As we learn to cooperate with God when we share our faith, we will find Him leading us more and more to people who are open to Him. Here are a few simple tips to follow:
1. Understand that God is always at work in the lives of people around you.
- God is working in their mind to bring an awareness that he is there (Romans 1:18-21).
- God is working in their conscience to show them their need for forgiveness (Romans 2:14-16).
- God is knocking on the door of their heart to help them realize that something is missing on the inside (Revelation 3:20).
- God is working in their circumstances to show them that they do not have the inner resources to cope with all that life is throwing at them (2 Corinthians 12:8-10).
- God has placed eternity in their hearts to keep before them the issue of life after death (Ecclesiastes 3:10).
- God says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have drawn you with lovingkindness” (Jeremiah 31:3).
When you understand that God is always at work in the lives of those around you, you will begin to see and hear them in a different and exciting way.
2. Ask God to help you recognize if someone you are talking to… is in the Red Zone.
When a football team has moved the ball down the field, getting inside the opponent’s 20-yard line, close to the goal, it is described as being in the Red Zone.
In life, people often travel a long, spiritual journey before they come to Christ. They often have to work through doubts, anger, hypocrisy, bad experiences, and skeptical questions.
But when they finally come to the place where they are open to God, sense that something may be missing in their life, and wonder if Christ can help them, they have entered the Red Zone of their spiritual journey.
Once they are in the Red Zone, God works to put you together so you can help them to Christ! Learn to pray silently as you are talking to people, asking God to give you sensitivity and discernment as to where they are in their spiritual journeys, and if they are in the Red Zone even now.
3. Learn to sense and act on God’s inner promptings or whispers.
In Acts 8, an angel told Philip to go to a desert road leading out of Jerusalem. When he got there, he saw a government official from Ethiopia and the Spirit said ‘go talk to him.’ Why? Because God knew that he was in the Red Zone.
He had come from Ethiopia through Egypt to Jerusalem to worship God in the temple. While there, he purchased a Bible and now he is in his chariot on his way back home, reading the Bible. He was seeking God. He was in the Red Zone.
Philip didn’t know that, but God did. God was working to put them together so Philip could lead him to Christ, which is what he did.
God’s heart is huge for those who are in the Red Zone and he wants to use us to help them cross the line of faith. God will lead you, and he usually does this through small “nudges” or “promptings” that we sense in our hearts and minds. So, if you hear a little voice inside you gently urging you to speak to someone about their spiritual journey, cooperate! That’s how God works.