By The Word Of Our Testimony

 

By the Word of our Testimony

 

Revelation 12:7-9

7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,

8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

We have been discussing principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world and spiritual wickedness in high places. We have also been discovering our ability to overcome them by walking as a follower of Yeshua, Jesus, seeking to walk as He did in purity, perfection and holiness. Further we have been discussing that even though the rulers of darkness display great power and manifest great signs and wonders, that we do not have to be debilitated by fear. We do not have to suffer paralysis. By our faith, works and obedience to the almighty creator we become endowed with power from on high to defeat the enemy and have the victory in every battle. This is inclusive of the battles fought in the natural realm as well as the spiritual.

I remember once, led by the Holy Spirit, I was instructed to teach the men in our congregation that the most powerful battle stance for the follower of Jesus to assume was, like Him, on our knees in prayer. I believe this to be true. The success of this is well established in me in accordance with my own testimony. That’s one of the wonderful things about testimony. Over time your testimony fills you with knowledge and experiences that cannot be taken from you. You develop an inner witness that no spirit or person can effectively dispute. It is yours.

When we read scripture about how Michael and his angels defeated the devil and his angels, we find that there is a three-part battle plan or strategy they used while defeating them. We see this in,

Revelations 12:10-11

10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

Here in verse eleven, we find the powerful strategy every follower of Jesus should adopt and have in their knowledge base when it comes to warfare. This is warfare in the natural and in the spiritual realm.

By the blood of the Lamb. You must discover, have faith, and walk in the knowledge of the fact that Jesus, the Lamb of God, gave His life for you as a holy sacrifice. He shed His blood for all of His sheep. His sheep are those who make the choice to follow Him and obey all He commands. This He did so that His sheep would have an avenue to be forgiven and freed from sinning, and the everlasting curse and death that surely follows continual sin. He did this so His sheep would have an avenue to the Father in heaven. He did this so that we would have life more abundant in this life and in eternity.

The word of their testimony. The holy angels developed a testimony. They grew to know the goodness of God. They saw the pain of separation from the source of life that comes with rebellion and wickedness that was exhibited by the fallen and their interactions and observance of mankind. They live in the result of their humility, obedience, righteousness, love and faithfulness to our heavenly Father. They know the result of disobedience and betrayal.  It is essential for we as believers and followers to develop a testimony. Be courageous, have faith, ask, ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find and knock and watch doors open to you. Draw neigh unto God He will draw close to you. Jesus promised this,

John 14:20-21

20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

Once the kingdom of heaven begins to manifest itself to you in a tangible way you desire to experience more. If you are like me, it lights a fire in you that cannot be quenched but each experience is added to your portfolio, so to speak, of encounters. By this you are enriched as you begin to move from glory to glory.  Your experiences begin to build faith and belief and that faith and belief compel you to seek more knowledge of the truth. This is when you really start to become a danger to the darkness of this world, and like Jesus, you begin to become challenged more and more in your hunger and in your faith. And this is where many stop in teaching this concept of casting down the accuser, because the next piece of the strategy requires a level of humility, surrender faith and belief that is available but most do not want to dawn.

“And they loved not their lives unto the death”. By your experiences (Testimony), you become so full of knowledge, faith and belief you start to make a transition. This transition is that of a temporal worldly thinker to an eternal thinker. Your knowing is no longer bound by the confines of the world but released into the universal understanding that with God, truly, nothing is impossible. Now here me, I am not saying we become careless and reckless. Foolishness ought not be suffered. What I am saying is that when the follower of Christ Jesus really knows that they are bound for eternity, the cares of this world begin to slowly grow dim, so too does the concern for the threats of the enemy. The devil and his children may be able to mess with us in this temporary life, but they have no presence nor effectiveness in the kingdom of Heaven. Realizing this is when you become a real threat to him and his design in the natural and in the spiritual.

The bible teaches us that without faith, it is impossible to please God. Jesus taught that if we are concerned more for our own lives other than doing what it takes to follow Him, we are not worthy of Him. Love of your own life will surely impede your ability to be an effective courageous warrior for the kingdom of heaven.

Consider this,

Matthew 10:37-39

37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.

39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

In our last discussion, titled, “In His Likeness and Image”. I said this, “Now biblically there are supernatural wars in the heavenlies and as we discovered in the last teaching, by the testimony of Elisha, we can, by faith, catch a glimpse in to the spiritual realm. This is happening all of the time but people are not aware of what they are truly witnessing”.

Truly there are manifestations of the supernatural realm happening all around us. Some of these we discussed in earlier teachings others we have yet to. Today it seems that sightings of unexplained phenomena are on the rise. More and more people are recording unexplained events. These involve events that used to be discounted as delusions or hallucinations of madmen. Recently, in some fields the understanding of this has changed dramatically. Let me give you an example. Since the earliest forms of written or pictorial records man has witnessed and made record of events and/ or objects appearing in the sky that seem to indicate the existence of intelligent life forms of other worldly origin. Most of the time these are things that people just pass off as imaginary, fanciful or fantastic, even unbelievable. People have reported sightings of objects that are considered to be obviously beyond the current technology of mankind presently. Most of these sightings were discounted and those attesting to their existence were ridiculed and scorned. That was until more recently. Objects are being caught on real-time modern-day recording devises. This includes radar systems and flight recorders in military and other types of aircraft.

Now the public is aware of these sightings and recordings more so then ever before, yet they seem to be remarkably unconcerned, even very disinterested. Recently the pentagon released a number of videos taken from military aircraft. One such video was taken from a fighter jet of an object flying over the ocean in the Arabian Gulf. As the object was flying it was suddenly hit in the side by another object which broke apart somewhat then bounced off. Even after the collision, the object kept flying on course. What was released to the public was that the unidentified object was struck by an anti-aircraft missile which inexplicably did not detonate. The durability of the craft allowed it to remain in flight subsequent to the impact. It continued on until the fighter was no longer able to track it. This was made part of a congressional hearing in the investigation into these events and the nature of their increased presence. This and other similar events have been attested to under oath in front of congress. These reported sightings are not made by hallucinating madmen mind you, but highly intelligent and credible people with the assistance of their high-tech recording devices. 

Do you believe that the events I have just revealed to you are true? I never really believed such things could be true. Some things such as this were fun to fantasize about as a child when watching Science fiction movies or reading science fiction novels but actually believing? Not really. But that mindset is part of my testimony. You see, I grew up in a household that was consistently experiencing input from very intelligent scientific people. We were practical, patriotic and hardworking, I began to operate heavy equipment and drive amphibious trucks for the family business at a very young age. Many of our family friends were in the construction, engineering, mining, medical, flight and legal fields. I gleaned much in my upbringing and was tutored to some degree in all of the fields I just mentioned. As is usually the case, most of my mentors included family members. However, some also included the likes of men like George and Charles Finn of the famous flying Finn twins of WWII.

After high school my chosen area of studies were Anthropology, Archeology and Paleontology. I always had an interest in origins and in ancient history, peoples and structures. However, as sometimes happens, life decisions cause us to change course. Because of some of my decisions, I found myself returning to the field of profession I grew up in and expanded in the fields of Marine Engineering and construction and mining.

I am telling you this because I believe it important to know how experiences and testimonies can really work to change ingrained thought processes and beliefs associated with origins. We were practical and logical. I grew up in the High Sierra Nevada mountains. I was an avid outdoorsman, a hunter and fisher. We had gold mines. We canned, we kept the generator serviced and fueled and gathered wood for the long winters. There were times when we could walk out the second story window into the snow. Again, we were a practical people and life was sometimes a very serious contest for us.

Now having this serious nature about me I can tell you this. I didn’t believe in unidentified flying objects until I had my own experience.  For the summer, sometimes me and my children would camp out in the back yard. Being up at nearly seven thousand feet in elevation, without a lot of neighbors and lights allows for very clear and bright star gazing. As we laid there, I would show them the satellites as they flew overhead. Eventually it became a game to see who could spot one before anyone else could. It was fun until we began to witness something very unusual. On two occasions as we watched the satellite cross the sky, they all of a sudden turned at nearly a ninety-degree angle without stopping or slowing down. These two events happened months apart the first time was a cause of wonderment. I was in my late twenties with a lot of life experiences and star gazing under my belt. I had never witnessed anything like it before. My education and knowledge told me that what we had witnessed was humanly impossible. But it occurred. I was sure of it. The first time caused me wonderment. Then it happened again and the second time caused me concern. Something was changing.

I never believed in Sasquatch or Big Foot. Until I had my own Experiences. Once we got a call from our friends on a reservation in the Nevada desert. They had had an experience with a creature they call Piedzo. When we arrived, we witnessed the evidence of their experience. But that wasn’t the last time.  As I said, I grew up in the forest. I was a hunter, not just a hunter but an archer. I believed I was familiar with every animal in the mountains until one night I had an experience with a large creature deep in the woods that screamed a scream that sounded like the roar of a lion mixed with the amplified cry of a baby. I never saw it clearly but where I was, was not a place frequented by people. I had gone all my life up until that point and never had an experience. Things were changing.

I never believed in poltergeist or Ghosts until life decisions caused me to have to move into a rental house, as a single parent, where strange occurrences began to happen. They began with opening and closing doors on the second level above my bedroom. The sound of someone upstairs walking back and forth in the middle of the night. This causing my dogs to stare at the ceiling and growl. Then it graduated to something taking over my computer and sending messages across my computer screen. What ever it was got very aggressive. I could sense hostility and anger in the air. What ever it was grew in its maleficence. What caused me to leave that house is when I had come home to find my kitchen cabinets open. Contents on the floor. The pantry door open food everywhere, a fifty-pound bag of dog food open and spilled through the kitchen and living room. The carpet in the living room was ripped off of the floor from the front door all the way to the kitchen, about twelve feet, and the front door looked as though my dogs were trying to eat their way out.

Experiences have a way of changing mindsets and belief processes. I didn’t really believe in the supernatural until I could not avoid acknowledging its existence. I didn’t believe in demons until I was attacked by them. The first time I actually saw a demon was late at night in my bedroom. I was woken up out of a deep sleep. As I opened my eyes, by the light of the moon shining through my window, I saw an old woman standing at the foot of my bed. She just stared at me snickering and softly cackling. I tried to address her verbally as I sought to quickly get up out of bed to confront the threat I perceived she presented. However, I found myself unable to speak or move. I laid there, helpless, fighting what seemed to be a nearly complete paralysis preventing me from moving. This lasted until she turned and seemed to glide across my room through my open door. As soon as she left my room the paralysis ceased to confine me so I immediately got up to pursue her but found she was nowhere to be seen. She Just vanished.

The second time I saw an actual demon was in an old large wooden church in Spokane Washington. This church was built in the 1800s in a part of the city now known for its elevated crime rate. It was a Sunday morning. My wife and I had just finished leading worship and the Pastor of the church was beginning to preach the message to the congregation. As this was going on, my spirit was just in an unsettled state, so I was in the back of the room walking back and forth behind the congregation. I was pacing, silently praying and proclaiming the goodness of God over the congregants.

As I was praying, my attention was drawn to the front of the room where the pastor and pulpit stood. To my left, down the left-hand wall was a hallway entrance that led from the room we were in, to the outside. At the end of the hall was a door that had a window in it so the sunlight shown through the window down the hall and into the room. This hallway also ran past the doorway to the kitchen and the access to the basement stairs.  As the pastor was preaching, my attention was, for some reason, fixed on the hallway entrance. Then it began to appear. At first it was a set of hands that gripped the door jam on the right side of the door way. Then slowly a head and face began to appear between the position where the two hands were. I say face but what I actually saw I can only describe as a shadow figure with white eyes. When I saw it fully manifest, my attention was then drawn to the congregants. In the front row sat the head of security. I saw him looking at the same doorway I had been. I saw him began to get up slowly while reaching into his coat, apparently to grasp his weapon. I looked back to the door way and saw the shadow looking at me and as soon as it saw me see it, it retreated down the hallway. When it did, it cast a shadow on the wall in the sunlight revealing its movement as it made its way down the hall. Immediately the head of security crossed the room Infront of the pulpit with his hand in his coat gripping his weapon the whole time, until he reached the hallway. He entered the hallway and disappeared out of site for a time. Then he reemerged with a confound look on his face. He made his way back to his seat and sat studying the hallway for the rest of the service.

After the service, I spoke to the security guard and asked him what he had seen. He said that he saw the shadow of a man standing in the hallway and when he moved to the direction of the hall, the man must have left because he saw his shadow as he went down the hall but by the time he got there, there was no sign of him. So, he inspected the kitchen and the door. He was mystified that the man was able to leave before he got to him and that the door’s security chime didn’t alert that the door had opened. When I explained to him what I saw, he turned a bit white. He knew what he had seen but did not want to admit to it at first. We corroborated together. We had actually seen a shadow figure manifest itself so thoroughly that it was able to cast a shadow in the sunlight down the hall.  So, I spent some time that day anointing the expansive basement with oil, casting out unclean spirits and searching for intruders. I found none of the natural sort. There was a time when I was intimidated by demons, until I found out who I am in the Lord and learned to cast them down.

I didn’t believe in God really, until my life choices caused me to have little choice but to seek Him. Now by seeking Him, my experiences and my testimony have brought me to a place of maturity in knowing He is, and that He is alive. The believer should come to a place where the more the devil throws at you the more his efforts serve to reveal deeper levels of the existence and love of the living God. In this way, Satan is a self-defeatist.

The occurrences are on the rise. Things are changing evil manifestations are on the increase. we are surrounded by unexplained events. Or are we? Are they unexplainable. Natural people tend to strive to rationalize the seemingly unexplainable, by applying what they know of the physical realm.  They cling to what is known in the natural without contemplating that the spiritual realm does exist. Satan does exist. Angels and demons do exist they are here walking among us. As we see in the following scriptures. They manifest themselves from time to time. Perhaps just enough to slowly desensitize mankind to their existence. They have been cast down to the earth do not be deceived. Do not cower, do not hide. Evil must be confronted. You have the victory.

Matthew 4:1-3

1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.

3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

Job 1:6-7

6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.

7 And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

 Genesis 6:1-6

1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,

2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

3 And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

6 And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

 1Peter 5: 8

8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

Matthew 13:37-40

37 He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;

38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;

39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.

40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.

Please read Hebrews chapter 11