So, just how do you know if you have been successful when you witness to someone? Years ago, I lived under a horrible bondage. It seemed that the message I got from other Christians was that success equalled conversion (or at least the person praying the sinner’s prayer). The results of such thinking are just devastating. First, it puts so much pressure on the Christian to think about his witnessing encounters in terms of the necessity of “closing the deal.” Consequently, he is always preoccupied with trying to steer the conversation to the point where he can ask the unsaved person if he wants to pray to be saved right then and there. Depending on the Christian’s personality, this can lead (in the case of the “salesman” type of personality) to lots of “decisions,” often, in fact, false conversions. Or it can lead to many “failures” in the case of the rest of us who don’t seem to be able to turn on the charm and persuasiveness. Do you find yourself in this kind of evangelism rut? If so, there’s some great news for you.
In witnessing, there are two job descriptions: proclaiming the glorious gospel (ours) and converting the soul (God’s). Here’s the reality: We can’t do God’s and God won’t do ours. So, be free, Christian soldier, to go forth sowing gospel seeds to the glory of God. You sow the seed and trust God to give the growth.
J.I. Packer puts it this way. “But the way to tell whether in fact you are evangelizing is not to ask whether conversions are known to have resulted from your witness. It is to ask whether you are faithfully making know the gospel message.”