Witness

When we become children of God through faith, we become responsible to tell others about Christ, and represent Him well while living in this enemy occupied territory. We become like an ambassador for the Kingdom of God in a foreign land. This means we must be a good example to others who are not citizens of Gods Kingdom, we must promote Kingdom values, and encourage immigration into the Kingdom by any means. 

Lets see what the Scriptures have to say about it. 

Matthew 4:19 – “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”

Jesus said if we follow Him, HE WILL MAKE US good witnesses for Christ. We do not have to do this work on our own, because it is God who will equip us and will do the work through us. If only we would follow Him, then we will get the blessing of being His instruments for a mighty and impressive work. 

1 Peter 3:15 – But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,

We must always be ready to share our testimony, and we should be familiar with the scriptures due to personal study time, so that we are prepared for the work of God at a moments notice. In my experience, I have rarely had advanced notice to do most of the witnessing I have done. And, in many cases where I have studied a topic intending to share it with a particular individual who I expected would benefit, I found myself using that information on somebody completely else completely.  

But no matter how, or when we do our sharing, we must always do so with gentleness and respect, because standing on a soap box and screaming “turn or burn” is probably not going to win any souls for Christ. If we want to save people from hell, we must approach people with the love of God in our hearts, so that every time we open our mouths, it is to edify and lift up, and never to condemn or hurt. 

Acts 4:20 – As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.

Acts 16:31 – Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household

The message of the apostles was simple. They did not spend years in seminary studying doctrine and theology so they could qualify to deliver it. They just boldly proclaimed that faith in Christ will save us from our sins, and they did this not out of obligation, but because they were so excited that they could not help but to do it. Now that is as good of a witness as you will ever get!

Acts 1:8 – But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my (Christs) witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

We do this, not because we are such great examples of Christians, but because when God’s power transforms us, our lives become a great example of what God can do. And our influence might reach further than we realize.

2 Corinthians 5:20 – We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

What if the USA sent an ambassador to North Korea to represent our way of life and our values, but this ambassador spent his time soliciting bribes, being publicly drunk, and openly sleeping with prostitutes? Well, we would not be too impressed with that ambassador. Let us take our role as Christ’s representatives on earth seriously, by walking worthy of the calling set before us. 

Let us set ourselves apart from the rest of society so that when others see us, they see the love of God overflowing from us. Your life will be your witness, not your preaching. A non-believer does not care how many scriptures you can quote at them. A non-believer will be won by your love and life, and THEN you do well to tell them about the gospel message in the power of the Holy Spirit. Every day, let our prayer be that we may be used by God, despite ourselves, so that when others look at us, they see Him reflected the way the moon reflects the light from the sun, to be a light in the darkness! 

In this way, may we glow in the dark!