Faith In Action: The Role of Social Media

Before Jesus returned to the Father in Heaven, He gave a specific instruction to His disciples. By
human standards, they were qualified to share the good news of the Kingdom of God. Had they not been trained by the Master Himself for at least three years? In God’s estimation, they were not properly ‘kitted’ for the mission.

They had to wait for the Special Someone Jesus had told them about in John chapters fourteen through sixteen. Only the Holy Spirit had the power required for ministry. Earlier, Jesus had given them what we now refer to as the ‘Great Commission’ as recorded in Mark 16:15. “And He said to them, Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation”.

So, when the Holy Spirit arrived in power on the Day of Pentecost, the disciples did not need to pray about where they should start their ministry. In Acts 1:8 Jesus said, “But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth”. After they were filled with the Holy
Spirit, Jesus’ disciples enjoyed their fellowship, breaking bread from house to house.

They were almost turning Jerusalem into their resting place when the Lord used the hostile Jews and
the local Roman authorities to send some of them fleeing to neighbouring cities and other countries, including Rome. The persecution which started after the killing of James, the brother of John as recorded in Acts 12:12, intensified at the behest of Emperor Nero of Rome. By AD 64, Christians were seized, tortured and killed in droves after Nero accused them of setting fire to a part of Rome. The intensity of the persecution led to the dispersal of many Christians to other nations in what was then known as Western Asia Minor. From there, many nations in Europe were later ‘Christianized’ and the rest is history.

We have delved into history to place the Great Commission within the context of the present generation. Currently, there are several countries that have shut their doors to the gospel of Jesus Christ officially.

We know for instance, that preaching the gospel in North Korea is a suicide
mission. Several other nations also prohibit proselytizing of their nationals, though the penalty is not as severe as that of North Korea. Currently, 50 countries are identified as very hostile to the gospel as shown in the map above. Of course, North Korea tops the list.

Others include Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Iran. In some of these countries, especially North Korea, Afghanistan and Somalia, converting to Christianity can be a death warrant.

If we must meet the demands of the ‘Great Commission’, we must think of creative ways of reaching the people of these countries without risking our lives unnecessarily. That is where the social media becomes an effective tool for evangelism. While it is true that some of these countries have imposed restrictions on the use of the Internet by their people, we have it on good authority that their nationals have found ways of beating the system. Ours is to sow the word, believing that God would find a way of getting it across to the people who need it.

What should be your attitude towards the use of these tools to reach people for Christ? I know that some Christians are averse to patronise the social media because of the bad press, especially in terms of the volume of fake news which pervade the cyber space. If you are among such groups of Christians, try to weigh the advantage of winning even one soul for Christ against the inconvenience of being exposed to fake news. A soul is worth the blood of the Son of God, should it not be worth our time?

So, how can we use social media platforms to reach unsaved souls? The first step is to open accounts with as many of them as we possibly can. It should be emphasised that such accounts are not opened for social interaction per se. We have a target – to snatch lost souls from the hands of satan and his demons. The next step is to pray about what we can share.

I believe that the Lord would have us share our testimonies because Revelation 12:11 declares that the Saints “have conquered him (satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony”. We can also post articles written by other Spirit-filled Christians on our profile pages to give them wider circulation. The most important thing is to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

It is however important to note that serving God online has its challenges, one of which is the attack from satanists. They fight dirty, especially using pornographic materials. Once they identify you with Christ, they would bombard your profile page with pornographic videos or invitations to join occult groups. Of course, you need to delete such mails immediately and not bother sending a response to them except you are specifically directed by the Holy Spirit to do so.

We are at war brethren, and the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to
the pulling down of strongholds (2Corinthians 10:4). May the Lord help us to fight with precision by His word, not as a “boxer beating the air” (1 Corinthians 9:26)