Receive to BE!!!

While working on a series of messages from the book of Acts I was struck by the words of Jesus to the 11 Apostles just moments before His ascension on the Mount of Olives. The Lord says in verse eight, "...you will RECEIVE power...and you shall BE My witnesses..." It dawned on me that what Jesus was saying should not be all that surprising. Consider anyone who is accomplished in any field, like, for example, a chef. To BE a chef, one must first RECEIVE proper training, i.e., power. This training comes through various means. The chef to BE may have grown up around parents trained as cooks. Perhaps they received an education from an excellent culinary school. Or they may have simply trained themselves through the rigorous and tedious process of trial and error. Either way, this chef, received power from someone or something outside of himself that made possible his new identity.

This would be true on any level. It would even be true for someone who ends up BEING a fool. The fool has received the power of his appointment through the agency of someone or something that is, at the core, foolish. Consider someone who is idle, for example. The life of inactivity and non-productiveness was empowered by some set of core beliefs or values learned somewhere. Often times this "training" comes from the environment from which one is raised, but not always. It can also be received from certain companions that one has chosen to spend a good deal of time with. Either way, what it is that a person becomes, whether productive or unproductive is the result of what the person has received before hand. In other words, a person is, what a person receives.

Now, the Lord emphatically stated that His disciples "would be" (would become) His witnesses only after they had received power from the Holy Spirit. Approximately 10 days after saying this, on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples of Christ and they engaged in the activity of witnessing to the masses about Christ. They became...after they had received. What is so important to note is that the coming of the Spirit was not contingent upon the anxiety, activity, planning or cleverness of the disciples. What these humble men and women were doing before being filled with the Spirit, and certainly after, was praying together. Luke records in Acts 1:14, "These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women..." (NASB). That is it! They were getting to know one another on a deeper level and they were getting to know their God through the practice of prayer.

What an image for those of us today, who would like to be thought of as disciples of Christ and as witnesses for Christ. The lives of these first century Christians were stripped down to the bare essentials, and the essentials were simply to love God and to love one another. Whatever else they might need to fill their time with was never the primary concern. They had received into their very beings the life of God; as a result they had become the very witnesses of His gospel. They had received what God offered, namely, Himself. Consequently, they had become His sons and daughters who would carry his message of forgiveness and salvation to the entire world.

What is getting in our way of receiving from God? Do our schedules make room for private prayer, not to mention corporate prayer? How do we understand our daily responsibilities? Are we working to make a kingdom for ourselves, our families, or our legacy? Or are we concerned only with bringing glory to God and to His Son Jesus Christ? Each of our lives and the activities that we are engaged in tell a story; it is either the story of sinful self, which receives power and inspiration from this fallen world to bear witness to our own glory, or it is the story of redeemed self, which receives power and inspiration from the Holy Spirit to bear witness to Jesus Christ.

Let us receive from God, that we would become His witnesses to the world!