God's Loving Sacrifice Podcast
Hello, Do you ever feel defeated as a Christian in the confusing times we are living in today? I know I do. This is were God’s Loving Sacrifice Podcast comes in. We do bible studies to help you strengthen your walk with the Lord in today’s crazy world. We also encourage you to share the gospel and the love of Christ with this world in need.
God's Loving Sacrifice Podcast
Alonzo Zeigler: Transforming Evangelism Through Prayer! / S3E12
What if prayer could transform your ability to connect with others and share your faith? Join us as we welcome back Zoe, a passionate advocate for using prayer in evangelism. Zoe shares not only his personal insights but also practical advice on incorporating prayer into daily life. From grocery store interactions to workplace encounters, discover how to identify those you meet regularly and build a meaningful prayer list for them. Zoe's powerful personal story illustrates the influence of seeking guidance from the Holy Spirit, leading to a remarkable witnessing moment. This episode promises to enrich your understanding of prayer as a two-way conversation with God, where His responses, whether yes, no, or maybe, guide you on your spiritual journey.
Our conversation also unpacks the broader mission of evangelism, accentuating the various roles each of us plays in leading others to faith. We explore the necessary preparations—like prayer, fasting, and scripture study—that equip you as a soul winner for Christ. Emphasizing the importance of the full armor of God, we encourage listeners to deepen their connection with the Word and fellow believers to strengthen their witness. Even if you're not actively spreading the gospel, learn how you can support the mission through prayer, becoming a vital part of a prayer team. Engage with us by sharing your thoughts and questions, as we eagerly await to address them in upcoming episodes.
My website is https://www.godslovingsacrifice.com
Well, hello. Today we've got Zoe with us again. We're going to talk a little bit about sharing the gospel with people, and I hope you enjoyed Zoe's last comment and there may be another one. If you guys are interested, just let me know. So, again, this is Zoe and he's going to talk about how to spread the gospel, about how to spread the gospel.
Alonzo Zeigler:Well, I'm glad you had me back, but I really think it's important that when we share the gospel, is that we realize that we're not by ourself, that God is already working in that person's life or God is drawing them.
Alonzo Zeigler:No one comes to Jesus unless the Father draws them and we pray. But one thing about if you go, if you decide to want to go and speak to a family member or you want to go out two by two, as the disciples went out two by two and either go out to a football game or go out to the workplace, first of all you want to have a prayer life and you're looking at the people who you come in contact with every day. You come in contact people in the grocery store, the grocery store line. You go to the bank. You go to the mall. You go, the mailman comes to your door. You just basically just think about all the people you come around and you have you come in contact with on a daily database marketplace, work, marketplace, going to the kids, the game pot, warning games, and all those families there and you begin to start building a prayer list, a list of names, and start praying about those people praying.
Gayla:Can I um, let's touch on that having a prayer life? Okay, exactly what is a prayer?
Alonzo Zeigler:life, prayer. Life is basically um finding out what god is doing and joining him and asking what he wants you to do in the community.
Alonzo Zeigler:Or what he wants you to do in your family's life, just joining in with what God is doing. And then there's a two-way conversation. I'll give you an example when I was here in Indianapolis. Here's an example. And this time, in the pit of my life, I was a prayer warrior, still a prayer warrior, but I would spend time like two and three hours in prayer. But it's not my expectation for you to spend two or three hours in prayer, but that is my desire. And at this particular time in my prayer life I said Holy Spirit, I said who?
Gayla:do you ask?
Alonzo Zeigler:I just literally asked the question Holy Spirit, who do you want me to witness to? Uh, tonight, as I go out, and, and and he's revealed revealed to me then just a name and I, to this day, I don't. I don't remember the name, but we're just going to use the word abby, okay, but just because I can't remember the name. And so that night I remember going out to talk a bit. I was looking for a place to pay my child support, and yet I was ready to go out and go witnessing. And so these two young ladies was at the bank, at Cashier, and they were standing outside. The Cashier place was right next to Taco Bell, and I just began to start sharing my faith with her. And she was a teenager and she was kind of rebellious and but her friends were christian, but she wasn't. I would just start sharing my faith with her. But remember, that morning I asked the holy spirit who did he want me to share my, my faith with? And come to find out. I began to start sharing my faith with this young lady and and, um, and I asked a question. I said, if you was to die tonight, where would you go? And just, she just didn't have no answer. And I began. I said do you mind if I share with you how the bible will answer that question? Um, or how to share that so in my prayer life.
Alonzo Zeigler:So the next morning I go back to prayer. Now the young lady didn't give her life to christ. I remember planting a seed, but I went back in prayer and prayed for the girl and the holy spirit said last night, I told you the name. I said, oh, my gosh. Jumped up off my knee and said holy spirit spoke to me. That was the young lady. Last night he told me her name and I ran into her that night and you know, so it was. I was still growing and listening to the voice of God. God speaks back and as you talk to him, he talks right back, and so it was a two-way street. And that's how important prayer life is. Go ahead.
Gayla:I know that growing up, my sample of what a prayer life would be was my aunt. We would go to her house. She had a little girl that stayed with her. That was my age and we'd be playing and everything. My mom would be sitting having coffee. Her clock would hit 1 o'clock. She disappeared and we would sit there and play and my mom would sit there and finish her coffee. At 2 o'clock she would come out of her room, going home. I said why does my aunt always go back in that room?
Gayla:And she says she prays every day between 1 and 2, every single day. Nothing stops her, nothing gets her out of going in her prayer closet, and so that's always been my idea of a strong prayer warrior that she dedicated her life to prayer. Now I didn't learn from her, because I don't do 1 to 2 o'clock. I seem like I pray all the time. If something hits me, I pray about it, but I feel like if more people would see that kind of devotion to prayer, I don't think people see that anymore they don't see people praying Right.
Alonzo Zeigler:But you have to understand prayer and one thing prayer is is asking, seeking and knowing God. You know asking, seeking, and how does he answer Back? He's either going to answer yes, no, or maybe.
Gayla:Or not in my time.
Alonzo Zeigler:I mean not your time in my time, yeah, well.
Gayla:I know I had someone tell me the best way to look at prayer is to look at the prayer that Jesus gave the disciples. Right, right, you know, you talk to the Heavenly Father, you praise Him for what he's done for you, you ask for forgiveness for the things that you've done. Then you take your petitions before God and I think so many people think prayer is just okay. God, can you do this for me? Can you do that for me? And they forget about the praise and the thanking and the asking for forgiveness, and I think that's such an important part of prayer that people leave out a lot.
Alonzo Zeigler:Well, I kind of want to rephrase this. I got stuck. The word acts. Look at the word acts. Acts in God S seeking God, k seeking God knock, and the door should be open, right. Well, how does he answer? He answered yes sometimes. He answered no sometimes and he says wait, yes. So does god answer all prayer?
Alonzo Zeigler:yes, he does I've always said there's three answers to every prayer, yes, no, and in my time, in my time, right so. And to kind of put that in your notes, whoever's listening is that my time, right so? And to kind of put that in your notes, whoever's listening is that acts seek not, and the door should be open, and that is all biblical in the book of matthews. But it but, but going on to sharing your faith. You do have to have a prayer life, why? Because there's opposition. The opposition is that they're the enemy. He does not want people to come to christ. Huh, as it says in second corinthians, chapter four, verse four, he said he has blinded the minds of the unbeliever, blinded the mind. So, first of all, when we have a prayer life, lord, take the scales off the, off their mind. Well, how do we do that?
Alonzo Zeigler:by praying by planting seeds in their life by let them having um asking god to reveal himself to them, and and through other people. Well, how does god um speak through other people? Through the bible, through tracks, through um um, through the tv, through um evangelist tv evangelist he speaks. He had different ways to speak, speak to the unbeliever, but as we go out and it's kind of like like cold call, but as you, as you go out and you share your faith with family members or loved ones, or the list of names that you write down, the people who you come in contact with on a daily base, and you've been praying for these people, I believe, those people who you pray for the mailman, the people in the grocery store, the people who are um um if you got kids, your your network of people.
Alonzo Zeigler:You just name the list and god will start speaking you about those people and then you be use your approach and God compels you To share your faith with them. And I believe that there are four ways that people are asking If you use the question hey, johnny, if you, what do you think it takes for a person To get to heaven? They either want to answer Four ways and they either want to answer their faith and they either want to answer their faith answer. You'll know that they're a believer by their faith and they accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The second time they might answer it would be a work answer. Well, I go to church. Oh, my grandmother go to church. Oh, my dad is a preacher, and they kind of shift the buck.
Alonzo Zeigler:And the third thing is that, well, I don't know, it's kind of unclear. The fourth way respond that you're going to get is that no. So you're going to get no, unclear, a work answer or a faith answer, and you just got to categorize and listen to people respond. I guarantee if you went out into the community, you went out to people you were workplace. I guarantee, if you take a survey, the people who you share your faith with with the question what do you think it takes for a person to go to heaven? They're going to answer in those four categories and as I went out into the streets or went out to those list of names, I began to ask that. And, sure enough, they either answered in a faith answer those who were saved when you asked that or some was like a work answer.
Alonzo Zeigler:Well, what is a work answer? A kind of religious answer where they says, well, my mom goes to church, my dad is a preacher, I believe in God, but not accepting Christ. Let me give you a work answer. Well, I feel like I'm a good person. You know, the Bible says that in Romans, chapter 3, verse 23, that there is no one good, no one righteous, there is none. None of us all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Alonzo Zeigler:There is no one exempt, have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is no one exempt those who were born in the sin. All of us have a fault to short of the glory of God. Uncle, if you were the president, all the way down to the person in the city that we never heard of, we all have fallen short of the glory of God.
Gayla:But, um, but you know, go ahead. You know what I think is interesting about that scripture? It says we've all fall short, not in past tense. That means we're continuing to fall as we go. And a lot of people will say that and say we've all fallen short of the glory of. God. No, we've all fallen short of the glory of God. We we've all fallen short of the glory of God, we still do it.
Alonzo Zeigler:Still do it. I'm still doing it. No, we haven't fallen. We all fall short. And the one thing I like about that Christ died, as he revealed to me in my faith. He died for past, present and future sin. Yep and a lot of people don't catch that.
Gayla:That's what a preacher told one time that the blood from the cross flowed forwards and backwards Right.
Alonzo Zeigler:And when he died for that. And then the thing what comes behind that? We have to realize there's nothing that we can do, nothing that we have to do to earn to get into the kingdom. It's all he has done for us.
Gayla:Right. I see so many people nowadays that that's the new thing. Oh, you can just be a good person and you can make it to heaven, right? And that is such a lie of Satan.
Alonzo Zeigler:Right, right.
Gayla:And if we can't get past that with people, you hear a lot of work answers yes, and then it's okay when you can go farther on sharing the gospel.
Alonzo Zeigler:On the same question, on what do you think it takes for a person to go to heaven, they give you unclear, they're leaving a door open for you to pray for them, or pretty much they can be converted right then and there, because they're kind of unclear. I'm really just not sure. And then you know, then you, then you, you can discern and say you know what god has been working in this man's life. God has been working in this child's. God has been working in this man's life. God has been working in this child's life. God has been working in this woman's life. God has been working in this teenager's, this female's life. Because they're unclear, they're seeking, but they just don't have the answer. I don't want to sound mechanical, but the answer is unclear. So they follow the Romans. Do you mind having the Bible share that and you move forward on sharing the gospel.
Gayla:Doesn't it say in the scriptures that we are supposed to be ready in season and out of season? Right, that's why we have to have the word in our hearts, that's why we have to be in prayer, that's why we have to listen to the Holy Spirit. That's the only way we can be ready in season and out. Right way, we can be ready in season and out right, and when you run across that person, who's unsure? If you're not sure you're not gonna be able to help them right and so, but but the one.
Alonzo Zeigler:When you get to that point, it once kind of gave you the unclear. Then you move on. You start talking about forgiveness. Um, forgiveness, how important forgiveness is, because it leads on to something that you have not done to earn in life or you feel like you're a good person. It's something that you know. What I need? A savior. I need someone to save me from self and sin.
Alonzo Zeigler:Yes, save me from myself and save me from the penalty of sin, which is death. When we begin to start seeing that person gives an unclear answer, then we can follow and move on to try to win. The Bible says a person who wins souls is wise and you'll be able to go for the kill as far as winning that person over to for Christ. But you've still been a part of the plan. When they give an unclear answer that you're able to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them and then actually, right then and there, lead them into the sinner's prayer and lead them into a love relationship with Jesus Christ. But for that the light has to come on in their head that they have to believe they need a Lord and they need a Savior. You can't separate the two, savior and Lord. But they need a Savior to be saved from himself and be saved from sin we all do. And so unclear, there'd be a great chance of a conversion.
Gayla:I know a lot of people when they're witnessing and they think, well, nobody ever gets saved. When I'm talking to them and you mentioned this a little earlier there are people who sow, there are people who sew, there are people who water, there are people who weed. So it's not who is there when that person gives their heart to God. It's everyone that had a little bitty piece of leading them to having an eternity with Jesus Christ, right.
Alonzo Zeigler:And I've seen that because I remember a time that I was an outland witness to a lot of people out in the community, especially in Dallas. And they come back to me five years later. Hey, man, you remember that you, um, you shared the gospel with me. Um, I and I kept denying, and I look, now I'm a christian and I'm so.
Alonzo Zeigler:I don't remember you, but he remembered me, you know, so you just, but you just keep moving and I believe that um, as part of um, as we have, um, um breath of life, as we hear now and then, we have eternal life as we, when we leave here, and then we will have the crown of life, that we get a chance to receive the rewards that we will have in heaven, and part of one of those rewards is being a soul winner. The angels in heaven rejoice when one soul comes to Christ.
Gayla:Absolutely. They rejoice, they rejoice so if you took all of what we've talked about, what would you say a person needs to do to be prepared to go out and like a list? You need a prayer life.
Alonzo Zeigler:You need a prayer life and it's kind of simple. It's called prayer evangelism, as I say, because you're preparing to go out and evangelize. But you have to have a prayer life and it's kind of fun because you get a chance to all. Right, I'm going to work today. I'm going to run a coffee shop.
Alonzo Zeigler:I've been praying for Johnny, but I don't know what God's doing in his life. And then you're like I'm going on this journey with God and God's going to show you he's going. Holy Spirit comes to you and says, hey, ask him about how his daughter's doing. His daughter might have been sick. And all of a sudden you just came out of there because you listened to the Holy Spirit and he told you to ask about his daughter. And he's going to look at you and say, well, how do you know about my daughter? Well, I just feel compelled to talk about it, but the Holy Spirit will reveal it to you.
Alonzo Zeigler:So one of the important things to prepare you to go out, it is very important to have a prayer line, know who's on your team, other believers and the Holy Spirit is the one who's leading us. And one of the things I also too. If you're not sure how to do that, I believe prayer and fasting is a key. Have at least pray and fast at least once or twice a week. I used to fast twice a week. I haven't fasted in a while, but I think prayer and fasting certain things come through prayer and fasting and then, all of a sudden, knowing having the full armor of God, because you can't go out not equipped. The third thing man.
Gayla:I love the armor.
Alonzo Zeigler:And the third thing is understand the scriptures. Get you some scripture, and that's the Holy Spirit to lead you through scripture. Get a chance to spend time, because when you spend time in the word of God, you're spending time with Jesus. And and when you spend time in the word of God, and then you begin, and then one thing, as it says over in John chapter 15, I believe, or 17, and I'm paraphrasing when you begin to start spending time in God's word and memorizing scripture, the Holy Spirit is always linked, links to the word of God. The word of God is always linked to the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is always linked to the word of God. The word of God is always linked to the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is always linked to the word of God. And the Holy Spirit brings everything back to remembrance. Yes, yes, he's the comfort. He brings everything back to remembrance. So, spend time in the word of God.
Gayla:I know that there's lots of scriptures that are good to know when you're going out, and evangelizing.
Alonzo Zeigler:One of the things that the key scriptures that I think we should memorize number one is Matthew 28, verse 19. Because if you read that, you're spending time in prayer life, spending time in God's Word, spending time with other believers, time with other believers, but knowing this to make disciples and to share, that is you know your faith to the innermost part of the earth. Yes, that the great commission is the number one scripture. I think you should remember, because that's the motive.
Alonzo Zeigler:No matter you might not have a good week of sharing your faith or you might not be, you might not having too many people to share your faith because you might be an introvert. Also, too I wanted to put this out Even though you might struggle as an introvert going out sharing the gospel, you can still be a part of God's team by being prayer evangelist. You might just say you know what? I might not go out and share the gospel or whatever, but I sure enough can pray For those who are and those who are out going out. I'm sharing the gospel. Be on the prayer team, that's what I used to tell people.
Gayla:Somebody says God, it seems like I wake up about 3 o'clock every morning and I said well then, what is God asking you to pray for? You know, if you wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning and can't go back to sleep, try praying. I fall asleep praying.
Alonzo Zeigler:So you're still part of the team.
Gayla:I appreciate this. I look forward to you coming back. This has been really great, right? I want everybody to send in a comment and let Zoe know how he did.
Alonzo Zeigler:I would greatly appreciate it, and if they have any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer those questions.
Gayla:And everyone knows, at the bottom of my podcast, right underneath the title, it says send me a comment and I will get those comments to Zoe and we will make sure to read them on one of the other podcasts. So thank you, zoe, I greatly appreciate it.
Alonzo Zeigler:No problem.
