IGNITE

Hey! :-) What were you up to last week? I was at Ignite, a revival initiative by my church's youth group :-) For two full days, I closed off the world and saturated my soul with worship, prayer and God's word. I'm glad I did :-)

The youth conference was held concurrently with our church's revival meetings with Dr Bernard Blessing, a powerful and effective evangelist from Ghana, who taught us about the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit has 3 dimensions - He is WITH us, IN us and UPON us. I learned that we each have a MEASURE of every spiritual gift, given to us by the Holy Spirit, who lives IN us, when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.

These spiritual gifts are TOOLS for us to do the Father's work, and will MANIFEST when the Holy Spirit is UPON us (That happens when we yield ourselves to Him), and when the Holy Spirit determines that there is a need. Paul explains to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 (when viewed in context) that these gifts will manifest one at a time, to different individuals in the church, so we can help each other, who each need different kinds of help :-) However, without LOVE for one another, all gifts are in vain, as taught by Paul in the chapter following.

At the workshops, I discovered that I have strong gifts of leadership, mercy, helps and teaching (List of gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:27,28). I learned that God gives us spiritual gifts to convince others that He is real (1 Corinthians 14:24), gain attention for preaching and evangelism (Acts 2:7), glorify Him, and build-up the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:21-27) among other reasons :-)

Now, evangelism has always been a pursuit of mine. At the workshop 'Tick tock, Tick tock!', I finally learned how to open my mouth and share the gospel! :-D

1. You're not trying to convert anyone, you're just making an effort to share with someone what Jesus has done for you, just as you would share a great method to study, or a place to buy quality shoes for a good price.
2. Live your life as such that someone would say, "I'm seeing the reality of God in his/her life."
3. Don't evangelise for the sake of evangelising. Remember, the purpose of evangelism is to save precious souls. It must stem from a love for people and a confidence in Jesus as our saviour.
4. Ask for the Holy Spirit's intervention. Ask Him to help you evangelise as well as prepare the heart/s of the listener/s.
5. Start with a general but genuine conversation. Perhaps asking a question about religion later on in your conversation could jump-start what you might want to share next about:

• how all of us are sinners, and how sin separates man from God, because He is holy,
• how God loves us so much,
• that He sent His only son, Jesus to die on our behalf,
• and to conquer all powers of death, by coming to life again,
• that Jesus becomes the ONLY way through which we can come to God
• and today, have life and life eternally :-)

See how much I've learned?! ;-P

Over and above the serious stuff, I had lots of fun and made plenty of wonderful, wonderful friends :-) Not to mention, got soaked to the bones in rain when my Amazing Race team (Haha! ;-D Yes, I know what you're thinking :-P) couldn't find a shelter before the cats and dogs rained down. Woo-hoo! Hahaha! :-D Conclusion? I have been successfully ignited :-)

http://www.calvary-youth.com/

Disclaimer: The above are the author's own opinions and interpretations, and are not to be used as items of reference or advice, without confirmation with the appropriate resources. The reader is advised to practise his/her own disgression with regards to the above content. There is also no intention on the author's part to offend any party above mentioned, or otherwise.