God's Servant Is His Witness

Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour. (Isaiah 43:10,11)

When God puts His Spirit on His Servant, the Servant becomes the witness of the Person, the ways, the will, and the eternal purpose of God Almighty.

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come on you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

The power of the Holy Spirit enables the Christian people to be the Lord's witnesses by means of signs and wonders, by the fruit of moral character grown in the Christians, and by what the Christians testify with regard to what they have seen and experienced in Christ.

Notice (Isaiah 43:10,11) how the power to bear witness depends on our personal knowledge of God. The testimony is developed between us and God before it works between us and people.

That ye may know Me!
That ye may believe Me!
That ye may understand that I am He!
"Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me."
"I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour."

We grow in the power of our testimony as we grow in the personal knowledge of the Lord. All of us saints want to give a clearer testimony. The route to the heart of God is the route to a purer testimony. The closer we walk to God the more powerful the testimony becomes. We can bear witness of God only to the extent that we know and believe God. The Holy Spirit creates the testimony in us and through us.

The Servant, Christ, is the Lampstand of the Tabernacle of the congregation, to speak figuratively. Christ is the Testimony of God, the Light of the world. The Holy Spirit is the Oil that burns in the Lampstand giving light (Exodus 25:31).

The Lampstand of the Tabernacle was a heavily ornamented shaft of refined gold beaten into shape. On top of the shaft was a cup filled with oil and a wick in the oil. This shaft represents Christ, the Son of God, the Servant of the Lord, the Light of the world.

There were six side-branches that were formed as part of the Lampstand as it was being beaten into shape. They also held oil-filled cups. The purpose of the side-branches was to shine on the central shaft. Six is the number of man, man being created on the sixth day.

The central shaft is Christ. The six side-branches plus the central shaft support seven cups, seven lights. Christ possesses the seven Spirits of God.

John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; (Revelation 1:4)

We might think of the Lampstand as being the olive tree of Romans, Chapter 11. If this is true, the side-branches of the Lampstand represent Israel. Israel then is seen as an inseparable part of Christ, the Servant of the Lord.

At one time the physical descendants of Jacob were the children of promise. The calling and Glory of God abode on them. But when physical Israel rejected Christ the calling and Glory of God departed from the nation, except for a remnant. The nation of Israel was broken off from the Lampstand and the elect Gentiles are being inserted in its place.

The members of the Body of Christ always are so by the Divine promise, not by physical birth. The Divinely ordained inheritance of Abraham cannot be passed from father to son by physical birth unless ordained so by promise. The election comes to each individual by promise according to God's foreknowledge.

After the full number of foreordained Gentiles have been grafted on the golden shaft of the Lampstand of God, the Spirit of God will open the heart of the nation of Israel to Christ. Then the elect Jews will be grafted on the Lampstand. The nation of Israel once again will assume its original role as Israel, the witness of God.

The whole Lampstand, the shaft and side-branches, is Christ - the Light of the world. It is the Vine of the Lord that is destined to "blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit" (Isaiah 27:6).

The Holy Spirit is the power and wisdom of God. He creates in us the witness of Christ.

The Holy Spirit continually is bringing us to a fuller revelation of Christ. As He does we are empowered to give a fuller witness and revelation of the Person and will of God. The revelation of the Person and will of God is Christ, the living Word of God.

Christ is the Expression of the Life of God. That Life is the Light by which all mankind can see and understand the true Person and Nature of God Almighty, thus obtaining righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. (I John 1:3)

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. (I John 1:5)

The heroes of faith of the Scriptures were witnesses of the Person and will of the Lord. God kept drawing them to a fuller knowledge of Himself. They were holy people - holy in the sense that they belonged peculiarly to God and were under His guidance.

When we look closely at the lives of Jeremiah, Moses, Abraham, David, we can notice that the circumstances of their lives led them ever closer to the holy Fire. They were not perfect men but the Spirit of God made them the testimony of the Person and will of God.

Noah, the only righteous man on the earth of his day, bore witness for more than a century. But people did not gather to him or repent. Yet Noah gave, and still is giving, a true witness of the Person and will of God.

God draws people of His own choosing to Himself and creates them the witnesses of His true Being and way. God's covenant with His witnesses always is by blood, always by fire, always by the Spirit, always by the Word, the sword of God.

We cannot learn much about God through means of our intellectual processes. When we attempt to do so we often miss the Lord. The knowledge of God comes to us when He draws us to Himself. Then we become witnesses of the one true and living God. We declare then that Jesus is Lord and that there is salvation in no other name.