Devo Week 49 - Discerning the Unseen Realm

“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” Matt.10:16

Witnesses for Christ - The Simplicity of the Gospel

How is our witness for Christ? It’s important we know because this is why we were created. The passage in Acts 1:8 gives us our marching orders to be witnesses for Christ wherever we are in the world.  It is this very area that the most intense spiritual warfare will take place.  In the end, either we will be a witness for Jesus, another spirit or our own beliefs. 

WHO IS FOR US

My wife and I set out with a strategy to church plant among the Akha in 2000.  (See Devotional 43) We were halted by the Holy Spirit as we were confronted with the idea that the Akha believed Jesus to be a white man or Westerner.  It was like the rug had been pulled from under us. We had been sent to witness for Christ, not to prop up some Western form of Christianity.  My first teaching about the cross revealed that the Akha had no idea why Jesus was crucified and had no way of understanding, unless we could reveal the ‘light of Jesus’ among them.  This became our new passion as the Apostle Paul mentions in Acts 26:17-18: “I am sending you to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.”  In other words, we were to be witnesses for Christ in a language they could understand. Without this revelation their understanding of Jesus would remain darkened.

WHO IS AGAINST US

As we began to share Jesus as the ‘rice of life’ the eyes of the Akha began to open to Jesus being near to them.  As their whole culture was centered around the planting, growing, harvesting and eating rice, Jesus was revealed right in their midst.  This became a ‘light of revelation to the Akha’ (Luke 2:29-32) that Jesus is the ‘rice of life.’  Satan opposed this witness for Christ, but we stood firm, knowing this was the only reason we had come -- to be His witnesses -- and now the Akha could understand why the Messiah had come even for their own people.  The Kingdom of God doesn’t consist of some diet change, but rather a revelation of the Messiah Jesus. (Rom. 14:17) Jesus came so that the Akha might have life and life abundant as for every people group.  The spiritual battle will always center around this issue of being a witness for Christ and revealing Him.  As Paul told Timothy, “We must fight the good fight of faith” (I Tim. 6:12) which is simply being a consistent witness for Christ.

PRAYER FOR SPIRITUAL BREAKTHROUGH

Father, make us powerful and effective witnesses for Christ.  Lord, empower us to open the eyes of the people around us to Christ. Send workers to open the eyes of the least, the last and the lost to Christ!  In Jesus’ name, Amen!