persoOthniel's Story

For me the great commission is saying "yes", not making excuses, not saying tomorrow, maybe when the situation is comfortable. Because when we say nothing, we're actually saying "no". My name is Othniel, and this is my story. You know, rejection is such a difficult thing to deal with sometimes because, everyone wants to be liked, everyone wants to be accepted in some way, shape or form. And then when you want to speak about Jesus Christ - that's now an extra reason for people to reject you. For example, when we went on mission, we went to Liverpool to speak to people and you're giving out flyers and I gave my flyer to a particular person and he said: "what is this?"0And then as I was about to say it, he turns around and says: "I don't care, you're probably going to talk rubbish to me". So he took the flyer but he threw it on the floor and then he went on his way. But I think one thing it taught me, is they're not rejecting you, they're rejecting Christ. One of the things I've actually found with evangelism which has really been successful, is when you evangelise at work. When I go to work I ask, "ok God, give me an opportunity to share", and there is always opportunities. I'm going to one job and I'm dropping someone home, and I just really felt to share so I gave my testimony, when I gave my life at a university campus. And then after sharing that, he looked at me and said:0 "you know what Oth, can you pray for me?"0 And as I prayed for him, I felt God just downloading stuff to me - stuff to do with his home and stuff to do with his wife. As I was praying, he started to cry in front of me. And I thought "God what is going on?"0 But I said, you know, "I'm going to carry on and we just carry on pressing in and praying."0 After we stopped he looked at me, and was like I can see, it's all clear now. I don't feel this darkness over me. The success story isn't whether someone says "yes" to Christ or someone says "no". It's when you say "yes", I think that's so important when we think about evangelism. Understanding that when God is calling you it won't be in your comfort, it won't be in your timing, it will not be when your prepared.Because that's exactly where he wants to stretch your faith, when you're not ready. When you're not looking for it. Never think there will be a perfect time, there is never the perfect time. There is just time, and that's what Christ has given us right now. He's given us time, he's given us a commandment, he's given us the great commission, and he's just waiting for us to say, "yes".