My ministr(ies) have always been evangelistic. However, my evangelistic method has changed. As an example, a young woman came to see me, wanting to know how she could "connect" with God. In my early ministry, I would likely have made a standard evangelistic presentation, similar to that found, for example, in The Four Spiritual Laws, or Journey into Life. More recently, my approach is to tell people that they should covet the conviction of guilt through the Holy Spirit (John 16:8). I generally make that the centre-point of the conversation. This is, said Jesus, the first thing that the Holy Spirit would do on His coming. It starts there.
2 comments:
Why guilt? A conviction of sin I can understand, but John doesn't speak of guilt... Are you using the word deliberately or did it just slip in when you meant sin?
Thank you Macrina. You might be looking at the KJV, which does not refer to "guilt". The NIV says: "When he (the Spirit) comes, he will convict the world of guilt ..." and there's an alternative reading also with "guilt". Turning to my Greek New Testament, though, it looks as though the KJV might have the more literal reading ... ? As an observation, I find that people today may not understand the word "sin", in the sense that it is not even in their vocabulary.
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