“These people draw near Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts hold off and are far away from Me.” Mt 15:8 AMP
“Therefore my heart is glad and my glory [my inner self] rejoices; my body too shall rest and confidently dwell in safety.” Ps 16:9 AMP
“The [uncompromisingly] righteous shall be glad in the Lord and shall trust and take refuge in Him; and all the upright in heart shall glory and offer praise.” Ps 64:10 AMP
“A glad heart makes a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken.” Prov 15:13 AMP
“…But this is the man to whom I will look and have regard: he who is humble and of a broken or wounded spirit, and who trembles at My word and reveres My commands.” IS 66:2 AMP
“Light is sown for the [uncompromisingly] righteous and strewn along their pathway, and joy for the upright in heart [the irrepressible joy which comes from consciousness of His favor and protection].” Ps 97:11 AMP
“But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them (of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them) because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated…
…But the spiritual man tries all things [he examines, investigates, inquires into, questions, and discerns all things], yet is himself to be put on trial and judged by no one [he can read the meaning of everything, but no one can properly discern or appraise or get an insight into him].” 1Cor 2:14-15 AMP
“And I, if and when I am lifted up from the earth [on the cross], will draw and attract all men [Gentiles as well as Jews] to Myself.” Jn 12:32
What Kind of Witness Am I
Often we take the prophetic ability to be a witness for God (Acts 1:8), and we focus on ourselves rather than the God we are witnessing of…
For example, we sometimes believe that if I arrange an ethereal, far off, even joyful look on my face that I will witness well. That in that effort I will be somehow effective in displaying a trust in Him.
But I would tell you that the expression on my face is not what will draw people as a witness, but rather the confidence in Him that shines from my heart. The heart is my truest witness, my face… not so much.
You see all the superficial construction on my face will not speak to the world of Christ, but the breaking of my heart over its condition and lostness will. As that breaking causes me to lift up the world, or people, or situations to Jesus Christ, I am acting as a compass pointing to true North. I am showing the way. The way to Him.
What the Lord is asking for is for a witness that is more than skin deep… and actually has some “skin in the game” so to speak.
You see if I have done my homework, spent time in the word, and been available to learn of Jesus… then He has altered me greatly. Especially in terms of confidence. The more time I spend with Jesus, the less confidence I have in myself for anything: even my facial expression.
Interestingly enough, the word shows me that as nonspiritual men (the lost who don’t know the Lord), the world cannot welcome into its heart the things of God, because they are spiritually discerned. Without the Lord’s help in awakening their spirit-man, these things can’t be understood, or grasped, or interpreted. How much more then the countenance of man…
Now see this…it is by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken…It is the sorrow of a broken spirit that causes us to catch God’s look and to be regarded by Him…it is here in this place where we have been broken that we have the greatest potential to be changed, and to thus be HIs witness.
It is here in our brokenness that He makes His dwelling.
It is in the brokenness of facing my own sin nature, and my aptitude for missing the mark, that I gain wonder and profound awe in a God Who has reached out to know me in my worst condition. It is here, in this place of humility and unworthiness that His love wins my heart. Knowing there is nothing good in me besides Him helps me to cast off every hint of deception that would seek to craft some personal worthiness as a façade for winning others to Christ.
In being my best witness for Christ I actually learn to forget myself, and remember only Him. He is the only source of all my springs. He is the only One Who creates in me love for others… Only when I remember Him fully, and forget myself do I have the capacity to operate in His love and gifts…
Only when I make Him high and lifted up in the situation at hand do I have any chance of making a difference! This is the witness of the Kingdom and the eternal. It is the direct piping in of heavenly things and the rarified air of the Kingdom which brings change…when I have let go and entirely forgotten myself and all desire to put on a good show in the flesh (Col 2:23).
At any given moment in my life, I can easily slide over the margin into selfishness, self-consciousness, self-care and protection. Especially if I have just been trounced or berated or treated badly.
In the time it takes for me to shake off and put off my old nature’s emotions and the wounding and return to a balanced mind in the New Man of Christ, you may have seen that glimpse of the “Old” as he was being put off! But realize the power of that testimony! It wasn’t that I had a pensive or decimated look on my face. It was that the transcendent God of the Universe has again been victorious. He has again risen in me to a broad place where there is no perplexity, or privation, and that all that is on my table in Him is full of fatness.
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