By Adam Harper, Director of Multiplication & Mobilization
“You had to be there.”
I am going to guess the last time you heard that was when someone was trying to explain something they had witnessed to you. They may have been trying to excitedly explain something but couldn’t quite capture the grandness of their experience. If you were the one explaining your experience, isn’t it frustrating that you can’t capture and then convey the same experience? You just want whomever you are communicating with to experience what you did.
As a part of the Alliance, we hold tightly to the Acts 1:8 family command. Jesus told His disciples they would be His witnesses.
If we feel like we may be unable to convey the wonderful Truth of the Gospel, that’s the wonder of the Holy Spirit. He fills the gaps, empowers us, stirs the heart of the hearer, and introduces the possibility of the supernatural. Please note, it isn’t the recitation of information. It isn’t a book report on something we read. That isn’t witnessing something.
To be a witness, you must experience something.
This experience is our encounter with Jesus through the transforming power of the His Spirit and Word. It is because of this, even when we feel inadequate, we obey. We obey, knowing the very same Holy Spirit we have experienced (You know, the same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead), will take our encounter, empower us as His vessel, and stir our hearts to action. The result will either lead to His life being breathed into the lost, encouraging the heart of other believers, or His will being fulfilled in another unforeseen way.
So, this begs the question, what have we witnessed?
Many of you may have heard me mention the 6-month rule. It comes from my interaction with the first pastor I served under. His challenge was, “If nothing has changed in your walk within 6 months, meaning you have nothing new to share, you need to reassess your walk with the Lord.” Initially, it sounds rigid. However, it gives a practical timeline measurement that can serve as a wake-up call.
What have we witnessed? What have we experienced? What has He empowered us to do? How have we used that to lead His people?
If we took this idea a step further, what do our churches experience? What if discipleship was less programmatic and more a shared experience? What if evangelism and outreach were less information transfer and more someone witnessing your experience and being drawn in? What if prayer was less a “fix it” list and more a listening experience?
Sounds wonderful, but how? I don’t think it can be a formula. However, I do believe it involves a starting point and an ongoing heavy dose of desperate dependence on the Holy Spirit. We are wise to remember, He is the vine and apart from Him, we can do NOTHING. He is the very One we experience. It is His life we now live because we were dead. He didn’t make us alive to make us specialists in Biblical knowledge. He made us alive to be experiential witnesses and live a life according to what we consistently witness because His indwelling Spirit is transforming us.
The Church is in desperate need of an awakening experience. The Church doesn’t need an event, we need a continuing outflow of the Spirit, causing us to consistently experience the Spirit making us more and more into the image of God.
I believe the world is asking, “Can I get a witness?” “Can I get a witness from a leader in the church?” “Can I get a whole church family as witness?”
The world is languishing for the witness of the Church. May we be ever vigilant and desperate in our search for the heart of God through His Spirit.