How do you share your faith with others?

[ResidentAlien]

I used to be very passionate about sharing my faith, but after talking with so many people with very little to show for it, I'm getting less and less enthusiastic. I wonder if God is with me and if I'm doing something wrong. Anyone else been there?

How do you share your faith? Any words of encouragement?

 

[Rosemaryx]

Yes , I have been there , and I felt very sad about it because it seemed no one was listening...
But then I learned that it is God who opens ones mouth to give His word , and when I realized this , I came to recognise that I was doing things in my own strength and not by Gods power , but with God leading me , His word does not come back void...

Now , I have learned , that walking as Christ would have me walk , in the Spirit can also be us witnessing without saying anything...

I am still learning , and always remembering that the Holy Spirit will lead me to whomever God puts on my path...

...xox...

 

[Runningman]

I used to be very passionate about sharing my faith, but after talking with so many people with very little to show for it, I'm getting less and less enthusiastic. I wonder if God is with me and if I'm doing something wrong. Anyone else been there?

How do you share your faith? Any words of encouragement?

Best way is to just build a relationship with our people. It often takes time to grow a relationship from nothing into mutual love and respect. If people like you they may be more interested in hearing what you have to say about your faith, considering it, and ultimately deciding what it means to them. Maybe at that point you can start inviting people to church with you.

If you're talking about street preaching to random people then yeah a lot of them aren't going to really care what you say. You may notice 1 out of every 50 will show any outward display of validation to your witness while the vast majority seem indifferent or even hostile.

God is with you wherever you are. He's always there, have faith. God really wants you to have faith in His presence in your life. Before you even make a prayer request He's probably already working on it. Again, things are not always instant. God has timing and often has to bring factors way beyond our comprehension into precise alignment before your prayer request can be answered.

So trust God. He is pleased when you share your faith with others with the intention of bringing Him glory.

 

[Roughsoul1991]

I used to be very passionate about sharing my faith, but after talking with so many people with very little to show for it, I'm getting less and less enthusiastic. I wonder if God is with me and if I'm doing something wrong. Anyone else been there?

How do you share your faith? Any words of encouragement?

We all are called to go and make disciples but not all are called to evangelism. The spiritual gift of thd evangelist may not be where your gift is. It could be in teaching, pastoring, serving, giving, etc. Learn what your gifts are and then work within what you are gifted with.

 

[ResidentAlien]

Yes , I have been there , and I felt very sad about it because it seemed no one was listening...
But then I learned that it is God who opens ones mouth to give His word , and when I realized this , I came to recognise that I was doing things in my own strength and not by Gods power , but with God leading me , His word does not come back void...

Now , I have learned , that walking as Christ would have me walk , in the Spirit can also be us witnessing without saying anything...

I am still learning , and always remembering that the Holy Spirit will lead me to whomever God puts on my path...

...xox...

That's good advice.

 

[ResidentAlien]

Thank you guys for your replies.

I think I see the problem. I've been too focused on preaching my beliefs to people instead of taking an interest in their ideas and sharing my own. I used to do this a lot but went off track at some point. I usually can't bring them 'round to my way of thinking but at least I don't get completely frustrated; and they may at least think about what I said.

 

[Lanolin]

Im not gifted with evangelism in the typical preaching fashion, its more like when God wants me to say something He gives me the words.

Ive done various ministries and not all ministries involve preaching. Sometimes its doing stuff like gardening.
A lot of people dont really care what *I* think anyway sometimes faith is displayed by what you dont say and what you do than the typical church sermon.

if you approach it like that its much better because preaching to people is more like those who arent that interested or receptive will be dismissive, well thats Lanolin talking about Jesus (again) good for her but He does nothing for me.

 

[Deuteronomy]

Hello @ResidentAlien, I've found that asking leading questions, rather than giving them all the facts, allows people to come to their own conclusions about the Gospel and can be very effective in witnessing. That's how my colleague led me to the Lord 35 years ago, by giving me some important ideas to consider, and letting me think through them for myself.

He also, after listening to my problems, told me that he had the answer that I was looking for, but that he didn't think that I was ready to hear it (which, of course, made me want to hear it ).

The other thing to remember is that as witnesses, our primary job is to plant the seeds of faith (or water the seeds that someone else has already planted), so seeing someone come all the way to saving faith, while a wondrous thing, should not be our primary goal, planting and watering should be.

Here's a book that I believe you will find helpful concerning witnessing with leading questions.

Tactics, 10th Anniversary Edition: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions Paperback – November 26, 2019
by Gregory Koukl (Author), Lee Strobel (Foreword)

​

God bless you!

~Deut
p.s. - just like Christian "giving", it may also help you to remember that the Lord not only blesses those who are being witnessed to, but the one who is doing the witnessing as well

Isaiah 43​

10 “You are My witnesses,” declares the LORD,​

“And My servant whom I have chosen,​

In order that you may know and believe Me​

And understand that I am He.​

Before Me there was no God formed,​

And there will be none after Me.” ​

​

 

[p_rehbein]

How do I share my faith with others? Freely.

 

[ResidentAlien]

Hello @ResidentAlien, I've found that asking leading questions, rather than giving them all the facts, allows people to come to their own conclusions about the Gospel and can be very effective in witnessing. That's how my colleague led me to the Lord 35 years ago, by giving me some important ideas to consider, and letting me think through them for myself.

He also, after listening to my problems, told me that he had the answer that I was looking for, but that he didn't think that I was ready to hear it (which, of course, made me want to hear it ).

The other thing to remember is that as witnesses, our primary job is to plant the seeds of faith (or water the seeds that someone else has already planted), so seeing someone come all the way to saving faith, while a wondrous thing, should not be our primary goal, planting and watering should be.

Here's a book that I believe you will find helpful concerning witnessing with leading questions.

Tactics, 10th Anniversary Edition: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions Paperback – November 26, 2019
by Gregory Koukl (Author), Lee Strobel (Foreword)

​

​

​

God bless you!

~Deut
p.s. - just like Christian "giving", it may also help you to remember that the Lord not only blesses those who are being witnessed to, but the one who is doing the witnessing as well

Isaiah 43​

10 “You are My witnesses,” declares the LORD,​

“And My servant whom I have chosen,​

In order that you may know and believe Me​

And understand that I am He.​

Before Me there was no God formed,​

And there will be none after Me.” ​

​

Yes, great advice. Thank you!

 

[oyster67]

I used to be very passionate about sharing my faith, but after talking with so many people with very little to show for it, I'm getting less and less enthusiastic. I wonder if God is with me and if I'm doing something wrong. Anyone else been there?

How do you share your faith? Any words of encouragement?

Yes, I've been there. I learned that we must not only do what God tells us to do, but also to do it the way the Holy Spirit directs us to do it. It is different for each one of us. He gave us different gifts to be used in different ways. Be at peace. He will reveal these things to all who seek.

 

[beacha]

I think that God guides our responses and actions in every thing we do if we pause and take a God moment before we respond. Its taken me nearly 10 years to learn to start to do this. e.g. someone was unkind and took something from me - but it is my choice how to respond - I can do it alone or I can stop, pause, check in with God and then respond knowing its His strength, His words, His love that guides me or I can do it alone.....
that GOD moment - a pause and then a response - long enough to check in with God first, is how I share my faith. No need to preach the Gospel i tried and couldn't do it, but there are other paths by doing things on a more subtle level remembering His fruit of the Spirit - in the moment of pause to bring Him to mind to guide my response as God is there anyway waiting with His encouragement to pause and reflect and then share my faith His way.
So you have got this. Perhaps you are bored with what you have been doing so try a different approach. Is evangelism your thing? Im not sure its mine but I encourage you to pause, reflect and then follow God's leading in how you share your faith and with whom.

 

[tourist]

I learned that we must not only do what God tells us to do, but also to do it the way the Holy Spirit directs us to do it. .

This is key.

 

[Deuteronomy]

Hello again @ResidentAlien, there's a 4-part teaching series called Spiritual Boot Camp by Dr. John MacArthur that may be useful to you for gathering new ideas about witnessing.

This series takes a close Biblical and practical look at four of our most important spiritual disciplines, How to Study the Bible, How to Pray, How to Function in the Body (fellowship), and How to Witness. I listened to it nearly 35 years ago, and I'm still using some of the things that I learned from it in my daily walk today.

If you'd like to check it out, it's free to stream online, here. Just scroll down bit when you get to the site and you'll find all four messages are accessible there.

God bless you!

~Deut

​

 

[Blik]

I am careful not to push people deep in secular living because they then simply turn me off. I try to live as the joyful Christian, showing by my life that God leads me. I keep myself aware of any opportunity to tell them about the Lord.

I feel that I have failed many times to tell them about the eternal life open to them, the heart of Christianity. Christianity gives a joyful, wonderful life opportunity to living in the world, but the truly important part is living forever with God.

I'll be 97 in May, and I am often asked about my long life which opens the door to telling them of the lord.

 

[Journeyman]

I used to be very passionate about sharing my faith, but after talking with so many people with very little to show for it, I'm getting less and less enthusiastic. I wonder if God is with me and if I'm doing something wrong. Anyone else been there?

How do you share your faith? Any words of encouragement?

It takes time to show the faith we have toward God. It involves loving the unilovable, as our Lord did. Of course it's important to tell others about God, but it's way more to show them God.

 

[Deuteronomy]

...it's important to tell others about God, but it's way more to show them God.

Hi Journeyman, I agree that both are important, but I also believe that acting and speaking as a Christian are ~equally~ important where the Gospel is concerned. The Bible tells us to do both, yes, to "speak the truth .. in love" .. Ephesians 4:15.

On the one hand, we are told that anything that we do without 'acting' like a Christian (IOW, anything that we try to do apart from agape for our neighbor) is useless.

1 Corinthians 13​

1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.​

2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.​

3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.​

On the other hand, we are told plainly that, "faith .. comes from hearing", as well that "acting/loving others" as a Christian necessarily includes "speaking the truth" (as He leads us to, of course), because we cannot hope to love others as God does apart from helping to bring the truth to bear in their lives (even though doing so is often uncomfortable, for us and for them).

Romans 10​

13 “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”​

14 How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?​

15 How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!”​

​

17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.​

​

1 Corinthians 13​

6 Love .. does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth.​

God bless you

~Deut
p.s. - I will be forever thankful to the Lord for bringing people into my life to explain the Good News to me, as well to explain the "bad news" to me, IOW, ~why~ I needed to come to Christ and be saved/what I needed to be saved from.
.