EVANGELIST SOLA OKI
MATTHEW 4:19(KJV): “19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”;
ACTS 8:4(KJV): “4 Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.”
[biblegateway passage=”MARK 16:15-20″ display=”MARK 16:15-20″]
Jesus started His ministry by bringing people together but at the end of His ministry He scattered them and told them to go into all the world to preach the gospel. Mark 16:15 is our license to preach the gospel; we need no other license. We need to have a missionary mentality. Anywhere we find ourselves is a mission field. Ministry is not limited to the church pulpit. If you cannot hold a city-wide crusade you should be able to hold a street-long crusade. We have to go into the world preaching the gospel. Wherever there is darkness, the Kingdom of God is not in place. We have to invade such places with the light of the gospel. You don’t know what you are made of until you go. To preach is to make known, to declare and to speak out. We must get over our restraints and reach out to people that we come across. We have to make a habit of preaching. We have to preach the Gospel: the Good News. There is no news in the world except if it is bad and terrible. Our good news is a big relief to a world burdened by a plethora of bad news. The gospel is about redeeming men from sin; bringing people out of their sins. We should preach the core gospel rather than the additions to the gospel. Jesus did not come primarily to heal us or provide for us. These are mere additions to the gospel.
Two results can come from our preaching: Those who believe and are baptized will be saved while those who do not believe will be damned. We must be optimistic about the results of our preaching. Instead of focusing on people rejecting our message we should focus on people accepting the message. It is our job to preach; it is God’s job to save. The time to sit down is the time when we are being discipled by Jesus. As soon as we become disciples, we need to get up and go. We don’t make any profit with our learning if we refuse to go out to share our experiences with others. Everywhere is a right place to pray; everywhere is a right place to preach. One way to get God into your life is by preaching. God is committed to you when you are committed to preaching the Gospel. Anywhere you preach God comes. You remain immortal as long as you are on mission for God.
ACTS 1:17(KJV): 17 For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry.”
Every ministry must emanate from the Church. It is an aberration to have standalone ministries when there are local churches all over the place. Stephen started from the church as a deacon serving tables but turned out to be a full blown evangelist still committed to the local church. There are common boundaries in ministry. The leaders of the local church must allow different ministries to find expression. On the other hand, those other ministries must be cautious so as not to cause fracas in the church. We all have our parts in the local church. We must ensure that our places are not vacant. When we all do our parts, the body is better for it. When everyone does his bit, there will be no deficiency in the body.