“So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” – Isaiah 55:11
I heard a story about a minister by the name of Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892). For those who do not know who this man was, he was and still is a world renowned Baptist preacher whose sermons and quotes are still used as a reference or verbatim in many pulpits even today. He was a Methodist that converted to Baptist and still held to his Calvinist theology. He once remarked, “I do not hesitate to take the name of Baptist, but if I am asked what is my creed, I reply, ‘It is Jesus Christ.’”
So as the story goes, Spurgeon was to speak at the Crystal Palace in London and the venue had an expectation of over 20,000. Days before the event Spurgeon and some of the staff went to check the acoustics in the Crystal Palace, so that they could place the pulpit in the optimal position to carry his voice with the best reception throughout the room.
Spurgeon got behind the pulpit and bellowed out one verse, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). This is the statement John the Baptist exclaimed when he saw the Spirit of God descend on Jesus and remained on Jesus. Spurgeon’s sound test carried all though the structure and reached ears of one of the workers in an adjacent gallery.
The worker was immediately overtaken with conviction, and not know what to do, left and went home. After a while the conviction grew so intense that the worker repented of his lifestyle and accepted Jesus as his savior. With just those simple words of Scripture, the Holy Spirit went to work in this man’s conscience. Spurgeon, unknowingly had planted a seed in the man’s heart. The Spirit of God moved on the man’s heart and grew that seed into a spiritual harvest.
We tend to think that we have to have all the right words to say, or the right way to say it, that we have to be clever in our delivery. We sometimes feel that we don’t even know what we should say. Well, sometimes we should just get out of the way and do what the Lord told us to do, Preach the Word, and let Him do the rest. The responsibility of saving someone’s soul is not ours. Jesus already saved their soul. Our responsibility it to just bear witness to the Truth. Peter said that “he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead.” (Acts 10:42).
When Peter proclaimed Jesus Christ to Cornelius in Acts 10.36-48, Peter did not even get to finish his sermon before the Holy Spirit fell on ALL that was there. The Scripture that Peter shared and the testimony he gave concerning Jesus was used by the Spirit to convict Cornelius and his guests, all at the same time. We should therefore concentrate on sharing of the scripture, and communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our own lives and in scripture. We should focus on Jesus Christ and Him crucified. (1 Corinthians 2.2)
The Way of Christ Ministries 