THE POWER OF THE FIRST  PROCLAMATION OF THE GOSPEL 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first announcement of the gospel message is also called “kerigma”, a Greek word – and is the core of Jesus message. It includes the following basic steps, in which we need to believe if we want to follow, in faith and effectiveness, this walk to God with Jesus..

Such steps are.

1.      God loves you;

2.      You are a sinner;

3.      Jesus already saved you;

4.      Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior;

5.      Receive the Holy Spirit in your life;

6.      Enter a Christian Community or prayer group.

Before examining these steps one by one, let us ask the enlightenment and help of the Holy Spirit, as our human mind  has not the ability to  comprehend spiritual and supernatural things.

 

Step 1: GOD LOVES YOU

             

We trust that by now you are convinced of the incredible love of God for you. [Try and red the article “Do You know God, your Father?” under this same link.]

GOD LOVES YOU, and has a wonderful plan for your life, for the best fulfillment of yourself.

 

The Role of Scripture

            But if you wish to walk His way you need to know the basic conditions stated by God in His Word,  without which you wouldn’t even be able to start, or couldn’t go very far. 

            You need to believe that the Bible is the Word of God, far above everyone of your  thoughts, ideas or beliefs, and decide to give it your first priority. Then you should firmly believe what it says, and put it into practice. 

What does the Bible say about God’s love?

“God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3,16).

          And what about God’s plan for you?

(Jesus said): “I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly” (John 10,10b) 

God doesn’t want for us a life riddled with privations, either material, physic, spiritual or mental. He wants to give us a life full of joy, where we are fully realized. It is a promise, and God always honors His promises. – Why then our life is so miserable and full with hardship? Why are we so disappointed, and feel the void and the lack of a rewarding purpose? The reason is clear: 

 

Step 2: Man is a Sinner 

            

The second step reveals the reason of our discomfort:

          MAN IS A SINNER, and sin SEPARATES HIM FROM GOD. Therefore it is impossible position to know God’s love nor experience His plan of salvation. 

 

          Here is what the Bible says about sin: 

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3,23).

If we are to believe in what the Bible says, we need to know what God intends for sin and what sin really is.

 

Many people, both Christians and unbelievers,  don’t acknowledge their own sinfulness. They are convinced that, because they have not killed anyone, they are almost saints. But sin does  not consist just in we do or not do: it is also our rebellious and self-reliant attitude towards God, our pretended independence from Him in every field of life.

  

           Man was created to enjoy communion and friendship with God, but rebelled to Him and His ways and choose to live a self-governed life, to take his own decisions. In so doing however he broke his relationship with God, and bore on himself all the appalling consequences. His lawlessness and stubbornness can be manifested either in an open rebellion or in a detached indifference; these attitudes are both called sins in the Bible.

            All the difference between what God intendeds us to be and what we really are – is SIN. A wonderful revelation, isn’t it?  

 

The effect of sin is separation from God :

“For the wages of sin is death, (spiritual death, that is separation from God) but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6,23).

GOD IS HOLY

SIN

MAN IS A SINNER

------>

------>

------>

He gives man His love, He works out miracles, healings and grants blessings. He gives us His charismatic gifts and the Holy Spirit, etc.

 

Is a barrier to God’s grace and prevents us from receiving them. God’s gifts bounce on sin and go back to the Sender.

 

An enormous abyss separates man from God. Man tries to draw near to God in his own strength: a righteous life, ethic, philosophy, good intentions, a Christianity suited to human ideas, religions invented by men, etc. But his attempts cannot reach the target.


If God really loves us so much, and if as sinners we have is no possibility to be freed from our rebellious and sinful situation, how is it possible for us to enjoy His salvation?

The third step answers this huge problem.

Step n. 3: JESUS IS THE ONLY WAY    

 

The third step teaches us that:

Jesus is the only solution that God prepared for sinful men, and only through Him you can get a personal relationship with God.

Indeed Scripture says that Jesus died on your behalf: 

“But God reveals His own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5, 8).  

But Jesus’ work was not limited to His death  for redeeming our sins. He also rose up, thereby proving to be the Son of God.


“This Jesus God raised Him up again, to which we are all witnesses” (Acts 2,32).

In Jesus the plan that God prepared from all eternity for our salvation is fulfilled, and if we commit ourselves to follow Jesus’ way to the Father, all the promises of the Bible will become a reality for us today.

Scripture also says that Jesus is the only way:

 

Jesus said to him: “I am the WAY, and the TRUTH, and the LIFE; no one comes to the Father, but through Me” (John 14, 6). 

Another diagram should better explain this point:  

 

The mere knowledge of these three steps however is not enough. We need a personal commitment to Jesus. 

 

Step n. 4: Accept Jesus as PERSONAL LORD AND SAVIOR

          

You will reach a personal relationship with God only if: : 

You accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord.

To this effect the Bible says:

 

“As many as received Him … He gave the right to become the children of God” (John 1,12).

But you need to received Christ in you by faith: 

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not out of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast” (Ephesians 2, 8-9). 

Jesus is asking, pleading you to have a personal relationship with Him: 

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hear My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3,20). 

Jesus is knocking at your heart’s door, asking you the permission to enter. He will not force you with violence. You must decide to open the door of your life and let Him enter and work in you and for you, giving Him the freedom to help you.

            

           Keep always in mind God’s eternal love for you, the richness of His plan of salvation and the price He paid. Also remember  the difference between His thoughts and ways with yours. Because for the necessary, even if minimum adjustment, you also need to accept your part in order to advance in the supernatural life offered to you.

           But verse 19 of Rev. 3, (just preceding the verse quoted above), reveals another aspect of God’s love for us:

“Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent” (Revelation 3,19). 

           His love is so great, to the point of accepting the risk of losing your consent, should this sum up to a mere material convenience, and not to a true hunger of Truth.

 

            Jesus wants to live in you, and He will come if you invite Him. But if you persist in not observing His condition, He will be obliged to go away, even if unwillingly. He wants your true good, that will come only if we accept His Word and walk His way.   

           

            To let Christ come in us means to renounce to be centered on ourselves; this means to turn our life to God, accepting by faith the forgiveness offered by Christ. 

            It is not enough to acknowledge the effectiveness of this statement intellectually, or have one’s emotions steered: a decision involving our will  is essential.

             

THE REQUIRED CHANGE

 

Here are two different ways of life: 

 

1. Life controlled by SELF

 

This person keeps the bridles of his own life, while Christ is left outside.  The small circles inside represent the person’s various interests and feelings. A personal relationship with God is lacking. This produces discontent, disillusion, frustration, lack of purpose in life.


2. Life controlled by Christ

 

Here is Christ who is leading this life. The person relied on God, accepted forgiveness of sins  and put Christ on the throne of his life, submitting every other interest to Him. In his close relationship with God this person more and more fulfils the purpose of his own life.


            Which one of these two circles represents your life? Which sort of life do you prefer? You need to take a crucial step: really receive Christ in your life.

 

YOU CAN RECEIVE CHRIST IN YOUR OWN LIFE

just now, in prayer ….

 

            God knows your heart and doesn’t mind your words, but to your inner attitude. Try and read this prayer from the deep of you heart:

“Lord Jesus, I need You. I know that till now in my life I did what I wanted listening my own head, and that I sinned against You. I open the door of my life and welcome You as my Savior and Lord. Take control, Lord, from the throne of my life, and make me what you what me to be.”

            If this prayer expresses the deep desire of your heart, you can repeat it aloud to Jesus just now, with conviction. In conformity with His promises, He will enter your life in that very moment.

  

HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT CHRIST

REALLY CAME INTO YOUR LIFE? 

           

          In Revelation 3,20 Jesus made a promise, and now that you entrusted your life to Him, give another look to the two kinds of life outlined above. Which one corresponds to your life now? Which is now Christ’s position in your life?

 

          If Jesus promised that He would come into your life, do you think He intended to cheat you, or that He really came? 

          And by what authority do you believe God answered your prayer? (By faithfulness to His own Word).

           

TO THOSE WHO RECEIVE CHRIST THE BIBLE PROMISES ETERNAL LIFE.

 

"“And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has (who is united with) the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God,  in order that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 11-13).

            Thank God now, as Christ really entered your life and will never leave you, unless you oblige him to go away with your behavior. Indeed, God says, in Hebrew 13,5 :

"I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you”

            

            You can really be sure that the Living Jesus is now in you, and that from the very moment you accepted Him at the center of your life you received eternal life. It is His promise, and you can rely on it.

           Whatever your “feelings” might say, you should believe in the Word of God and in His promises. Now that Jesus is entered to be a part of your life, you can receive the Holy Spirit promised to all believers, together with His supernatural gifts, the charismatic gifts. 

       

Step n. 5: RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT  

 

          Certainly this is not a new sacrament: If you have been baptized the Holy Spirit is already in you, with confirmation you became soldiers of Christ. But it is like owning a big treasure and know anything about it.

            Not only your awareness of the presence and work of the Holy Spirit in you is important.  You also need to long for His guide and to invite Him to come into your life. You are required to ask His charismatic gifts of power, starting from the smallest but very important one, the gift of tongues. 

           

           [In order to understand the need of this action of the Holy Spirit in your life, read Mathew 3,11 – see also Luke 24,49; John 3,5; Acts 1,5; 2,1-4; 8,14-17; 10,44-47).  Concerning the variety of the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit, see 1 Corinthians 12, 1-11; for the need of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and tongues see 1 Corinthians 14, 1-25. But in order to deeply understand this very important aspect of the Christian life, it will be necessary to examine and study the Life in the Spirit Seminars, that you will find under the link “Holy Spirit and Charismatic Gifts” in this Home Page, and then possibly attend such seminars in one of the many Charismatic Prayer Groups found all over Italy and the world.]

 

            Now you may ask the Holy Spirit to come down on you in a new outpouring, and also ask His charismatic gifts, starting with the gift of tongues, the most  humble, but may be the most irrational that will open your life to His ways. Here we do need  to be open and listen to the Lord, to have a relaxed attitude, full of expectation. If unusual words will pop into your mind, it is the Holy Spirit who begins to pray in you with groanings too deep for words (Romans 8,26). But still better is to receive approval in a Christian community, to which we should be joined.

            Don’t be worried if the gift of tongues doe not come immediately. It will come later. – The essential step to grow in this way is, as we said several times, to join a Christian community, or body of Christ, which intends to live a life in the Spirit, as the early Christian communities did.

  

Step n. 6:  JOIN A CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY OR PRAYER GROUP 

           

         Now, with Jesus living within you and the Holy Spirit wanting to inspire your life, you cannot stay alone any more. You need to look for a body of Christ who lives that kind of faith, showing not only the opening, but also the fruits of the New Evangelization stemmed out of the International Charismatic Renewal, where the life in the Spirit is taught and lived in all its implications. There you will grow in the Christian walk  and reach the maturity we all are called to live.

 

         But what do your “feelings” say now? What is their position in your life? To live a true Christian life it is indeed essential to put  your priorities in order, and so far feelings have often been our main guide, our  green light. But was that a right priority? 

 

WHICH  PLACE HAVE FEELINGS IN YOUR PRIORITIES?

You don’t need to depend on feelings any more. 

           

        To understand on what basis you need to behave since now is essential. We already said that our first priority is the Word of God, and not  our ideas. Since the Word of God has become an authority over feelings in the life of the believer.

 

        The Christian lives by faith, relies on God and in His faithfulness to His Word. That involves a revolution in our way of thinking, behaving and taking decisions. To better explain the point, let us imagine our life like a train:  

 

The drawing clearly shows how the train of your life should be moved by an ENGINE, corresponding to its first authority.

è The Christian’s engine is God and His Word, that corresponds to the FACT.

è The second authority is your FAITH in the FACT,  that is your confidence in the Word of God.

è Only after these two wagons comes the wagon with feelings, the third and least important one.

       Often in the beginning feelings will be different from what the Word requires, but with time you will see them conformed and changed, just as a consequence of your faith and obedience to the Word of God (John 14, 21).

So the train will run with or without the wagon of feeling.

Putting feelings at the steering wheel would correspond to proceed in spiritual life without the engine: we couldn’t but remain static at the same point, provided that the inertial force doesn’t take us backward!

This is why Christians cannot depend on feelings or on emotions; we need to put our trust (confidence) in the faithfulness of our God and in the promises of His Word!  

 

NOW YOU HAVE RECEIVED CHRIST AND THE HOLY SPIRIT IN YOU!

           

         The moment you accepted Jesus Christ at the center of your life and you invited the Holy Spirit with His gifts, two things happened  in your life:

 

1.      Christ really came into your life (Revelation 3,20 and Colossians 1,27).

2.      Your sins are forgiven (Colossians 1,14).

3.      You are a son of God (John 1,12).

4.      You begin to live the great spiritual adventure God created you for (John 10,10; 2  Corinthians 5, 14-17).

5.      With the Holy Spirit you received the potential of His gifts and eternal life, and now you can cooperate with your brothers and sisters in   building God’s kingdom on earth (John 5,24). 

           

        Had you ever thought that such a wonderful thing could happen to you? That you could receive Christ and the Holy Spirit in you? Do you not wish to thank your Father just now, in prayer, with your own words, for what He did for you? By thanking God, you show Him your faith.

 

        But how will your life be now, with such spiritual blessings?  

 

SOME PRACTICAL ADVICE FOR LIVING

UNITED WITH CHRIST AND THE HOLY SPIRIT

 

            Once we have undertaken the Christian walk, one thing is sure: it is really a walk, with a starting point at a certain moment of our life, but that will never end. We need always to progress in knowledge and depth, and grow to maturity, a call for everybody.

            Spiritual growth is the result of deepening your faith in Jesus Christ within a Christian community living in the Spirit, and of your practical ability to live the principles taught by Scripture, that in Romans 1,17 says: “The righteous man shall live by faith”.

           

Here is some practical advice

on what we need to do from now:

 

q     Read the Bible each day, one chapter at a time and possibly more, aloud, if possible.

è    You might start from the Gospel of John, and read it all consecutively.

è    After you could pass to read the three other gospels: Matthew, Marc and Luke,

è    But interchanging each day the reading of the Gospels with the Acts, and then the Epistles and Revelation.

 So you will have a general view not only of the life of Jesus, of the apostles and disciples, but also of the rhythm at which things happened in New Testament times.

The power of the Gospel is dynamite. We wanted to control the original Greek word used for “power ”in the New Testament, and "dunamis" (the root word for dynamite) is used 84 times out  of 98.

 

That will produce in you an expectation, because if you believe in what you read and in the reality of Jesus promises, you cannot but expect the same things happen today.  And they really do, THROUGH THE CHARISMATIC GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT!

q      Talk every day in prayer with Jesus, with God (John 15, 5-7).

è Saying prayers by heart is not enough any more, as we often do it in almost a mechanical way, without thinking what we say.

è Think of all the “Our Father” repeated by heart each day in the world. Millions of people continue to pray each day to God the Father:

“Thy will be done, in heaven as on earth.” 

Where that kind of prayers sufficient, the would have no more problems. But does it really want the Father’s will be done?

q       Practice what you read in the Bible (John 14,21).

è You prove your love for God not only by reading His Word, but also and moreover by practicing it. Otherwise for you it would be like words in the wind.   

q       Live each day in the power of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5, 16-17).

è For this it is essential to attend a Christian community living this sort of experience and life.

è Indeed the power of the Holy Spirit is manifested through the charisnmatic gifts, distributed within the “body of Christ” and with a peculiarity opposed to selfishness:

è “Charismatic gifts” are never for the benefit of the person who receives them, but are a service to the other members of the body of Christ. Furthermore, nobody ever has all the gifts; for the body of Christ to work, all the gifts are necessary. Could it not be that God, knowing his onions, has found this way to oblige us to stay together?

 

q       You cannot keep your faith for yourself, but you need talk to other people. 

è You must tell them what Jesus meant to your life, what extraordinary changes He has brought and how you, by Him, have become a different person, full with joy and love for God and other people. 

è People need the kind of joy and balance that only God can give. Tell them about your new life in Christ, let them know your Lord, that He might become also their Lord (John 15,7; Marc 5,19. 

è Don’t you know that there is more joy in heaven for a repented sinner, than for 99 righteous men staying within the fence? And now, each time you conquer a sinner to Jesus you can bring great joy in heaven.

 

WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT TO JOIN THE “BODY OF CHRIST”?

“Body of Christ” is the New Testament term for Christian community, of which each believe is a member.

But the HEAD, the Leader, is the same Jesus Christ, 

and from Him must start all projects.

q       The members of a community are different from one another, have different gifts that will  complete each other. In Hebrew 10,25 is stressed the importance of communion with other believers. 

q       For a better understanding of this point, we will take the example of a stove: if there are many pieces of burning/live coal, there will be a beautiful fire; but if we take apart a piece, it will soon be quenched.

 

è The same happens to your relationship with other Christians. If you are not part of a church where Christ is honored and His Word clearly preached, don’t wait for somebody to come and seek you: take yourself the initiative, go out and look for other people who meet regularly to grow in the Christian walk, join them and and live together united with Jesus, and in the power of the Holy Spirit!  - And plan to grow in the Christian life, till you reach the maturity required by Christ.           

 

If you found these teachings useful, you could use them in turn to proclaim the basic Gospel message  to other people!


Hungry for God