Talking To People About God: Part 2 — A ‘Time With God’ Audio Devotion

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Transcript

Good morning. Every weekday morning at this time, we spend some time with God. We open the Bible, God’s Word to us, and we listen to Him because the Bible isn’t just like an encyclopaedia about God, not just factual information. God actually speaks to us personally and into our lives through what’s in the Bible, and day after day we get such practical input into our lives from God as we open our hearts and listen to what He might be saying to us today.

So let’s do that now. All this week we’re talking about talking with people in our lives about God. Having God conversations with people.

Today, I just want to challenge you with this: Live as a witness about Jesus in your everyday encounters with people in your life.

When Jesus finished his earthly ministry and He had risen from the dead, He was about to depart this world to be with the Father.

And he gathered his closest followers, and he said to them, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses. Well, this is his key word for what their main responsibility was in this world, and that’s been passed down to us who know God as well. You will be my witnesses, Jesus said.

You come to the next chapter, Acts chapter 2. And Peter is speaking to a big crowd of people, and he talks about Jesus and says, this:

Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. That is, we’re not just telling you some hypothesis, we were there, we experienced it, and we want to tell you about it.

Well, just like that you have experienced Jesus. If you are a follower of Jesus, He has impacted your life in deep ways. Be a witness about that.

The very next chapter in Acts chapter 3 verse 15, Peter is speaking again to a group of people – A group of people who were actually there and shouted out – Crucify Jesus to the Roman governor. And he says to them:

You killed the author of life, whom God then raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. You see how they’re fulfilling their role that Jesus gave them to be witnesses.

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You come a couple of chapters later to Acts chapter 5. And again, the apostles are speaking about Jesus and they say the God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as leader and saviour to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins, and we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.

Well, if you are a follower of Jesus, God has given the Holy Spirit to you as well. And when you are a witness about Jesus to people in your life, the Holy Spirit is working through you to help those people encounter God for themselves. Don’t think you’ve got to accomplish this somehow by your own brilliance. No, just talk about what Jesus means to you and let God introduce Himself to people in your life.

You come to Acts chapter 10, and they say, and we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, not to all the people, but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with Him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and testify. He is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.

Later the apostle Paul, who had been persecuting Christians, would be converted immediately after his conversion. God sent Ananias, a Christian, to him and said, For you will be a witness for Jesus to every one of what you have seen and heard.

Well, that’s what God is saying to you as well. If you know Jesus, you will be a witness to one of what you have seen and heard, of what you have experienced.

I’m John North.

To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.

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