"You shall receive power when the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses ... unto the uttermost part of the earth." (Acts 1:8)
In the same connection He also said, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go you therefore." (Matthew 28:18)
Take these texts in connection with Romans 1:20, which tells us that this power is seen in everything that has been made,--in the blade of grass, and in the hosts of the heavens,--and see what encouragement it is for all men.
We learn of the power by which God works to save us from sin.
Every soul who is longing for deliverance may know that "the power that works in us" (Ephesians 3:20) to save, whenever we really desire salvation, is the power that supports and holds together the universe. Then let no one say or think that God cannot save a sinner such as he is. Nothing is too hard for the Lord.
There is encouragement also to witness to the power of this salvation; for the power that saves is the power by which witnesses are sent forth. Nothing less than all power in heaven and in earth can save a man from sin; so that whoever is saved has all that power with which to proclaim the Word of truth, the Gospel of our salvation.
Notice that what is needed, and all that is promised, for the proclamation of the Gospel, is power. The Lord does not promise eloquence nor learning, but power. Paul was not destitute of that which in the world passes for wisdom, yet he says, "My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." (1 Corinthians 2:4-5)
It is power that tells; not human power, but Divine power. "There is no power but of God," (Romans 13:1) so that all attempts to make an impression are vain. "He whom God has sent, speaks the words of God," (John 3:34) "the Word of God is quick, and powerful." (Hebrews 4:12)
All therefore that is needed for the Gospel to go with power is to have a company of people fully yielded to God's power, that is, to His will, and saved by it. There need not necessarily be many. Twelve such men effected a mighty change in the world a few hundred years ago.
All are not apostles; all are not evangelists; all are not called to go as missionaries to other lands, or even to other neighborhoods than their own; but each one who is saved can witness to the power of Christ to save, with all the power by which he has been saved.--Present Truth, July 7, 1898.