THE TRAVAILS AND TRIUMPHS OF AN EVANGELIST

 

THE TRAVAILS AND TRIUMPHS OF AN EVANGELIST

        An evangelist is a man with a mission. He is a man with passion and hunger for souls. His primary purpose on earth is to win souls. He is given the mandate to depopulate the Kingdom of darkness. He is a hell razer. He is dreaded by the kingdom of darkness because he has been anointed to preach the gospel that will liberate people from the kingdom of darkness. All ministry gifts are in one way or the other dependent on him. The ministry gifts are interconnected with the purpose of edifying the church. A church that has  the five ministry gifts in operation is blessed beyond measure. To an evangelist, he want all souls to be saved. When he preaches, you will be so touched and broken on the spirit. He exhorts. He called the attention of people to the salvation of their souls. His preaching at times can make you ask yourself :  “am I saved”?  Outstanding Evangelists are men of the word, they are deep in the word and give themselves to word and prayer on daily basis. Evangelist can be spotted by

·        They are people of prayer. It is like praying machine is in them. They pray for hours and cannot just stop praying. It is in prayer they are empowered for the assignment

·        They are burdened to witness to people on a regular basis. They see evangelism as a duty and they do it with zeal.

·        They are not happy when they see people in sins. They call sin by its name. They can’t just look away from people living comfortably in sins. Their joy is to see sinners giving their lives to Christ.

·        Evangelists are well known people in the community because they are identified with the gospel of peace which they preach. Evangelist loves the company of people and are always relating with people. They are loving  and compassionate people.

·        Evangelists are always looking for opportunities to witness. They do not wait for invitations to preach in a church or crusade. At any slight opportunity they present the gospel  on the street, in the car, bus and they do it passionately

·        Evangelist are usually attached to a church. They do not move from one church to another. They have a church where they worship every Sunday and are accountable to the church.

·        Evangelist do not entangle himself with the affairs of this world. He has only one mission and that is to win souls and please his God who has enlisted him into his service.

            An Evangelist is a man of many travails. At times people around him do not understand him. They usually see him as someone that is extreme in his faith. The kingdom matters dominate and burn in his heart. He is concentrated on making heaven and taking as many people as possible along. He cannot cover sins, wherever he is, he is a beacon of light that exposes darkness. He is hated for standing on the truth and speaking the truth at all times. The evangelist does not care if the truth will kill you, he will say it right there. This unique attitude of him earned him a lot of enemies at work and environment. His colleagues in the ministry cannot just tolerate him at times because he is not diplomatic with issues. He usually sees what people call diplomacy as a compromise that will land them in hell. As a result of this he may not have friends even among fellow ministers. Some pastors will say force an evangelist to pastor at least three years, probably he may stop saying some of those things he do say. That is not always true. An evangelist will not even want to pastor a church. His nature will not allow it if he pastor a church, the church may scatter because he cannot just do it successfully. Can you make an Engineer to be a Doctor. This is not possible. This can only be possible if such an Engineer went to medical school and was trained. Though an Engineer, he can still do work of an evangelist. Evangelist that can be forced or accept to pastor a church will be the one that is theologically trained. A lot of errors are committed by an Evangelist who is not theologically trained and we often generalized it as “that is how Evangelist do”. Billy Graham was theologically trained, he pastored for a while before venturing into full evangelical ministry. He pastored well , he was outstanding because he was trained and gave himself to word and prayer. Reinhard Bonkee, a German evangelist was theologically trained, he pastored for three years before venturing into full evangelical ministry.

As an untrained evangelist in the University, I made a lot of errors, I said so many things then which are unnecessary. This earned me unnecessary enemies and hated for no reason. Imagine, leading devotion in the hall, and calling them out that there were lesbians in the hall. You better repent. That sounds too harsh. After theological training, there was a great change, a friend at the University saw me, he was so surprised and could not hide it but confessed “ you are reformed “. Theological training will refined an evangelist. An evangelist without Theological training in a Bible School or seminary is crude and may be toxic. Today only a few knows that I am an evangelist because I have been refined.

           An evangelist greatest problem is discouragement and rejection.

   Discouragement easily sets in. He laboured so much on the field and at times only a few chose to follow him to his church. At times he evangelizes and only a few surrender their lives to Christ. Sometimes no soul at all and this kind of situation makes him discouraged. He pray for people, they get breakthrough but only a few come back to say thank you.  A story was told of an Evangelist who was invited for a open day crusade and no one gave his life to Christ except a little boy. The little boy eventually became a world renowned evangelist. Another Evangelist preached, on the last day, no one came out for testimonies except a man who said God healed him from headache. The evangelist got so mad with God. Few days later he had a migraine, he prayed on it, nothing happened, he remembered how he challenged God for a man God healed of headache in his meetings. He asked God for mercies and God healed him. At times he prays and prays but the situation remain unchanged. People will mock him, call him names and this may dampen his spirit. An Evangelist was once challenged by his church pastor, you keep saying you are evangelizing but how many people have you brought to the church? The Evangelist felt bad, went on his knees and the following week God glorified himself. People came to the church and said evangelist preached to us and we decided to worship in his church.

     Discouragement is like an arrow or dagger in the heart of an evangelist. Discouragement have made many evangelists to stop evangelizing. Some have lost something precious to them, some are not motivated, and some are fainting because reward tarries. Some have prayed for people and those people forget them when they got their breakthrough.

Evangelists are not loved by the people of the world. People can just transfer aggression on them unnecessary for preaching the gospel in public places.  At times he feel lonely with no one to share his burden with. An evangelist can be difficult to understand at times. A few minutes ago he was bubbling in faith, sharing the gospel and suddenly he is lonely, meditating and praying. It is hard for you to understand him, even his fellow ministers can pick up offence against him. He wants to relate with other ministers too but they feel his own is too much. 

     Evangelists are the foot soldiers of the kingdom. This position them as targets for the enemies.  God have  ways of building up his evangelists. They are made in wars which are hard circumstances and situations beyond human understanding.

No matter how the enemy tries, God always make an evangelist to triumph. External battles from the enemy hardly kill an evangelist because God usually back him up mysteriously in such a way that it is beyond human understanding.

Rejection and discouragement is majorly a battle that is hard for an evangelist to win except he learns to build up his faith in God, find his identity in God and encourages himself.  Rejection and discouragement  often leads to depression which can make the health of an evangelist to deteriorates.

           God manifest himself in the ministry of an evangelist just like any other ministry. He usually give him harvest of exploits.  Notable revivals, crusades are spear headed by evangelists. Miracles, healings, deliverance flows like rivers of water in the ministry of an evangelist. Above all  God gives him harvest of souls to the extent that he cannot even know the exact number of souls that have been saved through his ministry. Beyond that, crowns will be given to him in heaven and he will be highly decorated and celebrated. The call to the office of an evangelist is a noble calling that gives God joy in heaven and the host of heaven. Obviously there are problems, an Evangelist see the problem as challenges which he must step on for him to triumph in ministry. He have wounds but God is his healer, strength and comfort. The ministry of an evangelist is a ministry of endurance and suffering. Paul had this to say:

 

2Ti 4:6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure.

 

 2Ti 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

2Ti 4:8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

 

      An Evangelist endured all, he have seen several revelations about heaven. He knows where he is going and he is determined in his mind to take as many people as possible there. He is sure of his crown of righteousness waiting for him, he is sure of mansion waiting for him, he knows that life is not a funfair but battlefield.  He is confident of his faith. He delights in his weaknesses, insults, hardships and persecutions. Why? God’ grace is sufficient for him and he knows that he will keep him strong till the last day. Not all people we call evangelists are evangelists in the real sense of it.  Evangelists have first hand spiritual experience and revelations that you may not believe if they share it with you. They are humble and their watch word is that Christ should be known and make great through them while they are  unknown.  There are very few evangelist in a generation. Evangelists are world shakers. Till today America has not recovered from the evangelistic ministry of Billy Graham. In the scripture only Philip was referred to as an Evangelist. Others do the work of an evangelist but are not evangelist in the real meaning of the actual word. You cannot desire the triumphs, victories, greatness of an evangelist without the travails.  His triumphs are enclosed with pains, suffering and endurance.

©️ Abolanle Oladipupo

24^th September 2022