The Confident Witness (5)
But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4.20-24
Put off, put on
Working your Personal Mission Field requires discipline. As Rilke said in another context, “You must change your life.” But while he reached that conclusion by meditating on a statue of Apollo, we, meditating on Jesus, reach a larger and more all-transforming, albeit similar, conclusion:
You cannot be a Christian and stay the same as before.
Put off your old life, says Paul—all those sinful practices, vain pleasures, frivolous and unfruitful thoughts and ways. Be done with them. Redeem your time from all that waste!
Put on the new person that Christ in you strives to make of you, bringing true righteousness and holiness to light up every nook and cranny, place and person of your Personal Mission Field.
See Jesus seeing you as you contemplate your Personal Mission Field. You can be a confident witness for the Lord there! But to do so, you must change your life.
In particular, you must put in place and be daily exercised by four indispensable disciplines for realizing the presence, promise, and power of the Kingdom of God in your Personal Mission Field.
Four disciplines
Christians are called to “work out” (not “for”) our salvation in fear and trembling (Phil. 2.12). God has given us His Word and Spirit, and these are powerful, when properly engaged, to form us into the likeness of Jesus for the glory of God (2 Cor. 3.12-18). But we have to work at it. A changed life doesn’t just happen. And a “good enough for me” life, one that doesn’t regard change or work as part of their Christian agenda, needs to take another look at the plain teaching of Scripture (2 Cor. 13.5).
You must change your life, change in the direction of being an agent of God’s grace in your Personal Mission Field, spreading His grace around to others for praise and thanks to the Lord (2 Cor. 4.15). Taking up, or refining, four disciplines can get and keep you on task each day as a confident witness for the Lord.
First, we need good Preparation to work our Personal Mission Field. This entails some planning, of course, but the primary discipline by which we prepare for our daily work is prayer. We need prayer—for ourselves and those we are called to serve. Prayer to make us willing and able, by God’s Spirit, to have His pleasure as the guiding priority of our lives (Phil. 2.13). Prayer for the people we will be with each day, that God would work on their hearts to make them open to the Gospel. Prayer for boldness, compassion, alertness, and readiness to speak or serve. Prayer every day and throughout the day. Prayer for confidence in being and bearing witness to Jesus.
The second discipline interfaces with preparation because, since we intend a Demonstration of Christlikeness to others, we shall have to pray and prepare diligently for it. We want to show Jesus to the people around us—His character, gracious words, intentional manner of life, concern for the needs of others, readiness to teach (cf. Heb. 5.12). We need to demonstrate confidence in Scripture, that we believe the Bible and are not afraid to live according to its teaching. And we must prepare to demonstrate God’s love to people in all the myriad small ways that can communicate the hope we have in the Lord (1 Pet. 3.15).
Our witness for Christ begins in what we are—“you shall be My witnesses”—before it flows forth in what we say.
The third discipline is that of Conversation. To do the work God intends, the Gospel must be heard. To be heard willingly and well, the Gospel must come in words fitly chosen. And those words will come as part of a conversation—or as the culmination of many conversations—with the people to whom God sends us. The best way to learn how to have a conversation with those who do not know the Lord is to have frequent conversations with the Lord as well as with those who know Him. Good conversationalists, James suggests, do more listening than speaking (Jms. 1.19) and who have tamed their tongues from old ways so that they can speak in new ways as the image-bearers of Christ (Jms. 1.21, 2.12, 3.1-12).
Finally, a discipline of Transformation should inform and improve each of these other disciplines and more. We want to be better at preparing and prayer, at being and conversing, and in doing everything we do to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10.31). We can be transformed if we set our sights on specific goals and if we keep in step with the Spirit as He is at work within us. Having a soul friend to encourage and help us in specific ways of growth can also make transformation a reality in every facet of our lives.
Energy applied to ends
Work can be defined as energy applied to ends: the energy of combustion to get us to work; the energy of electricity to help us see or communicate; the energy locked up in food to keep us going; and so forth. Spiritual work—like the work we do as confident witnesses in our Personal Mission Field—requires spiritual energy, and spiritual energy emerges from a simple formula:
Word of God + Daily Attention and Prayer
The Holy Spirit of God = Spiritual Energy
Prayerful reading, studying, and meditating on God’s Word every day, in the power and according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, leads to the spiritual energy—desire, understanding, and conviction—for doing God’s work.
This is the only way to do the work God has called us to in our Personal Mission Field. And the good news is that it works to change our lives so that we might be confident witnesses unto the Lord.
For reflection or discussion
1. How do you react to the idea that you must change your life?2. In which of the four disciplines we discussed do you need to improve?3. How does being transformed into the likeness of Jesus help us in working our Personal Mission Field?
Next steps—Transformation: Write a list of things to do to improve in changing your life.
T. M. Moore
Give thanks
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
Knowing Jesus
Being confident witnesses begins in our relationship with Jesus, in knowing Him. Two books can help you grow in Jesus. To Know Him is a brief and lively exposition of Philippians 3.7-11 and explains what Paul means by this. You can order your copy by clicking here. Be Thou My Vision offers 28 daily meditations on Jesus, drawing on Scripture and writings from the period of the Celtic Revival. Order your copy by clicking here.
Thank you.
Many of you are faithful and generous in praying for and supporting Crosfigell and The Fellowship of Ailbe. Thank you. I encourage all our readers to seek the Lord about becoming a supporter of The Fellowship of Ailbe. It’s easy to give to The Fellowship of Ailbe, and all gifts are, of course, tax-deductible. You can click here to donate online through credit card or PayPal or Anedot, or send your gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, P. O. Box 8213, Essex, VT 05451.
Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
