First, the bad news. We live in a busted up, broken world, full of problems. Many problems to many people. It’s the world we find ourselves in: sickness, poverty, troubled relationships, corrupt governing, and lots more junk.
The Good News that Jesus preaches is that Paradise is available to us all, now. Paradise is within reach, it’s “at hand”. We get to live in Paradise!
Contrast that with the Bad News of a busted up, broken world that is full of all kinds or horrible problems – and the Good News becomes obvious.
There is literally a process that allows us to change our world, and experience Paradise – complete with healing, wholeness, restoration and joy – instead of a broken world full of pain.
It’s sort of like science fiction – beaming to a new place, a better place – only this isn’t fiction, it’s real. And it can be real for you. Not to just visit, but to live in.
Ever need a miracle? There’s a process for this, too; and a kind of time and place where miracles are much more frequent than otherwise.
There really is bad news in this world. And there is Good News. And the amazing thing is, you get to choose! (If you have not already done so, visit and see The Gospel Process.)
Discipling someone, or several people, can can succeed a lot faster than most of us are used to. I call this “Disciple-Making on Steroids” because this approach is so powerful and fast.
Here’s an example to learn from, that, with variations – depending on your situation, can be done more easily and more quickly than perhaps we have ever seen.
On the street or in a supermarket or other store, or maybe a shopping mall, you see someone who obviously needs healing. Their injury or disability or pain is obvious to you.
So you walk up to them and say, “Hello. My name is ____; it looks to me like you have some” pain, difficulty, injury, disability – whatever it is. Make it easy for them to talk to you about it. Make sure you discover what it is that they cannot do or cannot easily do, because of that particular need of healing.
Ask them if it’s okay for you to pray for them. Most people will be glad for such prayer, if by then you are in rapport. If they are not willing, thank them and let them be.
You can pray for them at a distance if you like.
Keep doing this until you discover someone who is willing to be prayed for.
Pray for them, praying to Jesus, maybe something like, “Dear Jesus, help this person with ____” whatever is needed. They expected you to pray for them, and it’s easy for them to say yes to such a request. Then be sure to quietly but with authority – like when you are talking to a child or a pet and you really mean it – tell that need for healing to be healed. Be sensitive to Holy Spirit and do as seems best.
Ask them to test, to do what they could not easily do or could not do. When they succeed, give thanks to Jesus!
When that does not go well, you can be like Jesus healing the blind man who could see a bit more at first, but needed more healing and said something like, “I see men walking, but they are like trees walking”. So, like Jesus, you pray (and command with authority), healing again.
If you want to do it like Jesus did, and was so successful at healing so often (always), you can do it like this:
Keep testing the healing until it is done. Persist.
Now comes the cool part, disciple making on steroids:
Now that they have been healed, ask them something like, “Would you like to give your life to Jesus and have him as your Lord?” When they say yes, lead them in such a prayer. When they say no, just continue as if they had. Because of what happens next, they probably will.
Take the person who has now been healed and who now has Jesus (or not) in them, and go with them. Find someone else who has an obvious need of healing. Instruct them to pray for and command healing, just as they experienced. Have them heal the person in need. Pray for them and their ministry, and their good success while that do that. Help them out loud as called for and needed.
Now you have someone with you who has been healed, who has come to Jesus (or not, yet). If not yet come to Jesus, ask them if they want to make it official now, and help them accept Jesus as Lord. If not, get their contact information, pray for them, and follow up and give them encouragement and help as you are led with Holy Spirit. Just do the best you can and ask for help through Holy Spirit.
I like to ask for more of Holy Spirit before I pray for someone or minister. My prayer and ministry is more effective when I do this, and I hear God better, too.
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I believe that this is how Jesus wants us to minister in these times. In these days. The time is short: make disciples, with Holy Spirit, on steroids!
Those of us who use even a somewhat Evangelical approach to salvation have a few prayers that we encourage so that someone can experience salvation.
The Bible takes a different approach. So much so that the most frequent method to attain salvation in the bible is one I’ve never seen or heard of being used with a potential convert. By hindsight, this is a bit astounding.
Yet in real life, it makes perfect sense. And the usual prayers are used for several good reasons.
It really is wise and good that we get to know more consciously about Jesus, and Jesus as our Lord. And that this be expressed clearly in our prayer.
So what is this most frequently mentioned method of achieving salvation in scriptures that is so unused for making converts? It’s actually a method frequently used by the rest of us.
A very common prayer, used by many of us when we need help, when we need and want to be saved. Just seldom used to help someone become a convert to Christianity.
What is this frequently used approach for getting help when most needed, but seldom if ever used to help someone become a convert?
It’s simply this: call on the name of the Lord and you will be saved.
Biblical theology is probably wider and more inclusive than our theologies. God is certainly more broad minded than we are.
And this illustrates very well how some things are taught about to us and for us in scripture from many angles, in many ways. And we tend to focus on one way, sometimes proof-texting, yet even so, we tend to focus on one very good way. But God and scriptures offers more options than we often think about and sometimes more options than we even normally trust or believe in.
Thank you, Lord, for being so broad minded, for thinking differently than we do, for being more loving and generous than we yet are able to grasp.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for giving us eternity to continue to get to know you and your love. We need you. And we need eternity to explore and learn about your love and your depth. Thank you, Lord!
Experience what heaven is like, now. You can do this.
It has been explained to me that the essence of heaven is being face to face with God. Even more near God and God more fully present to us than we have experienced yet here on earth. (Sounds to me like more close than we could experience here and live.)
And yet, we can experience more of our Lord. Being with us and near us; which is the start of how Jesus preaches the Gospel of the Kingdom: the Kingdom is at hand (literally within reach).
We can experience more of this now. By faith.
Let us take seriously such promises, and seek to experience more of them now.
When the New Heaven and New Earth come about, God will literally be our Light, all the time. This is how close we will be: our Light and ability to see is from our Lord. On a daily basis, regularly.
This means that as we go about our business, doing what we do…God is our Light. God is experienced more vividly by us.
So when we read such things as this in the book of Revelation, let us take it seriously; meditate on such verses. Appropriate them and know them as true, by faith.
Then, in such faith, you will experience more of God – even during ordinary life and events. While you are busy and doing things, God is our Light in the New Heaven and New Earth.
Know the truth of this now. And in your heart, with such faith, even to just understand a little bit, such verses and such promises, you will find yourself experiencing some of this – more than has been normal for you.
On earth, these days, when we get busy we get distracted, usually, from thoughts, experience and realization of the reality of God and the Kingdom. In the New Heaven and New Earth, God is the center and literally our Light. We can have awareness of God at all times.
Begin to experience this now, with faith. How wonderful and unusual, experiencing God as close and as our Light even as we go about our business.
Such is the Kingdom of God, for us. Appropriate and receive and experience this in your heart now, with faith, simply by taking his Word seriously. With faith.
And your heart will know and experience the Light of God always with you now….
