Power Of Attorney

Last month I went into the registry of motor vehicles in Boston to pass the final papers on buying my father’s car. Now, my father is in Virginia, so there’s a problem – how can he sign off when he is half a country away?

Well, we have special papers that gives me “power of attorney”. That means that I get to sign my own name in place of my father’s name for money and business activities. So, I brought the papers to the woman at the desk at the RMV, and she checked them out. Everything’s OK, I sign my name as “power of attorney” for my father, and just like that, I walked out with a new title and registration. My father’s car was now mine.

Wow, I thought, that document is a very powerful document. I picked it back up after leaving and looked at it again. I noticed that it has some very important signatures on it: my father’s, mine, and the attorney’s.

And the signature of a witness.

For me to have the “power of attorney”, I need all of them. Yes, I need my father’s and mine and the attorney’s. But I also need a witness. There’s no “power of attorney” without a witness. I can’t act in my father’s name without a witness. I can’t carry out my father’s business without a witness.

When Jesus selected the Twelve to follow Him, He was selecting witnesses. Now, they didn’t do too many things well. They argued with each other, they often had no or little faith, they fled the scene when He needed Him most. But they were there when He healed the blind man, when He raised Lazarus from the dead, when He stilled the storm at sea, when He multiplied the loaves and fishes.

The only thing they did was be there and follow. They were just witnesses. “And you also are witnesses, because you have been with me from the beginning.” (Jn 15:27)

Witnesses are very important to the Lord. Witnesses give Him and us the “power of attorney” to do Our Father’s business in the world.

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

If you’ve experienced the great Love of Jesus, if you’ve seen His great works, your witness is very important. It gives Him the power to claim His Father’s things for Himself.

It gives Him power of attorney.