What If They Refused To Deliver Your Wedding Invitations
It would be like one of those frustration dreams. You are in charge of putting on a wedding party. You prepare hundreds of invitations as prescribed by the groom but the mailman refuses to deliver them. You go to the UPS office and then the FedEx office and they also refuse to deliver them. Time is running out – you offer to pay private couriers but they just laugh at you. You ask family and friends, they all refuse to deliver the invitations. They are all happy to deliver any other package or letter but your invitations are refused. You have hundreds of invitations piled up but no one will deliver them. The Groom is there, food is arriving, the venue is prepared, caterers have arrived and are ready to serve but no one is willing to alert those invited. You plead with the postman, with your family and friends – but they are all laughing and talking and ignoring you. No one seems to know, care or understand how important those invitations are. It is your responsibility to get them out and you can’t!! Now is when you wake up from your bad dream – unless of course you are God the Holy Spirit. In that case He is left with His grief. For you it is just a frustration dream. For God the Holy Spirit it is a daily reality.
The only universal manifestation (work, duty, desire) of God the Holy Spirit in the life of believers is to witness. To invite people to the Marriage Feast of the Lamb. To invite people to salvation, to dine with Jesus.
Jesus Christ makes this clear in John 15:26-27, where Jesus explains that He is going to send us a “Helper” to do the work of the disciple. 26 "When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, 27 and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.”
Jesus reiterates this just before His ascension in Acts 1:8 where He explains what will be the evidence of the manifestation of power of the Spirit filled disciple “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."
Then in the last chapter of the last book of the Holy Scriptures God the Holy Spirit, the Author of all Scripture reiterates this for the church one last time to make sure it is not missed Revelation 22:17 “The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.”
The Holy Spirit likes to talk about Jesus, the Holy Spirit likes to witness about Jesus, the Holy Spirit likes to bring people to Jesus and those filled with the Holy Spirit will be found to be engaged in those same activities. To say you are “Spirit Filled” and not witnessing is like saying you are a fisherman only you do not fish, or you are a teacher only you do not teach or you are a farmer only you do not farm, or you are an Olympic athlete only you do not compete in the Olympics or you are a Marine only you are not in the Marines Corps or you are Spirit Filled only you cannot remember the last time you asked this question “Would you like to pray now to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?”. It is simply nonsensical. A “fisherman” fishes. A “teacher” teaches. A “farmer” farms. An “Olympic Athlete” competes in the Olympics. A Marine serves in the US Marine Corps and a “Spirit filled Christian asks people to pray to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior.
This brings us to the frustration dream. In Luke 14:16 - 24 Jesus tells a parable of messengers sent out to invite people to a dinner feast. In this parable those invited were however too busy to come. This is a parable of those sent with the gospel who do not find anyone willing to slow down and listen. But what of another problem, what of a people too busy to go out and invite those to dinner who would, if invited, be willing to come? This is the grief that God the Holy Spirit experiences today. He is indeed saying “come”. When the church joins in people do “come”. Only the church is to busing doing other things. The church has decided that the Holy Spirit does not want to say “come” rather the Holy Spirit wants the church to gather behind closed doors and worship, and heal each other, and have ecstatic emotional experiences and cry, and scream and fall down and have visions and prophecy and more. The church has decided the Holy Spirit wants Christians to be rich, to be healthy to be happy to have fun, to fellowship – but not witness. This however is not true. No church, no Christian, no movement can claim to be “Spirit Filled” unless it is characterized by saying “Come!”, unless it is characterized by this phrase “would you like to pray now to receive Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior”.
Easter is coming up. I am now planning my "invitations" in terms of sharing the gospel and inviting people to church. Yesterday Eleanor and I went to the Christian book store to buy New Testaments and evangelistic books in English and Spanish. We will go online to order Bibles and evangelistic books in French and Russian. We will use the same approach as we did during the Christmas season only this time we will be putting together "Easter Gifts". We will be giving New Testaments, tracts and evangelistic books to merchants and service people with whom we do business. We are also putting together our Easter Boxes for missionaries and military servicemen and women throughout the world. We are also preparing Bibles and evangelistic supplies to take with us to Africa and Russia where we will lift up the name of Jesus. This is a great time of year to say “Come!” and Eleanor and I will be hard at it. We want to be doing what the Holy Spirit is doing.
We however live in an upside down age. An age when people are willing to hear but Christians are too busy to put together plan to share the gospel. When people are willing to hear but where Christians want to substitute experiences carried out behind closed doors for the clear presentation of the gospel in the community, in the market place and in the outside world.
Let me encourage you this week to put together your step by step plan to share the gospel of the risen Savior with merchants, family and those in your sphere of influence. Make a list. Decide what you will give each person on the list. Decide how you will share Christ with them. Begin to pray for them and then go out and invite them. It takes planning. You are planning a family vacation, you are planning for retirement, your are planning your budget, your are planning your shopping list, you are planning a new installation at work, you are planning a new sales campaign at work, you are planning home or office renovations, you are planning, planning, planning - in the midst of all this planning be sure and have a plan to share the gospel of Christ. Let me encourage you to have a “Spirit Filled” Easter season, one which is characterized by this statement “would you like to pray now to receive Christ as your Lord and Savior”.
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