Matthew 11:1-6 “When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities. Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
In this passage, John wanted to make sure that Jesus really was the Christ. He knew his time was running short and wanted to make sure he hadn’t run in vain. So he sent his disciples to talk to Jesus. Symbolically, John is a picture of a non-believer. He was someone searching and asking if Jesus was the Christ. This is a question many in our world today are asking in their hearts. I love Jesus’ response to the question “Are you the Christ?” Jesus didn’t say, “I go to church”, “I was baptized”, “I don’t do bad things” or “I read my bible and pray every day”. Jesus said, “Tell John what you HEAR and SEE.” And preceded to demonstrate with His lifestyle that He was who He said He was. He laid hands on blind people and they saw, He healed the lepers, made the lame walk, the dead rise and shared good news to the poor.
That one phrase leaps out to me and goes off like a bomb inside me. “Tell John what you HEAR and SEE.” This brings conviction to my heart! It cuts me deep and stirs me to live a everyday Jesus life. If the world came to me and observed my life, could they walk away and say, “You won’t believe what we heard and saw in Micah’s life.” Or would they just say, “He goes to church and is religious.” This is what it’s about. It’s not about what we say; it’s about what we do. When you become a parent you realize this really fast. I could tell my kids not do something, but if I do it, they will do it too. It doesn’t matter what I say to them, it matters what I show them by my actions. If kids see it, they’ll do it. Kids imitate what you do. Things are caught, more than they are taught. As a believer people will catch your vibes faster than your words. People will remember how you made them feel more than what you said to them. People can smell a phony. People can see right through a hypocrite.
If someone came up to me and said, “Are you a Christian? Do you know Jesus?” could I answer them with, “Come and hang out with me for a few hours. By the end of our time together, based on what you see and hear, you can make your own decision.” Could I say that? Could you say that? What do people hear and see in your life? What manifests out of your being?
1 Timothy 4:11-16 “Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”
How will others see your progress in faith and the hearers around you be saved? By setting an example! That word example in the Greek means “a model forged by repetition; the correct paradigm, based on reliable precedent for others to then follow” or “A copy, image, pattern, model, type, or prefiguring of something or somebody.” This word example is like a form for pouring cement, a black smith striking metal to form a sword, a replica model of something, or an exact copy of a document.
When Paul says, “Set an example” He’s saying “Be a form for those around you! Be a replica model of Jesus! Be like a detailed model boat that looks identical to the real thing. Be such a model, form and pattern of Christ that those around you can look at you as a reference to imitate and duplicate.”
1 Peter 5:2-3 “Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.”
The greatest way we can lead and impact those around us is by setting an example with our lives. It’s not by what we say, but by what we do. What example are we setting? Is Christ emulating out of us? Does our everyday attitude and behavior look like Jesus? Are we demonstrating the Gospel with power and love? What comes out of our life when we are pressed? Does the fruit of the spirit come out? I know for me it’s not always the right thing. But I have given my life to manifest Him everyday. I want that cashier that messes up the order or that person that cuts me off in traffic to see Jesus. I want Jesus to manifest out of me in those moments. This is how we win the lost and lead the church. We can’t perform it. We must live it.
For years I was frustrated that I couldn’t get any other believers out on the streets with me. But I only invited them to outreaches and prayer walks. I wasn’t living it everyday. How can I expect someone to do something that I’m not even living myself? I had to adjust. It wasn’t about an outreach or an event. It was about an everyday lifestyle. It was about setting an example to those around me. I couldn’t get people to have a burden for the lost and live the Gospel by inviting them to a prayer walk or to do street evangelism. I needed to take people out to their favorite coffee or lunch spot and simply set an example of what it looks like to live an every day Jesus lifestyle. But it can’t be a performance. If I don’t live it when I am by myself, it would be a performance if I only stepped out when I hung out with other believers. It must be real for me and then when I hang out with other Christians, it just happens. I must be myself. So, the question would be, what is yourself? What lifestyle are you living? Not when people are watching, but when you are alone, at your home or at the grocery store. Is the God you know on Sunday manifesting through you on Monday?
We hear God on Sunday. We pray for healing, we prophecy, we worship and get in the word. Do we do that in public? There really is no separation! He is the same God. In the body of Christ we have a built in expectation to hear and experience God on Sunday. But often we don’t carry that same expectation into our work week. We compartmentalize our faith. Our faith level for a prophetic word for a friend, prayer for healing or experiencing God’s presence is high on Sunday. But because we compartmentalize our faith, we have been guilty of shutting our ears off on Monday. We can hear God for ourselves during our quite time and we can hear God for others on Sunday. But we can’t hear God like that for someone at the grocery store on Monday? Let it not be! How we hear God must be and can be the same everyday of the week! So often we feel it’s easy to give a word to a believer or to pray for a believer at church, but feel it’s hard to do that with a non-believer. We wonder how we can prophecy over a stranger at the grocery store. There is no difference! We don’t have to worry about veiling our language. Prophesy over people in public the same way your do in church. The world is dying to hear the voice of God. We don’t have to hide it. We can give people words from God.
We don’t have to over think it or worry about saying it in a veiled, relatable way. God wants to liberate us from the fear of man. We can pray for people in public in the same way we pray for people at church. God sees the world as if they are already saved. He sees them as his beloved daughters and sons. In the same way, we can treat everyone as daughters and sons. We can speak to them like believers, pray for them like believers and they will believe.
Years ago I asked a seasoned evangelist about deliverance ministry in public. I asked out of a spirit of fear. I was so worried about what people thought that I didn’t want to say, “I command this demonic spirit to leave you!” I was worried about offending someone. I asked him, “How do you cast out demons in public? In the church, people understand demonic spirits. How do you do it in public?” I’ll never forget his response. He said, “Micah are you really more concerned about offending people, than their freedom? I never think about that. I don’t care. The goal is people’s freedom. I want to see people set free from the things that torment them and keep them from walking in the freedom God intends for them. Just like in a church meeting, I command the demonic spirit off their life.”
This is about about a lifestyle. God doesn’t just want you to be bold to share your faith and reach the lost. He wants your whole life! He wants to touch every part of your life. Every facet of your life is meant to come under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. God intends for our whole life to be put on display! It’s about our character, our conduct, our purity, and our courage. What we model to the world goes way beyond the message we carry. It’s about the life we live. I’m so passionate about every believer living a Jesus lifestyle. Our Christianity isn’t meant to be a Sunday morning and Wednesday night thing. It’s meant to consume our whole life.
This doesn’t mean that we aren’t in process. What it does mean is that we have set our life on a goal and one pursuit. We have given our lives to become love and to live possessed with Jesus. On the way we have bumps because we are in process, but we have found our true north! Our lives our fixed and set! Our true north is Jesus. We are running to be conformed into the image and likeness of Jesus.