Will you please turn to the book of Revelation, chapter 12, verse 11?
I believe by this time everybody knows this verse by heart, and may it be so:
And they overcame him, the accuser, by reason of the blood of the Lamb, and by reason of the word of their testimony; and they loved not their life even unto death.
Dear Lord, as we gather here this morning, our hearts are full of gratitude. We do praise and thank Thee because Thou hast begun this conference. Thou hast brought us to this last full day. Lord, Thou hast been faithful in spite of the weather and all the surroundings.
Thou art our peace. Thou art our victory. So, Lord, as we come to the last day of ministry, we do pray that Thou wilt sum up all things in Thyself. Lord, if there is any unfinished business, we pray that Thou wilt finish it to Thy glory.
Continue Thy speaking and Thy working in our hearts until Thy will is done. And we are here to give Thee the glory. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, we are already in the last full day of the conference. As we were praying this morning, it seemed as if the Lord gave me a vision—not in any sense that I saw it with my naked eyes, but in prayer.
The story of Jacob came to me. We remember when Jacob was returning to his native land. He found it almost impossible to return. He sent his family over the river, but he himself stayed behind.
And the Bible tells us a Man came to him and wrestled with him through the whole night. That Man was the Angel of the Lord.
But we find how strong Jacob was. Even though they were wrestling through the night, Jacob would not give up. Finally, that Man touched his thigh, and his strength was gone.
So he wrapped himself upon that Man and said, “Bless me; otherwise, I will not let You go.” He simply meant, “Formerly, I could live by myself. I was well able to take care of myself. I had the wisdom, the cleverness, to overcome all obstacles. But now I am finished. My strength is gone. I cannot live anymore unless You bless me.”
Brothers and sisters, I wonder if during these days the Lord has been speaking to you, showing you how strong your self-life is. I do believe that there is nobody who really knows how strong he or she is.
We may appear to be weak. We may seem to be weak. But when you come to spiritual things, you will discover that you are strong. It seems that God has to take time to wrestle with us, but we will not give up.
You know, I always remember what that reformer, Philip Melanchthon, said. He was the theologian of the Reformation; he was with Martin Luther. Once he said, “The old Adam is too strong for young Melanchthon.”
And Martin Luther said, “I was not afraid of the pope, the cardinals, and all these kings and rulers. But I was afraid of the tyrant that is within me—the old Adam.”
Brothers and sisters, unless the Lord reveals to us who we really are, it seems almost impossible to know our Lord Jesus. But thank God, He is revealing ourselves to us. And more than that, He is wrestling with us.
He will raise up all kinds of circumstances and put us in all kinds of environments in order to break us. But we are all like Jacob, wrestling with Him throughout the night.
But thank God, the morning is dawning. And when He gives us that last touch, we are crippled; we are finished. It is only when we are finished that He is able to do His work in us.
So I feel, brothers and sisters, if there is anyone here with whom the Lord has been striving and wrestling during the past few days, may the time come when that touch from above will be upon you and bring you to the end of yourself—the end of your own wisdom and the end of your own strength.
Then you will wrap yourself upon the Lord and say, “Lord, bless me. I will not let You go.” So may this be our attitude, if He has already done it.
I have been sharing with you, dear brothers and sisters, concerning the overcomers. They overcome because of the word of their testimony.
In other words, the conflict that is in the universe is between God and His enemy, Satan. It is over one issue: the testimony of Jesus.
The Lord has overcome. He bore the good testimony while He was on earth, and now He commits His testimony to the church—to us who are redeemed by His precious blood. We are supposed to be those who have the testimony of Jesus.
We remember John the apostle. He was exiled on the Isle of Patmos. Why was he exiled? He was exiled, not for himself or for his own sake, but for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
Throughout the book of Revelation, you find, throughout the centuries, the overcomers. All these overcomers are marked by one thing: they have the testimony of Jesus.
So I hope that by this time we know what the testimony of Jesus is. It seems as if the testimony of Jesus is over the whole Bible. As a matter of fact, the whole Bible tells us of the Lord Jesus.
But it is summed up in Revelation 1:17-18, and we have already talked about that. This testimony has been entrusted to the church.
But because of the failure of the church in maintaining the testimony, God calls for overcomers. For overcomers are none other than those who respond to the call of God, and by the grace of God, they have the testimony of Jesus.
But we find that they overcome the enemy by the word of their testimony. To put it another way, unless the testimony of Jesus becomes our testimony, we are not able to overcome.
We not only know who Jesus is, but we know Jesus in us. He is our life. He is our all. He is our Lord and Master. This becomes our testimony.
It is only when this spiritual reality is in us that we are able to overcome our accuser, overcome sin, overcome the world, and overcome ourselves. So, His testimony must become our testimony.
We have also shared how His testimony can become our testimony. The testimony is given to us, but how can it be that eternal truth becomes our present experience?
We find that when you come to spiritual experience, we do not have it unless it is by the work of the Holy Spirit. Thank God, when we are saved, He not only gives us His life, but He gives us the Holy Spirit—His Spirit.
The Holy Spirit, as the divine Person, dwells in each and every one of us. Just as life is given to each and every one of us, thank God, the life we receive is the same life. It is the life of Christ, but it is given to each and every individual who believes.
In the same way, we find the Holy Spirit comes, finds His abode, and dwells in our spirit. He is there with a special mission.
He is there to see that the life of Christ in us has the ascendancy—that the life of Christ is working, operating, growing, and overcoming every obstacle and every resistance. That is the work of the Holy Spirit.
And the instrument He uses to do the work, as we have repeatedly mentioned, is the cross. He will transfer, as it were, the cross of Christ on Calvary to be the cross in our life.
What Christ finished and did on Calvary two thousand years ago—the truth, the eternal reality—He makes living, operative, and present in each and every one of us. It is by the cross of our Lord Jesus that we are given the strength to bear our own crosses.
This is the reason why we need to know the Holy Spirit intimately. He is doing this work within us day after day, since the day we are born again, and He will not stop until we see Christ face to face.
He is faithful. He is diligent. But, brothers and sisters, we have a responsibility. We need to hear Him. We need to obey Him. We should not quench Him. We should not grieve Him.
But thank God, no matter how often we quench Him and grieve Him, He will never leave us nor forsake us. He is continuing to do this impossible work in our lives until He is able to transfer the testimony of Jesus to become our testimony.
But now I feel we need to mention more about how this happens, when you know it has happened, and what is going on when this is happening.
You know, we say, “The testimony of Jesus.” In the vision in which He revealed Himself to us in Revelation 1, He tells us, “I am the First and the Last.” This is the testimony.
Now, if His testimony becomes our testimony, what happens? What is the challenge? What is the exchange?
To put it in a practical way, you find that after we are saved, the Holy Spirit begins this work of making Christ our First and our Last, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega.
Christ is the First. This is eternally true. This is the eternal will of God, because God has made Him the First of all.
But, dear brothers and sisters, while the Holy Spirit is working in our life, what is He doing? He is trying to make Christ the First in our life.
Before we were saved, our fallen soul-life always insisted, “I must be the first. Everything has to be centered upon me.” But now the Holy Spirit is doing this almost humanly impossible work.
How can it be that Christ is first in our life and not ourselves first? It sounds easy, but we all know that it is a humanly impossible task. You are not able to step aside and let Christ take charge.
But the Holy Spirit is challenging us day after day. He raises up all kinds of occasions. It is as if He is wrestling with us, trying to tell us that He must be the First.
There cannot be two heads. Only a monster has two heads. Either you are the head, or Christ is the Head of your life.
Now, brothers and sisters, let us be very honest before the Lord. After you are saved, who is still your head? Who is in charge? Who is the first in your life? Who has the preeminence—your interests or His interests?
It is very, very real, a living experience. As a matter of fact, it is something we experience throughout our Christian life. It is not merely one occasion.
You seem to resign and let Him take over, but then very soon you regain the throne of your own life. This has been happening in our lives all the time, until He is the First in your life.
When you are doing something, when you are thinking something, when you are reacting to some environment—whether it is persons, things, or anything else—what is your first thought? “What will become of me? What will happen to me?”
Or is it, “What will happen to the Lord Jesus if I should take the lead and ask Him to follow me? What will be the result?” We are called to come and follow Him.
We have to give up our will and surrender our will. We have to be dealt with in our emotions. We are all emotionally attached, but the Lord says we have to be detached from all kinds of emotions, even the best of emotions.
For instance, the Lord said, “If you love your father and mother, brother and sister, husband or wife, children, and yourself more than Me, you cannot be My disciple.”
That seems strange because God wants us to honor our father and mother. This is the first commandment with promise.
And yet, because we are fallen, even in loving our parents it is based on self-interest. It is not pure. Our love is not pure; our hate is not pure.
He has to purify our soul. He has to save our soul. He has to replace the self in our soul with Christ in our soul, so that our emotion will not express ourselves, but our emotion will express Christ. He is in charge of our emotions.
It does not mean that the Lord does not want us to honor our parents. No, this is His commandment. And yet, He wants to purify it from our self-life until our emotion is the expression of the feeling and the love of God.
When this is happening, it is not easy. We go through struggles, just like wrestling face to face with God, hand to hand, fighting. We are all like Jacob—hard to give up.
But thank God, one day we are crippled. One day we wrap ourselves upon the Lord and say, “Unless You bless me, I cannot live anymore.”
So, brothers and sisters, is Christ the First in your life? I recall the experience of our dear brother Watchman Nee.
If you have read Against the Tide, you know the story. After he was saved, he was very zealous for the Lord. Even while he was a student, he not only preached to his fellow students, but when vacation came, he and other young people who were saved at that time went out to the villages and preached the gospel.
One day he was going to preach, and it seemed as if the Lord gave him a verse. It was Psalm 73:25:
Whom have I in heaven but Thee?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides Thee.
He was going to speak on that verse. Now he could very honestly say, “Whom have I in heaven? You, Lord Jesus Christ, God, You are there.” There was no problem with that. I wonder if anybody has that problem.
But when he came to, “Whom do I desire besides Thee?” he could not say that. The reason was that he loved a lady. They had grown up together. They loved each other, and they had a kind of unspoken secret that when they grew up, they would become husband and wife.
He loved this lady dearly. So after he was saved, he tried to preach to her and to convert her to the Lord. But no matter what he did, it would not work. They could talk about any other things, but not the Lord.
But he went out and preached anyway. Just like today, oftentimes we preach beyond what we really are. But the Lord would not let him go. That word continued to come back to him: “Am I the First in your life?”
He had to confess, “No. That lady is the first.” So he promised God, “If You allow me to marry her, I promise You I will go anywhere You send me.”
But unfortunately, God never argues with us. He still insisted. His Spirit was still speaking to his conscience.
Until one day, as he was praying—he told this to us himself—he said that while he was praying, the love of God so constrained him that he was completely melted down by the love of Christ.
So finally he yielded. He said, “Lord, if You want me to give her up, I will do it.” And peace came into his heart.
He went out, changed his clothes, went out to the street, and put gospel posters on the walls. That was the way he tried to say goodbye to his beloved.
Brothers and sisters, it seems that God is so harsh, even so cruel. But no. What the Lord is doing is to purify us, that our emotion, our feeling, our love, and our hate will be His expression, His life—not our expression, our life.
Now, thank God, eventually that lady was saved. I remember, before they were married, at a meeting someone pointed out to me, “There was the lady.” God gave her back to him.
Now, do not expect that every time God will give her back to you. He must be the First. And if that is the case, you will find that you still love, but you love with that heavenly love, not with an earthly love.
The same thing is true in every aspect of our life, not only in our emotions. It happens in our mind. As our brother said, our mind has to be renewed.
We have our mind set on something, but oftentimes we find that it is our ambition. You will find that He will change it. He will suffer it to be challenged. He will renew our mind.
So what we considered precious to us, now we look at as refuse. Think of Paul in Philippians 3. How he boasted of his pedigree and of his achievements.
He was more advanced than his contemporaries. He was zealous for the law, zealous for the traditions of the fathers. He persecuted the believers even to Gentile cities. That was his boasting.
When the Lord met him on the road to Damascus, he turned completely around. He said, “What I counted as treasure, now I look at not only as loss, but as refuse. I do not want these things. I want the knowledge of the excellency of Jesus Christ.”
Even our will will be challenged: “Not my will, but Thy will be done.” So, dear brothers and sisters, this is something very real, very experiential—something that we are facing day after day.
In every circumstance, in every action and reaction, we will be challenged by the Holy Spirit. Through the working of the cross in our life, we can take it or we can bypass it.
You know, brothers and sisters, the cross is not something that you cannot avoid. It is something that you can bypass. But if you bypass it, it leads to destruction. If you take it, it is a narrow gate and a narrow way, but it leads to life.
And, brothers and sisters, in the same way, is He the Last in your life? Not in the sense that He is really last. I am afraid many of us make Him last: “I am first, my children second, my friends third,” and so on and so forth, and finally Christ.
Not in that sense. The Last simply means He is the end. He is the Finisher of our faith. He is our goal.
And He says, “I am the Living One.” Now, what does that mean? This is the testimony of Jesus: He is the Living One.
It means that if it becomes your testimony, then He is the Living One in your life. He is not only the One who lives in your life, but He is the Living One in your life. That is to say, He lives in you.
Just like Apostle Paul said:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me.
That is the Living One. So the question is: who is living today? Very practical, very real. Who is living this morning? Is it you who is living, or is it Christ who is living in you?
Either it is you or it is Christ. There is a choice you have to make, and the Holy Spirit is pleading with you: “Why do you still cling on to yourself? Why are you struggling? Let go and let Him live in you.” And that is victory.
And He says, “I became dead.” What does it mean to you? On the one hand, we thank the Lord because it is because He became dead that we now live. But that is just the beginning.
He is calling us to have fellowship with His sufferings and to be conformed to His death. In other words, He is calling us to be conformed to His death.
That means that He is dead to sin, to the world, to Himself, and to the enemy. He is only living toward God. That is the life of our Lord Jesus, and He is calling us to go the same way.
The Bible says they follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These are the overcomers.
But then He says, “I am living forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades.” In other words, He is resurrection and life, and this resurrection life is within us.
Have we gone into death? We are afraid of death. We do not want to die. But He will lead us into death.
Just like that little family in Bethany. The brother, Lazarus, was sick. So the two sisters sent a message to the Lord across the Jordan and said, “He whom Thou lovest is sick.”
They fully expected that the Lord would rush over the river, lay His hand upon Lazarus, and heal him. But when the Lord heard it, He stayed.
Yet the Bible says He loved them. The word for love is a different word: agape, not phileo—not human love, but divine love.
But with that divine love, the Lord purposely stayed behind. It seemed as if He was afraid to go to Bethany because the people wanted to kill Him. But really, He was waiting—waiting until Lazarus was dead.
Then He said, “Let us go.” You remember His disciples said, “Well, let us go and die with Him.” But the Lord said, “He is asleep. I want to wake him up.”
When He arrived, Lazarus was in the tomb for four days—really dead. And the Lord stood there and said, “Lazarus, come forth.” Out of death came resurrection life.
So, brothers and sisters, oftentimes in our environment and circumstances, the Lord seems to arrange our circumstances in such a way that we are finished—almost finished.
And how we will cry out and say, “Lord, do not let me be finished. Help me. Come quickly.” Because He does not come, we misunderstand Him: “He does not love me anymore.”
You know, oftentimes we have the experience of 2 Corinthians 4. We have the treasure in earthen vessels. But to show forth the radiance is not the earthen vessel; it is the treasure in the earthen vessel.
But if the earthen vessel is intact, the treasure—the radiance—cannot break forth. So the earthen vessel has to be cracked, to be broken, in order that the light, the radiance of the treasure, may come forth.
That is the circumstance through which we are going in life. Thank God, everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus is in the hand of God—in the living hand of God.
He is looking after us and taking care of us. But it may not be the way you think you should be cared for. He will take care of you according to His wisdom.
So oftentimes we find we are surrounded. It is as if there is no way out. But thank God, we are not straitened. There is a way up.
Oftentimes we come to our wits’ end. We use our wit trying to solve our problems, but no matter how clever we are, we cannot solve them. We all have our wits’ end, but the Bible says, not at our life’s end.
We are persecuted, but not abandoned. We are knocked down, but not knocked out. You know, just like boxing, you can be knocked down, but you get up again. But when you are knocked out, you are finished.
But thank God, this is our experience. We will go through death. The dying of Jesus works in our life, that the life of Jesus may be manifested both in us and in other people.
Brothers and sisters, this is real. This is our daily experience if you really seek the Lord, if you really want the Lord to be everything to you, if you want the testimony of Jesus to become your testimony.
This is what you will be going through. It is the love of God. It is the patience of God—the longsuffering God. He will not let you go. And thank God for that.
So, brothers and sisters, you know that the testimony of Jesus has to become our testimony. That is the way it goes.
Now, in this verse it says, “They overcome by reason of the word of their testimony.” You know, not only is the testimony there, but the testimony has to be testified—to be spoken out, to be uttered, to be used, and to be applied. That is the way to victory.
You know, when you read John 1:1, it says:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Of course, we know this refers to the second Person of the Godhead, because Christ is the Word—God’s Word.
Nobody knows what is within you. You know, it is clever if you know how to shut your mouth. If you are too talkative, sooner or later something will come out.
Now, our God is the greatest mystery in the universe. He is so immense, way beyond our understanding. If He kept silent, nobody would know Him.
But thank God, there is the Word. The Lord Jesus said that no one knows the Father except the Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and he to whom the Son reveals Him.
So, brothers and sisters, thank God that He is the Word.
And you remember Genesis 1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. But the earth became waste and void, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the deep.
Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. Brothers and sisters, God created by His spoken word. It is because He spoke that the universe came into being.
Our God is a God Who reveals Himself. We thank God for His speaking. In the old days, He spoke in many ways and in many parts, but now, in His Son, He speaks to us fully, completely, absolutely.
The Word became flesh and tabernacled among men, full of grace and truth.
Brothers and sisters, our God not only spoke through the prophets in the old days, but He loved us so much and wanted us to know Him so much that He sent His beloved Son, our Lord Jesus, into the world as a Man.
As a Man, you find how He taught and how He did all kinds of things. All His teaching and all His working were for one purpose: to reveal the Father.
You know our Lord Jesus Himself, when He was thirty years old and stepped out into ministry, was baptized by John with the baptism of repentance. As our brother already mentioned, it was not for His own sake, because He was sinless. It was for your sake and for my sake.
He bore all sins in His body and died for us, that we might become the righteousness of God. Then He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
He was tempted in all things. All the temptations that you could ever think of, our Lord Jesus as a Man had gone through.
In what we call the temptation in the record of the Gospels, it seems as if there are only three things. But as a matter of fact, He was tempted in all things: with the things of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
There the devil, after our Lord Jesus had fasted for forty days and forty nights, came when He was hungry. The devil used the opportunity of His physical weakness to attack Him and said, “If Thou art the Son of God, turn these stones into bread and satisfy Thy hunger.”
He had every right to eat. He had every power to turn stone into bread. But the Lord spoke:
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
He had the word of God in His heart, from Deuteronomy, and He spoke it out. That is the word of His testimony. There was a testimony within Him, and now He spoke out the word. Satan was defeated.
He overcame the lust of the flesh, and by that He overcame the tempter.
The same thing is true when the devil led Him to a high mountain and showed Him all the glory and riches of the kingdoms of this world, saying, “If Thou wilt fall down and worship me, it is all Thine.”
But our Lord Jesus again quoted Scripture:
Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
The devil brought Him to the top of the temple and even quoted Scripture. You know, the enemy knows the Scriptures much more than we do. He said, according to Scripture, “If Thou jumpest, He will protect Thy feet.”
But the Lord said:
Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
So it is by the word of His testimony that He overcame. Throughout His life, you find He bore the testimony of God so faithfully.
Even toward the end of His life, when He was before the high priest and the council, they accused Him of many things, but they could not find anything. So finally Caiaphas, the high priest, challenged Him and said, “Art Thou the Son of God?”
Now, if our Lord Jesus had kept silent, the council could not have rendered a verdict of death over Him. But, unfortunately and fortunately, He said, “Thou hast said it. That is what I am. And ye shall see Me coming with the angels back into this world.”
Because of His confession, He was condemned to death. Brothers and sisters, confession is very important.
What is confession? Confession is to speak out, to utter, what is within you.
Our Lord Jesus said that one day we will be judged by our words. It will be by our words that we will be judged, and by our words we will be condemned. But we have to speak, because it is our confession.
When there is confession, there is power to overcome. You know, when we are first saved, how are we saved? What does the Bible say?
In Romans 10:9, it says:
If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
So you find there are two things. You have to believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. Why? Because that is the proof that He is the Son of God.
But if you just believe it in your heart and do not confess Him with your mouth—that He is the Lord—you are not saved.
You know, brothers and sisters, some people today, for various reasons, say they believe. They believe in their heart, but they will not confess with their mouths.
Secret Christians, just like Nicodemus. Nicodemus was the teacher of Israel. For him to come to Jesus would cause great news, so he had to come at night. Nobody knew about it.
But he was sincere. He was honest. He was seeking. You know the conversation of the Lord with him.
We do not know what happened to Nicodemus after that conversation, but we do have some hints. You remember when the council and the Pharisees were talking about the Lord and trying to condemn Him, Nicodemus said, “According to our law, if we have not heard Him Himself, we cannot condemn Him.”
What he said was an attempt to show that he believed, but he did not confess Him. So he tried to use some clever words.
But thank God, when our Lord was dead, he was forced to come out to anoint our Lord’s body.
Brothers and sisters, you may think you can be a secret Christian. If you only believe in your heart, that is all. If you do that, you can avoid many things that you think are problems and difficulties.
But Satan knows better. The world may not know, but Satan knows. We have to confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord.
And that seals it. After you confess what you have believed, it seals your faith. Otherwise, the enemy will come again and again and try to destroy what little faith you have.
Confession is important. This is the reason why baptism is important. Baptism is a confession by action.
You know, in some countries you can believe in the Lord secretly, but once you are baptized, you are exposed.
I know that during the persecution in China, one night they rounded up thousands of believers all over China. All the responsible ones, all those who loved the Lord and were leading, were arrested.
In Shanghai, they were arrested and put in a meeting hall. They were told, “There is only one condition by which you can be freed. If you say, ‘Watchman Nee has faults,’ you are free.”
They sent their children to the meeting hall to try to persuade their parents. “Of course, Watchman Nee is a man. He has many faults. What is wrong with saying Watchman Nee has faults? That is all right. Say it, and you are free.”
And many did, and were free. There was one brother whose children came to persuade him.
He said, “I know Watchman Nee has many faults, but the Lord has not told me to say it.” For this reason, he was sent to prison.
He had serious sickness, and before he died they set him free. He came out, but no hospital would receive him. Eventually, he passed away. I knew him very well.
Confession.
You know, in history, Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, was an old man. When he was arrested, the governor had pity on him because of his age.
The governor said, “If you only say, ‘Caesar is god,’ that is all you need to do, and you are free.”
But his answer was, “I have served the Lord eighty-six years, and He has never failed me. How can I deny Him?”
And he was put to death. Confession.
Do you have confession, brothers and sisters? Confession seals our faith. There is power in confession. Confession overcomes the enemy.
The Lord said, “If you confess Me before men, I will confess you before the angels.” The word of their testimony.
This happens not only when we are saved. This happens throughout our life. When are you delivered from the bondage of sin?
If you read Romans 7, not until you cry out:
O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?
And at the same time you shout:
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
That seals the faith. That shows that you really believe that when Christ died on the cross, He took you with Him to the cross.
It is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me.
Oftentimes, when you are attacked by the enemy and accused by the enemy, the only way to victory is not merely prayer. The only way to victory is to speak out the victory of Christ.
The story was told of Martin Luther. One day in a dream he saw Satan come to him with a scroll written within and without. This scroll was the sins of Martin Luther.
So Satan showed Martin Luther this book and said, “Who are you that you dare to lead the Reformation? Look at all the things you have committed.”
Now, of course, Satan is the accuser. By accuser, it does not mean that everything he accuses is true. You know, he is the one who has a magnifying glass. If you do a little thing, he expands it into a huge mountain.
Oftentimes you find that he will accuse falsely, without any truth in it. Oftentimes we cannot distinguish, we cannot discern, and we are deceived.
How can we deal with accusation? Martin Luther, in his dream, took a pen and wrote over the scroll:
The blood of Jesus cleanseth us from all sin.
And Satan disappeared. Confession.
Brothers and sisters, do we have the word of our testimony? If the testimony is there, dare we speak it out?
The enemy tries to silence us. But when the testimony is spoken out, it works the work of God.
You know, just like God works by His spoken word, if you take away the word of God, there is almost no work to do. The same thing is true with our work and our ministry.
It is only when we have the testimony of Jesus within us that, when we speak out, there is power and a work shall be done.
So thank God, He has made every provision for us to overcome. But always remember: it is not we who overcome; it is He in us who overcomes.
Shall we pray?
Dear Lord, we pray that this will be the time when You put Your hand upon our thigh and cripple us, that we may walk no longer by our own strength and wisdom.
We can only walk leaning upon Yourself. May You be glorified, and the enemy be put to shame. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.