Psalm 68:20 Our God is a God of salvation, and to God, the Lord, belong deliverances from death.

I have been struggling with what to write about explaining how the lost might come to know the God that saves. It comes down to this, they have to hear about this God before they learn about this God. Learning is not the same as knowing. That takes revelation, God revealing Himself in a tangible way that takes the student from a learning experience to a knowing experience.

My experience is not the only way that God can reveal Himself. I can share what I know to be true in my experience but that doesn’t mean others will experience God in that specific way.

Only God knows how to reach that lost soul who will finally place their faith in Jesus Christ.

We as Christians have been instructed to spread the gospel, the “Good News”. The parable of the sower says to scatter the seeds liberally without concern as to where that seed lands. The seed only produces fruit when it falls on good soil.

Some go about sharing the gospel by looking for good soil. Nowhere in Matthew 13 does that parable or the explanation of that parable tell us to test the soil, yet that is what some do. In doing so we are not obeying the Word, to spread it liberally.

Now Jesus sent out seventy-two disciples by twos with these instructions;

Luke 10:5-7 English Standard Version

5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ 6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. 7 And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house.

What is different in this application of obedience of faith between the sower parable and these instructions is often lost on believers. In the parable everyone is capable of sharing the gospel wherever they go. In Luke 10 there are those sent with a mission, and evangelistic mission. Specific instructions are given to each in how to go about behaving on their mission. That is not the case in the parable of the sower, all are to spread the gospel, we do not have to be “sent”.

While I still struggle with the words to delineate the difference between learning and knowing, I see one more thing that God shows us in the scriptures.

How many of us think that Jesus only sent out the 12 apostles two by two? Luke says 72.

I missed that and others might also.