To be a witness of God.
To be a witness of God.
"You are My witnesses," declares the Lord, "And My servant whom I have chosen, So that you may know and believe Me And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me. (Isaiah 43:10)
Christians often speak of "witnessing for Jesus." It is my opinion they often do not know what it means to bear witness of the Lord.
Somewhere Oswald Chambers said, when a Christian sets out to "save" somebody you can smell the gun smoke. That is true. people can feel or sense what the young evangelist is up to.
Notice carefully the passage above. It says nothing about going out and telling others about Jesus:
"So that you may know and believe Me And understand that I am He."
When young people go forth to "witness,." they actually are preaching the Gospel. They are telling others about their faith. Nothing wrong with this.
However, to bear witness of the Lord, we must tell about something we have seen or heard with the Lord. God fashions His witnesses the way He wants them, and it may be that they all are different for that reason.
I have been a Christian for many years, part of that time as a Bible teacher and pastor. I do not teach or preach from something I have studied. Before I go in front of people, I pray until I sense the burden of the Lord.
Even that is not witnessing! But while I am teaching or preaching, I may recall something the Lord has told me or has done in my life. Then that is being a witness of something I have experienced.
I have done a great deal of writing, books, booklets, and essays. When I was in public-school work, I wrote a book about programmed instruction, that was published. So I know how to write a book.
But the Christian writing I have done comes as a burden. This is hard to explain unless you have experienced it. A sort of pressure or awareness comes into my mind on a certain topic.
When it does, I sit down at the computer and write a sentence. Before I get up there are at least ten pages, all given to me by the Spirit of God. This is not as fanciful as it sounds. When I preach or write from a burden that I have, there are visible results of some sort.
For thirty years I preached without notes, except for Scripture references, at the church I presently am pastoring: Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Tuesday evening. I seldom used a hired evangelist because I have this feeling that I am bringing to the Body of Christ something that is new—information that needs to be brought to the attention of the Christian people.
I have an Internet site. The last time I inquired, several months ago, there were nearly half a million hits on the site. So what I am teaching is meaningful to some people.
So in my own way I am bearing witness of God. I have been blessed with many supernatural experiences during my discipleship, and Jesus is closer to me than ever before.
I am making a real attempt to live by the Life of Jesus, and am encouraging the members of our congregations to press into the Lord at all times, night and day.
There it is. Being a witness of God means to tell what you have seen and have experienced with the Lord, not preaching from sermons you have heard.
To be salt .
You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. (Matthew 5:13)
I have heard it preached that "salt" is a preservative. I think that it is. But when Jesus spoke of "tasteless" He was not referring to the preserving qualities of salt but to its flavor.
There is something about the ways of Heaven that are right; that feel good; that want you to stay around; that are clean and orderly; that "smell good; that make you think of "home"
When Christians are really living in the Life of the Lord Jesus they can make an ordinary situation feel like home. There is an air of joy, of peace, of love wherever they are.
But when the Christian is not walking with God and loses the fragrance of Christ, his religious talk, no matter how doctrinally correct, is dead and creates death.
I was walking past a sacred Christian building in a certain city. I realized that at one time it was filled with people who loved and worshiped God. It was a testimony of God to whoever entered.
Now there was no life coming from the building. It was dead. It wasn't even an office building with busy people working hard to advance themselves in the business world.
It is not enough for us to call ourselves Christians. A true Christian is not an ordinary person with a label. The genuine Christians spend much time in praying, listening to, and obeying the Lord. As a result there is the savor of the Life of Christ about them.
They are not preaching all the time, telling everyone how to get saved. They are sensitive to the Holy Spirit. It is what they are that "tastes good."
I have been in the hospital several times in my life. Invariably I end up talking about the Lord to the medical staff or patients. But I don't plan on doing this. It just comes naturally.
One time in a cardiac ward I just wandered around, stopping at one of the rooms when I felt to do so, and talked to whoever was in there. Usually the talk would get around to the Lord, but not always. They all were older men like myself.
Some people from the church came and tied a couple of balloons on my bed. There was one patient who had no visitors. While he was in the bathroom I tied on of the balloons on his bed. I left before he came out, so he may never have known who decorated his bed.
Does it matter that he know? I don't think so. I think God will speak to his heart that there are people who care about him.
There are ways of salting what may be situations that are not so pleasant. If we are living in the Life of Jesus, opportunities may come to make people know that God cares for them.
To be an overcomer of the Accuser .
And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. (Revelation 12:11)
"They overcame him." The battle is against Satan, isn't it? We do not just overcome our problems, we overcome "Him"!
What a horror evil is! The first evil was an attempt by Satan to usurp God's position as the King of the universe. All other sins have flowed from Satan's effort to take the place of the Father.
Since that evil hour there has been a war between good and evil. This conflict affects all the inhabitants of the earth, and the spirit world as well.
Notice how the inhabitants of the spirit world rejoiced when Satan was overcome.
For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time. (Revelation 12:12)
Because God is going to use some of the sons and daughters He is bringing forth to establish and maintain the righteous, holy Kingdom He is creating, He offers rewards to those believers who will pursue Christ until they have driven sin and self-will out of their personalities.
Revelation, Chapters Two and Three are devoted to these rewards. Revelation 21:7 sums up these rewards:
He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. (Revelation 21:7)
"These things" are all that God is making new. Thus the believers who gain victory over the spiritual darkness will be given everything. These are the co-heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ, who was the first to overcome the accuser.
And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." And He said, "Write, for these words are faithful and true." (Revelation 21:5)
So, the believer who overcomes Satan and his works will inherit all that God is making new, which includes ourselves. All is being made new—filled with the resurrection Life of the Lord Jesus.
Notice God is not making all new things, but all things new. Thus the new world of righteousness will contain all that we have enjoyed in the old world, only now it is filled with the Lord Jesus. All that is of Satan has been removed.
The area in which we live would be beautiful and desirable if it were not for the influence of Satan on the people.
We see that the saints who have attained to victory over Satan inherit everything that is desirable.
But the preaching of today does not produce victorious saints in so many instances. There is a continual accommodation of sin and self-will, as the pastor and evangelist seek for larger numbers of people—as though larger numbers are equivalent to a "better" church.
How often have you heard an emphasis on overcoming? Perhaps never. Why? Because the ministers are afraid it will alienate the people.
One time a minister berated me when I taught in his church. He said I was giving meat for the babies in the nursery to eat.
I think he should have berated the babies, not me.
In any case, Michael was not authorized to throw Satan and Satan's angels down to the earth until a company of believer had gained the victory over him. Then God moved.
This tells us something, doesn't it? What we bind on the earth is bound in the heavens. Thus we are affecting the condition in the heavens by what we do on the earth.
Right here is the core of the issue. God always retains the power to remove Satan and the demons from the earth. But God knows the problem of disobedience will arise again and again.
Therefore God is bringing forth sons and daughters, born again from His Divine Nature, who once and for all will keep all evil personalities confined in suitable prisons.
Also these warriors, having been made skillful in spiritual warfare, will insure against rebellions in the future.
So the contemporary overemphasis on God's love, mercy, and grace is hindering the development of tough soldiers of the cross who will install and maintain iron righteousness, fiery holiness, and stern obedience to God.
It is the warrior angels who do the actual fighting. But they only can do what they are directed to do by the saints; and the saints get their guidance from the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is why the third temptation, jumping from the pinnacle of the Temple, is so important. It is the test of presumption. Will we "step out in faith" without hearing from God, as we so often are exhorted?
No, we will not do anything until we hear from the Lord. Christian believers who attempt presumptuously to "do great things from God" are a deadly problem when the warrior angels are waiting for their directions.
We now are entering the spiritual fulfillments of the final three feasts of Israel, as I have mentioned previously. Things are changing. The opportunities are greater than ever before. The dangers are greater than ever before.
Many that come in at the last moment shall be first in the Kingdom of God. Many who have suffered the warfare from the beginning will be last in the Kingdom of God.
This is what Christ proclaimed, and it shows us that all events are controlled by the sovereign will of the Father. We cannot earn a high honor by spiritual ambition. But we can please God by being promptly, meticulously obedient to every word of Christ spoken to us.
If God wants us to be highly placed in the Kingdom, then that is what we desire. If God wants us to occupy a lowly place in the Kingdom, then that is what we desire. The important thing is to be precisely where God wants us.
To whom much is given, from him much is required. So it is not wise to be ambitious for an exalted place in the Kingdom.
Next Part To be a governor of the nations.