I'd like to introduce you to the greatest challenger you will ever face when sharing of Jesus: your feelings.

It doesn't matter how long you've been doing this, the first thoughts that will come to mind are “Oh my God! What do I say? What if they think I’m a freak? I can’t do this. I’m going to throw up. I’m not ready; maybe next time.”

Ever let these voices stop you from sharing with someone? Join the club.

These voices are all thought expressions of what you are feeling. Because the situation is new to us we resort back to what we might believe about ourselves: “I’m not good enough; I’m not ready; I don’t know what to say.”

These might be true in some way but it that doesn’t mean you can’t do it at all. We’ve all gone through it and if you haven’t, you will.

Don’t worry this nervous feeling is normal and is rooted in your fear of being rejected.

You're not going to like this

The method to getting over this fear is both simple and difficult: you must simply do it with fear.

The only way to get past these thoughts is to challenge them with action. There will never come a time where you feel ready. The reason is because we misinterpret what these feelings of fear really are.

In our minds when we feel the “butterflies” tormenting around in our stomachs we interpret this as “I can’t do it. If I could, I wouldn’t be feeling this way.”

In reality what that feeling is telling you is that you simply haven’t been in this position in this way before.

These “butterflies” are a good thing. This feeling is not a “red light” telling you that you can’t do it.

It is actually a “green light” telling you that the time for growth has come. More often than not however, we let these feelings sabotage the moment and we let it pass.

STAGES OF EVANGELISM SABOTAGE

There are actually three stages to this type of evangelism sabotage: The Comfort Zone, The Contemplation Zone, and the Conflict Zone.

Once you pass through these three stages you can then arrive to the Conquered Zone.

‍

‍

The Comfort Zone

The pic above represents your mind. The antennas on top are your five senses: sight, sound, taste, touch, smell. The big circle is your head, where the upper part is your conscious mind representing what you think about, and the lower part is your subconscious mind representing what you believe.

The smaller circle is your body where you experience feelings and the arrow pointing away from your body represents your behaviors that unavoidably bring you your results.

The idea is to show that

1. whatever information you pick up, you will think about
2. Whatever you think about long enough will eventually become what you believe
3. What you believe then influences how you feel
4. How you feel influences how you behave
5. Your behavior determines the results you get in life
   

Let “Y” represent a new idea and let “X” represent your old way of thinking, or rather, your comfort zone.

In the Comfort Zone you think “X”, believe “X”, feel “X”, and therefore get “X” type results.

Whenever you receive a “Y” type idea it is immediately shot down as an invader. You don’t even give it time for thought. For example in the case of evangelism, let’s say a Y idea is “If you don’t share the gospel, people will go to hell.”

In the comfort zone it’s not going to take you long to reject this idea. Here are some things that X might say:

• I’m not ready
• I’m not an evangelist
• That’s not my style
  

X is your philosophy and therefore have accepted it into your identity. Because Y doesn’t line up with X, you don’t feel at all motivated to change and therefore you continue to do X which results in not evangelizing.

CONTEMPLATION ZONE

In the Contemplation Zone, a Y idea manages to at least get your attention.

“People going to hell?! That sounds awful!”

You might think about the idea for a while.

But because this is still a thought that doesn’t match up with what you truly believe, you convince yourself to change the topic.

Possible X thoughts might be:

• If they’re going to hell it’s because they deserve it.
• Holy Spirit is the one who will get their attention. I’ll just pray for them from here.
• I tried evangelism before and was embarrassed. I won’t be doing that again.
  

Thoughts are no power match for chore beliefs and so once again the Y idea is rejected.

CONFLICT ZONE

This is likely where you have been struggling. The Y idea has gotten your attention but more than that, you have become convinced by it.

More and more you mull over it in your mind and more and more it starts influencing what you believe.

Possible X responses might be:

• Romans 10:14 says “how shall anyone call on Him if they don’t believe? And how will they believe if they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?” But I’m not a preacher! I can’t do this, I’m not ready.
• Mark 16:15 says that we are to go out into the world and preach. But that must be for the five-fold ministry, I am just a layman. Besides, it later goes on to say that we can drink poison, handle snakes, and heal the sick! This verse seems to me to be crazy all around and I'm trying to be relevant for today.
• I want to share with others but I just don’t know how to start a conversation… I know it’s something I should be doing but I so badly hate being rejected and I believe God wants me to be comfortable.

Because of the conflicting thoughts you start feeling anxiety, stress, fear, worry, doubt feeling paralyzed to do anything.

You don’t know what to do! You think to yourself, “I just don’t have a good feeling about it. That must mean it’s either not true or not for me.”

Eventually your feelings win, you ignore the new thought, and you default back to your comfort zone.

You might remember this scenario where someone is walking towards you; you want to say something, but the closer they get the more tension you feel in your chest. When they finally get close, you either smile or look down at your feet and let them walk by.

You whisper to yourself, “all in God's timing.” Here you feel relieved and thus think you made the right decision. It is here that we interpret our fears as “red lights” telling us to stop.

I have good news. This mangle of emotions is not a “red light” telling you to stop. It is a green light telling you that you are just about to enter the Conquered Zone

‍

CONQUERED ZONE  

You were given the Y idea, convinced by it, convicted by it, and it just wouldn’t leave you alone until you did something about it.

• You felt fear but you chose to follow through anyways
• You realized that most people really do enjoy spiritual conversations (if they’re not being attacked)
• You realized most people haven’t heard the Good News, all they’ve heard is some religious noise of how they’re going to hell because they don’t go to such-and-such church.
• And not only that but you felt a sense of fulfillment! Like you found something you should have been doing long ago.

It was easier than you thought, joy blew up in your heart, and you now actually feel a little bit more confident about yourself!

The more you think about, accept, and practice this Y idea, the more it becomes a part of who you are and what you feel you must do.

Eventually the fear of starting spiritual conversations leaves and you find yourself talking about Jesus with everyone!

After a while the new Y becomes your new “X Conditioning/Comfort Zone.”

So where are you?

What stage would you say has been the one you get caught up in the most? Let us know in the comments below.