YE ARE EVEN MY WITNESSES
The saint is compelled to bear testimony of Christ in some small way, or spiritual boredom and drought will set in because the Spirit is grieved.
Each of us ‘brush shoulders’ with scores of lost souls each week unless confined at home because of illness. The saint, no matter how dejected, will carry something in the pocket or handbag with the gift of life: e.g. a small tract, or a pocket Gospel, that can be handed to ‘other sheep’ not yet in the fold of the kingdom, but whom the Father is drawing to His Son.
This does not mean everybody encountered, nor does it mean the witness should nail the recipient with verbal diatribe trying to win his soul.
However, it does mean being ready for a natural positive opportunity (interactional chemistry permitting) when it arises.
Every decent, warm conversation in personal encounter, though only short is the Lord opening the heart to the Word by readying the person to receive it. Seeds must be sown for germination and it needs a sower willing to drop a seed.
If the witness refuses to carry the Word of Life, there is no chance of a seed being deposited. This does not mean confronting every person and forcibly arresting him, as some unwise zealots do. Evidence cannot be measured by response and that must be left to eternity, for often in most cases there will never be another meeting. Ye are my witnesses, and besides I have no other.
Neutral ground of approach is today the best, maybe the only way to witness with 2,800 separate churches soliciting their uniqueness within Christendom. Try to avoid literature advertising their own congregation, but if the identity endorsement has to be embossed make sure it points to the Word of God and not a METHOD to gain grace, or receive the Holy Spirit.
Let HIM do HIS own work without crowding HIM as though salvation of a lost person depends on someone else. Remember that Jesus in John 17 refused to pray for the world and the worldling, only for ‘other sheep’ which the Spirit was preparing. This is not predestination or limited atonement, but giving the Spirit the prerogative to do His own work His own way without meddling humans discrediting His ability to do the work.
Ideally, tracts should be without denominational tag or wording soliciting itself on the back page. Popular humanistic right wing evangelism thinks otherwise as it uses various cunning devices to catch a person in their network. The Christian believer often sees such zealotry and stops witnessing because he wants to disassociate himself from such.
BIBLE REFERENCES. (ex King James Version-Public Domain)
Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any…But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.
(Isaiah 44:8; 2 Corinthians 4:3)
