The How

THIS WEEK I had a bit of a revelation.

You see, reading David Platt's book Radical really reminded me that witnessing is not just an optional thing that some Christians are good at - it's something we've all been commanded to do in some way. It will look different for everybody depending on our situations, but we're supposed share. And it shouldn't be that hard, right? We know the gospel and how God saves. We know about Jesus and the promises of God. If He has saved us, He can save anybody! Leading our friends to Christ couldn't be that complicated. It should even be hard not to do it.

If you're like me, you find witnessing to be harder than it should be. Personally, I don't struggle with the Why or the What and much as the How. I'm afraid I'll get it wrong and just get in the way, or say something that makes somebody hate Christians forever. I'm not as much afraid that people won't like me as that I won't know how to do it, or when, or who to talk to. Meanwhile everything inside of me wishes I could tell my entire campus, or even just my studio full of classmates. People are dying without Him, and I want to be part of God's plan to give His life to them.

Well this week I learned something that I think will make things a bit easier. I went out to do my Bible study and told God that I just didn't know what to read, and I asked Him to show me something. Somehow I felt like I should read Acts 4. So I did, the chapter where John and Peter have been arrested for the ruckus caused when they healed an old beggar who couldn't walk. Peter was declaring that the miracle had been done by the power of Jesus' name. I've read it before. One thing stood out to me though, in verses 13-14:

"Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it."

Do you see it? They were uneducated and untrained. But they spoke with boldness. It is precisely because they were not brilliant and well-trained that this miracle could give such glory to God. Because they could do these things and speak this way, it was clear to the officials that they had been with Jesus. They didn't need to know HOW. They just needed to know HIM.

That changes things! It turns out we don't need a 5-point foolproof plan for effectively sharing the gospel. We don't need to be Bible college graduates who know the Greek backward and forward. Who could be a better expert than Jesus to tell us, through His Spirit, how to obey Him? He is the One who does the saving anyway. He told us to go make disciples and baptize them. There's a reason He didn't say to get better at it first. He wants us to trust in Him and not in ourselves.

If we really know Him, His heart, it will become easier to witness and make disciples because we won't be worried about messing it up. We won't be stopped by not knowing how, because the spread of the gospel doesn't depend on our expertise but on our obedience. God wants to work with our imprecision to show His power. He just wants us to obey and share, and He will work on the hearts. Not everybody will be saved, and we will make mistakes, but nothing should stop us from being obedient.

This week for the first time I heard a Jimmy Needham song called "Come Around." Here are some of my favorite lyrics from it:

"We pass out paper facts all week but they won't come around. Apologetic reasoning, but they won't come around, come around. There's only one way they'll come and it's love!" And "Passionate words and beautiful phrases, they just don't mean much if I don't have Jesus in it."

We will never lead anyone to Christ by persuasion. Christ isn't focused on making sense to people. That's not His point. We will lead people to Him with the love He came to extend, the love that lives in us and drives us. Speak in grace AND truth. We aren't here to debate and argue. We're here to aid in reconciliation.

The number of people being born again is rising, and is growing faster now than at any time in history. It's not because every Christian is suddenly a perfect, preaching, gospel-sharing machine. It's because the love of Jesus is alive in people who have experienced the salvation that only He can offer, and take His command to share seriously. Jesus promises that He will help us through His Holy Spirit to understand what we need to do. And we can find out from His word what His will is. If we are stopped by not knowing how to do it, that's putting little faith in God's power and too much emphasis on ourselves.

1 Corinthians 13:1 "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal."

This week I started being discipled by my friend Debbie. It means that as an older Christian she's going to give me guidance and share with me the lessons she's learned. She asked me to write down my testimony and share it with her. I can't say how refreshing it was to just think and talk about the story of my salvation for a little while, and remember how active God has been in my life. I learned that few things can be as effective a tool in witnessing as being able to tell people what you yourself have witnessed. If we can share what He has done in us, other people can see what He could do in them. We will win them not with our fancy words but with how the new in His word has proven true in us.

HOW do we witness? HOW do we go about doing this right? That's what I'm working on right now. We don't wait around for "low-hanging fruit" and obvious opportunities. I'll bring myself to quote a decade-old Hilary Duff song, "Why Not" : "There may never be a sign, no flashing neon lights, telling you to make your move, or when the time is right. So why not take a crazy chance?" The song's not about witnessing, but the principle applies. Let's be as generous in sharing the love of God as He has been in giving it to the world. Let's go so far as to pray what the early church prayed after Peter and John were set free (Acts 4:29-31)

"'Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.' And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness."

That can be us now. Apart from Him we can do nothing. Jesus is How.