"14 Words" Soul Winning

My grandfather  R. Stanley Tam, was a was a soul-winner, and even up to age 107, while still living on the independent side of an assisted living facility, before he transitioned to heaven, back in March of 2023, he was still trying to win one soul a day.   

I would bring visitors up to see him, but he told me, 

"The next time you come, only bring me visitors that need to be saved."

-R. Stanley Tam

When speaking one time, he told me,

  "Stuart, whenever I lead someone to Christ, at an older age, I always ask them, 

"Why did you wait so long?".  

You know what they all, say?  

It was the same thing; every time; 

"No one ever asked me!"

I was shocked.  

How could that possibly be the case with so many christians everywhere? 

 Wasn't everyone asking somebody every day? 

Or once a week? 

Or at least once a month? 

Surely once a quarter!? 

Once a year??? 

Once a decade? Ever?!!

And, could the media have actually have shamed an entire set of generations into keeping their faith in YHVD, the only God of Creation, to themselves?!  This was NEWS!  This was news that couldn't be!  But it was.  It was coming from the heart of a dollar-cost averaging, christian businessman, stewarding Kingdom Assets for the MOST SOULS he could WIN, for the LEAST OF AMOUNT of expenditure per soul. ----Who does that?????  It took me a few decades to come to terms with, a 'number crunching soul winner', but in the end I was left with a few lessons, and I'm going to share them with you now.

GOD'S VALUE FOR JUST ONE SOUL

We are bombarded with information about money and savings and investing.  Sometimes at work, sometimes on TV,  rarely in most churches, but consistently through out the Bible or God's Word.  Mostly in metaphors, or parable's, but the thing we use a proxy to trade with, has become dear to our hearts if we're honest, and is always necessary for funding ministries, less for those that have learned to function in the Ways of the Kingdom for finances; and that number is growing slowly.

Matthew 16:24 (AMP) says:

Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to follow Me [as My disciple], he must deny himself [set aside selfish interests], and take up his cross [expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come] and follow Me [believing in Me, conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me]. For whoever wishes to save his life [in this world] will [eventually] lose it [through death], but whoever loses his life [in this world] for My sake will find it [that is, life with Me for all eternity]. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world [wealth, fame, success], but forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory and majesty of His Father with His angels, and THEN HE WILL REPAY EACH ONE IN ACCORDANCE WITH WHAT HE HAS DONE.

"I assure you and most solemnly say to you, there are some of those standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom."

The soul is priceless. It is unpurchasable.  It's value to God, is shown to be UN-BUYABLE.  You couldn't buy your soul if you wanted.  

In GENESIS 1:26 (AMP), on the 6th day, the Word talks about how priceless you are and how you were created, SPIRIT, SOUL and BODY.

Then God said, "Let Us (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) make man in Our image, according to Our likeness [not physical, but a spiritual personality and moral likeness]; and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle, and over the entire earth, and over everything that creeps and crawls on the earth." So God created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them [granting them certain authority] and said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and subjugate it [putting it under your power]; and rule over (dominate) the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and every living thing that moves upon the earth." So God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of the entire earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to all the animals on the earth and to every bird of the air and to everything that moves on the ground—to everything in which there is the breath of life—I have given every green plant for food"; and it was so [because He commanded it]. God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good and He validated it completely.  And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.

Your soul comes with 

IDENTITY and 

LIKENESS and 

AUTHORITY and 

PURPOSE and 

INHERITANCE.

Then angels don't have all this privilege 

and beyond your inheritance, 

you have been given access, 

through Jesus, 

via Holy Spirit living inside of you, 

as the 4th Temple of God, 

to GO 

and DO 

and SAVE 

and DISCIPLE!  

WHAT IS MY VALUE SYSTEM?

So, if God's value for one soul is, 

"PRICELESS"; 

shouldn't ours fall in line?

Does it?

Do we value ONE SOUL that way?

Really?

If you really did, i  really did, wouldn't I be more apt to, 

"Stop for the one?"

CROSSING THE CHICKEN LINE

Now we have discussed the value of one soul.  You have introspectively gotten ruthlessly honest in your last thought.  We should all be more convicted spiritually of the need out there, and even around us.  Now it doesn't have to be a heavy burden, being a soul winner, because the Word in MATT 11:28-30 says, 

"Come to Me, 

all who are weary and heavily burdened

 [by religious rituals that provide no peace], 

and I will give you rest [refreshing your souls with salvation]. 

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me 

[following Me as My disciple],

 for I am gentle and humble in heart, and

 YOU WILL FIND REST (renewal, blessed quiet) 

FOR YOUR SOULS. 

For My yoke is easy [to bear] and My burden is light."

It's the job of the Holy Spirit to, 'Lead us into all Truth', so it's not a HAVE TO for us but it is a GET TO!  We GET TO do works that bless the heart of the Son, who is blessing His Father, God, and we get to partner with Jesus, using ALL THE POWER of God, that God have to Jesus, that Jesus doled out to us, to capture ONE SOUL, one at a time, or in larger numbers.  Sounds a little like fishing to me... SO! 

With that in mind; 

wanna go fishin?

14 WORDS: 

TRY IT OUT: REPORT BACK

So now you know.  

You're life is changed.

But will you be the life changER, that goes out and changes lives?

Now it's time to get out there.  

The Holy Spirit dropped all this on me.  I told a few people, and then it was time to try it out.  I was actually at a Wendy's drive through, a place in America that does the basic hamburger, coped from Kewpee in Lima, Ohio, but on a nationwide franchise level.  They're great when you're on the road a lot, which I often am.

So, I'm at the drive through, a young boy, probably at this first job, he had to be around 16, was at then window running my credit card in there, and the Holy Spirit nudged me with something like, 'What about him?', knowing the topic was 14Words.  Then the internal conversation started, "You're challenging others to do it. What about you? You're a leader, you need to challenge yourself." -- So I did.

I opened with, 

ME: "Hey, did anyone ever tell you that God loves you and has a plan for your life?

HIM: "No.  I've never heard that."

ME: "Well it's true.  God loves you and you have all this inheritance available to you in Jesus.   You just have to be in the family.  WOULD YOU LIKE TO ASK JESUS INTO YOUR HEART RIGHT NOW? YES, OR NO?

HIM: YES! Let's do it

And so I led him in a short prayer, 

got him into the Kingdom, 

and the Holy Spirit will lead him into all Truth!

It's that simple.

There's much to be said 

about plugging people into a body of believers, 

but don't get lost in the weeds, just 

CLOSE SOME BUSINESS!   

GET GOD HIS SOULS BACK!  

That's my stance on it.

God says He will SPIT THEM OUT OF HIS MOUTH if they are lukewarm, so you gotta get them off the middle of lukewarm and into either YES, or NO.  

If they say YES, they get saved!  Yay! Celebration!  Woo-hoo!!!!!!  

If they say, NO, at least you're giving them a chance to be sorted like chaff, and live with that knowing that they just said NO to God.  

That, if nothing else, will haunt their soul, and their spirit, which BOTH came from God, and will be turning their stomach.  They will, 'Know in their knower', they will, 'feel it in their gut', that they just made a bad decision.

The last person I offered,  '14 WORDS' to, was a nice Muslim girl, and we were working at a solar booth, signing up people form solar appointments in their home, after they spun for a prize.  Eventually there were lulls throughout the day, and our conversations led to me being ordained, and her being Muslim.  That opening pulled the response from me and I said, 

'Well, you can't run into me and not hear 14 WORDS.  I would never do that to ya.  I always wanna give everyone a chance to score.  If you're believing that Jesus is NOT the Son of God, and sticking with what your Imam says about that He was, 'just another prophet', you're not gonna run into Stuart Long, and have me NOT tell ya the Truth. I said, 'I'll leave you with this:

Either Jesus is  straight up liar, or He's stone crazy-town, or He actually is who He says He is when He says, "I am the Life and the Truth and the Way. No man gets to the Father (so we must need to get there right?) but through Me."  SO! Now this is where I give ya the chance to score and say, 'WOULD YOU LIKE TO ASK JESUS INTO YOUR HEART? YES, OR NO".

She replied, 'No; I'm a Muslim'.

I said, 'Well that's ok.  You chose NO. But I gave you a chance.  

You can't say nobody ever asked you."

Later that day, I heard her mutter in response to someone asking why she was staring off.... and she said, "I'm contemplating my entire life...." in a shaken voice.

Sometimes you can't even talk to people.

Sometimes you get em saved.

Sometimes, the best thing you can do, is shake their life beliefs, and leave them to stew in their choice to REJECT THE SALVATION FROM JESUS.  

My grandfather did give me wisdom, that has saved me from endless conversations that go nowhere with bandwidth suckers that aren't even listening to you.  He taught me, after a lifetime of soul-winning, 40,000 himself, and 5,000,000 if you combine all the work of the missions he sponsored, so i give this weight....

"Ask someone 3 times.  

If they don't make a decision by then, move on. 

They're not ripe fruit.  Don't waste your energy.  

Go find the ripe fruit.'

-R. Stanley Tam, Lima, Ohio