The Tools of a Living God

I was having breakfast with a retired missionary from our church by the name of Dick Bailey and he was graciously teaching me about the joys, pains, and processes of international church planting. He was taking me through experiences he had  and knowledge he gained over his many years of ministering to the Muslim people. During our conversation, he mentioned 3 tools that God uses by the power of the Holy Spirit to bring people closer to Him by saving and/or sustaining. Those 3 tools were very helpful to me in my own personal evangelism and prayer life with nonbelievers and believers in general.



The 3 Tools

1.) The Word of God

"God's Word is the most powerful force in the universe. God created the universe through His Word (Gen. 1:3). He is recreating it through His Word (2 Cor. 4:6). And He sustains all things by His Word (Hebrews 1:3)" -- Jonathan Leeman in his book Reverberation

• "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
• "Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls." (James 1:21, emphasis added mine)
• "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it." (Isaiah 55:10-11)

2.) The works of God in the life of a believer

All throughout the Bible, God uses his people to spread His grace. Starting with God telling Moses to go to Pharaoh to let His people go (Exodus 3), to the prophets in the Old Testament, and into the new testament with the 12 disciples and of course Paul. He reconciles us to reconcile others and pours into our lives so we will pour out into others from a grace and love overflowing.

• "In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 5:16)
• "All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us." (2 Corinthians 5:18-20)
• "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10)

3.) Suffering and Adversity

Sorrow is given as gift to save and sustain men (Ecclesiastes 6:10-7:14). Suffering and adversity is designed by God to constantly reveal who we really are (Romans 5:1-5) and who we really worship (Exodus 9:14-17). In Christ, its always designed and allowed by a loving Creator to discipline us and loosen our grasp from the things of the world and cling to Jesus evermore (Hebrews 12:5-11).

• "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
•  "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." (James 1:2-4)

This is not an all inclusive list of the tools that God uses to bring people closer to Himself through his Son. Feel free to comment and share any tools that you've seen God use in your life or the lives of others to bring you closer to Him.