He was broke. He didn't have enough to eat not even to talk of purchasing a train ticket to his prospective business partner. Barnes had a strong conviction deep down in his bones that Thomas Edison was his business partner.
Well, when he got to Thomas Edison's office, he introduced himself and blurted out so loosely, "You are my business partner." Now Edison was confused. Where is this guy from? Who does he think he is?
So Thomas Edison offered the man a job as a cleaner. For eight years, Barnes was a cleaner in Thomas Edison's company.
At the time, Thomas Edison had built a recorder. However, people did not seem interested in buying the machine. He seemed to have abandoned the project. But one day, Barnes approached Edison after Edison was let down by a business tycoon he was persuading to get his recorder; the businessman did not really like the idea of such a machine.
Barnes said, "You see, I told you I am your business partner. Give me five of the machines and I will sell all of them."
After two weeks, Barnes returned to Edison with his sale of the recorder. Edison was stunned! More orders had been placed for the machine!
This was Barnes' bargain: "Emboss on the machine: 'Manufactured by Edison, Distributed by Barnes'.
They began a tremendous business partnership!
What a relentless attitude!
That's how every serious soul winner must be: persistent!
Bishop Matthew Addae-Mensah shared this story in his message on how to be an effective soul winner.
As seen previously, three keys for effective soul winning are:
# Prayer
# Boldness
# Persistence
To become an effective soul winner, you must be addicted to prayer, praying when you have to pray.
Peter and John were addicted to prayer (Acts 3:1). If you're addicted to prayer, you won't miss prayer time.
Once you start to pray, every step you take will be followed by signs and wonders.
In Acts 6:1-4, the Apostles gave prayer and the ministry of the Word precedence over serving tables. The man of God challenged the students to put themselves to task to pray; pray for six hours or five hours or two hours daily...make sure you pray.
Soul winning is spiritual warfare. You need the force of prayer to break the stronghold of the enemy.
Once you go out, angels are backing you.
The man of God challenged students present to settle within themselves and be persistent in doing the work.
Whatever dream you have, you should be persistent; you may try and fail. It is said that Thomas Edison failed 2000 times until he finally arrived at the light bulb. You see, you do not qualify for anything you have not asked God for. Ask God concerning what you want to become. Be persistent and believe.
It is not easy for people to come to Church. People like giving excuses but you must be persistent!
The parable of the King who threw a banquet and sent invitations to deserving folks was studied (see Luke 14:16-24). For each person's excuse, we identified that they were all lying; they just did not want to attend the banquet.
Bishop explained, "When it comes to the Gospel, people will give you excuses and lies. They will deceive you."
You must compel them!
Illustrating this point, he shared the story of a pastor who invited the townsfolk for Church Service. Many of them said they'd come but they did not show up. So one day, the pastor observed that the same people he invited the last time had gathered to drink palm wine.
So the pastor devised a plan to invite them this time with a wonderful bait. He said, "We'll be drinking palm wine at Church so you can all come." That day, they came in their numbers but as the Service progressed, they were asking, "But where is the palm wine?"
The good news is that many of them gave their lives to Christ!
You must aggressively persuade people to accept Christ. To compel is the Greek word 'Anagkazo' as used in Luke 14:23. Once you bring people to Church two or three times, it becomes easy for them to stay. Compel them to come to Church.
You must put pressure on them to receive.
It was said of the Apostles that they turned the world upside down because they led many to Christ aggressively (Acts 17:6).
He concluded by saying, "No man can devote his life to serve God and be left unrewarded!"
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