Jesus was headed back to Heaven, back to sit on His throne, back to the place He left in order to rescue those who would receive Him. Before He left, He did as always, informing His followers and giving them instruction.

He let them know that very soon they would be filled with His Spirit and that they would be His witnesses throughout the earth.

For us in the modern western world, that doesn’t seem like such a big deal, witnessing in Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria, and beyond, but the truth of the matter was, the people of Jerusalem they would be witnesses to were the same who crucified Jesus. They were hunting down His followers to do the same to them. Total annihilation was their goal—and that spread throughout the land of Judaea.

And Samaria? We know that good Jews did not go there, had nothing to do with those near-pagan relatives of theirs. Those mixed-breed heathens also wanted to annihilate not only the followers of Jesus but Jews in general.

Those were tumultuous times in which Jesus told them to get to work. It would require great courage and power just to go to those people. Thus, the Spirit. With God living in them, these followers would not only have the courage and boldness to go and tell, they would have the love of the Father for the deceived people around them.

We are not exempt from this command. We are His witnesses in our local place, our town, our state, nation, and world. Note that I didn’t say we are TO BE His witnesses. Followers of the Savior are already His witnesses. The dissonance comes in when we are poor witnesses.

When we are not living as believers are called to live, we are a poor witness. When we don’t walk in the confident boldness of the believer, we are a poor witness. When we allow sin to continue in our lives, we are a poor witness. When we continue to allow the enemy to reign over us instead of Jesus, we are a poor witness. Especially if we declare we’re His follower!

Believer, you ARE a witness of the love, power, and grace of Jesus Christ, regardless what your words say. What you live is viewed by the deceived around you. Upon your salvation, you were gifted the filling of the Holy Spirit, giving you all the power you need to live a victorious life in Him.

Are you ready? Let’s do this!

Coffee, Bible, Journal.

Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube Channel where you’ll be able to hear more about this devotion and others.

Faye Bryant is an author, coach, and speaker who helps individuals escape the lies of the enemy, live into God’s truth, and build a better life by first feeling, dealing, and healing their way through a stuck future or an abused past, toward a deeper path of purpose, and into the unhackable life of their chosen legacy.  Hers is a story of resurrection: from death to life!