Witnesses

A witness to Jesus is someone whose life is a testimony to His Lordship. We are to become living epistles of what it means for Jesus to live in us. A witness is not someone who merely tells about Jesus. He is someone through whom Jesus tells about Himself!

God doesn’t use us, and neither does Christ live through us, by BYPASSING US. God does not, "take people over." Neither does God say, "Because you are a child of God indwelt by the Holy Spirit, from this time forward, everything you do and everything you say is OF ME." Nonsense – but it is amazing how many people think the opposite! Many people walk around daily thinking that what they feel with their emotions, or think with their mind, MUST be of God, because the Spirit is in them. This is wrong – they are actually walking according to the flesh. It doesn’t have to be a, "bad flesh," or an, "immoral flesh." It can be a religious flesh. And if God doesn’t break up such a pattern, people will end up using the things of God to glorify themselves and profit themselves – which is the only thing religious flesh can do if it is allowed to govern.

The Holy Spirit always DOES and always LIVES the will of God, to the glory of Christ. The Holy Spirit will not give us OUR will – He wants to give us God’s will, indeed, cause us to BECOME God’s will. This is what it means to BE a witness. Thus, if we are not walking in according with this purpose of God, we are NOT being led by His Spirit – and it doesn’t matter how sure we are to the contrary, or how good it feels.

If you examine what I just said about the intent of the Spirit to give and make us into expressions of God’s will, you will see the necessity of a big CHANGE IN US. In order for you to DO the will of God – from the heart out of a real faith – you must BECOME the will of God. You must KNOW Jesus and be yielded to Him. But none of us come close to that except through much dealing. None of us. We find that out loud and clear when God does begin to deal.

I’m not saying that a sincere Christian stands in open rebellion against God. No. We may be as yielded to God as we know to be, and really, we may be yielded in everything that God has brought before us in life. If we are, well, we are where God wants us to be – we are indeed IN the will of God. But we don’t know our own hearts. Have we recognized the incredible battle and warfare that is necessary for God to get His will in a life? Read the NT. Spiritual warfare is business as usual – it is continual and intense. Therefore, before we congratulate ourselves for our great faith and spiritual condition – before we think we stand – we need take heed lest we fall.

I am convinced that many Christians today – those who think they have, "arrived" – I am convinced that God simply doesn’t disturb them. I know of Christians that seem to be blessed no matter what they do, and no matter where they are. Everything goes right, and they are quick to point out that it is God blessing them. It is good to give thanks and glory to God, but sometimes there is a subtle BOAST in this – "I am blessed because God is pleased with ME." You know what I mean. Again – read the NT. Despite God’s blessings and grace, if you want to truly come into fellowship with Christ, it is going to cost you much. You absolutely MUST be broken of the notion that YOU determine what you get from God. You don’t. God does. In fact, there may come a time when God takes everything away. Will you continue to say that you are blessed?

It is here that we must get something straight. There is nothing about our Christian life that belongs to US. We have nothing to say about it. Of course, we do have choices of faith and obedience to make – beginning at salvation. But this is not a matter of us having a say-so. It is a matter of us yielding to God’s will and say-so.

Today in the church, so many people continue to think that the work of the Holy Spirit is to HELP US achieve our goals, and really, to help us possess our lives. We don’t think of this in a rebellious or sinful way, of course, but we think that we belong to ourselves, and that the Spirit is here to help us belong to ourselves. We think that the when Jesus said the Holy Spirit was The Helper, that He meant that WE get to decide God’s will for our lives, and that the Holy Spirit is here to help us come into what we have decided is God’s will. So we walk around having, "leadings," as to the will of God – but the will of God is really OUR will, with the name of Jesus pasted on it. Most people don’t even realize what they are doing. But this is all wrong.

Well, doesn’t the Spirit lead the sons of God? I have heard that quoted again and again by those who think that God leads them every five minutes in life – they think that whatever they think or feel is of God; is God’s leading of them. Well, let’s read that passage and see what it is really saying:

Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: (Rom 8:12-16)

This passage from Romans 8 is NOT talking about LEADINGS – it is not talking about God speaking to you and telling you what to do. I’m not saying that God doesn’t sometimes lead that way – but I am saying that in this passage that issue is not being discussed. Read the context and you will see what the Greek bears out. Paul is saying, "For as many as are GOVERNED by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." In other words, you are going to ultimately be GOVERNED by either the flesh or the Spirit. But if you are a son of God, the Holy Spirit is going to seek to GOVERN you, and break down all barriers to this. In short, the work of the Holy Spirit – once again – is to make Jesus Lord of every part of you.

What this means is that you do not belong to yourself. You do not have the right to decide your life, or even the right to decide WHO YOU ARE to God. The Holy Spirit has not come to help you achieve your dreams. Jesus is not going to hop aboard your bandwagon. Rather, the Spirit has come to take your life completely out of your hands and to bring you under the sovereignty of God – and the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In other words, when you gave your life to Christ, it was no longer your own. The work of the Spirit is to bring you under the GOVERNMENT of Christ.

The sons of God are those who are more and more being GOVERNED by the Holy Spirit. The result is that they will not only DO the will of God, but they will BE the will of God. But since God cannot achieve this by bypassing OUR wills, it is necessary for OUR wills to be brought to the ground, so that OUR wills shall become HIS WILL. This is why God must deal with us through the Cross.

Jesus Christ is not fire insurance. God is not a contingency plan. The Holy Spirit is not here to release our greatness. Jesus did not come to enhance our lives, or to give us, "Your Best Life Now." Rather, the purpose of the Holy Spirit is to bring down every kingdom that was not built by God – including all of the very nice religious ones that men have built to God’s glory – and to establish in the lives of people the absolutely Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Does this sound negative to you? Does it sound like you will be deprived? Well, it might sound like that to the flesh, or natural mind. But only if we don’t know God. When will we get it through our heads that God has only GOOD for us? That the worst possible condition is for us to belong to ourselves – even if we think that it is unto God’s glory? When will we realize that if God ever got us fully under the Lordship of Jesus, that WE would be the greatest benefactors?

There is nothing Satan will fight against more strongly than the Lordship of Jesus Christ in a life, or in God’s church. He has provided not only opposition to the Lordship of Jesus, but has provided many a SUBSTITUTE. For example, the release of the Holy Spirit into the full potential that God has for a person is only achieved when that person comes under the Lordship of Jesus Christ – through the work of the Cross and the enlargement of His resurrection life in us. But Satan says, "No. You don’t need all that trouble. You can receive the fullness of the Spirit all at once through a second blessing."

I don’t know if we really see the magnitude of what I am saying. If the work of the Holy Spirit is to make Jesus LORD of us personally, then it is a fact that only if Jesus begins to be made Lord of us – really and operatively – that the true fullness and release of the Spirit will begin to be possible. What? Do we actually think that we can experience the fullness of the Spirit if we dismiss, neglect, or remain ignorant of the very work of the Spirit of making Jesus Lord of us? Nonsense. And yet millions today think they are experiencing the fullness of the Spirit, and living in the power of the Spirit, simply because they got a second blessing. They think God just poured it out on them, and now it works – they think God is leading them and enhancing all they do.

Even the NT doctrine of, "the laying on of hands," has been corrupted along this line. The laying on of hands was symbolic of the fact that God was laying hands on an individual for HIS possession and purpose. That individual, from that point, no longer belonged to himself – he was set aside for God’s use. Thus, the laying on of hands was indicative of the Lordship of Jesus over that person. Can we now see why, at salvation, when a person was baptized with the Holy Spirit, that the laying on of hands was done? Sure. They are coming under the Lordship of Jesus. But today, many are saying that it is through the laying on of hands that an anointing is imparted or transferred. The emphasis is upon some anointing that is passed from one person, and received by another. Such teaching is never in the Bible.

These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which you have received of him abides in you, and you need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall abide in him. (1 John 2:26-27)

There is NO, "transferable anointing!" None! The anointing of the Holy Spirit is from God directly to each of us. Sure. The anointing of God is not a THING. It is a matter of us being apprehended by a PERSON. How much more clear does God need to be about this matter? Indeed, John states that he is assuring us of this Truth SO THAT NO MAN SEDUCE US. If you and I think we can ignore such warnings and remain clear of deception we are already deceived.

Now, if you grasp what I am saying about all of these things, you will see that the Christian life is a matter of, yes, us surrendering to God’s call to Christ, but once we do, it is a matter of God apprehending us for His will, purpose, and glory. It is not a matter of us apprehending God for our goals in life. Sure. Can we see that this gets back to us COMING UNDER the power of the Holy Spirit, rather than us possessing some power? In order to BECOME a witness unto Christ, you must COME UNDER the Holy Spirit, COME UNDER the Lordship of Jesus, and COME UNDER the kingdom of God. This is what it means to be GOVERNED by the Spirit of God as a son of God.

It has always been the goal of Satan to get people to try to possess the things of God, but not as the result of being GOVERNED by God. The gospel of Satan is that you can have what God has for you, but that you don’t need to come under the work of the Cross or Lordship of Jesus. Of course, it won’t be taught that way – it will be taught as the real gospel.

A witness unto Jesus is one who is apprehended by Jesus for HIS purposes, unto HIS glory. A witness is one who, yes, has RECEIVED life from above, but who is more and more being GOVERNED by that life – is one who has come UNDER the power of the Holy Spirit.

The results of being governed by the Holy Spirit are that we will become living epistles of what it means for Jesus to be Lord of a human being. The fruits of the Spirit will emerge. Good works will be there. We will actually experience God Himself – we will be set free. And we will serve God through ministry. But all of it will be the outcome of the government of God OVER US.

So we have these three words regarding the baptism with the Holy Spirit: RECEIVE, UPON, and WITNESS. In the end, they all come back to ONE Truth – Christ in us, the hope of glory. Jesus is Lord, not just in word, but really.

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Wow! Powerful words!! Words we need to hear and take heed of as His children especially in these dark days so close to His Coming. I certainly was convicted by much presented here, as I was reminded of what it means to daily pickup my cross and follow Him. The Churches of today have become worldly and secular, as Satan makes his final push for souls because his time is short. It is difficult to be hated by the world, and even more so as our family and friends turn against us. It is certainly happening in my life and I am saddened by it every day.

Jesus warned us of this happening, and we should worry more if the world loves us. I seek comfort in His Word and just today I asked for His words of encouragement and prayed and then opened the Bible. I opened to Romans 8:1-2:

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death”.

That is good news, and will make anything we endure in this life more than worth it to obtain this glorious freedom and eternal life with our Savior and King.

JESUS IS ALL AND EVERYTHING!!

Patti C.