My grandson and I were eating lunch at a local restaurant when he said to me, “Look, Grandma, she has a Bible; let’s witness to her.” We did just that. Together, we took the time to share God’s Word with this woman and help her understand what she was reading.
Acts 2:47:
Praising God, and having favour [grace] with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
When we keep God first and share grace with others, our home fellowships will grow. God desires growth for us individually and as a home fellowship. His will is for the Word of God to grow mightily in our hearts and lives and spill over into our walk. Here are three things we can do as fellowships to move the Word together: (1) speak the Word, (2) plan time to get out and talk to people, and (3) pray for open doors to walk through.
Speak the Word.
As fellowships speak the Word, they grow in quality and in quantity. The Word of God is the truth that people need in this day and time. The words of the Word of God are the most energetic, effective words we can speak. We want to speak the truth in love to first encourage ourselves and others in our fellowship and then those we meet throughout our day.
Ephesians 4:15:
But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.
We can move the Word together as a fellowship and grow as a fellowship as we strengthen ourselves and one another by speaking the life-giving Word of God.
Plan time to get out and talk to people.
When it comes to speaking the Word to people outside our fellowships, it is helpful to plan time to do so. As fellowships plan time to get out and talk to people, they grow. Luke 10 tells how Jesus Christ sent out seventy disciples to heal and to speak about the Kingdom of God in areas that Jesus would later visit. This time to move the Word together was planned, and the result of their planned time to get out and talk with people was that they came back home filled with joy! We can have that same expectation when we plan time to get out and talk to people in our local communities.
Have you ever thought that you were just too busy to go witnessing? Why not make it a part of your weekly schedule? In addition to scheduled witnessing activities, we can plan extra time in our daily routines. For example, we can plan to spend an additional twenty minutes to speak to someone at the grocery store or when we are out for lunch. When we add this extra time to our plan, we can see that having the opportunity to speak the Word with someone or to encourage someone with the Word of God is not a disruption to our day. Instead, we can see it as a successful outcome of our plan to get out and talk to people in our communities.
The key here is to plan time to get out and talk to people. The seventy returned with joy because they made a specific effort to get out and talk to people. My grandson and I were able to help the lady we met understand what she was reading because we had planned that during our lunch date we would take the time to start a conversation with someone.
Pray for open doors to walk through.
As home fellowships, we can grow in quality and quantity as we pray for open doors to speak God’s Word. God’s will is for all to be saved and to know the truth (I Timothy 2:4). We can pray for open doors to speak as we reach out in our communities.
Colossians 4:2-4:
Continue in prayer, and watch in the same [in prayer] with thanksgiving;
Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of [pertaining to] Christ, for which I am also in bonds:
That I [Paul] may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.
When we pray for open doors to walk through to speak God’s Word, we can expect God to lead us to the hungry-hearted and help us to know just what to say. Then we walk through the open doors that we prayed for by speaking to people. As we pray for open doors to walk through to move God’s Word as a fellowship, we can expect that there will be open doors. It is up to us to recognize those doors that we’ve prayed for and to walk through them. God will provide the open doors as we seek the opportunity to make known His will.
God desires growth for us individually and as a fellowship. God’s will is for the Word of God to grow mightily in our hearts and lives and spill over so as to influence others as well. Let’s move the Word together in our home fellowships as we speak the Word, plan time to get out and talk to people, and pray for open doors to walk through.