Neglecting the Great Commission, the current predicament in the American Church, is the direct result of emphasizing feelings and emotion, giftings and abilities over obedience and patronizing disobedient Christians instead of challenging them to follow Christ (I’ve never known a pastor not challenge people to be obedient to tithe but few take that same zeal for obedience to other areas like evangelism). It has been said that you don’t feel your way into acting but instead you act your way into feeling; Russ Akins said it best, “If faith had a feeling it would probably be fear.” The modern emphasis has always been, “Do you feel led to, do you feel a peace about that, are you gifted with x,y or z and what are you talented at?” The result is that no one wants to share their faith because they feel fear not “peace” and they don’t feel gifted with evangelism which makes sense since they’ve never tried it or stuck with it long enough to see (besides, there is no command to witness if gifted but each of us are commanded to share). The emphasis must be simply obedience. Conviction #5 - We can’t focus on feelings and emotions, giftings and abilities but instead realize obedience to Him must be the foundation in which those other things become great assets. (The gifting must always come after the calling – Ravi Zacharius.) Fear will be a natural feeling when stepping out of comfort zones, but that process is vital to developing true disciples. Most Christians have developed unbelief having never seen a friend, neighbor, relative or co-worker come to Christ.
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