God has to be involved in soul winning by the power of Holy Spirit…
First, we need to realize that it is the Father who draws people through the Holy Spirit. When the Word of God is preached, Holy Spirit brings conviction upon people through the Word.
Jesus said, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:44).
Second, pray that God will send someone across your unsaved loved one’s path. Jesus said in Matthew 9:38, “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.”
I don’t believe, however, that there are any rules you can establish in soul-winning that will work for everyone. God might lead one person one way and another person another way. That is why we need to be led by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:14). We must always bear in mind the vital work of the Holy Spirit in drawing people to Christ.
Sometimes the members of your family are the most difficult people for you to deal with. Very often, they won’t listen to you because you are familiar with them, or they know you so well from the human standpoint. It is better for you not to try to deal with them. Now don’t misunderstand me—sometimes the Spirit of God may lead you differently. I’m just laying down some general guidelines here. Every person is led differently concerning this matter.
How My Family came to know the Lord
When I first got born again, most of my family members including my parents and my only brother were just church goers but never had a relationship with God. Some of my families were what we call nominal Christians or just Sunday morning church goers. They knew God as a creator, but they didn’t know much beyond that. They were not taught that Jesus Christ came to save the world from the bondage of sin (John 3:16). When I first gave my life to Jesus Christ (got born again), I acted foolishly towards my relatives such as aunts, uncles, and cousins—by talking too much about hell to them instead of the goodness of the Lord. The Bible says that it is the goodness of the Lord that leads men to repentance.
I needed to lead first by my deeds and NOT just talking. I mean by demonstrating the love of God to them – meaning understanding their situation and praying for them instead of judging them of their sinful nature.
When I changed my view towards them…
One day, I had the conviction in my spirit that if my relatives saw the reality of Jesus Christ in my life, they all would want it. That’s true in the natural realm too. If you know that someone has a good recipe, for example, you want it.
According to the Word of God, “Bodily exercise profiteth little: but GODLINESS IS PROFITABLE unto all things . . .” (1 Tim. 4:8). “Profitable” means that it pays off. Paul continued in verse 15: “Meditate upon these things . . . that thy PROFITING may appear to all.”
Don’t Nag
If you nag your unsaved family, they won’t like being around you. Before I was saved and began to preach, some my family members never prayed at the table before a meal, but afterward they always asked me to say grace. I never said anything else to after praying for the meal. However, through the years, every one of them got born again!
I have noticed that the two most common mistakes people make in dealing with their families are these:
(1) they try to be ultra-spiritual and
(2) they overdo in witnessing.
Yes, the Bible teaches about witnessing, but remember the old proverb, “Actions speak louder than words.” That means that what you do speaks so loudly, people very often can’t hear what you say but they can see what you do. This is especially true when what you’re doing doesn’t line up with what you’re saying. In other words, people who do a lot of talking may not have enough “living” to back up their witness.
The Bible says in the Book of James 1:22; “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves…”.
I just let my lifestyle witness to my unsaved loved ones, and they saw something in my life that they wanted. I think that it’s truly the greatest witness. Your life can influence your spouse, children, and other kinfolks.
Even though I did not witness to my relatives, I did pray for them through the years. I prayed for them until majority of them came to know the Lord.
Pray for Laborers
Like I said in the beginning, there are those who will completely reject anything to do with the Gospel for reasons best known to them.
How do you handle such cases?
Jesus said in Matthew 9:38, “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.”
Fifteen years of praying “God save So-and-so” hadn’t worked for me. One day, Holy Spirit impressed on me to start praying for laborers to come across my family and relative’s path. I prayed that God would send a laborer across their path. I started to see God soften most of my family members, including my friends and relatives’ hearts. Today I am pleased to testify that majority are serving the Lord.
Ladies and gentlemen, the harvest is truly plenteous, but the laborers are few. The Bible encourages us to pray that God may send laborers to the harvest fields. The harvest is ready waiting to be harvested! We simply need laborers to reap that harvest.
There is someone who can talk to your relatives when you can’t. You need to realize that and start asking God to send that laborer their way.
The Role of Prayer
However, believing for a laborer to cross your unsaved loved one’s path isn’t the only way to get them saved. You need to live expecting by faith and listen to your spirit for instructions on how to reach them.
Often when we pray for unsaved loved ones, we cry or just pray in the Spirit. We’re more or less trying to do it ourselves in the flesh. We’re trying to make God do something; we’re trying to force something to come to pass.
What we need to do is to simply study the Word and depend upon and trust in the Spirit of God to cause our loved ones to experience salvation. We need to put the Word first. No prayer life is going to be successful if it’s not based on the Word of God.
Realize that getting the answer may depend upon you. The manifestation can come faster if the Word of God is strongly rooted in you. The Bible says, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17). In other words, your faith is stronger to expect a miracle if you have a lot of the Word in you.
That’s the reason I don’t pray about some things for several days until I have examined the Word carefully on the subject. (Emergencies are different.) If the situation has been there for years and hasn’t changed, it’s still going to be there in a few days, and you’ve got time to study what the Word has to say about it. Keep examining it. Keep meditating upon it.
Sometimes I have gone for days meditating on just one thing. After three or four days, I’ve found that faith is so strong in me that I couldn’t doubt if I wanted to; the Word had built something into me.
Jesus said in John 15:7, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” You see, it’s after the Word of God gets into you that you’re able to pray effectively.
Because the Spirit of God—not us—knows who can be touched, He may lead you to intercede for people you barely know instead of for your unsaved loved ones or friends.
In praying this way, after a certain period of time, you will find that the burden of prayer will be lifted, and a spirit of lightness will prevail. When the burden lifts, that means the answer is assured, even though it hasn’t been manifested yet. YOU KEEP ON BELIEVING!
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