"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
I once used to think that being a witness meant being a good product display - that if we would have our lives showcased, we would have all the things people around us ever wanted. Being a witness and testimony to me meant nothing more than showboating my possessions, money, skills, awards and declaring myself "blessed." Never was I more wrong.
While it's true that God wants us to be a display, the question we should ask ourselves is what are we displaying? So many times being a "witness" becomes no more than posting a photo of a new car and saying "Do you want one? Follow Jesus today. But wait, there's more!" Our testimony is not a cheap cold sell that only leaves people wanting a material blessing because then we'll either have people who are disbelieving and disgusted by the hard sell or running into religion for very wrong reasons.
When Jesus spoke to us about the power of the Holy Spirit turning us into witnesses, this was not the kind of "witness" He was talking about turning us into. Looking closer at the word witness in Acts 1:8, you'll find that the more literal translation for witness is the word "martyr."
It means this: when the Holy Spirit comes into you, you die. I don't mean you literally drop dead, but that when God turns you into a witness, all your pride, arrogance, incapability, skills, inadequacy and everything that gets in God's way falls off and your life becomes about nothing more than God's grace becoming manifest in you.
As believers and followers of Christ, what makes us an effective witness is not who we are or what we have, but whether we are a living reflection of Jesus Christ. For that to happen, we must become less so that Christ may increase. Paul says that and also this in 2 Corinthians 11:30: "If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness."
Becoming a witness does not mean showboating all the wonderful blessings and gifts God gives you because many times when we do that it becomes more about us or our possessions. Being a witness means being a martyr and therefore dying to both our qualifications and disqualifications so that now leading people to Christ no longer becomes about us, what we have or what we don't have, but about Jesus being more evident because when people look at us they don't see us. Metaphorically speaking we are dead and they instead now start to see Christ and His majestic work through you.
