2,000 Percent Living Lesson One: Follow the Lord, Jesus Christ

Accept Salvation by repenting of your sins;
believe Jesus is God’s Son
and in His resurrection from the dead; and
give your life to Jesus Christ
to do His will, not yours
(or rededicate your life to Him if you
have accepted Salvation
but have not been walking with Him).
Start every day by praising and
thanking the Lord;
praying for what is righteous that
you want done
in the name of Jesus; and studying the Bible.
Attend church whenever possible;
make a weekly written commitment of
added ways to follow His direction; and
continually witness to others about your faith,
seeking to help lead at least twenty people
to whom you have been speaking
to choose to accept Salvation.

And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee,
saw two brothers, Simon called Peter,
and Andrew his brother,
casting a net into the sea;
for they were fishermen.
Then He said to them,
“Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

— Matthew 4:18-19 (NKJV)

If you have already accepted Jesus as your Lord and
Savior and are following Him to the best of your ability,
please go directly to the section in this lesson about how
to start your day.

If you have gained Salvation by being born again in the
spirit but aren’t following Him now, please continue
your reading at the section in this lesson about
rededicating your life to Him.

If you have never accepted Jesus as your Lord and
Savior, please begin reading right here.

Why should you follow Jesus? Let me tell you a little
about my life to help you understand.

I humbly offer this information realizing that there are
many more dramatic and impressive stories about how
God the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy
Spirit have helped a person to experience and enjoy
2,000 percent living. Despite this shortcoming, after
much prayer I decided to write about some of my
experiences because I can
describe my life more accurately and completely than
what happened to someone else.

I have a lot to be grateful for. I wouldn’t even be alive
today if God had not wanted me to be conceived. The
same is true for you. My life has shown me how fragile
our physical existence can be. I don’t know if you have
ever been close to losing your life, but life-and-death
challenges have been all too frequent for me. I praise
and thank God that He has carried me through those
trials and that I am able to do His work while giving
Him the glory and credit for the wonderful results.

Without His mercy I wouldn’t have lived long enough to
become an adult. When I was just a few months old, I
barely survived dehydration from an intestinal flu or
infection that required a long hospital stay. At age one,
I received such a severe sunburn while lying in the
shade by a lake that I had to be hospitalized again, and
my parents worried about whether I would live. At six, I
had another close call when lightning struck a fence post
less than 10 feet away as I raced down a road toward
shelter from a tornado. At thirteen, I contracted double
pneumonia and spent two weeks in the hospital before I
went home to continue my bed-ridden recovery.

That’s when I started down the path to become a born-
again, saved Christian: My physician, Dr. Helmsley, told
me that I had had a close brush with death and shouldn’t
take another chance of losing my life before accepting
Jesus as my Lord and Savior. The doctor helped me to
understand that I was a sinner who could not save himself
from the wrongs I had already done and that Jesus wanted
to grant me Salvation because He loved me.

After receiving Salvation at fourteen, sickness continued
to be a challenge. At seventeen, my blood pressure was so
high from an overactive thyroid gland that I spent weeks
in the hospital to help avoid having a heart attack. I went
away to start college a few weeks later with hardly enough
strength to carry my books to class.

Fortunately, severe illnesses weren’t as frequent after I
became an adult, but some of the ones I experienced were
difficult. When my daughter was a year old and I was in
my thirties, I suffered something that started to act like a
stroke. As my face started to be paralyzed, I prayed to
Jesus to save me and the paralysis immediately drained
away. But the problems didn’t end there. I was so weak
in the aftermath that for months I could only get out of
bed with difficulty. For many years afterward, much of
my body was either extremely painful or numb.

In my fifties, I started fainting for no apparent reason: It
turned out that my blood pressure was too low to push
enough oxygenated blood up to my brain. I won’t bore you
with any of the other sicknesses I’ve had. I can best
summarize those experiences by saying that I can relate
very well to Job’s pain and suffering in the Bible because
I feel like I’ve lived through the Book of Job.

More times than I like to count, I have also been near
death in automobile accidents from which I have been
miraculously rescued. Here’s one example: I was driving
at about 40 miles an hour through a snowstorm in
Hartford, Connecticut, late one night when two large
trucks passed by recklessly on my left, sideswiping my
car. The impacts pushed my small sedan hard to the
right and into a guard rail that barely kept me from
plunging over 50 feet onto the concrete embankment
below. Fortunately, all I suffered was damage to my car
and some badly shaken nerves.

Airplanes have been dangerous, too. One time a window
came unsealed next to me, and the plane had to make an
emergency descent to a lower altitude. Another time, I
was flying through a severe storm while a plane
immediately below crashed, killing all the passengers and
crew.

I’m sure you would agree that a person who has many
dangerous and debilitating illnesses and accidents isn’t
likely either to lead a very normal life or to live very long.
Yet, the Lord has healed, protected, and sustained me
time and again. As a result, I’m now in my middle sixties
enjoying my first extended period of good health and
energy in many years. Praise God!

In my twenties, thirties, and forties, I didn’t follow Him
nearly as closely as I should have. I believe that a lot of
the challenges I faced then were sent to ensure that I
realized that I wouldn’t go very far without His help.

Here’s an example of the kind of warnings I have
received: While watching television with my family about
thirty years ago, the set exploded on being struck by a
lightning bolt that blasted through the nearby closed
window. Lord, I’m convinced! I need You!

Fortunately, I awoke from many of my spiritual errors in
1995, rededicated my life then to Jesus, and began
studying and working hard to live as much like Jesus as
possible. Almost immediately, I was given a commission
through what I believe was the Holy Spirit to lead the
400 Year Project to show how everyone could make
improvements at twenty times the usual rate from 2015
through 2035.

Who could have been a more unlikely person to succeed
in that amazing undertaking than me? I was still
functioning at a very low level physically, and my mind
wasn’t nearly as sharp as it could have been. I had no idea
of how to start this enormous, seemingly impossible task.
Yet He cleared a path for me and showed me where to
go.

Compared to how I was living and what I was
accomplishing in 1995, everything I do in any given day
now is way beyond 2,000 percent living, beginning with
having followed His directions so that I have demonstrated
how to accomplish vast multiples of more for righteous
purposes. I’ve seen everything I touch that’s related to
His will increase in astonishing, gratifying ways. Clearly,
the glory goes to Him, not to me. It’s wonderful to be on
the receiving end of His grace, mercy, and favor.

I suspect that part of His purpose in choosing me to lead
the 400 Year Project could have been to demonstrate to
people who think they don’t need God’s help that He can
lift them up vastly more than they can help themselves.
If that was His purpose, I’m honored to be His example.

It would be a terrible sin for me not to tell you that you
need Him to live a life on Earth and afterward in heaven
that will happily exceed your biggest, most positive
dreams for contributing to righteousness.

Accept Salvation

But what does it say?
“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”
(that is, the word of faith which we preach):
that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus
and believe in your heart
that God raised Him from the dead,
you will be saved.
For with the heart one believes unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

— Romans 10:8-10 (NKJV)

As someone who isn’t yet saved by the grace of Jesus
Christ, you may be wondering why I began this book’s
lessons about accomplishing twenty times more for
righteous purposes with directions for developing and
deepening your relationship with Him. While it would
be possible to write quite a long list of reasons for this
emphasis, in the interests of clarity let me give you the
shortest complete list I can:

1. Without accepting the Salvation that Jesus provides
through His sacrificial death on the cross and believing in
His subsequent resurrection by God, you will endure life
on Earth and eternity after death separate from God,
suffering terribly in hell, because of your sins.

According to the Bible’s record of words spoken by either
God (see the 10 commandments in Exodus 20) or Jesus
(see Matthew 5), if you have ever taken God’s name in
vain such as by swearing, worked on Sunday, stolen
anything, been angry enough to think about hurting
someone, lusted sexually for someone who was not your
spouse, lied, or wanted something that belonged to your
neighbor, you have sinned and cannot redeem yourself
by your own efforts to gain connection with God.

Fortunately, there’s good news: The Bible also promises
that all your sins are already forgiven. You need only
repent your sins, accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior,
believing Him to be God’s resurrected Son. There’s no
greater improvement you can make now than to upgrade
how you will spend life on Earth and eternity after you die.

2. On Earth, you will gain great advantages by following
the directions of the Holy Spirit (you will be baptized by
the Holy Spirit after being saved through accepting Jesus
as your Lord and Savior as described in Acts 10:44-48,
NKJV) to steer clear of traps set to distract you by the
enemy who is the source of sinful temptation in this
world.

The Bible tells us that He wants to make your crooked
places straight (Isaiah 40:4, NKJV), that He will listen to
your prayers, that He has peaceful thoughts toward you,
and that He has plans to give you hope (Jeremiah 29:11-12,
NKJV).

3. Until you accept Salvation and faithfully follow Jesus,
God may choose to send you more and more difficult
challenges and setbacks to help you realize that you are
weak and He is strong … and that you need Him to lead
your life.

God isn’t some remote judge just hoping we will make a
mistake and be condemned. Instead, He cares about us
and wants each of us to be saved.

4. When you follow what Jesus wants you to do, you will
have His authority and power to accomplish much more,
authority that commands the accomplishment of any
righteous result in the supernatural and physical worlds.

Jesus wants us to help lead the world toward His
goodness, and He is prepared to deliver immense
resources to you for making that happen.

Why is your Salvation important to God? He loves you
and wants you to spend time with Him. As evidence,
consider that before Adam disobeyed God in the
Garden of Eden they had daily walks and talks together.
God also sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die a
painful, shameful death as a perfect blood sacrifice, the
only way to wash away my and your sins forever.

Because you’ve already been forgiven by Jesus’ sacrifice,
you just need to receive that forgiveness by taking these
actions:

1. Confess your sins and repent (be sorry that
you sinned and reform by changing your frame
of mind and practices) to Jesus Christ.

2. Believe that God raised Jesus from the
dead and ascended into heaven (Mark 16)
where He intercedes for those who believe
in Him (the Bible describes in 1 Corinthians
15:4-8, NKJV, that there were over 500
witnesses who saw Jesus alive after He died
and was buried, which testifies that Jesus
is who He said He is and can grant you
Salvation).

3. Promise to follow the Lord Jesus for
the rest of your life and to do His will,
not yours. Keeping this promise will
lead you to many good occurrences you
don’t expect to help you lead a more
righteous life. Jesus has good plans for you.

Once you accept Him as Lord and Savior, you will begin
the best relationship you will ever have. You can read
more about my experiences with getting to know Him
better in my Christian testimony located in Appendix A.

When you are ready, here’s a prayer you can use to
speak sincerely to God from your heart so you can
accept the free gift of Salvation by repenting and
seeking to follow Jesus with all your being:

“Dear God,
I have sinned.
I am very sorry that I have sinned.
I know that I deserve Your punishment for my sins.
I ask You to forgive me for these sins.
From my whole heart I accept that Jesus Christ is,
and will forever be, my Lord and Savior,
that He died and rose again to be with You in heaven.
Take my life, Jesus.
I surrender my life to You.
From this moment on, I will live my life according
to the Bible and to serve You.
Thank You for taking away my sins and
giving me everlasting life in heaven.
In Jesus’ name I pray.
Amen.”

If you would like to ask questions about or discuss what
Salvation is, to learn more about Jesus, or to accept
Salvation with a witness, you can always reach someone
who will help you at Need Him, a Christian ministry. Just
call 1-888-NEED-HIM toll-free in the United States. If
you are outside the United States or would prefer to have
a live Internet chat, go to http://www.needhim.org/ and
click on the “chat” button.

Rededicate Your Life to Jesus

“I have not come to call the righteous,
but sinners, to repentance.”

— Luke 5:32 (NKJV)

Once you have been saved by repenting of your sins and
accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you continue to
be saved even if you don’t follow Him. However, He has
good plans for you that you will miss out on until you
follow and obey Him.

Here’s what Jesus had to say on the subject of obedience
to His will:

“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine,
and does them, I will liken him to a wise man
who built his house on the rock:
and the rain descended, the floods came,
and the winds blew and beat on that house;
and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine,
and does not do them,
will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand:
and the rain descended, the floods came,
and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell.
And great was its fall.”

— Matthew 7:24-27 (NKJV)

Be sure you understand that once you are saved you
don’t have to rededicate your life to Him every time you
sin. However, you should tell Him you are sorry that you
have sinned, promise to do better with His help, and ask
for guidance and strength so you won’t sin again.

It’s only after you have decided to disobey Him and to
keep disobeying Him that you must rededicate yourself.
He doesn’t expect you to be perfect in avoiding sin: That’s
one reason why His sacrifice on the cross was designed to
forgive the sins you have done in the past, the sins you do
now, and the sins you will do in the future.

He does expect us to try to follow Him to the best of our
understanding and to the full extent of our strength and
abilities. If you decide to do life your way instead of His,
He will try to bring you back to His will.

It’s easy to know that you are in His will again after
faltering: Life feels light and comfortable because you trust
Him to take care of you.

You will have peace even in the middle of danger and
difficulties:

The LORD is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
for His name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the LORD
Forever.

— Psalm 23 (NKJV)

Start Your Day Praising and Seeking Him

My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD;
In the morning I will direct it to You,
And I will look up.

— Psalm 5:3 (NKJV)

Most days are full of distractions that can pull you away
from God’s will. As Psalm 5:3 describes, you can be more
tuned into Him by starting each day focusing on the Lord.
Then you will hear Him and stay in His will better
throughout the day.

I keep lists of the great things that the Lord has done for
me. I read those lists every morning, drawing strength
and happiness from reliving those awe-inspiring
experiences. I feel very peaceful as I do.

Next, praise and thank God specifically for all the
wonderful things He has done for you. As you
remember these blessings, your heart will be lightened
and gladdened.

Some people like to praise and thank Him silently in their
minds through prayer. Others play some recorded praise-
and-worship music based on the Bible and sing along.
Others sing and dance to the music. Try all these ways to
praise Him and engage more often in the ways that bring
you the most peace and comfort. Be sure to ask in prayer
for His strength and guidance in being sure that you do
His will that day, rather than yours.

Pray Each Morning for What Is Righteous
to Be Done in His Will

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true,
whatever things are noble,
whatever things are just,
whatever things are pure,
whatever things are lovely,
whatever things are of good report,
if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy —
meditate on these things.

— Philippians 4:8 (NKJV)

The New Testament describes many miraculous things
that Jesus did: He turned water into highly praised wine
at a wedding feast in Cana (John 2:1-11, NKJV); He told
the woman He met at the well in Samaria all about her
past and current life without having heard of her before
(John 4:4-43, NKJV); He banished an illness from an
official’s son without coming near the child (John 4:46-54,
NKJV); He directed His future disciples to net a huge
catch of fish after they had caught nothing despite
working all night (Luke 5:1-11, NKJV); He cured a
leper in Galilee (Mark 1:40-45, NKJV); He healed a
paralyzed man in Capernaum (Luke 5:17-26, NKJV);
He treated a centurion’s servant from a distance
(Luke 7:1-10, NKJV); simply touching His clothes
stopped a woman’s bleeding who had been suffering for
12 years (Luke 8:42-48, NKJV); He walked on water
(Mark 6:47-52, NKJV); He fed five thousand men plus
many women and children until they were filled by
tearing apart and sharing two fish and five loaves of
bread (John 6:9-13, NKJV); He gave sight to a man had
been blind from birth (John 9:1-12, NKJV); and He
raised Lazarus from the dead after many days in the
tomb (John 11:34-44, NKJV). We also know that He
did so many other miraculous things that it would take
an immense number of books to record those events
(John 21:25, NKJV).

Imagine how exciting it must have been to observe one of
His miracles. Do you wish you could have been there to
watch? Well, you can do the next best thing and pray in
faith for a miracle to be done in the name of Jesus for a
righteous purpose, and He will do it. Matthew 21:22
(NKJV) tells us:

“And whatever things you ask in prayer,
believing, you will receive.”

Prayer is one place where you can add great value to
His supernatural work: You need to pray to Him in faith,
believing that He will do these things, or many righteous
things will not occur. I’m sure you’ll be glad to do your part.

Jesus promised and delivered many miracles to believers.
Imagine how relatively easy it must be for Him to help you
as a believer to develop and implement mere 2,000
percent solutions for righteous purposes: These solutions
require far less supernatural support than miracles do!

When you have prayed for such things while filled with
faith that they will occur, you will have the added joy of
looking with expectation for signs that He has begun to
grant your prayers. However, remember that God acts in
His own perfect time, which is rarely just after we pray to
Him. Just keep praying in faith each morning, and you will
see many great favors and accomplishments unfold before
you.

Study the Bible Each Morning

My soul melts from heaviness;
Strengthen me according to Your word.

— Psalm 119:28 (NKJV)

God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit, His holy Word
the Bible, and events. Your ability to listen to and
understand Him will improve by increasing your morning
Bible reading, a source of His wisdom that you can access
more often and whenever you want. As you become more
familiar with His promises and actions, you’ll see and
experience the world differently through the guidance of
the Holy Spirit and a better understanding of what events
mean. In addition, you’ll be able to remember and refer to
sections of the Bible that strengthen your faith throughout
the day.

Chances are that you will find it helpful to read the Bible
in many different ways. Pray for guidance about
performing your Bible reading and speak to your pastor
as well.

Let me share some of my experiences and observations
to help increase your sense of some choices. If you can’t
read Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek (which is my
situation), different translations will probably help you
more fully appreciate the Bible’s lessons. I began by only
reading the King James Version of the Bible. The
language in that translation doesn’t match English usage
today very closely. I found that my understanding
expanded after I also began reading the more
contemporary language found in the New King James
Version. After that, I began to read from the Amplified,
New American Standard, New International, and New
Living translations. By putting the versions side-by-side,
I sometimes develop a fuller sense of what a verse’s
meaning is.

I also began to read commentaries about different sections
of the Bible, which added more scholarly references and
explanations that also direct me to other parts of the Bible.
Those commentaries have been a blessing, and I intend to
read many more. In addition, I read many different
devotionals that address different subjects and guide my
understanding of the Bible in new ways.

What should you read in the Bible? New believers often
find the Gospel of John to be a good starting point for
knowing who Jesus is and what He has done. You can
use keyword and subject searches to find sections related
to the questions you have and the trials you are
experiencing. I also suggest that part of your daily
reading should be in sequence from the beginning of the
Bible to the end. Such front-to-back reading will help you
develop a sense of the whole Bible and how one section
relates to another one. In addition, many people find it
helpful to read daily from certain books in the Bible. For
instance, some find Psalms to be especially restoring.

Also consider listening to recorded Bible readings. The
inflections of the readers help the text to come alive and
make the verses easier to remember. Recordings are
especially soothing and encouraging to listen to while
serving the Lord. For example, I usually play recordings
of the New Testament while I write about the Lord.

Attend Church Whenever Possible

“For where two or three are gathered together in My name,
I am there in the midst of them.”

— Matthew 18:20 (NKJV)

Jesus wants us to spend time with other believers so we
can encourage, help, and teach one another. Although
new and recently rededicated believers have the Holy
Spirit in them directing their paths, these Christians will
find it valuable to have additional encouragement and
help from more experienced believers. As the verse above
indicates, the Lord will be present among you and you will
have a chance to see more Godly examples of Christian
behavior. In such gatherings, more experienced believers
can also gain spiritual maturity through mentoring and
helping those who are less experienced.

Most church services and many Bible studies and other
activities begin with praising and worshiping the Lord,
which can help strengthen your faith in and connection to
Him. There will be many prayers spoken that will help you
learn more about how to pray. In addition, there will often
be a lesson presented from the Bible designed to help you
follow Jesus.

Many churches also offer classes for new believers,
which provide a great way to learn about what it means
to be a Christian. Anyone who hasn’t yet taken such a
class should. Your learning there will strengthen your
faith. I encourage you to also ask the class leader to help
you find a mentor to meet with you weekly to answer
questions and to help you go more deeply into the
information presented in the classes.

Each time you have any contact with a church, you will
have an opportunity to feel closer to God the Father,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. By attending
church more often, you will have the Lord’s peace more
often. I find Wednesday night services and mid-week
Bible studies to be particularly helpful ways to refocus
my attention on the heavenly agenda for my life.

Righteous service activities are also important to your
Christian development. It is through your works for
Him that your faith grows and becomes more complete.
Through these works, your heart will be gladdened and
encouraged.

Make a Weekly Written Commitment
of Added Ways to Follow His Direction

“I am the vine, you are the branches.
He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit;
for without Me you can do nothing.”

— John 15:5 (NKJV)

New believers and those who have recently rededicated
their lives to the Lord may find that they are still mostly
trying to live life their way, rather than following God’s
and the Lord’s commandments and the Holy Spirit’s
directions. That’s an indication that more work is needed
to help them become like Jesus.

The need for more focus shouldn’t surprise anyone. New
believers and the newly rededicated aren’t used to
thinking first about Them and the Bible as guides: They
probably aren’t as familiar with what the commandments
and directions are as they should be. When long-time
believers don’t continually expand their knowledge,
willingness to serve, and ways of serving, they likewise
can remain immature in their faith.

Working with your new-believer mentor, identify areas
where you need to begin serving the Lord or to do more
for Him. Make a written commitment to do something
new or more during the following week that will increase
your service for the Lord. Review your new commitment
daily to check on how you are doing. Continue that new
activity thereafter while taking on another new
commitment.

Let me mention a couple of examples of important
commitments called for by Jesus’ commands that some
new believers don’t consider right away. After accepting
Jesus as Lord and Savior, Jesus wants us to be baptized
as He indicated in Mark 16:16 (NKJV), “He who believes
and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not
believe will be condemned.” Undoubtedly, this first act
of obedience helps us to develop the habit of looking for
His commands and carefully following them once
recognized.

Another such direction that is often ignored can be found
by examining Proverbs 3:9 (NKJV) and Malachi 3:8-12
(NKJV) from which most Bible scholars agree that we are
commanded to provide the first 10 percent of our income
to the storehouse of the local church.

Many people are troubled by that commandment until
they realize two things: It all belongs to God anyway, and
He promises to those who tithe to

“… open for you the windows of heaven
And pour out for you such blessing
That there will not be room enough to receive it.”

— Malachi 3:10, NKJV

Here are some other examples of following Him to help
you pick commitments. A new believer might set an
initial commitment to read a chapter from the Bible
every day. The following week, the new commitment
might be to attend a midweek service. After that, a third
commitment might be to work on the church’s car-wash
outreach that weekend. By proceeding one step at a time,
each day can be refocused so that a believer is following
Him ever more completely.

This same approach to making and adding commitments
is valuable for people who are longer-term believers but
haven’t become very mature in serving Him. Such
believers may find that they have a hard time breaking
old habits that draw them away from Him; as a result,
they may find it helpful to ask another Christian to
encourage them.

Continually Witness to Others about Your Faith
Seeking to Help Lead at Least Twenty People
to Whom You Have Been Speaking
to Choose to Accept Salvation

“Therefore whoever confesses Me before men,
him I will also confess
before My Father who is in heaven.”
“Go therefore and make disciples
of all the nations,
baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ….”

— Matthew 10:32 and 28:19 (NKJV)

One of the missed opportunities to follow Him for most
Christian comes from not helping anyone else to become
saved. Such silence and inaction violate what Jesus told
us to do in proclaiming Him, as described in Matthew
10:32, and in the command to make disciples in Matthew
28:19.

One of the beauties of being a new believer or a Christian
who has recently rededicated your life to the Lord can be
that you feel full to overflowing with His love and
forgiveness. With those great spiritual gifts in your heart,
you also feel love toward more and more people and want
to share that great feeling with unsaved people. Your
knowledge for helping others to gain Salvation may be
limited, but your energy and commitment probably
aren’t.

No one can become a Christian solely through the efforts
and words of a witness. Only the Holy Spirit can touch
someone’s heart to cause someone to repent and to accept
Salvation by believing in Christ. However, you can
certainly play a valuable role by helping attract an
unsaved person’s attention on behalf of the Lord. Here
are some things you can add to your list of new
commitments that will help lead others to seek the Lord:

• Write a testimony that tells about how you became a
Christian and what the Lord has done in your life. Add
information about how to get in touch with you, your
church, and organizations that support witnessing such
as Need Him (1-888-NEED-HIM toll-free in the United
States).
• Before approaching or speaking to anyone about the
Lord, pray that people’s hearts will be open to receiving
the Holy Spirit and accepting Salvation.
• Hand copies of your written testimony to everyone you
know.
• Ask people if they have repented of their sins, believe
that Jesus is God’s Son, and have dedicated their lives to
follow Him. Start with people you know and eventually
begin asking people you don’t know.
• Learn to tell the story of your testimony to people who
haven’t yet been born again through the workings of the
Holy Spirit.

• Share tracts and books of testimonies with people who
aren’t yet born-again Christians.
• Pray aloud and silently for people’s needs in the name
of Jesus when you are with them.
• Invite people to go to church with you and offer to pick
them up and drop them off.
• Follow up with those you have spoken with until they
gain Salvation.
• Pray daily for guidance about what else you should do.

There are many wonderful benefits from doing this part
of the Lord’s work. Helping others to accept Salvation will
mean that you are adding to the people you will be able to
enjoy Christian fellowship with here on Earth as well as in
heaven. If each Christian perseveres in attempting to help
lead at least twenty others to Salvation, you will eventually
enjoy being part of a holy community larger than all but
what a few Christians have now. After you help lead
twenty, keep going. There are more lost souls we are
commanded to help learn about becoming saved.

You can also look forward to encouraging and assisting
these new believers, a process that will help you grow
in spiritual maturity. Imagine how much you will enjoy
being a mentor for someone you helped to lead to
Salvation when that person helps someone else choose to
accept Salvation.

If you would like to read more detailed directions about
what to do as a witness, I recommend you study
Witnessing Made Easy: Yes, You Can Make a Difference
(BookSurge, 2010). That book will also help you to
understand how your church and you can be more
effective in supporting witnessing education and activities.

Copyright 2010 Donald W. Mitchell. All Rights Reserved.