Everyday Teaching (3)

“And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you are to say.” Luke 12:11, 12

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Every Christian is called to a ministry of teaching, as we have seen. We must be prepared to bear witness to our unsaved friends and neighbors, and we must make the most of every opportunity to encourage other believers in their walk with the Lord. We don’t need a formal classroom to carry out this work. In everyday situations – all the “as-you-are-goings” of our lives – we have abundant opportunities to turn a conversation or situation to matters of the Kingdom and to help others consider Christ’s promises for their lives. But how do we do this? Do we have to memorize all kinds of persuasive outlines? Store up an abundance of complex answers to objections? What must we do in our everyday situations, with believers and unbelievers, to fulfill our calling to make disciples as we are going?

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In a nutshell, we must learn to listen to the Spirit of God. Now the Spirit does not speak in audible tones – at least, not typically. The Spirit speaks through the Word of God, as we have seen. Thus, if we are going to be able to listen to the Spirit, it will be important to make sure, every day of our lives, that we are spending significant time in the Word of God, letting the Scriptures dwell within us richly, hiding the Word in the depths of our souls, building up a reservoir of understanding and experience that can be available to us at those times when the Spirit is prompting us to teach someone something about the Kingdom of God.

But we will also need to be sensitive to the Spirit’s leading in everyday situations. How does the Spirit prompt or otherwise influence us? In a variety of ways: He may put someone on our hearts so that we can’t seem to get them off our minds. By so doing the Spirit may be preparing us for some encounter with that person, or summoning us to pray for and contact a particular individual (Phil. 1:3). In other situations the Spirit may pick up on some word, phrase, or expression someone makes, striking it in our souls like a gong or cymbal, so that we focus on that word with anticipation until the Spirit leads us to some way to connect that word with spiritual Truth. The Spirit may also use conviction of sin – in others or in us – to get us moving in the direction of a conversation about spiritual things. Situations that are on everybody’s minds – a sudden disaster, an election, a public scandal, a sudden drop in the economy – can also be effective ways for the Spirit to lead us to engage others about eternal matters. Or He may prompt someone else, who sees something in us, to open the conversation by asking a question about spiritual things (1 Pet. 3:15).

However the Spirit prompts us to engage a teaching moment, we need to make sure of a few things before we open our mouths. First, the words we use in conversing with others must be seasoned with grace (Col. 4:6). You can’t teach people by condemning or belittling them. You must reach to them with grace, as a servant, eager to minister to whatever the expressed need may be. Also, as Jesus showed, asking questions can help prepare the minds of others for whatever the Spirit may give us to share. By getting their thinking in gear and allowing them to put their own thoughts forward, we make a level ground for sincere conversational give-and-take. Finally, keep in mind that you don’t have to do everything at one time. Teaching is an ongoing calling. We’re not driving Gospel dump trucks around the town, looking for unsuspecting lost persons or immature believers to dump our whole load on all at once. Rather, we are more like physicians, listening carefully in order to diagnose the need, offering a little help here and a bit of medicine there, and realizing that sometimes cures for what ails us can take a long time. Listen for the Spirit in the teaching moments of your everyday life. He can lead you in how to proceed.

Everyday Teaching