Winning Souls

//Lynette Hagin

“Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance.” — Psalm 2:8

Many people today are lost and going to hell. But we have many exciting opportunities to tell them about Jesus. In fact, our first and foremost responsibility is to proclaim this wonderful Good News!

Where are we going to be witnesses? Wherever God takes us. Every day we come in contact with someone who doesn’t know Christ. Are we sensitive to listen to the voice of God and minister to these people? Or are we too busy to lend a helping hand and bring them in?

		Praying for Our Nation
		God desires for us to earnestly and faithfully beseech Him on behalf of our great nation (1 Tim. 2:1–2). I encourage you to join me in praying for the United States. It’s the prayers of the saints that will keep this country safe and determine its destiny. It’s so important that we pray continually for our president and our nation’s other leaders. But it’s also important that we pray for America’s future leaders. We want to ensure that the right men and women take office. That means we can’t wait until three weeks before Election Day to begin praying. We must start praying now! We all have our own ideas about who should and should not be in office. However, the words we must pray are, “God, You know what is best for our country. May Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”
		The New Birth, In Him, and Why Tongues? by Kenneth E. Hagin are great minibooks to  give to newborn Christians. Go to www.rhema.org/store to stock up.

Many of us have such revelation of the Word of God, and yet in many cases, we’re keeping it to ourselves. We’re not proclaiming it to others. But God didn’t give us this knowledge to keep to ourselves. He wants us to go into the highways and byways and compel the lost to come in!

Some people are great soul winners. They’re extremely bold and they don’t mind asking anybody, “Do you know Jesus as your Savior?” Not everyone is comfortable doing that. I know I’m not bold in that way. But even if we’re not that bold, we can still be witnesses for the Lord.

I have always been the type of person who endeavors to witness by my actions, my love, and my compassion for others. I love people, especially those who are hardened against the Gospel.

Many years ago when we were building the Rhema campus, I came in contact with a particular supplier who furnished our carpet. One of the owners of that company had been saved but he was not walking in fellowship with the Lord. He was deeply hardened against the church and often made fun of ministers.

It grieved my heart when I heard him say those negative things, but I didn’t try to correct him. I didn’t even try to defend anyone. I continued showing him the love of God.

I had to stop by his business frequently and usually went around 10 o’clock in the morning. One morning I had so much to do that I stopped in around 8 o’clock. He was shocked when he saw me because he knew that was not my favorite time of day. He exclaimed, “It’s 8 o’clock in the morning and you’re smiling and happy!”

His business partner remarked, “We’ve never seen you down. You must know something we don’t.”

“I do know something,” I replied. “Let me tell you what it is.” And I began to witness to them about the Lord.

I didn’t ask them to pray the sinner’s prayer that day, but not long after that the man who had been hardened against the Gospel visited the Rhema campus to see the carpet we had purchased. After he toured the campus, we wound up in my husband’s office.

He spotted one of our faith Bibles on the coffee table and exclaimed, “I’d sure like to have one of those Bibles!” We got him a Bible, signed it, and he took it with him.

Several weeks later, I called him on the phone about a business situation, and suddenly the conversation turned to the Lord. I felt an urgency inside to draw in the net a little bit more, so I said, “You know, Heaven won’t be Heaven if you’re not there.”

“Lynette,” he replied, “I’ve been reading the Bible you gave me more than you might think.” I wanted to draw in the net all the way, but for some reason I didn’t. I wish I had, because only a week later we received a phone call that he died suddenly from a heart attack.

That incident hit me hard. I thought, “God, why didn’t I make sure he was right with You?” Of course, I believe he accepted Christ as his Savior and is in Heaven. But I determined never to let that kind of opportunity pass me by again!

Witnessing opportunities come to each of us. Let’s pray and ask God to open doors for us to present the Gospel in our own way, with our own personalities, and in whatever way He desires to use us. When we tell the Lord we want to go fishing for souls, He will make it possible.
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(Editor’s Note: This article was adapted from Lynette Hagin’s book Talk to Me: Connecting With the Heart of God.)