The Testimony

Swirling around a beautiful glass like a fine wine. The aroma wafting through the atmosphere filling my senses. Fullness warming my insides, numbing all other notions. Wisdom and revelation render me a slave to their authority, wrapping me tightly in an embrace, leading me on with mysteries unbeknownst to me.

Revelation ignites burning embers of wonder in my soul. Facing the endless possibilities head-on is weighty and complex. It's intoxicating, thrilling and overwhelming all at once. There are many facets to my being, I don't always know which are support roles until the leading lady is on fire and ready to run. My torch is lit, a brightness that'll clear out the shadows of any dark hour.

Revelation 19:10

For the testimony of Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy.

Revelation 19:10 is a huge part of the point behind my writing today. We'll get to that, but first, I'd like to take a walk back through the garden; you know, the one in Eden. More specifically, I'd like to watch as day 6 plays out.

Genesis 1:26-27

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness"... So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them male and female he created them.

We cannot railroad right past what's transpiring here. We cannot just assume that God waits until chapter two to give a detailed description of the making of a single man named Adam. It says, "male and female he created them.", seems something more than a quick debrief on the creation of a single man. Male and female are created on day 6, God entered into rest on day 7 and later on formed a body and breathed a soul into that body and called him Adam.

I could linger and ramble on and on about our long existence in the bosom of the Father. How you've always been and that's why God's presence feels like home or perhaps a homecoming. That would take far too much time and you'd likely have more questions than answers in the end and that would be precisely the point of. What we do have to take note of is God entering into rest prior to the shaping and forming of Adam's body. It is in rest that the Father interacts with us, his image-bearers. That in and of itself is a beautiful picture. Feel free to stop and revel here for a bit if you'd like. Go ahead, I'll wait!

It seems a bit brash to go from intimacy to fall but sometimes you have to go ahead and rip the bandage off for the sake of drama. Genesis 3:1-7, affectionately known in church circles as "The Fall". I'll never understand how we've pitched our tent of meetings on that particular camping ground, it creates an incomplete theology, one riddled with fear tactics of control, mastered by shame. Nonetheless, onward to Genesis 3:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Eve is deceived, Adam communes with deception. What a sad, unfortunate encounter. Adam and Eve questioned God's goodness in their regard, resulting in a knowledge they weren't created for.

Before the foundation of the earth, the lamb of God was slain and I believe that in God's mercy and loving nature he clothed Adam and Eve with the lamb of God as they exited Eden: Genesis 3:21-22 (As you read, keep the facts straight; Heaven already entered into rest.)

The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever [in that state of mind].”

There are multiple understandings of this incident. I prefer to understand this as a protective, loving God stooping down to make humanity great. God met them on their level, within their understanding. This was not punishment, it's protection. It's love.

Approximately 4000 years of human existence would play out before the Lamb of God would be seen clothed in flesh, rather than clothing flesh. We are humbled at the thought of 1/3 of the Trinity stripping himself of royal robes to zip up a bodysuit and walk the earth as mankind. We never really get around to asking how he actually got here. This is where we get to the point of our conversation in the first place. Where I tell you what has been swirling on the insides of me, and maybe answer how on earth one might go about stepping into the missional call of 'changing the conception of identity to change the world'. At first, it'll sound quite outlandish, revelation always does. (I mean, have you ever even attempt to verbalize a God encounter? The best you can do is stumble your way through because it never comes out as powerful as it went in. That takes practice, I think.) As does the entirety of the gospel; it's supposed to prick your heart, cause offense to get your attention. We too quickly reject new to us thoughts out of a lack of understanding of God's divine nature.

Anyway, how did Jesus end up in the womb of a lowly Jewish girl?

Let's run back through some things for the sake of clarity, shall we? All of mankind was made in the image and likeness of God on day 6; Male and female. Remember, we agreed we were all created on that day, existing in the heart of Papa God ever since. Okay, so I know we didn't make a pact or anything but, you've got to admit I did do a good job at making you reconsider the stories you've been told in Children's church. At that point, there was only one human being not spoken into existence, one who was not imagined. Jesus. He was God, why would they need to create him, he has always been. I don't want to get into pre-destination, I believe in free will or God would not have bothered with a forbidden tree. An agreement to disagree is now in motion. Deal? So, how did Jesus get in that belly?

We are going to jump over a lot of biblical history. A history that begs for a savior. Things get rough, sin increases but God...

Enter the Prophets!

Throughout time, God began to speak to his image-bearers about the Messiah! They, in turn, would obediently duplicate that which God spoke. What if Jesus humbled himself unto the spoken, inspired word of man, the very words of God. Offended? Squirming yet? Good. This should be completely offensive. We are, after all, attempting to change the conception of your identity.

Revelation 19:10

For the testimony of Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy.

Isn't it interesting that only a small portion of the global church believe that prophecy is for today, that prophets are still being raised up? An overwhelming percentage of the western church misunderstand scripture, believing that the apostles and prophets passed away within the first-century church. I understand, throughout history, it has gotten messy, out of control even! But messy is what got us here. A barn birth is messy. God stepping out of perfection transforming into a sin collector is messy. Messiah hanging by his flesh, covered in his own blood is messy. A transference of sin is messy. God in a grave is messy!

Love is messy!

Despite the mess of prophecy and love coming down in flesh like us, we need to wrestle with the spirit of prophecy being the testimony of Jesus Christ. If prophecy is not for today, then we have a problem. Our ability to understand what has been done on our behalf is the power of prophecy calling you to come alive. You cannot know the truth of Jesus Christ and him crucified without this gift. It's impossible. Look at what Paul declares in Romans 8:15, 16:

For the sons of God are those guided by the Spirit of God. You have received no slavish spirit that would make you relapse into fear; you have received the Spirit of Sonship. And when we cry, "Abba! Father!", it is this Spirit testifying along with our own spirit that we are children of God; and if children, heirs as well, heirs of God, heirs along with Christ--for we share his sufferings in order to share his glory.

The spirit of prophecy is what enables you to declare God your Papa! Our entire existence as Christians hinges on our ability to hear and repeat the testimony of Jesus Christ. We are a prophetic generation without even knowing it. What I want to do is compare a couple of readings from the old testament. Both are descriptions of Jesus. Both are beautiful in their own right.

Song of Songs 5:10-16 (NIV)

My beloved is radiant and ruddy, outstanding among ten thousand. 11 His head is purest gold; his hair is wavy and black as a raven. 12 His eyes are like doves by the water streams, washed in milk, mounted like jewels. 13 His cheeks are like beds of spice yielding perfume. His lips are like lilies dripping with myrrh. 14 His arms are rods of gold set with topaz. His body is like polished ivory decorated with lapis lazuli. 15 His legs are pillars of marble set on bases of pure gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as its cedars. 16 His mouth is sweetness itself; he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, this is my friend, daughters of Jerusalem.

Isaiah 53:2-3 (TPT)

He possessed no distinguishable beauty or outward splendor to catch our attention-- nothing special in his appearance to make us desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of deep sorrows who was no stranger to suffering and grief. We hid our faces from him in disgust and considered him a nobody, not worthy of respect.

These two books were written somewhere between two to three centuries apart. Their descriptions of Jesus are vastly different; one is spoken through wisdom, the other prophecy. God used prophets throughout the Old Testament to direct and correct his people and to announce the coming Messiah. Jesus is spoken about as far back as Genesis 3 coming from the Trinity in conversation with Adam, Eve and Satan, declaring that women's offspring would crush Satan's head. 62 different times in the Old Testament and that's not including the time's groupings of prophets randomly came under the power of prophecy and stood around babbling prophetically simultaneously. The coming Messiah is prophesied; the words of God spoken through men.

Let's return to my first question: how did the Messiah get in the womb of Mary? We know Holy Spirit overshadowed her, we also know that God empowers his people as creators just like him through the spoken word:

Proverbs 18:21

Death and life are determined by the tongue. (Moffett Translations)

God's trust in humanity overwhelms me. Did Jesus humble himself unto the spoken words of humanity? Did he submit himself to the power of prophecy to become the seed of man to be born of a virgin? Was the very word of God brought about by the spirit of prophecy? We don't even rightly regard that Jesus put on flesh, how can we rightly admonish the possibility of him allowing himself to be spoken into existence in the like fashion he did us? If we go back and read the two sections of scripture in Isaiah 53 and Song of Songs 5, we can start to better comprehend this being a very real possibility. Isaiah 53 is the Messiah being made into our image. Jesus came bearing our image, taking on our appearance, our fallen nature and overcame the flesh we gifted him. And, he did it while in a position of rest. This announcement should begin to unravel you at the core of your being. The core of your identity. God's deep-seated trust in what he created at the very beginning is unfathomable. He knew his love was unfailing and all it took was a single drop was enough.

This revelation confirms our need for the spirit of prophecy as it is the very testimony of Jesus Christ!