1. Teach the Gospel of God (objective)
Make sure the seeker understands the core of the Gospel

• Who God is in His three persons.
• An outline of the history of redemption
• The person and work of Christ
• The way of salvation

You need to make sure that they are seeking the right thing/person and not something they have invented. You can’t find what doesn’t exist.

2. Explain the ways of God (subjective)
Having established the objective facts of the Gospel, we must move on to the personal subjective reception and application of the Gospel.

• How is a person saved.
• The order of salvation.
• What is going on in the person’s life.
• Relationship of law and Gospel.
• Especially emphasize the simplicity of faith. 

3. Impress the call of God
God calls everyone to seek him. See Matthew 22 for the following points about the Gospel call as a royal wedding invitation: it’s a divine call, a personal call, a generous call, a gracious call, a wide call, a sincere call, a simple call, a solemn call, and a successful call.

4. Assure of the promise of God
God promises that seekers shall find him (Matt. 7:7).  Spurgeon gives a helpful crescendo:

• You are invited to come (Isaiah 55:1).
• You are entreated to come (Ezekiel 33:1).
• You are commanded to come (Mark 16:16)!
• “Him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out.” John 6:37.

He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him (Hebrews 11:6).

5. Tell the stories of God
From Scripture and church history demonstrate how God uses so many different means, methods, and ways to save sinners. Some biblical examples include:

• The Rich Young Ruler (Mark 10:17-27)
• The Thief on the Cross (Luke 23:39-43)
• The Canaanite Woman (Matthew 15:21-28)
• Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10)
• The distressed Father (Mark 9:14-29)
• The Leper (Matthew 8:1-4)
• Nicodemus (John 3:1-31)
• Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:23-40)

6. Warn of the judgment of God
“Yes, it’s good to be a seeker but it’s imperative that you be a finder, that you press on with urgency to secure the Savior for your own soul. Seek FIRST the kingdom of God (Mat. 6:33).”

7. Encourage with the sovereignty of God
The sovereignty of God is both a spur and pillow. It’s a spur in that it makes us realize that none of us can save ourselves. It’s a pillow because God’s sovereign power is big enough and willing enough to save us.

None of us are naturally seekers of God. We only become so by the sovereign intervention of God’s Holy Spirit in our lives. Help the person detect God’s work of grace in their lives by explaining what fruits should be there.

He is seeking too! The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 9:23; 19:10).

8. Leave space for God
Don’t try to do what God alone can do – bring a person to faith and repentance. Trust the Lord to do that without your pressure or manipulation. Leave it to God to give the person assurance. Form prayers may be helpful but better to let the Holy Spirit produce prayer in the life.

9. Direct to the means of God
No one who is truly seeking will deliberately avoid church – the place where God allows Himself to be found. Stress also the importance of daily Bible reading and personal prayer as a way of finding and of being found.

10. Teach the demands of God
Help them to count the cost, to realize what’s involved in following Christ, a life of self-denial and cross-carrying (Luke 14:28).

Obviously, these steps are not necessarily chronological. Each person has different needs and we must pray for wise sensitivity when pointing people to the Savior.

Reminders

Remember the person’s background: If no church background, he may speak very differently about what he’s experiencing compared to a churched person.

Remember the person’s age: Don’t expect mature spiritual vocabulary. If a child, you may need to involve/inform parents.

Remember the person’s education: Use words and sentences appropriate to their mental abilities.

Remember the person’s theology: May have picked up bits and pieces of theology here and there. May be using same words as you but with different meaning attached to them.

Remember the person’s vulnerability: It is very difficult for most people to speak about their inner spiritual struggles and desires.

Remember the person’s uniqueness: Christ dealt so differently with so many kinds of sinners – Peter, woman at the well, Syrophoenician woman, etc.

Remember the person’s prejudices: If you are a pastor the seeker may think you are perfect, that you are nothing like him. Maybe tell parts of your own story to show that you are like them in many ways.

Remember the person’s need: Point them to Christ early and often. Don’t dwell all the time on their inner feelings and thoughts. They may have lesser needs you can help them with in the meantime.

Remember the person’s fears: Give them early hope through texts like John 3:16-17 and 1 Timothy 1:15.

Remember the person’s eternity: Their eternal future is at stake. Be serious, thorough, careful. Don’t be dismissive or casual.

Remember the person’s suspicions: May be skeptical of you or of pastors/counsellors in general. Base all counsel on the word of God.

Questions

There are three groups of questions to ask seekers

1. Do they know the Gospel?

What do you think of the Bible? Inspired? Inerrant?

Do you understand their sinfulness, depravity, inability? What do you think about that? What does God think about that?

Are you a good person or partly good?

What do you know about God, especially God as Three-in-one.

Do you know the facts of the history of redemption? Do you accept them as true?

2. Do they understand the Gospel?

Do you understand grace? Substitutionary atonement? Regeneration?

Why did Jesus have to die?

Do you understand what faith and repentance are?

How is a person saved? How does a person get to heaven?

3. Have they accepted/received/appropriated the Gospel?

If not, what’s holding you back? Obstacles, hindrances, attitude? Proud, humble teachable, evasive?

What have you done to seek and find salvation? What has helped or not helped?

What other questions would you ask?

Whatever the reason, it would help “seekers” if we acknowledged they exist and that there are many different kinds of them with many different and challenging needs. Here are a few I’ve come across in ministry.

1. Convicted seeker: This seeker is experiencing conviction of sin but does not know what to do. There is a deep sense of guilt but little knowledge of the Gospel or of grace.

2. Fearful seeker: This seeker is afraid of dying and of judgment. He is seeking relief from that fear but maybe not deliverance from sin.

3. Frustrated seeker: Someone who has been seeking Christ but cannot find Him. May be angry that all her effort has not produced any result. May have a sense that God owes her.

4. Confused seeker: Often a child or a young person who is uncertain about their spiritual state. Or may be an adult believer who is lacking assurance. She may be saved but lack of assurance makes her think she isn’t and needs to be.

5. Unwilling seeker: This person is seeking but does not realize it or does not want to recognize it. God is sovereignly at work in his life, seeking him out. The person may be responding by seeking out sin to quieten God’s voice and conscience pangs, but it is still a God-given seeking.

6. Skeptical seeker: Perhaps a disillusioned ex-cult member or just someone who has tried a few other religions without success. Still looking for something but doubts he or she will find.

7. Hopeless seeker: Someone who has been seeking for a long time and has never “found.” She feels she will never be saved, that the Lord will never show her mercy, but she doesn’t give up on the means of grace in public or in private. She may feel that she had committed the unpardonable sin.

8. Half-hearted seeker: He is seeking in some ways and at some times but not in all ways and not all the time. Remember: “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13.

9. Sinful seeker: Wants Christ but isn’t prepared to give up a favorite sin.

10. Dramatic conversion seeker: Will only be satisfied with a radical and spectacular divine intervention or voice.

11. The “distant” seeker: This person is seeking but doesn’t really want you to know about it. Frames questions objectively and impersonally.

12. Ignorant seeker: He is seeking but has no idea what for. Interested in religion and spirituality but perhaps little conviction of sin.

13. Happy feelings seeker: Looking for joy, peace, happiness, but not God.

14. Passive seeker: Says she is seeking but it’s really more a passive waiting than an active pursuing. May be based on a false view of the sovereignty of God.

What other kinds of seeker have you come across?