Personal Evangelism: Priorities and Practices

I wrote this particular worship song way back in the mid-80s. This was a few years after Ingrid and I encountered Vineyard worship and the teachings of John Wimber. Although the Vineyard Movement has Evangelical roots that acquired a Charismatic flavor, my song actually derives from the Kyrie of the Catholic Mass. I'll explain why in a moment, but first here are the lyrics: Lord, have mercy! Christ, have mercy! Lord, have mercy upon a sinner. Christ, have mercy upon my soul. Man of Sorrows! Man of Sorrows! Like a sheep I have gone astray. May your wounds take my sins away. Bread of heaven! Bread of heaven! Feed me 'till I no longer hunger. Let me drink 'till I thirst no more. One of the things that attracted me to Wimber and the early Vineyard was how he often worked together with different denominations to advance the kingdom of God. An example of this with Catholicism is the conference that John did in the late 80s with Francis MacNutt, a Catholic priest who practiced and taught healing prayer and was widely regarded as a leader in the Catholic Charismatic Movement. MacNutt wrote several books including Healing (1974) to help equip other Catholics pray for people's healing, and Ingrid and I were blessed from reading this book and some other Catholic Charismatic equipping materials we learned about from the Vineyard's own magazine Equipping the Saints . Also, because I had been an unreligious pagan before I became a Christian ( read my testimony if you haven't yet) I was hungry to learn everything I could about Christianity. So as a new believer I visited many churches of different denominations and read all kinds of Christian literature from St. Augustine to John Bunyan, John Wesley, Charles Finney, C.S. Lewis, Smith Wigglesworth and many others. So I guess it's not surprising that some of the early worship songs I wrote were "seasoned" sometimes with the flavors of different denominations. But this song is special. Because it's simple. And Biblical. We sang it many times in our early home fellowships, often as a communion song as we shared the bread and wine together in remembrance of our Lord's death, resurrection and coming return. I hope you like it too. You can listen to a recording that I made of this song on SoundCloud , and you can download a PDF leadsheet that has the melody in musical notation along with lyrics and guitar chords. One more thing: the song is dedicated to the Reverend Dennis Dickson , a priest of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada who was a very good friend of ours and passed away some years ago. Blessings in Christ, Mitch P.S. Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter so you can be notified whenever we put up a new worship song on our SoundCloud page. 

Besides the Ephesians 6 passage that I talked about earlier, another Scripture on spiritual warfare that is frequently misunderstood (and often argued about) is this verse from James: Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7) Many Christians take this as a promise they can claim in their personal struggle against temptation, accusation, and other kinds of attack they experience from the Enemy. Others, especially some Bible commentators, point out that the passage in which this verse is found has a corporate dimension: What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble." Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you — who are you to judge your neighbor? (James 4:1-12) It appears, these commentators say, that what James is actually talking about here is selfishness and how it poisons relationships among the people of God. And the antidote James appears to suggest is repentance, not "duking it out" with the Devil. Who is right? Both are, actually. For although the focus here of the exhortation to "resist the Devil" is to resist Satan's attempts to create disharmony and strife among us, the statement that the Devil will flee if we resist him is a general truth — a promise from God — that James is applying here to a particular situation involving the audience he is writing to. Look at Jesus for example. In Luke 4:1-11 when Jesus was "led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil" he experienced a whole range of different attacks from the Evil One of which the Gospel writer keys in on three in particular. Jesus resisted each attack however, and in the end after the Devil had emptied his quiver of flaming arrows, he left — probably to try and plan some other schemes to bring down Jesus. So the Scripture which says that if we resist (and keep on resisting!) the Devil, he will (eventually) flee from us — or at least walk away in frustration — is indeed a trustworthy promise. And it applies both on a personal level in our struggle against the Prince of Darkness and on the wider corporate level of God's people resisting together the attempts of Satan to cause division and disunity among them. Context is important when interpreting Scripture, but truth is true regardless of the situation it's being applied to. —Mitch

The other day I was browsing an architecture and design magazine, and suddenly I remembered what it was like before I met the living God. I was a young man at university, and the whole world was wide open before me. There were a thousand things that interested me, and a thousand ways I could have gone in life. A thousand ways I could have lost myself. Ten thousand ways I could have lived, loved, died, and yet never have found the Author of Life, and the true life that He offers to all of us. How can I possibly express my deep gratitude to my Father for revealing His Son to me ? I could have searched for a thousand years and yet never found God. Ten thousand years wouldn't even have been enough, for only when God reveals Himself to us can He truly be found. "Who do you say I am?" asked Jesus of his disciples, and Simon Peter said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 16:15-17). May the living God reveal Himself to you too though His Son Jesus. —Mitch

There's much poor teaching (and some very bad teaching) in the church on the topic of spiritual warfare. Much of it centers on the interpretation of Ephesians chapter 6: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. (Eph 6:10-20 NIV) Where interpreters get it wrong here is by focusing too narrowly on the meaning of words like belt, truth, breastplate, righteousness, sword, and so on. It's a case of missing the forest for the trees. For example, is it truth about God that Paul refers to here? Or truth from God i.e. the Bible that He has given us? Or does Paul mean we should be truthful in everything we say and do? And how exactly is truth like a belt? At this point the preacher or commentator will often start describing the way men dressed in Biblical times, the kinds of belts and materials used to make them, and so on. All very edifying I'm sure, but in fact missing the main point of what Paul is saying. Because what Paul is doing here is using a metaphor to describe the Christian life. He is simply saying that as followers of Jesus, we should consider ourselves soldiers fighting against an enemy who rules over this dark world, an enemy who uses lies, wickedness and fear to keep people under his power. And if we are God's soldiers, then we need to live disciplined lives, strong and courageous, always on the alert. As soldiers we also need to always keep our armor on and learn how to effectively wield our weapons. And we need both offensive and defensive equipment and skills if we're going to win these battles. Even more importantly, we need godly character as God's soldiers. For no matter how gifted we are, if our character is deficient then we won't be able to stand our ground. One day we're going to fall, and will likely bring down others with ourselves. Finally, we need to recognize that we are in a war we can't escape from. There is no opt-out clause or room for conscientious objectors in this war we are in. "He who is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters," says our captain. This then must be our focus as we read this passage in Ephesians. If we lose focus on the big picture — the image of us as soldiers under attack while boldly proclaiming God's message — and instead get stuck on drilling down into the root meaning of Greek words and obscure customs of Biblical times, we are going to end up arguing with each other while our enemy sits back and laughs. So be strong, be bold, be patient and kind. Be like Jesus. —Mitch

What is the kingdom of God like? It's like a kid waiting at an intersection holding a squeegee. When a car drives up and stops at the intersection, the kid runs forward and starts cleaning the windshield. The driver may be annoyed by this, but this kid isn't doing it for a handout — he's doing it so the driver can see clearly to proceed safely toward his final destination. And once the car has driven away, the next car in line drives up and the whole process repeats. Hear what I'm sayin'? —Mitch Based on a dream God gave Ingrid several years ago. [Image credit: Richard Arless Jr/Postmedia News]

In my previous post in this series I shared a story about a powerful experience I had of the Father's love. I had heard my Father's voice speaking words of love and affirmation over me, and I felt greatly loved and affirmed afterwards. But only for a few days, and then I was my old insecure self again. Why? Why were the spiritual highs I experienced by encountering the living God always followed by desolate lows? Why couldn't I cement in my heart once and for all that my Father loves me? He gave the life of His only Son in exchange for me — isn't that enough? But that happened almost two thousand years ago. What about His love for me today ? In fact God has given me many proofs of His love for me. Six years after I met God, I was walking down a street somewhere. I was full of passion for following Jesus, but I was also a young man approaching thirty who was lonely and had no career in sight. I remember praying this prayer based on Ephesians 3:18: Father, I know by now I should filled to the height and depth and breadth and length with your love, but to be honest, all I really want at this point in my life is a wife, a car and a career. Very spiritual, wasn't I? And yet around a year later I was married, had a job as a high-school teacher, and had been given a free car. God loves when we are honest and He doesn't tolerate bullshit (a.k.a. hypocrisy, but I like the contemporary word better). And when that happened, I started to "get it" that God really did love me — in the here and now, and not just theologically. But despite such spiritual experiences and answers to prayer, I still struggled with insecurity and self-doubt for many years, until one day when Ingrid and I were on vacation in London, England. We had run out of cash (British pounds) and had used up our traveller's cheques. My debit card wouldn't work in the UK because of some issue. All we had were our credit cards, but we needed cash since not every establishment accepted credit cards. So I started to enter panic mode. We went to a bank nearby, but they said they couldn't help us. Finally after running around for some time, we found a bank that with the help of our passports and phone calls was willing to advance us some cash on our credit cards. "I am never going to let this happen to us again, " I shouted as we left the bank. I was in full-on panic mode by this time, and was determined to wear several money belts full of cash if we ever travelled outside Canada again. And then at that moment I remembered something the Lord had spoken to me after we had been told we were done with the church-planting internship program we had been taking at a Vineyard church on the West Coast. I had felt like a failure because I hadn't demonstrated that I could multiply the homegroup we had started, and afterwards as I was reading through Isaiah part of a verse spoke to me: Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you... (Isa 43:4 NIV) When I read this I thought: that's the first time that God has said "I love you" to me. I felt somewhat encouraged and filed the words away in my journal, but deep down they didn't make much difference in how I felt about myself. But in London when those words came back to me, I suddenly understood why God had reminded me of them. Because if I am precious to Him, I need not have any fear about anything. And if I am honored in his sight, then I shouldn't consider myself a failure in His sight. Precious — no fear. Honored — no failure. And, of course, loved. So I used this verse to wrestle down the fear and panic that had been overwhelming me, and we continued with our vacation and enjoyed our remaining time in the UK. And what had I learned? That I must exercise faith when God speaks to me or reveals Himself to me. I must believe what He says to me, and continue to believe even in the face of circumstances. The following story in Mathew 14:22-31 is important in this regard: Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." "Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water." "Come," he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!" Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" While the heading for this passage in most Bibles is "Jesus walks on water" or something similar, a much better heading would be "Peter tries to walk on water." Because the lesson is really about learn how we, as followers of Jesus like Peter was, must learn how to exercise — and to continue to exercise — faith in every circumstance. It's the difference between walking on water or sinking into the depths of self-doubt and despair. I've had many powerful experiences of God over the years: I've heard His voice, seen Him on His throne, and had other foretastes of the powers of the age to come (Hebrews 6:5). But until I began applying myself to believe what He says to me, especially concerning His love for me in Christ, the impact of all these many experiences didn't last. And this — resolving to believe God — is what has finally enabled me to cement in my heart my Father's affirming love towards me, and to erase the roots of insecurity and self-doubt from my heart. Not that I'm already perfect — but I'm getting there. May you get there too, and soon! —Mitch

A few weeks ago a woman who had a swollen ankle for over a week asked me to pray for her. Not feeling very anointed, I swallowed and said "OK" and laid both my hands on her ankle. I asked the Holy Spirit to come and release His healing power. And then I waited. After about two minutes I looked up at her face to see whether there were any visible signs of the Holy Spirit touching her. These visible signs or "manifestations" are well-documented in Vineyard literature (for example see page 212 in John Wimber's book Power Healing) and can range from violent shaking or falling over to slight trembling, eyelids fluttering, breathing slowing down, a feeling of warmth, and so on. Often when I pray for someone's healing, one or more of these manifestations occur in the subject indicating that the Holy Spirit is present and the person's healing has begun. But not this time. So I looked down at her swollen ankle and continued praying. I prayed silently and earnestly, using a formulaic prayer that I had once learned from John Wimber: "Oh God, oh God, oh God..." After a few minutes I asked the woman if she felt anything happening. "No," she replied, and when we examined her ankle together it still looked the same. I asked if I could continue to pray, and she said Yes. So once again I laid my hands around her ankle and prayed, silently repeating another formulaic prayer that John Wimber taught people in the early days of the Vineyard: "Help! Help!! Help!!!" And once again, I waited. Then after a few more minutes I noticed something happening. But it wasn't happening to the woman—it was happening to me! A feeling of peace had come upon me. My breathing had also slowed down and my posture had changed, making me lean more forward. I thought, Hey, just a minute! This kind of stuff is supposed to happen to the person being prayed for, not the person doing the praying! But I accepted what was happening and welcomed the presence of the Holy Spirit—and then I felt faith rising in me that God was going to heal. A few more minutes passed, and then we looked at her ankle again. There was still no change, so I just said I'd be happy to pray for her again the next day. She agreed to this, and we ended our ministry session together. But about two hours later the woman told me the swelling in her ankle had diminished. "That's great!" I said, and thanked God that I hadn't completely blown it ministering to her. And the next day she reported that her ankle was back to normal, and when I asked her about a week later, it was still normal. So God healed her. Lessons learned What lessons can we learn from this story? First, learn how to recognize signs when the Holy Spirit releases healing gifts. And second, follow up with people when you pray for their healing. In this case when I talked with her later, she said she thought the condition might have been caused because she ate too much sugar (too many desserts). I'm not a physician or nutritionist, but I know from personal experience how over-consumption of sugar can have a negative impact on your health, so I simply agreed and suggested she learn to say No to desserts :-) Hope this helps. Peace, everyone. —Mitch

I shared previously how as a young man I had ended up on the floor after being ministered to at a Vineyard conference. That occasion however left me feeling desolate as I ended up crying out "Father, I want to feel your love!" over and over again. Instead of being filled by the Spirit from this experience, I felt nothing but emptiness afterwards. But shortly after this I had a different "floor time" experience. Back then there was no Vineyard church in our city, so Ingrid and I were attending what we thought at the time was the next best thing: a growing Charismatic church located in the downtown area. It wasn't until long after we had left the church that we learned it had previously belonged to the Shepherding Movement. During one of the Sunday services, the pastor gave out what he felt was a "word from the Lord" that some of those present had told God they had "drawn lines in the sand" and would "not cross them again." He said however that this was wrong and that those who had drawn such lines should come forward and repent. Frustrated and discouraged from having tried to engage in various ministry activities only to be criticized and rebuffed by leadership, I felt that the pastor's "word" must apply to me. So I went forward and got down on my knees to repent. I began to pray, telling God how sorry I was that I had drawn those lines in the sand. Then I felt someone's hand on my back, and as the hand started trembling I began to weep. "I'm sorry, Father," I said, repeating this again and again as my eyes began to fill with tears. Then suddenly the Lord spoke to me: You've never drawn any lines. "Whaah" I cried, "whaah, whaaah" as tears rolled down my face. This went on a while and then God spoke to me again: You've always obeyed me. "Whaaaah! Whaaaaahhh!" I cried loudly as the hand on my back shook strongly. Then He spoke to me one more time: You're a man after my own heart. "WHAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!" Lying on the floor by this time, I proceeded to sob my heart out, totally oblivious to everything and everyone around me. Then after some time had elapsed and my tears had dried up, I opened my eyes and turned around to find out who had been praying for me. "What happened, Mitch?" It was my brother-in-law who had laid his hand on me. "Mitch?" he repeated, "What was happening there with you?" We both stood up. I looked at him and wanted to say, "My name isn't Mitch, it's CHRISTIAN!!" But I just smiled instead and thanked him and said I couldn't share right now, maybe later. Because I didn't want to lose the wonderful feeling I was experiencing at that moment: the feeling of being loved and affirmed by my heavenly Father. The experience was so precious to me that I thought if I should share it I might lose the potency and power of it. This feeling only lasted several days however and then it dissipated. And by the end of the week I was struggling with insecurity and depression again over not being able to find my place in the church and not being recognized by the leadership for the gifts I felt God had given me. Like my daydream in the house church that I previously used to attend, this new experience of God's love was powerful, but once again it didn't last. Why not? Probably for several reasons which at the time I just couldn't fathom. But the question always remained: How could I cement in my heart the fact that my Father really loves me? Was there something I needed to do? Or was I doomed to endure a series of spiritual highs followed by desolate lows? More to come soon. --Mitch

My previous post on this topic set forth four principles that provide a foundation to encourage and equip ourselves and others for doing personal evangelism. I ended that post by suggesting that each time we step out into the world, we should bring these principles to mind by praying something like this: Lord, I believe you want to save him/her/them and that you've sent me and empowered me. Help me share your good news! Over the next couple of weeks I've tried repeating this prayer to myself as Ingrid and I have gone shopping for groceries or new clothes or just for coffee somewhere. And the results have been encouraging. For example, the first time I tried this was when we were about to enter an Italian grocery store we often frequent. As I walked around the store I saw a man who worked there whom we had previously talked with. I grabbed the opportunity to point him to my testimony which I've put online and he responded positively. I haven't seen him since, but plan on following up when I do meet him again. Then after we paid for our groceries, we sat down for a coffee and one of the checkout girls we hadn't seen for several months came over and started talking with us. She began telling us about an injury that had kept her away from work, and how she needed to find a new fulltime job which was difficult to find in these current economic conditions. Soon we were praying for her and telling her about Jesus. Another time when we were shopping for groceries, Ingrid saw a young woman standing in front of the meat counter. "What a beautiful coat," said Ingrid, "the color suits you perfectly and it looks well made with good material." As they talked together, the young woman said she was buying a steak for her boyfriend whom she was soon going to marry. At that point Ingrid said, "Jesus is in our marriage, and if Jesus is in your marriage you will be able to forgive one another and make decisions together and your marriage will succeed." I recall how many years ago our friend Mac Jardine told us that the key to doing evangelism is to "have the courage to say the J-word." Ingrid has this courage, and she often brings up Jesus in her conversations with strangers. We've also had problems recently with our kitchen sink and bathroom shower leaking, so last week we called a plumber. As he worked I started talking with him, and soon he was sharing his regret over the failure of his marriage. As he talked I kept thinking to myself: How can I say something meaningful to this man before he leaves? I prayed the above prayer again and again, asking the Lord for his help. Finally the man gave me the bad news that we needed to replace our shower and it would cost us quite a lot. And then suddenly I knew the words I should say: "We'll have to talk with God before we decide whether to approve your estimate as we always ask Him when we're faced with making financial decisions." The man replied "I respect that" and prepared to leave as he had other customers to attend to, so we couldn't continue our conversation. But perhaps there's an opening now for me to pray for him when he comes to install the new shower in our bathroom. So no great revival has broken out since I started praying my above prayer, but so what? The kingdom of God often advances gradually in a manner we can scarcely notice or perceive (see Mark 4:26-29 ). The point is to keep on doing it and not give up. And I hope these stories encourage you to do the same. Cheers, --Mitch