Introduction
“For the Holy Spirit will teach
you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
— Luke 12:12 (NKJV)
Every aspect of Help
Wanted has been taught to me by the One I believe to be God’s Holy Spirit:
from the purpose, to the subject, to the title, to the subtitle, to the
contents, to the order of the chapters, to the literal words of this Introduction,
and to all the details and words that follow. Receiving the directions for what
to write to you has been one of the most wonderful experiences of my life. I
thank and praise God for granting me this awesome favor.
I pray that I have been faithful
and accurate in sharing with you what I was directed to write. Since some
people receive false messages from the enemy who is in the world that are
intended to deceive, you should test what is in Help Wanted through your reading of the Bible and prayer as Paul
wrote in 1 Corinthians 14:29 (NKJV): “Let two or three prophets speak, and let
the others judge.”
I thank you for reading and
considering these words. I also pray that you will find the experience of
applying what you learn to be Godly and awesome.
Help Wanted’s purposes are to encourage you to teach exponential
fruitfulness (accomplishing more of what God intends) and to inform you how to
do so in highly effective ways. To explain these purposes, let’s first consider
what Jesus said about fruitfulness.
Encourage Exponential Fruitfulness
by Teaching about It
“I am the true vine, and My Father is
the vinedresser.
Every branch in Me that does not bear
fruit He takes away;
and every branch that bears
fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
You are already clean because of the word
which I have spoken to you.
Abide in Me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of
itself, unless it abides in the vine,
neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
I am the vine, you are the
branches.
He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears
much fruit;
for without Me you can do nothing.
If anyone does not abide in Me, he is
cast out as a branch and is withered;
and they gather them and throw them into the
fire, and they are burned.
If you abide in Me, and My words abide
in you,
you will ask what you desire, and it
shall be done for you.
By this My Father is glorified, that you
bear much fruit;
so you will be My disciples.”
— John
15:1-8, NKJV
As these verses relate, Jesus promised that those who abide
in Him can ask for Godly desires and receive them to glorify our Heavenly
Father, God. Instead of acting with delight on that promise, most people try to
produce more of what appeals to them without either abiding in Him or seeking
His support. Some of these appealing desires are not Godly ones, and evenly
Godly ones may not be supported supernaturally for those who do not abide in
Him. As a result, it should be no surprise when people who seek ungodly desires
and those who rely solely on their own strength for Godly purposes show no
Godly fruitfulness.
Where can those who aren’t being
fruitful turn for help? Jesus waits with open arms to help them by offering
Salvation, the Bible, and answers to prayers. The Holy Spirit will also provide
guidance after they become believers.
I can also offer you another
Godly resource for becoming fruitful: After being directed by the Holy Spirit
to encourage faithfulness and to show how to increase effectiveness in
following Jesus, I wrote 2,000 Percent
Living (Salvation Press, 2010) to help individuals learn to lead the
fruitful lives that He desires for all to engage in. For those who are able to
read and apply what they learn, 2,000
Percent Living can provide practical directions for increasing fruitfulness
after Salvation is received.
Almost everyone can be even more
fruitful by having regular Earthly help from fellow believers to reinforce
heavenly directions. That lesson is well demonstrated in Witnessing Made Easy: Yes, You Can Make a Difference (Jubilee
Worship Center Step by Step Press, 2010) by the large increases in
congregational witnessing that follow from having in-congregation evangelists
encourage and teach witnessing for five minutes during every church service and
activity.
When dealing with their most
important and highest priority tasks for the Lord, most people seek to become
as effective as possible because a lot is at stake. With proper help, even the
most highly gifted in any field can accomplish a great deal more and avoid many
errors. Consider top-flight athletes as an example. Few world record holders
fail to have coaches and trainers who assist in finding, demonstrating, and
encouraging ways to perform better.
Where, then, are the Earthly
helpers for those who either can benefit from or want as much assistance as possible
in being more fruitful for Him? Most seekers of increased fruitfulness will
look in vain for Earthly help beyond the believers who explain the Bible and
those who lecture from books based on Bible verses about fruitfulness. That
kind of general support wouldn’t be enough assistance for athletes to improve
to their full potential, and it’s not enough support either for those who are
already saved and are committed to increasing their fruitfulness for Him.
Why isn’t more direct help
available from fellow believers? One of the most important reasons for the
shortage of assistance is because people who learn how to be more fruitful
usually focus much more attention on expanding their own fruitfulness than on
increasing the fruitfulness of others. A sports example may help to explain:
Consider that when Lance Armstrong was thrilling the cycling world by winning
seven straight Tour de France championships, he didn’t take time off to coach
others on how to defeat him. Athletes who become coaches usually do so after
their bodies won’t permit maximum performance any longer.
Unlike athletes, Christians can
continually grow in their direct fruitfulness. It takes a conscious decision
for a fruitful Christian to reduce time spent on being directly fruitful to
begin coaching other Christians on becoming more fruitful. This redirection of
focus can be one way that the Lord will prune many personally fruitful
Christians.
Think about how almost anyone can
accomplish much more for Him by assisting others to be more fruitful than by
only expanding his or her personal fruitfulness. Unlike a sports coach who
might only help develop a few top athletes, someone who teaches exponential
fruitfulness might be able to assist multitudes of people who become highly
effective for Him. In light of that potential, Jesus’ words about not having
enough help ring as true today concerning coaches and tutors of expanded
fruitfulness as they did when He began itinerant preaching and commented about
the limited number of disciples initially available to precede Him:
Then He said to them, “The
harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest (Luke 10:2,
NKJV).
You have probably heard John
15:1-8 preached. However, you may not have received much more specific advice
about what to do than to spend more time in Bible reading, prayer, and acting
on what the Holy Spirit directs you to do. While that’s certainly good advice,
most people would benefit from more specific directions from knowledgeable
believers about how to apply the messages that are received from Bible reading,
prayer, and listening to the Holy Spirit.
Why is specific advice often
missing from lessons taught about John 15:1-8? It appears that more Christians
have been gifted to inspire people to be more fruitful for Him than have been
gifted to teach people specific, highly effective ways to act on such
inspirations.
What can be done to expand access
to receiving more practical direction? Jesus’ teachings demonstrate the value
of providing very specific advice and examples in a narrow context. His
examples show how specialization in teaching can help learners while reducing
the amount of preparation needed for those offering the lessons. Help Wanted follows His example by
spelling out how to teach exponential fruitfulness in a variety of different
contexts.
To understand more about how to
provide specific directions, let’s look more closely at what Jesus, our
foremost Teacher of fruitfulness, did in His most powerful lessons. When we
read what the Bible tells us about His methods, it’s clear that Jesus was often
very specific to the disciples in His instructions. Here’s an example: Jesus
wanted the disciples to love one another in a sacrificial way, putting service
to others ahead of their self-interests and comfort. Rather than merely stating
and preaching about that directive, Jesus first demonstrated at the Last Supper
precisely what He wanted the disciples to do:
Jesus, knowing that the Father
had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was
going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and
girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the
disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was
girded.
Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter
said to Him, “Lord, are You washing my feet?”
Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but
you will know after this.”
Peter said to Him, “You shall
never wash my feet!”
Jesus answered him, “If I do not
wash you, you have no part with Me.”
Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord,
not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!”
Jesus said to him, “He who is
bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are
clean, but not all of you.” For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He
said, “You are not all clean.”
So when He had washed their feet,
taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, “Do you know what I
have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so
I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also
ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you
should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not
greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If
you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” (John 13:3-17, NKJV)
As John 15:1-8 relates, Jesus
wants us to be fruitful in serving the kingdom of God.
He also wants to improve and benefit us through the service we provide in
helping others be more fruitful as we read in Romans 8:28 (NKJV), “And we know
that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are
the called according to His purpose.” Let’s look at what some of the
rewards are for those Christians who are effective in assisting others to
become exponentially fruitful.
Receive Rewards for Teaching
Practical, Exponential Fruitfulness
“And behold, I am coming quickly,
and My reward is with Me,
to give to every one according to his
work.”
— Revelation 22:12 (NKJV)
A Christian life promises many deferred, highly desirable
rewards, such as spending eternity with God after repenting, believing in Him,
following Him, and receiving the free gift of Salvation. Knowing that great
heavenly rewards await, Christians learn to be happily patient, obedient, and
faithful as they deal with trials that test and refine them to be more like
Jesus.
Teaching practical ways to be
exponentially fruitful can provide both eternal and day-to-day rewards that
will further uplift any Christian’s heart and soul. The eternal rewards are
alluded to in Revelation 22:12 where Jesus promises to reward those who have
done His work when He returns. If ordinary fruitfulness will earn rewards, just
think about how much more exponential fruitfulness will be recognized by Him
when each is rewarded according to the work that was done.
Jesus made important observations
about the potential for exponential fruitfulness while explaining the Parable
of the Sower:
“When anyone hears the word of
the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one
comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received
seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he
who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in
himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution
arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now he who received seed
among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the
deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. But he who
received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it,
who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some
thirty.” (Matthew 13:18-23 NKJV)
The last sentence indicates that Jesus wants us to realize
that exponential fruitfulness is likely for those who understand His will and are
faithful in doing it. He also made it clear that many would not understand His
will, suggesting the potential importance of having people who explain His
directions. Further, among those who understand, some will not be faithful. The
unfaithful people can benefit from being continually encouraged by those who
understand and are faithful.
The day-to-day rewards from
teaching exponential fruitfulness may not be apparent to you until you
experience them. I know that these rewards came as a pleasant surprise to me.
Having helped many people to become exponentially fruitful, in the spirit of
being helpful let me humbly share with you some of the Earthly rewards that I
have experienced as a partial indication of what God’s plan for your rewards
may include:
• Peacefulness (Knowing that you
are contributing to results with positive eternal consequences drowns out many
anxieties tied to less important Earthly matters.)
• Love (Teaching fruitfulness
provides many opportunities to express and receive brotherly love.)
• Satisfaction (When Godly
results follow from the actions taken by those who receive your teaching, you
enjoy a sense of having done some good work.)
• Contribution (When needy people
are helped by those you teach, the benefits received may be greater than what
your finances could have provided, giving you a sense of the substantial value
your efforts helped create by attracting God’s supernatural resources.)
• Significance (Meeting and
working with highly effective contributors to fruitfulness allow you to see
better how important your work is in God’s eyes.)
• Confidence (As your ability to
teach fruitfulness improves, you will feel less daunted by Earthly
difficulties.)
• Inspiration (When the results
accomplished by your learners’ efforts exceed what you hoped and prayed for,
your sense of awe will increase for God’s infinite knowledge, omnipresence, and
unlimited power.)
• Mastery (As your teaching
becomes more effective, you will experience greater joy.)
• Kindness (People who benefit
from your teachings will often express their appreciation in touching, Godly
ways.)
• Humility (The more that is
accomplished by those you teach, the more you will realize that the increase is
from God.)
• Friendship (You will establish
connections to wonderful believers God has intended to be part of your life who
you would not otherwise have met.)
I pray that you will richly
receive all of these benefits … and even more!
If you would like to better
understand any of my experiences with teaching exponential fruitfulness, I
invite you to contact me with your questions by e-mail at
save_more_souls@yahoo.com. I would also be pleased to hear from you about the
Earthly benefits that you gain from teaching practical, exponential
fruitfulness.
Let’s look now at why at least a
million tutors of practical, exponential fruitfulness are needed, where they
might be found, and how they might prepare for this role.
Prepare One Million Fruitfulness Tutors
Are all apostles?
Are all prophets?
Are all teachers?
Are all workers of miracles?
— 1 Corinthians 12:29 (NKJV)
In 1 Corinthians 12:29, Paul is making the point that the
gifts God provides to individuals for serving the body of Christ are quite
varied. As a result, we should expect that the number of those who have a particular
type of Godly gift will be limited.
When we consider just those who
have received teaching gifts, God has provided many needs for applying those
gifts. Some of the gifted will teach as pastors, leading their congregations.
Others will teach in Sunday school, helping youngsters to learn about
Christianity. Still others will teach various important ministry tasks. Because
of meeting these many needs, just a small portion of those with the teaching
gift are available to teach practical, exponential fruitfulness. In many
nations, it’s also difficult to teach about Christianity without substantial
opposition from the government or people of different faiths. Those limits
further reduce the availability of employing teaching gifts for expanding
fruitfulness. In addition, many of those with the teaching gift will lack the
perspectives and experiences needed to teach ways of expanding fruitfulness in
practical, exponential ways for many potential applications.
Experience has shown that a
well-informed fruitfulness tutor can assist as many as twenty people at a time
who have the same learning need. If instead each learner has a different
learning need, fruitfulness tutoring has to be one-on-one. Most new tutors will
also feel much more comfortable assisting one person at a time even when the
learning needs among potential students are quite similar. As a result, I
estimate that one million tutors will initially be teaching no more than two
million people a year. With the body of Christ probably containing hundreds of
millions of saved people, it takes a million tutors just to begin to make a
direct impact on the potential for increasing fruitfulness.
Fortunately, learning from tutors
isn’t the only way that Christians can become more fruitful: Believers can also
do more for Him by emulating fruitful actions they observe others doing. As a
result, we can expect that anyone who learns practical, exponential
fruitfulness and performs it in a visible way will indirectly influence more
fruitfulness among those who observe the services done for God.
To obtain the most results from
such followers of good examples, it’s important to have tutors present in as
many countries as possible and teaching as many different aspects of practical,
exponential fruitfulness as possible.
As one approach for making such
tutors available, let’s look at the contexts for practical, exponential
fruitfulness for which directions are provided in Help Wanted.
Select and Place Well-Prepared Tutors
in Highly Fruitful Learning Environments
And Elijah the Tishbite, of the
inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab,
“As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand,
there shall not be dew nor rain these
years, except at my word.”
Then the word of the LORD came to him,
saying,
“Get away from here and turn eastward,
and hide by the Brook Cherith, which
flows into the Jordan.
And it will be that you shall
drink from the brook,
and I have commanded the ravens to feed
you there.”
So he went and did according to the word
of the LORD,
for he went and stayed by the Brook
Cherith, which flows into the Jordan.
The ravens brought him bread and meat in
the morning,
and bread and meat in the evening; and
he drank from the brook.
And it happened after a while that the brook
dried up,
because there had been no rain in the
land.
Then the word of the LORD came to him,
saying,
“Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there.
See, I have commanded a widow there to
provide for you.”
— 1 Kings 17:1-9 (NKJV)
As Elijah’s experience shows, God provides for us in
specific places and ways in order to serve His objectives. We have to be in the
right place at the right time to be in His will. As a result, we need to pay
close attention when selecting, preparing, and placing exponential fruitfulness
tutors in order to achieve outstanding results, the second of Help Wanted’s purposes.
In many examples of fruitfulness,
Jesus spoke about leading more people to learn about Salvation. Simple
arithmetic tells us that the more born-again Christians there are, the more
potential fruitfulness can be created by the body of Christ. Experience shows
that tutoring all believers in congregations to do more witnessing and in more
effective ways is a high-potential opportunity for expanding fruitfulness. In Witnessing Made Easy, you can read the
details of how in-congregation evangelists can expand by over 400 times the
amount of witnessing done as a result of a single congregation’s activities
(both by greatly increasing the congregation’s own witnessing and by providing
lots of tools to eager witnesses in other congregations who lack the ability to
afford them). In Ways You Can Witness:
How the Lost Are Found (Salvation Press, 2010), you can read about the
value of and ways to implement six different complementary approaches to witnessing
that can make a congregation’s learning about witnessing even more fruitful.
Chapter One of Help Wanted relates
how to combine all eight of these methods from the two books to expand
witnessing effectiveness and suggests applying the methods in at least 100,000
churches by adding in-congregation evangelists who teach these practices during
each church service and activity.
Churches engage in many
ministries that don’t involve witnessing. Chapter Two describes how tutors can
help those ministries to become more exponentially fruitful. Through these
ministries, those who cannot be encouraged to witness can contribute to
fulfilling His purposes.
Christian good works are often
done by nonprofit organizations that need to raise funds, to attract volunteers,
and to apply the funds with the help of volunteers to accomplish important
tasks for those in need. Chapter Three explains what tutors should learn and
teach in order to make those organizations serve their purposes in
exponentially more fruitful ways.
Since Help Wanted is about accomplishing more through learning and
applying what’s learned, it’s natural to consider the roles that tutors can
play to help students at universities and colleges, both Christian and secular,
learn to be more fruitful. That’s the subject of Chapter Four.
Many Christians already earn a
living as professional teachers, both in private and public schools. In many
locales, public school teachers belong to unions that champion better
environments and encouragement for learning. Chapter Five examines what tutors
can do to help teachers and their unions expand their fruitfulness.
Jesus was very concerned about
nurturing children. Many youth groups encourage fellowship and learning.
Chapter Six addresses the opportunities for tutors to aid such associations in
increasing their fruitfulness.
Foundations often play a role in
improving Earthly conditions by encouraging and financing experiments designed
to make breakthroughs. Chapter Seven investigates how tutors can assist
foundations to add to their Godly fruitfulness.
Many believers use their
organizations to serve Christian purposes as well as to earn a profit in what
is often called “social entrepreneurship.” Chapter Eight explores the potential
for tutors to help social enterprises deliver more fruitfulness.
Some nations are determined to
lift up their people in spiritual and Earthly ways. Chapter Nine portrays ways
for these intentions to be accomplished in more fruitful ways through the help
of breakthrough tutors.
Some for-profit companies are
engaged in activities that while intended to be spiritually neutral actually
open important doors for Godly fruitfulness. Chapter Ten develops many new ways
that tutors can assist these firms do more to contribute to God’s work while
improving their Earthly success.
Many independent professionals
are talented in developing ways of organizing complicated tasks so that more
can be accomplished. Some of these individuals work as consultants, others as
software developers, and still others as practitioners of best practice
research. Chapter Eleven relates how tutors can assist those with such skills
to be redirected to create more Godly fruitfulness.
Finally, some may welcome the
opportunity to develop professional careers as fruitfulness tutors specializing
in important activities. Chapter Twelve guides such individuals in selecting a
specialty, gaining the knowledge needed to be effective in that specialty,
attracting learners, earning a living from the activity, and improving their
effectiveness.
In the book’s epilogue, you will
find more details about the four key lessons for tutors when getting started in
expanding exponential fruitfulness for Him.
I also invite you to learn about
how I became a Christian and what that has meant to me by reading my testimony
in Appendix A.
In Appendix B, you’ll find three
valuable tutoring blueprints for accomplishing much more through helping
learners combine more complementary benefit breakthroughs, interesting and
inspiring students to make breakthroughs, and teaching others to tutor
breakthrough learners.
Here’s a final recommendation:
Although each chapter is intended to be read as stand-alone information, you
will better understand what to do if you read these chapters in order before
going back to reread material that appeals more to you. I make that suggestion
because many of the principles that all tutors need to apply are exemplified in
more detail in the first chapters than in the later ones.
Copyright © 2011 by Donald W.
Mitchell. All rights reserved.
