I am sharing this with you in the hope of inspiring you to use everything at your disposal in order to reach the lost. Also, I hope to convince you that you need only be indwelled by the Holy Spirit (which every true Christian is - Romans 8:9) in order to tell the Good News to strangers.
Frankly, I was quite scared at the prospect of talking to strangers about Jesus, especially as we had not been able to organise tracts. In fact, I was so scared I said to Sam, "hey, we should leave it tonight 'cos we don't have any tracts to hand out." To which he replied, "no way!".
"So how are we gonna approach people?"
"Well, I'm just gonna walk up to people and tell them about Jesus."
That's what he was gonna do. I was gonna follow him around for the night. There's no way I could just walk up to people and start a conversation about the most important thing they'll ever hear!
Before walking to the Stables we prayed to our Awesome God for strength, courage and boldness, for God to accept our offering, and to use it to touch people's lives. So we headed for the Stables, me being quite scared. I had this sudden urge to run home.
Arriving there, Sam walked immediately to a group of people and began talking to them. Reluctantly, I followed. But then, something strange happened; I suddenly knew that I should start a conversation of my own. Wow, that was scary! "No way," I said to myself. Somehow, I turned away from Sam's group and looked around for other prospectives. I spotted one, and immediately Satan attacked. The evil one begun to pour fear upon fear into my heart. I stopped walking for a moment.
Thankfully, the Spirit in me is greater than the spirit that is in the world, and so, by the power and grace of God, I walked up to this person (my legs still shivering out of fear) and said, "hey, can I tell you about Jesus?"
Immediately, all the fear left. This is what Jesus promises us in Luke 21:13-15:
"This will result in your being witnesses to them. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict."A long conversation ensued. And that's precisely what it was - a conversation. I told him the basics of the gospel, he responded by explaining his beliefs and telling me why he didn't agree with mine. I couldn't answer all his questions, but that was all right.
As soon as the conversation was over, and I began looking for others to witness to, the fears poured in again; when I began another conversation, the fear was immediately replaced with deep peace and joy.
This fear of witnessing to strangers is so powerful because Satan is absolutely scared of it! He will do anything to get us to stay quiet about our beliefs. So let us remember that the evil one has already been defeated!
And finally, you do not need to be gifted in any way (apart from being able to hold a conversation) in order to witness to strangers. And even if it is the case that you will not talk to a stranger, you can simply hand out tracts silently.
Our job in evangelism is to proclaim the gospel; it is only God who can save. And so, as we witness, we do so knowing that the result of it and the extent of the harvest is completely in God's hand (John 6:44). It is the Holy Spirit who softens people's hearts so they might hear and understand the gospel. That is why we can pray with full confidence for the salvation of our friends, our family, and all those to whom we witness.
And so I plead with you to join me in reaching the lost for Christ. Let us stop using "personal evangelism" as an excuse to stay in our comfort zones (although we should by all means continue witnessing to our friends!). Let's proclaim the gospel to as many people in as many ways as possible, so that others would get to share in our salvation and, above all, that God might be glorified.
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