Into battle without a sword: Where is God’s Word in our personal evangelism?
Le Fras Strydom considers the question of whether we’re relying on God’s Word as we seek to share His good news with others.
“and take...the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”
I have to confess: I was a reluctant evangelist.
I remember having arguments with my Bible study leader to get off my back about evangelism – “that’s not my gifting”.
Then I recall slowly being persuaded by Jesus in the Gospels, Acts and the rest of the Scriptures that I too am called to be a witness to Him…but still feeling ineffective on my good days and a guilt-ridden hypocrite on my bad days.
I remember people around me saying, “the Word works – you should try reading the Bible with your colleagues” and thinking, “Come again?!”
And as I was running yet another course in the safety of the confines of my local church – an evangelistic course I hasten to add, in my spare time, sacrificially volunteering my precious lunch hour break to run it – I remember my pastor rightly asking me, “What about your colleagues?”
I remember sulkily saying to God that I’d give this idea a concerted effort just to get these guys off my case.
And I remember the thrill of seeing one and then two colleagues say, “Yes, sure, I’ll look at the Bible with you.”
I remember the thrill of seeing Gods’ Word speak to my colleagues – right there in a dinky little meeting room, in the middle of a busy day at work. I remember my confidence being transformed as I understood – not in principle, but in practice – that the Holy Spirit is pleased to speak through the Word of God today: not just in and around church, but wherever we open it to encounter the risen Lord Jesus as presented by that same Holy Spirit.
A grassroots movement of Word-based evangelism
Of course, I wasn’t the first person to discover the joy of sharing God’s Word. In fact, we learn Bible sharing from the Bible itself:
Philip’s reading Isaiah with the Ethiopian official on the desert road outside Jerusalem
Jesus’ Sabbath day announcement of His ministry from the same prophet Isaiah, as recorded in Luke 4
Or maybe even further back to those legendary Bible sharers – Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan and Pelaiah (come on, don’t tell me you haven’t heard of them!) – in Nehemiah 8!
I wasn’t even the first person to re-discover this. My own awakening happened as I heard story after story of a resource called The Word One to One being increasingly used and bearing fruit in the City of London where I was working at the time.
But what a transformation it was and continues to be. I now actively look for opportunities to help people see Jesus in the Scriptures. I enjoy simply walking alongside people and showing the glorious Jesus I have come to know and love and trust in.
And, by the Lord’s delightful providence – and not without some irony – this reluctant evangelist is in the position of seeing one person after another across the globe discover the same thing: The Word works!
The Spirit is pleased to speak through God’s Word – not just in church, but wherever we open it to encounter the living Lord Jesus.
Here’s a recent quote from a sister in Bournemouth, United Kingdom:
“I have learned as much about John’s Gospel as my friend and I have been humbled in the process. And I have received more instant answer to prayer than I had hitherto ever dared to hope for: my frequent “Help Lord, how do I handle this?” moments have been answered instantly by the Holy Spirit, and in those times when I have been unable to discern an immediate answer, we simply come back to the Word – and guess what? The Word speaks for itself. We are told this in the Bible, but in the comfort of my Christian bubble I had failed to grasp just how powerful that Word is. ”
What are we sending people out with?
All of this has raised some tough questions that I’ve found challenging to answer, but honestly helpful in building confidence in myself and others:
Why is opening the Bible and simply chatting it through such an alien experience for most believers, and often even for church leaders as well?
In a Christian world saturated with evangelism training materials, courses and methods – where is God’s Word in our personal evangelism?
Are we sending God’s people out armed with apologetic arguments, testimonies, gospel outlines, invitations to events and courses and church (all of which are obviously helpful when used well) – but with no expectation that they may be able to simply show someone a few verses of Scripture as an authentic and obvious point of connection?
When we truly believe in the sufficiency of God’s Word, it’s not that hard to say: “Let me show you where I’m getting this stuff from. I believe what the Bible says is good and true, and that Jesus is the best news ever – let me show you why.”
It makes sense, doesn’t it? It’s such an obvious thing to do, certainly from the perspective of those who are clueless but curious about what we actually believe. Not everyone will say “yes” to that invitation, but many more are open than we typically think if we just offer them something attractive to connect with.
Putting on the full armour
These observations lead me to a personal plea to all who work in Christian ministry, especially those who equip in evangelism:
Please can we positively review and consider the prominence we give to God's Word in personal evangelism?
We’re genuinely seeing daily encouragement through the growing global reach of The Word One to One. We work hard to make the resource as helpful and accessible as possible to the non-Christian enquirer, but if another resource is more helpful in enabling Word-based relational evangelism in your context – go for it! The power is not in one resource or method, but in sharing God’s life-giving Word.
We’d love to collaborate with you to put the Sword of the Spirit into the hands of God’s people, to take out into the world wherever God has placed them.
Let’s not make people feel like we all must be masters of some technique or another, or need to have all the answers or a mind-blowing testimony or a magnetic personality. Not many of us do – I certainly don’t!
But as we grow as mature followers of the Lord Jesus, let’s learn to lean on God’s Word as He opens opportunities to walk with the people whose hearts He has already prepared for it.
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