Your life as a witness

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them ... and teaching them ... and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. (Mat 28:19)

Your life is a witness. whether you are proud of it or not - are intentional or not, your living out of gospel reality shows who you are. It shows what you believe about the Person at the heart of the gospel. God's command to go is given to all those who hear his voice - everyone with the smallest "mustard-seed" faith has this task! And because He extends his spiritual leadership and help to us - because he is with us always, our witness can have His power behind it. 

Clearly though, our lives of witness are not always consistent - they are not always reflections of God's spirit. I say to myself, Take heart, seeking saint, obedience grows as it is practiced:

Lk 24:45, And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Ac 1:8, But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Notice how God intentionally imparts greater spiritual insight to what we know; the scriptural clarity we gain strengthens what we have been doing.  Just as at Pentecost, His Spirit infuses our lives with power - and heightens everything we have been doing.

Final thought: as we become more and more intentional about our witness, we see God's presence more clearly.  Into the intensity of our experiences comes divine intervention. The band of disciples at Pentecost were "all with one accord at the same place."  And this was the time when God's spirit showed up as a sound of "violent breath."  It filled the house.  What an awesome experience that must have been.  

And it is still our privilege to experience Him, as we grow in our lives of witness.

  

Hearts of worship: Moses, Aaron & Joshua

Approaching my Scripture study this week in the principle of personal prayer and openness to the spirit's promptings about lifeapplication, I found myself pursuing insights about the personal encounters with God in the lives of Moses, Aaron and Joshua and how they fed their hearts in lives of worship toward God.

The following verses opened up my studies. 

 "Show me now thy way, that I may know thee" (Ex 33:13 KJV)

As we see the Lord confirming the intimacy between Himself and Moses, the tenderness of the moment strikes me.

Moses' shares his need for God's reassurance and the Lord is hearing him and responding.  The humility and obedience displayed in this conversation opens a window to something beautiful.

THY WAY.  Moses is focused on getting into the heart of God's will.  He desires to be exposed to God's nature in a focused and concrete way - to be shown what it is.

KNOW THEE.  It is the same term we see used elsewhere in Scripture to refer to the marital relation and this points to the depth of the desire in Moses' heart.  We see here a pursuit of God that is active and which pulls from Moses' deepest being!

The record goes on to show the Lord reassuring Him that His presence is there and that he will give Moses rest - a concept reflecting God's total protection of us and management of all problems in our life experience with him.  And the passage continues to the high point of God's revelation of his "goodness" or "glory" to Moses, including a partial revelation, the "back parts" of his person.  Moses worshipped God throughout a life marked by the intimacy of their connection.

"Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto hm, What saith my lord unto his servant?" (Josh 5:14)

FELL ON HIS FACE.  Joshua's life witness fills me with hope and excitement because he is so bold and sure.  This is a typical moment of total selflessness.  It comes after he has obeyed the Lord and been magnified in the sight of Israel when the Lord parted Jordan to allow 40,000+ of them to pass over the river into Jericho and the rest of the region.  It is a picture of Joshua's heart toward God: total receptiveness.  He is a pliable and beautiful vessel for the awesome power of God.  We remember the young Joshua being present with Moses back when the Lord removed the tabernacle from the Israelite camp and descended there to speak again with Moses after the golden calf incident.  When Moses came forth to update the people as to how they would move forward, Scripture notes that Joshua remained in the tabernacle where God's presence was.  Joshua was sold out for God and was able to live out God's powerful works in his life of obedience worship - in the wake of the Moses' greatness! - because of his heart of ready sacrifice.   

Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well." (Ex 4:14

And the Lord said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. (4:27)

And take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister unto me in the priests's office" (28:1)

God knew this man, therefore his heart.  The golden calf incident was a sad moment in his faith journey, as was the unbelief displayed at the waters of Meribah (Nu 20:12), but God continued to bless his priestly ministry and convert his heart and save him to the end (Nu 7:8; 20:28).  His was a worship of continued service throughout his life witness.

*May God's Spirit Be With You As You Study – And Experience His Guiding You Into His Will*