesus and end up talking about promises of prosperity. Itis shameful to say, many of them do not even know who Jesus Christtruly is. If they do not know, how can they preach Him properly to anunbeliever?

Secondly, I would like to illustrate how this works in the Scriptures. TheEarly Church focused on evangelism, with all his strength. As we know,the result was amazing. Why? Simply because they knew very well


8/14

what they were preaching. Obviously, Jesus was the center of thechurchs preaching. Some examples: Acts 2, Peter's speech, he startsup at Joel and ends up in Jesus as the only resource for man. In Acts8, Philip begins in Isaiah and ends up in Jesus. The sermons and

teachings of Paul are remarkable examples that Jesus must always bethe center of the message. His messages, in general, were alwaysFULL of the presence of the Holy Spirit. The apostles did not glorifytheir own experiences, but always glorified Jesus. As a result, theyobtained the presence of the Holy Spirit with power, healing andmiracles.

Consequently, these signs follow us when we are obeying Jesus. Icould describe here hundreds of personal testimonies of miracles thatGod has performed in our lives, but without any doubt, this is not thepurpose of this book. I believe that a greater work JESUS CHRIST willperform in your life, but only when you fully understand what He wantsfrom you and so, do His will.Finally, we must understand that we need to correctly pass theinformation about Jesus, since we are sure that we have Jesus as the

center of our message. Under this assumption, we will analyze in detailin subsequent chapters, the four aspects of the Lord Jesus Christ inEvangelism.

CHAPTER 5

First aspect of evangelization

Do you know who Jesus is? This is the first question to be asked forone person during evangelism. You certainly will hear various types ofresponses such as, "He is my everything." Or, "He is God." The list isquite large: "He is the King of kings." "He is the Alpha and the Omega."

Other less confident might say: "He was an important person to many


9/14

ones." "He was a good man." "He was a prophet." "He was arepresentative of God." "He was a spirit of light." Etc.

People usually say much about the nature of Jesus and what herepresents, but hardly respond with certainty and clarity about who hereally is. Moreover, many say what they believe He was not who Heactually is. Right now, you will be fighting against the lie of the enemy,making use of the truth that provides deliverance. Often during theevangelism, I said, "Excuse me, but this was not exactly my question. Iwould like you to answer what He IS for you, not what someone elsesay about Him". Sometimes we hear things like: "He is nothing to me,"or, "I have no opinion about Him."

Remember: people need to know who Jesus IS. Only when they findout who He is indeed, they are able to reach deliverance through theTRUTH. Jesus said that they need to know the truth to attain freedomand the truth is He Himself (John 8:32). Therefore, we must say whoJesus is: He is the SAVIOUR. Right now, you should ask rhetorically:But why He is the Savior? And then, provide the correct answer:

Because of the existence of sin and death (man can deny theexistence of sin, as even many religions do, but they can never denythe existence of death). We know that, since they cannot deny theexistence of death, we can affirm what the Bible says about it: death isthe result of sin (Romans 6:23). Denying the sin is one of the majorstrategies of Satan, especially in these last days. When we open theeyes of sinners, they automatically feel something changing. In 1 John1:8, the Bible affirms that we all have sins. This is the main reason whyJesus is the Savior, for He alone can forgive, justify and save US. Healone paid the price for our salvation. Jesus is the Savior and not onlywas the Savior. He continues up being the Savior! If someone receivesHim, this one will find life.

Everyone must admit that alone, they cannot overcome death. Nobodyhas ever succeeded without the help of Jesus. Man without Jesus

sinks into sin and, as a result, ends up in death. The believer cannot,by himself, overcome the nature of sin. Only when he is with Jesus,and firmly believes that He saves us from sin and cleanses us. When


10/14

we believe that, through His blood, we are justified and cry out for Hishelp, when we use this truth by faith in our prayers, we are deliveredand purified.

With the sinful unbelievers, this is not different. When they startthinking about that, they get close to achieve true deliverance. If wepreach about Elisha or Elijah or about someone else and do not teachabout Jesus as the only Savior, our preaching is inefficient. The sinnersdo not need Elisha, David, but only Jesus! They do not necessarilyneed to know about our personal experiences to be delivered. Whatthey really need to find in order to achieve salvation is only JesusChrist.

Jesus assured we would receive power to be true witnesses of thesethings. When we preach this truth about Him, the Holy Spirit is certainlywith us, anointing our preaching. The hearts of many unbelievers willbe pricked because the chains of lies that are trapping them will bebroken. Jesus told the Jews: ye shall die in your sins: for except yebelieve that I am [he], ye shall die in your sins (John 8:24). In verse 30

of this chapter in question, the Bible declares, uttered these words,many Jewish BELIEVED HIM. After that, Jesus teaches those who hadbelieved: "If you abide in My word, you are truly my disciples, and knowthe truth and the truth shall make you free." But they replied: "We aredescendants of Abraham and have never been slaves of anyone howsayest thou, Ye shall be free?" Therefore Jesus answered: "Verily,verily I say unto you, Every one that committeth sin is the bondservant(slave) of sin.Beloved, every human being needs to know that Jesus is the one andonly Savior from sin that exists in the world. Sin is the saddest reality ofour world. As I said, the enemy of God strives constantly to hide thisreality from man. The enemy has invaded his lies with the whole worldand in recent days, he has sought to invade the Christian Churches aswell. This explains the lack of revival we can behold in the Church atpresent. However, this is not the will of God! Through putting theenemy down, preaching the truth to the world, thousands andthousands of precious souls will be reached.


11/14

CHAPTER 6

Second aspect of evangelization

WHAT DID JESUS DO? This question must also be made duringevangelism. Dozens of people answer promptly: "He did a lot tome." Generally, people go straight to their personal experiences, suchas, He gave me a job, He healed me, etc. Others say that He made theheavens and the earth. The list is endless: He performed miracles, forexample, when He turned water into wine. I've heard even that Hemade a revolution of thoughts.At this time, from the response that you get, you should go straight tothe main point: show everyone what Jesus did in relation toREDEMPTION. Indeed, He accomplished many things: He createdheavens and the earth and the stars, and animals, and humanity. Heperformed miracles during and after His first coming here. In fact, Hecontinues up performing great miracles TODAY and many of us arewitnesses. But what the sinner needs to know is: HE, JESUS CHRIST,died on the cross to save US. This, no doubt, was his greatest workhere on earth at His first coming. We must remember that He roseagain the third day, but we must make clear the purpose of His atoningdeath. When Jesus expired on the cross, HE provided us withPERFECT SALVATION. Its already done. In fact, we dont need to doanything else to add to our salvation besides believing and followingJESUS alone.Beloved, many people can deny the effectiveness of miracles and deny

the work of creation by Jesus. They may even deny that He is risen, ascontemporary Jews did. But a fact they can NEVER deny is: Jesusdied on that Cross! It is a historical fact. From this statement, it issimple to clarify the truth: that He died on the cross. He died to provideus with salvation, delivering us from sin and eternal death. His deathwas inevitable. It was with this primary purpose He came and fulfilledhis mission perfectly. He has defeated sin and death on

Calvary. Whoever remains in Him, believing His sacrifice, has eternallife. Whoever denies the efficacy of His sacrifice remains in sin anddeath.


12/14

Precious Christians around the world are still unaware of this reality.Because of this, living in a slavery life, being discouraged for notmisunderstanding the fact that Jesus has already defeated the devil onthe cross. We need to remember this fact every single day and mention

in our prayers. We should make constant use, by faith, of these words,that His blood cleanses us and saves us from sin. Actually, His bloodpaid the price for our salvation. This will give us strength to enter with

joy and gratitude in His presence, and so our prayers will come tolife. Even if nothing else in life happens to us, what He did already isenough for us to praise Him and worship Him deeply.The early Christians understood this message so well that many evengave their lives away for the sole purpose of the gospel. They had fullconfidence and the result was amazing. Nowadays, this situation is stillvery effective. Remember that, what you are reading now is biblicaland also was only possible because of positive results, but in prayeryou will find out much more than that. This book is only to wake you upfor a revival that the Lord Jesus wants to provide you with, through theHoly Spirit.

CHAPTER 7

Third aspect of evangelism

WHAT DID JESUS SAY? When we get to this point, you may noticethat the conversation has been totally dominated by the Holy Spirit.Generally, people are already so touched and thoughtful that theyprefer not to answer. At this point, almost always, you can feelthe genuine presence of the Holy Spirit pricking the heart of thelistener. It is unspeakable. Sometimes I even cry when I arrive atthis point during the conversation. It is impossible not to feel thepresence of the Holy Spirit when you are preaching the truthabout Jesus. It immediately happens what He said that where two orthree (or more) were gathered in His name, He would be present in themiddle (Matthew 18:20). Jesus said many things: that n the world we


13/14

would have tribulation: but we must be of cheerful and confident, forHe has overcome the world. In fact, Jesus said many edifyingwords we can talk about at this point, but we can never stop talkingabout the reality of sin and death and that Jesus said that He is

the only way to overcome both sin and death. The sinner must know it,that there is the reality of sin and death. Remember that it is not youwho will convince the sinner, because even if you try, surely you willnot be able to.These things are not by might nor by power but by theSpirit (Zechariah 4:6). Jesus said that the Holy Spirit is the Onewho convinces man of his sin (John 16:8). What should you doduring preaching is to trust in this truth and preach it. The HolySpirit will do the rest. Furthermore, if they dont believe the message,they wont be able to deny that the Holy Spirit's presence that theywill surely feel is very real.

CHAPTER 8

Fourth aspect of evangelism

WHAT DID JESUS PROMISE? He promised eternal life to all whotrust in His sacrifice and follow Him. THIS MESSAGE is what everysinner needs to hear.We must unmask the enemy of God, making use of the truth. Do notforget to reinforce the listener that the enemy has fought tirelessly tohide these things from men. Only when men happen to find theTruth, the shackles of sin and death fall down. The sinners onlyreach forgiveness and renewal when they repent, which onlyoccurs when they are convinced of sin through the preaching andthrough the Holy Spirit, too. If there is no preaching, no repentanceor forgiveness will ever happen.


14/14

CHAPTER 9

General considerations of this project

As we have been observing, this project will bear fruit only if we take

very seriously the purpose of evangelism, which is to bring lives toChrist. We must be aware of it each day, and seek the face of our Godthrough prayer. Prayer brings us closer to our God and prepares us forthe ministry that the Lord has made for each one of us. We mustconstantly ask the Lord to touch us with His anointing and cover uswith His blood through faith. Remember that He has overcome all forus and all we have to do is to believe it. By doing so, the enemy cannot

touch us. In fact, our opponent is walking around, seeking whom hemay devour, but the Christian faith-filled, covered with the blood ofJesus Christ, overcomes any battle against evil. As a reward for ourobedience, we have the Holy Spirit's presence in all the fullness ofGod, always with us, and soon see many precious souls surrender toChrist.

Beloved, these are not mere promises, but a great reality of God forour days. God wants and will use your life to this purpose. This is onlypossible if you listen to Him and obey Him. Be sure that your life willbecome much more meaningful. You will be filled with the fullness ofGod, and as you get the things pertaining to God, He will add to youthe other things you need in life (Matthew 6:33).

Let me end up my remarks reminding you that, certainly, we are going

to have an eternity in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ to rejoice for allthat He is, for all He has and does and, undoubtedly, we will enjoy allHis faithful promises. Amen.

how to evangelize in our days

Documents