Saturday and Sunday were our first two church services here in Diriamba. This whole week we’ve been going out into the barrios with Glenn, Manuel, and Deigo (pastors), sharing Jesus with the people who live there. Many know of Jesus, some already have a close relationship with Him, but all are hungry for more. However, a lot of them don’t know that there is more, so they search in alcohol, etc (just like in the US).
So as we’ve entered the barrios and have been invited into people’s homes (most want us to come in and prayer for either healing or blessing), we have asked most of they want to know Jesus personally. And the answer is almost always “yes”.
Thus, all the rules of American evangelism are broken. All of the Rick Warren “get to know you” evangelism means squat here. First off, most have been fed from the Catholic church that they must be good people. Most know that they are not inherently good (since they want to do what is not good, kind of like Paul). So because they think they are not good enough for God, they back away from Him. It’s only when the love of Jesus is shared with them. That these crazy Americans would come marching down the barrios door-to-door sharing Jesus, sharing His forgiveness, His love, shows how much salvation is not about them and all about God. These people snatch God up when they see how much He wants to love them, that God would send a bunch of gringos to them to give them hugs, to pray for them, to speak encouraging words to them, to invite them into God’s family. They see that a relationship with God is less about us loving God and more about God loving us.
The point is that God doesn’t need us to do His work. He’s already doing it. It’s about who we are. Are we being loved by God? The fact that we’re in the barrio doesn’t bring people to God. God’s doing the groundwork, and using the available, the loved, to do the harvesting. This work is not about us. God has been preparing the battle here in Diriamba before the beginning of time, and as we put on our armor and head out into the barrios, He’s already assembled a heavenly army that has gone ahead before us. The prep work has been done.
What if we viewed evangelism like this in the US? That it’s not about us, it’s not about being tolerant, about meeting people where they’re at, or about saving people’s feelings by watering down the gospel. It’s about God. It’s about God’s love story. God is doing the ground work in the heavenlies. He seeking the obedient to hear Him say “go”. It’s not about us guessing who we should talk to, it’s not about condemning people to salvation. It’s about obedience and about love.
If God prompts you to talk to someone about Him and you don’t do it, that’s disobedience, and even more, it shows how much you don’t trust God in that circumstance. God is moving before even a word comes out of your mouth. Does that mean you must share Him with everyone, kind of like a popcorn scattering of the Gospel. Not neccessarily. The appointments are more divine than we’ll ever know.
We can’t go into the battle without our armor on, and we can’t go before God. We need His direction first. We need to hear His voice. If we’re not (or if our leaders aren’t) we are putting ourselves before God. We’re seeking salvation out of our flesh, and then we run into debates about God, and frustration, and words that don’t bring life. We see it a lot in the US. That in the US it’s about knowing more about doctrine and religion than the next guy. God is not about doctrine or religion, He’s about LOVE.
So, when we went out to the barrio three days ago (Friday) we met a young man named Fidel. Fidel told us that he had accepted Jesus into his heart at a young age, but that he didn’t want the Holy Spirit, he didn’t want a closer relationship with God. And we prayed over Fidel and we spoke words of life (or prophecy), but he continued to say he didn’t want Jesus. And God told me why I didn’t want him in my life when I was Fidel’s age. Mostly because I wanted to be the life of the party. So I asked Fidel if that was why. And he said that he couldn’t get closer to God because he drank and smoked too much. And we poured into him by telling him that it’s not about him, it’s about God. and God loves him regardless of anything he does. God meets you where you’re at. And if we all had our acts together we wouldn’t need God. So, with all that being said, Fidel said he still didn’t want God.
And then on Saturday, Fidel shows up at church. And after church we found out that Fidel lives a walking distance of two hours away. The home we met him at was his mother’s home. We were all astonished by his hunger. That he walked two hours to get to this church shows that it’s not about what we’re doing down here, but about what God is doing here!
