Read (and memorize) Matthew 28:19-2o: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."Have you made a New Year's Resolution? If not, I've got a great one for you! How about using Jesus' last words on earth as your personal mission this year? After Jesus had resurrected from the grave, He made several appearances and finally gathered His followers together for one last lesson before He would ascend back into heaven. Christians call His final words to His followers "the Great Commission," and realize that they apply not only to those original disciples, but to all believers. This was and still is God's plan to bring people to salvation. Christians are to spread the good news to unbelievers everywhere.
Sound like an impossible task for a teenager in Spring, TX? Remember that nothing is impossible with God! We know from Scripture that God uses young people (the prophet Jeremiah was a youth, as was Timothy). But how do you go about fulfilling this command? There are many ways to fulfill this command, but I'll let you in on my favorite and most effective way of preaching the gospel...pray to the Lord to open doors to share the gospel and for the boldness and obedience to follow through.
I've found that if I try to evangelize to strangers without praying beforehand or relying on the Spirit, I don't have much success. However, when I specifically ask God to open up doors for me to share my faith, He does it every time. The problem is that I often forget to ask God to give me opportunities to share my faith. When I'm out running errands, I'm usually too focused on my own to-do list and getting everything done in a hurry to bother asking God to use me. But when I do, the results are amazing. Let me give you 2 recent examples to encourage you and to show you how incredible God is at answering this prayer!
Recently I went to get my hair cut. I've been going to the same guy for the last few haircuts, and I know from the things that he says that he is lost. I felt convicted about this while he was washing my hair, but I'm embarrassed to say that I simply didn't feel like getting into a deep spiritual conversation. I would rather just get my haircut and get out of there...how selfish of me when I know someone is going to hell! Anyway, I decided to pray right there that if God wanted me to share the gospel with my hairdresser, that He would open up a door to do so. This guy and I start talking as he's trimming my hair, and sure enough, he says in the midst of our conversation, "I'm not religious." I almost wanted to start laughing, because God had made it so easy for me! It was obviously a perfect segway to start talking about my faith, and I was able to share the gospel with him. I walked away from the salon in awe of the Lord. It was so convicting to realize how many opportunities I miss in sharing the gospel, and also humbling to see that God is the one who does all of the work...I just have to be available and obedient.
Over the Christmas break, Lee and I went to Taos, New Mexico to go skiing with his family. As Lee and I were making the all-day trip, I started to realize that so far, this had all been about us. I started to feel convicted that we were so focused on ourselves and all the things we were going to do on our vacation, that we had failed to look for opportunities to minister to others. Lee and I prayed right there, as we were driving up to the cabin, that God would give us an opportunity to share the gospel with one person. During the trip, we met a few strangers, but we never seemed to have a conversation that lasted long enough to head toward spiritual matters. On the flight home, we sat by a guy who immediately went to sleep. I was a bit discouraged that we hadn't gotten to share with anyone, and we were now on our way home.
About 30-40 minutes before landing, the guy next to Lee wakes up, and Lee strikes up a conversation with him. I started praying immediately that God would turn the matters to spiritual things and that this man would be open to the gospel. For about 15-20 minutes they chatted about miscellaneous things, and I sat there on the other side of Lee just praying. Sure enough, this man got out a self-help book he had been reading and showed it to Lee. It was very unbiblical stuff...all about turning your life around by positive thinking and living to make yourself happy, etc. I smiled to myself, because I knew this was the perfect opportunity for Lee to share his testimony and faith with the man, and he did. They had a great conversation that really made the man think. We both left the airport praising God for answering prayer and opening doors!
When I was in high school, I frequently prayed for God to give me opportunities to witness and that He would give me boldness. As a result, I had many, many opportunities to share my faith with unbelievers. I would encourage you to seriously pray that God would open up doors for evangelism and that He would give you the courage to seize them. I'll close with a great verse found in Luke 12:11-12, "When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say."
