The Gifts of the Holy Spirit for the work of the Kingdom, Pt. 1: Witness
Take Communion
Leader Note: Begin your time together by taking communion, whether as a full meal or some version of the bread and the cup before or after your meal. If you don’t already have a Communion liturgy, have someone read from the book of Acts 1v8 as you welcome the presence of the Holy Spirit.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my
witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Read This Overview Aloud Together
In prayer, Jesus often is inviting us to join him in the work he’s already doing and the love he’s already offering to those who we are witnessing too. Our job is to just look for signs of the everpresent God and to join in.
In Acts 1, Jesus gives us an identity as witnesses. It’s something that we are before it’s something that we do. Maybe more simply put, a witness is someone who sees or experiences something important for others to know about. And since we’re witnesses, not salespeople, we don’t need to feel any pressure to “close the deal” with the right technique, but simply to bear witness to our life with Jesus.
So, our practice for tonight is to talk through how this gift of witness from the Holy Spirit gives us the chance to embody Christ’s spoken, supernatural, and sacrificial love.
Do This Practice Tonight
While we’re in this series, The Gifts of the Holy Spirit for the work of the Kingdom, each of our Community Guides will focus on the practice of Prayer. Tonight, we will be diving into witness as a facet of Prayer. First, we need to unpack those 3 ways of love before we dive into what this practically looks like for each of us. A quick word on each:
Spoken love. We get to speak truth in love, and bear witness to what God is doing in our life. As witnesses, we are invited by the Spirit to speak love and life into any conversation we have, out of the overflow of what’s going on internally.
Supernatural love. Whether big or small, God is always supernaturally loving us. Oftentimes, this kind of love enters onto the scene of our lives as prophetic words. As we bear witness to the supernatural love of Jesus, we get to pray and respond to the Spirit…and then we get to humbly offer a word, a phrase, scripture, or picture to others, in love.
Sacrificial love. Sacrificial love is the gift of allowing ourselves to be inconvenienced on behalf of someone else, to show them how much God loves them. And the truth is, that not only does the practice of sacrificial love in our witness have the potential to mend our world, but it has the power to mend us.
For some of us, witness as a facet of Prayer is very familiar and well-practiced, and for others all this may be a brand new idea to consider. We want to create space for all of us to engage and start where we are. So with that, let’s take some time to hear from one another how these 3 ways of the Spirit’s love are showing up in our own lives as witnesses.
Where do you feel resonance or resistance to this gift of Witness?
What choice or change in perspective would you need to make in order to become more available to the Spirit as a witness?
Who in your life do you want to share the good news of Jesus with?
Let’s close this portion of our night by getting in groups of 2-3 to practice bearing witness about God’s love. Once we get into groups, begin by having someone ask: “How is your week going?” and respond by sharing about something good in your day and how that connects with God’s love for you. For example, “This morning I got to make pancakes with my son, and really felt God’s love in that” or “Today I got some tough news but felt God’s love through the way a coworker listened and cared for me”. Once everyone in the group has shared, end by asking Jesus to reveal to each of us opportunities to witness to others in this next week.
Read The Practice for the Week Ahead
This week our Community is going to individually practice witness as a facet of Prayer by praying “God, who am I being invited to witness to this week?” and then being open to respond when he shows us. This is going to look different for all of us, but the goal is to talk with and listen to God about ways you could speak in love, supernaturally witness truth, and sacrifice for the sake of others. Together as a Community, let’s commit to setting aside intentional time this week to pray, journal, or have conversations with one another, in order to take action and respond to God. Next week, we will take time to hear from one another about how God led us as witnesses to those around us.
End in Prayer
Leader Note: Close your time in prayer by asking God to come lead and surprise your Community in the coming week so that no one misses an opportunity to witness by the power of the Holy Spirit.