In Part I we talked about the importance of sharing our Christian faith with others. Today I want to share what God taught me about effective witnessing.
When I was in my early twenties, I spent one entire summer on my knees in the guest bedroom of our first home praying that the Lord would help me to really know Him. Consequently, He sent a series of men and women of faith into my life who helped me develop a personal relationship with Him.
Our neighbor, who was in her mid thirties, attended a Baptist church near our home, and I assumed that she was as eager as I to know Jesus better. Consequently, I told her every detail of what was going on in my life. I was so excited about my new relationship with Christ that I told her about reading the Bible daily, and about praying for the sick, and about believing God to supply finances. She always smiled and seemed very open to everything I said. Thus encouraged, I spent the next couple of years sharing everything that God was doing in my life.
Finally, the day came when my husband and I moved to a larger house in another part of town that could accommodate our growing family, and I did not see her again. We exchanged Christmas cards and an occasional keep-in-touch phone call, but our communications more or less ceased. Then one day a couple of years later, I received a phone call from my former neighbor. She sounded very excited as she blurted out, “Joyce! I got baptized.”
I was puzzled. “You’re a Baptist. Didn’t you have to get baptized when you joined the church?”
“No, listen to me. I got baptized!”
I was now more confused than ever. “I thought you were already baptized.”
“I got baptized in the Holy Spirit!” she shouted.
My former neighbor went on to tell me that when I first began “sharing” with her she was horrified. She said that when she would come to my house she would see the Bible lying on the coffee table and she would know that I had actually been reading it. “That made me feel kind of sick,” she confessed, “but I knew that everything you were telling me was real to you, even though it made me really uncomfortable.”
My neighbor went on to say that after we moved she missed hearing all of those stories about how God was working in my life. After a while she began to look for a church where people believed the way I did. She just wanted to hear more about what Jesus was doing in people’s lives. Eventually, she came to a point where she wanted more of Jesus in her life.
A long time ago I was praying about how to witness more effectively, and God told me to tell people what He has done for me. I have always used that approach, and it has held me in good stead. I have discovered that when I share with others exactly what God has done in my life, they have no defense against that. No one has ever said to me, “God did not do that for you.” No one has ever argued any point that I have shared from my own experience. I believe that this is so because they know that I am sincere. They may not see value in Christianity for themselves, but they know that I believe it has enormous value.
If we are going to be effective witnesses for Jesus Christ, it is imperative that we study the Bible and really understand how a person can be certain that he is saved. It is also important that we are able to share that knowledge with others in a simple, straight-forward manner. However, we also need to understand that no one will seek Christ unless he understands that being a Christian has genuine, tangible value in this world as well as the next.
If you are trying to find an effective way to witness for Jesus, I suggest that you share what He has done in your life with everyone who will listen. When you do, you will become one of those messengers with “beautiful feet” sent by God to share the Good News with those who have never heard it. For “how shall they ask Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them?” (Isaiah 52:7 and Romans 10:14-15).
For related books and articles by Joyce Swann visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/.
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