Stay on Mission – 4th June 2017

4 – The Holy Spirit helps us as we share.

 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.

On numerous occasions when I have been encouraging Christians to share their faith I have heard, over and over again, exactly the same response:

 “I can’t share my faith because I don’t know what to say”.

 This response is understandable but does reveal a deep misunderstanding. 

Tragically, so many Christians think, maybe because it is how they have been trained, that sharing their faith requires that they learn, and present, a word-for-word gospel presentation that they must not get wrong.  Sadly, most Christians think that this is beyond their ability to deliver so, instead, do nothing. 

In John 16:7, the scripture we are considering, Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to be in us and with us.  At the end of the gospel of Matthew, Jesus promised to always be with us! We don’t do this alone and we don’t do it for Jesus.  He is in us and we do it with Him.

This truth, like so many other important truths, cannot be learned theoretically.  It can only be learned by a person who trusts God and then is prepared to do it.  You can’t learn to trust God to be with you in faith sharing until you trust Him and start sharing your faith.

Happily I have met many Christians who have experienced that this is true, here are a few of the comments I have heard over the years:

 “I started talking and the words just came to me”.

 “ I just somehow knew what I should say, I don’t know where the words came from, well, I suppose I do really”.

 “ I had insights that I know must have come from God”.

 This week, rather than begin with ‘I can’t….’ why not trust God and begin with ‘He can….’?