It’s Being…Not Doing “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8 NKJV) Mere moments before He ascended into heaven, Jesus told His disciples they would receive the power of the Holy Spirit, which would enable them to be witnesses to Him. Note that He said they would be witnesses and not that they would do witnessing. It’s a subtle difference, but it’s important because it shows us that when it comes to witnessing, it’s not just something we do, but it’s a part of who we are. If we were in Jesus’ original audience, His words would have hit us a bit differently. The Greek word that Christ used for witnesses is martus, from which we derive our English word martyr. Connect these dots with me. A martyr is someone who has died for something, and as God apprehends people’s hearts, He produces a desire within them to die to their self-centered and selfish nature: I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Galatians 2:20 NKJV) It’s a well-known fact that ten of the twelve disciples (except Judas and John) died as martyrs proclaiming the gospel. We might look at their devotion and wonder how they were capable of such sacrifice. But the fact is that they had all died years before their physical deaths as their selfish natures were put to death. They were totally committed to doing the Lord’s will because they martyred their own wills. If we haven’t really died to self, we will be reluctant to witness. But when we fully understand that Christ died for us, it makes us want to die to self and be His witnesses, willing to go anywhere and do anything He tells us.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 12:04:40 +0000
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