(By: Norm Rasmussen)

There are special rewards that will be given to soul winners that no one else will receive. I'll tell you why I'm so certain of that later on in this writing.

Jesus Christ gave His life for lost souls. The Holy Bible clearly states that Jesus Christ was fully God: One of the three eternal persons of the Godhead. Thus God HIMSELF gave His life for lost souls. 

There should be billboards all over the world telling motorists and non-stop TV ads informing viewers, declaring: 'God HIMSELF gave His life on the cross for YOUR lost soul!' 

But unless a wealthy donor springs for the costs, don't expect to see many if any billboards or TV ads at all advertising the fact that God's number one priority for the human race is to rescue lost souls who WANT to be rescued in accordance with Truth. Who want forgiveness for their sins. Who want no ... 'Oops! I'm in seriously deep trouble!' ... on the Judgment Day when multitudes will find out that the price God paid on the cross for redeeming lost souls has no human measurement of worth. 

Jesus Christ commissioned followers of His to engage themselves in helping to win souls.  Planting and watering Jesus Did It! seeds to the unsaved as the only way of eternal salvation, and their need for it.  

And He said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.' (Mark 16:15-16)

In the above scripture passage, Christians need to be made crystal clear of what 'the Gospel' IS. The Gospel is the message of what God accomplished for humanity by dying on the cross. (Following is a condensed explanation of 'the Gospel': JESUS DID IT!)

Take special note in Mark 16:15-16 that there are only TWO categories as to what is going to happen to people on the Judgment Day: 

1) Those who are SAVED from having to pay the penalty for their sins by the forgiveness found only in Jesus Christ BECAUSE of what He accomplished for them on the cross, by taking the punishment upon Himself for their sins, and...

2) Those who will be CONDEMNED and sentenced to hell for their sins where they will pay the penalty for their sins for all eternity because they chose not to believe ... so therefore they didn't obey keeping the commands of Jesus Christ as is recorded in the New Testament Bible, and most likely didn't believe it mattered unless it was convenient for them to satisfy any temporary conviction they felt.

Two categories of people on planet earth: People SAVED from their sins, People NOT SAVED from their sins. No third category of people or more: Only TWO categories. Sobering, isn't it?

People cannot make a decision about having their sins forgiven or not forgiven until they somehow learn of what Jesus Christ accomplished for them on the cross. Thus God has commissioned Christians to communicate every way possible to the masses and individuals they come in contact with THE GOOD NEWS OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST DYING FOR THEIR SINS SO THEY CAN BE TOTALLY FORGIVEN OF THEM.

Some people are delighted to learn of 'The good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.' Others are not. Others are not because they have decided to believe lies about their eternity. Satan is the one who has used people to lie for him about eternal matters. Satan and the fallen angels who serve him can never be forgiven for their sins against God and so they don't want anyone else having them forgiven either. Truly ' misery loves company.  

God knew full well most of the human race would not appreciate what He did for them by dying on the cross, taking the punishment for their sins so they could be totally free from any penalty for them on the Judgment Day. But for those who dedicate their lives to God in trying to help rescue lost souls from total separation from God for all eternity because of their sins, He has told us in the Bible that we would receive AWESOME rewards for our efforts that would last for all eternity. 

Some efforts to help win lost souls is very easy. The following two links make it easy:  JESUS DID IT!  - or -  JESUS DID IT! 

Talking with people one-on-one about 'the gospel' is not usually so easy for a lot of Christians, depending on the people they are talking to. The reason it is not is that most people do not want to submit themselves to spiritual Truth. They realize that if they seriously accept 'the gospel', that will obligate them to admit they are sinners against God (pride factor), and in their minds, worse YET, they would be expected to get serious about stopping their sinning against God going forward. (We sinners crave our right to make our own decisions and hope God blesses those decisions, whether they violate God's New Testament law or not. Giving up that right is why most people will not submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.)

Most people would rather think this in their minds than humble themselves to the demands of God's spiritual Truth and His Lordship in their lives: "I'll take my chances if there even IS a Judgment Day. Besides - I'm not that bad of a person. God loves me. He would never send me to hell."

Two categories of people: The SAVED and the UNSAVED. People enter the category of the SAVED by clearly identifying with Jesus Christ and do not take lightly obeying His commandments as are given in the clearly understood and wisely applied New Testament. God has not provided any other way for forgiveness of sins. Yet most of the world refuses to believe it. Sadly, they'll have eternity to regret they didn't believe it prior to their dying and DO something about it (become born again - become a dedicated disciple of Jesus) ... which, when that happens, it will be too late. 

Before a person can become an official disciple of Jesus Christ, they have to agree with Him that his dying on the cross is a HUGE important deal. How huge? Heaven or hell for eternity HUGE! Nothing is more HUGE than that! So in other scripture passages where it says Christians are to go into the whole world and make disciples, God assumes they realize that 'making disciples' fully incorporates EVANGELISM. A soul has to first get saved from their sins before they can officially become a disciple of Jesus Christ, in other words. Makes sense, right? 

For those WISE who have immersed themselves in evangelism ... is has been easily apparent to them that fewer and fewer Christians gives nearly a rip-diddly about evangelism (I'm praying and trusting this will CHANGE!).  In the arena of evangelism God has called my wife and I to ... the simple lack of desire for born again Christians to give their well written born again testimonies to God to use to help others come to Christ is long PAST alarming. If you want to see for yourself what I'm talking about, spend a little time on YouTube and see how Christians have stopped posting their born again testimonies ... especially since about 2013 (I'm praying and trusting this will change TOO!). Oh yeah ... you have a lot of "Christians" posting worthless content in terms of bonafied soul winning ... but they can't be bothered with posting their born again - salvation testimonies (assuming they HAVE one). One has to seriously wonder if this isn't a part of "The great falling away" God speaks of in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 in some Bible translations.

God tells us in His Word: He who wins souls is wise. (Proverbs 11:30)

Why would God say soul winners are WISE? 1 Corinthians 3:8-15 gives us an expanded understanding:

Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, you are God's building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. (WHO Jesus Christ truly was and is, and what He accomplished for humanity by taking their punishment on the cross so they could be forgiven totally for their sins ' their sins not being held against them on the Judgment Day, in other words: Insert mine).

Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. 

This scripture passage starts out by specifically addressing the process of helping win lost souls. It is the process of 'planting' and 'watering.' Planting WHAT? Watering WHAT? The message of the cross: JESUS DID IT! The process of helping people make a decision to identify with Jesus Christ ' becoming one of His faithful disciples. 

[Before going further, I want to state clearly that EVERYTHING we do to help expand the Kingdom Of God in the lives of other people God will reward us for. You can read more about this by clicking on the following link at a later time if you would like:  

"Seek First The Kingdom of God"

Let's move forward now to a testimony I feel to share with you about this very serious yet exciting matter of eternal rewards and soul winning: 

When I became born again around age 35, I was involved in a book series project (The Dirty Ernie Dig Dirt Hunting Journey -- First book of the series -- Theme: Ernie had spend his lifetime digging secret tunnels all over the world and no one knew WHY) I hoped would ultimately evolve into becoming my life-time career. Book sales began to dry up from the first book upon my becoming saved (born again), and my ability to concentrate on writing the second book of the series was growing more difficult. Agitation began to grow and so I decided to seriously seek God through fasting and prayer about what HE had to clearly say about the future direction of my life. Four days into fasting God gave me a dream. From that dream I awoke having heard God clearly tell me that He would rather I become a publisher of true life stories (primarily born again testimonies) of other Christians, which my precious wife, Kathleen, and I have done now for well over 30 years as of this writing. 

As a new babe in Christ, I had no clue how much opposition Satan was going to throw at my wife and I once we started publishing testimonies, because it wasn't just the publishing of born again testimonies that bothered Satan; we were sharing 'the Gospel message' with those testimonies. 

Being the impatient person that I am, things weren't happening nearly as quickly nor efficiently as I ASSUMED they would in my obedience in publishing testimonies. Truth be told ' after a few years went by, the time came to where I even hated HEARING the word 'testimonies', due to all the frustrations I experienced with trying to publish them. 

In that difficult time period, I had a surgery (second vasectomy reversal attempt) that did not take so well. I was experiencing a whole lot of physical pain after that surgery that was not supposed to happen. Aside from the pain I was having during the day ... it was becoming more and more difficult getting much sleep because of the pain, and honestly ' I had reached an emotional state where I was ready to quit publishing testimonies anymore, because I was just not experiencing God's favor nor the 'fruit' I had assumed (impatience and lack of trust on my part -- I've come to realize MANNNNNYYYY years later) should be manifesting by that time. I didn't realize it was a full-frontal attack of Satan to try to get me to quit my call: All I could think was that God sure wasn't rewarding me in any way that I could see in my being obedient to publishing testimonies. No money was to be made from publishing them, and it seemed like for every 100 born again Christians I challenged to let me publish their testimony, maybe ONE showed any interest. All the rest showed little or no interest. The issue with money, in my mind, was that I would have to stay working a stressful job I disliked greatly - probably for the rest of my working days until retirement someday. (Which proved to be the case as the years went by after that).

MY INCREDIBLE DREAM!

With a truck load of physical pain; emotional pain from other factors going on in my life I won't address here, and probably worse yet, temptations to listen to Satan's unrelenting lies of feeling betrayed by God for even starting down the path of publishing testimonies and giving up my fictional book-series project to publish them, God gave me an intense dream unlike I ever had before or have ever had since. The dream was about eternal rewards and soul winning.

The dream started by my dying. I'll leave out a lot of the preliminaries of my exploring the feelings I was feeling about dying at the beginning of the dream, and some other things that happened later on in the dream that I can omit in this writing, to keep this writing shorter. Further in the dream, trying to figure out where in the world I was, because where I was sure didn't seem to me to be heaven, though I knew I was in some dimension of the spirit realm because I had clearly died, I found myself in some unknown city. It could have been any city on this planet. Normal looking people were walking along the sidewalks, moving quickly to their intended destinations. The only thing different is that there were no automobiles, motorcycles, nor even bicycles. Hence there was no danger with me walking down the center of the road. I was the only person there in the street, as a matter of fact. Totally perplexed as to WHY I was in that setting and for what PURPOSE, I thought to myself: I wonder what it would be like for me to sing in this dimension? 

I have never been a good singer and don't apologize for it nor really care, frankly saying. So for me to experiment with singing in the spirit dimension, it suddenly became of great interest to me. Then I wondered what I would sing. Four words came to mind. Why not simply sing these four words and see what happens?: "Jesus I Love You."

So the lyrics of the song I was about to sing were simply those four words. As they came from my mouth, I was stunned how wonderful I could sing! My voice sounded wonderful to me. Thus I decided to simply keep singing those four words and no other, just to see what would happen. 

What happened is that I found the more I sang those four words, the better I sounded singing. And something was happening that felt so wonderful. INCREDIBLY WONDERFUL! At my feet, there was an electricity-type substance that resembled what it looks like to light a Fourth of July holiday sparkler after dark. There was this sizzling 'sparkly' glowing, effervescing like substance coming off my feet at first, and as I continued singing just those four words over and over, this sparkling stuff began to grow more intense, and it began to move up both of my legs. 

It didn't take long for me to realize that this 'stuff' had a name: LIVING JOY! 

I had been walking when I first started singing there in the road, but the joy moving up my body, it growing in its intensity and unspeakable pleasure, caused me to simply stop dead center in the road and let this joy continue to keep doing what it wanted to do. Singing became very secondary, because this joy was so all encompassing, all mesmerizing, totally captivating, totally joyously and pleasurably consuming - that there was nothing I wanted to experience the rest of eternity but simply keep singing those four words: JESUS I LOVE YOU ... and remain in that joy - soaking it in and let it continue manifesting a dimension of ever-lasting life (I firmly choose to believe).

The people who had been walking briskly to their intended destinations stopped in their tracks and focused all their attention on me. They were talking amongst themselves, saying: 'Have you EVER heard such wonderful singing that this person is singing?!' 

I realized they couldn't see this joy that was continuing to encapsulate me, though that didn't matter to me. I wasn't putting on any show for them. I was engrossed in the pleasure of this effervescing - growing - expanding joy continuing to spread.

It didn't take that long for me to be completely encapsulated with joy. From my toes to my entire head, I felt there was no place else for the joy to keep growing and expanding. Was I WRONG! It next started going into my mouth. Then it began to work down my esophagus, and then I began to understand there would be NO END to it expanding inside my very being. I also had a sudden inkling of WHY Christians will need a glorified body someday. They will need a vessel to contain all the joy God has for them in eternity!  (And I believe many of the rewards God will give us will be secret rewards ... invisible rewards that no one can see, and that no one but the individual and God are fully aware of, primarily so no one else will get jealous or feel slighted).

As quickly as this realization hit me, the dream instantly ended. The very next thing that happened, I found myself in the darkest dark I have ever experienced. Perplexed as to WHY I was in such darkness, God spoke very clearly to me. He spoke as clearly as any person I've ever heard speak to me. He said this to me:

"I have special rewards for soul winners that no one else will receive."

God spoke a few other things to me that you can read about by going to the following link: LAYING UP REWARDS OF JOY IN HEAVEN FOR OTHERS  

That dream happened now many years ago (1989). But it was that dream that has GREATLY motivated me to keep on trying to be faithful in publishing born again testimonies and making certain that 'the Gospel message' is clearly lot and parcel with our publishing them. Yes ' God has enabled me (and my precious wife, Kathleen - "thank you Father for her!" - what a dedicated, sold out helpmate) to write other writings and produce videos and minister to prisoners in person as well as individuals outside of prison (aspects of discipleship) about spiritual topics that will help them become fruitful disciples, but God has not lifted His call for my wife and I to publish testimonies as of mid-2015. 

A little off topic, I believe Evangelist Pat Robertson is one of the wisest people of our day. People may disagree with some of his bible doctrine, and maybe some of the council he has given or the opinions he has expressed ' but a lot of people don't realize The 700 Club came to fruition and has continued to be perhaps the most fruitful outreach ministry of our time in reaching lost souls around this globe. And WHAT did Pat use to start the ministry with, and what continues to draw viewers to their TV program? Born Again Christians TESTIFYING. If there is anyone on this planet that understands the value and usefulness of publishing testimonies in helping reach lost souls and bring encouragement to young Christians starting out ' Pat Roberson DOES. I pray that his successor(s) do as well when it's time for Pat to go home to his eternal rewards for his faithfulness to the call God placed upon his life.   

Not all Christians will be called to publish testimonies, but God wants every true born again Christian to ever seek Him as to how THEY may let God use THEIR born again testimonies for His glory and kingdom purposes. However, ANY Christian with video capability on their cellphone can videotape another Christian sharing his/her born again testimony (TIPS: STRIVE to get good sound! Eliminate distracting background noise -- don't have music playing in the background. Have the face well lit) and post it on YouTube for God to use. 

It's really a simple yet sobering matter of CARING about lost souls going to hell. Eternal rewards are a precious incentive ... but realizing that a wasted creation of God's will never have eternal life for all eternity should be our GREATEST motivator. The sobering assessment of the matter is frequently asking ourselves: "Do I even CARE?"

Yet EVERY Christian can pass out Gospel tracts in one fashion or another. A prisoner may not have access to Christian tracts like everyone else has, but they can write their own tract and leave it where a lost prisoner can stumble across it. A person in the poor section of a third world country may not have access to Christian Gospel tracts like others around the world has, but they can manage to find a piece of paper to write the Gospel message on and make it available for another to read.

I want to be honest here a moment about this distributing tracts issue. I find I have to FORCE myself to care about distributing tracts so much of the time. For someone such as myself to have to FORCE myself to care about engaging in this form of evangelism ... it tells me if I'll be honest with myself ... just how much even I don't really care about people going to hell. Holy Spirit ... please don't give up on me! I need your passion to keep persistently burning in my soul in caring about helping win lost souls! 

Fear and lies about eternal rewards is what keeps most Christians from even giving the passing out of Gospel tracts a second thought. Yet the WISE moves past fear and the lies. God imparts motivating revelation about eternal rewards to those disciples of His who understands how important to GOD it is for a lost soul to become saved. 

God never created one human being nor angel just to end up spending eternity being separated from Him and spend eternity in hell. Anyone who thinks otherwise has not yet touched the right frequency of the heart of God. In God's mind, God has plans for every person at their birth to experience eternal joy with Him once their time on earth is done. Satan has a plan as well. Satan's plan is to do everything in his power to KEEP people from making a decision to walk in harmony with God's plan for them regarding their eternity. Thus the battle for souls is what is going on all around us, because of the free will God has given us. 

Some Christians may never lead personally one lost soul to Christ ' but we can SURE plant and water a lot of spiritual seeds by putting into circulation simple Gospel tracts. NONE of us know how the Holy Spirit will use those little pieces of paper (or whatever other Truth resource you may have sown) we put out into circulation. NONE of us.

But we can be totally certain there will be special rewards awaiting us in eternity by our TRYING to help lost souls become saved. God will not necessarily reward soul winners by how many souls God saved through their soul winning efforts as He will reward them for their faithfulness in persisting in trying to tangibly reach those lost souls while they were on earth. Ultimately - no one saves a lost soul. Only GOD can save a lost soul. But God sure wants to (AND WILL!) reward people who will assist Him in that endeavor!

No one will ever stand before God and have to try apologizing to Him for trying to be used to help save a lost soul in alignment with wisely understood - wisely applied Truth. You can bank on that. But there WILL be a lot of Christians who will have regrets for wasting their time, talent and treasures by planting and watering weed-seeds that were nothing more than wood, hay and stubble in light of eternal rewards they could have received, but weren't wise enough to do something about it while they were on earth.

(From God's perspective -- He sees YOU as one of HIS priceless eternal rewards. Here's a video you might be interested in watching addressing this issue:  God Wants YOU To Be One Of His Uniquely Priceless Rewards!)

Norm Note:   Please don't assume what I've written here in this writing is all that a person needs to know about "Eternal Rewards" For The Believer.  It is just one aspect of "eternal rewards" for the true Christian. It's really a lot more detailed.  If the reader is not familiar with the ministry of brother Randy Acorn, be highly encouraged to read:  

Do You Think Loss of Rewards in Heaven Will Be Permanent?

I would also recommend everyone read the following writing to become exposed to "The LOSS Of Eternal Rewards For The Believer."  In linking to this writing, I'm not necessarily endorsing the author, nor everything the author says in the writing, [especially when it comes to what I call "blanket tithing" to the local church, because some Pastors and local church overseers are becoming far too demonically apostate in my opinion.  Nevertheless, Pastors who minister solidly the Word of God and do so not just for a "weekly paycheck", but to please God ... you can't find a much better place in my opinion to sow finances to receive a good return in glory on your earthly "investing in the Kingdom of God"] but I DO believe he has said things about the loss of eternal rewards that God wants EVERY true Christian to take to God and get as much revelation as they can from Him on the matter: "THE ACCOUNT WE MUST GIVE"

Point being ... we love hearing about being rewarded in how we lived our lives AFTER becoming born again, but we may NOT like being reminded that God speaks clearly that their will be a loss of rewards as well for some Christians, as this sobering scripture passage addresses :  "Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly." (James 3:1 NIV)

Gulp.  That includes ME!

With God ... it's one thing to be doctrinally deceived.  It's quite another to try to convince the world my spiritual deception ISN'T.  Satan does some of his most deceiving work through well-meaning ... well-intentioned "Christians."  (Dissect Satan's "Mormon operation," as a case in point). 

A highly recommended writing on this topic of "eternal rewards" can be found at this link:  

The Rewards You Can gain or Lose at the Judgment Seat of Christ – Program 3

Dear Reader - are you at peace with God? If not, you can be. Do you know what awaits you when you die? You can have the assurance from God that heaven will be your home, if you would like to be certain. You can even have that assurance RIGHT NOW! Either Jesus Christ died for your sins, or He didn't (He did!). Are you prepared to stand before God on the Judgment Day and tell Him that you didn't need the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross to have your sins forgiven and get in right-standing with God? We plead with you...please don't make such a tragic mistake. 

To get to know God, to be at peace with God, to have your sins forgiven, to make certain heaven will be your home for eternity, to make certain that you are in right-standing with God right now ... please click here to help you understand the importance of being reconciled to God. What you do about being reconciled to God will determine where you will spend eternity, precious one. Your decision to be reconciled to God is the most important decision you'll ever make in this life, because in Christ, it is impossible to put a value on the worth of your soul in light of eternity.

PLEASE HELP US HELP YOU SHARE THE BEST NEWS GOD HAS FOR EVERY PERSON BECAUSE...

JESUS DID IT! and...

YOU ARE SO GREATLY NEEDED!

Remember:  All that we do in this life comes back to our God-given purpose which is to serve and glorify God. The money and assets we accumulate, the fame and power we've attained or seek to attain - all of the things of this nature will one day pass away, but those lives of others we impact for Jesus Christ will last for eternity, and we will be rewarded for the part we helped play by impacting those lives ... for eternity. (Matthew 6:19-20 is our assurance)