Many People are Ready to Get Saved Now. Do You See Them?

This post is going to be a little more personal than most. My staff at my church believe I have the gift of evangelism (as in personal soulwinning). I don’t. I know it.  But I do know that God is in the business of saving souls, I believe it, and that has changed my life.

We make evangelism too complicated. I am not against soulwinning and evangelism courses. We use them in our church. It is important to know how to explain the gospel. But we often get so focused on “acing the test” and making sure that we cross every “t” and dot every “i” just right, that we get paralyzed. Fear of being rejected paralyzes us, fear of saying something wrong paralyzes us. Stop being afraid and start sharing Jesus Christ. Here are some things you can do.

Ask God to give you souls.

I have gone through some dry periods in my ministry where it had been a while since I had an opportunity to show someone the way of salvation and see them come to Christ. When that happens, I ask God to give me souls. I start asking Him daily and I keep asking. In doing so, you should also ask Him to show you what to say. Jesus told the disciples in Matthew 10:19, that the Holy Spirit would give them the words to say when they needed them. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t prepare. What it means is that the conversation you have with an unsaved person must be spirit-led regardless of what you previously know—and the Spirit will indeed lead.

God is in the business of answering this prayer. I cannot remember a time where I have prayed like this, and He did not soon answer it. Of course, you must expect that He will answer it. I think some people pray for God to give them souls, but they do not expect He will answer and when He does, they completely miss the opportunity because they were not looking for it. I am convinced we have many more prime opportunities to share Christ with others than we recognize.

Believe that the Holy Spirit is already drawing people all around you.

The biblical pattern is that the Holy Spirit is already doing a work in the hearts of people before the evangelist makes contact.

In Acts 8:28-38, the Ethiopian Eunuch was already reading Isaiah and concerned about what it said before Philip came along to answer his questions.

In Acts 9, Jesus had already brought Saul of Tarsus to the crisis point before God sent Ananias to speak to him.

In Acts 16, the Lord had already opened the heart of Lydia in anticipation of hearing Paul’s message.

In Acts 16, God had already brought the Philippian jailer to death’s door, opening his heart to the gospel.

I recently had two opportunities to see two young men, both in their late 20’s or early 30’s trust Christ as Savior. Both were distinctly aware of “something” going on in their hearts before they ever talked to me. One described it as “gravity.” He said that a few months ago, he would have never thought of sitting at a table with a preacher and talking about his soul. But in the last few months, he knew that he was being pulled, inexplicably, toward spiritual conversations and he could not understand why. When we talked about the gospel, he knew immediately that this was it.

The other described it as a million questions suddenly entering his mind about spiritual things. They were questions that compelled him to find answers, and then God providentially crossed our paths.

God is at work in the hearts of people all around you. You do not have to start it. He is already doing it. All you must do is believe it, and then look for those people in whose hearts God is already at work. Believer me they are! They are all around you! One of the mistakes we make is deciding who WE think we need to share Christ with. Certainly, we should pray for specific people, but we should not restrict our soulwinning focus just to those people.

People visit your church all the time. Many times, they are unsaved. They have already been burdened enough to show up at your door.

Don’t waste time.

I know that evangelism sometimes requires building relationship and trust, and we need to be willing to do that. But do not forget that God has prepared the hearts of some right now. Paul was ready immediately. The Ethiopian Eunuch was ready immediately. Lydia was ready immediately. The Philippian jailer was ready immediately.

Some might say, “But people today are so biblically illiterate that it takes a long Bible Study,”

That might be true, but it is not always a hindrance. I doubt the Philippian jailer had much biblical literacy. Some of Paul’s Mars Hill audience in Acts 17 believed, even though they were Greek philosophers and only knew Jesus as “The Unknown God” a short time earlier.

It does not necessarily take as long as you think.

Ask simple, direct questions.

I make it a habit, when talking to visitors at our church, of asking them how they found out about our church, and what their religious background is. It is really easy to ask someone, “have you ever been born again?” or “Do you know what it means to biblically saved from your sin?” It is just a simple, straightforward question. I do not worry about offending them. I do not ask in an accusing way.

If they say “I am not sure” or “I don’t know” then I simply follow up with “could I sit down and show you from the Bible what it is and how you can know?” Believe it or not, more often than not, the answer I get is “Yes, I would like to do that.”

Then I usually ask, “Do you want to do it now, or set an appointment for later?” Sometimes they want to talk now, sometimes later. I will exchange phone numbers and often they pursue me to set up the appointment. Yes. That is right. Often they pursue me.

I know that I am a pastor, and sometimes people pursue me for answers to spiritual questions because they see me as an authority, but God can do the same with you.

Talk with them, don’t deliver a spiel.

A four-part Bible Study like “The Exchange” is a useful tool in sharing the gospel. But it should be a springboard to a conversation, not the heart of it. There are also other ways to share the gospel. The old “Roman’s Road” is very effective, so is the Navigator’s presentation based on Romans 6:23 (this was later developed into the “Bridge Tract”). But these are just tools, not the essence of the gospel message.

There are some key elements that we need to remember in a gospel presentation with a person whose heart is prepared to receive it. Can you prove these principles from scripture?

• All people are sinners and separated from a Holy God because of it.
• No person can fix their own sin problem.
• Jesus died on the cross to fix the sin problem. Associated with this is that He is sinless God, He came to earth and lived a sinless life, He died on the cross, and He rose again victorious from the grave.
• Every person must place their faith in Jesus Christ alone.
• Placing their faith in Jesus Christ means understanding what the Bible says about them and what Jesus did for them, agreeing with it, and placing their complete dependence upon Christ to find forgiveness of sins and transformation of life. I believe the repentance for salvation is turning from all other sources of trust—good works, false religion, or denying God altogether.

I have found that when I explain these things to a person whose heart is prepared, they believe it. I want them to believe it because the Bible says it, not just because I say it.  So we go to the Bible to support it, but I do not have to argue with them to prove it. Again, look at the Eunuch, Paul, Lydia, and the Jailor. No arguing was necessary, only explaining.

Planting seed is still important.

Planting seed is important too. Not everyone we talk to is ready or willing to trust Christ. Sometimes we are planting seed or watering. Not everyone believed Jesus the moment they heard him either. The same is true with Paul. We need to be Holy Spirit-led in the direction of the conversations we have.

My point in this article is that there many more people who are ready to receive Christ than we realize. Be on the lookout for people who are ready now. I have to remind myself to ask God and then open my eyes.

God encourages my heart with souls being saved.  It makes me forget about elections, investments, how bad my favorite team is playing, and all the other frustrations of life.  None of those things matter when people are coming to Jesus.