Contagious Disciple Making by David Watson

Author:David Watson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2014-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

14

FINDING A PERSON OF PEACE

An old man sat on the edge of the road approaching the village. When he saw me (David), he started. He slowly stood up and came to meet me.

“Finally!” he exclaimed. “You are finally here.” Before I could say anything he took my arm and pulled me into the village.

“Here is the man I told you about,” he told people as he pulled me along. “Here is the man I dreamed about every night for the last twenty years. My dreams told me that we must listen to everything this man tells us.”

I shared the Gospel, and a church now meets in that village. God is at work in people’s hearts even before we walk into their lives. According to this man, God had told him twenty years earlier that I was coming to his village. Funny thing is, twenty years before that moment, I was studying to be an engineer. I had no desire and no call at that time to be a minister or a church planter.

Making disciples and planting churches is easier if you’re working with God and the people He has prepared rather than trying to force the Gospel on people who aren’t ready. Engage a community, and then find the Person of Peace. Actually, if we do things right, the Person of Peace finds us. Learning how to be found is key.

The Person of Peace is not simply a good person or hospitable person or friendly person. There are many people in every culture who are good, hospitable, or friendly, but are not Persons of Peace.

The Person of Peace is the one God has prepared to receive the Gospel into a community for the first time. There are two major categories of Persons of Peace—some are Persons of Peace by nature, and some become Persons of Peace as a result of God’s direct intervention in their families or communities. There are numerous examples of both in the Bible. Cornelius and Lydia are representatives of the “Person of Peace by nature” category. The Philippian jailer and the Samaritan woman at the well are examples of those who became Persons of Peace through God’s direct intervention.

In all these examples, however, the disciple-makers were conspicuously spiritual people who lived out their faith without apology. This is the secret to finding the Person of Peace. We must live out our faith as conspicuously as possible. This is not about being religious. It’s about being spiritual.

God condemns being religious. Look at how Jesus related and spoke to the religious leaders of His day and how God spoke through His prophets in the Old Testament. Religion was not well thought of or supported by Scripture.

God has a tremendous amount to say to us about being spiritual—rightly relating to God and His creation through a personal relationship with Him. This is about faith and living it out in all circumstances, regardless of consequences. It is about loving God and loving people. It is about obedient thinking and living.

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