Coming Alive

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

 

First off, can we just talk about receiving POWER when the Holy Spirit comes on you…do you feel powerful? Maybe you need to wake up the Spirit inside of you. You operate as a completely different person when your Sprit is alive as opposed to, sitting dormant inside of you. Activate your Spirit, and do your family and squad friends a favor and activate theirs too. It’s not a mystical ritual by any means, just ask the father, command your Spirit to wake up, and then live, move, and breath as a son or daughter.

 

Anyway, lets move on shall we? You will BE my witnesses. As I sat in church this Sunday, the speaker pointed out that the verb in this verse is BE, not DO. There is a stark difference between doing witnessing and being a witness. He said “doing witnessing is TERRIBLY AWKWARD” and I completely agree! I had flashbacks to my race, standing in the street of a small village in Nepal looking at our contact dumbfounded as he said, okay now share the gospel. Um, okay, should we just start yelling it and hope that people come out of their houses or should we try a more individual approach? Does he mean to share our testimony or act out a skit of Jesus growing from a baby Savior into a man Savior? Confusion, nervous glances, and reluctant obedience ensued.

We ended up singing songs in the middle of the street and gathered a small crowd of Nepali men, women, and chickens. Once they were there we had someone share their testimony with the group and it ended up being really good! Because after we did witnessing we were able to BE witnesses.

 

Let me explain this further, to BE a witness does not require anything extra from you. It is simply who you are and what you have experienced. Breathe a sigh of relief because the Great Commission just got a whole lot easier. Do you know what a witness is? A witness is someone who can communicate accurately what they have seen, heard and experienced. In traffic court, you do not need a Harvard law degree to be a witness. If you can say that you saw the blue car hit the red car, you ‘re golden. You communicated accurately what you saw. Same goes for us. What have you experienced Jesus do in your life and in the lives of the people around you? You are a living miracle and you have witnessed and experienced things that people need to hear about.

 

One of my favorite examples the speaker gave was of a man that was healed of blindness by Jesus. The man who was blind, but now can see, was brought to the Pharisees so that they could use his testimony to condemn Jesus as a sinner. The blind man responded, “whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see”. What an incredible response right? Essentially the man said, hey I don’t know everything there is to know about this guy Jesus, but what I do know is that because of him, I can see. We can probably take a lesson from blind guy. People can argue with your theology, and you can spit apologetics all day long, but who can really come against your experience? How has Jesus changed your life? If you aren’t sure maybe take a minute to understand why. Maybe you just haven’t realized the ways he has worked in your life because you weren’t paying attention. Or maybe he hasn’t because you haven’t allowed him. Are there places of your life you haven’t allowed him to step into? If you didn’t know Jesus would your life look the same? Figure it out. Your witness depends on it.

 

If you have figured out what you have seen, heard, and experienced, are you able to communicate it effectively? Let’s dive into communication for a minute. Communication is a composition of verbal and non-verbal elements. The percentages differ but it is generally accepted as 10% verbal, 40% vocal (i.e. tone of voice, volume, attitude) and 50% non-verbal. I think there is much to be said on communicating what Jesus has done in our lives through the way we speak and the way we carry ourselves. Take a minute and check yourself. Think about how you say the words you’re saying. Words have power but tone, volume, and attitude sure have power too. Are you using sarcasm? And is that really a true reflection of your heart? Can people see that you have experienced oceans of grace by the tone that you use with your friends? Can people hear that you are loved beyond your understanding by the way that you speak about yourself? Maybe you really don’t know how much you are loved, or maybe you need work at communicating it to the world. The same goes for non-verbal communication, the largest portion of the pie. Do people know you’re changed by the way you carry yourself? Are your actions, the way you walk, live, and interact with others giving an accurate reflection of your experiences with Jesus? Why or why not?

 

Challenge yourself, challenge your people. Let’s be better communicators of what Jesus has done in our lives. Let’s BE witnesses.