You shall be Witnesses

Acts. 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. (KJV)

Sometimes you may wonder why it appears like so many Christians are evangelizing, but not many people are being converted to the same degree, or you personally may have been evangelizing, and wondering why you aren’t getting people converted as you ought. Well, the answer is not far fetched, as we will explore in this piece.

Jesus before His departure had instructed His disciples to go and evangelize to all nations, but further down the line as revealed in our text, He said they should tarry to receive power through the infilling of the Holy Spirit, so that they can be His Witnesses even to the uttermost part of the earth. Now, Jesus did not just say that His disciples will simply evangelize to the nations, he categorically said they shall be Witnesses.

It is good to evangelize, but it is more important to be a Witness of Him. To be a Witness of Christ is not just to wear the name as some sect do, it is to let your life reflect the very essence of Jesus, and to model Him to the world in every sphere of influence that you occupy, not just in character, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and power. Anything short of this is not a true reflection of a Witness of Christ.

When you fail to model Christ this way in your sphere of influence, you deny others the opportunity to have an experience of what it means to follow Christ, and even though you may evangelize to them, they may find it difficult to accept and embrace the life in Christ. This is one of the reasons why many evangelism exercises have not been as productive as they should. When people cannot clearly see a correlation between your life, and that of Christ whom you profess in the manner that we have describes, they are unlikely to accept your gospel. As a matter of fact, many evangelism exercise today are not so different from the activities of the the seven sons of Sceva as described in Acts 19:14-16; it is like attempting to bring someone into an experience that you personally know nothing about.

So to tie it all up, it is important to evangelize, but for your evangelism to be effective, you must be a true Witness of Christ. Take up the challenge today to begin to model Christ to others within your own sphere of influence. Be the answer to the questions in the heart of the people, and when you open your mouth speak, do it with grace, and watch God’s power come upon your words to turn the lives of people around.

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