Dr. Manuel Shete Boluwatise, Ogbomoso, Nigeria shetbol@gmail.com WITNESS TRAINING PROGRAM

 INTRODUCTION:- A witness is someone who show God’s plan of salvation to lost sinners. Or someone who tell a lost sinner what God has done in his life according to Acts 22:15 which says, "For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard." Witnessing is telling others about the forgiveness, love, deliverance, empowering, and fruitful life that we have found in Jesus. Jesus' last instructions to His disciples before He ascended to His Father were in relation to witnessing. He commissioned them to make disciples as they went into all the world, and to baptize and teach them, Matthew 28:19-20. He promised them that when they received the Holy Spirit they would be powerful witnesses of Him, Acts 1:8. Bringing souls to Jesus is the highest achievement possible to human life. It is to be the main business and heartbeat of every Christian. We can make a difference in the world. The early Christians filled their Jerusalem with their doctrine and turned the world upside down. We can do it again. We must, or our friends and our nation will perish.

 I. WHY DO WE WITNESS? A. BECAUSE IT IS COMMANDED Matthew 28:19-20, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

B. BECAUSE IT IS WISE Proverbs 11:30, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.”

C. BECAUSE IT GLORIFIES GOD John 15:8, “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.”

D. BECAUSE IT DELIVERS SOULS FROM HELL Ezekiel 3:17-18, “Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.”

II. THE TWO WAYS WE WITNESS

A. THROUGH OUR LIVES: Whether we talk for Jesus or not- we are influencing people by how we live. They are watching us! We influence people two ways. By what we say and by what we do. Let people see the change Jesus has made in our lives and will want to hear our message.

B. THROUGH OUR LIPS: “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so” says the Psalms. God has given us a voice to use to spread the good news of salvation. Our testimony will be what sinners listen to most attentively.Testimony  means our story of what led up to us getting saved, where we were at the time, and what we did to get saved. Next to our testimony, a sinner will be interested in what the Bible says about getting to heaven. These are our two weapons for witnessing.

III. WHY SOME CHRISTIANS DON'T WITNESS?

A. BECAUSE OF FEAR: Fear is a big reason some Christians do not witness. Some Christians fear what to do and how to do it in. Jeremiah had fear. God destroyed his excuse with Jeremiah 1:8, which says: “Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD." 2 Timothy 1:7; Psalms 81:10. Some Christians fear they will say the wrong words. The smoothness of our presentation will come with practice. Besides, if the person is on their way to hell, we can do no damage if we are sincerely trying to get them saved. Where love is felt, the message will be heard.

B. BECAUSE THEY FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE: This is overcome by experience. A new man on the job may feel uncomfortable for a while until his skills are sharpened and he feels comfortable. The same goes with witnessing. The more we do it, the more comfortable we will be.

C. LACK OF BIBLE KNOWLEDGE: No one knows the Bible as well as they should. We should not be intimidated if someone asks us the age old questions. We can politely tell them that we are new at witnessing and don’t know the answer, but will try to research their question and find the answer. There is no shame not knowing an answer.

IV. REQUIREMENTS FOR WITNESSING

A. ASSURANCE OF SALVATION: We must know without doubt that we’ve been saved! “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” 1 John 5:13.

B. PURITY OF LIFE: God desires to use clean vessels. 2 Timothy 2:21: “If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.”

C. YIELDEDNESS: Yieldedness means, to stop resisting or opposing God and agree with Him, to surrender our lives to His leading, to give ourselves over to the filling of the Holy Spirit and let Him take control of our lives. Romans 12:1-2.

D. BURDEN FOR SOULS: We should be burdened for the salvation of lost souls because the love of Christ and the love of God's truth impel us. “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36)

E. PRAYER: Our burden for the lost should push us into prayer since we have come to believe that we do really see the terror they face, or the terrible condition they are in at the present moment. While they may appear well and healthy, in reality, they are walking dead men, who live under the constant threat of divine wrath. Romans 10:1.

F. HOLY SPIRIT POWER: We need the power of the Holy Spirit, if our message is to have any power and our witness to be successful, Acts 1:8.

V. MOTIVATION FOR WITNESSING

A. DEATH OF JESUS: We should read about the crucifixion often and think in detail of the pain Jesus suffered for sins of the world. Psalms 22, Isaiah 53.

B. HELL: We should read passages of Scripture on hell, such as Luke 16:19-31. Picture loved ones, men, women, children, neighbors, co-workers, relatives in hell. And try to imagine what someone in hell is going through at this very moment.

C. THE GREAT WHITE THRONE: Imagine an unsaved person standing before a Holy God, knowing he is already condemned. Revelation 20:11-15.

D. THE JUDGEMENTS SEAT OF CHRIST: We must realize that one day we will give an account to God for how we used our time, talents, energies, and finances for the reaching of the lost. 2 Corinthians 5:10.

E. THE WASTING HARVEST: People are waiting to be saved today. For multitudes, tomorrow will be too late. Every second someone dies without Christ. John 4:35.

VI. HOW TO WITNESS

WE MUST EXPLAIN THAT:

A. We are all sinners and that sin is breaking of God’s commandment. Romans 3:23.

B. There is penalty for breaking of God's commands. Romans 6:23a

PHYSICAL DEATH: We will all experience a physical death.

SPIRITUAL DEATH: That’s when a precious soul dies forever and suffers in the place Jesus called hell. The spiritual death is what Jesus is talking about here in this verse. In other words, if we died unforgiven and pay for our own sins, we’d suffer forever away from God in Hell. Romans 6:23b - God doesn’t want us to ever go to hell. That’s why He sent His son Jesus as a free gift to the earth; so that whoever received Him into their life would go to Heaven.

C. God chose to let Jesus pay for our sins. He willingly laid down His life on the cross, He endured the nails, crown of thorns, spit, beating, beard plucked, scourging, because of you and I. He arose three days later and is in Heaven wanting sinners to turn from their sin and accept His gift of forgiveness. Romans 5:8

D. The way to receive Jesus is to ask in prayer with faith that He will come to our lives, Romans 10:13.

CONCLUSION: God will reward a crown to those who win souls. We need to understand that every deed done in the name of Jesus will be blessed and rewarded over there. Men may not see the value of our service, but we should be rest assured that Jesus takes perfect note and that He will reward us fairly for our sacrifice for Him.

 

 

 

 

 

BCU student: Vanessa Pratt, Freetown, Sierra Leone; As You Help Others In Upstanding The Concept Of Evangelism ,May His Grace Be With You.

BCU student: Romeo Tiambeng Candido, Kingston,  Ontario, Canada;  Dear Dr. Otto, Praise The Lord For Your Generosity And Wisdom In Sharing The Word Of God And Its Evangelizing Ministry.  Since This Is My First Course With You, I Would Like To Request Any Reading Material, E.G., Ejournals, Ebooks Or Articles That Will Help Me In My Study Of The Courses In Evangelization. God Bless, Romeo T. Candido

BCU student: Yusuf Samuel Otene, Dutse, Nigeria; Genesis 19:25 NLT- He utterly destroyed them,along with the other cities and villages of the plain wiping out all the people and every bit of vegetation.

BCU student: Ajala Peter Oluwatosin, Uyo, Nigeria; Acts 2:38 (KJV) “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”