How to Be Witnesses - Part 1: The Power to Be a Witness

​INTRODUCTION
So, I would like to begin this new year with a series of teachings that I believe are long overdue in the Body of Christ—the subject of us being witnesses of the Lord and for the Lord.

You know, our witness to the world around us is so critical to us populating the kingdom of heaven. Because in case you haven’t noticed it, God is not in the business of appearing to the world and witnessing of Himself. No, the way He has set things up is that we would be His witnesses to the world around us.

Sure, He has given us things that witness of Him like the precious Holy Spirit (whom we will learn more about today) and His Holy Word, but in order for this world to “witness” His love, power, glory, etc. it’s going to take us bearing witness of these things. Amen?

Did you know that you are the only Bibles some will ever read? Yes, there are many who will never pick up a Bible, will never attend church, and aren’t going to ever hear the name of Jesus preached.    

Second Corinthians 3:2-3 says, “You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.”

You see, what this Scripture reveals to us is that we—our lives—are the true “Bible” that mankind comes to read and know. Yes, they are looking at how we live our lives and how what we profess is practiced in our everyday lives.

Therefore, it is imperative that you and I learn what it means to be His witness and to do everything God has put in us to do to testify of His goodness.

So let’s turn over to Acts chapter one, and look at a passage of Scripture that teaches us along these lines: Acts 1:4-8 says, “And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, ‘which,’ He said, ‘you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’ Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, ‘Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’ And He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 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.’ ”

So, the Lord told His disciples that they would be witnesses to Him first in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the end of the earth. And did you know that this commission did not end with them? No, as those who believe on Him by their word, we are called to carry this same mantle and be His witnesses as well in our own proverbial Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. Amen?

THE PROMISE OF POWER
But I want you to notice back in verse 4 how Jesus essentially told His disciples not to go anywhere or do anything, but to wait for the Promise of the Father—the Holy Spirit of Promise—before they try and “witness” for Him.

Church, this to me is the absolute first thing we need to know when it comes to being the Lord’s witness—that we cannot do it alone! We need the Helper to help us be the kind of witnesses that we are called to be, and that is because He is the power to be a witness …

Notice in verse 8 how Jesus told them (and us) that they shall receive “power” when the Holy Spirit has come upon them, and (then) you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem.

So, the power of the Holy Spirit was to come first and then becoming His witnesses came second, correct? And it’s exactly the same with us, church!

You see, far too many Christians who know precious little about the Holy Spirit try still try and become good witnesses of the Lord. And these believers certainly mean well, but in their ignorance, they get the cart before the horse. Church, we cannot really be the kind of good & effective witnesses of the Lord that He expects us to be without the power of the Holy Spirit. It is just that simple!

In fact, in Luke 24:44-49, we see how Jesus said something similar: These verses read— “Then He said to them, ‘These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.’ And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Then He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”

So, notice in verse 48 that Jesus said that they were witnesses of these things. What things? Of how the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day as well as all of the other things that would come as a result of His death, burial, and resurrection.

But now that they were His witnesses, they needed something else, so Jesus immediately tells them, “Behold. I send the Promise of My Father upon you …” So, notice how Jesus then immediately refers to how they were to tarry in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high. This is obviously talking about the Promised Holy Spirit – how He is the promise of power.

Now also notice here that Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as “the Promise of the Father.” Why does He refer to the Holy Spirit this way? It is because time and time again in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit is forecasted and prophesied as to come. Therefore, He is the Promise made by the Father.

But what is He the Promise of? He is the Promise of Power! Hallelujah! Jesus said here that when the Promise—the Holy Spirit—comes from on high, we will be endued with power. The word “endued” means to be “clothed.” And what will we be clothed with? With power!

I’ll tell you, the main reason why some Christians aren’t good witnesses is because they aren’t wearing the right clothes! No, I am not referring to our physical clothing, but to the virtues of Christ that we live in. They are wearing their own filthy garments of fleshly efforts, but that’s not what “enables” us to bear witness of the Lord. It’s the power of the Holy Spirit that we need to be clothed in to testify of Jesus properly.

Did you ever notice how the apostle Paul liked to encourage the church to “put on” this and “put off” that. He’s using a similar term there of either clothing ourselves in good virtues versus taking off the bad things.

So, what is the purpose of putting on these good virtues? If we already have all these attributes in us, why must we put them on? The answer is simple—for the same reason we put on clothes in the natural—for other people! We partly wear our physical clothes for the benefit of others. It is the same in the spiritual—we put on the fruit of the Spirit so that unbelievers can see how good our God is. When they see our supernatural peace in the midst of a severe trial, our unconditional love towards an enemy, our great self-control when we should have a fit of carnality, and our consistent joy through up and down circumstances, they will see us wearing the fruit of our new man. The intended result of us wearing our new clothes is that the unbelievers should be so impressed with our sharp attire that they will want to know who our Father is, if He’ll adopt them, and give them the same clothing too!

Well, the truth is that it’s the Holy Spirit who we have to be clothed in and He is the One who enables us to put on any & all good virtues to begin with. Yes, working in conjunction with the Holy Spirit is really the only way to be an effective witness for the Lord. This is because the Holy Spirit is the only real way to be an effective witness for the Lord in regard to my lifestyle, behavior, etc. That’s because the fruit of the Spirit cannot be self-produced. These fruit are generated by the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives. But this is also because the Holy Spirit is the One who empowers us in our witnessing.

But this word “endued” also has another interesting meaning: In ancient Greek literature this word was used as having “a spell cast on you.” Now, of course, we don’t believe in these things, but I think it gives us a great illustration …

Let me give you a story to illustrate this: A very meek, shy, and cowardly woman came to a magician and said, “I am so incredibly shy. I cannot even look at other people in the eye. Is there anything you can do to help me?” The magician then cast a spell on her (i.e., an endowment) and then she was supernaturally transformed into a bold & powerful woman (Compare with First Samuel 10:6 when Saul was turned into another man when the Holy Spirit came upon him). Likewise, we come to God saying, “Lord, I need help! I want to be a bolder witness for you than I currently am, but the thought of being this way terrifies me!” And the Lord then endues us with His power—the Holy Spirit—and in a moment’s time we are transformed from a shy, cowardly human being into an empowered, overcoming witness for Christ!   

Again, didn’t Jesus say something similar in Acts 1:8 when He said, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you …”? So, again Jesus said, when the Holy Spirit comes upon us, what we are receiving is “power.” I say all of this to say that with the Holy Spirit comes power! He is the power of God, and He is the Promise of that power! Amen.
 
CONVICTING THE WORLD
So now, let’s begin this week looking at how the Holy Spirit helps us in being witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ: And let’s start by looking at what Jesus taught us in John 16:5-11 …

Now if you recall, Jesus had shown His disciples here how important us having the Holy Spirit is by saying, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”

I’m sure that Jesus’ disciples had a hard time grasping this because, as a general rule, Jesus was the One doing the majority of the witnessing. So, if He was going away, all of this was going to fall on their shoulders.

Would you have felt this way? Say you and I were going into the marketplace or door to door witnessing to people. I would venture to say that most of you would lean on me to do all the talking. Well, I’m sure Jesus’ disciples did this more times than not.

So, for them to hear Jesus say He was leaving might have made them feel like you would feel if I said to you, “Okay, I am going to go home and I want you to go to these next few people and witness instead of me.” Most of you probably would be terrified and feel completely unequipped to do so.

Well, what Jesus was saying here was that having the Holy Spirit is more advantageous to us than having Himself physically present with us. And if that’s the case, I can guarantee you that having the Holy Spirit is better than having Pastor Trey there when you are witnessing to someone. Amen?

But then notice what Jesus immediately says after this: In verses 8-11, Jesus said, “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”

Now let me begin by dispelling a couple of popular belief systems that people have of these verses and about the workings of the Holy Spirit in general:

Notice, first of all, that Jesus said, “And when He has come (And He most certainly has come!), He will convict the world…” Convict who? “The world.” So, who is it that the Holy Spirit will convict of sin, righteousness, and judgment? The world! And we know that when Jesus refers to the world here, He is certainly including unbelievers because, in verse 9, when He goes on to explain why He will convict the world of these three things, He says, “of sin, because they do not believe in Me.” Therefore, this is certainly talking about those of the world who have not yet believed on Jesus. However, I also see it as including those who are in the world but not of the world as well (i.e., believers) because in verse 10 He says, “of righteousness, because I go to the Father and you see Me no more.” (We will deal with how the Holy Spirit performs this in our lives in the latter part of this teaching) 

So, this particular commission of the Holy Spirit in John 16:8-11 is what He is assigned to do for everyone living in the world, and not necessarily just for God’s children. This is important to understand, particularly as it pertains to the sin portion, because how many of us have heard how the Holy Spirit “convicted” one of our brothers & sisters in Christ of their sin—taking them to the woodshed and made them feel horrible for what they did wrong—and they used these very verses to substantiate it?

Well, I’m here to tell you that what a lot of Christians say is the Holy Spirit is not the Holy Spirit—which leads me to point number two: Part of the reason people misunderstand the workings of the Holy Spirit is because of this word we see in the King James version— “convict.”

You see, in our modern-day terminology, the word “convict” has more of a negative tone to it. To us, the word “convict” paints the picture of a courtroom and carries the idea of some judge who is looking down on the guilty and condemning them for their wrongdoing. And religion certainly has not helped this perception of conviction either: It has painted the picture that God is looking down on us with a lightning bolt in His hand ready to strike us down at any moment for our sinful ways. So, therefore, a good portion of the Church teaches that the Holy Spirit’s ministry is to constantly hound us—condemning us for all our various faults and shortcomings. Saints, this is not what the Holy Spirit is commissioned to do!

So, what does the word “convict” actually mean? The Greek word translated as “convict” carries more of the idea to “convince or to prove” than it does to “condemn.” In fact, the Greek word that the apostle John used here literally means “to bring something to light, and thus to expose it.” So, don’t get stuck on the word “convict” and let that word paint a negative picture of the Holy Spirit’s dealings with the world.

But the fact is (as we’ve made the point of already), Jesus specifically said that the Holy Spirit’s assignment to “convict” of sin is aimed at the world, and not at the church. In other words, the Holy Spirit’s job of convicting, convincing, and simply bringing to light one’s sinful condition is specifically targeting unbelievers.

Which brings up an important point—Not only is His ministry to convict of sin not aimed at us but at the world, this ministry to convict of sin is His job to perform and not ours.

HOLY GHOST JR.
Now allow me to take a little rabbit trail here concerning this: It is unfortunate, but there have been many believers that think that this is their ministry—to bring people under conviction. No, this is the Holy Spirit’s job, not ours.

You see, the Bible does not call us “convicters”; it simply calls us witnesses (see John 15:27 & Acts 1:8). And there is a big difference between someone who simply witnesses and someone who does the convicting.

You see, a witness is not the judge or the jury. A witness just simply testifies of what they have seen, heard, or experienced. And just as sometimes a witness is needed to convict a lawbreaker in a court of law, a witness is needed to open the door for the Holy Spirit to convict an unbeliever of their sin in the kingdom of God. We, as witnesses, are not to point our finger at them; we are just to tell people what we’ve experienced and then let the Holy Spirit do the convicting.

Have you ever noticed that when you have realized someone has missed it in some area and then you, in your zeal, call them out on their sin, that you rarely get the desired response? Yes, people do not usually respond well to us when we try and do the convicting. However, when we take the humble approach of simply testifying to what we’ve seen and experienced in our own life, we will get more “God-results.”

Second Timothy, chapter two, gives us a good example of this: In Second Timothy 2:22-26, the apostle Paul says to Timothy, “Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”

First of all, notice how he first tells Timothy what he should “flee & pursue” Why is this important? Because the first part of being a good witness is to walk in the truth ourselves. And not just because we ought to avoid hypocrisy and ruin our witness, but because our lifestyle and behavior is also what sheds light on the darkness that the world walks in.

Do you remember how in in First Timothy 4:12 that Paul told him – “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”

This means that Timothy was not to keep people from despising his youth by verbally correcting that attitude, but by being an example in how he conducts himself. Amen?

But have you ever noticed how the world around us just seems to be convicted from being in our presence? Now we might not have noticed that if we are walking like the world ourselves, but if we have been pursuing the things of God and we are carriers of God’s presence because our relationship with Him is where it needs to be, the ungodly around us will get convicted simply from being in our presence—and here’s the kicker: without us even saying a word. Therefore, by being Christ’s witness simply by our example, the Holy Spirit is able to fulfill His commission to convict.

Now I will say that this does not always mean that the person under conviction will have a repentant reaction. In fact, in most of these cases, the person under conviction will more than likely have a negative response by resenting, hating, or even persecuting us. But that is just the response you get when letting your light shine before men: You will have both the moths & the roaches—the “moths” being those who come to the light and the “roaches” being those who run from the light. And unfortunately, we live in the woods of the world, where there are many more roaches than there are moths.   

Then Paul goes on to show us that we need to avoid disputes and quarrels because all they generally do is generate strife. Why? Because with the vast majority of people, they do not dispute to find the truth, but to defend the truth they think they know. So, arguing and debating is generally fruitless and actually anti-productive according to Paul.

But notice how he goes on to describe that there is a place for correcting others, but just that we should do it “in humility.” For example, when we are tempted to correct & convict someone else for something and we are certain they are doing wrong, it is always a good idea to broach the subject in humility. How? By, instead of correcting them for what they are doing wrong, being a witness of what the Lord has shown you. Say, for example, you see someone having the wrong attitude about something. While you might be tempted to just correct their “stinkin’ thinkin’,” you can give them an example of how you yourself once did what they are currently doing and then share with them how the Lord corrected you. This takes that “holier than thou” perception of you out of the picture and enables them to see more clearly how they need to respond like you did. Not to mention, it opens the door to the Holy Spirit to validate in their heart the truth that you gave witness to. We see this in the remainder of these verses in Second Timothy.  

Paul went on to say, “if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.” So, what we see here is that it begins with us being a witness, and then what follows is God—in the Person of the Holy Spirit, I might add—who helps the person to repent, know the truth, and come to their senses to escape the snare of the devil. Amen!

Again, we cannot make a person repent. We cannot make someone come to know the truth. And we cannot bring them to their senses. This is the Holy Ghost’s job! And for us to try and do this ourselves is just pride—thinking we can do His job for Him.

You see, some people, in their zeal, have gone beyond the witness stand and tried to bring people under conviction themselves. This not only can frustrate the witness, but it can drive the people we are trying to convict away from God. We need to eliminate this “Holy Ghost Jr.” mentality of trying to convict people of their sins ourselves and let the Holy Spirit do His job. Again, He’s the Judge who convicts; we are simply the witnesses—and by doing our part of being Christ’s witness, we open the door for the Holy Spirit to do His part of being Christ’s convicter! Don’t leave the witness stand!
​
So, in conclusion, the Holy Spirit is here to convict the world, and this is His assignment, not ours. Let’s do our job of being witnesses and not leave the stand to try to do the Holy Spirit’s job. And as we have learned, the good news is that if we just be the witnesses that we are called to be, we can help the Holy Spirit do the convicting that He is called to do. Amen?