Healthy Churches are outward-focused. They also have the other four markers I discussed in my previous articles: hospitality, inviting, generosity, and disciple-making. 

Our scriptural foundation is Acts 1: 8, 

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. ESV. 

It’s a verse you may have heard about so much, but I look at it as the core of who we are as a Church. 

 

The point isn’t about what you receive, but who you become!  

 

The point Jesus is making, based on the above Scripture, is not about the Holy Spirit and the Power the disciples will receive after his ascension into heaven. 

It’s who Jesus wants them to be: God’s witnesses. 

Here are people who have left everything to follow Jesus, and they have done it for three years. 

 

What then makes one a witness? 

 

A witness is someone who has heard, seen, or experienced something. 

It’s a person who, based on what he/she has seen hear, or experienced, can testify about a matter. 

Right there, you see the components of what makes one a witness. 

Back to Acts 1: 8, Jesus is not referring only to the above components, even though these disciples had seen Jesus as the Son of God and Messiah in action throughout his public ministry. They witnessed at so many miraculous works of Jesus: 

• • • He healed the sick. 
    • He fed the four to five thousand people. 
    • He raised the dead. 
    • He made the blind see. 
    • He was crucified, died, and was buried. 
    • He came back to life as he had promised to the disciples. 
    • And more of which you find in all the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). 

Already, these followers of Jesus Christ could qualify as witnesses. 

But, Jesus is going to make a twist on what it means to be God’s witness. 

God’s witnesses aren’t only people who have seen, heard, and experienced. They are people who are filled with the Holy Spirit. 

[bctt tweet=”It’s the Power of the Holy Spirit that makes us witnesses of Jesus Christ!” username=””]

 

Why witness? 

 

I think God wants us to witness for three primary reasons. 

We witness because doing so brings salvation to everyone who believes.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. Romans 1: 16. NIV. 

We witness out of our obedience to Christ and God’s commandment. 

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Matthew 28: 19-20. NIV. 

We witness because there is a sense of urgency. 

God’s kingdom is at hand, and God needs more servants for the harvest.

The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Matthew 9: 37 and Luke 10: 9. 

 

Your turn now

First, invite the Holy Spirit to empower you to witness. Second, trust that God will enable you to share your faith with others. Last, know that you are a witness as a result of the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. So, ask God to fill you of God’s Spirit every day.