Christian Living
The Holy Spirit-Testifies
When we think about Testifying or being a Witness, TV sit-coms such as CSI, Law and Order, NCIS and a number of others come to mind. However, when Jesus spoke about Testifying and Bearing Witness it was always linked to God the Father and the Work or Operation of the Holy Spirit communicating with a believer.
Connecting the Teachings
If you’ve been following along with the Teachings that the Holy Spirit has led me to write on this site you’ll notice that it’s geared at presenting the Topic of the Holy Spirit’s operation in the life of a believer.
To explain it another way, Jesus taught His disciples about many things in the Upper Room in John chapter 13 and 14. Then explains that the Holy Spirit will grant us understanding about what He said because the Holy Spirit is…
1. Is our Helper (John 14:16)
2. He will be with us forever (Constant Companion) (John 14:16)
3. He is the Spirit of Truth (He will reveal to us the Truth of God’s Word when we read it and Meditate on it)(John 14:17)
4. He dwells with us and in us (John 14:17)
5. He will Teach US ALL THINGS (John 14:26)(ALL THINGS MEANS ALL THINGS)
6. And bring us to remember ALL THINGS that Jesus told us (John 14:26) (WE WILL BE REMINDED OF ALL THINGS JESUS SAID).
You may think I’m redundant and boring but I want to drive home a point. Since the articles—
1. Greater Works Shall U Do
2. Minister Like Jesus
3. The Holy Spirit and Greater Works
4. The Holy Spirit Teaches Us All Things
5. And Understanding You
The Holy Spirit desires for us to capture the Biblical reality that we are to Understand His Ministry. How He operates in the life of a believer. This is why we broke down the Human Being-- by stating that we are a 3 part being spirit, soul and body. And that we will encounter things in life and we will operate like Paul said;
1. We will think
2. We will rationalize or reason out what we are thinking
3. We will speak about it and make plans
4. Then we will act or react on what we planned (See 1 Corinthians 13:11)
Like I shared in my last article all this happens in seconds but explaining the process takes more time about how we function. So connecting all this together to see how the Holy Spirit operates in our lives as believers to a certain extent; Jesus continues to reveal more about how the Holy Spirit operates when He leaves the Upper Room and walks with His disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane.
Outlining John Chapter 15
Jesus begins to share the Concept of the Vine and the Branches—which is our relationship to Him and how we are to produce fruit (godly character) by staying hooked up to the Vine (John 15:1-11)
Jesus then commands us to love one another as He loved His disciples (John 15:12-17)
Jesus then shares how the world will hate us for who we represent and how we will be persecuted (John 15:18-25)
The Promise of the Holy Spirit
When Jesus taught everything in John Chapter 15, He promises the Holy Spirit will do something else that the disciples did not know about and that is;
1. The Holy Spirit will TESTIFY of Me (JESUS) (John 15:26)
2. And we will Bear Witness of who Jesus is (John 15:27)
The Meaning of Testifying
The Life Application Bible defines (Testified, Testifies, and Testifying) as to bear witness or give evidence.
When Jesus was talking about the Born-again Topic with Nicodemus who was fascinated by the Power and Authority Jesus operated under. Jesus explained to Nicodemus he must be Born-again to see and enter the kingdom of God. Nicodemus was still lost when Jesus tried to explain the Topic to him 3 different ways. Jesus then said, We speak what We know and TESTIFY what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness (John 3:11).
Nicodemus and religious leaders of today will not receive Powerful and Miraculous testimony when we try to share it. Even if we show proof and give clear teaching and parallels of Biblical examples.
The Second Meaning of Testifying
Besides, the Nicodemus and Jesus’ Born-again discussion that denotes the difficulties we may encounter when trying to TESTIFY. We must look at the initial point of the Holy Spirit’s work of TESTIFYING about Jesus to Us (Believer’s) who are sincerely trying to gain revelation of who Jesus is (John 15:26).
Since Jesus started out by Teaching that He is the Vine, we are the Branches and God the Father is the Gardener the principles of gardening is the same with us growing and producing the fruit that God has been working on us by pruning--1. Separating and;--2. Cutting back the branches;--to promote the growth in our spiritual walk so we may TESTIFY about His transforming Power. We will be separated from people, places and things so God can groom us in His unique way. After the many maturing experiences we will encounter –if we allow God to work in our lives; people will take notice like Nicodemus did with Jesus, but not understand the process of the change in our lives.
The Third Meaning of Testifying
The 3rd meaning we must consider and learn to operate in is the believer’s lifestyle of hearing from God by way of Him using other people to affirm and confirm what He is doing in our lives.
When the Apostle Paul was addressing the Elders at Ephesus he said, and see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there (Acts 20:22)
Except that the Holy Spirit TESTIFIES in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me (Acts 20:23).
This level of the Holy Spirit’s method of TESTIFYING to believer’s is designed to lead us and guide us to do the will of God when things seem dark and unknown. We will eventually come to this level of leading when we passionately serve God (NO MATTER WHAT) without giving up.
The Fourth Meaning of Testifying
There’s a 4th meaning of TESTIFYING that the Holy Spirit does in the life of a believer. I would like to include it here, but it will take me 3 or 4 pages to explain it so we will do a part 2 to this teaching.
For now, consider that the Holy Spirit wishes to TESTIFY to us who Jesus is and how we are to respond to Him. May God enrich you with wisdom to consider and apply this teaching in Jesus’ name, amen.
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