Living the Resurrected Life. The Testimony Part 8 - Water, The Blood, and the Spirit - David Mitts

"And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. (Rev 12:11 NASB)

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Giving Opportunity Message

Last chapter we spoke about disappointment and the key of healing the broken heart that makes us sick by lowering our expectations. Lowered expectations distort how we see the reality of possibilities in our life. As we drop our expectation we turn to gimmicks or self-effort and stop believing for the miracles of God to be part of our experience. It’s not necessarily the case, that we don’t believe in miracles, just that somehow, they are not a part of our individual story. The healing we are believing for, the provision for a big vision, the resurrection of a dead relationship, etc. become limited to what we know and understand through our natural seeing and corresponding expectations. In order to have a breakthrough, we need to have our perspective shifted. The Apostle Paul shares about this transformation:

“For we know in part and prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away with.” (1 Corinthians 13:9-10)

In this passage our “partial” knowing is the way we know life through our wounds and false conclusions about life. This becomes our testimony or as stated in the verse, our prophesy. Emphasizing the speaking that we do out of our partial knowing as partial prophesying, connects this speaking to our future. Our disappointments that have broken our heart and shattered our reality drive conclusions or beliefs in our heart that bend reality to fit the conclusions and beliefs we have adopted.

The only way this reality can change is by a new perspective. The problem is for most of us since the hurts usually come through people, we need a fresh new voice to penetrate the darkness. The Apostle Paul describes this voice as “the perfect”. The perfect is the voice of the Lord. He alone is undeniable truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. In this way He is the testimony which unlocks our testimony.

This is what the Apostle John was speaking about in 1John 5:6-8

“This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three agree.” (1 John 5:6-8)

Yeshua came by the water. This is, I believe, a reference to the baptism of Yeshua when the Father spoke: “this is my Son” (Mat 3:17).

“and behold, a voice from the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”” (Matthew 3:17)

The question that John asked is why did Yeshua need to be immersed in water? The immersion of the Word into the water resulting in the anointing by the Holy Spirit reminds us of Genesis 1:1-2.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.” And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” (Genesis 1:1-5)

Yeshua who is the light, or “or” of the world went into the waters of immersion, to reveal righteousness. If we can step back to the heavenly view, we see that the world is in chaos and the Word, which is the light of God embodied in Yeshua goes into the waters of the Jordan river, whose name means the descending or flowing downwards. He comes out of the waters and the testimony of the Spirit is demonstrated.

“But Jesus, answering, said to him, “Allow it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he *allowed Him. After He was baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and settling on Him,” (Matthew 3:15-16)

In this one act, the testimony of the waters was fulfilled. It demonstrated the power of life over the chaos that brings death. Why am I emphasizing this so much? Because we live in chaotic times, and we are mostly made up of water. In our overcoming the times we are in we need to realize and activate the testimony of the waters.

Yeshua showed us one of the keys to overcoming when He “fulfilled” or demonstrated the key to restoring righteousness in the waters of the Jordan. He is eternally the Word, or the Light of God’s order over darkness. The waters testified of this reality when He arose from the death that was symbolized in the waters.

We also see another development of this with the Samaritan woman at the well.

“So the Samaritan woman *said to Him, “How is it that You, though You are a Jew, are asking me for a drink, though I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus replied to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”” (John 4:9-10)

Water is the essence of life. Yeshua is making an exchange here. He is as the Word using water to convey the true essence of life, coming from the Word that He is. Yeshua is offering the woman an opportunity at the place of the testimony of the water to exchange the life that comes from natural water, which may feed the body to be exchanged for supernatural water, “living water” which contains the Word and brings eternal life. He explains:

“Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.”” (John 4:13-14)

The fountain of living water that produces eternal life is later described by Yeshua at the Temple is the witness of the Spirit in the heart of the Believer.

““The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” But this He said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:38-39)

You cannot truly separate the Spirit from the water but for the sake of emphasis I am focusing right now on the testimony of the water and its significance in our chaotic times.

Returning to the woman at the well, she cannot make the leap to the actual conversation at this point so she responds with a natural fleshly perspective:

“The woman *said to Him, “Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here to draw water.”” (John 4:15)

Yeshua, knows He has to take the conversation to the next level, so He helps her understand by asking for her husband to come:

“He *said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.”” (John 4:16)

He does this to reveal the chaos in the waters of her life. This is His mercy in action. She responds by revealing her situation as she sees it:

“The woman answered and said to Him, “I have no husband.” Jesus *said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this which you have said is true.”” (John 4:17-18)

In this exchange, He is trading the waters of chaos, her broken life for the waters of eternal life, the healing waters. She then realizes what is happening and declares:

“The woman *said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and yet you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one must worship.”” (John 4:19-20)

She now has ears to hear and realizes that God has sent Yeshua and responds with her religious view about location of the throne of God. The Samaritans are the remnants of the lost northern tribes of Israel and made their mountain a replica of Jerusalem, yet always knowing that it was only a copy of the real throne. Imagine what that would feel like, to know that you are worshipping at a copy of the real and hoping that somehow it is enough. The irony is that worship is never about a place, church or otherwise but about a genuine heart of love for God. Yeshua responds to this deep cry:

“Jesus *said to her, “Believe Me, woman, that a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. “You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. “But a time is coming, and even now has arrived, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”” (John 4:21-24)

By this answer the Word has spoken to the waters of death, the emptiness of religion that clothes itself in robes, rituals, and buildings. He transforms these which in the waters of death, symbolized by the Jordan river which travels to the dead sea. Instead He speaks to the waters in her heart and she comes alive and declares:

“The woman *said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” Jesus *said to her, “I am He, the One speaking to you.”” (John 4:25-26)

This is the ultimate reality of the testimony of the waters. The “living waters” are the waters that contain the words of life.

A Japanese scientist, Masuro Emoto demonstrated that water responds to the words spoken or even written to the waters by changing the crystalline structures of the water molecules. This demonstrates that our words, our testimony has power reflected in water. Since we are mode up mostly of water, we can conclude that our very bodies and health are affected by our testimony.

“So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of unrighteousness; the tongue is set among our body’s parts as that which defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of our life and is set on fire by hell.” (James 3:5-6)

If the words we speak can defile our body, then they can also bless our body by our choosing words of life.

so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. (Eph 5:26-27)

Activation: Intentionally prophesy to your body. Begin with head and your senses and go through your body and speak blessing to every cell, tissue, organ, all the hormones, nerves, brain, chemical reactions, etc. You can write out the word and place it before your body when you sleep at night on an index card. By doing this you are activating or transforming the water in your body into living water. IT is the washing of the waters by the word. Speak alignment and eternal life to the waters and take authority over the chaos and confusion of this word’s worship of death.