What is involved in bringing a person to Jesus Christ and what does this have to do with you and I preaching the Gospel? There are three ingredients:

1. The Word of God,

2. The Holy Spirit,

3. And the Will of the individual.

One of the reasons Christians do not take time in their week to go out and aggressively share their faith with others is because they won’t go out and share their faith unless they can be guaranteed immediate conversion of the hearer. I have been sharing the Gospel for over 27 years. Every once in a while someone will come up to me and tell me that I had shared the Gospel with them several years ago through a Salvation Tract. I had this happen to me one time after a Sunday School class while talking to a beautiful woman by the name of Marta Rios. As we were talking this man walked up and said to me, "Do you remember me?" I responded, "No." He then said, "A few years ago you shared the Gospel with me through a Salvation Tract. I put the booklet into my desk and thought about it. A couple of months later I took it out of my desk and reread it and gave my life to Jesus. I have been walking with him ever since."

The writer of Hebrews writes:

"For the word of God is spiritually-alive⁴⁸ and energetically-effective⁴⁹ and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing⁵⁰ as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the conscious-reasonings⁵¹ and intentions⁵² of the heart." (Heb 4:12)

Paul the Apostle wrote,

"All Scripture is given-by-inspiration-of-God⁵³ and profitable for teaching, for reproof for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." (2 Tim 3:16-17)

"Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." (Rom 10:17)

Paul and the writer of Hebrews tell us that The Bible, God’s Word, is more than words on a page written down by men: it is God’s Word containing spiritual life and effective power to release faith and bring change in a person’s life.

What is Evangelism? EVANGELISM is explaining to a person what it means to be a Christian and how to become one. Evangelism is sharing God’s Word with a person about the claims of Jesus Christ, how He died for their sins, was buried and then raised three days later as absolute proof to those claims (1 Cor 15:3-8). Finally it is then explaining to the person that though Jesus died for their sins, his death does not become their’s until they receive Jesus Christ of Nazareth as their Savior and Lord.⁶² This and this alone is Evangelism. There are many other things that go on while doing Evangelism such as apologetics, but in a nut shell, what I have stated above is what Evangelism is.

This is what I did with this gentleman mentioned above. He was polite, he listened to the complete presentation of the Gospel through my Salvation Tract, but he was not yet ready to make that decision. Because I had successfully explained to him what it meant to be a Christian and how to become one through God’s Word, I had a successful time of Evangelism. This is because success in Evangelism is not seeing the person come to Christ, though that is the ultimate goal, but making sure the person understands what it means to be a Christian and how to come to Christ when he is ready to do so. It is planting the seed of God’s Word into their hearts. This I successfully did.

I thanked him for his time and gave him the Salvation Tract so he could read it on his own. He took the tract. Sharing the Gospel with this man cost me ten minutes of my time and 30 cents for the Salvation Tract.

Because I shared the Word of God with him, I completed the first step of conversion which was to plant the seed of God’s Word into the man’s heart. That is what Evangelism is and all that Jesus calls us as Christians to do. As we shared in the last Chapter, Evangelism is sowing the seed of God’s word and then watering and fertilizing that seed and weeding the soil.

Why is it important that all of us as Christians commit our free time to aggressively go out and fulfill this first step of conversion of planting the seed of God’s Word into the hearts of men? It is important because until we do our part, the Holy Spirit cannot do His work which is the second step of conversion.

What is the second step in the process of conversion? It is the Holy Spirit bringing back to a person’s memory the word of God we have shared with them and then quickening to them that these words are true and truly God’s Word.

The Holy Spirit does not work in a vacuum. His tool is the Word of God. Paul wrote, "And take... the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God." (Eph 6:17). The only tool that the Holy Spirit has to use in a person’s heart to bring them to Jesus is the Bible: God’s Word. Jesus said about the Holy Spirit, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He will... bring to your remembrance all that I said to you." (John 14:26). The Holy Spirit cannot bring the Word of God to a person’s memory and convict them of their need of Jesus unless they first hear the Word of God. The Holy Spirit cannot even begin to work in a person’s life until the Word of God has been implanted.

That is where you and I come in. Unless you and I take the initiative to go out and share the love of Jesus with lost humanity, the Word will not be implanted and the Holy Spirit will not be able to convict them of their need of Jesus. Your part in sharing the Word of God in the process of conversion is just as important as the Holy Spirit’s part in the process of conversion. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 10:13-15,

"For ‘Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How then shall they call upon Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things!’"

Because I took the time in my busy schedule to share with this man the love of Jesus Christ through my Salvation Tract, I gave the Holy Spirit a sword to work with in his heart. Jesus said about the work of the Holy Spirit,

"And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin... because they do not believe in Me." (John 16:8- 9)

When I first shared the Gospel, the Word of God, with this individual, he resisted the Gospel. In the mean time the Holy Spirit brought the Word of God back to the man’s memory. The Holy Spirit made the Word of God I shared with him spiritually alive and energetically effective to convince him that he was a hopelessly lost sinner in need of Jesus’ Salvation. What didn’t the Holy Spirit do? He did not make him accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. This is because God gave man a free will to choose whether he wants relationship with Him or not. God does not force men to receive His salvation for their sins through Jesus and His will and plan for their lives. Man himself must make this decision which is the third step in the process of conversion.

Why is it that not everyone we share Christ with immediately accepts Jesus? Many reasons: if they are hearing this message for the first time, the Holy Spirit has not yet had time to convince and confirm to them that this message is true. The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 13:1, "Every fact is to be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses." Even the Bible teaches us that we are not to be gullible. We are not just to accept something because a man said it. The Bible teaches that we are to seek confirmation of the message we are hearing. Again, this is the job of the Holy Spirit. After we share the Gospel the Holy Spirit then steps in and confirms God’s Word we have shared with them. This takes time. This is a process.