Since the testimony of Jesus is supposed to be prophecy, then what is prophecy? Prophecy is defined in the same Dictionary as: “a foretelling, prediction or a declaration of something to come”. Actually these definitions do not capture the true meaning of prophecy. Prophecy actually has a creative aspect. Hebrews 11:3 puts it this way: “Through faith we understand that the ages were framed [prepared, created] by the word of God, so that what came forth was not made of anything that does appear” In other words the purpose of our testimony is to create or bring into existence things which do not yet appear.
God made creation from nothing visible by simply speaking it into existence (see Genesis 1). He said “let it be” and it was. So it is by prophecy of the word of God. It is literally creating something out of something that does not appear; speaking it into existence if you will. In Revelation 1:1-2 John says: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John, who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw”. What John was seeing and communicating was something not then visible but by his act of speaking it he was creating it into something visible. He was framing an age or framing what was to come through his testimony.
Jesus Christ was the word made flesh, the “logos” in Greek, the testimony of the Father on the earth. John says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He [Christ] was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:1-3). So Christ was the word and through this word (the spirit of prophecy) all things came into being. This is true prophecy. All things came into being through the word of God, Christ the Son of God.
John the Baptist testified of the Christ that had not yet appeared but who was to come. “This is the TESTIMONY of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” They asked him, What then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” Then they said to him, “Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said” (Isaiah 40:3; John 1:19-23).
John was sent to create the atmosphere for Christ to appear i.e. to “make straight His way”.
John the Baptist goes on to say: “The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! “This is He on behalf of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’ “I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water.” John TESTIFIED saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. “I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ “I myself have seen, and have TESTIFIED this is the Son of God.” (John 1:29-34).
John’s testimony was of a coming Christ not yet visible and it was His testimony who announced the Lord’s appearance at His baptism. His act of faith, baptism, brought forth his testimony that he had baptized the Christ who was to come and now was here. After he saw Him (Jesus) he testified that yes this was the Christ now on earth in human form.
If testimony is actually the speaking of the word of God then our testimony is both powerful and comes forth with authority. Hebrews 4:12 says: “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart”.
The word is powerful to the point of bringing down strongholds. Paul says: “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses” (2 Corinthians 10:3-4).
We can then safely conclude that testimony is a far cry from witnessing to someone in the street or church in the hope of convincing them to accept Christ, be saved and go to heaven. Nor is it the story of how we were saved. The word of our testimony should bring the person to whom we speak it to his/her knees by the power and authority generated. Our testimony should create in someone something that he does not yet have. If we are to be real Christians, Sons of God, on the earth let’s be honest. Our words, our testimony should be freighted with the same power as Christ’s were. They should contain the power to create (or frame) a new age.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SPIRITUALLY, RELIGION
To understand the difference between religion and spirituality, one must go to the scriptures and examine Jesus’ discourses with the Pharisees. These “discussions” were about spirit verses religion. The Pharisees were the religious leaders of the day, as were the Sadducees, the scribes and the lawyers (the law givers). These adhered to the Law of Moses, given to Moses by God in the wilderness, including the 10 commandments. The nature of God’s Laws as they were given and applied to Israel demanded strict adherence to each. Those who the violated the law were often punished.
It became readily apparent, however, that no man could continually obey God’s Laws. So various provisions were enacted to cleanse the people of their violations. Provisions for sin were made by various types of offerings and sacrifices administered by the Levitical priests. Some of these offerings and sacrifices are set forth in the first seven chapters of Leviticus. There were also Feasts and convocations initiated whereby sin could be forgiven, at times for the entire nation. On the annual Day of Atonement (now called Yom Kipper) a sacrifice was made which removed the sin of the entire nation of Israel for the entire previous year. In that case the sin was transferred onto a goat by the High Priest and the goat was led away out of the camp, never to be seen again.
However, these sacrifices were never permanent and had to be performed continually in order to temporarily atone for the continuous problem of repeated sin. During times when Israel was apostate, worshiping gods other than the one God, there was not even temporary provision for sin in the land. When God’s nation would abandon Him completely, He would bring great judgments on the nation as a whole. Many times in its history Israel was conquered and or enslaved for their sin by other nations. They were eventually completely destroyed by the Roman Empire.
But even in their darkest times of apostasy God still promised a day would come when His people would live in the land without sin, in the blessing of the Lord. All that He required was that Israel turn their hearts back to Him and love and obey Him only. But He ultimately had to send part of Himself, His only Son Christ, to accomplish this.
After the coming of Christ many would look back and see that God had a purpose in bringing the Law and proving that man could not fulfill it in himself. The Law actually became a tutor or teacher to bring us to something better. That something better was initiated by Christ by His New Covenant. Galatians 3:23-25 explains: “But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor”.
Realizing that man could never fulfill God’s Laws, however hard he tried, Jesus did for him when He came with a New Covenant of spirit and faith. After Christ, righteousness was not measured by obedience to a law but was determined by faith in Christ who fulfilled the Law for us in His flesh. Thereafter righteousness was reckoned by faith, not by works of the law. Christ came to “write the laws on people’s hearts”,