We know that God’s Spirit is at work in us as believers. We will explore what is the role of the Holy Spirit in evangelism.
The Holy Spirit:
- Renews us,
- Regenerates us,
- Trains us,
- Teaches us, and
- Transforms us.
But I also want to point out that the role of the Holy Spirit is to prepare the way for your personal evangelism.
The Role of the Holy Spirit in Evangelism
Consider Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts Chapter 8.
Clearly the Spirit of God was at work in the life of the Eunuch.
- The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship,
- He was reading Scripture on the way back,
- He wanted someone to explain Scripture to him.
The eunuch had a spiritual thirst, created by the Holy Spirit. The man was busy searching to quench that thirst.
Easy Conversation
This was an easy conversation to for Philip to participate in.
Philip did not have to:
- Argue with a loud voice
- Apologetically stand up for his faith
- Use the 10 commandments as a hammer
- Verbally convince the eunuch of his sinfulness
- Spend 10,000 words arguing God’s existence
- Rationally defend against opposite worldviews
Philip asked a simple question.
Do you understand what you are reading?
Holy Spirit Prepares the Way
The Holy Spirit had gone ahead of Philip to prepare a spiritually thirst person for him to speak about Jesus.
The Holy Spirit had prepared Philip ahead of time with his own stories of faith.
The Holy Spirit had prepared the way.
The Holy Spirit had placed Philip there at just the right time.
The Holy Spirit prompted Philip to stand next to that chariot.
The Holy Spirit Works Both Sides
There are two individuals involved in this one story.
One person seeking faith, on his own faith awakening journey.
The other obediently positioning himself to share his faith.
It is two sides of an equation, two sides of the same coin.
The evangelistic conversation would not have happened that day if both parties were not in the same GPS location at the same time, an encounter brought about in the sovereignty of God.
The Holy Spirit was at work in Philip and the Eunuch.
To borrow a phrase from my algebra teacher, the role of the Holy Spirit in personal evangelism is to work.
“Both sides of the equation.”
As you do personal evangelism, notice how God is already at work in preparing the harvest field for you.
He has gone ahead of you!
Let me ask you this?
In your personal evangelism efforts, are you aware of God going ahead of you?
Are you noticing that when you are attentive to the Holy Spirit that you find those people where He is already at work?
Learn More About the Role of the Holy Spirit in Evangelism
Learn more about the PRMI Video Courses on Listening Evangelism:
Originally written by Chris Walker posted on his evangelism website at Evangelismcoach.org:
Doing Evangelism , especially col turkey Evangelism without the empowerment and direction of Holy Spirit is like…..horrible scary. Believe me tried it