The Mandate of the Witness

The Mandate of the Witness


Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.


Isaiah 43 v 10


Witnesses are normally people who happened to be there when an event like a crime took place. They are accidental witnesses. They never planned or intended to be there. If you ask them they would rather not have been there to witness the ghastly crime. They look upon it as an unwanted burden or responsibility cast upon them by chance and the law. They know it is their duty to speak as to what they saw and heard so that the truth is established or proved in a court of law. It could make the difference between the innocence or guilt, miscarriage and justice. They know they would be grilled about every aspect of what they said they saw and heard.


But the Lord designates all believers as witnesses. He calls us servants as we are His witnesses in this world. It is not a burden or responsibility but a privilege given us. We are chosen out of the rest of humanity to be His witnesses, of what He spoke and did and about what we experienced before and after we believed in Him and His word. The scripture says that our spirits witness to us and the Holy Spirit witnesses to our spirits. When we witness to others, we are helping to birth their souls to be re-born. Once they like us had no clue as to the light, as to who is God but now like us they would be transported to be part of the light, to have God as not just part but the focus of our lives. Elsewhere in scripture, the witness is also described as leader and commander. In short, leadership involves being a witness of God, a servant of God, the elect of God and the commander anointed by God.

In order to be good and faithful witnesses of God, we need to know Him more fully. We need to know His Word that describes Him in great detail. We need to believe His promises and experience His grace as He fulfills His promises in our lives. We need to understand the dimensions of His love, the length, the breadth, the height and depth of His love for us in Christ. We need to understand that the one who defined Himself as “ I AM WHO I AM” is God, the self-existent, eternal, unique, merciful, loving and gracious Creator of life. He has no beginning or end. He knows the end from the beginning. He is not formed or created but He formed and created all things in the universe with a form or design and a purpose. When we study the formations of God, we get information. When we study information, we get insight. He left a desire in all human beings to know, believe and to relate to Him. In the name of atheism, modernity, rationalism, secularism, agnosticism, we can cut out God from our lives. But in the absence of a reference to God, science, art, music, literature, history and life itself is like a pilotless, rudderless boat on the waves of time and space. There is an ache in the heart, a vacuum, a gap, the missing piece in the jig-saw puzzle that the witness can help to fill in.



Prateep V Philip