WITNESS

WORD OF WISDOM

Witness ~ (Romans 8:16), the consciousness of the gracious operation of the Spirit on the mind, "a certitude of the Spirit's presence and work continually asserted within us", manifested "in his comforting us, his stirring us up to prayer, his reproof of our sins, his drawing us to works of love, to bear testimony before the world," etc.

Source: Easton's Bible Dictionary


Isaiah 43:10 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.

You, my people are able to witness for me, that I have given you plain demonstrations of My certain knowledge of future events. The gods of the Heathens neither had a being before Me nor shall continue after Me: whereas the Lord is God from everlasting to everlasting; but these pretenders are but of yesterday. And withal He calls them formed gods, in a way of contempt, and to show the ridiculousness of their pretence.

But God's people know the power of His grace, the sweetness of His comforts, the kind care of His providence, and the truth of His promise. All servants of God can give such an account of what He has wrought in them, and done for them, as may lead others to know and believe His power, truth, and love.

After having summoned the Gentiles to a contest, and after having proved that the stories which they circulated concerning their idols were false and unfounded, God now separates Himself from the multitude of them, and produces His “witnesses,” that He may not be thought to be of the same class with them. He justly boasts, therefore, that they are His witnesses, and that He has true witnesses; for the Jews had been instructed by heavenly oracles, as far as was necessary for attaining perfect certainty.

No man ought to be accounted a believer, who conceals the knowledge of God within his own heart, and never makes an open confession of the truth. That it may not be thought that the Lord asks them to bear witness about what is unknown, He adds, “Ye shall know, ye shall believe, ye shall understand;” and by this order of the words He shows that faith goes before confession. If, therefore, confession proceed from the top of the lips, and not from the heart, it is vain and useless, and is not such as the Lord demands or approves.

A distinction is made between true faith and that credulity which lightly carries away fickle men; and God always bestows on His elect knowledge and judgment, that they may distinguish truth from falsehood. Next follows faith and firm certainty, so that they embrace without hesitation all that the Lord hath spoken; and afterwards faith kindles in our hearts more and more the light of understanding, and even in proportion to the progress which we make in it, our knowledge grows and becomes brighter. But these things are not done by our own judgment, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, so far as we are enlightened by him.

We must know who is our God, and that it is He whom we worship, and no other; that our minds may not foolishly waver, and go astray, and admit everything that shall be supported by the opinion of men. Thus, faith is not that which frames anything according to its own fancy, or thoughtlessly assents to any assertion, or doubts and hesitates, but that which rests on firm certainty, so that, yielding obedience to the one true God.

God's Blessings to each of you,
LJG/rECj