Witnessing Salvation to the Unsaved Spirit

How can we best minister to the Unsaved?

When people talk about making a decision, and they are wrestling between their head and their heart, I believe they mean the are debating between an intellectual choice and an emotional one. But actually, both our intellect and our emotions are part of our soul, our mind. Neither have anything to do with our heart. Rather, the heart – apart from being the literal pump in our bodies – refers to our spirit, that part of us which is our identity, what makes up the core of our being. For Christians it is the part of us that connects with the Holy Spirit and affirms we are a child of God. For the unbeliever it is dead, awaiting salvation by God’s grace.

Ready: How do we minister to a dead spirit so that it may be made alive again through faith in Jesus?

Set: Relationship and prayer are at the core of encouraging someone who does not follow Jesus to find their faith and to trust in Jesus as God’s son. As we pray for someone who does not know God, let’s begin by praying for the opening of their heart. Let’s minister to their spirit, asking God to revive it, and to soften their heart so that it might become connected to God. When the heart awakens it can receive, recognize, and call out to God.

The way of salvation is through the heart.

1. Pray for your friend or loved one to have their heart opened.

2. Encourage them to reflect alone, to connect with their heart – that core of their being. You may not mention it, but this is the pathway to their personal discovery of God.

3. Befriend them. Be ready to answer questions about your experience of God. But above all, love them: “If I have the faith to move mountains but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol.” (1 Corinthians 13:1)

Go: Be a light to others in the world, not by talking but by being the love of God and enabling them to soften their heart to the one who loves unconditionally.