Testimony 1

God has been speaking to me over a long period of time about the importance of a testimony in a believer’s life. It has really become stronger of late and the timing of this seems right.

Jesus the Son of God, God in the flesh, came to be a living testimony of God and glorify God. He is God, John 1:1-4 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:18 “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” & “No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.” Unique - Being the only one of its kind: Without an equal or equivalent; unparalleled. Unusual; extraordinary: I don’t know if this is the right word to use but I think Jesus is too awesome to put into words. We have the Word of God to describe Him and His living work in people lives, living testimonies. Jesus testified about God and glorified God in ways we don’t fully understand yet. His creations, birth, baptism, death, resurrection, starting the church, what He done in peoples lives miracles etc.

Jesus is a living testimony to God and is still living today in many different ways. One way is through is continued work in peoples lives. Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Jesus cousin John the Baptist came to be a living testimony to tell everyone of Jesus and glorify God. John 1:6-7 “God sent a man, John the Baptist, to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony.” John the Baptist also baptized Jesus and saw the heavens open and the Holy Spirit settle upon Jesus. Jesus picked 12 men, disciples who followed Jesus started the church and was a living testimony. Each of them was martyred because they followed Jesus and their testimony. The apostle John was the only one that lived to an older age but was exiled to an island called Patmos. Revelation 1:9  ^“I, John, am your brother and your partner in suffering and in God’s Kingdom and in the patient endurance to which Jesus calls us. I was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching the word of God and for my testimony about Jesus.” The 12 disciples walked close with Jesus 2 Peter 1:16-18 ^“For we were not making up clever stories when we told you about the powerful coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We saw his majestic splendor with our own eyes  when he received honor and glory from God the Father. The voice from the majestic glory of God said to him, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.” We ourselves heard that voice from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain.” 1 John 1:1-3 “We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

 

Jesus came to save and take away the sins of the world by His death on a cross and His blood. Revelation 12:11 ^“And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.” 1 John 5:6-12 ^“And Jesus Christ was revealed as God’s Son by his baptism in water and by shedding his blood on the cross—not by water only, but by water and blood. And the Spirit, who is truth, confirms it with his testimony.  So we have these three witnesses— the Spirit, the water, and the blood—and all three agree.  Since we believe human testimony, surely we can believe the greater testimony that comes from God. And God has testified about his Son. All who believe in the Son of God know in their hearts that this testimony is true. Those who don’t believe this are actually calling God a liar because they don’t believe what God has testified about his Son. And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.”

 

What’s interesting is right in the temple where God’s own chosen people worshiped God and taught God’s word and law. The experts and teachers where Jesus, God Himself would go sometimes to teach and preach.  They at the time and some never did accept Jesus the living testimony and sacrifice that was sent to save them. They were teaching others about God and He was right there walking with them but would not accept Him. It says in John 1:11 “He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.” They refused Jesus their Lord and savior, Jesus death on a cross, accepting Jesus and carrying their own cross Jesus intended for them to carry to die to their self and be a living testimony to glorify God, and they didn’t accept being reborn and the Holy Spirit. In John 3:1-21 Jesus is having a conversation with Nicodemus, one of the Jewish religious telling him he must be reborn and in verse 3:10-11 “Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things?  I assure you, we tell you what we know and have seen, and yet you won’t believe our testimony.” These guys done everything in their power to cover the testimony and glory of God not to be seen. This is a stunt they pulled after Jesus was seen after His resurrection Matthew 28:11-15 “As the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and told the leading priests what had happened.  A meeting with the elders was called, and they decided to give the soldiers a large bribe.  They told the soldiers, “You must say, ‘Jesus’ disciples came during the night while we were sleeping, and they stole his body.’  If the governor hears about it, we’ll stand up for you so you won’t get in trouble.”  So the guards accepted the bribe and said what they were told to say. Their story spread widely among the Jews, and they still tell it today.”

 

This is really a reminder to me how we can read God’s word and become more knowledgeable which is a great thing but at the same time may not be aware of the supernatural work of God in so many peoples lives. A living testimony to glorify Him, that may be strange or unexplainable or may not fit into our system, box or way of thinking. Just a reminder!

 

So God went outside of their system, pride, power, knowledge, riches, and hard hearted selfishness. He chose 12 common men, fishermen and a despised tax collector. Men that were probably told by the experts of God’s laws, that they weren’t good enough. Then he poured His Holy Spirit and love and created in them a powerful living testimony to glorify God.

 

The converts in the early Church changed the world they lived in because of what they saw and heard. It was the power of the gospel that changed lives, not what they learned from mere teaching. This power drew people to Christ. Things happened that could not be explained as anything other than the activity of God. Os Hillman.

 

 

2 Corinthians 3:3-6 "Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This “letter” is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts. We are confident of all this because of our great trust in God through Christ.  It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God.  He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life."

 

 

 

 

Strongholds

Strongholds

2 Corinthians 10:1-6 “Now I, Paul, myself am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—who in presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you. But I beg you that when I am present I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.”

Stronghold is defined as a castle, fortress, a place of protection, a fortified place, a place of security. God is our stronghold and place of protection and security. Psalm 18:2 “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” When king David was on the run from Saul for  years God took care of David, He put people around him to protect him and provided strongholds for him to stay in for protection. 

     But there are other type of strongholds that come against the truth and will of God. Every believer has strongholds in them that need to be identified and pulled down. There can be strongholds over a city, church, ministry that needs to be identified and pulled down. In a believer it could be many things, a belief, way of thinking, attitude, sin, unforgiveness, bitterness, fear, idol, etc. In the blue letter bible for the verse above in 2 Corinthians 10:4 it defines this type of stronghold as - a castle, fortress, fastness, anything on which one relies. Anything a believer attaches or relies themselves on that could continuously get in the way of our relationship with God. Could be pornography, a habit, another person, etc, that Satan can and influence and work through. God is jealous God and going to come after these things in our life because he loves us and wants his will for our lives. These are areas that God wants to change and renew to become more like Him. Exodus 34:14-15 (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God).

In the 9 second video I put on here is from the Lord of the rings movie. A hobbit named Smeagol or Gollum is fishing with his friend. His friend finds a ring that represents a very powerful evil to take over the world. Smeagol becomes influenced by the power of the ring and kills his friend. The ring is like a stronghold to him that he calls his precious, he is obsessed by this thing and turns into a mad creature. He looses the ring to another hobbit and his cousin Frodo is chosen to carry the ring to destroy it. Smeagol pursues the ring in a deceptive way till it ends up killing him. Even though this is a fictional movie it has a lot of biblical comparisons. What’s interesting in this movie is a team of mighty talented warriors is assembled to go on the journey to help destroy the ring but a humble little hobbit is chosen to carry the ring till the end and destroy it. There was a lot of deception because of the ring but Frodo the hobbit proved faithful. Another important part of this is a hobbit named Sam that was with Frodo and stayed faithful during the whole journey. Humility is a powerful weapon when dealing with Satan and his army of demons.

 http://youtu.be/Iz-8CSa9xj8

The person I want to use in the bible is Gideon. Gideon is one of my favorite people in the bible for many reasons, his story is in Judges 6-8. In Judges 6:12 God comes to Gideon in a low place of weakness and humility and calls him a Mighty Warrior. God tells him he is going to rescue Israel from the mighty Midianites who was oppressing Israel to starvation. Gideon has a really hard time at first accepting this for a while because of who he is and were he is from and his circumstances. He is small and God is big and mighty and does powerful supernatural things. It didn't make since or add up to Gideon and I’m sure it didn't add up to others. Till God chiseled down 32,000 men in an army to 300 and led Gideon and the men to defeat the Midianites, God gets the glory.

But the part of Gideon’s story I like is when Gideon pulled down the false gods of baal and asherah and built an altar to God. Judges 6:25- ^“Now it came to pass the same night that the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it; and build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down.”  So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did as the Lord had said to him. But because he feared his father’s household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night.” There is a lot that comes to me in this but I like that Gideon was afraid and went during the night and took ten men with him.

This is from the blue letter bible, the name Gideon means. Destroyer, brave warrior, hewer of trees, chop or cut down, to break strength, faith in God not in power of arms. Some other interesting descriptive words that I won’t list but you can look it up. Anyway Gideon was in a place of weakness but because of God’s power working in him supernaturally he accomplished a great work for the kingdom. He was used to pull down shrines of false god’s and built an altar to  God to bring glory to Him.

Even though we walk in the flesh God gives us his mighty weapons to pull down strongholds. Love, truth, faith, humility, the Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, God’s word, the armor of God, fasting and prayer are all weapons of God. Every believer has God’s mighty weapons. Gideon took 10 men with him to tear down the shrines of false god’s. Your brother’s has God’s mighty weapons. I like to meet and study with men it helps me grow in many areas. I like to set across from another brother and open myself up deeper with God’s word and be transparent pray for one another and have accountability in truth and love. When I fellowship and study with other men it helps me see what’s in my own heart. Proverbs 27:19 “As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.” KJV

Have Faith in God’s mighty weapons and that God can use them through a humble servant no matter how long you have been a believer and what part of the body you are. God’s mighty weapons are a gift from God to every believer from the grace of God when you accept Jesus by faith. You don’t have to earn them through a performance, test, degree or program. You have them from your faith in God.

2 Corinthians 10:6 And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled. Readiness on blue letter bible is defined as prepare ready, opportune, seasonable, to receive one coming.