The abiding disciple is a witness. To be effective in our witness is to understand fully what is involved. The word witness (Greek: martus) means to have seen or experienced an event with enough evidence to convince another.
In the sense of witnessing about our Lord Jesus Christ, the following events should happen:
1. Witness of the Spirit: "The Spirit bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God".1 "He that believes on the Son of God has the witness within himself".2 Part of our fist witness is the ability to cry to God, "Abba Father", and know we are His and He is ours.3 "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit".4
2. Witness of the Word: The disciple should never seek to witness without the confirmation of the word (both the word spoken to us by God and the written word, the Bible). To know both is to know God. To be believable to the 'lost', the saved must surely be 'found'. There is no pretending. That is to bear false witness. To witness then is not always so much what we say, but what we are.
3. Witness of a Transferred Life: "He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins".5 We cannot witness to the power of God and live in an old lifestyle. The disciple of holiness gives off light. We are witness to our "transfer to the kingdom of His Beloved Son" and then our message of good news about salvation and kingdom life can be heard and believed.
We are to share the word of hope and life. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through Me".6 We are only containers of this information, and we are poured out and given freely to any who will receive this message. If we truly bear witness to this message, others will also. Just as with the church of the Thessalonians, Paul said, "...we thank God constantly for this, that when you received the Word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of man, but as it really is, the Word of God, which is at work in you believers".7 All of our witness is confirmed by God in His word.
Additional Scripture References:
1 John 5:8, 1 John 19
John 15:27
Acts 1:8
Romans 8:12-16
Matthew 28:18-20
Colossians 1:13-14
1. Romans 8:16
2. 1 John 5:10
3. John 1:12
4. Romans 5:5
5. Colossians 1:13-14
6. John 14:6
7. 1 Thessalonians 2:13
