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You Shall Be Witnesses
Wade E. Taylor
But you shall receive power,
after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto
Me both in
The
Baptism in the Holy Spirit was given that we might receive the enabling to become a witness. This speaks of far more than our
receiving power to witness.
The
ministry of Jesus did not begin immediately following His baptism in the
And Jesus, when He was baptized,
went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him,
and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon
Him.
And lo a voice from heaven
saying, This is My beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased. Matthew 3:16-17
The
approbation, or favor of God, clearly rested upon the life of Jesus as He had
fully pleased His Father. Yet this
alone did not qualify Him for ministry.
And Jesus being full of the Holy
Ghost returned from
While
Jesus was in the wilderness, Satan tempted Him through a series of testings that
lasted for forty days. He overcame
each of these on the principle that He only worshipped and always obeyed His
Father.
In the
strength of this overcoming victory, Jesus then went forth and ministered to all
of
And Jesus returned in the power
of the Spirit into
Notice
that Jesus entered the wilderness in blessing, (the fullness of the Spirit), but He returned in the power of the Spirit. The result of this experience of testing
was a life and witness, which manifested spiritual power and
authority.
But you shall receive power
after... Acts 1:8a
Notice
that the power to become a witness was given after, not when. Whatever prophetic word we may receive,
whatever gift or blessing we may be given, these must first be translated into
our life experience through a process of testing, before they can effectively be
ministered and imparted to others with results.
The
word witness in Acts 1:8 can also
be translated sample. Jesus became a sample or a visible demonstration of
His Father, that the world might see and know Him.
That which was from the
beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have
looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of Life: for the life was
manifested and we have seen it. I John 1:1-2
The
purpose of the life and ministry of our Lord among men was to bring forth a
witness, which would become an extension of His life and ministry, after He paid
the penalty for our sin upon
Verily, verily, I say to you,
except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone: but if it
die, it brings forth much fruit. John 12:24
That
which comes forth will be exactly like that which was planted. He died that we might live in His image
and likeness - a sample or
extension of His life lived through us.
You shall be witnesses unto Me.
Notice
that this is not our being a witness of
Me, or a witness for Me, but rather, unto Me. As we witness unto Him, and so become
one with Him, His life is then reflected through us to the lost, with the same
power and results that He had.
As the
blessings of the infilling of the Holy Spirit are translated into power in our
lives through His workings, we become an effective witness or sample of
Him. The world will treat this witness just as they did His
witness. Jesus overcame all that He
faced and was victorious, leading captivity captive. He then said:
To him that overcomes will I
grant to sit with Me in My Throne, even as I also
overcame, and am set down with My Father in His Throne. Revelation 3:21
The
gift or blessing is not enough. It
must come through a life experience of being tested before it will be able to
function in power.
The
Lord is digging deep within our lives to transform and change us. He is conforming us to the image of His
Son, that we may be that witness, or sample of Himself, which He desires in the
earth today.
We are
made joint heirs with Jesus Christ.
The Word tells us that we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His
bones (Ephesians 5:30). We are not just like Him, but rather we are made,
through the miracle of Holy Spirit regeneration, a partaker of the Divine nature; and then
we are fitted into His body as a lively
stone (I Peter 2:5).
We are
being called today to come beyond the realm of blessing, into becoming a
finished product of His workmanship, that the Christ within may become manifest
and be revealed as His witness in the earth, with substance and
power.
This
witness that He desires to bring forth is not the result of something that we
are to do, but rather, it is the revelation of what we have become in Him. It will emerge from the power of a
tested and proven relationship, that as we become one with Him, the work that He
did, He will continue to do through us.
The
Lord will set us out as a sample in the presence of those whom He desires to
receive to Himself. Then those who
are attracted to the quality of the sample will purchase what they see, and
receive the Lord into their lives.
It is
not what we can do for Jesus, but rather, how willing we are to become what
He would have us to be a witness.