Soul winning is the heartbeat of God and is the ministry given to every Christian believer. However, in order for you to win souls to Christ effectively, you must learn how to do it. So this article tells you how to win souls to Christ.
Because “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How, then, will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how will they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? Romans 10:13-14 (NIV).
Many people are still not saved in part because those who approached them did it wrong. However, when you follow the soul winning steps used by the apostles, you won’t miss it. And if you’re going to win souls to Christ then you have to do it his way.
How to win souls to Christ
1. Understand the reason for winning souls
It is important that you understand why you have to reach out to souls for Christ. This is because your passion to lead souls to Christ will increase. Because passion drives evangelism effectively and successfully. And one of the main reasons is that without salvation in Christ, the individual will perish in hell. However, it is not God’s will that any should perish. So, God gave the ministry of reconciliation to every believer so that we would go and lead others to Christ.
2. Prayer and fasting
This is a very important aspect of soul winning. This is because you cannot win souls in the energy of the flesh. It is the Father who draws people to Christ.
Furthermore, it is the Holy Spirit who converts and not you. So, you need to hire the help of the Holy Spirit. And you do it through prayers. Also, adding fasting to prayer helps you become more sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
In prayers, you ask God’s Spirit to guide you, speak through you, and convert the person. Also, you ask him to give you wisdom for each person you want to lead to Christ. This is because the method you used for one may not work on another. And individual thoughts, mentality or ideas of things differ from person to person.
Also, in prayers you ask the Holy Spirit to open the hearts of people to receive the gospel of Christ. For example, God opened Lydia’s heart to receive the gospel of Christ that Paul preached. Furthermore, he prays that they accept Christ as their Lord and Savior. Then, in prayer, he presents every detail of evangelism before God and receives guidance and instructions for it.
3. Preach and teach the word
People must hear the word before they can receive Christ as their savior. Therefore, someone must approach them and preach the gospel to them. So, you need to preach to the people you have prayed for. But, if some of them are not close to you, you can pray for someone to preach to them. Therefore, make time to talk to the people around you.
Jesus went preaching the gospel from one place to another. And he also sent his disciples to go out and preach the gospel. Furthermore, when the disciples were persecuted and scattered to other cities, they continued the preaching of the word in those places. So, the first disciples of Christ continued to preach the word from generation to generation and that’s how someone preached to us too.
4. Share your testimonials
This is another method of winning souls. Here, you tell the person what Christ had done in your life and how your life has changed for the better since your salvation. Someone who knew you before and who sees the new you will surely wish for such changes in their life. And they will open to receive Christ as their savior.
The Samaritan woman did not tell the people much but she shared her encounter with Jesus and they believed. Therefore, take advantage of any opportunity you have to share God’s goodness in your life. And believe God that she will use his testimonies to bring the person(s) to Christ.
5. Lead them to Christ
When you preach Christ to people, always give them the opportunity to accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. You do this by asking them to say the sinners prayer. Here they believe that Jesus died for them and confess him as their Lord and Savior. This is in line with Romans 10:9-10.
They must confess Jesus as their Lord and Savior for their salvation. Therefore, always lead them to Christ. This is important because you will not know if they will ever have the opportunity to give their life to Christ again. As the scripture says, “now is the acceptable time.”
6. Share brochures and flyers
This is another method of winning souls. Some people may not know what to say, but with brochures or flyers they can still share God’s word with people. Also, you can use the tracts and flyers to reach people when you are not allowed to preach, or when you or they are in a hurry. And, since the Holy Spirit is the one converting, you can use the message in the materials to convert the person(s).
Paul used his letters to reach people when it was inappropriate to do so in person. And these letters still speak to us today.
7. Invite them to church
The church is the place that the Lord commands that we should not abandon. This is because it is a place where he fellowships with us, he teaches us, and pours out his blessings on us.
Also, it is the right place to nurture new converts to maturity in Christ. They need the word to grow. Once again, inviting unsaved people to your ‘Bible-believing church’ will give them the opportunity to hear God’s word and be saved. Also, inviting new converts to church will help you follow them through to maturity and establishment in Christ.
8. Follow them
It is one thing to lead someone to Christ and another is for them to remain in Him. Jesus said that we must go and produce fruit that lasts.
Truly, many people have given their lives to Christ at some point but are no longer in Christ. And the main reason is that they were not nurtured to maturity in Christ. These are the people described in the parable of the sower as those seeds that did not fall on good soil. So when misunderstanding, persecution and care from the world attack them, they fall from faith.
Therefore, it is important that you keep track of your converts and do not allow the enemy to plunge them back into sin and condemnation. Remember, no mother gives birth and abandons the baby to feed and fend for herself. Rather, she will nurture them to maturity.
9. Keep praying for them
Continued prayer for your converts is crucial to their growth and maturity in Christ. It is also part of the follow-up process. This is because in the prayers you cover them and protect them from the attacks of the enemy until they can resist and fight for themselves. In Colossians 4:12, we see an example of Epaphras praying fervently for the spiritual establishment of the new converts from the Colossus.
Also, in prayers, you involve the Holy Spirit to keep reproducing the spoken word heard by unsaved people. This you must continue to do until the word enters your spirit and converts you. Therefore, do not stop praying for your salvation goals until they are strong in the Lord.
10. Live like Christ and show love to people
God is love and if you are going to show people God, they must first see him in you. This will draw them in to listen to what you have to say about Jesus. Because you can’t give what you don’t have. By living like the Lord and showing love to people, explain to them what their lives will be like when they accept Christ. Also, you are the epistle that people read about Christ and decide to follow God.
Therefore, it paints the right picture of ‘life in Christ’ that will draw multitudes to Him. And have them see you and want what you have, which is Jesus. This is an important way to win souls to Christ.
When and where to win souls
The Scriptures, in 2 Timothy 4:2, command us to preach the gospel in season and out of season. And always be ready to share the good news with people.
Therefore, you should take every opportunity to share the word with the people around you. This includes your family members, neighbors, classmates, colleagues at the office, business associates, seatmates on public transportation, and any unsaved souls around you. It also includes your friends from social networks. When you prepare yourself in prayers to ask God to use you to win souls as you go out, God will give you many opportunities to reach souls.
Also, you need to be sensitive to His leading to know when to preach or not. For example, Paul was forbidden to preach in Asia, but the Lord led him to preach in Macedonia.
Conclusion
Winning souls is a great challenge for believing Christians. For some of them, the question is how to win souls to Christ. However, an understanding of the points given above will help you solve this problem. And any fear will disappear and be replaced by the courage to reach out to souls for the Lord. We must depopulate hell and populate heaven. Therefore, all hands must be on deck to achieve this and that includes you. Also, remember that God will be working with you confirming your words with the following signs. So, start today.