Let's read the following parable:

And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, "Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God." Then said he (Jesus) unto him, "A certain man made a great supper, and bade many:

"And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, 'Come; for all things are now ready.' And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, 'I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.'

And another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I have to go prove them: I pray thee have me excused.' And another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.' So that servant came, and showed his lord these things.

Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.'

And the servant said, 'Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.' And the lord said unto the servant, 'Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.'"
(Luke 14:15-24)

We Have the Power
This parable has several lessons, but I want to direct your attention to the excuses these men made for not coming to the supper.

Many times when God begins to call upon people to go out and share the Good News with others, most of them will come up with some kind of excuse for why they can't go.

Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that if you don't go out witnessing every night, God doesn't love you anymore. I want to make it clear that we are not to come under condemnation about this.

What I am trying to do is strike your attention. I want you to see very clearly that it is one thing to have the desire to go; it is another thing to go.

Being willing and being obedient are two different things. I believe that we should set ourselves to determine that not only are we going to be willing to go, but we are also going to be obedient to do it. By doing that, you will find that all those excuses you had been making for not going become very flimsy.

When you receive the Holy Spirit, He enables you to be an effective witness. That's one of His jobs. It's the devil who has been selling you the lie that you can't do it. Satan would love to come up with legitimate-sounding excuses why you can't witness.

If you fall for these lies, you not only rob yourself of a tremendous blessing, but you also rob the person who hasn't heard of his right to believe.

You do have within you the ability to be an effective witness for the Lord Jesus Christ. I can prove it to you from the Word of God. Let's look again at what Jesus told His disciples in Acts 1:8: "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."

The first word I'd like to look at is the word power. Jesus said, Ye shall receive power. In the original Greek text the word translated power is dunamis. It is the word from which we get our words dynamite (explosive power) and dynamo (self-energizing power).

The Greek word dunamis means "power in action, as when put forth in performing miracles." It also means "ability, mighty works or miracle energy." A third definition would be "supernatural force."

That is the first and foremost purpose of you being filled with the Holy Spirit. God didn't fill you with His Holy Spirit just so you could be called Pentecostal. God couldn't care less whether you become Pentecostal, or Baptist, or Methodist. God filled you with His Spirit so you could become an effective witness!

We Have the Proof
Now let's look at the word witness. Jesus said, Ye shall be witnesses unto me.

The Greek word translated here as witness is martus. It is the word from which we get our English word martyr. In fact, the same Greek word is translated martyr or martyrs in several other places in the Bible.

For example, Paul used this Greek word in Acts 22:20 when he declared: And when the blood of thy martyr (martus) Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death. (See also Rev. 2:13; 17:6.)

Stephen was an effective witness; that's actually what Paul was calling him here. In the early church when men first began to give witness of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, it wasn't very popular to be a Christian.

In fact, so many people laid down their lives as a witness of their faith, it gradually became understood that a witness was one who bore witness by his death. That's how the word martyr received the meaning it has for us today.

Actually the word martyr or witness simply denotes one who can vouch for, guarantee, or prove what he has seen or heard or knows. That's what an effective witness is.

If you are sharing with someone concerning the ministry of reconciliation, you first share with them what the Word has to say about it; then you are called upon to vouch for, or guarantee, or prove what you have seen, heard, or know about reconciliation.

This is where your personal testimony comes in. It is your own personal experience with the Lord that proves God's Word and makes you effective in witnessing to others.

So an effective witness is one who can vouch for, guarantee, or prove what he has seen or heard or knows.

We Have the Place
There is one other word in Acts 1:8 that I want us to look at. It is the word uttermost. Jesus said: "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."

This word uttermost means "inner, hidden, remote, last part or frontier." This word was used to refer to what the Apostle Paul called "the regions beyond."

So then, what was Jesus telling us here? He was saying that He has filled us with the Spirit of God and enabled us to have miracle-working ability so that we may be effective witnesses who can guarantee, vouch for, or prove what we have seen, heard, and know.

He was saying that our witness will begin where we are and should extend to the farthest frontier. We can start right in our own neighborhood. If the people next door have not yet been reached with the Good News, then they literally become our Jerusalem. Isn't that right?

An effective witness is one who not only speaks words in representing Jesus Christ, but, if need be, can vouch for, guarantee, and prove his testimony with signs following. Simply stated, an effective witness is one who can back up what he has to say with miraculous proof.

But without the Holy Spirit inside you, you cannot do that. That's the reason people who have not received the Holy Spirit have found that they are not very effective witnesses. Oh, they can have results to a certain degree; but without the aid of the Holy Ghost, they are not fully equipped to deal with the needs of the people to whom they go.

If we are going to reach people for the Lord in this day and age, we must be properly equipped to deal with whatever we may encounter. The equipment we need is the Word of God, the name of Jesus, and the presence and power of the Holy Ghost.

An effective witness is one who has received the Holy Ghost and thus has that miracle-working ability within him, that ability to vouch for, guarantee, and prove his testimony with signs following, if necessary.

Now don't misunderstand me. The witness is not the one who does the confirming. God does that. We are the ones who carry the Word to the world, just as the Apostle Paul carried it to the Corinthians.

Let's be assured on the basis of God's own Word that if we will go into the uttermost part of the world and share with every creature what God has done for them in Jesus Christ, then God will work with us and confirm His Word with signs following.

Source: Sharing Jesus Effectively by Jerry Savelle
Excerpt permission granted by Jerry Savelle Ministries International