Prospecting

When you hear the term prospecting, what first comes to mind? Is it gold, silver or diamonds? If you are a sports enthusiast, it could be baseball, basketball or football, in which recruiters would be prospecting for new players. Either way the term is usually associated with mining of some sorts in most cases.

What does it actually take to prospect for one of these valuable minerals? Let's take gold for instance. First you need to know a little about it. There are two kinds of gold prospecting. Difficult to find is hard rock gold. The flakes are so small they have to be crushed and leached out of the hard rock. The big companies do this kind of mining. The kind of gold most small prospectors search for is called placer gold. There are four ways the gold is distributed in nature. The first is called residual. That is where the vein of gold has weathered out of a cropping and remains "in place" hence the name "placer gold". The second is eluvial. The gold has traveled a short distance from weathering out of the matrix but is not yet in the streams or other water sources. The third distribution is alluvial. The gold has traveled and come to rest in streams and rivers. Usually, being a heavy metal, the gold lies on or near the bedrock. The fourth kind of placer gold is beach placers. Small gold particles from the river make it all the way to the ocean. Wave action produces black sand layers containing fine gold. 

 

Because it's easier most individual prospectors start out looking for flakes and nuggets of free placer gold. It's exciting to find gold and the term "gold fever" is quite accurate once you find your own gold. Some health benefits are getting out in the outdoors, getting some good exercise, plus the value of whatever you might find, gold or not. By the way, here are some very helpful tools that will aid in your prospecting: gold pan, shovel, bucket & maybe a metal detector. If you look in the right places and use the right tools, then you should have success. Having an experienced prospector alongside won't hurt either! 
 

The kind of prospecting we want to talk about here is the prospecting for souls. If a soul has value to you then you should know that the same soul has value to God. Do you have a way to reach these souls? If so, how do you know it will work? Here's how! “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11) If soul winning is a priority in your life, then God will see fit that you will have success. It's a matter of “want to.”

There are thousands of souls needing to be harvested by the Lord, but we have to first plant the seed and do some watering. Just think what would happen to your yard in the Summer time if it never had a drop of water. That's right, it would burn up. A soul that has not obeyed the gospel will have the same result. And to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thes. 1:7, 8) Surely you do not want to be held responsible for someone burning in hell when you had the opportunity to share the gospel with them. Now, today, is the day to make up your mind that you will do your part to help bring at least one person to a saving knowing of Jesus Christ this year by sharing the gospel message with them. To know what the gospel is, in case you have forgotten, just go to 1 Cor. 15 and read verses 1-4. This is the gospel you need to share.  How exciting is this news? Let's get busy starting yesterday!