How to have more friends than you can count.

"Tell them that I love them." That's our assignment from God. For everyone who knows that God loves them, we are instructed to deliver this message to everyone we meet. In every conversation, at every opportunity tell the people that I love them. Do this and the blessings will flow through us and to us. Here's how it would work. Just imagine how different this world would be if everyone you knew believed that God actually loves them. Imagine if you were the person who reminded them of that every time they saw you. If every time your spouse looked at you, she was reminded of all the blessings in her life and glory that awaits her, she would be delighted to see you wouldn't she. If your boss was reminded of God's great provision and protection over his business whenever he looked in your direction, he'd be inclined to treat you a little better than his other employees wouldn't he?! If your co workers looked at you and thought about God's love for them, they'd be glad to see you wouldn't they. The bottom line is this, if people looked at you but saw the love of God, you'd be showered with favor everywhere you went.

You'd be the person that changes the mood in the room. You'd constantly be surrounded by people who are happy to be alive and happy to see you. Just imagine how different life would be for you if you didn't have to watch your own back. Just imagine how much less stress you'd have to deal with if you could trust everyone you know. This is without you actually doing anything for them. This is without you doing them favors, or finding their soft spots, or picking up on their insecurities and playing on their fears. You could stride confidently through this world like an emperor without resorting to office politics or palace intrigue. People would just be eager to do well by you because every time your name comes up their fears are assuaged, their hope is kindled, and their faith is restored. You will enjoy favor with everyone you know simply because they associate you with God.

Now the trick to this of course is they have to believe that God loves them. If they are still pulpit-bullied into believing that they are on thin ice with God, then they won't be glad to see you. To those who are perishing we are the smell of death but to them who are being saved we are a sweet fragrance to paraphrase the scriptures. So, it behooves us to be about our Father's business doesn't it?! It is in our best interest to be surrounded by people who know that God loves them. What better way to ensure that than to be the agent by which everyone knows about God's love for them?

See this is a different approach to personal evangelism for me. For the past 20 years, I saw personal evangelism as my duty, something I did out of obligation, to keep God happy and possibly curry some favor with Him so he'd give me what I pray for. It never occurred to me that God was really trying to reach into these people's lives through me. I saw it as just God's way of sending me out to chop wood or do some other chore. I was so focused on myself, I never stopped to consider the possibility that I was the answer to their prayer. I thought telling people about Jesus was my duty and the people were my chores for the day. So the sooner I got that out of the way, the sooner we could back to talking about what I want from God for doing His bidding. Well thanks be to God, I have seen the light. I see what I was doing wrong all those years. I was going about my Father's business with the wrong attitude. The proper way to be about our Father's business is to do it for the sake of people who need to know that God loves them. I already have my blessed assurance, and if the love of God is truly in me, I'll be eager to help others receive theirs.

So how does one do that exactly? Well, my Pastor would say "The answer to a thousand questions is: Be led." We can't accomplish the without the Holy Spirit guiding us. We can't just march up to people and out of nowhere tell' em "God loves you!" and then move on to the next person. That's us putting check marks on our evangelism assignment for the day. That's us taking care of ourselves. And if you want to see a room clear out in hurry whenever you show up, be the guy that starts quoting scripture out of nowhere. You will repel people like the smell of rotting fish! We need to pick our moments when they are ready to receive. We'll need to be ever vigilante for opportunities to speak into their lives. We'll need to on the lookout for an opening when their spirit is ready to hear about God's love for them, then we'll need to be ready to drop whatever it is that we're doing and focus on them. At those moments, we'll need to have a word FOR them. We'll need something that's going to sink deep into their hearts and address their concerns. This means we need to be fully armed at all times, we need to be filled to over flowing with God's word so when the time comes, we'll have something for them. And most importantly, we need to do it with love and faith in our hearts.

If we set out to do this with the goal of creating an atmosphere of favor for ourselves, we'll fail miserably. We need to do this with love for them in our hearts and faith that God will take care of us while we are about His business. I mentioned the benefits of living like this at the beginning but that can't be our motivation. And it doesn't need to be the reason we do this either. Those benefits will come, if we can set aside our own interests long enough to faithfully tend to our Father's business and just be the person in their life that gives them hope we will enjoy favor in every corner of our lives. Today, it's my goal to find a way to remind the people in my life that's there's a God in Heaven who loves them. When I am finished speaking with them, I want them to know that He wants to deliver them from all their fears, fill them with prosperity beyond their wildest imaginations, heal every sickness in their body and flood their soul with joy. That's my assignment today. It's going to be a really good day.