The Words Of A Young Missionary That Proved The Efficacy Of Preaching By Example

This is a friend of mine God is using mightily to reach the unreached and pagans with the Gospel of Christ.

He called me sometime last year and said: "I'd be eternally grateful to God for your life... I didn't need to read the Bible... to be inspired to do what I'm doing today. It's people like you that inspired me... It's because of your example that made me to be so generous today that I don't give to be compensated or recognized. Although it's been over 10 years now, you can see how fresh what you did is still on my mind..."

While he was saying this, I kind of froze. I was dumbfounded and in total shock, I just didn't know how to respond to a thing like that. I wasn't prepared for that at all, it brought me close to tears.

Now this was someone I got to know at the early stages of my walk as the level of the Spirit where it was all about God, sometime in 2003, after he was introduced to me by a friend who knew about my burning passion for God. At the time, the three of us often prayed together and took the Holy communion on one or two occasions together. He also used to follow me to church a times, and I can remember while in a bus on our way to church, I had preached, and after we came down from the bus, he seemed really pleased with my preaching as he commended it.

So he had obviously spent some time with me in the past, but he was already saved at the time and I liked his passion for God then, so when several years later he began to share some of the testimonies of what God was using him to do in places where the gospel hasn't reached, how some persons got saved and whom God used him to heal, also his experiences and the challenges he faces, like one remote village he went where there was no running water, he said they have to dig the ground for water to gather for them have water to use, also some pictures showing some of the converts, and others of his experiences, like one where he was having to walk through water which almost covered his full legs on some of his missionary journeys, i didn't know that it was my example that inspired him to that extent. I thought he already had that in him beforehand.

What makes it even more bewildering is considering what it means to be a missionary in this day and age, as it is not a pastor which is much easier to be but a missionary, which is more of a selfless and sacrificial work and requires a lot of humility to do, and hence doesn't attract as much interest as the work of a pastor.

And the person I'm speaking about here is a graduate of one of the top Federal universities in the country. I can remember how when after he gained admission then, even though I didn't have much at the time, I used to send him the little I could from time to time whenever he ask for support. And when after he had graduated he started making it seem as though i had done a big thing, that he would be asking some of his people to greet me, I would tell him that he had already thanked me enough.

I didn't need to preach to him with my mouth about giving, but my example was more than enough preaching to make him to be inspired to do likewise.

This is not the first time such is happening, because I have had several occasions where I would see someone being generous and compassionate, and I would think that such person had that in them before they met me. But to my surprise, they'd tell me that they weren't so before oh, but it was after they got to know me that they became such.

These instances proved to me the efficacy of preaching by example, and that it really works, because I never expected this and wasn't even trying to achieve this. I was just trying to love God, to do the things that pleased Him and to keep His Word, but it turned out be a very effective way of preaching the Gospel.

God bless.

The greatest and most inspiring leader and preacher that ever lived was Jesus. It's not a coincidence that He commands the largest followers and religious group on Earth.

The reason He was able to inspire humans to that unprecedented degree, was because He wasn't a leader that just led His followers by Words but also by example.

His disciples who played an important and sacrificial role in bringing His Gospel to the world must have been really inspired by the Gospel He preached, but I believe what inspired them most was the Gospel He lived.

He was a leader that didn't just teach His disciples how to serve or to humble themselves, but literally took a bucket and towel and started to clean and wash the legs of His servants.

Above all, He was the Good shepherd who humbled Himself, went as a lamb before the slaughter, and laid down His life for His sheep.

So if He being their Lord and Master could humble Himself and serve to that degree, how much more they being His servants? Hence they had no excuses to be otherwise. So it shouldn't come as a surprise the selfless and sacrificial lives they went on to live for His Name and Gospel sake, which is the reason we have His Gospel presently with us today.

It's sad though to see how much the church is now lacking of selfless and exemplary leaders like Jesus and His disciples, but I pray that the day would return when the church was led by leaders who did not just lead and preach the Gospel with their mouths but also with their lives.

God bless.

Do not be weary in doing good, and being a good example, doing what God instructed us to do, because you never know the extent to which it may go to impact lives.

Jesus said:

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Matthew 5:16

God bless.

Exactly....Jesus lived by example before preaching verbally.

Which example did we get from Jesus when he was 2-29 years of age?

LordIsaac:
Exactly....Jesus lived by example before preaching verbally.

True.