Sin will continue to grow every year, and there will even be new inventions of sin until the church truly rises to her prophetic mandate, summed up in Acts 26:15-19. The church has the divine power to STOP sin from growing. That power is released in the following ways, which cumulatively express the church as salt and light to a corrupt and dark world:
Every Christian should read at least one chapter of the Bible a day and pray for at least 1 hour a day to generate divine power (strength, boldness, courage, wisdom, joy, truth, etc.). This is where our quest for maximum impact starts. If this is not happening, we will only be engaged in what I call “Genetically Modified Impact” (GMI) – an impact that is transient, minimal, or mediocre at best.
Christians, walking in the power generated (as explained earlier), should walk in forgiveness towards each other to promote reconciliation and a united force against the dark world. Christians must know that our fellow Christians are not our enemies, although carnal ones can be used by Satan to give us a hell of spiritual warfare and troubles. The religion of the other sons of Abraham started spreading 600 years after Christ ascended into heaven simply because the church at the time was fighting one another about doctrine – as to whether one can be saved just by faith – something Christ had earlier made abundantly clear. Our impact can easily be sabotaged by bitterness and politicking within local churches, etc. These are strategic approaches by the devil to distract Christians from maximizing our impact within our various spheres and communities of influence.
Christians, walking by the divine power, boldly live by the voice of God in their hearts through the Spirit as we meditate on the Bible. The Holy Spirit also delivers the voice of God to our hearts through other means that do not contradict the nature and work of Christ revealed through the Bible. Living by the voice of God comes with huge persecution, but by the power of the Spirit, we stand. As we stand, over time, many others seeing our great impact and the prosperity we enjoy despite persecution are drawn to the light of Christ in our lives (Isaiah 60:1-3). This trend is supported by the Social Impact Theory (SIT). Indeed, the blood of the martyr is the seed of the church. If we are scared to be persecuted and even to die for standing by the truth, we can hardly maximize our impact. Jesus said, “Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it abides alone” (John 12:24-26).
Christians, by the power of the Spirit, should remain focused on interceding in prayer to scatter the darkness of falsehood, manipulation, deception, etc. in the hearts of people. We must build networks with all kinds of people without condemning them. We must share the Gospel with everyone we encounter and call them to repent (turn from sin to Christ). After they come to Christ, we must continue to pray for them to be established, like Paul did to the churches (Galatians 4:19). A great mistake is to tell people to change before coming to Christ. That is not possible. We must tell them to come to Christ to receive the divine power to change. The worst mistake is to complain about the lifestyle of people and continue to condemn them instead of praying for them, reaching out to them with the Gospel, and painstakingly discipling and mentoring them in Christ.
If we examine ourselves and our local churches within the framework of these four points, we will easily realize the reason behind our individual minimal or mediocre impact in turning people from the power of sin to the power of Christ. Once our individual impact is minimal, it also means our “Corporate Ecclesiastical Impact” (CEI), as I call it, will also be minimal or mediocre. The vice versa is also true. May the Lord have mercy on us and help us.
Written by Apostle S. K. Fianko-Larbi
