Being a Witness to a World Seeking Truth

What does it mean to be a witness to the transformative power of Jesus? It's quite simple really, let your life speak.

Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash

Hey friends!

I’m back! Thanks for being patient with me as I took a little break over Christmas and into January to rest and prepare my heart for the year ahead. I was lucky enough to spend the holidays with my family in the states which was a real joy and blessing.

Whenever I begin a new year, I find myself curiously seeking an inside scoop into what God will do within me over the next 12 months. Yet, no matter how much prayer and contemplation I do, he continually finds a way to surprise me. I think I always feel a bit of anticipation as I lean into a new year, but this year I feel it quite intensely.

I’m not sure why, but this year I feel as if I’m on the edges of breakthrough in areas I’ve longed to see God move. New opportunities to walk in my calling have begun to sprout up in unexpected places, and I’m finally beginning to build community in ways I’ve longed for, feeling deeply rooted in London.

I can feel things shifting all around me. The air is different. The wind feels as if it carries possibilities I have yet to even have vision for. All this happening in the midst of a world which often still looks quite grim. And yet, God is up to something.

There’s so much I want to unpack together this year, but first we begin 2025 by continuing our journey through the practices of Jesus. Although I was saving this one for the end of the series, I felt prompted to jump ahead. You see, each year I ask God for a single word he’s inviting me to live into for the year. It’s a great practice and if you’re curious to try it on your own, comment at the bottom and I’ll send you the prayer exercise I use.

My word for this year is ‘witness,’ so it only makes sense to shape my first post around this word which just so happens to also be a practice of Jesus.

So, let’s dig in together…

First a quick story — God’s invitation for you to bear witness to the transformative power of Jesus can come when you least expect it.

A few months ago, I was wedged in the corner of a packed kitchen chatting with a friend about psychedelic drugs. I know I know, but stay with me here… He was talking about a new drug going around the party scene which seemingly launches you into a different dimension, inviting you into this spiritual realm of ghoulish-looking creatures and chaotic otherness. It all sounded quite menacing and dark, if I’m honest.

As he spoke about the wildness of this drug-induced mirage, he stopped himself midway and paused. Looking at me intently he said, “I suppose this all sounds very weird to you now as I know you’ve become a Christian and all that.”

I knew the way I responded here was important.

You see my story of faith blossomed out of a pretty chaotic past. There was a long season in my young adult years where a conversation about psychedelic drugs would have been paired with a cocktail of stimulants to keep the conversation going well into the night. There was a version of me which would have listened to this story and wanted to sign up as the next guinea pig.

You see, I’ve had similar conversations before, hundreds of times, but not yet as a follower of Jesus. I felt the weightiness of witnessing in this moment. I asked the Holy Spirit to give me the right words to engage in this conversation the way Jesus would — to create a space which suspends judgement, builds bridges, and bears witness to Truth. This all happened in a millisecond of time between his comment and my response, and yet it felt like the pause stretched out for ages.

Saying a quick prayer under my breath that my words would be divinely woven together, I said, “No, to be honest, it doesn’t sound strange to me at all,” I casually shrugged. “I’m actually quite familiar with the reality of the spirit realm. I’ve had some pretty incredible experiences in prayer meditation with God where I felt completely thrust into a different dimension. I’m also super familiar with the ethereal otherness of good and evil, and I totally believe that the walls are much thinner than we think they are.”

He sort of looked at me with this odd recognition. I wasn’t judging him. I also clearly wasn’t uncomfortable talking about any of this. Perhaps a bit shocked, but more curious, he began asking me questions about my own story to faith. I shared my testimony -- how I grew up in a Christian home but walked away from my faith in my teens and never intended to look back. How I experienced a deep longing in my twenties for identity and purpose, searching for meaning in all the places the world told me I would find it yet continually coming up empty. I talked about experimenting with prayer in my mid-twenties, witnessing small miracles, and having an encounter with God’s love and powerful presence. I talked about signing up for an Alpha course and digging into the historical Jesus, realizing there was also an enormous amount of evidence for this faith I thought was fable. I talked about how I am the happiest now than I have ever been, grounded in my identity, living life with purpose and hope. I talked about how my faith in Jesus changed everything.

I was a witness.

In a conversation about psychedelic drugs and ghoulish visions, as the only Christian at a party full of people, I bore witness to the light in which my life is founded on. I was a witness to the indescribable love of God who chased me down and yet patiently waited for me to open the door of my heart. I bore witness to the life of Jesus told through the gospels. I told my story — my testimony–my life was a witness. And I didn’t do it perfectly. In fact, I sort of fumbled my way through, but I was a witness to the truth of the transformative power of Jesus.

We talked a bit about faith, religion, and God. It wasn’t weird or uncomfortable. In fact, it felt really natural and normal. And nothing groundbreaking happened. God didn’t burst through the ceiling, quaking the earth beneath us. I didn’t lead him to Christ. He had no further questions. The conversation fizzled out and we each went our separate ways chatting with others as if nothing changed. The party went on. We had a few drinks. We shared plenty of laughs. And the evening carried itself away as it always does.

And yet, I felt the weightiness of our conversation for the rest of the week.

I felt God’s pride over my witnessing well up inside me. I felt a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit over Jesus’s call for me to be a witness. I felt a new confidence bubbling to the surface of my life.

I felt it all.

My story mattered. My witnessing mattered. I didn’t need to know how to evangelize or say the right words at the right time. I just had to share my story when an opportunity came up and let God do the rest. You see, God has always had a plan to use my story for his glory. He has a plan to use yours as well.

As I press in with the Lord over the word ‘witness,’ eager to see how he will continue to reveal more to me throughout the year, I’ve already uncovered a few simple truths.

When it comes to sharing our faith, witness is a noun, not a verb.

In Acts 1:8, Jesus says, “…you will be my witnesses”. He doesn’t say, you will do some witnessing for me. Or, you can try and witness to people. He says you will be a witness.

We are not called to do witnessing; we are called to be witnesses. This has been an important distinction for me because when I shift my understanding here, my life is a witness. I am a witness. There is something about ‘being’ instead of ‘doing’ that takes the pressure off trying to say the right thing at the right time to help others encounter Jesus. Instead, people encounter Jesus through the way I live my life, the way I love people, and the hope I have.

There is a famous Quaker saying which I love: “Let your life speak.” There is so much in this phrase that has been useful for me, but one is that my life is a witness. I have to let my life speak. The good work God has done in me -- the prayers he’s answered or the peace he’s given me in the waiting. The hope he provides which doesn’t make sense. The peace I feel in uncertainty which is not in my own strength. The shape of my life since saying yes to Jesus. You see, all I have to do is be myself. All I have to do is have the courage to share my story.

God does the rest.

We don’t have to get it just right. We just have to be who God created us to be and live the best we can like Jesus, loving people well, living with integrity, and being honest about our journey.

If you have followed Jesus for any length of time, you know just how transformative life with him is. It changes everything.

I witness through my words and actions. I witness by letting my life speak.

The same goes for you. Your life is a witness too.

We are only able to be good witnesses through the power of the Holy Spirit.

In the full verse of Acts 1:8, Jesus says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you and you will be my witnesses…to the ends of the earth.”

It is the Spirit which lives within us that gives us the power to be the witnesses we are called to be -- full of love, non-judgmental, and unscripted. Our witness flows out of us when we are aligned with God and seeking to live like Jesus.

There is something quite freeing about this. I don’t have to ‘work’ at being a good witness. I just have to seek God at the center of my life and ask the Holy Spirit to flow in and through me to love others well.

Being a witness is part of our identity as Christ-followers.

If you are a follower of Jesus, being a witness to the gospel is part of who you are. A witness retells the truth of their experience, and there is so much to tell. There is a reason that Jesus’s invitation to be a witness is the last thing he says to his disciples before ascending to Heaven. This calling is deeply rooted in our identity as followers of Jesus.

We are witnesses simply because our lives have been transformed. Living out this part of our identity, empowered by the Holy Spirit, is essential to being good witnesses.

My witness is how well I love my husband, my friends, my family, and my enemies.

My witness is the patience I practice in my day-to-day, especially on the days when I feel most impatient.

My witness is the slowing down of my life to be present with others instead of being rushed, distracted and tech obsessed.

My witness is my service and care for the poor and marginalized in society.

My witness is living like Jesus, even when (especially when) it is counter-cultural.

My witness is my hope in times of trouble, my peace in times of uncertainty, and my love in times of hardship.

My witness is my testimony.

It is part of who I am. I have to let my life speak.

I can memorize a few lines to evangelize and try to convince people to accept Jesus, or I can live like Jesus as best I can, share my story of how the gospel transformed my life, and let my life speak for itself. In my experience, the latter is more effective.

As a Christian, my job isn’t to convert people but it is my job to share the good news of Jesus, and the best way I’ve found to do this is by being a good witness. John Mark Comer writes that “we must become a people of hospitality in a culture of hostility. We must embody and extend the love, welcome, warmth, and generosity of the inner life of God. We must open our homes, our tables, our lives to ‘the last, the least, and the lost’.”¹

Memory can be a witness, offering hope to cling to when days seem to be a bit darker and stretch a bit longer.

I’ve often had seasons where I’m struggling to find my footing. I want to believe in the promises of God in the land of the living, but there seems to be darkness around every corner. Sometimes in our heavier seasons, it is our memory of God’s goodness which becomes a witness. We tell stories of what he’s done in our lives, we cling to the hope that he will do it again, and we wait clinging to the promise with whatever bit of grip we have left in the in between.

Sarah Yardley, Head of Evangelism at Emmaus Road, writes, “Build stones of witness. Let them anchor your heart to truth on the days when you are tired, on the days you might forget.”

In Joshua chapter 4, the Israelites are crossing the Jordan River under Joshua’s leadership heading into the Promised Land. The Israelites were instructed to stack twelve stones in the river as they crossed which serve as a testimony of God’s faithfulness to future generations.

What are your stones of witness?

What marks your life with God — memories of his goodness in the land of the living, memories of the way in which he moved miraculously behind the scenes, memories of his unrelenting love for you. There are seasons where we rely on memory to get us through a misty and dark wilderness, where it feels we are walking blindly forward leaning on the truth that he’s always walking beside you, even when we don’t see him clearly. There are seasons where, as Sarah says, our “stones of witness” carry us through.

You see, it’s never been about the how or when, it’s always been about the who and why.

Who is your hope in?

Why do you have this hope?

As it says in 1 Peter 3:15: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect."

Have you thought about your story?

Are you living as a witness?

Have you looked back on your life to see how it has been shaped and formed by the inner life of God?

We don’t have to get it just right. All we have to do is pay attention to God’s invitation in the everyday. Ask for the Spirit’s power to be a good witness to a world which is desperate for truth. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll find a new boldness welling up inside of you.

A Prayer for Those Eager to be a Good Witness

May you feel a fresh boldness in your faith arise. May you be alert to God’s invitation for you to bear witness to the hope you have. May you feel the presence of the Holy Spirit flow in and through you as you share your story. May you let your life speak to the transformative power of Christ. Amen.

The Poetry Nook

When I wrote this poem, I don’t think I quite realised how much it related to being a witness in a broken world. Yet, the more I read it, the more I feel it.

A Lily Among Thorns

They say that lilies grow wherever they are planted.
Even among thorns, a lily will continue to thrive.
Each bulb growing more bulbs and then more bulbs, 
until the thorns themselves become flowers. 

Each flower tells a story;
Each bulb an emblem of hope — 
telling the tale of its resilience, 
how it bloomed in the most unlikely of places. 

What wisdom they carry — 
stretch your roots deep and bloom on. 
Because soon, 
soon the thorns will lose their foothold amidst a garden of a thousand lillies.

Soon, you will see that you’ve grown a garden in the darkest of places.
And there, there in the thick of it all,
tangled in the flowers and the thorns and the bristles and brush,
we see the hands of Love.

There’s a Book on That

There are plenty of amazing books about being a good witness to the transformative power of Jesus, but this one is particularly helpful as were journey through this series on the practices of Jesus. John Mark Comer’s Practicing the Way has a huge momentum right now in the Church, as it should. This book is not only a practical guide to living a life like Jesus, it will actually fuel a deep desire within you to do so.

As always, here’s a taster:

“Christlikeness in our inner being is not the result of the right application of spiritual disciplines, finding a “good church,” or a mastering of the right technique of living — it is always a gift of sheer grace. You will never work harder for anything in your life than Christlike character, and nothing else will ever feel like such an unearned gift. This is the paradox you simply have to experience for yourself” (111).

Just in case you missed these recent posts:

• Revisiting the Sacred Practice of Fasting: The ancient practice of fasting as a spiritual discipline has deep roots in Christianity, stretching back thousands of years. How can revisiting this sacred practice deepen your faith?

• Into the Quiet: Exploring the spiritual practices of solitude and silence in a noisy world.

• Living Generously: Generosity is not just a nice idea, it is a practice of Jesus and a way of living which can completely transform us. How can we live generously in regards to our time, talent, and treasure?

• Recovering the Ancient Practice of Sabbath in a Busy World: What is Sabbath and why does it matter? I've had my own battle with this spiritual discipline but the more I study Sabbath, the more I'm convinced it is crucial for a joyful life.

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Thanks again for reading this week’s newsletter. Cheers to diving into the deep together!

With love,

Jamie

1. Comer, John Mark. Practicing the Way. WaterBrook, 2024.