Free to Proclaim

And He gave them orders not to tell anyone; but the more He ordered them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it. – Mark 7:36

In two decades of pastoral ministry, a great frustration of mine was in trying to motivate folks to be active proclaimers of the gospel. Even though a plethora of programs have been developed and implemented by churches and ministries around the world (I tried most of them), it has been said that only 3% of believers in Christ will ever share their personal testimony of faith.

Understandably, Jesus knew (better than us) the rebellious minds of men. For when He ordered them to keep silent about all that He had done, those whose lives had been transformed refused to shut up!  It seems that those who had experienced a life-altering change found it impossible to keep it to themselves, even if it meant disobeying the very Person who had affected it.

Now that Jesus has lifted His “proclamation restriction,” what will you do?

Strive not so much to succeed as to do the right thing. Success and failure are in God’s hands. I am not on the way to success; I am on the Way. What a difference! – Selwyn Hughes