Talk the Talk and Walk the Walk

 

In Revelation 12:11 it says that they overcame Satan by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony and by not loving their lives but being willing to give up their lives.

 

Recently I was asked how was the best way to share Jesus with others. The person was expressing a concern because they didn’t know scripture as well as they should. I told them that the best way I have found is to share what Jesus is doing now in our lives and show Jesus to them.

 

Our verbal testimony needs to share with others what God is doing in our lives right now. Many times, we share about our salvation experience and that is in the past, for some of us decades in the past. People want and need to hear about Jesus in our lives in the present, not the past.

 

In Galatians 5:25 Paul tells us that if we live by the Spirit we will keep in step with the Spirit. Letting the Spirit give us life means we allow the Spirit to work in us and through us daily. Jesus has to be a present reality in our lives, not just a past event.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is having a vital spiritual life being empowered by the Holy Spirit so that Jesus is a present and powerful reality in our lives every day.

 

In addition to a verbal testimony, we have to have a life testimony. Our lives have to back up our words.

 

Acts 2 describes the early church. Acts 2:42-47 says, “And they devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

 

The early church grew because they backed up what they were proclaiming with what they did.

 

They proclaimed that God loved people, and they shared with others by giving up their material possessions and providing for others.

 

They proclaimed that there was one God, and they showed that by their devotion to Him and their unity with each other.

 

They proclaimed that Jesus gives His followers joy, and they received everything they got with glad and generous hearts.

 

What they proclaimed, they lived.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is backing up our words with how we live.

 

The word hypocrisy means two-faced. It comes from the Greek theater. Actors were only men, so when they portrayed a female, they wore a mask and thus they were two-faced.

 

Hypocrisy means that I say one thing but do another. I am two-faced. I am a hypocrite when I proclaim a truth about Jesus but don’t live that truth out. We are to proclaim Jesus and live Jesus through the empowering of the Holy Spirit.

 

Proclaiming and Living Jesus By Raising the Roof

and Removing the Walls,

Joe