“And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;  they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”  (Mark 16:17-18)

You and I are called earthen vessels to carry this GREAT TREASURE in us that the excellence of the power may of God and not of man.  WE are cracked pots made of earth and clay so that the transcendent character of this power will be clearly seen as coming from God and not from us. 

Our testimonies are evidences that God the Holy Spirit dwells in us Who is the power-source of the Kingdom of God, for everything of Christ that is to be demonstrated through a believer, that’s you and me, is MIRACLE OF GRACE!  It is never by our might nor by our power, but by the Spirit of God resident in us. 

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We are to keep in mind that the gospel is not good news without power.  It is good news because all of heaven awaits to reinforce what is proclaimed by those who believe.  Otherwise, what difference does it make to believe in the One True Jesus Christ Who was sent and given because of our Heavenly Father’s great love for us if there is no power made available to save us and deliver us from all destruction?  If we are to live the same way after being born again, born from above, born of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God, then, why bother meditate on the Word so faith will rise up within us and walk in His spoken Word if there is no power involved?

If we’re going to look at the world, there is a hidden desire in each one of us to possess power.  Hmmm … power to dominate people, power to rise above our circumstances, power to control the things around us, to name a few.  It is all because in the beginning, you and I were created to take dominion over the earth.

“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”   So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.  Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

It is in our DNA to subdue and have dominion, BUT the one very important thing that we need to have a revelation on is that we are to subdue and have dominion over the earth NEVER INDEPENDENT FROM AND OF GOD.   The most effective way to do it is His Way and that is to know WHO HE FIRST CREATED US TO BE and that is being MADE ACCORDING TO HIS IMAGE AND LIKENESS.  It is our connectedness, oneness and intimacy with Him that begets this kind of power and authority that is of God and NOT of man, and this is where many people fail to understand.  People indeed perish due to lack of knowledge, rejection of knowledge and forgetting the knowledge of the Truth Who is Jesus Christ. Thus, “the entrance of His Word gives LIGHT.  It gives understanding to the simple.” (Psalm 119:130)

His Word is the Lamp upon our feet and the Light unto our path.  His Word is our guide.  His Word is the sword of our spirits.  His Word is His Will.  His Word is wisdom.  His Word is our Daily Bread.  His Word is our Daily Drink.  His Word is health to our flesh and strength to our bones.  His Word is Spirit and Life. 

“For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)

Jesus is the Word! 

“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 1:1-4)

“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 1:14)

When our faith in His promises collides with the power of His spoken word revealed to us, manifestations happen.  These that follow and conform His Word are called TESTIMONIES.  These are evidences and proofs that Jesus is alive and that He lives in us, He answers us and He cares for us.

“Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully.” (1 Peter 5:7 AMPC)

Know this that He is more concerned with what concerns you and I, for He called Himself the KEEPER of the vineyard of our hearts in which He moment by moment waters.

“I, the Lord, am its Keeper; I water it every moment; lest anyone harm it, I guard and keep it night and day.” (Isaiah 27:3 AMPC)

What does a KEEPER mean?  A person who manages or looks after something or someone.  A guardian.  A protector.  A conservator.  A custodian. An administrator.  An overseer.  A caretaker.  A person who keeps what is valuable and to be cherished. These definitions are just described by mere men.  How much more if we take it from the perspective of the One Who created us?  It surely means more than what our human intellect can comprehend.  Moreover, He powerfully demonstrates Who He says He is. 

When we see the goodness of God in our lives, surely we did not win or fight for it with all our might.  We fight a good fight of faith by believing in His goodness and His faithfulness.   It is His love, favor and intimate affection and attention for us that is exhibited, showing the existence of the truth of His spoken Word that what He says, He will do and definitely make it good.  It is giving proof and evidence that He is in us, with us, for us, upon us actively and not just by being an spectator. 

I love what His Word says in Psalm 44:3 NIV, “It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your face, FOR YOU LOVED THEM.”

I had a health challenge these past few weeks.  On one of those nights, I could hardly sleep due to a very bad cold with unending sneezes.  I literally was exhausted.  I did all that I knew what to do and took some medicines, too, but it was to no avail. 

Into the wee hours of the morning, I was wide awake, struggling to get some rest, until I made up my mind to stand up and dig in into the promises of God.  We live because He speaks and we are healed because He speaks.  I was desperate for a new and fresh living word of God that will target, splinter and pulverize this opposition that is trying to steal my rest.  Lo and behold, I got hold of His Word for me that very moment.

“You are my hiding place;
You shall preserve me from trouble;
You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. 

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will guide you with My eye.” (Psalm 32:7)

I took time to meditate these spoken Word.  I am hidden in Him and it is He Who will preserve me and surround me with SHOUTS of deliverance.  He powerfully impressed in my heart to see myself healed and whole because Jesus Christ paid for it. This is how I perceived to be guided with His eye.   How does He see me at this very moment of need?  He was wounded, bruised and broken, and by His stripes I am healed.  And He sealed it all, He said, “IT IS FINISHED!”   Not long after this time of being in this secret place where He reveals His secrets, I was sound asleep.  Thank You, Jesus!

“I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.” (Romans 1:16)

I am not ashamed to share my testimony because it has the power to save others who will hear that causes their faith to rise up and believe in the ONE WHO SAVES, Jesus Christ.  Him being our Lord and Savior is not limited to us having the ticket to heaven and dwell with Him eternally.  Salvation includes our “heaven on earth” lives, and this is the very reason why Jesus came on earth, as the Son of Man so that we, who are sons of men, can become sons of God.  His life on earth paid our earthly lives.   

Salvation is saving us and forgiving us from our sins and JESUS is the One and Only Savior Who died and shed His Precious Blood to set us FREE.  Yes, this is in the spiritual view of being saved, but this also powerfully affects our physicality in the sense that He came in the flesh to redeem our flesh, to protect, keep alive, preserve life, deliver, heal, be made whole.  This also includes deliverance from demonic possession and physical healing from sickness and diseases.  He did it ONCE and FOR ALL and nothing was left UNPAID or UNREDEEMED!  The good news is, what He has done can NEVER BE UNDONE!  He paid it!  He suffered and died for it!  And He OVERCAME IT ALL when He resurrected from the grave where death has lost its sting!  And His Word says, “As He is, so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17)  What He overcame, we, too, can overcome, all by His grace through faith. We ovecome by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimonies.

“I have told you these things, so that IN ME you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]!  For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]”                      (John 16:33 AMPC)

On another occasion, I again faced a different health challenge.  Instead of going back to what He first spoke to me, I pressed on for a new and fresh living Word that He surely has in store for me.

Our God is not a god of formulas.  We need to seek Him for the NEW and Living Way and the “NOW” Word that He will speak to us that will be an enhancement to the last one He previously spoke to us, for He always takes us from faith to faith, from strength to strength, from glory to glory.  He desires to deepen our relationship with Him and His way is when we ASK, SEEK AND KNOCK and He answers and shows us great and mighty things that are yet to be revealed. 

When Moses parted the Red Sea, Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. (Exodus 14:21). 

When Joshua parted the Jordan River, he did not automatically do what Moses did.  Instead, he heeded the instructions from the Lord.  “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it.” (Joshua 3:3)  “So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them.  Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.” (Joshua 3:15-16)

The Lord our God parted both the Red Sea and the Jordan River, but both were done differently.  Should we desire to know His Way, we go to THE WAY, Jesus Christ, Who is the Word Himself, and HE surely will show us the way that we should go. 

As I sought the Lord, I found these verses but esteemed them bizarre because I have not read these before and never knew something like these existed in His Word. 

“Your affliction is incurable,
Your wound is severe.
There is no one to plead your cause,
That you may be bound up;
You have no healing medicines.” (Jeremiah 30:12-13)

The GOOD NEWS is that we are to find JESUS in the old testament so that our hope, our confident expectation of good, will be lifted high and higher.  We do not stop when what we have read is still in the negative. This only means that redemption is at hand.

As I read further, this is Jesus, Who is the Healer, Who is the Answer, speaking …

“I will restore health to you
And heal you of your wounds,’ says the Lord.” (Jeremiah 30:17)

What do you think my response was?  Hmmmm …. I thanked Him, praised Him and worshipped Him.  I JUMPED FOR JOY and the JOY OF THE LORD became my strength.  I declared, “as my days go, so shall my strength be for HE HAS SPOKEN and NOT ONE of His promises is VOID OF HIS POWER!”. His Word never fails and it is the same yesterday, today and forever! Hallelujah! 

My body suddenly conformed and submitted to the Word that was spoken to me.  His Lordship was established and His “NOW” Word became the final authority at that very moment.  Praise the Lord … that as His Word is settled in heaven, it was settled in the temple of the Holy Spirit, my body, where the Kingdom of God is resident.  This is a “heaven-on-earth” divine experience that He meant for us to partake.  Didn’t His Word say, “Your WILL be done ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.”? (Mathew 6:10). 

Indeed, GOD HAS GIVEN US HIS WORD TO REVEAL HIS WILL AND HIS INTENT IS TO MAKE HIS WORD OUR EXPERIENCE.

We share our testimonies because the testimony of Jesus Christ is a spirit of prophecy.  It ignites faith to those who are reading or listening that they, too, can experience His goodness and faithfulness.  

Mind you, the definition of testimony is “Do it again!”  That means the Lord our God is not a respecter of persons.  What He has done for you or for me can happen to anyone who believes for “Nothing is impossible to him who believes.”  

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ.  Jesus is the Word.  Therefore, the revealed Word to us is Jesus revealing Himself to us and His Word is confirmed with signs following.  He promised to manifest His presence to us and He is not an onlooker.  He performs what He promised and that is an absolute guarantee. 

Our testimonies give hope to those who are hopeless.  They bring light to those in darkness.  When Jesus Christ, the Light of this world, illumines us, it brightens the world around us. 

Imagine yourself walking in a dark alley and Christ in you Who is The Light keeps you brightly lit up with His magnificent brightness.  Don’t you think your surroundings will be influenced by the Light that you carry?  And not only that, if you are walking with someone whose hope is deferred and couldn’t see anything because he or she is being swallowed up or consumed by darkness of despair, he or she, too, can see, and gets to taste and see the goodness of God in your life that infuses strength and courage to believe God for that situation to turn around.  

We don’t share our testimonies just to make people feel better!  Testimonies are meant to stir up the faith of the ones reading or hearing as prophecies to their own lives that there is HOPE, a joyful anticipation of good in every situation and causes it to shift and change to good!  We proclaim that God is good, able and willing to do it again to those who believe! Hallelujah! 

Once you have your own testimony of what Jesus has done in and to your life, then, you too, can be an faith-influencer, a good news diffuser as you share it!  

Jesus is The Seed.  When we become born again, born of God, born of the incorruptible Seed of the Word, our lives will bear much fruit that carry seeds to sow and scatter until the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of His glory and goodness as the water covers the sea.

Never despise reaching one person with your testimony, because a single seed can produce a plantation.

In the Kingdom of God, no one is insignificant.  We are the body of Christ with unique functions.  There are people only you can reach with the touch of God.  That’s how significant each and every one of us is and our lives are God’s showcases of His power and goodness to those who believe.  We share the unsearchable riches of Christ to make people see what it means to fellowship with this mystery, CHRIST IN US THE HOPE OF GLORY, to the intent that the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church, that is you and me. 

When God wants to do something in this world, He is going to use His people in His sheepfold, His sheep that knows His voice and follow Him as His masterpieces, His mouthpieces, His hands and His feet on the earth, as partakers of His divine nature.  We are His co-laborers with anointed deeds, our divinely-enhanced doings, because we are carriers of His presence.

We are His very gateway of heaven invading earth. 

“And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,  that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”  (2 Corinthians 2:4-5) 

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, thank You for revealing Yourself to us by the One You sent, Jesus Christ, Your only Begotten Son.  Jesus, thank You, for showing us the Father.  Truly, Your life on earth anointed by the Holy Spirit and power You have made available for us to partake because You made us Your holy temples washed by Your precious blood, not made by human hands but You created us according to Your image and likeness.  Thank You, Holy Spirit, for opening the eyes of our understanding that we may know what is the hope of Your calling for us today.  Have Your way.  Be unleashed in our lives that our testimonies of God’s glory and goodness will be broadcasted to the ends of the earth that people may come to know the HOPE OF GLORY Who is Jesus Christ.  Amen!