Seventh: Desire to Share Jesus with Others
After your life is changed, you may feel an urgency to tell others about Jesus and about the change that He has made in your life. It is natural to want to share Jesus, especially with those you care about most, so that they can also be saved from eternal damnation and experience the same transformation that you have. Scripture acknowledges and supports this.
“Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—those he redeemed from the hand of the foe”—Psalm 107:2 (NIV)
We are admonished to always be ready to answer those who may ask us about our faith in Jesus.
“But make sure that in your hearts you honor Christ as Lord. Always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks you about the hope you have. Be ready to give the reason for it. But do it gently and with respect.”—1 Peter 3:15 (NIRV)
You may not experience all seven of these signs. This was one of the signs that I did not experience. I was very shy when I was a new believer in Jesus. I believed that my salvation experience was real, but I did not want to talk about it with other people because of a fear that I might be rejected. I believed that it was important to tell people about Jesus so that they could also experience salvation, but I did not know how to relate this to people in an effective way.
After years of stumbling and making mistakes, I finally began to learn how to have good, effective encounters with people as I communicated God’s love to them. I had wonderful teachers like Doug Addison, John Paul Jackson and many others who are not as well known in Christian circles. Through many intentional outreach efforts, I learned more about how to communicate God’s love to people the way Jesus did it when He walked on the Earth. Now I have a confidence that has replaced the fear that used to paralyze me as a young believer. I wrote about the things that I learned about effectively sharing Jesus with others in the book Doing the Works of Jesus: Becoming a Disciple Who Loves.
As you become aware of these signs of salvation in your life, let them give you confidence that you are at peace with God. Rest assured that you have passed from death to life. You have been born again. You are a new creation in Christ Jesus. Your old life has passed away. The life you live from now on is totally new and everlasting. You will live forever with God.
