John 15:26-27 “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.”

The Holy Spirit has many functions, and this is a really important one. (Actually, they’re all important, but that’s beside the point.) If we have nothing but the written record, we can’t really know Christ today. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals Christ to our hearts so that we can truly know Him. However, Jesus followed that up by telling the disciples they also would testify of Him. This intimate connection between the testimony of the Holy Spirit and the testimony of believers is brought into sharp focus in Acts 1:8, when Jesus tells the disciples that the power of the Holy Spirit was to enable them to be witnesses. Sometimes people excuse themselves from today’s passage, saying “But I wasn’t with Jesus from the beginning.” On one level that is true, but on another level, every one of us has been with Jesus from the beginning of our own salvation. We know what it’s like to be unsaved, and then to be saved by the grace of God. There is no more powerful testimony than that! A disciple is obedient to his Lord, and that obedience is going to involve sharing Christ with others, in one way or another.

My own experience of growing up in a strongly Christian home is so different from most of the people around me that they can’t identify with it, but that is no excuse not to testify. My experience of God’s grace has at times been dramatic indeed, and His daily mercies are certainly worth sharing. I am to lead the way among the believers in testifying of Jesus, not least because I don’t have the specific gift and calling of evangelism. Like most of them, I simply have to do the work of an evangelist (2 Timothy 4:5) and trust God with the results. We do have at least one in this church who seems to have that gifting and calling, and the devil is doing his utmost to keep that believer so busy and exhausted that he can’t function. I need to be a support and encouragement for him, helping him recognize the divine appointments God gives him to fulfill his calling. I need to help all the believers recognize that the Holy Spirit wants to use them to testify of Christ to those around them, both verbally and non-verbally. False humility is a major problem in this area, but it has no place in the Church.

Father, again and again You point out ways in which I and all the believers are totally dependent on You and Your Spirit. Thank You, because that’s a good thing. Help us let go of pride and false humility and allow You to use us however You desire, building up the Body of Christ and establishing Your kingdom, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!