I've shared Jesus with people in parking lots, in martial arts class, on the internet (a few times) and at work. I know that some of these people have thought about the things of God afterward. In nearly every incident I have managed to make a silent plea for help from the Holy Spirit, and I have had His leading.

One time, for example a young guy entered my "circle," so to speak, who knew almost nothing about spiritual things. In fact, he seemed belligerent whenever the subject of God came up. I felt that the Holy Spirit was leading me and I asked him a question. I asked him if he had ever heard this saying, "And just as you want men to do to you, also do to them likewise." He told me that he hadn't.

I told him that Jesus had said that, and when put into action, it is a life changing principle. I told him that Jesus said many things that contained such wisdom. I told him that Jesus was and is very good, and that what ultimately leads men to Him is His goodness. I told him that it's worth looking into.

The young man simply answered, "Okay." No smart mouth. No belligerence. He just apparently started thinking. I believed the Holy Spirit was telling me to leave it at that, so I did. After that, whenever I was around him, a woman I know kept telling me that the kid was pretty impressed with what I had said to him and that I should go ahead and talk with him some more. The thing is, I was getting a very strong leading to keep my mouth shut. You see, the young man had become engaged with two other guys, and the Holy Spirit was using them,not me, and the young guy ended up getting saved, praise God.

So does the Bible tell us that faith is a gift that is given to all of mankind? Actually what the Bible teaches us is that God loved the world (the people) so much that He gave His Son to die in our place, so that we could be saved from His wrath toward sin. Jesus, and the work He did on the Cross is God's gift to all mankind, the salvation through forgiveness of sins is the very gift that God wants dearly to give to the entire population. In order for people to receive that gift, they have to be willing. If they are willing to receive the gift of the forgiveness for their sins, they will receive faith, through personal trust in Jesus. "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:" John 1:12

You can see in that verse that one "receives" the gift Jesus offers by believing in Him. To believe in Him means that we accept certain things about Him. It means we believe that He is fully God and fully man and that He alone is our Savior. It means that He died on the Cross for our sins and rose up from death to live again, and that our sins are forgiven if we ask Him for that.

To place our trust in Him means that we accept the fact that there isn't a single thing we can do to save ourselves, and that when God gives us forgiveness He declares that we are righteous in His sight. In fact, when He looks at our forgiven souls, He sees the righteousness of His Son within us, even though we are sinners.