“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.  How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?  And how shall they preach, except they be sent?…” Romans 10:13-15.

No matter the circumstances, whether it is the lost sinner or the oppressed saint, it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ that sets the captives free.  Upon salvation, our faith is placed on Jesus’ finished work on the Cross. We believe what the Lord did on the Cross paid for all of our sins and the Holy Spirit goes to work in us.  We are immediately dead to our sin nature (Romans 6:7) but our sin nature is not dead.  We are “cut off” from our sin nature by the Holy Spirit but there are still enemies on the battle field that the Holy Spirit begins to  prune.  Immediately after salvation, the enemy returns, many times as an angel of light called religion, and attempts to direct our path and we begin our walk with the church and not with the Lord.  Classes immediately begin teaching us how to be a Christian.  The 101’s, 201’s and the like, quickly become our guides.  As our faith slowly begins to slant toward the methods of man for our spiritual growth and the pricking of the Holy Spirit on our heart for our error is dismissed, the Holy Spirit’s work on the enemies that were still on the battlefield are hindered as man begins to take over the process.  We don’t celebrate deliverance but we celebrate recovery.  As the dominion of our sin nature begins to return due to our faith being directed away from the Cross of Jesus, we begin to seek out more of man’s methods for dominion over our sin nature.  There is but One Way to defeat our sin nature and that is faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work on the Cross.  With our continued faith in His finished work, the Holy Spirit is given full latitude to perform His work in us; giving us power to live the holy life we are called to live.  “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:2.

It is extremely easy to preach “trust God” until it comes to one’s own ministry.  Once “we” get behind the pulpit, no matter what our pulpit may be,  suddenly the Gospel of Jesus needs some help.  “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.  It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.” John 6:44-45.  We suddenly feel as if the Holy Spirit’s draw was for us to go “draw” others, when in fact it was for us to go preach the Gospel to all the nations.   Our methods and schemes cannot draw the sinner.  Serving God merely to stay out of hell does not produce a relationship with the Lord.  While serving God only for His benefits and prosperity will not produce the division necessary to answer the call to be set apart.  God loved us even as sinners.  He wants us to love Him for Who He is and what He has done for us and to choose this day who we will serve (Joshua 24:15).   Seeker friendly churches do not preach the full Gospel of Jesus because they do not trust God to draw the sinners, so they mold their gospel to fit the sinners. 

^“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17.  God will send His agents to preach His Word and the Holy Spirit to convict, what the person does with this light received is their own decision.  God draws but will never drag us to Him. 

“Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”  Matthew 9:38.  God has given us apostles, prophets, evangelist, preachers and teachers of His Word (Ephesians 4:11).  The apostles declare the path, the prophets point us back to the path, evangelist exhort those on the path, preachers feed those on the path and the teachers teach the ways of the path.  There is but one path and it is narrow and few will find it (Matthew 7:13-14).   We must discern the path we are being pointed to and fed on and be sure it is a God given ministry and not a man made ministry.  The Word of God says to mark, avoid (Romans 16:17) and rebuke false teachers (Titus 1:13).  The Gospel of Jesus Christ and Him Crucified will go forward.  We are given our free will to choose or not to choose God’s way or our way.  The individual is not predestined but the event is predestined (Ephesians 1:11).  Choose this day who you will serve.  – Donna Warren.