If you can’t be an effective witness in your own home amongst your own people, then don’t expect God to ‘send you out’ to be a witness for Him to the world. And yes, you might want to read that one more time...or two.

You are probably familiar with the story found in Mark 5 where Jesus came to the country of the Gadarenes where He had a divine appointment with a man whose life had been destroyed by demonic influence. Day and night, this tormented soul was ‘always in the mountains and in the tombs crying out and cutting himself with stones’. (1-5). Then he had a life-changing encounter with Jesus.

And when I say he ‘had an encounter’ with Jesus, I don’t mean he ‘walked an aisle’ or ‘prayed a prayer and accepted Christ’, and then even ‘joined a church’. This man ran...to Jesus with everything he had and ‘worshipped’ Him. (6). I’m not going to take the liberty to ‘add words’ here, but my hunch... is this man’s coming to Jesus involved coming with ‘all’ his heart; and before you know it, this individual who ran naked and tormented is ‘sitting up and clothed and in his right mind’. (15)

Then comes, what I find to be, the more curious part of this story. This man who has been delivered and set free from, yes,...demonic influences, expresses a desire to “be with Jesus”, as in follow Him like those who were with Jesus at the time. And oddly enough, we are told “Jesus did not permit him but said to him: ‘Go home...” (19)

Go home...to where your family is, your friends, your people ...”and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you and how He has had compassion on you.” Jesus is in fact telling this man, and the rest of us for that matter, that after we too have had a life changing encounter with God, that we need to go to those who know us best...and let them see what God has done in our hearts. And this plays in perfectly with the narrative we read in Acts 1 where Jesus gathered with His followers prior to His departure; and do you remember what He told them?

“Stay here, wait on Me and you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now...and you shall receive power...and you shall be witnesses to Me in...(notice the order of locations here He lays out...) Jerusalem...then Judea...then Samaria and then...to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:5-8)

I have shared here before how that word ‘witness’ comes from the same Greek word that ‘martyr’ is derived from, and a martyr is one who ‘dies for their faith’. And what is the first thing the Holy Spirit is doing to lead us to do after we come to Jesus? Romans 8:13, Col. 3:5 and Gal. 5:24 should bring clarity. Think about it for a moment...how many opportunities do we have in our own ‘homes’, our personal ‘Jerusalems’ to ‘die’ to this old nature on a daily basis? You know, things like impatience and irritation and anger and selfishness and bickering and self-pity etc....? It’s the perfect place to begin demonstrating our desire to truly obey Jesus as we surrender to His Lordship. Because as I asked at the start...if we can’t be an effective witness in our own homes....

Join me tomorrow?

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