In the Old Testament we read the story of Jacob’s wife, Rachel, and her desperate desire to have a child. She could no longer bear the thought of living without knowing the joy of childbirth, without experiencing all that was intended for her as a woman in the Jewish culture. Rachel’s pain was unbearable and she cried out to Jacob, “Give me children or I’ll die” (Genesis 30:1).
Bringing a soul to Christ is very much like giving birth. The Holy Spirit conceives the desire in our hearts, and we then begin to nurture the process, praying for souls regularly. We long to see our new baby delivered and when it is born, we don’t want to ever put it down. We play and cuddle and mentor God’s new creation. We plant and water, praying that God will give the increase. All we can think about is helping our child grow and flourish and take on the image of Christ.
If only every follower of Christ felt this same sense of passion and urgency to bring a new child into God’s kingdom! If only we each decided that we could no longer live with the thought of being barren. If only the desire burned within our hearts until we could no longer contain it, until we finally kept crying out to God, “Give me a spiritual child or I will die.”
Everywhere I go I meet Christians who have never felt the joy of leading a soul to Christ. They come to me asking for advice, usually with eyes cast downward in embarrassment. I tell them not to be ashamed by this fact but instead excited that the Holy Spirit is convicting their hearts.
“The first step in sharing your faith is developing a burning desire to do so,” I tell them. We can count on the Holy Spirit to ignite this desperate desire within us, for this is exactly what he wants to do.
Nicky Cruz, internationally known evangelist and prolific author, turned to Jesus Christ from a life of violence and crime after meeting David Wilkerson in New York City in 1958. The story of his dramatic conversion was told first in The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson and then later in his own best-selling book Run, Baby, Run.