Want to start witnessing to more people more often? Let me share ten tips with you.
Tip 1
Practice starting conversations.
At five o’clock in the afternoon at a set of traffic lights you see a businessman or woman waiting to cross the road. They are across the road from the entrance to the train station. An opening line might be:
1. Did you achieve much at work today?
2. Looking forward to the weekend?
3. Happy the day is over?
4. Finished work yet or still going?
5. Did you have a good day at work?
6. Did you make an impact at work today?
7. Looking forward to getting home?
There are many questions that you can ask and if you are well dressed, smiling and obviously look like you are waiting to cross the road too, most people will answer.
The second question I will ask most often is:
1. What do you do for work?
The third: What would you do if you could pick your job?
So let us have a look at tip number one. We are getting the people to talk about work, something they are on the way home from and something that is still on their mind. It’s not important that they answer in a long sentence or a short one, your aim is to get a response so you can get to the second question.
Why is that?
Generally, if you ask a person what they do for work, what they do for fun and if they have family that they live with, the person will answer the questions and after a pause they will begin to ask you something. When they ask you, this gives you an opportunity to share your faith.
Tip 2
Flow with the conversation. Don’t freeze up. This is a total stranger and it does not matter if you strike out. The more people you speak to the more practice you will get. The more practice you get the better you become.
Let me take you through a conversation I had today tonight at 12:06 AM as I waited for a bus.
ME: Hi, have you just finished work?
No, I was out with a friend.
ME: Did you have a good night and share some good things together?
Yes, it was a good night.
ME: Are you a student? (He was about 20 years of age.)
Yes, I study music.
ME: Really, What instrument do you play?
I play the guitar but I am also playing drums.
ME: Can you play lead guitar?
Yes, that’s what I play.
ME: That’s great, my friend here plays lead guitar. My name is Matthew and my friend is Yianni.
Are you Australians? (You see he asks a question.)
ME: Yes, I am Australian and my friend has Greek heritage but he doesn’t speak much Greek.
ME: Where are you from?
He mentioned an Island near Fiji.
ME: Are you Catholic? (This was because he said it was settled by the French.)
Yes I am, but not practicing.
ME: You know Jesus loves you and he brought me here tonight to tell you that.
I hope so.
ME: Do you like to read?
Yes.
ME: I have a book that explains the Christian faith and gives you more insight into Jesus. Can I give you one?
Yes.
I went into my bag and gave him a very good book explaining the gospel and a personal living relationship with Jesus. It’s an eighty page book and it’s the best tract I have ever seen with over 250 scriptures in it.
So tip number two is don’t stress and let it flow.
Tip 3
Ask questions. One of the keys to keep a conversation moving is asking questions. If you don’t know about their profession ask them what it is and how they do it. Ask the person if that is their chosen profession. Ask them if they are happy. Ask them where they want to go in their profession. Ask them question after question. Questions are the key. You can always move a conversation along with questions.
That is why sales people ask you a lot of questions.
Tip 4
Have simple stories that can impress your faith in a short sentence or two.
What do you do for work?
I enjoy my job which is telemarketing, but my love is what I do with some of the money.
Oh, what do you do?, they will ask.
I fund a few people in Africa. I pay an Indian pastor his wage so he can work harder in the faith.
Have something you can say that shares your faith in one sentence.
I work for money to buy food and clothes, but most of the work I enjoy is getting into a closer walk with God. Do you have a faith?
There are many things you can say.
You can come to my web site for instance and become an on-line intercessor for visitors that come for a prophecy and then you can tell people that you pray for people on-line.
If you are involved in ministry at church or in your own ministry share that. When they ask you what you do, share what you do and then add that you get the most satisfaction from that ministry.
People are mostly polite if your conversation has lasted minutes. If you have asked a couple of questions and they have talked a lot then they feel that they owe you time and they will listen to what you say.
So think of some short sentences that you can share. If you haven’t got something to share, get something to share! [Lol]
Many times this little sentence is simply a bait that you are throwing out. If they ask you more about what you have just said, then you go deeper into your faith and share a little of the gospel with them.
Tip 5
People generally like people taking an interest in them. So take an interest and don’t worry about how long it takes before the tide turns and they ask you questions.
You see the man above asked me if I was an Australian and that is what started the conversation about him being from another country and then onto his faith.
Take an interest in people and their occupations. Take an interest in every person you meet. Take the time to listen to their answers. The more polite you are, the more polite they will be when you speak. People love to speak and they love to be given an opportunity to share things with people and get things off their chest.
Witnessing is not pushing your faith on a person, it’s essentially taking an interest in a person. Many times my conversations are so short that I don’t get to share my little sentence with a person that shares my faith. I ask the Lord to bless the person. Sometimes I will say bye and if I have established a good rapport with them I may say God bless you.
Tip 6
Flow with the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit knows what he wants to do with you and the person. The questions that come to your mind are most often the questions the Holy Spirit wants you to ask. When I thought this man’s country above was settled by the French I remembered that I had read once that much of France was Catholic, so I took a punt that he was Catholic.
The Holy Spirit is really good and he knows how to prompt you which questions to ask. The more you start conversations the more practice you will have and the better you will become.
The more you flow with the Spirit, the more you will be able to witness. The key is to get that line into the conversations.
Tip 7
Be a seed planter.
If you have tracts that you love put them in your bag or briefcase. Don’t have them in your hand when you start the conversation. I have had thousands of conversations in the last year or two and now I am starting to meet the same people a second time. Sometimes you have to just plant seeds in people’s lives.
If you are a lady and you see a lovely dress on another woman at the traffic lights, reach across and say to her, Gee I love your dress. Don’t ask where did you get it. When she smiles you can say,
Do you always dress like this to go to work or are you on your way out?
And there goes the conversation.
Some people need over 20 positive encounters with Christ and Christians before they are saved. Try to be one of the 20 some people need. Give them that positive push toward God.
The word of God is good seed, but the fruit of the Spirit is good seed also. You should try and let every encounter you have leave the person in a better way then when you met them. The more people you can encounter the more seeds you can plant.
Who are we to know what good God can bring from a positive comment on a lady’s dress on her way home just having heard that she was passed over for a promotion she was interviewed for that day? Who knows how many people are just so depressed that they can’t seem to go through the motions any more and your comment brings them some light.
Plant seeds, share Christ in you with people before you share that it’s Christ in you that they are encountering!
I have planted a lot of seeds in the past few years. Then this year on one day I led six people to the Lord. That was a harvesting day.
Tip 8
Go out of your way to make a good impression on strangers.
I am on a disability pension from my government that I get for having a mental illness (I am not healed yet). On that pension I get a ticket that gives me unlimited rides on trains and buses all day for $2.50.
Sometimes at the station barriers the ticket machine jams with a person’s ticket when I am behind them. Many times I have put my ticket in the machine and said to them, ‘Here, go now on my ticket.’ This saves them going to the attendant and showing them their ticket to prove the barrier was having a malfunction and it starts a positive encounter that might continue.
When you go to a shop to buy something engage the person serving you in conversation. Ask them how their day has been. Ask them lots of questions. Share your love and bless them with, ‘Have a good day!’ when you say goodbye.
There are heaps of people that you can bless and start conversations with that are stuck behind a counter or behind a seat driving a bus, so you can practice your talents for witnessing.
Tip 9
Be a praying person.
Ask the Lord for divine encounters each day. Ask the Lord to order your day and you watch, the person that you meet at the lights will be a good encounter. I spend quite a lot of time at McDonald’s. I love to get in the line at McDonald’s. I even offer to go in line for my friends. People in a line of four or five deep have a few minutes to wait before they are served so I ask the person behind me:
‘How was your night?”Just on a break from work?’ or’You ordering a salad today or something fattening like me?’ with a laugh, and I am off into a conversation.
If you ask the Lord for divine encounters he will see that you have that phone call that holds you up an extra five minutes so that you are late for your train and have to catch another train ten minutes later.
Standing next to you is a woman in a nice dress and you think, ‘Gee that’s a nice dress’ and the Holy Spirit says, ‘Yeah, why don’t you tell her like Matthew said in that article?’
‘Gee, that’s a lovely dress. Do you wear that to work or are you on you way out tonight?’
And off you go!
And depending on her answer you can say:
So where are you going for dinner? orSo what sort of work do you do that has you dress so fine?
Oh, and there is a second reason to be a praying person. If you pray and journal your prayers you will find that you will have prayers being answered every week and they will be good answers. These are little gems of testimony that you can keep with you and share with others saying that this was a prayer you prayed one week and how the answer came through. Then you can ask them if they have a prayer request!
Tip 10
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
In Sydney where I live people are afraid to talk. But a few well placed questions by a little persistent person like me opens even the most hardened person up.
You can’t lose.
God loves you, do you know that?
You can start the conversations and you can get your faith sentence out and then you can take it from there. Believe me, if the person you are speaking to wants to hear more they will ask you, and if you are a praying person they will ask.
How many people are divine encounters that you are walking past each day?
If you have any questions write to me and ask. I’d love to talk to you.
Remember, ask three questions:
1. What do you do for work? (Your response can be what you do for work and what you do for God.)
2. What do they do for fun when they aren’t working? (Your response can be what you do in your faith that is fun, but always be honest. Share what you do for fun like going to the movies or sport and add your faith.)
3. Do they have family that they live with? (Tell them about your sister and brothers in the Lord.)
When you have asked the questions they will ask you questions.
I hope these tips have helped you. Remember to get in touch if you need help.
Start witnessing.
I am happy to say I have led ten people to the Lord this year and I am very happy about it. That’s enough for a lifetime. But I have planted thousands of seeds also and I have a bigger harvest to surprise me one day in heaven.
I have been practicing for years. Every sport takes practice. Come on, I dare you. Ask a person how their day at work was today!
Source by Matthew Robert Payne