True Witnesses

To be a witness of Yeshua is to be a witness of someone who trusts God.

If my witness becomes that of a person:

-trying to save his career and burdened with worry.

-trying to save his resources and burdened with effort.

-trying to save my marriage and burdened with control.

-trying to save my reputation and burdened with selfish ambition.

-trying to save his church and burdened with disappointment.

-trying to save his family and burdened with opinions.

-trying to save his country and burdened with uncertainty.

-trying to extend God's kingdom and burdened with accusation, judgment, and fear.

-Etc.

Then I'm not a witness of Jesus'.  

Jesus isn't worried, disappointed, burdened, afraid, opinionated...

Right now, in heaven, all the angels and elders see a Man alive.  They see a Lamb who was rescued from death. They see a Man vindicated for being faithful, while still waiting for a kingdom.  Witnesses of Jesus are like Him:

Hebrews 11:35-40 NKJV — Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented— of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.

They weren't working hard.  They lived... Were growing in/abiding in...  a different reality than what everyone around them saw.  Unless I abide in the same vine, I will certainly be cut off and seen as unfruitful.

When they look at Jesus, all of heaven sees a hopeful intercessor.

All of heaven sees a happy Son.

All of heaven sees a rich Man who doesn't control his own wealth, but benefits from Jehovah Jireh.

All of heaven sees a Man not burdened by His own will, but rather one who escaped the siren song of the flesh in prayer.

All of heaven sees victory, not an impending defeat.

When the world looks at me, what do they see? What do they hear? Am I mostly consumed with what I (which always ends up in what everyone else) should do, or what He has done?

I can try to win the world with all my concern, but if it doesn't see heaven, I will have lost my own soul and been an untrue witness of Jesus!

Matthew 16:24-26 NKJV — Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

A true witness of Yeshua has to abide in that One Vine, bear that One fruit, and carry that same easy burden in that One and only light yoke.

My witness doesn't depend on circumstances.  Circumstances are what make it so much more powerfully different than what the world is doing.  Same circumstances, different life... The more difficult the circumstances, the more starkly hopeful the witness.

That's what everyone who sees Jesus really sees:  He took on flesh, but lived in heaven nonetheless.

If you've seen Jesus, you've seen the Father. He only believes what He sees the Father believing!  Is that what I look like, too?