Witnesses for Christ
June 24, 2008 by livwater
As Christians, we have all been called to be witnesses of the Lord, but what do we understand by being a witness for Christ?
According to Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, a ‘witness’ is a person who sees an event happening, or one who is to show or give proof of something, or a person who speaks from his own experience that something is true, or one who bears testimony to a fact with proof that something is true. A ‘witness’ for Christ therefore involves an experience we can testify, or a proof of God’s wonderful work in our lives, something we can see visibly in the form of changed lives, from sinfulness to desiring holiness, and bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit with our lives revealing Christ.
How then can we be witnesses for Christ? The Book of Acts tells us how. By first receiving power, and then be witnesses to all the earth.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8 NIV)
The first steps to being a witness for Christ therefore is to receive power, and this means we must first get hold of our lives to live victorious in Christ, by submitting ourselves in total surrender to Him and drawing closer to God on a daily basis through prayer and Bible reading, allowing the Holy Spirit to mould us and manifest through us, to become more like Jesus, and to bear much fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
All these traits and qualities of what some people deem as essential signs of ‘good’ Christians bear witness of Christ in our lives, and our lives given to God completely will in return reflect and bear witness of Christ. Witnessing therefore is more than just reaching others for Christ by being vocal in telling others about Him and the gospel. It requires living our lives for Christ to show more of Jesus, and less of ourselves, not in the way the world shows, as in staging a scene for others to see, like the Pharisees who seek the honour of Man, but truthfully, genuinely, and naturally from the innermost depths of our hearts (Matthew 6:1, 5; Luke 6:45). It is revealing Christ and the fruit of the Holy Spirit, which are not something we can acquire by works.
