All the credit goes to Dr. Sam Luke for this illustration. Dr. Luke tells this story:
I was taking the church through Evangelism Explosion in an effort to go out and witness for Christ. But there is an added dimension to witnessing, the Holy Spirit. I was going to teach everyone how to witness according to this program.
There was a sweet little lady named Katherine Tillman - she could not seem to grasp the concept of witnessing by the book. She couldn’t remember the questions in the book - she couldn’t remember the scriptures - she got everything out of order. She had a PHD - a Pentecostal Hair-Do. She was from the "old school". She believed in shouting and did it every opportunity she got. She loved the Lord and was one of the sweetest women I’ve ever met.
I didn’t want to hurt her feelings but I knew she wasn’t getting it. It was time to go out on a Saturday and witness and I put everyone in teams and assignments - but didn’t give one to Sister Kathleen, hoping she’d get the idea and just stay back and pray.
I asked her to stay back and pray but she said, "Pastor, I want to go out and witness!" I said - "I’ve given all the assignments out - I don’t know where you’d be able to go." She replied, "I know where I can go - there are some apartments over by where I live, I’ll go there." I said, "Sister Kathleen, that is notoriously bad place. I happen to know there is prostitution, illegal drugs, biker gangs. That isn’t safe." She said, "I know - isn’t that a great place for sinners?" I said, "Go on and be careful."
Pretty soon the others began to come back two by two and I asked each group: "How did it go?" Each one replied, "Well Pastor, we’ve planted the seed", which is code for "nobody got saved."
Not one person won anybody to the Lord and I was so discouraged. After about an hour and half Sister Kathleen. I heard her pull in the parking lot. She got out of the truck and I could hear her praising God in tongues and shouting and just glorifying God. She shouted all the way to the door.
I asked her " well, how did it go, Sister Kathleen?" She said, "Oh it is glorious! Praise God. God is so good." I said, "Well, tell me what happened." She said, "I went to the first apartment, the first door I knockeded and I started to knock on it and it swung open on its own. And there was a bunch of men in there with no shirts on, big ole
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