Before going to Vietnam for missionary work, a friend gave me a book entitled Catholic Pentecostalism. While reading this book in Saigon, the Holy Spirit directed me to contact the archbishop of the Catholic Church in Vietnam. An appointment scheduled, I awaited the day we would meet.

The time of our appointment arrived and the archbishop graciously received me. Giving him my copy of the Catholic Pentecostalism, we talked nearly one hour about the Catholic charismatic renewal.

The archbishop's keen interest in the Holy Spirit and charismatic movement was not to end with our discussion. He appointed a French-Canadian Jesuit priest to continue our talk, and to report the contents of our interchange back to the archbishop.

Knowing Jesuit Father Galenas to be a theologian, I began our first encounter with a series of theological arguments supporting the charismatic renewal. Depending heavily on what I considered basic scriptural approaches, I bombarded him with biblical proof.

But after three hours of extensive explanation, I felt no impact had been made. Even the personal hunger I previously sensed in him had diminished. Discouraged, I returned to my apartment. Somehow Father Galenas' tender heart and mind had not been touched by the precious truths of the Holy Spirit. That night my wife and I prayed about the upcoming meeting.

Experience Sharing

The next morning I awoke early. Meditating and praying about our appointment, the Holy Spirit impressed me to just share my personal testimony, and tell what the Holy Spirit meant to my life.

When Father Galenas returned, I no longer tried to convince him from Scripture. I opened my heart and shared from personal experience what a relationship with the Holy Spirit had meant to me. I told Father Galenas of the greater dimension that resulted in my prayer life, of my additional effectiveness in witnessing, of the increased closeness of the Person of Christ, of the new gifts that had been added to my ministry.

As I shared with him, his growing hunger became evident. He finally interrupted me saying, "Today you have made the Holy Scripture alive to me, for you have shared some of yourself. Please pray that I, too, will receive this power of the Holy Spirit."

The Better Way

The highest form of personal witnessing is not a careful rehearsal of a prepared text of pertinent verses, it is rather the sharing of our personal testimony. It is telling of God's miracles, healings and daily kindnesses in our lives. It is revealing what the person Christ has come to mean to us.

Much of our teaching at *Central Church is purposed at motivating laity to release the power of God through sharing their personal testimony with others, directed at those who have need.

Numerous are accounts of this sort among *Central Church's members. One unbeliever with a faltering marriage became a Christian, later to tell others with wounded marriages how God gave a full healing to his own marital relationship. Another man, once a non-Christian struggling in a failing financial venture, now shares with business men how Christ brought him success and prosperity. A mother relates to housewives how God restored her rebellious and alienated children to a normal family life, with their service to the Lord an inspiration to many.

It is true that you need to study Scripture to be more adept in personal witnessing. But it is also true that the ingredients of effective witnessing are already in you now: your healings, God's miracles in your life, your entrance into a new walk of faith.

The Holy Spirit is here to lead you to the right person, with needs much like those God has helped meet in your past. When you see the Holy Spirit's promptings, do not hesitate.

*Central Church is now Yoido Full Gospel Church

Article copyrighted 1979 by "World of Faith" magazine, Spring 1979, Volume 1, No. 1, Pages 5-6. This magazine is no longer published, but has been replaced by "Church Growth,".available at P. O. Box 7; Seoul 150, Korea.