Breathing: How To Give Spiritual CPR

Breath is life. The object of CPR is to breathe for a person who cannot breathe on his/her own. In a spiri­tual sense, sinners may be so weak that they are un­able to make it alone. The soulwinner is their only link to life. Here are ways you can breathe for lost souls.

Pray for them. Prayer is the most powerful force that we, as mortals, can employ. Begin immediately to intercede in prayer for the lost soul you desire to win to God. Pray to bind the powers of Satan. Pray that God will give them honesty and courage to repent. Pray to eradicate every barrier to his/her salvation. Pray to gain more insight and wisdom to deal with this person. Pray until you have enter­ed into spiritual war­fare, wrestling for this person’s soul. Pray on until you have an assurance of victory.

Abraham prayed until Lot was deliv­ered from Sodom. Hannah prayed until God gave her a son. The early church prayed and they witnessed with great bold­ness. When the Apostles were imprisoned, they prayed until deliverance came. Ezra, Nehemiah and Daniel all pray­ed interces­sory prayers for their people. Paul often prayed for the lost. Christ, himself, offered the greatest example we have of interces­sory prayer in John 17. The greater burden you have for souls, the more you will pray for them.

Pray with them. Praying with people is different than praying for them. Just as CPR assists a victim in breathing because he/she cannot breathe alone, pray­ing with a person does the same thing spiritually. As you stand or kneel beside a person, you supply the basic ideas, the words and even the tone of voice as a guide or exam­ple for prayer. It may go something like this:

“Lord, we confess our need of you right now. We’ve tried so many times and ways to find answers for our lives, but nothing has worked. We are sorry for every sin. We ask for your forgiveness for all of them. Jesus, we love you, we praise you, we exalt your wonderful name…”

Jesus taught his disciples to pray by quoting the prayer we call “The Lord’s Prayer” today. He did this in direct re­sponse to their request, “Lord, teach us to pray. He did not assume that they could do it by just explaining to them the theory of prayer. He modeled it for them.

While praying with a person, use the scripture to give more authority to your words. Pray about specific needs that you are aware about in this person’s life. It may even help to place your hand on his/her shoulder during the prayer.

After prayer, let the one you are helping know what you were doing. “Tom, I was praying the kind of prayer you need to pray on your own. Ask God for for­giveness just like I was praying about. Worship the Lord by saying uplifting and adoring words to Him. He created us to worship Him. The Bible tells us ‘by him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his na­me.’” Hebrews 13:15. Praying with a person this way both en­courages and instructs him/her. It is spir­itual CPR.

Befriend them. Earlier, we men­tioned the importance of true friendship in a soulwinning context. Friendship is, above all, an attitude. Here are some ways you can show that you are a friend:

1. Accept him/her as a person. Again, this can be done without approving specific actions or attitudes.

2. Keep everything you hear in strict confidence. No principle of friendship is more important than this. Once a person gets word that you shared a confidence with a fellow worker, family member, or classmate, you will lose all the work you’ve invested in him/her.

3. Express your appreciation or ad­miration for specific traits, qualities or actions in or by this person. Many people go for months or years without hearing positive comments about themsel­ves. Avoid flattering, but focus on areas in which you can honestly pay valid compliments.

4. Be a sounding board for his/her ideas and views. Take these statements seriously. If you disagree, say so in a non-threatening, non-judgmental way. Say something like, “Tom, let’s see what the Bible has to say about that.” Or, “Mary, I understand what you’re saying, but let’s see where that will lead you eventually.” The important point is that you hear this person out.

5. Listen actively to this person. Communication experts greatly stress this principle. In active listening, you must stop a person after each point is made, repeat it back to him/her in your own words, and ask, “Is this what you’re saying? Do I have this right?” This ac­complishes two things. First, you are clarifying the subject for both of you. It forces you to clear up any muddled or gray areas, and establish the important facts. Second, by repeating statements in this manner, you make it easier to remember what was said.

6. Spend time with them. Nothing you give is as meaningful as your time. The hurting person is looking for someone who will help bear painful realities. Never act as if you are in a hurry to get away from a person. If you have other pressing obliga­tions, say so. Most of the time, people will understand. Make it clear, however, that you do want to talk with them. Set a time when you can get together.

Occasionally, allocate larger blocks of time to spend with this person. Often, a forty-minute lunch break won’t allow the deeper pain and confusion to find expres­sion. It may take an entire morning, after­noon or evening to really talk things out. Many subjects are so sensitive that they only emerge in the right setting. Time can pro­duce results that prying, cajoling or pres­suring cannot yield.

Given your schedule and situation, it may be impossible for you to give this kind of time to people. As an alternative, con­sider invol­ving them in your family, job or leisure activities. Can they come to your home for dinner? Can they go with you to get something for your work? Can they play racquetball, go shopping or fishing with you? Once you start thinking about the possibilities, you will come up with many options.

7.  Face problems with them. You probably have often heard the term “moral support”. Anyone in a difficult situation finds it comfor­ting to be with a close friend. Perhaps you can be at a surgery with a person. Maybe you can show up in court if he/she is in a legal battle. If he/she has to confront someone else in a potentially volatile situation, your presence may be appreciated. These gestures speak loudly. They say that you are willing to bear the brunt of the blows along with your friend. Words can­not express how much this means.

Many times we shy away from these encounters because we think there’s nothing we can say or do. That is wrong thinking. Don’t feel that you have to give advice. You don’t have to come up with any ans­wers. That is neither expected nor wanted. You can be there, however, to minister on the higher level of prayer, faith and spiritual comfort, not to offer professional counsel. People need to look at you and say, “You were there for me when I needed you.”

8.  Legitimize their feelings. A fine line exists here. We must learn to affirm a person’s feelings, even when we disagree, some­times fervently, with those feelings. Remember, feelings are always correct even though the facts may be incorrect. Emotions register in a totally different way than reason. Many times, we react so strong­ly to the feelings, that we blurt out a judg­ment. This happens espec­ially when a moral issue arises. The person we are dealing with may be looking for the slightest indication of disapproval or shock on your part. Once that look appears, the conversation is closed as far as he/she is concerned.

When you encounter this kind of situation, use affir­ming words and phrases often. These may include, “I under­stand,” “that makes sense to me,” or “I would pro­bably feel the same way if I were in your shoes.” It is important for this person to know that you don’t think he/she is stupid or incompetent.

You will often find that people already feel badly about certain matters. If you are able to defer judgment and deal only with the actual problem, you may get them to express their own true feelings. While they may be defensive and argumentative at first, deep down they may be agonizing over guilt and shame. The real battleground is pro­bably not the surface issue. More than likely, the true struggle is with the deeper feelings within them.

“Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the coun­sels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.” I Corinthians 4:5.

Administering Spiritual First-Aid

Once you discover a person’s specific needs, it is time to act. The steps for phy­sical first-aid find ap­plications for spiritual first-aid as well. Remem­ber, first-aid pro­cedures are not the distressed person’s total answer. First-aid removes a person from immediate danger, restores vital life-func­tions and stabilizes him/her. Con­tinued care should begin once first-aid succeeds.

Airway: Clearing the Blockages

First, the spiritual caregiver must clear the airway from block-ages so breathing can begin. In the mind of the sinner, major obsta­cles stand in the way and keep him/her from getting help. Unless someone removes these blockages, no­thing will work. No amount of preach­ing, teaching, pushing, arguing or manipu­lation will penetrate the heart of the sinner as long as the spiritual airway is blocked.

Blockages to the Spiritual Airway:

• Physical Needs
• Rejection
• Fear
• Sin
• Doubt
• Misunderstanding
• Other People
• Satanic Power

Physical needs. People must be fed, given water, clothed and sheltered before we can minister spiritual things to them. This may pose some problems. Tran­sients who are always looking for handouts, or irrespon­sible people who waste their time and money sometimes discourage us from hel­ping anyone. While we should take care of them as much as possible, there are others who have fallen on hard times and need someone to discreetly provide basic help for them.

Rejection. All of us have seen children who have been beaten regular­ly by abusive parents. They cringe when any adult raises a hand near them. They expect to be hit. By crin­ging, flinching or throwing their arms up, they seek to soften the blow and protect themselves. Likewise, people who have been rejec­ted, hurt, and emotionally or psycho­logically abused, expect more of the same from anyone who gets too close to them. They react by becoming defensive, testy or closed. Instinctively, they avoid any situa­tion which makes them vul­nerable.

Countering rejection requires active acceptance. To accept someone does not mean to condone sin. It means to take a person seriously, to show respect for in­dividual choices, rights, and ideas, to let him/her express these views without put­downs, and to show that you are not trying to exert manipulation or control. After accepting a person, you can con­fron­t ideas without a big, emotion­al fight. Until then, how­ever, you will have nothing but a stale­mate.

Fear. Fear paralyzes. It destroys a per­son’s hope, dreams, future, and life itself. Vol­umes have been written to help people conquer this emotion. The people you want to win may be afraid you are lying, deceiv­ing or hurting them. They may fear a negative reaction from a parent, spouse or friend if they should give their lives to Christ. They may be afraid of themsel­ves, the future, or even God.

There are two major kinds of fear: rational and irrational. Rational fear natur­ally results from an actual experience in which a person has been hurt. You can only deal with this by proving your own credibility and trustworthiness. Use the Word of God and be absolutely honest in your dealing with a person. Ir­rational fear is met on the level of emotion, that is, by showing love and compas­sion. Fervent prayer successfully combats fear.

Sin. Some­times people think they have com­mitted a par­ticular sin that is too vile for for­giveness. If such a sin invol­ves abortion, multiple marriages, a compl­icated sin that cannot be rec­tified, or even a felony, a person may feel h­ope­lessly sad­dled with an irrever­sible sen­tence of eternal doom. Assure a per­son in these situations that God has the power and ability to for­give every sin. Use the many scrip­tures that prove this truth, your own ex­perience and that of others. King Dav­id’s sins of adultery and murder were for­given. The Apostle Peter’s sins of cursing and forsaking Jesus during the cruci­fixion were for­given. Eternal salvation is possible, even though there may be penalties meted out in the courts and in society. Rem­ind the person that the saving hand of God reaches to all, even at the lowest lev­els.

Establish two important facts in dealing with this person. First, does he/she want to be saved? Second, does he/she believe that Jesus Christ can save? If you get an affirmative answer to both these questions, you can then work from a posi­tion of strength to help this per­son.

“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Hebrews 11:6.

Doubt. There are two aspects of doubt that block a person’s path to God. The first is philosophical, that is, ques­tioning the exis­tence or the substance of God. Don’t spend much time trying to prove there is a God. Little is gained by such arguing. If the person holding that view is deeply sincere, then truth will even­tually win. You will do better by realizing that atheists or agnostics choose to deny God’s existence as a way of dealing with some undisclosed hurt or disillusion­ment. Their doubt is an ob­stacle that can be removed.

The second aspect of doubt is prac­tical, that is, failure to believe God’s promi­ses. Many more people fall into this cate­gory. They believe in God, but cannot envision themselves as a part of God’s plan. They need a massive dose of God’s word, positive prayer, teaching and preaching. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17. These people want to believe, but lack the building blocks of faith. Look at their problem more as the absence of faith rather than the presence of doubt.

Misunderstanding. Experienced communicators abhor misunder­standings. They know a misunder­standing is more apt to cause a breakdown in a relationship than an actual happening. People misunderstand motives, remarks, gestures, and actions. They misunder­stand doctrinal teachings, sermons, articles and tracts. They interpret everything they see and hear into their own “language” or per­sonal set of meanings. Misunderstandings are liable to pop up anytime and anyplace.

Unfortunately, misunderstan­dings seem like gospel truth to the person that has them. Saul of Tarsus “breathed out threatenings and slaughter” against Chris­tians and either had them killed or thrown into prison, all because he misunderstood the identity of the Savior, Jesus Christ. Apollos taught something less than full truth be­cause he misunder­stood the coming of the Messiah. Stubborn and resistant, misunder­standings often refuse to be easily uprooted. The soulwinner must do more than know about misunderstan­dings. He/she must actively look for them and target them for change.

Other people. Intimidation, manipulation or other kinds of influence wielded by some­one else may victimize the person you are attempting to win to Christ. It could be a spouse, parent, friend, boss, or a fellow worker. Interper­sonal relation­ships, by nature, are compli­cated and in­volved. It is difficult to free some­one from this influence without seem­ing to attack the other person. Great care must be used to stay out of the middle of a con­flict.

First, become a true friend. Your regular concern, shown daily if necessary, will make you an influential force in this person’s life. In this way, without attacking anyone, you automatically gain greater power to help shape the decisions that he/she faces. Be careful that you do not turn into a manipulator. A true friend respects another’s choices and opinions, even though he/she may not agree with them.

Second, assure this person of his/her own worth in the sight of God. Low self-esteem often causes people to fall under the domina­tion of others. To see one­self as an individual creation of God gives great cour­age and self-confidence.

Finally, this person must also under­stand that each soul will stand before God on his/her own. Just because we let others make our decisions for us does not relieve us of accountability for those decisions. We must answer for ourselves in that great day.

Satanic power. Satan does exert control over people through possession or oppression. Jesus cast out unclean and foul spirits from possessed persons on many occasions in the gospels. Both Peter and Paul also encountered satanic opposition as they preached the Word. Sometimes Satan allies himself with a weak­ness that an in­dividual already has; sometimes he takes over a person’s mind and body to thwart the plan of God in a family or community.

Often, if Satan is troubling a per­son, he/she will make some attempt at self-destruc­tion. When the devils entered into the swine in Gadara in Mark 5:1-13, they plunged over the cliff into the sea. The child possessed of an evil spirit threw him­self into the fire in an attempt to commit suicide. (Luke 9:37-42).

Another telltale sign that Satan is controlling a person is a high degree of opposition to the plan of God. If someone becomes vicious, if he/she violently resists the Word, or tries to sabotage God’s will in salvation or deliv­erance, you are dealing with a spiritual power beyond that person. When this happens, you must discern the person’s cry for help in the middle of curses or insults.

Do not be frightened of the devil. Jesus Christ defeated him at Calvary. Remember, the only power he has is power to deceive. As long as you expose him and shine the light of truth on his schemes, he cannot work. Learn these basic instructions in dealing with Satan.

1. Call on the name of Jesus. Every demon that was cast out in the scripture was given leave by the power of that name.

2. Plead the blood of Jesus. The devil flees at the mention of Christ’s sinless blood. Why? Because in order for the devil to possess an individual, he must deceive him/her into thinking that Satan is the owner. But the significance of the blood of Jesus is that it is the purchase price for the soul of man. It authoritatively counters Satan’s claim of ownership.

“Foras­much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation re­ceived by tradition from your fathers;  But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” I Peter 1:18-19.

3. Pump faith scriptures into the per­son. Satan operates in the dark realms of lies, half-truths, doubt, skepticism and unbelief. God operates in the brilliant light of trust, faith and belief. It is essential for a person to possess an abundance of faith in God in order to obtain God’s presence.

“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Hebrews 11:6.

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17.

4. Pray intently for the spiritual gifts to operate in you. You need to be filled with God’s Spirit in order to wage this kind of warfare. Carnality, pride, self-will, human efforts will not get this job done. Spiritual battles require you to fight with spiritual weapons.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against prin­cipalities, against powers, against the rulers of the dark­ness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. ” Ephesians 6:12.

“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: “(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)   Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” II Corinthians 10:3-5

Spiritual Emergency Health Care

When we pattern spiritual health care after physical procedures, we gain great insight into soulwinning. Just as physical urgent care does not include major surgery, long lectures, sudden and radical movements or launching into an aftercare program, neither can we effectively win souls this way. Tragic spirit­ual deaths often occur while well-meaning people perform sudden spiritual sur­gery with no prepara­tion or without understan­ding the impact of their own actions. Some are obliv­ious to the real needs of the victim. Others say the same thing to everyone they meet, reasoning that if it worked once, it ought to work every time. Let’s look at several aspects of providing urgent care for those with spiritual needs.

Timing.

Always perform spiritual emergency care with respect to time and sequence. The new birth mes­sage, while it will always remain the ul­timate objective in saving a soul, may not be the first thing to do. This is not heresy. It is scripturally sound and can be seen in almost every conversion incident related in the Bible.

For example, let’s look at Acts 2:38:

“Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

The first phrase, “Then Peter said…” is highly significant. It indicates that Peter introduced his instructions only after he had prepared his hearers with a vital message about Jesus Christ. We actually pick up the story earlier in the chapter.

“But Peter, standing up with the ele­ven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.”  Acts 2:14-16.

The Apostle Peter proceeded to explain the phenomenon that the travelers to Jerusalem had just witnessed—-the out­pouring of the Holy Spirit. Then, with skillful use of the Hebrew scrip­tures, he turned the sermon towards the death, bur­ial, resurrec­tion and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. Having been thor­oughly prepared, both by Peter’s sermon and by the Spirit of God, the hearers asked what they should do. They were ready for the new birth experience. Thus, timing is as critical as the application of the message itself.

This event also illustrates an impor­tant difference between kinds of soulwin­ning. God often bursts upon the scene with a spiritual explosion, like He did at Pen­tecost, in a sovereign move of His Spirit. Through mighty revivals, miracles or moving events, many people are attracted to the Lord. All of us long for this kind of occur­rence because it is so exciting, so sudden and so com­paratively “easy.” Why does it happen? Explosive revivals happen when people actively seek God, or search for relief from their inner pain. God has dealt with them long before the event that finally draws them takes place. Their change may happen instan­taneously, but the ground­work for the change takes place over a long period of time.

But another kind of soulwinning occurs in every church. It too has prece­dent in the Bible. It is repre­sented in the para­bles of the lost coin, the one lost sheep, and the lost son. We see it in Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, Aquila and Pricilla and their witness to Apollos, and Paul and the Philip­pian jailer and many other Bible incidents. In each case, the soulwinner went to the person in need, met him/her in a one-on-one situa­tion, and established a bond of friendship.

Jesus demon­strated this principle with Zaccheus, with the demon­iac of Ga­dara, the woman with five hus­bands, Bar­timaeus and Simon, the tanner. He iden­tified with each person’s pain, initiated his personal ministry ­to him or her and created an opening for a response from them. Rather than offending them, he delib­erately reac­hed out to them in love and under­standing.

To succeed in any personal relationship, one person must first under­stand others. Jesus knew that people who feel under­stood and ap­preci­ated tend to follow leaders who make them feel that way. People absorbed in their own pain cannot receive anything until they feel understood and affirmed. This gives them the basis for faith, and faith paves the way for the real miracle of change and sal­vation.

Assessing the Need.

Before you help someone, you must find out where he/she is. People and situations differ from each other, and the same process, which helps one person, will have no effect on another. A spiritual caregiver must determine what the real needs are, specific to the life of the lost person. Here are a few ques­tions, which need to be answered before you proceed with spiritual emergen­cy steps.

1. Is the victim going through an im­med­iate personal crisis?

A personal crisis usually causes noticeable pain. Psycholo­gists have dis­covered that the death of a spouse and a divorce lead the list of events, which cause stress. Marital separation, a jail term, death of a close family member, injury, marriage, loss of job, etc., also cause great stress. You must pay atten­tion to this person’s crisis. To brush this pain aside by saying that it’s not as important as salvation, or rebuke a person for thinking negative thou­ghts, you are making a huge mistake. Pain must be expressed.

People in crisis cannot think clearly. Their pain shapes their reactions. Often, they just want God to put things back like they were before the crisis. If they do come forward at an invitation, or pray, or seek out pastoral coun­seling, their objective will probably be to fix their prob­lem, not to surrender their lives to Christ. For them, all of life is defined in terms of the im­med­iate crisis.

2. To what extent are you qual­ified to deal with this crisis?

We are not talking about profes­sional credentials here. Rather, it is pa­tience, understanding and time that is need­ed most. Even though you may have a lot of compas­sion, you may not be up to some situa­tions. For example, if you have no experience with the death of a loved one, you may not have a deep understan­ding of a per­son’s grief. This may not mean you cannot help, but you should keep from making claims of under­standing that are not true.

3. What is this person’s religious back­g­round?

Unless you have a specific reason, it does more harm than good to ask a person what church or denomination they belong to. Once a person claims a particular per­suasion, they have defined themselves. Think about it. If someone tells you, “I’m a ——————,” he/she is really of­fering you an entire set of values and beliefs to analyze. Going further will only waste your time comparing churches and beliefs. If a person volun­teers that information, simply say, “Oh, this has no­thing to do with being a ———————. This is far dif­ferent.”

What you really want to know is the extent of the person’s faith in Christ. Does he/she know how to pray? What about basic scripture? Has this person ever experienced true, genuine repen­tance? Your questions are not for the sake of argument, but so you may know where to begin. You cannot start at the point of one’s need unless you know where that point is.

4. Is this a normally stable in­dividual?

Everyone goes through an occasional bout with depression, anger, fear, confusion, etc. Stable people have a good grip on themselves, and will return to a normal state. An unstable person, however, has a history of problems, which never seem to get re­solved. His/her employment record, marriage background, finan­cial history and other criteria will be spora­dic. People with chronic problems resulting from per­sonality disorders need help, but not by novices or those easily swayed by dra­matic shows of emotion, dis­tress or panic.

5. Can you generally relate to this person?

Similar backgrounds often equip a caregiver to reach a person in a way that all the textbook training in the world will never do. If you can under­stand a person’s language (including slang, accent, and code words), if you can relate to a person’s trou­bled past, if you can feel a person’s deep hurt because you’ve suffered the same thing before, then you can exert a powerful influ­ence over him/her. Cultural barriers offer stub­born resistance to soulwinners. Those who don’t have to cross these barriers should recognize their advantage in this area.

6. What does the Spirit tell you about this person?

God will speak to you about a per­son’s need if you pray and remain sensitive to the Spirit. He will give you the word of know­ledge and the word of wisdom by His Spirit, even as He did to Philip, Ananias, the Apostle Paul and many others in the Bible. It is crucial to seek direction from God in administering spirit­ual care to peo­ple. We can be easily mislead by human wisdom and natural senses if we depend solely upon ourselves and not upon God.

7. What do other involved per­sons tell you about this person or situation?

Find out whatever you can about this person. The Bible teaches us that there is safety in the multitude of counsel. Others who know the person you are trying to help may have some insight or warning for you. Do not dismiss their words in a spirit of arrogance and believe that you will succeed where others have failed. If you feel stro­ngly to go ahead with your mission, you may, but go only with great caution and much prayer. God will not help you simply because He wants to prove that you were right and the others were wrong. If you rescue the person, it will be because God honored His own timing and man’s faith.

Emergency Health Care

Now that we can see the role of the soulwinner as a para­medic, the sinner as a patient, and our entire purpose as brin­ging the sick, diseased and injured to a state of health, let’s look at how to imple­ment our plan. There are two aspects of this model: urgent and non-urgent care. Time, of course, is the significant difference bet­ween them in both physical and spirit­ual dimen­sions, but urgent cases also cause more stress, demand dif­ferent personalities, and require different objectives for the patient. We must recognize these differen­ces and learn to adjust our inter­vention procedures accor­dingly.

Physical Emergency Health Care

The American Medical Association publishes a book entitled “Handbook of First Aid and Emergency Care”, a step-by-step guide to dealing with medical emergencies. In his introduction to the book, James S. Todd, M.D., Executive Vice-President of AMA, makes a statement that sounds stra­nge coming from a professional:

“Beyond the serious illnesses and injuries, we hope the encouraging message conveyed in this new edition is that many of the first-aid measures we learned as children and now use as adults simply require com­mon sense: washing a wound on a scraped arm or leg, stopping minor bleeding with gentle pressure, or adding a kind word or extending a hand if someone has tripped or fallen. Your first reaction, instinctively, is oftentimes the correct one.”

In urgent care, the chances are remote that a trained profes­sional will be the first one to the side of the vic­tim. Lay people like you and me are more likely to be present at the moment of the emergency. Dr. Todd tells all of us that we can do some basic things to save lives, even if we didn’t go to medical school, nursing

school, or even take Biology 101. The rule seems to be that whoever is present should do whatever they can to help. Con­cerned people will make sure that what they do in an emergency is right. Todd goes on to say, “And when you perform first aid correctly, it enables paramedics and physic­ians to provide their care more effectively.” In fact, the more know­ledgeable we become in providing urgent care, the more we can do the job of the paramedic.

The AMA handbook refers to a three-step set of instruc­tions that should be followed in any emergency. These steps are called the ABC’s of urgent care. The let­ters refer to airway, breathing and cir­culation. They are the three basic steps in the proce­dure known as Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR). (The steps are listed and explained in abbreviated form on the following page for illustrative purposes only.)

After taking these basic steps, the caregiver should look for symp­toms (a listing of certain conditions, such as pain, nausea, and swelling, that indicate a certain injury or illness may exist). Upon recog­nizing certain symptoms, the victim needs immediate treat­ment. After the immediate treatment has been successfully carried out, continued care should begin.

These first aid steps are basic things to check in every emergen­cy. Many other procedures may also be in­volved, depen­ding upon the specific need. The Heimlich Maneuver (to assist choking victims), dres­sings, bandages, splints, ice packs, warm towels or blankets and other procedures or applications may be necessary to save a life. Proficiency in these areas comes with lear­ning and experience.

How does the caregiver know what specific action to take? He/she must be­come aware of the different symptoms and what they mean. The AMA lists symptoms in two groups: common and alar­ming.

Common Symptoms. There are several symptoms that show up in everyone from time to time.

1. Fever indicates that something is wrong in the body. Most likely, an infec­tion is present. Chills may also pre­cede a fever.

2. Nausea is a sick feeling in the sto­mach and incurs the desire to vomit. Naus­ea may accompany al­most every disor­der from excessive eating to heart attacks.

3. Headache pain is caused by the tig­hten­ing of muscles under the scalp, often the result of emotional ten­sion. It may also be sympto­matic of infec­tion, high blood pres­sure or a brain tumor.

ABC’s of Urgent Care)

Alarming Symptoms. Certain other symptoms indicate serious medical conditions. Trained caregivers need to be called as soon as possible. The first-aid caregiver must remain calm so that his/her reaction does not frighten the victim.

1. Convulsions occur as a result of acute infection (due to a sharp rise in body temperature) or a malfunctioning of brain cells. The first aid caregiver’s primary objective is to keep the victim from harming himself/herself.
2. Severe headaches may indicate the presence of a critical condition such as meningitis, stroke or tumor.
3. Sudden loss of consciousness may mean stroke or heart attack. Perform CPR.
4. Severe chest pain may signal a heart attack and should be considered a life-threatening emergency.
5. Loss of vision in one eye may be the onset of a stroke.
6. Loss of sensation or motion in an extremity may result from a stroke or a brain tumor.
7. Shortness of breath may mean congestive heart failure or another medical emergency.
8. Presence of blood in normal body functions may signal an infection, an ulcer or a malignancy.

Soulwinning: Spiritual Crisis Intervention

People usually behave according to their self-perceptions and the way they understand their various roles in life. It is normal for the same person to act dif­ferently when he/she fulfills different roles. For example, a man behaves one way as a subordinate to his boss, another way as a fellow worker with others in the office or factory, another way as a husband, another way as a father, another way as a neighbor, and so on. A woman acts differently with her daughter than with her mother. She treats a casual acquaintance differently than she treats a close friend. Each of us acts out a “script” in terms of the way we think it is written.

We have already seen that false models, or scripts, exist for soulwinners. Such models may have had a measure of success. Given different times and circumstances, they probably worked sometime for somebody or else they would not have survived. In our vastly altered social and spiritual environment, we must rewrite our scripts. The new, freshly-conceived scripts must re-establish Bible principles and truths of soulwinning. In addition, they must reflect the needs of our times. It is said of David that he served his generation. We must also serve our own generation, not that of a bygone era. This does not mean compromise. It does mean, however, that we should strive to be relevant, effective and achieve our maximum level of excellence.

The soulwinner is a paramedic.

In our day, we must perceive of soulwinning as spiritual crisis intervention. The role model that best describes the soulwinner is the para­medic. Emergency caregivers called para­medics stay on call. When the call comes, they rush to the scene of an accident or to the side of a heart attack or stroke victim with the right equip­ment and the medical know-how. Their main objective is to stabilize the patient, secure him/her from further injury, perform any emergen­cy treatment that must be done to save a life, and transport the patient to an emergency room as quickly and safely as pos­sible. Para­medics are usually not trained as surgeons or special­ists. They simply provide immediate care on location in order to save lives. They know that a complete diag­nosis, surgery and long-term health care is the province of other workers.

These observations about paramedics tell us important things in terms of their attitude about their job. They do not worry about rejec­tion, about their ability to persuade injured people to cooperate with them, or whether or not the victim will like them. The priorities of the paramedic are clear: to know where the patient is, to get there as quickly as possible, and to keep him/her alive until proper treatment can be ad­ministered. If the victim makes the job difficult, the para­medic understands and does not take it personally.

The spiritual para­medic tunes in to signals coming from people in pain. He remains sensitive to the voice of God so he/she will know who to help, when to help and how to go about it. Numerous scriptural examples illustrate this role:

“And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.  And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great au­thority under Candace queen of the Ethiop­ians, Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet.  Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this char­iot.” Acts 8:26-29.

“And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ana­nias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord. And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth, “And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and put­ting his hand on him, that he might re­ceive his sight.” Acts 9:10-12.

“And suddenly there was a great earth­quake, so that the foun­dations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.  And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.  But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.  Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,  And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?   And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” Acts 16:26-31.

People in pain will cry for help. If they are unable to cry, God will speak to one of His ministers about the need. As a caregiver, you should listen for either the cry of the victim, or to the voice of God, and then respond to whatever need you find. A lifeguard does not need to learn a sales pitch to save a drowning man from the water. A paramedic needs no public relations courses to apply a tourniquet to a bleeding arm. Caring, compassionate people need not learn clever tactics to show genuine love, concern and friend­ship.

Train­ing is important, but training must consist of more than how to brush your teeth so your smile will look good, or how to shake some­one’s hand in order to convey the right feeling of con­fidence and self-assurance, or how to project your voice to duly impress sophis­ticated consumers of spiritual products. Training must go beyond how to organize a canvassing campaign, how to fill out visitation or enrollment cards, or how to enter names into a computer. Training should concentrate on the spiritual aspects of ministra­tion of hope to the hope­less, pouring in the oil and wine of love and grace to those who are bruised and bleeding, and show­ing people how the gospel will al­leviate their pain, guilt and loneli­n­ess.­

The sinner is the patient.

The most crucial factor in the heal­ing model of evan­gelism is to recognize the sinner as a patient, vic­timized by Adam’s fall and Satan’s conspiracy. Our tradi­tional view of evil and guilt strongly influences us to assume a judgmental at­titude toward the sinner. We tend to assign to him blame and culpability, as though his respon­sibility for his sinful con­dition makes him unforgivable. Yet, Jesus manifested supreme love and grace toward the victims of the world. His harshest words were re­served for the hypocrites and religious pretenders.

Again, let us look at the scripture. “To wit, that God was in Christ, re­conciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath com­mitted unto us the word of recon­ciliation.” II Corinthians 5:19.

Examine this phrase closely: “Not imputing their trespasses unto them.” Looking at this in terms of our model, notice that Jesus did not blame the diseased person for contracting the disease. What does this imply? First, the disease of sin is lethal. Regard­less of who gets blamed, if the victim is not cured, he will die. Second, the afflicted person may not be aware he has the dis­ease, or that he will eventually die from it. If this is the case, he is deceived. Once he knows, he will want to get rid of it.

Third, the reconciliation process must begin in the heart of the soul­winner before it shows up in the life of the victim. This runs counter to our religious culture, which has transmitted to us a bias against the sinner. Conven­tional, cultural wisdom tells us that the sinner must make his move first. He must leave the filthiness of his sins behind and come toward Christ. At that point, we will “bear witness” of his sincerity and reach out to him. But the scriptures tell us quite a different story. “To wit, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.” Also, “But God commen­deth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sin­ners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8. God took the initiative to start the healing process within himself.

Salvation is, above all else, God’s plan to restore man to a right relationship with Himself.

Viewing the sinner as the patient determines our at­titude toward him. If we blame him, our approach will be condes­cen­ding. If we feel he is choosing to sin and delib­erately destroy­ing his life, we will condemn him. If we think he is stupid for continuing in sin, we will berate him. If we believe he is in control of his desires, we will try to the control away from him by salesmanship or high-pressured tactics.

The truth is that sin is a moral and spiritual disease. Inherited through the fall of Adam, this disease negatively affects man’s judgment, his values, his behavior, and his rela­tionship to God. Pain, guilt and loneliness followed the origi­nal infection and continue to plague all of crea­tion. The symp­toms of sin serve to compound the devas­ta­tion, and multiply its evil. Thus, sin causes pain, which causes hatred (for exam­ple) which causes strife which causes mur­der which causes pain, ad infinitum. Spread throughout history, it is not surprising to see such turmoil as exists in the world today.

Our task is to locate the inner pain.

Focus On the Sinner Self-Centered Statements : “You know, you really shouldn’t be doing that.” “You don’t know your Bible very well, do you?” “I have the truth and you need to listen to me.” “My church is a lot better than your’s.” “You had better quit what you are doing.” “You’re just being foolish.” Sinner-Centered Statements : “Tell me about your problem.” “Are you getting relief from the pain?” “I can only imagine what you are going through.” “You look like you could use a friend.” “I like you.” “What can I do to help you?”

Four vital concepts emerge in the pro­cess of locating inner pain. First, we must develop sinner-cente­red­ness. The soulwinner must approach his task with his mind centered on the victim, not on himself. If we confront a person with the mindset, “I’ve got truth and you don’t,” or “I know exactly what you need to do,” we are almost certain to be rebuffed. Even if we try a milder approach such as, “Why don’t you just give this a try?”, we are setting ourselves up for a rejection. Can you ima­gine a paramedic tentatively walking up to an accident victim and saying, “How about a ride in MY am­bulance?” These openings result from self-centered­ness instead of sinner-centered­ness. The soulwinner must keep his focus away from himself and his own knowledge until he has assured the sinner that he cares about him first. John Maxwell says, “No one will care how much you know until he knows how much you care.”

Second, the soulwinner must give priority to the sin­ner’s pain. From the sinner’s perspective, hurt obsesses him. Most likely, he leads a pain-filled life that gets progres­sively worse. Without hope, without answers, without pur­pose, panic rises in his stomach. He feels that no one listens to him. No one really cares. Once he hears the well-meaning soul­winner doing all the talking, he clicks off the switch in his brain and says to himself, “Here we go again. Everybody wants to talk. Nobody wants to listen.”

Prospective soulwinners must ask themselves the ques­tion, “Do I really care about this person? Am I trying to get self-esteem by demonstrating my knowledge of the Bible? What moti­vates me to witness?” Again, imagine a paramedic wasting pre­cious time by explaining to a patient why one style of bandage is better than another, or giving the victim a lecture on ambulance mod­els! Ridiculous, of course. But many hur­ting, bleeding sinners have died while some­one preferred to discuss the views of a post-tribulation rapture position, or explained why the independent churches are much better than those tied to an organization, or even analyzed whether or not Grandpa actually made it to heaven! Strong doctrinal teaching is important, but it must be placed in perspective. Postpone all biblical or doctrinal talk until the patient is stabilized. The pain of the sinner must have the pri­ority.

Third, we must possess a vulnerability to the sinner’s pain. We must feel the hurt so strongly, it is as though we were actually entering into the sinner’s world of pain. Only here does the spiritual caregiver experience empathy and generates true compassion. Vicariously, we weep with those that weep, mourn with those that mourn, and suf­fer with those who suffer. “He was touch­ed with the feelings of our infir­mities.” Christ identified with sinners so comple­tely in His redemp­tive plan that it cost Him His life. Jesus was the only perfect sacri­ficial lamb, but we must still be creatures of feeling.

The purest motive for those entering the medical pro­fession is compassion. Likewise, compassion must motivate the soulwinner. Those spirit­ual tech­nicians, conquerors, pronouncers, salesmen and statis­ticians who have something else as their driving force operate out of an inferior mindset. Christ, in contrast, emptied himself out and acted solely upon ministering grace to the sinner.

Fourth, soulwinning must be done in the context of time. Time is a scarce commodity. Most people want to spend their free time with a select few of their own choos­ing. Busy schedules and the hurried pace of life trample many under­foot. But meaning­ful soul­winning cannot be done in a hurry. We win souls through the slow proces­ses of care, love, trust and building credi­bility. These qualities only mature over time. Woun­ded people tend to distrust motives and ques­tion the sin­cerity of others. Only time allows the solid building blocks of such traits to come to be. Lis­tening takes time. Bible studies take time. Going to lunch or dinner takes time. Time is the most important gift we can give. It is this gift that is most likely to convince people of the soulwinner’s genuine con­cern.

Requirements for Soulwinners: Sinner-Centeredness Priority of the sinner’s pain. Vulnerability to the sinners pain. Time.