While God may have prepared the hearts of some to accept when the Gospel the first time you share it, others may still have questions, objections, or uncertainties. We have found that God uses His Word to lead people to faith. We challenge you to invite them to study the Bible with you, and we want to share with you a simple tool to help. It is called Discovery Bible Study, and it is designed to lead a seeker straight to the Word of God and let Him speak to them. As you read and study a set of passages with your friend, God reveals himself to them and does the work in their heart.
After sharing the Gospel, we invite people to study the Bible with us. I explain that it is important to hear what God himself says to us, that He has given us his Word to reveal more about who He is, how we can know Him, and what He expects of us. As we read the scripture together, we do 2 things. First, we try to model the same method of Bible reading and discovery that we will encourage them to use in the discipleship phase once they become a follower of Jesus. From the beginning, we want to help them see what the Bible itself says and how it calls them to respond. Second, we encourage them to invite a safe friend or family member who might also be searching for truth. Our prayer is that as a small group forms to explore the truth of the Bible, they will together come to accept truth, and together they will form a core for discipleship and gathering once they. believe. And sometimes, it ends up being the friend they invite who is the one who chooses to follow Jesus while the original person we thought we were investing in ends up choosing not to continue searching at that time (though we always pray that the Spirit will continue to work in their hearts. Check out this video from dbsguide.org
For more details in general about Discovery Bible Study, visit the website dbsguide.org
When using Discovery Bible Study with internationals, we like to recommend the website / app called discoverapp.org. This is a wonderful app that has story sets available with the passages already gathered in both text and audio formats in many languages. This makes it easy to study with someone even if you don’t speak their heart language. They can read and / or listen in their heart language then discuss the passage in a shared language like English. There are also additional story sets both for those searching for truth before they believe and for those who have chosen to follow Jesus. (See our Discipleship section for more details on this)
You can also download a PDF with a shortened passage list of 20 lessons (as opposed to 30). Each passage includes a link to a side-by-side bi-lingual copy of the passage from biblegateway.com. The link is currently set to English and Arabic, but you can easily change the Arabic link to a language prefered by your friend.
We pray that your friend will come to faith in Christ.. If they choose to follow Jesus, begin one of the discipleship series suggested in our discipleship section. If they are not ready to commit to following Jesus, continue studying with them and praying for God to work and move in their hearts and draw them to Himself. Pray through what to study, but a more complete study through one of the Gospels would be valuable. Continue to use the Discovery Bible Study method and work you way through passages in the Bible. Allow the Spirit to guide you and your friend.