The Witness Part II, "Because It's Contained in Scripture"
Sept 14, 2014 11:46:02 GMT
clarkthompson likes this
Post by Les Brewer on Sept 14, 2014 11:46:02 GMT
The Witness Part II, "Because It's Contained in Scripture" by Dave Bessey
Each of us are weak and not the likely ones that a superior world military force would use as their chief warriors, yet our God and King, Jesus, the Mighty Warrior and Commander of heaven’s Army, has chosen you and me to be His Mighty Warriors! He doesn’t look at our weaknesses for they have been washed by the blood, He looks at our prophetic future as to who we will be, mighty warriors. Yes you…You are a chosen royal priesthood…say that to yourself out loud right now,” I am a royal priest of the God of Heaven my Daddy!” Do you believe it? As a witness of the most incredible miracle, the salvation of one soul, your own salvation, you have an incredible mission. Are you ready to build up His spiritual house by witnessing?
From the author that said that everything but worship or fearing God is vanity…here is an important word…
Psalm 127 World English Bible
A Song of Ascents. By Solomon.
1 Unless Yahweh builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless Yahweh watches over the city,
the watchman guards it in vain. 2 It is vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, eating the bread of toil; for he gives sleep to his loved ones. 3 Behold, children are a heritage of Yahweh. The fruit of the womb is his reward. 4 As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of youth. 5 Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. They won’t be disappointed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.
Preface
By Reinhard Bonnke
When we pray, we pray on the same basis and with the same rights as Paul, John, James and Peter. We rank equal with the greatest saints. The promises to them are the promises to us. They prayed the same Lord’s prayer as we pray. We have the same privileges as they had. God has no favorites except we are ALL His favorites. They had the same key to the door as we have – the name of Jesus. We come to the front door and walk in, without knocking, without a receptionist to announce us. We do not need angels or saints to usher us into God’s presence. We are sons and heirs – we have complete freedom of access into our Father’s house. That is a very good reason indeed for praying. We pray because it was made possible at great cost to one person, Jesus Christ. We have been “brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13). What a price so that we can pray! “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). That is the whole idea. “Therefore … having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh … let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:19-22).
God uses all kinds of people to build His Kingdom, some like Solomon start off well, but fail over time. They fail to persevere through trusting God. They are overcome by the World System rather than defeating it through faith in Yahweh they fail to build the Spiritual Kingdom.
We can learn from these failures and from our failures too. Our failures will show our metal’s worth in the fight. Solomon forgot these words of wisdom as the power of his kingly position corrupted him. Sometimes leaders in the church do the same. They forget their humble position and begin to believe their own press statements. If God is truly opposed to the prideful, then we must spend our life moving to our knees in humility before our God in service to Him. Yet many ministers today are not humbled. They also spend more time nurturing their own needs, and keeping their sheep, rather than feeding, training up and sending their members to fight the good fight and reach the lost sheep. If we are building the house of God then it is clear only God can build it according to His word. If we decide to build it ourselves, apart from each other and the Holy Spirit, through faith or together as an united army, it is promised we will fall against the gates of hell and not prevail..we will fail!
Introduction
How can we really win the spiritual war as a Church? We need to be arrayed and united as an army of God rather than a house of learning or academic institution. We need Skilled Sword Wielders and not Skilled Bible Scholars. Biblical academics without application (Dull Swords) has endangered the Church and its commission for 2000 years. (Hebrews 4). Arm chair academic spiritual Commanders endanger the Church. They usurp authority that belongs to real spiritual commanders raised up for Christ. As Remnant warriors we must teach application through the demonstration of love and witnessing. Not just written tests, but field work with real life tests, which really helps people and sets them free.
One of the early Church generals, the apostle Peter understood that we are called to work together, all of us priests and warriors:
1 Peter 2 World English Bible
Putting away therefore all wickedness, all deceit, hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speaking, 2:2 as newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby, 2:3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious: 2:4 coming to him, a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God, precious. 2:5 You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 2:6 Because it is contained in Scripture,
“Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, chosen, and precious:
He who believes in him will not be disappointed.”*
2:7 For you who believe therefore is the honor, but for those who are disobedient,
“The stone which the builders rejected,
has become the chief cornerstone,”*
2:8 and,
“a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.”*
For they stumble at the word, being disobedient, to which also they were appointed. 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: 2:10 who in time past were no people, but now are God’s people, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. 2:11 Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; 2:12 having good behavior among the nations, so in that of which they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they see, glorify God in the day of visitation. 2:13 Therefore subject yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether to the king, as supreme; 2:14 or to governors, as sent by him for vengeance on evildoers and for praise to those who do well. 2:15 For this is the will of God, that by well-doing you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: 2:16 as free, and not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but as bondservants of God.
2:17 Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. 2:18 Servants, be in subjection to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the wicked. 2:19 For it is commendable if someone endures pain, suffering unjustly, because of conscience toward God. 2:20 For what glory is it if, when you sin, you patiently endure beating? But if, when you do well, you patiently endure suffering, this is commendable with God. 2:21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps, 2:22 who did not sin, “neither was deceit found in his mouth.”* 2:23 Who, when he was cursed, didn’t curse back. When he suffered, didn’t threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously; 2:24 who his own self bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed. 2:25 For you were going astray like sheep; but now have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
VV9-10. Our behavior as priest and warriors should be holy, humble and beyond reproach. Yet many leaders are making a name for themselves, rather than lifting up Jesus. They garner a following for themselves and not for Jesus. They steal from God. I’m not saying you can’t have a ministry with your name on it, but it should be evident who you serve. Most ministries fail due to pride. The ministry we have been given is about true worship of God through service. Are we serving? Are we working together? Are pastors the only leaders in the church. If they are, we are already starting out with the cart before the horse. How can we build a ministry if we left the builders, visionaries and warriors back home. Pastors and teachers the administration of the hospital and not the generals of the army. They are the deans of the schools not the field commanders. How long before we begin to build with the team intact? Pastors tend the sheep in the sheep fold, the warriors are the ones who fight the battles in outreach and train the spiritual troops. It is better to have no one in the fight, if the one you sent is not called, or equipped.
Remember that grace that empowers comes when we are yielded. So many times we see failing churches because there is no grace to bring the victory. The functional positions are not filled. Only when we are humbled in our calling and obedient will the grace of God overcome and empower us to victory in equipping us to our functional position. Bible study alone will bring pride of head knowledge and not the humility of of the tested heart. We overcome through faith in Christ and His grace or dunamis power, not by human will power!
When we finally actually begin to build it is usually a failed outreach that is a one time off approach. Once as year we go to a nursing home or orphanage. We go one hospital visitation or one limited evangelistic concert that is powerless to save the lost because we don’t occupy. Are we actually wanting to set captives free or just look like we are and talking about doing it?
Do you really have the burn of the Holy Spirit to save the lost? The promise was that we would receive power and then we would be His witnesses through the whole world.
This power or grace is only released when we are under His power and have the courage to do His will:
Acts 1:7 He said to them, “It isn’t for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set within his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”
We are called to witness. How we do this is as variable as there is Christians. Each of us has our unique calling to witness. We must obey…this is true worship. To shout His name from the mountains and to the valleys. From the rooftops to the alleys. Will we?
Some of us may feel inadequate in our knowledge and experience. Just as the blind man who shouts, “All I know is that I was blind and now I see, “ you have equal knowledge. Just shout it out, or even whisper it or do it through demonstration. There are practical steps we can take to witness, here are a few:
When we speak to others and they confess the Lord as their Savior, as Colossians 1:13 tells us, they are delivered out of the authority of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the Son.
Every time a person receives the gift of salvation, another captive of Satan is released. No wonder we sometimes struggle to open our mouths for Christ; Satan, God’s enemy, opposes our speaking because when people believe in Christ, Satan’s kingdom suffers loss!
How do we witness for Christ?
Now that we’ve seen why we should witness, how do we do it? Here are just a few practical points on how to witness for Christ.
1. The first and most important thing for us to do is pray.
We can pray, “Lord, you’ve commanded me to witness for You. And I am a branch in You, sharing Your life to bear fruit. Lord, help me witness to the ones in my life who are unsaved so they can know You.” We should consider all the people in our lives that are not yet saved. We can make a list of our unsaved family members, friends, neighbors, classmates, and co-workers and pray regularly for each of them. We can ask the Lord who specifically to speak to, how we should speak to them, and when. We can even ask Him for opportunities to speak to those around us. The more we look to the Lord and allow Him to direct us, the more He will be able to flow out of us to them in our speaking.
2. We must realize that being saved qualifies us to witness for the Lord.
Witnessing for Christ does not require that we attend seminary or receive special training. Believing in and receiving Christ qualifies us to be His witnesses. This is evidenced by all the different cases in the New Testament of newly saved people going out immediately to speak about Christ and what He had done for them. We are not required to compose long messages or to speak eloquently of all the things in the Bible in order to witness to people. How daunting if this were the case! All that is required of us is to look to the One in us and speak of our experience of Christ. Even if we are newly saved, we can testify, “I was empty and alone, but now Christ lives in me!”
3. We can speak about what we’ve personally experienced of Christ.
When we open our mouths to speak for the Lord, we don’t need to have all the answers to questions people may ask us. We only need to talk about what we know. First John 1:3 says,
“That which we have seen and heard we report also to you.”
We can tell people about what we have seen and heard concerning the Word of life, Christ. This means we can tell them about what we’ve experienced. For instance, we can tell them of how burdened down with sin and guilt we were, and of how we received Christ and were forgiven and cleansed by Him. We can tell them that Christ now lives in us and is now with us each day. It’s so normal for us to talk about our own experiences of things in daily life. With witnessing, we are simply sharing our experience of Christ. We may not yet know a lot of the Word, but we know the One Who has touched our heart and has opened our eyes. We can speak of what He did for us. If we stop to think about it, we actually have a lot to say concerning our dear Lord!
4. It’s never too late to start witnessing for Christ.
The best time to speak to others about Christ is immediately after we’re born again, when our experience is fresh. But even if we’ve believed for a while and we haven’t developed a habit of witnessing, it’s never too late to start. We can consecrate ourselves anew and begin to speak now for Christ. Our spirit will be revived and our faith will be strengthened as we “go forth” to tell others.
5. We can start by speaking to one person a week.
With many endeavors, practicing is important. For example, we can’t expect to play piano well if we never practice. In the same way, we need to practice speaking. It helps us to make a definite goal of speaking to a certain number of people within a given time. Otherwise it will be easy for us put off our “practice” again and again, and we never even start. We can start out by practicing to speak to one person a week about Christ. As we practice, we will learn how to reach different kinds of people, and our speaking will become more effective.
6. We can use gospel tracts to share about Jesus Christ with others.
Giving someone a gospel tract is a great way to share about Christ. We can simply say a few words to them about the Lord based on the contents of the tract as we hand it to them. When people have a tract to read, the tract will continue to speak to them even if we’re not there with them. Bibles for America has a series of short gospel tracts to help people share with others about the Lord Jesus. You can print them out and give them to people in person, or you can even send them to someone electronically.
We Christians have the gift of eternal life to share with our relatives, our friends, and our acquaintances. May the Lord Jesus fill us with His great love for people as we pray for others and begin to witness for Him today.
For further reading, we recommend New Believers Series: number 4, “Witnessing,” by Watchman Nee, and Preaching the Gospel in the Way of Life, by Witness Lee.
Extracted from “Bibles For America” webpage with paraphrasing and added material.
Conclusion
Witnessing is all about relationships. You must have a true goal of love or vision of what Jesus has called you to do and then go do it. To love people is not anything more than living a life of generosity and sharing as you pursue Jesus yourself. Witnessing is not reinventing the wheel of whjat others have said, it is merely telling people what Jesus has done in your life. You don’t have to be an aged veteran to do this, just share.
Pastor Rick Renner
We are qualified for ministry by spending time with Jesus – and when we are with Him, we, our hearts, our actions, our character, will reflect Him -- and this is the greatest qualification for ministry that exists.
Share Christ with one new person this week. Ask them if they would like to receive Jesus Christ. Serve them in some way. (Read John Chapter 3 and then go do it.) Invite them to our Church gathering, tell them “would you like me to pray for you?”
A Short Story from Glenn’s Corner, Facebook
Giving When it Counts
Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year-old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness.
The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister.
I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "Yes I'll do it if it will save her." As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheeks. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away?"
Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her.
1 John 4:11
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Each of us are weak and not the likely ones that a superior world military force would use as their chief warriors, yet our God and King, Jesus, the Mighty Warrior and Commander of heaven’s Army, has chosen you and me to be His Mighty Warriors! He doesn’t look at our weaknesses for they have been washed by the blood, He looks at our prophetic future as to who we will be, mighty warriors. Yes you…You are a chosen royal priesthood…say that to yourself out loud right now,” I am a royal priest of the God of Heaven my Daddy!” Do you believe it? As a witness of the most incredible miracle, the salvation of one soul, your own salvation, you have an incredible mission. Are you ready to build up His spiritual house by witnessing?
From the author that said that everything but worship or fearing God is vanity…here is an important word…
Psalm 127 World English Bible
A Song of Ascents. By Solomon.
1 Unless Yahweh builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless Yahweh watches over the city,
the watchman guards it in vain. 2 It is vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, eating the bread of toil; for he gives sleep to his loved ones. 3 Behold, children are a heritage of Yahweh. The fruit of the womb is his reward. 4 As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of youth. 5 Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. They won’t be disappointed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.
Preface
By Reinhard Bonnke
When we pray, we pray on the same basis and with the same rights as Paul, John, James and Peter. We rank equal with the greatest saints. The promises to them are the promises to us. They prayed the same Lord’s prayer as we pray. We have the same privileges as they had. God has no favorites except we are ALL His favorites. They had the same key to the door as we have – the name of Jesus. We come to the front door and walk in, without knocking, without a receptionist to announce us. We do not need angels or saints to usher us into God’s presence. We are sons and heirs – we have complete freedom of access into our Father’s house. That is a very good reason indeed for praying. We pray because it was made possible at great cost to one person, Jesus Christ. We have been “brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13). What a price so that we can pray! “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). That is the whole idea. “Therefore … having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh … let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:19-22).
God uses all kinds of people to build His Kingdom, some like Solomon start off well, but fail over time. They fail to persevere through trusting God. They are overcome by the World System rather than defeating it through faith in Yahweh they fail to build the Spiritual Kingdom.
We can learn from these failures and from our failures too. Our failures will show our metal’s worth in the fight. Solomon forgot these words of wisdom as the power of his kingly position corrupted him. Sometimes leaders in the church do the same. They forget their humble position and begin to believe their own press statements. If God is truly opposed to the prideful, then we must spend our life moving to our knees in humility before our God in service to Him. Yet many ministers today are not humbled. They also spend more time nurturing their own needs, and keeping their sheep, rather than feeding, training up and sending their members to fight the good fight and reach the lost sheep. If we are building the house of God then it is clear only God can build it according to His word. If we decide to build it ourselves, apart from each other and the Holy Spirit, through faith or together as an united army, it is promised we will fall against the gates of hell and not prevail..we will fail!
Introduction
How can we really win the spiritual war as a Church? We need to be arrayed and united as an army of God rather than a house of learning or academic institution. We need Skilled Sword Wielders and not Skilled Bible Scholars. Biblical academics without application (Dull Swords) has endangered the Church and its commission for 2000 years. (Hebrews 4). Arm chair academic spiritual Commanders endanger the Church. They usurp authority that belongs to real spiritual commanders raised up for Christ. As Remnant warriors we must teach application through the demonstration of love and witnessing. Not just written tests, but field work with real life tests, which really helps people and sets them free.
One of the early Church generals, the apostle Peter understood that we are called to work together, all of us priests and warriors:
1 Peter 2 World English Bible
Putting away therefore all wickedness, all deceit, hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speaking, 2:2 as newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby, 2:3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious: 2:4 coming to him, a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God, precious. 2:5 You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 2:6 Because it is contained in Scripture,
“Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, chosen, and precious:
He who believes in him will not be disappointed.”*
2:7 For you who believe therefore is the honor, but for those who are disobedient,
“The stone which the builders rejected,
has become the chief cornerstone,”*
2:8 and,
“a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.”*
For they stumble at the word, being disobedient, to which also they were appointed. 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: 2:10 who in time past were no people, but now are God’s people, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. 2:11 Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; 2:12 having good behavior among the nations, so in that of which they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they see, glorify God in the day of visitation. 2:13 Therefore subject yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether to the king, as supreme; 2:14 or to governors, as sent by him for vengeance on evildoers and for praise to those who do well. 2:15 For this is the will of God, that by well-doing you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: 2:16 as free, and not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but as bondservants of God.
2:17 Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. 2:18 Servants, be in subjection to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the wicked. 2:19 For it is commendable if someone endures pain, suffering unjustly, because of conscience toward God. 2:20 For what glory is it if, when you sin, you patiently endure beating? But if, when you do well, you patiently endure suffering, this is commendable with God. 2:21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps, 2:22 who did not sin, “neither was deceit found in his mouth.”* 2:23 Who, when he was cursed, didn’t curse back. When he suffered, didn’t threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously; 2:24 who his own self bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed. 2:25 For you were going astray like sheep; but now have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
VV9-10. Our behavior as priest and warriors should be holy, humble and beyond reproach. Yet many leaders are making a name for themselves, rather than lifting up Jesus. They garner a following for themselves and not for Jesus. They steal from God. I’m not saying you can’t have a ministry with your name on it, but it should be evident who you serve. Most ministries fail due to pride. The ministry we have been given is about true worship of God through service. Are we serving? Are we working together? Are pastors the only leaders in the church. If they are, we are already starting out with the cart before the horse. How can we build a ministry if we left the builders, visionaries and warriors back home. Pastors and teachers the administration of the hospital and not the generals of the army. They are the deans of the schools not the field commanders. How long before we begin to build with the team intact? Pastors tend the sheep in the sheep fold, the warriors are the ones who fight the battles in outreach and train the spiritual troops. It is better to have no one in the fight, if the one you sent is not called, or equipped.
Remember that grace that empowers comes when we are yielded. So many times we see failing churches because there is no grace to bring the victory. The functional positions are not filled. Only when we are humbled in our calling and obedient will the grace of God overcome and empower us to victory in equipping us to our functional position. Bible study alone will bring pride of head knowledge and not the humility of of the tested heart. We overcome through faith in Christ and His grace or dunamis power, not by human will power!
When we finally actually begin to build it is usually a failed outreach that is a one time off approach. Once as year we go to a nursing home or orphanage. We go one hospital visitation or one limited evangelistic concert that is powerless to save the lost because we don’t occupy. Are we actually wanting to set captives free or just look like we are and talking about doing it?
Do you really have the burn of the Holy Spirit to save the lost? The promise was that we would receive power and then we would be His witnesses through the whole world.
This power or grace is only released when we are under His power and have the courage to do His will:
Acts 1:7 He said to them, “It isn’t for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set within his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”
We are called to witness. How we do this is as variable as there is Christians. Each of us has our unique calling to witness. We must obey…this is true worship. To shout His name from the mountains and to the valleys. From the rooftops to the alleys. Will we?
Some of us may feel inadequate in our knowledge and experience. Just as the blind man who shouts, “All I know is that I was blind and now I see, “ you have equal knowledge. Just shout it out, or even whisper it or do it through demonstration. There are practical steps we can take to witness, here are a few:
When we speak to others and they confess the Lord as their Savior, as Colossians 1:13 tells us, they are delivered out of the authority of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the Son.
Every time a person receives the gift of salvation, another captive of Satan is released. No wonder we sometimes struggle to open our mouths for Christ; Satan, God’s enemy, opposes our speaking because when people believe in Christ, Satan’s kingdom suffers loss!
How do we witness for Christ?
Now that we’ve seen why we should witness, how do we do it? Here are just a few practical points on how to witness for Christ.
1. The first and most important thing for us to do is pray.
We can pray, “Lord, you’ve commanded me to witness for You. And I am a branch in You, sharing Your life to bear fruit. Lord, help me witness to the ones in my life who are unsaved so they can know You.” We should consider all the people in our lives that are not yet saved. We can make a list of our unsaved family members, friends, neighbors, classmates, and co-workers and pray regularly for each of them. We can ask the Lord who specifically to speak to, how we should speak to them, and when. We can even ask Him for opportunities to speak to those around us. The more we look to the Lord and allow Him to direct us, the more He will be able to flow out of us to them in our speaking.
2. We must realize that being saved qualifies us to witness for the Lord.
Witnessing for Christ does not require that we attend seminary or receive special training. Believing in and receiving Christ qualifies us to be His witnesses. This is evidenced by all the different cases in the New Testament of newly saved people going out immediately to speak about Christ and what He had done for them. We are not required to compose long messages or to speak eloquently of all the things in the Bible in order to witness to people. How daunting if this were the case! All that is required of us is to look to the One in us and speak of our experience of Christ. Even if we are newly saved, we can testify, “I was empty and alone, but now Christ lives in me!”
3. We can speak about what we’ve personally experienced of Christ.
When we open our mouths to speak for the Lord, we don’t need to have all the answers to questions people may ask us. We only need to talk about what we know. First John 1:3 says,
“That which we have seen and heard we report also to you.”
We can tell people about what we have seen and heard concerning the Word of life, Christ. This means we can tell them about what we’ve experienced. For instance, we can tell them of how burdened down with sin and guilt we were, and of how we received Christ and were forgiven and cleansed by Him. We can tell them that Christ now lives in us and is now with us each day. It’s so normal for us to talk about our own experiences of things in daily life. With witnessing, we are simply sharing our experience of Christ. We may not yet know a lot of the Word, but we know the One Who has touched our heart and has opened our eyes. We can speak of what He did for us. If we stop to think about it, we actually have a lot to say concerning our dear Lord!
4. It’s never too late to start witnessing for Christ.
The best time to speak to others about Christ is immediately after we’re born again, when our experience is fresh. But even if we’ve believed for a while and we haven’t developed a habit of witnessing, it’s never too late to start. We can consecrate ourselves anew and begin to speak now for Christ. Our spirit will be revived and our faith will be strengthened as we “go forth” to tell others.
5. We can start by speaking to one person a week.
With many endeavors, practicing is important. For example, we can’t expect to play piano well if we never practice. In the same way, we need to practice speaking. It helps us to make a definite goal of speaking to a certain number of people within a given time. Otherwise it will be easy for us put off our “practice” again and again, and we never even start. We can start out by practicing to speak to one person a week about Christ. As we practice, we will learn how to reach different kinds of people, and our speaking will become more effective.
6. We can use gospel tracts to share about Jesus Christ with others.
Giving someone a gospel tract is a great way to share about Christ. We can simply say a few words to them about the Lord based on the contents of the tract as we hand it to them. When people have a tract to read, the tract will continue to speak to them even if we’re not there with them. Bibles for America has a series of short gospel tracts to help people share with others about the Lord Jesus. You can print them out and give them to people in person, or you can even send them to someone electronically.
We Christians have the gift of eternal life to share with our relatives, our friends, and our acquaintances. May the Lord Jesus fill us with His great love for people as we pray for others and begin to witness for Him today.
For further reading, we recommend New Believers Series: number 4, “Witnessing,” by Watchman Nee, and Preaching the Gospel in the Way of Life, by Witness Lee.
Extracted from “Bibles For America” webpage with paraphrasing and added material.
Conclusion
Witnessing is all about relationships. You must have a true goal of love or vision of what Jesus has called you to do and then go do it. To love people is not anything more than living a life of generosity and sharing as you pursue Jesus yourself. Witnessing is not reinventing the wheel of whjat others have said, it is merely telling people what Jesus has done in your life. You don’t have to be an aged veteran to do this, just share.
Pastor Rick Renner
We are qualified for ministry by spending time with Jesus – and when we are with Him, we, our hearts, our actions, our character, will reflect Him -- and this is the greatest qualification for ministry that exists.
Share Christ with one new person this week. Ask them if they would like to receive Jesus Christ. Serve them in some way. (Read John Chapter 3 and then go do it.) Invite them to our Church gathering, tell them “would you like me to pray for you?”
A Short Story from Glenn’s Corner, Facebook
Giving When it Counts
Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year-old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness.
The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister.
I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "Yes I'll do it if it will save her." As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheeks. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away?"
Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her.
1 John 4:11
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
