Stay on Mission – 21st May 2017

2 – The Holy Spirit is at work.

John 16:7

But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

 

I think that the reaction that I have most often seen among Christians that are encouraged to share their faith is fear.  Phrases like ‘I could never do that’, ‘That is just not my gift’, ‘I am too nervous to talk to people about Jesus’ may be a true representation of how the person feels but they also demonstrate a widely held understanding, or perhaps misunderstanding, of how we should approach sharing the message of Jesus with others.

 

The thing that makes faith-sharing such a daunting prospect for most Christians is that we think that this is something we have to do alone.  We imagine that to be effective we have to know the Bible from cover-to-cover, have learned every bible verse, in the right order, that is needed to present the gospel, and know the answer to every question that might be thrown at us.  It is all about my ability!

 

The thing that we have not learned, primarily, if we are honest, because we have not tried it, is that sharing the message of Jesus is not something that only works for the experts!

 

In John 15:26 Jesus said to His disciples:

 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.

 

Jesus is making it abundantly clear that it is not our words and abilities alone that get the message of Jesus across.  The Holy Spirit ‘will testify’.  Put most simply this means that it is the Holy Spirit who is already at work in people, opening their eyes to the truth of the gospel and guiding them to see their need of Jesus, even before we say a word.  We can’t make people see the truth but thankfully we don’t have to because the Holy Spirit is already doing it.   He invites us to join in with what He is already doing.

 

And so, as you enter another week, my question to you is not ‘will you evangelize this week?’ It is, instead, will you go through this week with your eyes open to see what the Holy Spirit is doing in the lives of the people that you meet and then TRUST Him enough to Join Jesus in His Mission?