The doctors say that perfect eyesight is 20/20 - vision.
When I read Acts 20:20 one day it brought a vision that changed my life. From that day I have followed the 20/20 vision! It says:
You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house.
Yes - for the past 19 years of my Christian life, Acls 20:20 has been the perfect vision for me and I believe it is the perfect vision for the Church.
I have preached and taught the Word of God publicly and from house to house.
Paul said, he preached the gospel in two ways: number one, publicly; number two, from house to house.
Every ministry has these two aspects and so should every Christian.
Many people want to begin their ministry publicly. They come to our crusades, see the mighty works of God and the gospel being proclaimed and say: "Brother Rambabu, I want to be in full time ministry too." And do you know why? It's because they are awed by the public ministry - the huge stage, bright lights, crowds running into thousands, posters with my name on, miracles, healing - all caught on video to be broadcast to yet more thousands! This is the life for them, they say.
My sister-in-law always used to say that we had such a fun-packed life, travelling from place to place in planes, trains and buses, staying in hotels, eating different kinds of food. All we had to do was preach and come home -simple! She thought it was wonderful. My wife Vinita tried telling her that it was not as easy as she thought. So we took her along with us for one crusade. She could not wait for it to end so that she could get back home! Never again, she vowed!
I'll explain why. We often have to get up at 5 a.m, sometimes we don't get dinner until midnight, and we are fortunate if we get five hours of sleep each night! Our time is in such demand by people who want to talk or be prayed for, and we have such an exhausting schedule. In the four or five days when the crusade is on we have to give all our energy and resources to those we have come to serve.
If you only want the public recognition, you don't have 20/20 vision. Paul said he was preaching from house to Rouse and also publicly. I began my own ministry by going from house to house, speaking one to one. When I was an engineering student 1 would be at college from Sam to 5pm, come back home exhausted only to face a lot of flak because of my faith. Even so, I would still take my bicycle tnd go and find someone to preach the gospel to. For Instance, I would make friendship with high school Students and tell them about Christ. The right vision is house to house and publicly - that is 20/20 vision. There is no public ministry without one-to-one ministry.
Why is it that so many are very casual or lazy about
sharing the gospel? Why don't they care enough to bother?
I tell you, it's because they don't realize just what happens
when they preach the gospel.
Once you grasp this realization, you won't be able to
stop your legs from running to tell the gospel of Jesus to
some perishing soul.
When we preach the gospel, we set in motion ripples
which I call "gospel ripples".
1. The son of God is revealed:
You have to take on board that Christianity is not just information but revelation. You can never understand Jesus Christ through your own wisdom and knowledge, or convince anybody of who Jesus is through the mind alone. You will never win anyone to Jesus with arguments. You may convince them in their mind and they may agree with you that Jesus is the Savior and God, but they will never give their lives to Him. I know so many people who believe all that I say about Jesus to be true, yet don't give their lives to Him.
Myriads of people, who are born into good christian homes, know that Jesus is God, that He died on the cross for all sinners, that He rose from the dead and will conn-again, and they have never worshipped idols. Yet they are not born again.
All this shows that mentally they know God. But that is not salvation because they have not yet had a revelation from God. You can never understand God through your mind. The gospel of Jesus is a revelation that brings all this information to life, and this happens when we preach the gospel. Matthew 16:13-17 tells us:
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the Prophets." "But what about you?" he asked, "Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." Jesus replied. "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven."
That was a revelation for Peter!
Today we are born again because we have a revelation. Christianity is a revelation. And how does it come? By preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Every time I go anywhere to preach, I ask God, "Lord, flesh and blood cannot reveal the truth to people, only you can do it. Father, today when I proclaim the gospel, please give them the revelation of Jesus."
In 2 Corinthians 4:4 the Bible says:
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
The "god of this world", who is the devil, has blinded the minds of people so that they will not get the revelation t)f the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why I come against the god of this world, break his power and ask God to free my listeners to comprehend the truth about Jesus. Then, as I stand before the people and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, this revelation dawns in people's lives.
May be you're one of the hordes of people who don't want to preach but will pray: "Oh Lord, save people! God, please save them!" But how will they be saved unless they hear the gospel? Nowhere in the New Testament did Jesus teach us to pray that people will be saved. But he told His disciples in Matthew 9:37 and 38:
"The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
What should you pray for? What is the need? Laborers! That's who God needs! When you use a sickle on a ripe crop, immediately you get the harvest. The crop is ready for harvest but there are not enough workers to gather it in. And who are the laborers? We are! Do you know how you came to be part of that workforce? It's because somebody prayed for you and you are an answer to that person's prayer.
I've been preaching this gospel for the past 19 years. I am so addicted to doing it that if I stop for ten days or so, I have withdrawal symptoms! Once I was feeling very frustrated because I had not preached for ten days. I was so irritable that my wife Vinita finally couldn't take it am longer. She suggested that I stand up on a chair and preach the gospel to her and my son.
Once you are addicted, you cannot sit still - you just have to preach the gospel, and in doing so, you bring the revelation of Jesus to people.
2. We minister the power of God to people:
Paul says in Romans 1:16 (a):
"I'm not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of every one who believes: . . ."
It's a common mistake to think that after someone preaches the gospel, God sends the power. But the Bible-says that the gospel "is the power of God". If someone gives you a machine gun, you need to be trained before you can handle it, don't you? But our wonderful God told you on the day you were saved: "I'll give you my power to handle!"
What is that power? It's the gospel! When you preach the gospel you preach the power of God to the people!
I was once interrupted in the middle of my preaching in India by a woman of about 50 who suddenly got up and ran towards the platform. She wanted to shake my hand and give me an offering. I told her to wait until I had finished preaching, so she went back and sat down again, and when I had finished preaching and prayed for the sick we invited people to give testimonies. This woman came back to testify, and I asked her why she had run up in the middle of my preaching. She said, "I have a 27 year old daughter who was born deaf and dumb. I brought her to the meeting yesterday, and when you prayed for the sick she began to hear, but she could still not speak. But today as she sat beside me listening to you preach, she began to leak and call me 'amma, amma' (mummy, mummy)." Praise God! But how did the miracle happen during my caching? The previous day her deaf ears were opened id that day as the gospel was being preached, the gospel entering her. The gospel entering her was actually the power of God entering her. When it entered, the dumb tongue was released and she was able to speak.
In another Indian city during a gospel crusade, a little :ven-year-old girl who was lame and had never been able i walk was carried into the meetings by her grandmother. ,s the gospel was preached, this little girl suddenly stood ip and began to run all over the place. I have seen countless people get healed while the gospel is being preached. Why does it happen? Because the gospel is the power of God. It makes me so irritated when anyone says: "Oh! He's only preaching the gospel". They don't inderstand that it is the Power of God!
So every time you preach the gospel, whether from house to house or publicly, you preach the power of God. Before I begin to preach I always declare boldly, "I'm not here to preach a dead God. Jesus Christ whom I preach is not dead but alive. If you have not seen miracles in your I life, you will see them in the days I am here with you. The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dumb will speak and the lame will walk." I always start a crusade with this declaration. Once a pastor asked me: "How can you make such a bold statement?" I said, "I am confident in the gospel I preach". At that the pastor said, "Rambabu, you are over-confident and one day you will learn a lesson!"
Yes - I am over-confident, not in myself, but in I he
glorious gospel I preach.
Preach this gospel anywhere - it will never fail!
How do you know that the gospel works? That's simple. If you take a gun and load it with bullets, how do you find out whether it works or not? Yes - you just lire and you'll soon know the answer! To find out whether the gospel works or not, just preach it! Release it! And sec ii working.
I challenge you to step out with confidence in the gospel of Jesus as you share it. I don't have confidence in myself. Nor do I rely on the electricity, the sound system or the music to bring the power. I thank God for all these, but my faith is not in them. It is in the gospel I preach.
Once I was preaching in another country and the interpreter was hopeless. He made a lot of mistakes, including translating "Jesus loves you" as "the devil hates you"! The guitarists weren't much better and were out of tune. My miserable interpreter also struck fear into anyone, who dared to move around by glaring at them angrily. While I was speaking, he would go over to the side of the platform and give instructions to people before coming back to translate. To cap it all, he then whispered in my ear, "Today it is very, very dry. I don't think anything will happen." I looked at his face and said "Relax!" I finished preaching the gospel and gave a call for salvation, and was filled with joy when I saw many precious people weeping as they came forward to give their lives to Christ. And we saw a lot of miracles too.
That evening the translator told me, "If I had been you, I would have stopped the meeting and run away!" I told him, "My faith wasn't in your translation or the guitars or sound system or anything else. It was purely in the gospel of Jesus Christ!"
Somebody told me they'd heard me preach the same Gospel for the past 12 years, and I replied, "Praise God!" _ was a good testimony - the gospel has been the same .' two thousand years, and that same gospel is the power of God to this day, so it's just as well I hadn't changed it! We read in 1 Corinthians 1:18, 20 - 23:
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God... Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through foolishness of what was " preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom,...
Here the Jews are asking for miraculous signs and the Greeks look for wisdom but in answer to that Paul said;
...But we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Paul says that for those who seek miraculous signs and for those who seek wisdom, there is only one answer and that is the message of Christ and Him being crucified. That message is the gospel. It may look foolish to the unsaved but it is the power of God.
When I was a hindu I used to ask mockingly, "If Jesus Christ is God then how can God die?" It sounded completely crazy to me, and I used to taunt the Christians I knew, "Look at your God with a crown of thorns. How pathetic He looks! Look at our gods with golden crowns' But now I know that God's power lies in the cross, which is the centrality of the gospel message. Hallelujah!
Do you want to see the power of God in your lilc' Then preach the gospel! Sometimes when I go to lead ;i crusade, I preach for four days and then on the last day I encourage the local pastor or an evangelist to preach (lie gospel. I tell the people it is not Rambabu who heals but God. Rambabu comes and Rambabu goes, but they need to know that God is the one who works miracles. I tell the pastor or evangelist that whether I preach or they preach, the power of God will be released because it is the gospel which is the power of God! There have been times when the local man has preached and prayed, and there have been more miracles and displays of God's power than when I have spoken and prayed. What does this show? It is no! who preaches it, or how it is preached, but what is preached that's important.
In the 12 years that I've been preaching the gospel, not one crusade has been a failure! Now please don't think I'm boasting by making a statement like that, because it is not faith in myself that brings the success but my faith in the message of the cross — the power of God.
3. The gospel brings life to the dead:
Ephesians 2:1 says:
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins...
That's you and me who are being talked about - we were dead in our sin. Thank God we were born again and we are alive today. But the world around us is still dead, can it be brought back to life again? Let's see John 5:4-25, in which the Lord Jesus is talking to the Pharisees the disciples:
"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.
In verse 25 Jesus was talking about a time that had already come. The time when the dead would hear the Voice of the Son of God and live was "now". They had to hear that voice in order to live again. Jesus was not talking about the second coming or the resurrection because he lid the time was already here. It is today that the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God.
How will they hear the voice of the Son of God? What is the voice of the Son of God? It's the gospel. Every time you preach the gospel a dead world is hearing the voice of the Son of God!
A dead world will only hear that voice if you and I [preach the gospel - the voice of the Son of God.
Jesus said that everyone who heard the voice of the Son of God would live. Once upon a time you and I were dead in our sin and today we are alive because we heard the gospel and became alive. Every time I stand before a f crowd, I'm excited, because it is not my voice they are hearing but the voice of God's Son. What a blessing for those who preach the gospel!
The Word of God declares in Romans 10:15:
... "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"
When you go to heaven, you might see beautifully framed photographs of the men of God. But the strange thing will be that it might be their feet rather than their faces that you see. Why is that? Because the Bible never says that my face is beautiful, but that my feet are beautiful. If you are a preacher of the gospel, God looks at your feet and calls them beautiful.
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