Needless to say this had a tremendous impact on the rest of the office. They had known Alice for years before they had known me. She was not a believer, but an obvious instant miracle had taken place which neither she nor anyone else could deny. They did not know what I had but they knew it worked. As a result the Gospel was clearly shared all over the office with people willing and interested to hear.

This brings us back to the first Christian lady I met. This was more than she could stand. She thought to herself,

Jane (fictitious name): Who is this guy? I have been here a year and a half and have not been able to get anyone to hear what I have to say. He has been her four months and the whole office is turned upside down. What does he have that I do not have?

She approached me and said she needed to talk with me so we set up a night to get together and did.

Jane: What is it you have that I do not have? You have been here four months and have accomplished more than I have been able to in a year and a half.

I went on and shared with her,

Dale: Jane, what is different about us is our approaches. As soon as something is going on at your church you want to run around the office and tell everyone about it because you care about them and want them to come to Jesus. I take a different approach. I make a prayer list and initially just pray for each individual employee that Jesus would save them and bring them to Himself. I then focus on being a good employee and loving my fellow workers. I keep faithfully doing my job and wait for the Holy Spirit to tell me when to share my faith with an employee or wait for an employee to ask me directly. The Bible states in Psalm 64:6, "For the inward thought and the heart of man are unsearchable." We can never know a man’s heart by just what we see on the surface or what is truly in their heart by what they say. Jeremiah said that the heart is more deceitful than all else and desperately sick, that no one can understand it (Jeremiah 17:10). It is for this reason that the Psalmist writes in Palm 49:7-9,

"No man can by any means redeem his brother, or give to God a ransom for him—for the redemption of his soul is costly, and he should cease trying forever—that he should live on eternally; that he should not undergo decay."

God tells you and I that we cannot redeem anyone, that because this is true we should cease our striving to save anyone. This is because only God knows what is in the heart, we do not. This does not mean He does not want us to be His witnesses as he leads us through His Holy Spirit, but that He simply wants us to look to Him to know what to say and when to say it or not say anything at all but just pray.

I believe that one major reason Christians are so reluctant to get involved in Aggressive Planned Evangelism is because they think Evangelism means going out and trying to convince someone that they need to receive Jesus. If the person does not receive Jesus they then feel they are complete failures, but this is not what it means to aggressively witness the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Witnessing involves explaining to a person what it means to be a Christian and how to become one. What the person does with that information is between them and Jesus. If you have communicated to the person clearly what it means to be a Christian and how to become one, regardless of how he or she responds to that information, you have been a successful witness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus calls us to be witnesses of the truth of the Gospel. He does not hold us responsible to make sure the person says yes to Jesus. We are called to plant the seed of God’s word. It is God’s responsibility to make that seed grow and bring about fruit. Paul the Apostle wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:7, "So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth." You might ask, "If this is true, then why witness at all?" The Holy Spirit leads a person by what he knows. If we do not take the initiative in love to share the love of Jesus Christ with men, Jesus will not be able to work in that person’s heart through the Holy Spirit to bring him or her to himself.

There are three ingredients involved in bringing a person to Christ:

1. The sharing of the Word.

2. The quickening and conviction of the Holy Spirit.

3. The will of the individual.

Dale: The only thing required of you and I is number 1: The sharing of the Word. This is what and all Jesus calls you and I to do, to go out and share of the Word of God with anyone who will hear what we have to say. It is the Holy Spirit’s job to convince the individual that what you have shared is true. It is the person’s listening responsibility to decide how he or she will respond to that information and conviction of the Holy Spirit. But if You and I do not go out and plant the Word of God, the Holy Spirit won’t be able to do his job and the person will not know that Jesus is the answer to his or her needs.

I then went on to share with this Christian lady how I approach sharing my faith with people on the job: work, pray, wait, love and then witness with positive results. I then went on to explain to her how in my past I strove also and was not able to overcome my flesh to let the Holy Spirit through until after I was Baptized in the Holy Spirit.

We talked and shared for many hours and she did not argue with me or try to lay religion on me, she just listened. She could not deny the fruit of my life and the lack of fruit in her life. This made me realize the Lord’s wisdom in keeping us from getting together when I first came to work at this bank. Jesus saw the strife in this woman and knew that had I tried to explain to her then what I explained to her four months later she would not have received it. Her religious pride would only have put up a wall. Jesus knew she had to see the fruit of my life first and the motivation of the Holy Spirit through my life first before she would hear anything I had to say. You see, sharing with a brother or sister a truth is no different than witnessing. We have to wait for the Lords timing on the matter and just pray for the brother or sister about the matter that concerns us. We might find God changing us first before we jump ahead prematurely and embarrass ourselves. I heard a Pastor in a church say one time, It is better to be late and with God than to be early and without him. God says in His Word, "Cease striving and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." (Psalm 46:10).

Why is it that we as Christians so often fail in our attempts to be a witness for Jesus? It is because we look at what God does through His successful servants and think that if we just imitate them we will be successful also. We look at what Jesus did and think, If I just do what Jesus did I will be successful to. But what happens? Are we successful? No. We walk away embarrassed, naked and ashamed. What we do not understand is that the reason why special servants of God are so successful and the reason why Jesus was a total success was not because of what they do, but because of the motivation behind what they do. Jesus said over and over again about what He said and did:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner." (John 5:19).

"He who rejects Me, and does not receive My sayings, has One who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me commandment, what to say, and what to speak. And I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told me." (John 12:48-50).

The key to the success of Jesus’ ministry was not what he did, but the MOTIVATION behind what he did. His motivation was the leading of the Father through the Holy Spirit. Read again through the Gospels and read what the Gospel readers say about Jesus. Right after being Baptized in the Holy Spirit in the River Jordan, Luke tells us, "And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was LED ABOUT BY THE SPIRIT into the wilderness" Did not Jesus pray all night for the Father’s leading through the Holy Spirit as to who to pick for the Twelve Apostles? Everything Jesus did was through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Jesus waited thirty years for the Father to say, Okay Jesus, it is time to let the world know who You are. Jesus had complete humility. What does Jesus desire of us? He tells us in John 17:18 and 20:21: Jesus, in his High Priestly prayer to the Father prays, "As You did send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the World." Jesus said to his disciples after He arose from the dead, "Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you." Jesus only acted and spoke out of the initiative of the Father, He commands us to do the same.

A couple of years later after this bank job the Lord led me to go to Oral Roberts University to complete my theological education. While attending ORU I worked for United Parcel Service and for two years after I graduated. UPS has a very intense operation. There is not one second of time wasted. Because of the intensity of the operation I found being able to talk about anything at all other than the job with other workers very difficult. Nevertheless, daily I applied the principles I have shared in this book: work, pray, wait, love, witness with positive results. I worked hard and daily prayed and asked the Lord to help me be a good employee.

After Five years of working faithfully and diligently for UPS, a supervisor came up to me and shared with me how he recently became a Christian as a result of observing my life and the way I related to others in the plant. This is why Paul writes in the Bible,

"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord." (1 Cor 15:58).

"And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary." (Gal 6:9).

Obedience glorifies God and brings men and women to a saving knowledge of who He is. Why? Because God sees the whole picture. We only see what is in front of us. Jesus sees what is inside of the heart of man. We see only what men say. Because God sees what is in men’s hearts, only he knows when the time is right for us to approach a fellow worker aggressively about the Gospel. It is a matter of faith and trust in Jesus’ goodness. Jesus promises us in his Word concerning our prayers and concerns for others,

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." (John 14:18).

"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye upon you." (Psalm 32:8).

How do you become an effective witness on the job, in your neighborhood and in your home? By Working, Praying, Waiting, Loving, and then as the Lord leads: Witnessing with positive results.