Two Essentials for Being an Effective Witness of Jesus
Undergoing these baptisms is fundamental for making our testimonies effective. Most Christians want to be witness of Jesus. However, many believers do not witness, while others do the best they can but are ineffective why? They haven’t fully entered into the baptisms of the Holy Spirit and fire. Therefore let us look more closely at these two essentials:
Be filled with the ‘’Dynamite’’ power of the Holy Spirit
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But you shall receive power Acts 1:8
The first thing we need is the power of God’s Holy Spirit. This power goes beyond the ability to speak in other tongues. It is also more than just an opportunity for creating a social club where people can prophesy to each other. The power of the spirit has to do with winning the lost for Christ to be filled with the Holy Spirit and fire is to have the ability to shake up the world with the good news of the Kingdom. It helps us produce supernatural evidence proving that Jesus indeed lives. We should take the gospel everywhere we ho healing the sick, freeing the captives, and testifying of Jesus redeeming work.
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Being baptized with the Holy Spirit has nothing to do with testifying about a church, a ministry or an individual believer. It is about Jesus of Nazareth- the son of God. Since Jesus death and resurrection, many people have abandoned that central purpose. We need to return to being true witness of him. We can testify of all that God does, but the main purpose for doing so is to glorify the protagonist of our testimonies; the resurrected Christ. Jesus needs to be the center of our witness! And, to testify effectively, we must have a personal experience with the Holy Spirit- provided by Jesus Himself- because the Spirit is the one who will convict sinners of their need for salvation
Some of us are really good at discussing theology, but we often lose our arguments because we cannot prove what we say. The point is that God did not call us to argue but to testify of what we have seen, heard and experienced. It is not a science. It is an experience! Then, there is nothing to argue about because, in general, the veracity of an experience cannot be refuted.
Secondly Be filled with the Fire of God’s Presence
There are believers who have received the infilling of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking to other tongue and who have filled with power from heaven, yet they never testify of Jesus. Neither do they pray for the sick or cast out demons. To return to our earlier analogy, they have the dynamite but it has not been lighted with fire
Baptism with fire takes place when we go before God so that he can set us ablaze with passion- the same kind of passion that burns in the heart of the Father- the passion to be witness of Jesus, to bring the truth to the dominon, lordship, and will to the King on earth by doing miracles in His name and by his hands
Remember that the lampstand in the Old Testament tabernacle represents the church- all belivers. The lampstand was kept filled with oil, substance used to keep the light going continually.
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The oil symbolizes the Holy Spirit, who today is the ‘’fuel’’ that keeps the light of his glory ablaze in us. And yet, there was another condition for the lampstand to shine. Its wicks had to be lighted with fire. When the fire no longer burns, regardless of how much oil there is, the lampstand will not shine. Likewise, we cannot be powerful, effective witness of Jesus if our lamps have not been lit with the fire of the glory of God.
This is the reason why many believers speak in tongues and are full of power but, instead of being on fire, are passive and indifferent. They either lost the fire or never received it to begin with. The answer, of course, is to be lighted by the fire of his presence.
Don't believe people when they claim to work miracles. You and I are writing in tongues if English is not your native tongue and it is no miracle at all. A miracle would be for me to speak in my native tongue to a multitude of nations and every one of them to understand me as if it were their native tongue. Babbling gibberish is not a superpower.
Some people claim to have the power to heal, but if they deny Jesus as the son of God or charge you money for it - you're better off without their help, might as well go to a hypnotist to convince you you don't have any illness. It won't make you healthy but at least you'll think you are.
Matthew 16:4 "A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas."
We live in a world plagued with evil on all sides and we cower asking for a miracle. A miracle is to live according to the word of God in a world filled with sin. Jonah was a prophet of God and he tried to disobey God. God didn't let him, he sent a storm to stop him, he prepared a monster to bring him back where he should be and when Jonah was angry God created a gourd vine in a day to bring shade and joy to the depressed prophet and the next day he destroyed it to teach him a lesson. We need to learn and obey God's word and we won't be depressed or angry, we won't be lost in the coming storm or caught up by the beast of the sea. We don't need miracles we only need to love God with all our heart.
Jesus and the disciples could instantly heal people. They didn't perform fraudulent miracles that consisted of having people in wheelchairs stand up and proclaim that they're healed when they're not. They rose the dead. Opened the eyes of the blind. Made the lame walk, the deaf hear, and the dumb speak.
We're sealed by the Holy Spirit when we're saved. The Holy Spirit doesn't come upon believers like it did at Pentecost. The more we mature in Christ the more we're guided by the Holy Spirit. There's no reason for Christians to speak in other languages like their was at Pentecost where believers heard speakers speaking in their own languages. There's no second filling of the Holy Spirit. Some people want an experience more than they want God.