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"But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
(Acts 1:8)
Yesterday, I began writing about some of Pastor Levi Skipper's message on sharing the Gospel, entitled, "No Fear Evangelism". He said we must own our role as a missionary, and that begins with viewing ourselves biblically. He quoted 2 Corinthians 5:20, where Paul says we are God's ambassadors. Next, Levi said we are to:
Kill the ANTs. He said ANTs stands for Automatic Negative Thoughts. He asked those attending the seminar, "What are some things we tell ourselves or the devil tells us before we share?" We responded with things like, they are not interested; you will not know what to say; you are not living well enough for Christ to share your faith, etc. There are a multitude of lies that Satan throws at us, and therefore, we talk ourselves out of obeying Jesus over lies! May God help us fear Him more than people.
Levi told the story of the famous evangelist, D. L. Moody. He put off giving an invitation to those who attended the Chicago Revival in 1871. He said, "We will do it tomorrow night." But that night never came, as Chicago was swept away in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
Here are three types of ANTs we have to stomp out:
- "You can't." We must not listen to the voices of negativity but the voice of truth, especially in these moments of deciding whether we will or won't share Jesus with the person before us. Of course you can! God is with you and empowering you by His Spirit (Acts 1:8). He is waiting for you to step up.
- Comparisons. These arise from pride or low self-esteem. We think we could never do as good a job as so and so, so we don't do anything. But so and so does not have your testimony! You do. Your story and how the Gospel changed you is powerful when shared with a lost person.
- Fear. This is a big obstacle to our witness. We are fearful of failure or rejection, and both are rooted in our pride. Proud people do not witness; humble people dependent on Jesus do. Pastor Levi said EGO stands for Edging God Out.
I hope you have been blessed, encouraged, and challenged this week to be on mission for Jesus. If I or our team at DFEA can pray for you, please send an email to: pray@dfea.com
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