THe Holy Spirit’s Role
in Evangelism
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
I. Revealer of Christ’s Work
Author of the Evangelism Handbook
He Teaches and Reminds Us about the Work of Christ
II. Equipper of the Church
Offices and Gifts of the Spirit
The Power to Witness
III. Ministry to the Unbeliever
The Threefold Method
IV. Practical Aspects of Spirit Led Evangelism
Divine Energy behind the New Birth
Following Up with New Believers
God and History Waits for the Church
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Holy Spirit’s
Role in Evangelism
INTRODUCTION
God has given believers great responsibility through the Great Commission. But He also gives believers tremendous help to accomplish this task. He has committed Himself through the Person of the Holy Spirit to come along sides believers and help them evangelize the world. He does this through a multipronged approached. This approach involves revelation, equipping of the church, and preparation of the unsaved.
Evangelism begins with and is accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the power behind the birth of the New Creation. The Holy Spirit also assists the church in maintaining and establishing the fruit of evangelistic efforts.
The return of Christ, and thus the fulfillment history, is waiting for the church to finish its task of evangelizing the world.
I. The Revealer of Christ’s Work
The Holy Spirit reveals Christ’s
work several ways. The Bible is one of the most prominent ways He does this. He also does this through the still small voice and the
gifts and offices in the church.
The Author of the Evangelism Handbook
The Holy Spirit is the Author of
the Bible. The
Apostle Peter confirms this fact (I Peter
The Holy Spirit works through the Word … It
is His sword (Ephesians
The Bible is our handbook for
evangelism. It
provides the command and commission to evangelize.
It gives us the content of the evangelistic message.
It describes the preparatory work accomplished by the
Holy Spirit on the lost.
It describes the birthing work that the Holy Spirit does
for new creations to occur.
It also describes the ministries and gifts that are
available for evangelism.
He Teaches and Reminds Us about the Work of Christ
On a personal level, the Holy
Spirit is always present to teach us and reminds of Christ’s
completed redemptive work.
He also teaches and reminds us about our present work in
evangelism. Jesus
said, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will
send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to
remembrance all that I said to you” (John 14:26,
But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He
will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His
own initiative, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will
disclose to you what is to come.
He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will
disclose it to you.
All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that
He takes of mine and will disclose it to you (John
II. The Equipper of the Church
Besides the Bible, the The Holy
Spirit equips the church to evangelize in several ways.
The Holy Spirit equips the church to evangelize through
the gifts and offices of the Holy Spirit and by giving us His
power to witness. As
the author of the Bible, the Holy Spirit, is the One Who informs
us of the commission that Jesus has given for us to reach the
world.
The Mission
of the Church
The church has a mission to evangelize the world. After His resurrection and prior to His ascension Jesus gave His disciples the Great Commission.
And Jesus came up and spoke to them saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).
These verses state that the
church’s mission is world-wide evangelization until the end of
the age (cf. Ladd, 126).
This commission provides great authority to the church so
it can carry out God’s evangelical purpose.
The Offices and Gifts of the Spirit
The Holy Spirit provides gifts
and offices to the church for evangelism.
An evangelist walks in one of these offices.
To help fulfill this office, an evangelist is often given
the gifts of healings and miracles (cf. Hagan 39).
Philip, one of the first deacons, is an example of these
gifts accompanying the office of an evangelist (cf. Acts 8:5-7;
21:8).
The Power to Witness
The Holy Spirit gives the church
the power to witness.
Jesus said, “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to
you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds
from the Father, He will testify about Me, and you will testify
also because you have been with me from the beginning” (John
15:26-27
III. Ministry to the
Unbeliever
E. W. Kenyon states that “It is necessary that we understand how the Holy Spirit deals with an unsaved man, so that we can let Him work freely through us” (Kenyon 265).
The Holy Spirit prepares the hearts of unbelievers for the gospel. Kenyon describes this process in the following quotation.
The Holy Spirit today is making real to human hearts the work of the son of God. The Spirit’s teaching and communications are not His own; they are Christ’s. The Holy Spirit’s ministry is to reveal to men what Jesus brought about by His death and resurrection. To show every man that Jesus became sin on man’s behalf so that they may become righteous. He also shows every man the tragedy of rejecting Christ’s substitution sacrifice (Kenyon 265).
He further describes the Holy
Spirit’s work in the following manner, “The Holy Spirit comes to
impart the nature of God to the spirit of man in the new birth
(John 3:3-8) and then fill the new creature (II Co.
The Threefold Method
Christ gave us the three pronged approach that the Holy Spirit uses to make real Christ’s work to mankind (cf. Kenyon 265). In the following verses Jesus talks about how the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgment.[5]
It is profitable (good, expedient, advantageous) for you that I go away. Because if I do not go away, the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener and Standby) will not come to you [into close fellowship with you]; but if I go away, I will send Him to you [to be in close fellowship with you]. When He comes, He will convict and convince the world and bring demonstration to it about sin and about righteousness (uprightness of heart and right standing with God) and about judgment: About sin, because they do no believe in Me [trust in, rely on, adhere to Me]; About righteousness (uprightness of heart and right standing with God), because I go to the Father, and you will see Me no longer; About judgment, because the ruler (evil genius, prince) of this world [Satan] is judged and condemned and sentence is already passed upon him (John 16:17-11, AMP)
These verses state that the Holy Spirit comes to fellowship with us and to convict the world so that others will also believe and come into fellowship with God.
Kenyon states that our preaching is normally out of harmony with the Holy Spirit’s method. He says that we have not shown man that he is a child of Satan, nor have we shown him his legal rights to righteousness and the nature of God. We have preached him under condemnation because of the sins he has committed. God does not condemn a man because of what he does, but because of what he is, and convicts him of only one sin, the sin of rejecting Christ and choosing to remain a child of Satan (cf. Kenyon 266).
IV. Practical Aspects of Spirit Led Evangelism
The Holy Spirit also helps
evangelistic efforts in other ways.
He provides the power necessary for people to get saved.
He also helps in retaining the fruit of evangelism.
Furthermore, He continually revitalizes the church’s
mandate to evangelize the world.
Divine Energy behind the New Birth
The Holy Spirit is the birthing agent behind any evangelistic effort. Because it is His miraculous power that results in spiritual birthing of the new creations.
Prayer is tied into the Holy Spirit’s birthing activity. When the church prays the Holy Spirit is released to hover over individuals, cities, regions and nations. This hovering results in an exertion of dunamis power that results in many people getting saved. Signs, wonders and healings often accompany this hovering presence of the Holy Spirit (cf. Sheets 109-132).
It will help to keep us from error and
alleviate some concerns if I state clearly up front, we don’t
birth anything spiritually, the Holy Spirit does. He is the
birthing agent of the Godhead (see Luke
So, it is essential that for any
evangelical effort that the church pray to release the Holy
Spirit’s power. Then
it is the Holy Spirit’s part to exert the power necessary for
the new creations to occur.
Following Up with New Believers
Jesus did say, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptize them and teach them all that I have told you” (cf. Mat. 28:19-20). He did not say “Have them say a salvation prayer and they will be just fine.” Many in the evangelistic world are concerned about the “Back Door Syndrome.” This involves people coming to church and getting saved, but then they leave out the back door without any further or very little church involvement. Others are rightly concerned about people saying the prayer, but these people do not follow through with their commitment. Some church leaders have found ways to resolve this issue. But these solutions require the Body to have vision and they normally involve establishing relationships which require considerable commitments of time. Mentoring, new believers groups, home meetings, life groups and special interest groups are some the methods that have been successfully implemented.
New believers need to be belong
to a church where they will be encouraged in their new life with
Christ. While at
church the Holy Spirit assists in their maturing process by
ministering to them through the five-fold ministry.
God and History Waits for the
Church to
Complete it’s Mandate
The history of the world is dependent on the action of the church. If the church is obedient,[6] the world will be evangelized and Christ will return.
This is a staggering fact.
God has entrusted people like us, redeemed sinners, the
responsibility of carrying out the divine purpose in history.
Why has God done it this way?
Is He not taking a great risk that His purpose will fail
of accomplishment?
It is now over nineteen hundred years, and the goal is not yet
achieved. Why did
God not do it Himself?
Why did He not send hosts of angels whom He could trust
to complete the task at once?
Why has He committed it to us?
We do not try to answer the question, except to say that
such is God’s will.
Here are the facts: God has entrusted us this mission; and
unless we do it, it will not get done … From the perspective of
eternity the mission of the church is more important than the
march of armies or the actions of the world’s capitals, because
it is in the accomplishment of this mission that the divine
purpose for human history is accomplished (Ladd 134, 135).
Through evangelism we facilitate
the process of Christ’s return.
Peter said we are to look for and hasten the coming our
Lord (cf. II Peter
Conclusion
God has given the church the great responsibility of evangelizing the world. But He also has given us Himself to assist us through the Person of the Holy Spirit.
Sincere Christians want to be
obedient to the Lord.
They desire to reach the lost.
But many fear or may have a sense of being overwhelmed at
the task of world evangelism.
It is true that this task is great.
But fear and hopelessness are removed as the church gets
a better grip on the Holy Spirit’s role in evangelism.
Pressure is removed as the Body relies on the unlimited
resources and abilities of the Holy Spirit rather than their own
resources and abilities.
Plus the fruit obtained, through partnership with the
Holy Spirit, is everlasting.
It helps to remember that the Almighty God comes
alongside us and help us fulfill our mandate to evangelize the
world.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hagin, Kenneth. Understanding the Anointing. Tulsa, Oklahoma: Rhema Bible Church, Inc., 2006.
Kendall, R. T. Understanding Theology, Volume I. Fearn, Ross-Shire, UK: Christian Focus Publications, 2002.
Kenyon, Edward. The Bible in Light of Our Redemption – Basic Bible Course. Lynnwood, Washington: Kenyon’s Gospel Publishing Society, 1999.
Ladd, George. The Gospel of the Kingdom. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1978.
Sheets, Dutch. Intercessory Prayer. Ventura, California: Regal Books, 1996.
Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptural quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.
Scripture references marked NKJV are taken from the NEW KING JAMES VERSION, Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982, by The Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture references marked NASB are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org).
Scripture references marked NIV are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ®. NIV ®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
Scripture references marked NLT are taken from the NEW LIVING
TRANSLATION ®. NLT ®. Copyright © 1996, 2004 by the Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
End Notes
[1] Jesus said, “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever” (John 14:16, AMP).
[2] cf. II Corinthians 5:18-19.
[3] Peter said, “Always be ready to give a logical defense to anyone who asks you to account for the hope that is in you, but do it courteously and respectfully” (I Peter 3:15, AMP).
[4] There is a need for us to be filled with the Holy Spirit in order to reach the lost (cf. Kenyon 269-270).
[5] The Holy Spirit convicts the world of judgment because the prince of this world has been judged. What has the judgment of Satan to do with man? Everything, because man has become his child, and Satan’s eternal home has become man’s eternal home. After the Holy Spirit shows a man that he is a child of Satan, not only now but for eternity, He convicts him of righteousness, because Christ has gone to the Father. He shows man that he has a mediator before God, One who, with His own blood, after providing eternal redemption for man, entered into Heaven on his behalf. He shows that man may become the righteousness of God, and that he possesses the legal right to become God’s child. Then, He convicts man of the sin of rejecting Christ, the only way of redemption from Satan’s authority – the sin of choosing to remain a child of Satan after he has learned that he may become a child of God (Kenyon 266).
[6] If our view of salvation does
not lead us to witness to the lost, we are disobedient to
Christ (