Below is a response from one of our mentors after the above interaction was shared in a weekly check-in for Setting Captives Free mentors.
Joce writes, “It was simply stunning to see his heart transformed from being defeated to preaching the gospel back to you! All by the Spirit applying the gospel and testimony you shared. I loved his added insight: “even learning to share just the gospel is another burden the Lord lifts from us”. Isn’t it wonderful that sharing the gospel is mutually encouraging? (Romans 1:12)
2 Corinthians 4:5-6 We do not preach about ourselves, but we preach that Jesus Christ is Lord and that we are your servants for Jesus. God once said, “Let the light shine out of the darkness!” This is the same God who made his light shine in our hearts by letting us know the glory of God that is in the face of Christ.
As mentors we do not elevate ourselves or use persuasive arguments which only change the mind and not the heart. For it is the gospel we want our students to delight and depend on:
Psalm 118:8 It is better to trust in the LORD Than to put confidence in man.
We present the gospel in each of the Setting Captives Free lessons so that our student’s heads, by His Spirit, will lift, turn and face this wondrous place of the bloodstained cross where transformations of the heart happens.
We are showing each student what the gospel means, we are telling them how it affects us personally in our own hearts, we are sharing what has happened to us and to others because of it! We are singing, praying, reading, listening and rejoicing about the gospel with each student all with one message “Come over here! Look at the Crucified Christ - go nowhere else for here is the solution for your struggles. Not in looking at your ‘selves’, or the mentor, or in the world’s programs, philosophies or reasonings, or in any man or woman for the answers.
When we preach that Jesus Christ is Lord and His death and resurrection, we look into the wonderful face of Christ and we behold the glory of God Himself. His light shines into the darkness of people’s hearts bringing clarity out of confusion, giving liberty to the captives, the recovering of sight to the blind and oppressed - all who are who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity (Luke 4:18 AMPC).
To ourselves as mentors, as well as to our students, we say in so many ways: SEE your sin bearing, wrath absorbing, death defeating substitute at the cross! SEE the bleeding sacrifice of the Lamb of God. SEE your sins hanging on His disfigured body. SEE Jesus loving you by dying for each sin, and SEE Him rising with resurrecting, earth shaking power lifting you out of the pit! SEE the extraordinary love of One Man Who gave His all for you so you could be ushered into an everlasting life of grace and intimacy with God, with a new, tender, forgiven heart that melts with awe and wonder at the mention of His Name!”
Psalm 96:2 Sing to the LORD, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day.
Question 5: Please share your thoughts on Joce’s writing and how the gospel has the power to transform us.
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In this video, Mike Cleaveland and Erick Hurt discuss in more detail this lesson and how the message of the cross and the power of the gospel is the essential message which brings clarity and freedom.
We hope that you‘ve seen how critical it is to stay committed to the gospel message itself and not being sidetracked by another message. We remain focused on Jesus’ death and resurrection as we share, preach, teach and counsel anyone in need with this most powerful message. May the church and its members, the body of Christ, rediscover the power of the cross!