Blog

Written by Lisa Mason
on 13th December 2021

The final question that we ask one another in a Discovery Bible Study is a thought provoking one: Who am I going to share this passage with? Sometimes, a person might have already come to mind as we listened to and talked about God’s word. Other times we might have to think ahead through our week and ask ourselves ‘Who will I see that might need to hear this?’ It seems to me that most weeks, as the week goes on, the Holy Spirit highlights new people to share his word. But there is something important about making a choice and writing down a name during our times together, in seeking to be obedient and hold one another accountable to what we said we would do - even if the week might bring us more opportunities than we could have foreseen to speak about God’s word.

Personally, this question has been a life changer. Previously when attempting to tell people about Jesus, I might have talked about church, about faith and about prayer but I am struggling to remember many occasions when I have shared stories from God’s word. I am realising that when I share a story from the bible with somebody, I am giving them something that is alive, something that I can pray will stay in their mind, that they can think about. I can also pray that hearing one story from God’s word will stir up a hunger in their hearts to hear more, that they might share the story they have heard with their friends and family, that they might come back to hear another. I know that if they are searching, I am leading them directly to the place where they will find the truth that will set them free.

But what if you are struggling to find opportunities to share the stories that you are reading? I am very much a learner in this process but here are some tips that I have found really helpful.

Firstly: Pray. Not just when you are at home, alone with God. Pray also when you are talking to people. Listen to them well and listen to the Spirit. Ask him to lead your conversation, to help you hear what people are saying to you so that you can discern how God is longing to meet their needs.

Secondly: Not every conversation ends up being a spiritual one. Last week I was introduced to the conversation quadrant. It looks like this:

So we might not want to rush from a casual conversation straight into a discovery conversation (sharing stories from God’s word) but we might try to lead a casual conversation into something more meaningful. From there we could ask about people’s spiritual needs or experiences and then we might have opportunities to speak about God’s word. This could take five minutes, five weeks or more depending on the person. When you are discerning who to share a story from God’s word with, it might help to bear in mind who you are already having meaningful or spiritual conversations with.

Thirdly: Faithfulness is success. This is the mantra of our coach who is helping us to learn and live the principles of being disciples who make disciples. You might have faithfully shared the stories every week but be feeling frustrated that nobody seems that interested or your conversations are just falling flat. Thankfully, our success cannot be measured by numbers or results. When it comes to sharing God’s word, our success is measured by one thing - did we do what we said we would do? God is the one who knows every heart, the harvest is his, we are his workers. Keep going, dear ones, God sees your faithfulness - hang on a minute, isn’t there a story somewhere in the bible about that….?!