Servants and Witnesses

Friday, January 14, 2011, 10:53 p.m. – The Lord placed upon my heart the words to this song this evening:

Servants and Witnesses / Greg X. Volz

I'll be a servant! I'll be a witness!

Servants and witnesses of the Most High God
Ye men of Israel are to live and die in the service of the King
Servants and witnesses to a kingdom of righteousness

We're to take this message to the ends of the earth
The Kingdom of God is at hand
And give encouragement to all of the servants
Who fully obey the command to be...

Servants and witnesses
He called us to be servants and witnesses
Servants and witnesses
He called us to be servants and witnesses

Walking in obedience to the laws of the Kingdom
Present your bodies as a living sacrifice in the service of the King
Walking in His footsteps testifying of a Holy God

We're to take this message to the sheep of His pasture
"The Kingdom of Heaven is near!"
And give encouragement to all who have followed
And service has been their career

Servants and witnesses...

Tell the people to turn from their wicked ways
As you teach them to get down and seek His face
He will hear them if they humble themselves when they pray

Servants and witnesses to a kingdom of righteousness

My husband Rick read me several more chapters out of Tozer’s brief biography of the life and ministry of A. B. Simpson this evening. It was inspiring, again, to hear of this man’s call of God to the regions beyond to share the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who had never heard; to every tribe and every nation, and then the end would come.

When we finished reading the chapters and Rick and I were having our time of prayer together, while he was praying aloud, I was silently praying in my heart that I wanted to be totally abandoned to the Lord Jesus Christ to go wherever he sends me and to share his love and the truth of the gospel with as many who would listen.

I Surrender All / Judson W. Van De Venter / Winfield S. Weeden

… Lo, we have left all, and have followed Thee. (Mark 10:28)

All to Jesus, I surrender; all to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him, in His presence daily live.

All to Jesus I surrender; humbly at His feet I bow,
Worldly pleasures all forsaken; take me, Jesus, take me now.

All to Jesus, I surrender; Lord, I give myself to Thee;
Fill me with Thy love and power; let Thy blessing fall on me.

I surrender all, I surrender all,
All to Thee, my blessèd Savior, I surrender all.

I prayed, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” I had been reading in the 13th chapter of John this morning concerning Jesus’ washing the disciples’ feet, so I read over that passage again and then I kept reading through to the first four verses in chapter 16. I knew the message the Lord had for me was to be about being servants and witnesses and that the scripture passage and the song would agree in message, so I prayerfully watched for those verses that would describe, for me, what it meant to be a servant and witness for Jesus Christ. I believe this is what the Lord showed me. We are to (I am to):

Give encouragement to others who are also servants and witnesses for Jesus – we are to love and encourage one another within the Body of Christ. This is how all men will know that we are truly Christ’s disciples if they see us loving, not devouring one another.

John 13:34-35:

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Take the gospel message to the ends of the earth – the gospel message begins with the understanding that there is only one Messiah, one Lord, one Savior of all, and that is Jesus Christ. He is the only way to God the Father, to heaven and to life everlasting with God.

John 14:6:

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Walk in obedience to God’s commands – simply put, if we truly love God we will obey him, his commands and his teaching, and God will make his home within us. If we do not obey him, his commands and his teaching, then we don’t truly love him.

John 14:15, 21, 23-24:

(Jesus speaking) “If you love me, you will obey what I command…” “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” …“If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”

Present our bodies as living sacrifices unto God, holy and acceptable (Rom. 12:1-2) – this is our reasonable service of worship to God. We are not to be conformed to the pattern of the world (greed, lust, adultery, stealing, lying, etc.), but we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. The only way this can work is if we stop taking into our minds all the philosophies and sins of the world via the media, books, music, etc. and instead we abide in the vine and we take into our minds what is good, true, right, pure, admirable, etc.

John 15:5-8:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

John 15:16:

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.”

Walk in His footsteps testifying of a Holy God and following His example – Jesus set the example for us for what we are to do for one another, and that is that we are to serve one another in love and humility. Yet, the washing of the feet represents so much more than just being a humble servant. Feet represent our walk and they represent our witness, so in washing the disciples’ feet Jesus was preparing them for what was ahead; for them to be his witnesses throughout the world. Their spiritual walk and their witness needed to be cleansed and made holy, set apart for the Lord, so that they had the right motivation and so that they were walking in the Spirit and not in the flesh. We, too, are to help prepare one another to be holy and set-apart-from-the-world-for-God witnesses, who walk the talk.

John 13:12-17:

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Tell the people to humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways – Jesus’ first message was “repent.” John the Baptist’s first message was “repent.” Peter’s first message was “repent.” Yet, so many churches today are leaving repentance out of the gospel message. I had a man tell me one day that he did not have to repent. He just had to believe. I guess no one told him that even the demons believe and they shudder and that many will come to the Lord on that Day and will say, “Lord, Lord,” and he will say, “Depart from me. I never knew you.” Believing is more than just an intellectual acknowledgment of who Jesus is and what he did for us on the cross or even of our need for a Savior. True belief = repentance (turning from sin), turning to God, and obeying God.

Acts 3:17-23:

“Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer. Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. For Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from among his people.’”

Live and die in the service of the King – many throughout the world have had to suffer for their faith in Jesus Christ and have been called upon to suffer great persecution and to die for their faith. We, in America, know little of physical beatings, imprisonments or deaths for the sake of the gospel, though many of us have faced much rejection, persecution, etc. Yet, I believe America will have her turn and that through this great time of persecution that many will be saved and that the sleeping church in America will be awakened and revived. Jesus warned us ahead of time so that, when the time comes, we will remember that he told us this would take place so that we don’t lose heart but we know that God is allowing it in our lives to melt us, mold us, make us and fill us and to make his bride holy for his return.

John 15:18-25:

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’”

John 16:1-4:

“All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. I have told you this, so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you…”