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Jack is a rapper, music producer, and a passionate Jesus-man. He came to faith after leaving school and moving away from his hometown. After returning home, Jack found it challenging to reconnect with his previous circle of friends. He picks up his story sharing an encounter with an old friend.

"My friend that I used to work with was a Satanist, so he was like, 'If you bring up Jesus or if you say "Jesus loves you", I'll take you as a threat and bash you.' I was like, 'Whoa okay!'

Coming back home, being a born again believer was quite difficult. My past wasn't the best. I just wanted to share that love with all my old friends that were still in the same scene, still doing the same things. I knew they thought it (Christianity) was another phase. I knew that I wasn't going to just share Jesus and them be like, 'I'm going to believe too.'

[Sharing Jesus] is just sowing seeds and letting God do the rest. Sometimes we never see what we reap. 'Cause you get ridicule. You get people going, 'Yeah whatever, like that's not real,' and you'll get questions. But through those questions you get better at defending your faith. I found the way that I kept my faith strong was knowing that whatever I go through, whatever I say or whatever I do, God still loves me for who I am. The Bible says that Jesus is our foundation and God is the bedrock beneath my feet. So it's knowing that and knowing how true that is.

What stops a lot of people from talking about Jesus is the doubt in their mind. They have a lack of confidence or they're scared about what other people are going to think. Instead of thinking, 'What are they going to say?' or 'How are they going to judge me?' [Start thinking] 'What if this is something that they need?' or 'What if they've been asking God for a sign? And I’m the one that God's given you the message to deliver to them?' Like, why would I want to withhold this information from people? It's such a beautiful, beautiful connection—it's a relationship. It's a love that you can’t get anywhere else but from God.

So when I share my faith with non-believers and people in my everyday circle, I just try to be the representation of Christ, 'cause we're all meant to be ambassadors of Christ, right? We're meant to have this love and meant to give this love to everyone else. We need to be representations of Jesus and we need to be his ambassadors.

As an artist, I just love expressing my love for God through music and opening that avenue as a way to talk about the Gospel. Everyone has their own individual strengths and talents and I’ve found, when you find your talent, or you find that connection that you have with someone, using that as a way to share the gospel is such a beautiful thing. There's always an opening to share the Gospel, it's just are you willing, do you have enough confidence, and do you have enough faith to share about the love that you've been given?

Be bold. My encouragement to people sharing their faith is just to be bold. You never know what someone's going through or what someone's gone through and you don't even know if God is sending you a message to save their life. So, next time you ever want to share your faith, start thinking, 'I could save this person's life through Jesus.'

If you were to describe your relationship with Jesus, what words come to mind? Is it close or distant? Intimate or aloof? Consistent or inconsistent?

How would you like your relationship with Jesus to be?

Have you ever noticed that throughout life, certain relationships can drift apart? Maybe it’s a friendship from school or an old family friend – if enough time and distance pass without spending time together, the closeness can be lost and the connection can fade. Relationships need active investment in order to maintain intimacy. The same is true when it comes to your relationship with Jesus. If you want to feel close to Him, you need to be intentional about spending time in His presence and talking with Him.

Jeremiah 29:13

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

So how do you build intimacy with Jesus?

The key is setting healthy habits. A habit is simply something you consistently do on a regular basis to the point where it becomes an automatic response. Spiritual practices like praying, reading your bible, worshipping, and sharing the gospel can become healthy habits in your life that break spiritual apathy. The more time you spend with Jesus, the more intimately you will know Him. When you know Him more intimately you’ll naturally grow in your passion for Him. He will become your greatest companion and you’ll find yourself wanting to tell the world about Him!

To build (and keep) a healthy habit, first you must know your why.

Knowing the why is the driving force behind motivation. Starting a new habit can be challenging, but if you have a conviction about why you’re doing it, it will help you to stay on track when distractions try to pull you away.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• What kind of person do you want to be?
• Why is it important that you consistently spend time with Jesus?
• How will spiritual habits take you towards the person that you want to be?
• What would be the consequences if you don’t spend time with Jesus?

5 healthy habits you can build in your life:

1. Read your bible daily – download the YouVersion Bible App and start a daily reading plan.
2. Worship - create a playlist of your favourite worship songs and spend time each day enjoying God’s presence.
3. Invest in community - start a group chat with two close friends and arrange a weekly catch up to intentionally encourage one another in your relationship with Jesus.
4. Pray - create a note in your phone to help focus your prayer time. Write the names of people who don’t know Jesus, how you want to grow and list things you’re thankful for.
5. Share Jesus - start praying daily for a friend who doesn’t know Jesus and respond to any prompting that the Holy Spirit gives to talk about your faith.

There is always opportunity to grow in our relationship with Jesus. Which new habit will you implement today to bring you closer to Him?

Talking about Jesus can, and should, be a part of our everyday life. Rachel shared with us an opportunity that came up one day when she was getting her nails done.

I was getting my nails done, and I felt like in my spirit that the Holy Spirit said, “Tell her about me.”

And at that moment I just thought... really? But I knew I had prayed for these opportunities so I thought to myself - “I'm going to take this one.”

I felt like I got into full investigative mode where I asked this girl so many questions about her life because I was trying to find a way to weave Jesus into the conversation. I was just looking for some nugget that I could grab onto that I could tell her about Jesus. We ended up talking about weddings and I was able to bring it up there.

We had a whole conversation about religion, Jesus and church. She opened up so much and it was such a tender raw moment that I got to be a part of because it wasn't me. It was totally the Holy Spirit talking through me. It was so great.

I was getting ‘nail art’ done, so it took a really long time. One of her coworkers was kind of in and out with another customer, and at one point she came over and asked, “So wait what? What are you guys talking about? What church are you talking about?” And so I got to also tell her coworker about Jesus.

In these moments, you never know what Jesus is going to tell you. All He said was “talk to them about me.” So what I learned, you never are going to know until right at the moment. Being ready just means reading your Bible, praying for those opportunities and just allowing the Holy Spirit to talk through you.

Another thing that I learned is the more you do something, the more comfortable you become. That's what I found over the last several weeks. I have had so many more opportunities to tell people about Jesus. And every single time I do it, it becomes easier.

So starting small is okay. Just listen to what the Holy Spirit puts on your heart. He knows the perfect timing to talk about him.

I hope that's an encouragement to you because he used me - an ordinary girl getting her nails done - and I got to tell two people about Jesus in just a couple hours.

You’ve got this. Jesus loves you, and he's going to use you.

Tim is the kind of guy who is happy to talk to anyone. However, when it comes to praying for people in person, he’s not always on the front foot. He shared a recent experience with his neighbor that helped to change that...

I always bump into my neighbor when I’m taking the bins out. We’ll chat about lots of things, but often he’s complaining about his health. Recently, he shared about his chronic struggle with back and knee pain. He’s talked a lot about it before, and I’ve often thought, in the moment, that I should pray for him. But I’ve never been courageous enough to actually offer.

This time I offered – and he said, “No” – and he was quite firm about it. After reflecting on the moment, I’m fine with it because 3 great things happened.

Firstly, it opened up a spiritual conversation

where I learned more about what he’s experienced. He has a friend who does ‘Reiki’ style healing and shared an experience he had where his friend tried to heal him, and it wasn’t a great experience. Knowing this means I can approach him again in the future with sensitivity towards that.

Secondly, it encouraged me.

Stepping past my natural reservations broke the hesitancy that often holds me back, and now I feel more courageous to do it again.

Thirdly, it opened the door for him to see Jesus move.

Imagine if God actually answers the prayer. Then he’ll have undeniable proof that God has moved and that Jesus is real. That’s a conversation waiting to happen!

Praying in person rather than privately is a great way to invite them into the adventure of faith because it puts their skin in the game - especially if you’re praying for a physical breakthrough.

Sometimes we just have to jump in with both feet and see what happens. I think that’s called obedience. Offering to pray was a great way to show not just that I care, but also that God cares about him and his needs.