Every child knows about show and tell in school, but God wants us to demonstrate it in real life.  We have thought in the past that the witness of God was a good sermon, but that’s only half the story. Paul said what needs to be done is to tell the whole story “through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Ilyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ” (Romans 15:19).

Think about this, have you preached the Gospel until you see mighty signs and wonders?  We have settled for a word when God wants us to be a wonder! The Word of God says that we will receive power to be a witness (Acts 1:8). The witness of God is not a tongue or a good lifestyle. The witness of God is something only God’s power can produce…miracles!

Many have said that the day of the big show is over and now God does everything in the local church, but that’s not Jesus’ ministry. God likes to show off!  He showed the soldiers of Jerusalem that He could not be held in a grave.  He showed Peter’s jailer that He could not be held in a jail.  He showed the religious world of Israel that He could not be held in a temple.  He wants you and me to tell and show that Jesus is alive.  If you are going to be effective, there should be a demonstration of what you speak!

If we could get God’s perspective of people then we would win the world, but we see people through our own eyes. We like to keep records on people and hold the books.  We know who is a sinner and who is a saint.  God looks on the heart while we look on the outside, but we still think we know people better.  We look at a prostitute, an addict, or a hardened prison inmate and label them with a big sign that says, “Sinner.”

Have you ever asked how much that ‘sinner’ is worth?  How much God paid for him or her?  It was the price of His Son.  How much are you worth?  The same.

There is no difference in value between the criminal and the evangelist. The mafia boss is called of God as much as a pastor, and probably is a pastor but just doesn’t know it!

All are already paid for. The only difference between them and you is that they don’t know it and you do.  When we truly understand this, we will be motivated to tell them.

When you have an encounter with Jesus Christ and surrender your life to receive Him as your Savior and Lord, it is not just an emotional experience. It is not just a rational, intelligent moment of decision. It is not just a cleansing of your past and passport to your future.

The seed of God has been planted in you in the same miraculous way that the seed of God was planted in Mary to produce the Lord Jesus!

You had to say yes to His will the same way Mary did. She did not understand but said, “Be it done unto me according to your will.”

Peter describes this phenomenon by declaring:

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.  1 Peter 1:23

You have a miracle in you! All the potential of Jesus as a Son of God was placed in seed form in you as a child of God, except for the redemptive nature of Jesus. All His purpose and power is now able to grow and develop in you. This gives special meaning when we celebrate His birth at Christmas!

If people are not your purpose then you don’t have God’s plan.

People are God’s number one concern.  God not only put eternity in our heart but a burden to share that eternal life with others.  I remember in 1991 when we were preaching on the streets of St. Petersburg, Russia and two Muslims received Jesus with tears in their eyes.  Their first thought was for their Muslim brethren in the city of Baku. They proceeded to take out their wallets to buy us train tickets so that we could go and tell this Good News to Baku.

Their first thought was for others, they immediately felt the need to let others have what they had.  They truly understood the value of what they had received.

Approximately 2,000 years ago Joseph was feeling very out of place, because he could not find lodging in Bethlehem for his pregnant wife. There is Good News for those who feel out of place in today’s world. Those who feel like they have misplaced their destiny, or replaced it with an ordinary “just get by” existence.

There is a place where nothing is impossible for you. There is a place where sickness cannot stay. There is a place where you are equipped with more than enough to answer every need of every good work. There is a place where peace, dignity and love rule in your daily walk. There is a place where you do as Jesus did.

Jesus is inviting you to stand in that place when you might be feeling out of place like Joseph. That place is not far from you. It is called the Kingdom of God. Jesus said it is at hand. Paul said it is within you.

When you call on Jesus He comes to live in you, and He makes you the place where all things are possible!

Paul wrote a letter to the Corinthian church and tried to capture the idea of what God has done for them.  He was grasping for the best idea to convey how God saw them in the earth today, and of all the ways he examined, he decided that the best description of a Christian would be that of an Ambassador (2 Corinthians 5:20).

Wouldn’t it be strange if the American ambassador to another country was afraid to stand up and say, “I represent America”?  What would the American government do if the ambassador was afraid to state its point of view?

An ambassador is the sent one of the U.S.A.  Do we think he or she is being arrogant if they declare that they are sent to a certain country on behalf of the U.S.A.? No!  That’s a good thing and we expect them to do that! So why do people in Christian circles accuse others of being proud or arrogant when they do the same thing acting as an ambassador of heaven?

As an ambassador I have a right to speak for the Kingdom as long as I am speaking the message of the Kingdom, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  These are the words of my country.

The devil knows you are an ambassador, and God knows you are an ambassador. When are you going to realize that you are an ambassador?  In Acts 19:15 the demon spoke to the seven sons of Sceva, “Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you?” The devil will know you if you take a stand.

An Ambassador does not have to pray to act as an ambassador.  He does not need to pray to exercise his or her authority.  All they need to do is act like who their government says they are.  They don’t need to pray to get their passports stamped or have their visits approved.  No, an ambassador has the power to act and they don’t wait around to do their job.  Don’t wait on heaven anymore.  Act today!

When your motive is love the world will listen to you. Love is the most talked about subject on TV.  Love is the theme of most movies in Hollywood.  Love is what the world is drawn to, yet they are looking in the wrong places. Jesus laid a foundation for our faith by saying it requires the right motive to get the right results.  Faith works by love.  Jesus said that if we love as He loved then all the world would be drawn to him.

He also said, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all people know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:34).

This type of love is not understood by the world, but the world is drawn to it because it comes full of forgiveness and acceptance.  This love believes in you and wants the best for you.

The world has forgotten what God is like, so God became flesh and dwelt among us and showed us what He is really like.  God needed flesh to show off His love.

Let’s give our flesh to God’s purpose—being examples of love.

There is a debate as to whether Jesus always knew who He was. Some think that Jesus was all knowing in the flesh, but think for a moment.  He was born a baby and had all the limitations of a baby.  For 30 years you only hear of Him once and that was in the synagogue talking about scripture.

Jesus was born a man and had to grow in wisdom like any person.  Did God have to give the revelation to Jesus, or did He already know it?  Scripture says, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which GOD GAVE UNTO HIM, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John” (Revelation 1:1 author’s emphasis).

I believe that God had to give the revelation to Jesus of who He was, just like He has to give it to us.  He had to discover it in scripture, and He challenged the religious people to search the scriptures for they speak of Him.

Jesus found Himself in the Word, and you can find yourself in the Word.  Accept the letters to the church as personal letters to you.  Examine the lifestyle of Jesus in the Gospels as an example of your own lifestyle.  Read the commission to Jesus as God’s commission to you, because the world is waiting for the sons of God to be revealed.

Jesus came to reveal not only Who God is, but who we are! Here are a few revelations that the Scriptures give us about Who Jesus is and how much we—all of us—are like Him:

[Now] He [Christ] is the exact likeness of the unseen God [the visible representation of the invisible]; He is the Firstborn of all creation” (Col. 1:15 Amplified).

Jesus began a new species of god-men. He is the first-born so we are born of His family and likeness in the image of His Father who is now our Father.

“For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection” (Romans 6:5). And when did our resurrection occur? The moment we were born again from death to life!

“…Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him” (2 Cor. 3:18 The Message).

We go from faith to faith, from love to love, from adventure to adventure!

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John yesterday, have now become the Gospel of you today. Christ in human flesh in the Gospels has become Jesus in your flesh today!

Much of the modern church would think this is an extreme goal that is too lofty for humans, but how does the unseen God reveal Himself to humanity? God is revealed in flesh.

There is too much wasted prayer for God to come down and reveal Himself. He will not. He is in heaven with many wonderful ideas, but He needs flesh to reveal those ideas. He needs a voice. Christ in you is what He needs.

As I travel the world and speak to multitudes who do not speak English, I need an interpreter. My ideas are without power until they are heard, received, and acted on. In that way I am like God. He needs a voice. This is an awesome responsibility that God has entrusted us with; the message that saves humanity! If we don’t do it, God can’t do it!