Book 2 of Musings Bearing a True Witness

If you are filled with God, the people around often will stop their swearing.

If you are filled with a spirit of proselytizing, the people around you may start swearing. There is a difference.

We Christians are often encouraged to "go out and get people saved"; or "lead people to Christ." I know a lot of good comes from this. Many people are led to Christ by believers who are making an effort to share their faith.

The ministry of leading people to Christ is best accomplished as we are following the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit. I think all successful personal workers would acknowledge this to be true.

However, there is another spirit that often is found among Christians. It is a spirit of proselyting. We are to collar people and "compel them to come in." This is a harsh spirit, and in some cases drives people away from the Lord.

I remember one time when we were living in Phoenix, I was painting the outside of my father-in-law's house. Two ladies stopped by. They asked me if I knew the Lord.

I said, "Yes."

Then they became angry and wanted to know why I wasn't going out and knocking on doors. I got the feeling they were not very happy about what they were doing and wanted me to share their misery.

The spirit of proselyting, that is, of inducing someone to convert to one's faith, abounds in Christian churches. The effect of telling the believers they must go out and "save souls" is to bring them under condemnation. They believe they should be doing this, but except for handful of believers who have a gift of personal evangelism, the members of the congregation do not have Divine grace to go out and talk to people about the Lord; and so they live under this condemnation.

Sometimes the pastor will advise the people that he himself is not supposed to go out and do this, but they are. This is hypocrisy.

One aspect of this issue has to do with the fact that the Spirit of God gives various gifts of ministry to the members of the Body of Christ. The ability to evangelize is but one of many gifts and ministries that are given to people according to the will of the Spirit.

Another aspect of this issue has to do with the character and behavior of the Christian himself. A considerable amount of time, effort, and money is directed, in the United States, to "getting people saved." But what the American people are looking for, along with the other ethnic groups of the world, is the Presence of Christ in the believers. This they are not seeing.

God is the one who makes witnesses, who creates fishers of men. Some are ready to go forth right after coming to know Christ for themselves. Others are dealt with for many, many years before they are ready to present the part of the work of the Kingdom that has been assigned to them.

The key to all of this is the Holy Spirit. When we live, move, and have our being in the Holy Spirit, we behave righteously and our ministry is on target.

But when we are being directed by our own religious ambitions, we are only proselyting. We call it "witnessing," but it is not. We merely are well-meaning people who believe in our religion and are trying to get other people to see things as we do.

Denominations often are guilty of developing programs that the Holy Spirit never heard of. They are blind while attempting to lead the blind. Today it is fashionable to use current marketing techniques in order to "sell" the Gospel. The evidence of success is the number of churches that are started.

I remember when Audrey and I first came to Poway. We had been here but a short while when an event took place that made me realize what a serious business starting a church actually is.

The Lord spoke to me clearly not to go back to work. I obeyed, and we have never missed a meal for twenty-six years.

Instead of working, I used to go over to the church by myself and pray for a good part of the morning.

One morning, as I was sitting on the platform, a spirit approached me.

He said, "Who gave you the right to be here?"

I said, "I am here with the blessing of the Foursquare Church and came down from Fremont with the blessing of the First Assembly of God in Fremont."

This seemed to satisfy the spirit, and he left.

Whenever I hear of some young couple being sent out by a local church to start another church I think of this incident. Starting a Christian church is regarded in the spirit realm as a very serious undertaking. It is not at all the same as starting up a business selling computers, for instance.

If a young couple decides to start a church they need to realize that sooner or later they are going to be tested. If their church is to survive, if they are going to make a lasting spiritual impact in their location, they will have to fill up what is left of the sufferings of Christ.

They are safe as long as they are in the will of Christ. But if they are on some kind of adventure, the Lord Jesus in His goodness will cause the work to dry up so they may have time to gain experience in the world before they attempt to establish a part of the Kingdom of God on the earth.

The most important witness is that of a godly life. If we work miracles, and miracles are important in the witness of the Kingdom, but are not living a righteous life, then little or nothing of eternal worth will be accomplished. Our work will be burned up with fire. The scepter of His Kingdom is a scepter of righteousness.

I hope that the coming years in America will see a massive turning to righteous conduct on the part of the Christians. Our witness to our country has been besmirched by prominent "Christian" personalities who reach hundreds of thousands of people, but whose testimony is destroyed by their actions. We have had enough of self-seeking opportunists in the ministry, whose god is their belly.

I personally believe that in many instances, perhaps not all, if we will worship the Lord and rejoice in Him, the Lord will add people to us. The Lord may want our assembly small, or He may want it very large. It seems to me that if we look to Him, He will build His churches the way He wants them, according to the role in the development of the Kingdom they are to play.

That which is built from man's desire to be preeminent will not stand in the Day of Judgment. True saints often are found in the babylonish structures, but in the end, the manmade institutions will turn against the genuine work of Christ and seek to destroy it, just as Saul, originally the Lord's anointed, sought to destroy the king God had chosen.

Great things are afoot in the Kingdom in our day. I think the Lord, in the coming days, may show us clearly who are serving Him, and who are working in the flesh for their own glory.

Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church: (Colossians 1:24)

Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. (1 Peter 2:12)

You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:14-16)