About a month ago I had the privilege of attending Jackie Hill Perry’s Glory Conference in Greensboro, North Carolina. Glory is a two day Bible-teaching event for women. It was a ten over ten experience. I made a goal at the beginning of this year to attend more Christian conferences, especially ones catered to women. Christian conferences allow me to gain a glimpse of how Heaven will be, while also preparing me to make Heaven. Each time I attend a conference, I have the opportunity to see people of all ages, backgrounds, and ethnicities in the faith, in one room, worshipping the same God. It is a beautiful experience, and something even more special happened this time around when I attended Glory.
On the last day of the conference, Jackie Hill Perry led a session about the Great Commission using the story of the woman at the well in John 4. The Great Commission are the final instructions that Jesus gave to His disciples in Matthew 28:16-20 where He told them to go and make disciples of all nations, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In sum, He told His disciples to go and tell the rest of the world about Him. These instructions weren’t just for Jesus’ 11 disciples (by this time Judas Iscariot had betrayed Jesus) but for all of His followers. The Great Commission isn’t a choice, it’s a command. Using the story of the woman at the well was so vital for a conference catered to teaching women more about the glory of God and how to show it here on earth. What I appreciate about that story is one that she’s a woman, and two, the weakness of her past was not the focus, instead the focus was on Jesus’ intentionality in sharing the truth of who He is to her.
Although I love the story of the woman at the well, it always convicts me of the need to evangelize, and if there is one word in the world that can immediately get my heart to race, it’s “evangelism.” Every time I hear that word, my heart begins to beat fast, I grow anxious, and my mind longs to escape from the space of thinking about it. Evangelism is the act of sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ and how He came to save the world. It’s sharing your testimony of becoming a Christian, or simply witnessing to someone about the goodness of God in your life and inviting them to know God. What can make evangelism daunting is the fact that it both puts your faith to test, and tests what you know about your faith. But the fruit of it is that it allows you to see the faithfulness of God, and pushes you to depend on Him all the more.
During the conference Jackie taught on specific lessons to show us how when God saved us, He also set us a part for us to be used by Him and tell others about Jesus. One point that stuck with me the most was to “lead with our humanity.” Oftentimes in the past when I would evangelize, I would think I had to have the most perfect speech and be able to quote tons of scripture in order to “successfully” evangelize. But even Paul the Apostle, one of the greatest evangelists (to me at least) said in 1 Corinthians 2:1-4:
When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan.... 3 I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. 4 And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit.
Paul himself felt the different nerve-wracking emotions that can come with evangelism. This encouraged me to know that I too, don’t have to have it all together to evangelize to someone. I can say as many “uhms,” have shaky and sweaty hands, and maybe even stumble over my words. The goal of evangelism is simply to spread the Good News. God does the rest. So with the message and encouragement I then received from the conference, the Holy Spirit asked me “now what are you going to do?” (See James 1:22)
So I pondered on the question, and as I began to think, the Holy Spirit gave me an instruction to pray for the waitress we were going to have when we went to brunch. I thought to myself, “hmmm, I’m in a whole different state, out with friends, and you want me to do what?” But, the more I thought about it, the more the Holy Spirit softened my heart to obey.
We arrived at the restaurant and our waitress welcomed us very kindly and politely. The Holy Spirit then drew my attention to her tattoos. I noticed that some were writings, others were symbols, and the Holy Spirit told me to specifically ask about the skull one on her finger. I thought “oh Lord, I’m not ready to preach to this woman.” I then grew more nervous because God was asking me to do something I did not want to do. Mind you, He didn’t ask me to preach to her, He just asked me to pray for her. But, because I didn’t know what I would pray about, or how I could bring prayer into the conversation, I began to grow anxious and make things bigger than they needed to be. I wanted to throw this nudge that I was feeling in my spirit out of the window, but it was so hard.
Then, the Holy Spirt told me to speak up and tell my friends about what was going on inside of my head and what He was asking me to do. This is where I received breakthrough. Once I told my friends what was going on, they gave me assurance to support me however the Holy Spirit led. Is that not the blessing of a godly community? I was reminded of why the followers of Jesus are referred to as the “Body of Christ,” because when one part of the body needs help, another part can support it. What I didn’t know then was that the strength that I needed to obey God was right around me, all I needed to do was open my mouth and ask for help.
We began eating and I was trying to think of how to ask this waitress about her tattoos, I kept trying to think of the perfect moment. But the Holy Spirit kept telling me to just do it, otherwise I would miss the moment altogether. We started to wrap up and before you know it, the waitress came with our checks and I still hadn’t asked her about her tattoos. I started to feel defeated. When I would try, there was one interruption or another. Finally, my friend noticed an item was missing on her check and called the waitress back. I said “Wow, God you have given me another opportunity,” and this time I took it. I asked her, very anxiously, “Can I ask you a question, what does that skull tattoo on your finger mean?” and I froze. I didn’t know what to expect: whether she’d feel judged, or just dodge the question. But to my surprise, she answered, and not only did she answer my question she started sharing more about her life. I didn’t ask her anything other than the meaning of the skull tattoo, but for some reason (which I believe was the presence and conviction of the Holy Spirit), she started to open up about other things.
I then told her about God, and I told her that no matter all that she was going through, God saw her, and He deeply loved her. Then my mind went blank and I forgot that my instruction was to pray. Thankfully, my friend remembered, and then she asked “do you mind if we pray for you?” and before we prayed, the Holy Spirit gave another friend a word of knowledge (a divine revelation about something or someone) about the waitress’ life to encourage her for what she was going through. Talk about the beauty of the five-fold ministry! I was blown away. We ended up praying for her, she then hugged each of us and told us how much she needed it. I was literally in awe of God. Although I was very afraid to put myself out there and evangelize, I saw the fruit of it and this time around, it was with friends who God used to encourage me.
If you’re like me, someone who gets afraid to evangelize, remember that God already knows your weaknesses, and He’s already factored them into times He nudges your heart to share His goodness with others. Like the Holy Spirit told me: “just do it.”
For some helpful evangelism resources, check out “YesHeIs” ministry on Instagram which has helped me, and here’s their webpage.
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