In churches and congregations, people are encouraged to go into all the nations and spread the gospel and make disciples, but I question are we making disciples or recruiting members for religious indoctrination? Do we feel a sense of pressure to "win" every single person we witness to? I believe we have. We put on ourselves a success rate that Yah (God) himself does not place upon us. Even Y'shua (Jesus) was not successful (so to speak) in getting every person he came in contact with to follow him, some beckoned to his call, some did not. We do not like to think of Y'shua as failing at anything but the fact is humanly speaking not everyone heeded his call and he was perfect in every way; he stole from no one, he misled no one, he spoke the unadulterated truth and did not try to control anyone! He was the perfect leader! He presented the truth, let them decide and yet many still were not interested!. He respected their decision and did not convince them to stay or go. If they walked away he let them walk, if they decided to stay, he gave them more instruction.
Sharing the gospel is not difficult, religious agendas have made it difficult. Y'shua does not make it hard for people to have access to him, religious people with their baggage are the ones that hold up he line. In John chapter 4, Y'shua makes a stop in Samaria where he strikes up a conversation with a Samaritan woman at a well. Using water as the ice breaker, Y'shua opens up a dialogue with the woman engaging her in a conversation in which he reveals things about a water that will never leave her thirsty, he reveals some intimate details about her private life and eventually reveals himself to her as the promised messiah they have been waiting for. In her excitement she runs back to town and tells the men, "come see about a man who told me everything I did," The people came out to see Y'shua for themselves, they asked him to stay with them, he stayed a couple of days during which many became believers. they told the woman later that they now believed not because of what she told them but because they got to know him for themselves.
Our job like the Samaritan woman is to make the introduction and let people decide. I teach manners classes and the art of the introduction is to introduce someone to another person with a few interesting details, then the person decides if they want to take measures to get to know the person on a deeper level or keep a friendly distance. The person making the introduction usually knows some personal details about the person they are introducing. The problem with people who have been indoctrinated into religion is that they have facts but not always truth. They are trying to introduce people to someone they have not been introduced to themselves. The definition of witness is A person who sees an event , the definition of a testimony is Evidence or proof provided by the existence or appearance of something. The Samaritan woman was a witness (she met the messiah) and a testimony (he told me everything I did) armed with those two things, she told people about the messiah, they inquired further, he revealed himself to them, and many (not all) believed for themselves. She made the introduction and Y'shua did the rest. Notice I said that many, not all believed. To those who wanted to know more, Y'shua revealed more of himself and those who were not interested and walked away, he respected their decision.
In my humble opinion many of us (in our sincerity)are wasting precious time trying to convince people to choose Yah (God) and the salvation he offers through Y'shua (Jesus). We speak of "winning" people for Yah (or is it for church recruitment?) like it is an Olympic competition, it is not. It is not our responsibility to convince anyone to seek Y'shua (Jesus), we are only responsible to introduce people to the one with whom we have had a life changing encounter and it is up to them to decide for themselves if they want to further investigate who he is. The end result should be that they go on to become believers, but some will walk away and we have to let them (but pray for them). We are not to feel guilty like we "lost" one, Y'shua let people stay or walk away, he let everyone own their decision, including Judas' choice to betray him. I say say this not like I believe that Y'shua did not care about people's decisions, but that he gave them the freedom to choose, he did not want automatons, he wanted living breathing followers, who wanted to follow him freely, not because someone "talked them into it". To be a follower of Y'shua is not a country club existence. It is not a Tony Robbins experience, to follow him comes with a high price, but so worth it. I believe he always leaves the door open because Yah (God) is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance, but they have to chose.
I believe the reason alot of people's power to be a witness falls flat is that they never moved beyond the testimony of the "Samaritan woman" in their lives to seek out a personal encounter with Y'shua for themselves, they are still living off another persons testimony meaning they never got past the introduction. For our testimony to be effective we have to first have a living breathing encounter with the Most High that makes the reality of Y'shua so tangible that we cannot help but tell others to "come see about a man".....
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