All are not called to evangelize, Right?
by Russ Welch
The Lord really poured it on me this morning as I was preparing for the nursing home – Of course I was looking to speak about the Resurrection – yet over the past several months the theme of Evangelism has been in our conversations heavily (The Lord & I) I shared what He gave me this morning with both barrels blazing and Praise God they not only received, I got a double portion of it as the Lord dug it deeper into my spirit.
The message was about coming out of the grave “ourselves” and having been baptized with Christ in death, we come out the other side resurrected in the NEW Life of Spiritual rebirth in Jesus Christ – and in such the old nature has passed away as have the desires of this world –
Now we read the Word and see this truth for John got it, Peter, James, Philip, Paul , and the other disciples got it- Along with many others throughout the generations – That soul shaken powerful revelation of the resurrection power – Such a revelation moves ones heart to share the gospel with everyone before the hour comes (The Bible speaks of such an hour) when the Heavens shall be closed and they shall no longer will hear His voice. We can not continue to remain asleep, we must be awakened to the True Spiritual Truth.When one has truly grasped the Resurrection and what it entails for us the believer we walk in a new spiritual dimension of authority and power – it is then we see the power of the resurrection flowing thru our hands and the sick are healed, blind eyes are opened, deaf ears hear, all praise and glory to God, it is then the dead are raised.
You see when one gets the clear picture of what God did in raising His Son from the dead, we realize that God left nothing unfinished – and He shall leave nothing unfinished in the lives of those who are as surrendered to Him, as was His Son, knowing that the cross was not the end of the finished work. No the truth is that the finished work was finished upon the rising of Christ Jesus from the Grave – For it was then that the power of death (sins penalty) was crushed, Glory to God for then the final verdict that sins penalty of death could not hold the Messiah and all Praise to His Name it cannot hold His disciples either!!!
………That trail is too deep to write down right now so I will get back to the evangelism part.
You see, it is when one has been put to death – that is in regard to ones desires, their selfish ambitions. For there we find ourselves, on the other-side of the baptism, not the going under but the coming up, new an refreshed for we have now come thru that resurrection power. It is at that moment that something is transferred into our spirit, the very power of Christ’s character especially in regard to the hunger for the lost. Oh man how I can remember this, when I gave my life to the Lord at 15, having heard a message from David Wilkerson at one of his crusades in Bangor, Maine. I was on fire to share the gospel message, I even preached to my dog, yet slowly with out fellowship, without soaking in the Word, without fellow believers help these flames burnt out. (Oh Lord revive the doctrines of true discipleship according to Your teachings)
Now as the Lord was sharing this with me I really had to set back and take this in, having come out from years of teachings in regard to “Gifts” and the offices of such. Yet Holy Ghost showed me that much of that which I any many others have been taught has been false doctrines and we have been deceived to feed the laziness and prideful ego’s of those that have taught us. For theirs is about building and promoting programs and names for themselves so they dismiss the lack of evangelism as they are operating in a different gift.
Now, Holy Ghost took me on a journey thru the history of the Church right back to the upper-room. If we study the Word we see that all the followers of Christ after Pentecost were evangelistic even as was the Lord. Some did indeed operate in certain gifting s yet they we all related to reaching the lost and nurturing the new babes. So in reality the enemy has attempted (and done a good job is some instances) of stripping the Church from it’s true call and turned its focus back to individualism i.e. all about me and what I can get from God. This was not the teaching of Jesus nor that of the apostles – The Apostles walked in the authority of the commission Jesus gave upon His returning to Heaven:
And Yeshua spoke with them and he said to them, “All authority has been given to me in Heaven and in the earth; in the manner in which my Father has sent me, I am sending you.” “Therefore go disciple all the nations and baptize them in the name of The Father and The Son and The Spirit of Holiness.” “And instruct them to keep everything whatever I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you every day, even unto the end of time. Amen” (Matt 28:18-20)
Today we have Churches filled with people who believe they have been excused from service because they do not have the “gift” of evangelism. We have men and women in the pulpits who call themselves shepherds with not one once of desire for true evangelism – thus we have nation which houses of God are filled with false Shepherds for I find no verifiable evidence in the Bible that one can lead a Church and have no hunger for the Lost. Oh they will call themselves prophets and apostles and such but they are as Paul and Peter would warned, wolves in sheep’s clothing. For when you look at the true prophets of the Lord in the Bible they were those calling people back to God, not unto themselves with false words of prosperity that keep the people chained to their every word. Or the true apostles for that matter, they operated in all the gifts till the Lord matured those in the groups to rise up – yet each gift was focused on ministering too, edifying and instructing the saints along with evangelizing the people around them.
It really hit me hard as the Lord shared this with me for not only was I taught wrong (not by all those teachers in my past), I had also taught others wrong encouraging their disobedience by excusing their lack of desire to reach the lost with “Well maybe that’s not your gifting”. I praise God that over the past 2-3 years Holy Ghost has been cutting away at these false teachings and has been replacing with with the pure doctrines of Christ our Lord.
The honest to goodness scriptural truth is friends, when it come to the lost around us we are all called to reach out to them – if we do not have the hunger and drive to do so we need to firstly repent for being disobedient and secondly ask the Father to allow us to experience the true power of the resurrection – For then our hearts will be filled with the same compassionate Fire for the lost that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ HAS…..
So the good news is up to this point you may not have known the truth – The bad news is Now you have heard it so you must either obey the Lord or walk away even as those who heard the message on the flesh & the Blood = For from this day forth you are definitely without excuse!!!!!!
But hey, that His (Holy Ghost’s) Story and I am sticking to it.
All I know is that we do serve an Awesome God!!!!!
Radical Disciples - A Remnant Revolution 
Nowhere are people admonished for not evangelizing. Timothy is urged to do the work of an evangelist, presumably this was the gift he was neglecting. Paul asks for prayer for his evangelism and Peter says to be ready to give a reason for the hope that is within you to those who are about to undergo persecution.
The great commission was given to apostles who were to be leaders of Israel in anticipation of the role Israel was to play in receiving the Kingdom and bringing the news of Jesus to the whole world. Paul was the apostle to the gentiles and he tells us that he was not sent to baptize. This indicates that even though he had the gift of evangelism, he did not see the so-called great commission as applying to him.
It never ceases to amaze me in regard to the deliberate attempt to avoid the truth and the call to make disciples of all nations by those who can come up with a thousand excuses of why they can sit on the side lines and not take part in the Great Harvest. As a preacher of the Gospel I am constantly battling this ignorant statement of lazy or uneasy Christians. For several generations now, many church leaders and teachers while impressing the need for regular church attendance have failed to explain why we attend church. Churches, you see, are NOT hospitals for the sick and dying. They are not fellowship areas for social functions. They are NOT recreation halls, entertainment facilities. In other words, churches are to be military forward base camps NOT vacation campgrounds.
Many Christians now labor…correction fail to labor in the fields of the harvest because they are too busy living it up in the comfort of a luxury local cruise ship…I mean church. Instead of their church being a sanctuary for battle hardened soldiers, a training camp for new recruits and a soul saving station, it is a social club. That may sound harsh but if your church is not reaching out to the lost and the needy, you are nothing but a social club! Any organization that is not spreading the gospel is a social or civil organization by definition. Any organization that spreads the Gospel of the Christ is, by definition, part of the Church. Which do you attend?
The very title of this blog relates to the nature of the most common argument that I have encountered. It involves a misquotation of Paul from Ephesians 4:11, “he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers”. They claim that this clause of a sentence written by Paul is stating that there is a diversity of “gifts” of ministry to various Christians just as there is a diversity of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit to each Christian. They apply this clause of a sentence of Paul’s to say that not all Christians are called upon to spread the Gospel. Is it applicable to evangelism???
NO! Why not? In order to apply the clause to evangelism, we create a contradiction. In order to say that some Christians are to “proclaim” (preach) the Gospel and others to teach and some to pastor, we have to say that Jesus was wrong in the Great Commission. You see, in order to claim that not all of us are called upon to spread the Gospel everywhere, we must make this clause supercede what Jesus has commanded us to do. It means that we are calling our God a LIAR! If He said “go ye” and Paul said go “some” and Paul is right, then, Jesus, our God, is lying. That can’t be right just looking at it on its face. Let’s look then to the entire passage from Ephesians 4:10-15
There Paul shares the Gospel and explains why a clear presentation of the Gospel is necessary. Through the explanation of the law comes the conviction that we are sinners and CANNOT earn our own salvation. It must be bought. Then, the sacrifice of Jesus makes full sense to the sinner. This is a clear presentation of the Gospel of the Christ. I do not wish to get long winded on how to witness or techniques. I am trying to remind you of your calling and get you back in the war.
Decide in your heart right now whether you are a true child of God. Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” John 14:15. This is the same God who said, “Go ye into all the world and preach (proclaim, cry out, publish, spread, tell) the Gospel to every creature.”