You must remember this, nearly everyone that you meet is not thinking about God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, grace, mercy, longsuffering, or anything whatsoever associated with the Scriptures. All of that is more than likely the furthest thing from their mind.
And everything just mentioned, and more, should be almost constantly at the forefront of your thoughts.
“Teach me, O LORD, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end.” (Psalm 119:33)
Because they are of the world, those things of this world will be the conversational topics they will want to pursue, and most usually it is whatever they have been informed by this world is of the most important, pressing information, and that can be anything from a political perspective, worldwide or reginal news, the weather, nearly any topic you can imagine.
I will tell you a truth I learned many decades ago, if you want to lead the conversation, you must allow them to believe they are leading it.
Remember this truth about them as well.
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1st Cor. 2:14)
Our responsibility, our joy, our pleasure and honor is to attempt to lead the conversation towards the Lord Jesus Christ, and that cannot be done unless first the topic in some manner leads to them personally. This is a learned skill and embodies everything in Philippians 2:3.
“Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.”
If you move too fast, they will probably leave your presence, if you push too hard, so to speak, what will happen is they will put up a defensive front, because whether we will admit it to ourselves or not, in a truth what we are saying to them is that the Almighty loves them, but as they are, they are not “good enough” to be accepted into His Kingdom.
No matter the topic of conversation they bring up, they would not be speaking about it unless it held some interest to them, therefore, whatever their interest is, you can subtly, without their knowledge, use their interest to get them to speak about themselves in relation to it.
In other words, what they are interested in and how it affects them personally.
If you are listening, you will hear in some manner something from the Word of God that cannot only be referenced to the subject matter, but to them personally. Now my friends is when you openly begin to lead the conversation, as you intended to do from the beginning, towards Christ. From that point, whether they will hear or not is entirely up to them.
You do not have to become their friend first, you do not need to make an appointment to continue the conversation, this doesn’t need to be drawn out, in fact, it really takes no longer than it did for you to read this letter.
Far too many believe that witnessing for the glory of the Most High simply means inviting people to church and then hoping for the best.
“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15)
That means you.
That means you actually acting upon the faith that you profess to have, speaking to others openly about who you profess to love.
They are not going to be contemplating the Lord Jesus Christ when you first meet them, do everything within the power vested in you by the Holy Spirit to make sure that when they leave your presence, He is at the forefront of their thoughts.
