This blog series aims to help you know when ‘now is the time’ to share the gospel with the person you just met or with someone you are walking with towards Christ. John and Andrew already shared with you the first two hints we must recognise:

When to talk to someone about God? …

When they ask a question about God, your faith, church, or spiritual things 

When their life is falling apart, or they are facing a crisis

Today’s answer that I would like to ponder is:

You know it’s time to talk with someone about God …When God prompts you!

When we receive Christ, we have been reborn in the Holy Spirit (John 3:3-8). The Holy Spirit resides in our hearts, bringing with him an entirely new life of love, relationship, and service to the Lord. Jesus said that the people who trust God would be like sheep who recognise the voice of their shepherd and follow him. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). The Holy Spirit was given to lead, direct, and comfort us (John 14:26; Acts 7:51; 1 Thessalonians 5:19-20).

So, learn to listen and obey when God prompts you to speak to someone in your life about God.

You have to realise that the Holy Spirit will speak to you, guide you, and warn you about things. Pay attention to the things you might typically or inadvertently dismiss. Don’t reject random thoughts or ideas. Ask yourself if it is the Holy Spirit (or just your own voice) trying to tell you something. Recognising God’s voice, his prompting, ONLY comes with regular time with God through his Word (the Bible), conversation with him through prayer and through your growing relationship with the Lord. Ask the Holy Spirit, your Helper, to sharpen your hearing, so you’ll recognise his voice and his words more clearly.

In Philippians 1:9, Paul’s prayer mentioned his desire for the followers of Christ to be filled more and more with love, with knowledge and all discernment from the Lord. Notice that the first thing we ought to be praying for is for our hearts to be filled with inexhaustible love. As I spend time seeking the Lord with all my heart, I get to grasp and experience his mind-blowing, selfless love for me and for everyone he placed in my heart to fervently pray for. Out of the richness of his love, I am compelled to bend my knees and pray that he will open my eyes to the things that only his eyes can see (1 John 4:19). That he will break my heart for what breaks his and that he will show me how to love others like how he has loved me—a perfectly unlovable, sinner saved by God’s grace! As I develop a heart that is in-tune with his heart, it becomes natural for me to ask and pray for knowledge, sensitivity from his voice and all discernment from the Lord as I witness for his name’s sake.

He sure loves answering those prayers! Although I am working in a community of believers, he has been opening my eyes to countless opportunities to witness for him in my daily life! Just as I am so familiar with my husband’s voice (even when he clears his throat!) though my eyes are shut, I know that it was God’s sweet, still voice that prompted me to pray for the IT guy who fixed our internet connection; that encouraged me to share the gospel with the mum whom I just met in a fast-food chain after I picked up the kids from their school; that whispered to me that the members of my family who were yet to know Christ were ready to hear and receive the TRUTH about Jesus; to be a listening ear to an anxious mum I met in a friends’ party which opened a door for me to pray for her and share God’s sovereignty over everything; that opened opportunities for me to “stand in the gap” and warn believers to return their ways to the Lord—and those have been just few of the times I have sensed the Lord leading me, among others!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a person who has an outgoing personality, persuasive in speech, and has plenty of time in the world to socialise and meet up with people! I have as much trouble of my own as everyone does. I am only able to follow the Lord’s leading out of his inexhaustible resource of love, grace, compassion, empathy, which drives me to invite people to Him! And also, in doing all the witnessing, it is not me but it’s the Holy Spirit working through me, as it says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” The Holy Spirit will empower your witness for you! If you are not pumped up with that, I don’t know what else can reassure you! Acts 1:8

Another truth that can encourage us not to look at our inadequacies as we engage people in God-conversation is the passage in Titus: ” But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,  he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,  whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:4-7 “He saved us”—it isn’t our job to save that person whom we are leading to Jesus. God saved us, “by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit“. Regeneration is the beautiful truth that God sent his Holy Spirit to regenerate people, to open their eyes to his love, grace, and truth. It’s not up to us to penetrate through to the inner core of their hearts, or their distractions, or their disinterest in spiritual things. It’s the job of the Holy Spirit. He takes over the moment you step out in faith and begin sharing Christ with someone!

As we have all experienced the generosity of God’s grace and love, I encourage you to pray just like Paul’s prayer: pray that we will always be filled with infinite love for the Lord, for his people, with knowledge, wisdom and all discernment from the Lord! You will never regret the FULLNESS of joy and abundance of life you will receive as you take part in Christ’s agenda!