What is it Jesus says will happen when the Holy Spirit comes upon his disciples?
He says that they will be his witnesses to the end of the earth.
So many times we talk about all the ways the Holy Spirit makes us holy and gives us the fruit of the Spirit, but we have a great tendency to forget the first thing Jesus tells his disciples will happen when they receive the Spirit. Jesus says the first thing they will do when they receive the Spirit is witness.
So yes, the Holy Spirit is given to us to make us holy—that's why he is called the Holy Spirit. However, the first thing he does in the early church is empower them to witness.
Jesus tells his disciples to wait until they have received power from on high and then they will be empowered and emboldened to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. So the moment the Spirit falls on the believers he gives them power to witness to the people gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost.
It is very interesting to note that it is much more common to see the early church and the apostles praying for and exhorting others to pray, for boldness for themselves, than the conversion of unbelievers.
In Acts 4 after the apostles have been put in prison, beaten, and released they go to the Lord and pray concluding their prayer in this way:
"And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus."
They don't pray here for the lost to be saved, they pray that they might do their part and speak the word with boldness, so that God would stretch out his hand and do wonders and save people.
Paul tells the Ephesian church to pray "that words may be given me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak."
This does not mean Paul does not care about the lost. He says in Romans 9, "I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish myself accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers." Of course Paul cares about the lost and of course he prays for them, especially if he would go to hell for them if he could.
However, Paul has a focus in his prayers and his asking for prayers from the churches, which is primarily boldness in his speaking the gospel. Did he always do that? No, he tells the Corinthian church that he came to them in much weakness, fear and trembling. That's why he asks the churches to pray for him.
I wonder if we are often times too wimpy in our prayers for ourselves. Do we content ourselves with a passing request for our own boldness? Do we understand the importance of our own speaking the Word with boldness?
Man's responsibility and God's sovereignty meet in salvation as men speak the Word with boldness and God stretches out his hand to perform wonders like making dead men come to life. It is our responsibility to speak the gospel with boldness because in our telling is the power of God unto salvation.
How often are our prayers for unbelievers a cover-up for not telling them the gospel ourselves? I'm not speaking as one who is not guilty of doing this very thing, but I speak from my own experience.
If we are merely praying for the lost to be saved and neglecting to speak boldly and praying to speak boldly we are missing a major aspect of Holy Spirit's work. Holy Spirit has been given to us to enable us to speak boldly about the gospel. So, we must seek him desperately and not rest until he gives us boldness to speak the gospel as we ought to speak.
We have his promise that his Word will not return void any more than the snow will float back up into the sky after it has fallen. We must hear his Words to Joshua ringing in our ears as we ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit, "Have I not commanded you? [Think: the great commission.] Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."
Do not let the idea of people stereo-typing you get in the way of you sharing the gospel. You cannot fit in. You are not of this world. But you are in the world and the telling of the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. For, "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?"
So, my plea to you, my brothers and sisters, is that you unleash the power of God upon the world by proclaiming boldly that Jesus died to save sinners!
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