We Are All Witnesses

"Ability was also needed because God knew what these witnesses would have to withstand in the coming days, and they’d need all of God to do it."

MOST OF WHAT men decide about what is discovered beneath the earth is wrong. Don’t misunderstand me. There are some uber-intelligent men and women with great knowledge of geology and archaeology and historical cultures. Some major pieces from man’s past have been found and interpreted, adding to what little we know. Yet, at the same time, there are Darwins out there, extremely misled individuals who have “figured it all out” incorrectly, and other more well-meaning people who have taken what is a crumb and turned it into the backside of a yak.

God is the foundation of everything. He is the beginning of time, and, one day, He will end time. He has witnessed all of history from Adam and Eve to this year. He knows the future, what governments will rise and fall, who will be born and who will die and when. He speaks all languages, both the dead ones that no man can read, the ones men have misinterpreted and hung in a museum, and the current ones. He understands all dialects, all accents, and loves everyone because of their differences. Not “in spite of.” He loves individuality. This is why in the Bible we see so many different cultures represented. God spoke to Israel, to Egypt, to Babylon, to Rome.

I saw this pointed out once. The center of Jerusalem is USA. Interesting, eh?

So the fact God gave man a Spirit language should not surprise anyone. First off, He wanted to speak to us without enemy interference. In World War II there was a group of men called the Navaho Code Talkers. They used their native language to communicate between the allies, and the enemy had no idea what they were saying. Speaking in God’s language, or speaking in the Spirit, is for this same purpose. The devil is defeated, but he has ears. This doesn’t matter when you’re speaking in God’s language. He can’t interpret it. Secondly, only God could take what sounds like grunts and groans and make even those speak His truth. These are the words of Romans 8:26.

“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” (Romans 8:26)

Notice, it gives the purpose first. The Spirit HELPS our INFIRMITIES. The word “infirmities” means weaknesses. The purpose of prayer in the Spirit is our benefit. This is also seen in verse 28, which follows. All things in prayer work for our good. This is because, verse 27, the Spirit of God prays the perfect will of God to God. It can’t be messed up. It IS NOT that God uses bad things (sickness and pain) to teach us something. That is an incorrect interpretation. James 1 tells us God never tempts man with evil. Here, it is talking about successful prayer and especially that done in the Spirit’s language.

The initial gift of a heavenly language for the benefit of the church is seen in Acts 2. Jesus had told His disciples to wait for the Spirit together in Jerusalem, which was some 120 individuals, including His mother, Mary. He had breathed the Spirit into them days before, giving them the gift of salvation (John 20:22). They were waiting, now, for Holy Spirit power to “come upon them.” He equated it with a baptism, the flooding of the entire being with God’s presence. The Holy Spirit, the presence and power of God, would fall, and they would have the dunamis of God, His very ability, to “be witnesses unto the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8).” Why does this matter? It is because the exousia or authority of God and the dunamis or ability of God always work together. Jesus had restored the exousia or authority to anyone saved by God’s grace (Luke 10:19). But having authority over the devil was not enough. Ability was also needed because God knew what these witnesses would have to withstand in the coming days, and they’d need all of God to do it.

When the Spirit of God fell upon those waiting after what was some fifty days following Jesus’ Resurrection, the evidence or proof of it came in several visual and audible forms. I don’t know why this surprises and/or freaks people out. When God appeared to Israel at Mt. Sinai, He was so terrifying even Moses shook, and this was the same God (the only living God) who had parted the Red Sea and made dry land. He spoke light and time into existence in Genesis. John 1:1 tells us the Word was in the beginning both with and as God. Jesus came to make men clean and free from sin, but He also came to restore men to where they were when He created them.

Adam was quite the man. He named all the animals in existence and some who have ceased to exist due to men’s interference. Think of the knowledge that required. He was given dominion over all creatures and told to go and replenish the earth. This is not just a command to have children but includes the tending of the garden and use of the full authority and power of God. Satan, a fallen being consumed with his own sin, was green globe jealous, so he tricked Eve into doing what was forbidden and sin and death came into the earth. Immediately, God promised that her descendant, her Seed, would crush the snake’s head. That Seed is Jesus. The patriarch Abraham cut a covenant with God that required Jesus’ sacrifice. Then because Jesus is the Christ, anointed forever with the Spirit’s power without measure, God defeated the enemy and raised Jesus from the dead, giving Him a perfect, glorified (of a new nature) body.

We will have a new physical body one day, just like Him, but now, today, while we live on this earth, we are given eternal life (quantity and quality of life), God’s loving nature, and all of His strength and energy to live well and fulfill what callings He gives us. It takes authority, the command for justice, and ability (power) the strength of the Spirit to do it. Prayer is our key to communication, and prayer in the Spirit’s language enables us to go forth despite the enemy being in our face because God will always back us up.

Receiving the Spirit’s prayer language is our choice. We can say no, and tragically some people either believe it has gone away (it hasn’t) or they relegate what happened in Jerusalem to a rare occurrence of people speaking other men’s native languages. The latter is what happened. But it was because the Spirit caused the men and women who had congregated in Jerusalem to celebrate Pentecost to hear the words spoken in the Spirit’s language as many of the languages of the earth. Peter, for instance, prayed in the Spirit (often called speaking in tongues), and someone outside heard it in Egyptian.

Nothing is impossible with God. Nothing. And these are the words of Acts.

“And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:4)

“And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?” (Acts 2:8)

This was but one manifestation or clear evidence of the power of God which had come upon them. A study of Acts shows many others. Phillip was translated from the desert road to Gaza to the city of Azotus after speaking to the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:29). The apostle Paul prevented the men on the prison ship from dying in a catastrophic storm. He was so calm at the time, he bid them to eat, and it says, they became cheerful and obeyed (Acts 27:34). And also, not to miss the spread of the gospel unto the Gentiles and the healing of many of physical ailments through the power of God upon them.

God speaks all languages. Causing a group of uneducated Galileans to speak in languages they hadn’t learned was but the initial, awesome declaration of that which Jesus’ victory had accomplished. We are all witnesses of His Resurrection. That we are no longer filled with sin, a spiritual rebirth that we cannot see with our physical eyes, is the highest and most important part of our salvation. But that God would hunger for His children to have the power to look and act like Him and it be seen outwardly in the healing of the body, the deliverance of the mind, and whatever incredible things God in us will do through us, should also be believed by us. God, who created the physical body in His likeness, created the spirit in His image. On earth, in humanity, they always work together.

Being filled with the Spirit is as simple as asking Him to come upon you. Though the laying on of hands and encouragement of someone who can give guidance is often sought for, He will answer your faith right where you are. It isn’t about other people or even being in a service’s atmosphere. It is God coming upon you to enable you in ways you cannot be without Him, and He can and will give you this gift where you sit in your home. Our surrender to Him is our assurance that He will come and work. He desires to give us His very best and has only our strength and success at heart. For this reason, Jesus came to earth, to live and die and rise again, to restore to mankind the presence of God. And I know you, like me, want all that He has provided. We must not let our fear prevent us from receiving God’s heart but roll our cares onto His broad shoulders and take His loving, faithful hand.

PRAY WITH ME:
Holy Spirit, I believe Jesus is Savior and make Him the Lord of my life, so I know you are IN ME and I am saved. I ask you to COME UPON me today and baptize me in your power. You are my Guide and Teacher because of salvation. With this baptism, You are my Ability to go forth and preach the gospel and lay hands on the sick. I desire the fullness of God UPON me, to look and think and act like Jesus, as His witness upon the earth. Praise your name forever.

Now, whatever you hear in your heart, however strange it may seem at first, speak it out, and raise your hands and worship Him. Because this promise is for you, as He is for you.

“I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:” (1 Corinthians 14:18)

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

Photo by Amy Shamblen on Unsplash


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com