September 2020 – Ye are my witnesses

“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.” Acts 1:8 (NKJV)

We thank God for a month of new beginning for the Redeemed Christian Church of God. We are certainly grateful for the recently concluded month themed “Wonderful,” as well as being grateful for the outstanding success of the RCCG World Virtual Convention. The blessings received shall be permanent in Jesus’ Name!

I welcome you to the month of September, the first month of the ‘ember’ months of this year that you shall remember. The LORD is saying that for the remaining months of this year, you shall live to remember them, in Jesus’ mighty Name. Not with sorrow or agony, not with pain and disappointments, but with joy and gladness.

• The 9^th month is the month of delivery; God has spoken in righteousness that it shall be the month of your “New Beginnings.”
• Thank Him for the month of wonder that just ended gloriously and triumphantly. From January through August, God has been merciful and gracious to us.
• This is your hour of delivery, the month for something to be delivered out of you. Nothing will hinder you, stop you or hold you back again.  
• The number 9 is significant – It represents completion but not finality, as in a process of transition or transformation. It speaks to the ending of one cycle and the potential created for another to begin.  
• This is very significant for a woman carrying a baby, for when it is the 9th month, the baby is born. You are carrying the seed of newness.  You have been carrying the seed of greatness in you. Isaiah 8:18 says, “Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders…”
• Mathematically, no number is as mysterious as the number 9. What God will do for you this month shall surprise you and the people around you; eyes have not seen; ears have not heard (1 Corinthians 2:9). “When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream” (Psalm 126:1). You will realize that it is not a dream but reality.
• 1×9 = 9, 0+9 = 9; 2×9 = 18, 1+8 = 9; 3×9 = 27, 2+7 = 9; 4×9 = 36, 3+6 = 9; 5×9 = 45, 4+5 = 9; 6×9 = 54, 5+4 = 9; 7×9 = 63, 6+3 = 9; 8×9 = 72, 7+2 = 9; same with 81 and 90. What is God saying?
•  9+0 = 9, 8+1 = 9, 7+2 = 9; 6+3 = 9, 5+4 = 9. What is God saying? I may not have spiritual backing for this, but it is certainly something on which to ponder. Focus your attention this month as something is about to happen in your life. The message seems to be that be it addition or multiplication, the result is still the same.

Ye: This refers only to those who have received the gospel of Jesus Christ, who have been transformed by the sacrifice of the Cross, whose sins are forgiven, and whose names are written in the Book of Life.

My: The one talking here is Jesus, Whose Name is called Wonderful (Isaiah 9:6).  

Witness: A witness testifies to what is seen or heard and verifies its truth. Other names for a personal witness in the Bible are: ambassador (2 Corinthians 5:20), co-laborer (1 Corinthians 3:9), co-worker (2 Corinthians 6:1), bearer of good news (Romans 10:15), eyewitness (Luke 1:2), bearer of glad tidings (Luke 1:19), testifier (John 21:24), evangelist (2 Timothy 4:5), attestor (1 Peter 5:12), and corroborator (Hebrews 2:4).  

There are two things that we can easily see in this last commandment that Jesus left his apostles (Acts 1:8), and by extension, one that He commands all of us.

1. First, that we are to become witnesses for Jesus, and next, that
2. Our ability to witness shall be powered by the gift of the Holy Spirit.

WITNESS:

The very idea of witness stems from the word ‘Martus’ or ‘Martur’ (where we get our word martyr). To be a witness for Jesus means:

• We must come as a servant, not a celebrity.
• That our chief aim, purpose, and desire is to please He Who is our King of Kings and LORD of LORDs.

We must also understand that:

• Jesus called each one of us to be a witness.
• And He said, “I’m giving you power so that you can be a witness to those around you.”

The Importance of a Personal Witness:

Let us say for example that you watched a movie, or television show, and you wanted to share the experience of watching it with your friend. Having watched it yourself, you are able to tell your friend all about the show and what it means to watch it. Now, your friend, having not watched it, could now tell another person about the show, but because of a lack of personal experience, he probably wouldn’t be able to do as good a job of it as you could. Now let us apply this to your Christian witness.

• If you’ve never experienced Christ yourself, the best you could share with another person is the story of how someone else experienced Christ.
• If you have never experienced His power, His love, His mercy, then you would be unable to fully be able to share about these truths as part of your witness.

Mantle of Power to Witness:

Acts 1:8 says that they shall receive power from the Holy Spirit and shall be witnesses.  Notice that in Acts 1:8 receiving power is what precedes and leads to being witnesses for Christ. And in Luke 24:48-49, they are to be witnesses but power from on high is so crucial they must wait for it in the city before they begin to launch out to the nations from Jerusalem. So, here is the main point that I think the Scriptures are teaching us: Special power is essential for an expanding witness to Christ. Power is an absolute essential to witness.

The Witness Is Expanding:

The reason I say this power is essential for an expanding witness to Christ is because, in both these texts, Jesus is sending them from Jerusalem in ever-expanding circles until all the nations are evangelized. In Luke 24:47 he says, “repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached to all nations beginning from Jerusalem”—hence, an ever-expanding witness. And in Acts 1:8 he says, “You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth”—hence an ever expanding witness.

Jesus is not talking here of an occasional word of witness in our same circle of culture. He’s talking about ever-expanding efforts to penetrate more and more of Satan’s strongholds of unbelief, fear and oppression. That’s why I say special power is essential for an expanding witness to Christ.

The Power Must Be Special:

The reason I say special power is essential is that it takes power just to become a Christian. But it takes another dimension of power to carry out an expanding witness to Christ. Now, prayer and great joy and blessing God are evidences of God’s power. These are things that do not happen without the work of God’s power. Therefore, I conclude that what Jesus is telling them to wait for is a special power – something more than the ordinary experience of power that makes a person a Christian and makes him love worship and have joy and go to prayer.

So, I say again, what Jesus wants to teach us in these verses is mainly this: Special power is essential for an expanding witness to Christ.

• When we talk about power, we are talking of an outward manifestation of God’s power. 1 Corinthians 4:20: “For the Kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.” Acts of the Apostles 1:8: “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” The word “power” here is gotten from the Greek word “dunamis” from which we get the word dynamite. So, we can say, “You shall receive dunamis after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.”

WHAT IS A DYNAMITE?

A dynamite is a powerful explosive used in mining. It is used to break mountains.

• It means that when the power of the Holy Spirit comes upon you, it will break every impediment to the glory of God.

 When the power of the Holy Spirit comes upon you, it will break up all the hindrances in the lives that come in contact, and they will give glory to the LORD. That is why you need the mantle of power as you go out to witness.

Why do we need the mantle of power to witness?

1. To witness Christ to the world: Acts of the Apostles 1:8 makes us to understand that the mantle of power will enable us to be God’s witnesses. Wherever you go, the fullness of Christ will spring forth through you.
2. To do exploits for God: Daniel 11:32: “But the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits.” In difficult situations, such people will be able to prevail by the reason of the mantle of power.
3. It is an emblem of God’s Presence: The Presence of God causes terror to the enemy’s camp all the time. Psalms 16:11: “In Thy Presence, is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” The joy of the LORD swells in you as the mantle of power falls upon you.
4. For ransom from destroyers: Hosea 13:14: “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.” You need the mantle of power to be free from the powers of the destroyers.  
5. For the manifestation of Christ: Jesus, Who is seated at the right hand of power, said, “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18). He really gives this power to as many as trust entirely on Him. So, His manifestation is the mantle of power.
6. To prevent our hearts from fainting: Isaiah 40:29: “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might, He increaseth strength.” The mantle of power is needed to strengthen our hearts because a lot of people today cannot cope with the situation of the present world.  
7. To prepare us as God’s battle axes: We need the mantle of power to become God’s battle axes. As the battle with the kingdom of darkness is getting fiercer there is a need for us to cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

The Israelites had no water until they dug the ditches (2 Kings 3:16). There was no healing for Naaman until he had the seven dips. There was no oil until the vessels were gathered. And Jesus did not turn water to wine until the vessels were filled with water. There can be no harvest until the ground has been broken up. Beloved, the emphasis here is for you to obey God, witness the gospel to others, and everything else you need will be supplied by Him. John 15:7 says, “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.“

CONCLUSION:

The LORD Jesus desires that we be His perpetual and consistent witnesses everywhere we go and in every context that we find ourselves (Acts 1:8). To do that effectively, it is imperative that we have our personal and individual encounter with Jesus as Savior and then as LORD (Acts 16:31; John 17:3; 2 Corinthians 4:5-6). Living for Jesus and being an authentic personal witness is not something that can be achieved on one’s own, but it is accomplished through us by the mantle of power, the power of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 2:19-20, 5:16-18,22-25). This is the reason it is extremely crucial that we wait on the Holy Spirit habitually that we may be continually filled with His power and live with the tangible Presence of Jesus Christ. To do the explosive powerful exploits that result in the rescue and transfer of souls from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light (Ephesians 5:5-14), we cannot get by on stale anointing. No, there must be a continual refilling so we ourselves do not become roadkill to the enemy of our very souls (1 Corinthians 9:27; 1 Peter 5:8-9).

PRAYERS:

• This is your hour of delivery, the month for something to be delivered out of you. Nothing will hinder you, stop you or hold you back again. Bless the LORD, the everlasting God, Immortal, Invisible, the Only Wise God. Angels bow before Him, what a mighty God I serve.
• Thank You for making me an ambassador, a co-laborer, co-worker, bearer of good news, an eyewitness, a bearer of glad tidings, a testifier, an evangelist, an attestor, and a corroborator, in Jesus’ Name.
• I receive power to be a witness, in Jesus’ Name.
• LORD, I receive the mantle of power to be an effective witness, to do exploits, to manifest Christ, to prevent weariness/tiredness. Prepare me as a battle axe and empower me to finish strong and well.
• My body rejects every evil arrow, in the Name of Jesus.
• I refuse to give up at the edge of my breakthrough, in the Name of Jesus.
• Every spirit of war working against this country, be paralyzed, in the Name of Jesus.
• All the satanic agents planning trouble for this nation, be paralyzed, in the Name of Jesus.
• Let the spirit of peace reign in this nation, in the Name of Jesus. The blood of Jesus works against every power of darkness working against my life, in the Name of Jesus.
• Father LORD fill me afresh with Your fire, in the Name of Jesus.
• Psalm 85:6 says, “Wilt Thou not revive us again: that Thy people may rejoice in Thee?” LORD, revive us again, send down revival. Let the fire of revival break out from the east, the west, the north and the south that Your people may rejoice again!
• As revival breaks out, may Isaiah 35:10 come to pass in our communities, churches, and nation, in Jesus’ Name. It says, “And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”
• Thank Him for the covenant of healing, life, provision, healing, long life, etc.