Witnessing by the Spirit

I remember as I was growing up in church, we would have all these "training" and "workshops" on evangelism. Most of the time, this just ends up being either sessions on why we should tell people about Jesus and His plan for salvation with hardly any practical aspect or theory of how to talk people into believing which essentially boils down to a sales class on selling Jesus to your friends and neighbors. Suffice to say, I didn't get much out of it in the sense of fulfilling the session's purpose. However, what I did get out of it was that either I am the most horrible believer around cause I just don't have the guts or will to tell people about Jesus or I am just super lousy in talking about Jesus in general cause when I tried out some of those "tactics" I just get rejected. Overall, these were never actually encouraging sessions nor were they able to elicit the result the church or pastor wanted, which was to tell more people about Jesus. Instead, I would rather not talk about Jesus, church, faith or salvation in general. These things seemed personal and I would rather just keep them that way. And I am sure a lot of people would agree with me on this one.

However, as you experience life, you come to realize something about yourself. I feel that in the past it wasn't for my lack of knowing how to tell people about Jesus nor was it the lack of why I should tell people about Jesus that held me back, rather it was cause I knew of Jesus but didn't actually know Him personally. It wasn't til I had experienced Jesus for myself in a very personal way and had accepted Him into my life that I started to want to talk about Jesus or tell people about Jesus. It was as if something was unlocked within myself, or in another perspective, something was gifted to me that allowed for me to step out of my shell and preference or habit. And here is where the verse hit me. The disciples have witnessed Jesus, they have lived and walked with Jesus, they know Jesus, but it wasn't until they have received the power of the Spirit that they started to witness to everyone around them. I think this is the same with each and every one of us - it is not until we have experienced and received the Spirit that we would start witnessing out of a supernatural and uncharacteristic-to-ourselves kind of fashion. So in essence, evangelism starts with the Spirit. It starts with having the Spirit within us and is not about what or how much we know or how we go about it. The Spirit will provide the missing pieces.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8 HCSB http://bible.com/72/act.1.8.HCSB