The Process of Salvation Starts With the Truth Of Our Rebellion

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Salvation is a process. Therefore, evangelism must reflect the process.
People with a heart for truth trust what is true.
Ephesians 1:11-15 NKJV — In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,
Notice the "until" the redemption...
The process of obtaining the inheritance of eternal life starts with the truth of our rebellion and is a process of peeling back the layers. That rebellion goes all the way to the core of what we think, feel, and do. It must be cut down and re-grown.
The fact that a person is born rebellious has to be the door through which we see the lawful redemption of Yeshua. The honest assessment that until the man Jesus found is totally dead to their own leadership they cannot be saved is the truth that sets a person free from trying to save their own life.
You and I were utterly in rebellion when Jesus found us. There wasn't some "good part" of me or you He was trying to save. If He is saving you at all, it's from you.
He is saving me from me. Satan didn't steal Adam from God, Adam did.
God isn't fixing up broken houses. He is razing them and rebuilding them. This truth sounds awful to the flesh and like a promise to the Spirit.
This hard, but essential, truth is what keeps a person steady through the process.
Coaxing people into Jesus doesn't work. You cannot coax someone into the death of self.... Only into continuing rebellion while believing they are saved.
Truth isn't facts. Truth is a Man. Jesus IS truth. He has emotions and a WAY of speaking that brings life.
When Jesus tells the truth, He doesn't condemn. He invites. When the flesh speaks, it can only condemn or condone.
Jesus speaks truth in love.
That is why Paul, in Ephesians 1:15, takes the next step: prayer.
"Since I heard of your faith, I don't stop praying," says Paul.
Prayer is the process of salvation. It is also the engine of evangelism.
The last days church will pray night and day. That prayer life will purify a Bride and call a multitude out of great tribulation...
The most amazing power-filled evangelism in the Bible came out of prayer meetings... 3,000 at a time, 5,000 at a time. Not evangelist meetings where a card was signed... Holy-Spirit-approved meetings where people, thousands, died at a time and went into prayer meetings.
Prayer is what we need. From beginning to end, prayer is what we need.

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