Over the years, the church has depended on Evangelists and full-time ministers to lead people to Christ, however, I believe God has important roles for all of us to play.

This involves first allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us through such gifts as the word of knowledge, and secondly realizing we are simply one step in the process of a person becoming a Christian.

It’s a process

As Paul explains in his letter to the Corinthians, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. (1 Corinthians” (3:6 ESV)

In this verse, Paul states that people have different roles to play. He was planting seeds, Apollos, a dynamic speaker in the early church watered, and ultimately God was responsible for the growth.

Though Paul used this principle to describe the growth of believers in their faith, I believe the same principle is at work in the process of people coming to faith in Jesus.

God needs people who are willing to plant seeds in people’s lives. They are not individuals who ultimately lead a person to the Lord.

Others will water those seeds and someone, perhaps even years later, will harvest as the Holy Spirit prepares their heart for the ultimate step.

The woman wearing a hijab and the word of knowledge

We can become seed planters as we listen and obey the Holy Spirit and take His spiritual gifts outside the walls of the church.

I read an interesting story of an incident that happened to Faith Hu, who pastors Beloved Church in New York City.

She was a teenager when it happened. In other words, she wasn’t in the ministry, she was just a member of the Church when the Holy Spirit spoke to her through a Word of Knowledge.

She was at a gas station, writes Kriza Jo Tanduyan for Christian Learning, when the Holy Spirit prompted Hu to tell a woman that “Jesus Loves Them”. 

Initially excited, Hu’s heart dropped when she saw the middle-aged woman that the Holy Spirit was directing her to. The woman was wearing a hijab. She was a Muslim.

She began wrestling with God and even tried to explain to the Holy Spirit, that those three words would ultimately be meaningless.

“Never mind, Lord, I don’t think I can do that. Because Lord, even if I did go over there and do what you asked me to do, it’s not like that one phrase is going to suddenly change her mind,” she said.

But the Holy Spirit continued prompting her.

When she finally got up enough courage, she approached the woman saying, “Hi, can I tell you something? Jesus loves you.”

When she saw the woman’s immediate positive response, Hu realized something was different here and asked the woman wearing the Hijab if she was a Christian.

The woman responded with a ‘yes’, and then added, “You just made my day because I was having a very difficult week and had asked God for a sign. And you are my sign.”

Hu’s three-word phrase was God’s answer to this woman’s prayer. It showed the woman that God heard her and that God cared.

We are not certain where this woman was in her walk of faith, but Hu had a very important, three-word role to play in her faith journey.

It was significant enough that this woman looked upon it as a sign from God.

So when the Holy Spirit is prompting you to do something, don’t downplay it. Don’t say it’s insignificant. Don’t say it’s unimportant.