When We Engage In That Type Of Witnessing – When ...

When we engage in that type of witnessing – when we follow the prescription here in Luke 24 – we have the honor of partnering with God as he opens their eyes, minds, and mouths. Those who once didn’t know, now know! Those who have never heard, now hear! Those who before didn’t understand – they now get it! Their eyes are no longer wide shut, but fully open! Hallelujah!

I recall the very first time this truth grasped me – I was in Jr. High, and after a mission’s conference and the teaching of Scripture from Acts 1, I began to be very burdened about my neighbors, Jerry and Debbie. Know what I did? Went right home and knocked on their door! I was pumped, and I was going to set them straight. Seriously, I was under great conviction, and it I could sense God laying my neighbors on my heart. Unfortunately, they weren’t home at the time. No problem, I thought. And I went right over to Mr. Musgrove, an older, crabby man who lived across the street and for whom I mowed his lawn. Guess what? He was home! Uh-oh! Actually, it went okay. We talked, and though he didn’t have a miraculous, life-changing conversion that day, he asked me some kinda-rhetorical questions about what he had seen in me, and they made me think. Questions like, “Why should I listen to you?” and “Is that why your family is gone every Sunday when I come out to get the paper?” and “Is that why you say ‘Yes sir’ and ‘No sir’ when I’m talking to you, boy?” After my legs quit shaking and my voice quit squeaking and I began walking home (okay, running home!), I realized he was watching me. What a lightning bolt for a 14-year old! But it brought about some gradual changes in me, and made me think twice each time I cut his grass, walked by his yard or rode with my family by his house. Little by little it began to sink in that my witness is more than words. Sure, in my zeal I may have brought about some neighborhood talk, but it was sinking in – people didn’t know and I needed to show them and tell them. How sad it would be if people who lived right next door to me and right across the street from me one day said, “No one ever told me.”