Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - Knowing His Voice (Part 1 of 3)

John 10:4 "When He has brought out all His own, He goes on ahead of them, and His sheep follow Him because they know His voice."

How do you know when God wants you to have a spiritual conversation with someone who is possibly not a Christian? After all, the world is full of non-Christians, and how are we supposed to determine which ones God wants us to talk to about Jesus and which ones He doesn't? Can we ever really know for sure? If we believe God wants us to talk to the person in the grocery store about Jesus, but we don't have the same motivation or compelling desire to share Jesus with the clerk at the gas station 20 minutes later, does that mean God loves them less or isn't concerned about them?

If these questions were left up to mere human opinions to be answered, we would all be in trouble and world evangelization would likely come to an abrupt end. This is mainly because we tend to only share our witness with people when we feel like it. And we tend to conclude that if we don't feel like it, then God probably isn't in it anyway.

So let's establish a solid framework from which we can discern the truly God-opened doors for us to share Christ with others.

First, we must go back to the fact that when Christ died, He died for the whole world (John 3:16 ). He didn't just die for a particular people group on the other side of the world who have no food. And He didn't just die for the people who dress like you and have the same interests as you. He died for all (1 Peter 3:18 ).

Second, He has given the Church a commission that has not changed and will never change until the very end of time. We are commanded to go and make disciples (Matthew 28:19 ). So does this mean that we are to try to start up a spiritual conversation with everyone we cross paths with, from the people in our families to the people we are with in a taxi for only a few minutes? Can you really discern whether to go to one person on the street to share Jesus with them and decide to not go to the person on the other side? How do we know which one God wants us to talk to?

These questions and many more like them have been raised by believers for many, many years. And while it will not be my intent to solve all of the theological questions surrounding this issue, in our next blog we will offer a few insights when it comes to the subject of having spiritual conversations with the lost and God's expectations of us.