Growing In God with Gary Hargrave Gary Hargrave

Web Description: Can we be witnesses of Christ in the same way that the first disciples and apostles were? I believe we can—and we must if we want to have the authority behind what we say and the power to impact the world in the way that needs to happen.
 
Show Notes: According to the Hebrew Scriptures, to be a witness meant that you saw and heard firsthand what you were testifying about. Otherwise your testimony was not legal. The disciples and apostles of Yeshua (Jesus) therefore were true witnesses of Christ. They saw and heard firsthand everything that Christ did and taught. But the term witness in today’s Christianity does not meet that definition. Being a witness now means telling others what you believe about Christ, not what you witnessed Him do firsthand.
 
I believe that not being witnesses according to this scriptural definition leaves us without the level of authority and power we need to break through the wickedness of this age and open people’s hearts to the Lord. That of course brings up the question: How can we be firsthand witnesses of Yeshua two thousand years later? One answer to that is in the ministry of the apostle Paul. After Yeshua’s ascension, Paul became a witness of all Christ said and did through the appearings and visions of Christ to him.
 
That means that the same experience is available to us by the Holy Spirit. After Christ’s resurrection the disciples themselves had to have a spiritual impartation because they did not understand what they saw take place. When the Lord appeared to Job, he confessed, “I have spoken that which I did not know.” Instead of speaking that which we do not know, we should contend to see Him face to face and be witnesses of that which we know as we are fully known. This is a promise that we reach into with all our hearts.
 
Key Verses:
 
•       1 Corinthians 15:1–8. “As to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.”
•       Acts 22:6–16. “You will be a witness for Him to all men of what you have seen and heard.”
•       2 Corinthians 12:1–4. “Such a man was caught up … and heard inexpressible words.”
•       Job 42:1–6. “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees You.”
•       1 Corinthians 13:8–13. “Now I know in part, but then I will know fully.”
•       John 3:3–11. “We speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen.”
•       Matthew 24:3–14. “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached … as a testimony [witness].”
 
Quotes:
 
•       “Can the gospel of the Kingdom be preached as a witness if there are no witnesses?”
•       “The Lord told Paul he would be a witness, and He imparted to him that which he needed to see and hear firsthand in order to be a witness.”
•       “I do believe that it is a potential to reach in and truly become a witness in any generation.”
 
Takeaways:
 
1.    Currently our level of witnessing is to tell others about our faith in Christ. We should contend to become true witnesses of Christ like the first disciples and apostles were—like Paul was.
2.    When the Lord appeared to Job, Job had to repent because he was speaking that which he did not know. How much do we as Christians speak that which we do not know?
3.    We know in part and prophecy in part. But the promise is that we will see Him face to face and know as we are fully known.
4.    When we talk about being witnesses, we understand that there is a great deal of impartation from Christ by the Spirit that was given to the apostles, as well as to the other disciples and to Paul. By the Spirit we can contend for the same experience.
 
 

Web Description: Being a witness of Christ needs to be more than sharing what we believe or what we heard from someone else. Like us, Paul was in Christ after the Ascension, but he did not share with others what he heard from the disciples. In Christ’s appearing to him, Paul received all that the disciples experienced and that is what he delivered to the world. This Pentecost we should contend to be witnesses like Paul.
 
Show Notes: The disciples and the apostles of Yeshua (Jesus) were true witnesses. They were witnesses of His resurrection and of His appearings to them. Even more they were witnesses of the Scriptures because He opened their minds to understand everything that was written in them concerning the Christ. So they had an experience with the Lord that was beyond seeing Him with their eyes and physically interacting with Him. They had an impartation that truly equipped them to be witnesses.
 
When we engage in witnessing today, I think we have to be honest and admit that we are not expressing those same qualifications. Witnessing for us is simply the process of telling others what we believe. We are not sharing firsthand experiences of seeing or hearing or receiving from Yeshua. However, the more we move into the end times, the more we need the qualifications of those first witnesses of Christ. Yet is it possible to witness what they witnessed two thousand years after the fact?
 
I believe it is and we have the perfect example in the apostle Paul. Paul was not with the disciples of Yeshua to witness everything Christ did. Yet when Paul saw Christ after the Ascension, his mind was opened to behold all that had transpired with Christ. He became a witness in all respects like the disciples and delivered to the world what he received directly from Christ. I believe it was by the Holy Spirit that Paul was able to have these experiences that made him a witness. And by the Holy Spirit we should be contending for the true experiences with Christ that will make us witnesses.
 
Key Verses:
 
•       Luke 24:25–30. “He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”
•       Luke 24:31–32. “Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him.”
•       Luke 24:44–45. “He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”
•       Luke 24:48–40. “You are witnesses of these things.”
•       1 Corinthians 15:3–8. “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received.”
•       Acts 22:6–15. “You will be a witness for Him to all men of what you have seen and heard.”
•       2 Corinthians 12:1–7. “I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.”
 
Quotes:
 
•       “I believe this generation needs witnesses, not just people talking about their faith.”
•       “When we look at the ministry of Paul, we recognize that Christ appeared to him just as He appeared to those on the road to Emmaus, just as he appeared to the disciples and apostles.”
•       “Paul is giving as a witness what was delivered to him, what was imparted to him, what he saw when he saw Christ. So his mind was opened to see, to behold all that had transpired with Christ.”
 
Takeaways:
 
1.    Paul was a true witness. And he became that witness following the ascension of Christ.
2.    If Paul could become such a witness, then I believe we can also. Paul is proof that we can become witnesses in our generation.
3.    Please remember there is a great deal of difference between being a witness and being a believer talking about our faith. We need to be witnesses to this generation.
 
 

Web Description: On the Day of Pentecost, the apostles were endued with power by the Holy Spirit, and that is something we emphasize the need for. But the other aspect of their ability to bring the world to Christ is also something that we need in the world today. That is the fact that they were His witnesses. Yes, our power to impact the world will be that we are filled with the Holy Spirit. But it will also be that we are true witnesses of the Lord.
 
Show Notes: We recognize that the disciples of Yeshua (Jesus) were called witnesses, and we use that term quite a bit within the Church atmosphere today. We talk about going out and witnessing to others, which absolutely is an important part of our Christian life. But I think that we have lost the true meaning of the word witness. I think we are using the term too lightly, and that takes away from the veracity of it and the impact that it needs to have.
 
The apostles were actual witnesses. They had witnessed Yeshua’s teachings and His works. They witnessed Him as the resurrected Lord. The disciple who replaced Judas had to have this requirement of being a witness. The Church focuses on the fact that these men were endued with power at Pentecost. But their impact on the world was also because they were witnesses. And we cannot ignore that fact if we want to impact the world today.
 
We cannot sell short the power of what it is to be witnesses. It is time to minister to the world around us, and we need to do more than tell people what we believe in. We need to see true witnesses of the Lord going throughout the earth today. Let us reach into this in our hearts and in our own experiences. You could ask, “How is it possible to be witnesses of Christ so long after His ascension?” That is what we will cover in the next podcast. Be sure to listen to it.
 
Key Verses:
 
•       Luke 24:13–27. “He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”
•       Luke 24:28–45. “He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”
•       Luke 24:46–48. “You are witnesses of these things.”
•       Luke 24:49. “Stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
•       Acts 1:21–22. “One of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.”
 
Quotes:
 
•       “The anointing upon them was tremendous, but they were in fact witnesses of these things. They were telling people what they had seen, what they had heard, what they truly were witnesses of.”
•       “I believe there’s no reason for us not to take another step beyond where we have been and where the Church has been.”
•       “I believe what this generation needs are true witnesses under the power of the Holy Spirit that can bring an impartation of change to the lives of individuals that are hearing it.”
 
Takeaways:
 
1.    For us to impact the world in a way that deals with the wickedness and depravity that is so prevalent today, there is a need for two elements: (1) that we truly be witnesses, and (2) that we be endued with power from on high through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
2.    Being a witness is more than telling people that we believe in what was written in the Gospels. That is wonderful and it can be powerful. But we need the power that the witnesses of Christ who wrote the Gospels had.
3.    Those who witnessed the resurrected Christ not only heard what He said but also had the Scriptures imparted to their minds—something that was essential if they were to go out and speak to the world about what they had witnessed. We need the same witness of the Word today.
 
For Further Study:
 
Read Luke 24:13–49. Let this story impact your heart. Let it impact your life. And let it be something you use to contend with the Lord as we approach these tremendous days of Pentecost.

Web Description: In this day we need the power of God to be moving in us and through us. Yet we are often so conditioned by our past experiences that we do not believe in that power or, at the very least, lose the edge of our faith. The Passover shows us that God does deliver His people, and He does move in power. By thanking God for the lessons of the past, forgiving others, and moving into the love of Christ, we can move into God’s fullness and the knowledge of His power that works within us.
 
Show Notes: When Moses came to them, the children of Israel had spent four hundred years in bondage to the Egyptians. Then they suddenly had to believe in the miracle power of God. Their conditioning made it very difficult for them to trust in God’s concern for them, let alone believe that He would deliver them from bondage and give them their own land. We too, as people who have walked with God, have been conditioned by what we have gone through in the past.
 
We may have been led by God to pray for certain things or to be involved with certain people. Then after years of never seeing answers to our prayers or of having problems in relationships, we find that past experiences have worn away at our own ability to believe that we will see the power of God working in our lives. But the Passover is a reminder that God moves in power, and an aspect of the Passover was God moving to deliver the children of Israel from their past.
 
We need this aspect of Passover to work deeply in our lives to free us from the conditionings of the past. And a key to being free from the past is forgiveness. As probably every Christian knows, forgiving others is one of the most difficult things we must do in our walk with God. Yet Paul tells us to know the love of Christ that is beyond knowledge. Clearly this divine love requires a divine enabling, but it is available to us in Christ. And we loose ourselves to appropriate it until we are filled up to all the fullness of God and are able to know the power of God that is above and beyond anything we can ask or think.
 
Key Verses:
 
•       Isaiah 43:19. “Behold, I will do something new …; will you not be aware of it?”
•       Exodus 5:20–21. “They met Moses. … ‘May the Lord … judge you.’”
•       Genesis 50:20. “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.”
•       Psalm 105:19. “Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him.”
•       Hebrews 5:8–9. “He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.”
•       Ephesians 3:14–19. “Know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.”
•       Ephesians 3:20–21. “To Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think.”
•       Hebrews 12:26–27 “Those things which cannot be shaken may remain.”
•       Ephesians 1:19–20. “His power toward us who believe … when He raised Him from the dead.”
•       Philippians 3:13–14. “… forgetting what lies behind.”
•       Isaiah 55:6. “Seek the LORD while He may be found.”
 
Quotes:
 
•       “I want Him not just to forgive me; I want Him to forget those things. We look for that thoroughness in our relationship with Him. But it means we’ve got to be that thorough in our relationship with others.”
•       “We not only want to be aware of the new day; we want to be free in our spirits to walk in the new day.”
•       “When we know the love of Christ, we will be filled up to all the fullness of God.”
 
Takeaways:
 
1.    If after being led by the Lord, circumstances happen to you that seem like a bondage to you, it does not mean that God did that. But God allowed it for the ongoing perfection of your heart and spirit before Him.
2.    We all stand before God as individuals. We can choose to

Web Description: We can look out on the world today and ask, “Where is the power of God? Where are the miracles and signs and wonders that God did in the past?” When we ask that, we are looking in the wrong direction because the same power of God that did those signs and wonders of the past, the very power of the Resurrection, is beamed directly to us who believe. We need to become aware of that and turn loose this power that is within us.
 
 
Show Notes: God is powerful, and He moves in power. He moved in power when He delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt. He moved in power when He raised Yeshua (Jesus) from the dead. Yet as we go along day after day without seeing Him move with similar manifestations of power, we tend to let go of the faith and anticipation we need, and we neglect to exercise our belief in His miracle power, in His strength, in His deliverance, and in what He should be in our daily lives.
 
According to Paul, the power that God exercised to deliver Israel out of Egypt and raise Yeshua from the dead is the very same power He is beaming to us who believe in Christ. We can say that we believe in everything God has given us. We believe we have salvation. We believe our sins are forgiven. We believe we have a calling and a destiny and blessings from God. But are we aware of the surpassing greatness of His power that is directed toward us who believe?
 
Paul prayed that we would have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, that the eyes of our heart would be enlightened to be aware of this power of God that is readily available to us through our belief in Him. But growing in this awareness takes energy on our part. We must seek the Lord with all our hearts, with all our might, and with all our strength. We must seek Him while He may be found. We must cry out to Him to release that power in our lives. He is a God of power. He is a God of strength. And we as His sons and daughters must not forget that.
 
Key Verses:
 
•       Ephesians 1:3–6. “God … has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.”
•       Ephesians 1:7–14. “The riches of His grace … He lavished on us.”
•       Ephesians 1:15–19. “I pray that … you will know … what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.”
•       Deuteronomy 4:34. “By a mighty hand and … outstretched arm … the LORD your God did for you.”
•       Ephesians 6:12. “Our struggle is … against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
•       Ephesians 1:20–23. “He … seated Him … far above all rule and authority and power and dominion.”
•       Ephesians 1:18–20 (NET). “The eyes of your heart have been enlightened.”
•       Ephesians 3:14–21. “… beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.”
•       Deuteronomy 6:5. “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
•       Isaiah 55:6. “Seek the LORD while He may be found.”
 
Quotes:
 
•       “It’s very important for us to read in the Scriptures the reality that God has planned and promised to move for us, in us, and through us with His mighty power.”
•       “I think we can lose the fact that we’re serving a God of power.”
•       “This power that is being beamed towards us is also the power of the Resurrection, which is to impact us and to dwell in us.”
 
Takeaways:
 
1.    Life in the natural world continues as it always has from the time it was set in motion at the creation. Not a lot that is miraculous seems to take place in it. Therefore, we have difficulty believing in the power of God that moves in signs and wonders.
2.    Our salvation in Christ means that we have an inheritance. God has given to us everything that Chr

Web Description: The God who shook the powers of Egypt and delivered His people with signs and wonders is the same God who will shake all things in the latter days. The fact that we may not have seen God move that way in our lifetime is not the issue. The issue is whether or not we will be the prepared people whose faith hastens His coming in this day.
 
Show Notes: Read Deuteronomy chapter 4. Before they entered Canaan to possess the land, Moses reminded the children of Israel about their wanderings in the wilderness, their time in Egypt, and how God delivered them with signs and wonders. In the retelling of their story, Moses began with the statement: “For the LORD your God is a consuming fire.” This was true for them then, but it is also prophetic of the days to come. It needs to be real to us that God is going to move again as He did in Egypt.
 
In many ways we are just like the children of Israel who were so conditioned by their bondage in Egypt for four hundred years that they had great difficulty believing that God would deliver them. As Christians we have two thousand years of history, much of which has been under the oppression of the world’s systems. We know we should believe that Christ can come at any moment with the power of God in signs and wonders and establish His Kingdom on this earth. But we struggle having the intense faith that we need because we have never seen the Lord move in that way.
 
We tend to see Him just like the Israelites did in Egypt—He was the God of their fathers, a God who moved in the past. But we cannot let the passage of time cause us to lose faith. Our God is and always has been a consuming fire, and He will again shake all things. He is the same God who delivered His people when their preparation was complete. And just as He came down when they cried out to Him, He will respond to us when we seek Him with all our heart, knowing that He will move in the earth when we are the prepared people He is waiting for.
 
Key Verses:
 
•       Deuteronomy 4:24. “The LORD your God is a consuming fire.”
•       Deuteronomy 4:25–30. “From there you will seek the LORD your God.”
•       Deuteronomy 4:31–40. “You shall keep His statutes and His commandments.”
•       2 Peter 3:3–14. “The Lord is not slow about His promise … but is patient toward you.”
•       Romans 12:1–2. “Do not be conformed to this world.”
•       Hebrews 12:18–27. “ONCE MORE I WILL SHAKE NOT ONLY THE EARTH, BUT ALSO THE HEAVEN.”
•       Hebrews 12:28–29. “Our God is a consuming fire.”
 
Quotes:
 
•       “He will see every promise that He has given us fulfilled. And our job is to be believers. We must believe. We must not doubt because time has passed.”
•       “We are living in the delusion of the material world that surrounded us and convinced us of something other than the living God who has the power to move in our lives.”
•       “He is waiting for the natural world to have its total preparation for what transpires in the day of His return. More than that, He may just be waiting for you. He may be waiting for your growth and maturity, for you to come to the place where you are ready.”
 
Takeaways:
 
1.    We are not to lose our faith because of the passing of time. We are to grow in our gratitude and offer up worship to God in reverence and awe. We should remember what Moses said: “Our God is a consuming fire.” And He is not slow to fulfill His promises.
2.    Let us remember those promises. Let us remember the Words of God. And let us look back to our fathers—not to grow weak in faith but to be strengthened by their experience of watching and beholding the power of God moving in their midst on this earth.
3.    We know that God will move to establish His Kingdom and bring Yeshua the Messiah to rule on the ear