“When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, and you will testify also.” John 15:26-27.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Are you testifying? You overcome and conquer the devil and all his evil schemes through (by the instrumentality of) the blood of the Lamb and through (by the instrumentality of) the word of your testimony. Revelation 12:11.
If you want to walk in the fullness of the Spirit, in the full fruitfulness thereof, you must know the Promise, the Gift, the Great Commission, the Mission, the Assignment, and your Part, so that you will NEVER lose heart. I AM with you always to the end of this age and then you are forever with Me, face to face, heart to heart, spirit to Spirit knowing love beyond love.
But I want you to receive your full reward and glorious crown and you cannot if you turn down your Part, and it all starts in your heart, but it does not stop there, it goes out to the end of the earth and brings forth abundant harvest and an overflow for future generations.
Let us start with the Promise, My Promise, Jesus called it “the Promise of the Father.” It all stems from the first promise I made to you before the world began and that is the promise of eternal life. I fulfilled My promise in Jesus but the way that promise puts My life, My love, and My law in your hearts and raises you up to a new and glorious existence is the promise of the Holy Spirit. And He is My gift to you, My very deepest self; by which I enable you to join with Me in spirit and in truth, in revelation knowledge, in impartation of spiritual gifts and virtues, in producing the fruit of My Spirit, in partaking of My divine nature, and in doing the works Jesus did and greater. It is through the instrumentality of My Spirit in your spirit that you are able to walk in love, keep My commandments, constantly keep up conversation and fellowship with Me resulting in direction, protection, correction, and perfection, and discern the activity of the spirit realm, the good and the evil.
And all that in the Gift. But let us go back to the Promise, for My promises and gifts are all “yes” to you as one in Jesus. Let us look at the promise as I expressed it through My prophet Ezekiel.
Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. Ezekiel 36:25-27.
You see all these fulfilled in Jesus by the baptism of new birth (sprinkle clean water on you), your born again living spirit (I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh), and My Spirit in you (I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances).
On the day of Pentecost, however, My apostle Peter very clearly stated the Promise as foretold by My prophet Joel:
But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them: “Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my words. For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning; but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘That I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on My bondslaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit and they shall prophesy. And I will grant wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the LORD shall come. And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.’” Acts 2:14-21.
And then he went on to tell of the Promise.
This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. Acts 2:32-33.
And then he spoke of the Promise as for each believer:
Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” Acts 2:38-39.
The Promise is for you: the Gift of the Holy Spirit to make you a temple of My glory. It is My Covenant with you.
“As for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the LORD: “My Spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,” says the LORD, “from now and forever.” Isaiah 59:21.
And even My prophet Haggai spoke of the Promise.
‘As for the Promise which I made you when you came out of Egypt, My Spirit is abiding in your midst; do not fear!’ For thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘Once more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land. I will shake all the nations; and they will come with the wealth of all nations, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine,’ declares the LORD of hosts. ‘The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘and in this place I will give peace,’ declares the LORD of hosts.” Haggai 2:5-9.
This is how Jesus explained the Promise, the Gift, , the Great Commission, the Mission, the Assignment, and your Part:
Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” . . . but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” Acts 1:4-5,8.
Here you see the progression in this passage, first there was the Promise, My Spirit in you and on you. Then there came being baptized with the Holy Spirit, that is life and love poured into you and then you receive POWER from the Holy Spirit to be My witnesses to the ends of he earth.
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20.
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. These signs will accompany those who have believed in My name, they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed. Mark 16:15-20.
He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” Luke 24:46-49.
“When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, and you will testify also.” John 15:26-27.
And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” John 20:20-22.
I tell you to follow Jesus and to imitate Me. I tell you to feed My sheep and My lambs. How do you do that? Preaching, teaching, and healing. You give them the Word that they may grow thereby. Share the Word, give your testimony, and let it agree with My testimony about you: holy, blameless and all things working together for your good.
Each of you today has a part to play in being a witness and testifying to Jesus among those within your territory, and even those who are beyond, to the ends of the earth. It is time to take up the authority Jesus won back for you. It is time to wake up and walk in the Light and bring those in darkness out to the light.
And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. Ephesians 4:11-16.
I love you. Take this seriously; are you doing the one thing Jesus left you clear instructions to do? Isn’t it time you testified to Jesus, isn’t it time you took up your part in the body of Christ, the church?