THE EFFICACY OF ONE ON ONE WITNESSING

THE EFFICACY OF ONE ON ONE WITNESSING

           Jesus christ left us with a command to go and make disciples of all nations. There are various ways to reach out to souls especially those that are not in the fold, from preaching in the church, outreaches to villages , campus, schools, morning cries, bus evangelism, preaching on radios, television , social media, tracts evangelism and many more . All these methods are effective and no doubts many souls have been won through it. Of all these methods, one on one witnessing is the most effective, though it may be slow but it generates satisfactory results. The Scripture affirms to it. Jesus christ engaged in all forms of evangelism as he preached from one village to another, he preached to crowd in thousands, he preached to one hundred and two, he preached to 12, he preached to three and he preached to individuals too. The documented one on one of Jesus’s witnessing were very effective and yield instant results. Jesus witnessed to Nicodemus who visited him at night, Jesus witnessed to the Samaritan woman beside the well. The disciples of Jesus also maximised one on one witnessing. Philip witness to Ethiopian Eunuch.

          One on one witnessing is efficient because you have direct contact with the person, there is eye contact, you can read the person’s interest and it becomes easier when the Holy Spirit takes over the process, you touch the person soul , you have the person’s attention and have opportunities to take feedback from the person, ask questions , interact and ultimately leading the person to make a decision to accept Jesus christ. The meeting of Jesus with the Samaritan woman encapsulated all these. Jesus initiated the conversation by asking for water from the woman, he was aware of the cultural boundaries between them, the woman refused by reminding him that Jews don’t have anything to do with Samaritans who are considered as mixed breeds as a result of intermarriage between non Jews. Jesus used that opportunity to present himself to her and preached the sound gospel to her, Jesus told her all she knew to know and the result was she believed Jesus as Messiah and went round the town to share the gospel of Christ to them. Jesus witnessed to one person, she was saved and witnessed to more people on that day and the Scripture recorded that many Samaritans came to know Jesus Christ as a result of her testimonies about Jesus christ.

         My experience

          I have engaged in tracts evangelism, bus evangelism, village outreach, witnessing in a lecture hall of 1500 capacity and 3000 capacity. Morning cries, market evangelism . In all these I have discovered that the most effective of all is one on one witnessing because you have the person’s undivided attention and you are getting feedbacks right there. Some years back in Ogbomosho, I was on street for one on one witnessing , I met a young lady with her fellow neighbours or friends. Immediately I got there and told them my mission to witness, she drew closer, others were watching afar and I preached. I discovered that she was so touched by the message that the atmosphere changed. After I ended the message, she told her friends that” this message entered me, as if I have never heard such in my life” . That is a feedback, you can measure the results unlike morning cries that you can’t even know whether they are listening or not. Or in a crowd except you give altar call you may not get response. One on one evangelism gives room to address their soul in a unique way. Have engaged ten people in one on one witnessing in a day and I preached different message according to their spiritual needs . Each soul have a unique spiritual need which the Holy Spirit knows about. One on one witnessing is very effective if you allow the Holy Spirit to take full control and charge. He will lead you to where your souls are. Miracles abound while ministering one on one, the Holy Spirit will give you unction and rhema to minister directly to their spiritual needs. At times you sense the power like a surge flowing through you. There was a time I was evangelizing one on one and the word became bitter in my mouth as I preached. By the time I finished, the person am ministering too could not even look at my eyes again.

     Steps in engaging in an effective one on one evangelism.

1 pray well before going out for one on one evangelism. It is in prayer you will have the boldness to witness and direction on where to go. There was a day I prepared to go for one on one witnessing. I have prayed. On reaching the field, I walk miles, seeing people but just could not preach to them. After a while, I decided to go back home, I was almost reaching home when I heard the Holy Spirit saying you did not pray enough, the reason you are unable to witness. I intensified my prayers in coming days, went back to the same place and I was able to preach to as many souls as possible. Zeal is not enough, you need power in the place of prayer.

2 live a fasted live. The price of their soul was expensive and Jesus paid it all. Fasting will make you sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and subdue the flesh. Witnessing is a work in the spirit. You have to labour in the place of prayer and Fasting, it is in that process that the spirit of this world controlling those souls are subdued.

3 live a consecrated life. Live what you preach. Let others see Jesus in you.

4 Give yourself to reading and meditation of the Scripture. Study the Scripture, let it be part of your

5 Be precise, don’t bore them with stories, preach only Jesus and be as brief as possible . Maintain eye contact and take feedback

6 Dress smart, neat and smell nice.

7 Be kind. You are representing Jesus. Whatever insult you receive, take it with gratitude without responding back

8 be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. There are people you will want to talk to but the Holy Spirit will restrain you and there are people you will want to avoid them but Holy Spirit will tell you to talk to them.

9 Allow the Holy Spirit to take charge of the discuss. Do not allow the flesh to “hi jack” the discussion and do not allow the witnessee to divert the discussion to politics, religion debate and argument.

10 Avoid dabbling into issues that will cause arguments. Preach only Scripture

11 Speak the language the person understand. If the person don’t understand you, the whole exercise will be futile

12 respect cultural boundaries. Do not speak against the culture of the person you are preaching to. Identify with their culture

13 Do not publicise your church or mandate them to come to your church

Generally, one on one witnessing is the work of the Holy Spirit, open your mouth and he will fill it. No one is an expert in it. At every moment you still need to depend and partner with the owner of the business for it to be effective and efficient. In the last days we need to depend more on Holy Spirit so that he can lead us to witness to people on individual basis. Every believer should engage in one on one witnessing as it is the most effective tool of evangelism to harvest souls for Christ in the last days. The effectiveness does not lie on the number of people you are able to reach but the number of people that give their lives to christ completely and served him for the rest of their lives.

©️ Abolanle Oladipupo

30/12/ 2024