As a disciple I must never try to persuade people to follow Christ. My responsibility is to tell the good news of Jesus Christ; the rest is up to God. Jesus never tried to persuade people. He said, “Follow Me” (Matthew 9:9; John 1:43), in an almost matter-of-fact way, and He let the facts of His life and ministry speak for themselves. Preaching the gospel is not button-holing people, but simply telling the facts of Christ’s person.
I will find myself in deep trouble if I pressure people into a commitment. That probably explains why so many “converts” fall away in such a short time. People can be easily persuaded to do anything (emotional beings that we are!).
The great Persuader is the Holy Spirit, who operates under the authority of the Father and persuades concerning the Son. The Spirit may use mental and/or emotional persuasion, but last of all He reaches the will, and it is there that the real power is applied. When He reaches the will, the Spirit first weakens the will to resist Christ, then He strengthens the determination to accept Him. All of this is done apart from the preacher, the evangelist, or the personal worker. In that last final step, in the inner sanctum of the soul, there are only two persons left.
A proper understanding of spiritual persuasion will immediately cause me to reject the Madison Avenue approach to soul-winning, or any other human approach to persuasion. I cannot persuade; only God can. My sole responsibility is to witness, to tell the facts about Jesus Christ, who said, “Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you” (Mark 5:19).
“But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30).
Daily with the King 