Supernatural Witnessing
Bob Yandian
The infilling of the Holy Spirit has many benefits, blessings, and uses attached to it. Speaking with tongues connects us to the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit and boosts our sensitivity to hear the voice of God for scriptural revelation, guidance, receive spiritual rest and refreshment, and operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are only a few of the benefits we receive from being filled with the Holy Spirit.
But why was this gift of the Holy Spirit given in the first place? It is a supernatural assist to our being a witness for Jesus to see people saved. The promise Jesus gave the disciples before He left was: “You shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judaea and Samaria and into the uttermost parts of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
Why Does Witnessing Seem To Be Difficult?
We have books on witnessing, programs to attend to win our city, and classes on debating a sinner to convince him to accept Jesus. I took a course as a teenager through “Youth For Christ,” learning as many answers as I could to the possible questions a sinner might ask. It was simply, “if they say this, you say this.” I began to use it and almost always found myself confronted with questions not found on my list. I quickly realized there were more questions they could ask than anyone could possibly calculate ahead of time. Witnessing cannot be a program and it certainly cannot be a debate. It is possible to win the debate and lose the soul. The person might even tell you how smart you are and still not accept the Lord. It is human programs like this that often leave the Christian discouraged and afraid to witness. Witnessing is not difficult; we make it difficult.
Witnessing Defined
Let’s first define what witnessing is before we look at examples from the Bible to see how Jesus and the disciples witnessed.
A witness in a trial simply tells what he saw or knows to be true. It is the same thing as being a witness for the Lord Jesus. Our own testimony can be a great asset in convincing someone else to accept the Lord. Paul used his own story more than once of his encounter with the Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus. After Andrew received Jesus, he told his brother Peter, “we have found the Messiah,” then brought him to Jesus. What Andrew witnessed became his witness. And what Andrew was convinced of convinced Peter. Andrew’s changed life became a tool to help change his brother. Being convinced of what you are saying can be detected by others.
In both cases, Paul and Andrew, each had a passion which was contagious. An appreciation and love for Jesus and what He has done in your life makes witnessing much easier. It is no longer what you have memorized, or the course you have set to win a person to the Lord that wins the soul. You truly have the answer the person is looking for. As one man said, “witnessing is one hungry man telling another hungry man where he found food.” One had the same problem the other one has. What satisfied the one will satisfy the other.
But the greatest assist is found in the infilling of the Holy Spirit. God has given you a supernatural power to help turn a sinful life into a righteous one.
Power Assisted
My father had a 1948 Buick when I was a child. He loved the heaviness of the car and the power of the straight eight engine under the hood. My mother hated the car because it did not have power steering. She almost had to stand up to turn a corner, especially from a stop. Her anger compelled him to later buy a car with power steering. My mother rejoiced and showed me how she could now turn a corner with one finger. The factory installed a pump under the hood that made steering a lot easier. The pump did not turn the car, the driver still did. But the pump added power to make steering a lot less difficult.
Since no two people are the same, each person has a way they will respond to the gospel. Also, no two people are in the same life situation and how are we to know what they are facing? But the Holy Spirit in us knows of their situation and what to give us to say. As He did with Jesus and the disciples, He wants to do with us.
Like power steering, so it is with the Holy Spirit. His first job in our life is to make witnessing easier. He will not do the witnessing for us but assist us with supernatural revelation to make the gospel message clearer and simpler. Let’s look at scriptural examples of supernatural Holy Spirit witnessing.
How Did Jesus Witness?
First, Jesus did not win two people the same way. Even to large groups of people, some He won through preaching, some through His open disputes with religious leaders, and some through His healings, signs, and wonders. If Jesus had a formula for witnessing, He would have won each person and group the same. Yet, through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus was led to people and guided by the Holy Spirit in how to witness to each. Where He went and what He spoke came from His knowledge of the Word of God or supernaturally - at the moment - from the Holy Spirit.
Of course, many were won through Jesus’ preaching. So many of the crowds were used to hearing the legalistic preaching of the Pharisees, Jesus’ ministry of God’s grace and love won huge crowds over.
“As He spoke these words, many believed in Him” (John 8:30).
Some were won over to Him through the gifts of the Holy Spirit, including a word of wisdom. The woman at the well is one of those. After hearing Jesus tell her of the number of men she had been married to and knowing that the one she was living with was not her husband, discovered He was the Messiah. She then ran into town to tell all the men, “come see a man who told me everything I ever did.” As a result, many came from the city to Jesus and were saved.
“Many of the Samaritans of the city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all things I had done” (John 4:39).
Through His healing ministry, signs, and wonders, Jesus also saw multitudes put their trust in Him. They saw He was the Messiah of Israel.
“Many of the Jews who had come to Mary and saw the things Jesus did (raising of Lazarus) believed in Him” (John 11:45).
“Many people believed in Him, and said, “When the Christ (Messiah) comes, will He do more signs that these which this man does?” (John 7:31).
How Did the Disciples Win the Lost?
The disciples had been anointed with the same Holy Spirit Jesus was at His baptism by John. They also allowed the Holy Spirit to guide most of their witnessing. Of course, there were times they simply told the people of a city their own stories and many accepted Jesus. But in most cases, the supernatural was such a way of life, it led them to depend on the Holy Spirit and His power to see sinners come to salvation.
Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost was accompanied with the sign of speaking with tongues. Peter by the power of God preached a sermon he had never heard and religious Jews from every nation under heaven heard the works of God in their own language by the power of the Holy Spirit. “Those who gladly received his word were baptized and that day about three thousand souls were added to them” (Acts 2:41).
Peter and John were headed toward the temple to attend church when they came across the lame man sitting outside the Gate Beautiful as he had done since birth. His miracle of healing led him to salvation and many in the crowd who witnessed the healing came to Jesus that day.
“So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking, leaping and praising God” (Acts 3:8).
This man not only was healed, but in one of his leaps, he accepted Jesus because he praised God for the healing.
Through the raising up of a dead young woman, Dorcas, Peter saw many who were skeptical give their lives to Jesus.
“It became known throughout all Joppa (the raising of Dorcas) and many believed on the Lord” (Acts 9:42).
What is the Full Gospel?
The term “full gospel” was given by Paul. When giving the Romans the history of his ministry, he was quick to give the Holy Spirit all the credit for making him who he was and had become. Most every church Paul began saw divine healings and miracles before, or when, they heard the preaching of the gospel. This included the saints at Rome.
“For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, in word and deed, to make the Gentiles (heathen) obedient. With mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ” (Romans 15:18,19).
What is this verse telling us? Without signs and wonders, we are not fully preaching the gospel. Words are only half the message we present of a loving and powerful Jesus who can solve our spiritual as well as physical problems. Are you depending on the power of the Holy Spirit to give you words of knowledge to help win the lost as Jesus did with the woman at the well? Are you open to the Spirit’s leading to lay hands on the sick and cast out demons to see people set free physically before they receive Him spiritually as their savior? Are you fully preaching the gospel?
