Matthew 28:19
Go into all the world and make disciples of every nation.
1 Peter 3:15
But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.
Evangelism is the promotion or act of publicly preaching the Gospel with the intention of spreading the message and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians who specialize in evangelism are often known as evangelists, whether they are in their home communities or living as missionaries in the field.
We Christians have the gift of eternal life and can share that gift with our relatives, our friends, and our neighbors. May the Lord Jesus fill us with His great love as we pray for people and witness to them about our wonderful Lord and Savior.
How you can witness for Christ
1. Consecrate to the Lord
Giving ourselves to the Lord by consecrating specific areas of our life to Him, such as our job, our family, our time, and so on, gives the Lord the way to grow in us in those areas. We can also consecrate ourselves to the Lord to be witnesses for Him and pray a simple prayer like this:
“Lord, I give myself to You in this matter. Help me witness for You to the people You’ve put into my life.”
2. Pray for people
It’s very important for us to pray for people. Our Lord wants people to be saved, and He surely hears our prayers for them. We can pray something like:
“Lord, I pray for my cousin. He’s still not saved. Show me what to say to him. Lord, please give him an open heart to hear what I say about You. Lord Jesus, save him!”
It’s helpful to make a list of our unsaved family members, friends, neighbors, classmates, and co-workers so we can pray regularly for them.
We can ask the Lord specifically who to speak to, what we should say, and when. We can even ask the Lord to give us opportunities to speak to people.
3. Be assured that being saved is the only qualification needed
Attending seminary or receiving special training isn’t a requirement to witness for the Lord. Believing in and receiving Jesus as our Savior is the only qualification we need.
This is proven by accounts in the New Testament of newly saved people immediately speaking about Christ and what He had done for them. For instance, in John 4 the Samaritan woman met Jesus at the well, and then right away told everyone in her city about Him.
4. Speak about what you’ve experienced of Jesus Christ
To witness to people, we don’t need to compose a sermon. We also don’t need to have all the answers to questions about God they might ask us. The apostle John said in 1 John 1:3:
“That which we have seen and heard we report also to you.”
John simply wrote about what he had seen and heard. In the same way, we can speak about what we’ve seen and heard of Jesus Christ, meaning, what we’ve experienced and enjoyed of the Lord.
For example, we can tell people how burdened down with sin and guilt we were, how Jesus died for us, and how He saved us. Or we can tell them that Jesus now lives in us and is with us all the time. Even if we’re newly saved, we can say, “I was empty and alone, but now Jesus lives in me!”
We can speak of what Jesus did for us. We can speak of His love for us, and of His care for us. If we stop to think about it, we actually have a lot to say about our dear Lord!
5. Practice speaking to people
We can’t expect to play the piano well if we never practice. Speaking to people about the Lord also requires practice. It may be helpful to set a goal of speaking to one person every week or every two weeks, for example. Otherwise, it would be easy to put off practicing and never start.
The more we practice, the more we’ll learn how to reach different kinds of people and be effective in leading them to salvation.
6. Tell people about Jesus in different ways
There are many ways and many opportunities to witness to those around us. The book of Acts is full of accounts of people being saved through different believers.
For instance, we can write a letter or email to someone we know to share the Lord Jesus with them. We can write about our experience of salvation, or how the Lord has worked in our lives.
We should also be prepared to speak about the Lord to our friends, relatives, or colleagues when opportunities present themselves. We can say something about how real the Lord is to us, and how we want them to be able to experience that for themselves also.
Giving away gospel tracts is another great way to share something about Jesus, especially if there isn’t much time to speak at length. For example, we can give tracts to people while we’re at the store, taking public transportation, or running errands. We can say a few words to them about the Lord based on a tract as we give it to them. Then the tract can speak to them even when we’re not with them.