You Have A Testimony

                                              
Out of  his inner being shall flow rivers of living water.

You are now born again, a child of God, you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and He has become your Life utterly.

What must be the result of that?

That you have a testimony. Thereby you become constituted a witness.

What is the temple for? 

It is the place of the testimony of the Lord, the ministry of God from which there should go forth to the ends of the earth that testimony, which is the testimony of Life. 

Ezekiel's vision showed the waters issuing from under the altar, from the sanctuary; coming down out from the court, away to empty themselves into the distant ocean, a river deepening and widening all the way. 

And on this side and on that side were very many trees, and all those trees were bearing their fruit continually and their leaves never faded. 

All this was the expression of this Life; for we are the testimony to this Life, which comes out of the sanctuary. 

The Lord Jesus says: "That is you, in My thought! Out from you (your bodies a temple of the Holy Spirit) shall flow rivers of living water; a testimony of Life shall come through."

That which issues from you, being the Spirit of the Lord, shall have all the way along that which speaks of the power of that Life, the freshness of that Life, the glory of that Life. 

That is, wherever the river comes there shall be an expression of Life. 

That is to be the effect of our being here as indwelt, permeated, and filled with the Spirit.

Not only may we be conscious of it (and this is where we have to walk carefully and watchfully)...

But so many people want that baptism of the Holy Spirit which will deliver them altogether from a life of faith - for that is the effect of it in their lives. 

If only they can get that, it will all be senses, and no longer faith; they will know, they will feel! 

But there is NO word in the Scriptures which indicates that being filled with the Holy Spirit will deliver us from a life of faith. 

Very often it has proved that the most effective work done by the Holy Spirit through a life has been altogether hidden from the one who was used. 

They never had any consciousness of it being done, but it was done. 

Years afterwards they have received a letter, or they have met somebody who said: "Do you know, on such-and-such an occasion the Lord spoke to me through you, and from that day to this I have been changed!"

And you remember: "Oh, that was the time I had that bad patch, when I thought nothing at all was accomplished."

Yes, He often hides His work. 

And the activity of the Holy Spirit does not mean that we shall not have to go on in faith. 

It is not always when we feel we are having a great time that the Holy Spirit is having a great time. 

The flowing out of the rivers is not always a thing that means that we can just splash about in it and have a good time. 

Sometimes it may be through agony and travail that Life comes to others, death working in us.

Blessed be God, what does it matter (if the thing is done) if we struggle, and other souls are being born, quickened, renewed through our travail. 

The Lord says: "Out of his inner being shall flow..." That is our privilege, our blessed calling. 

That is a part of sonship. Birth, indwelling, ministry are all of the one Spirit, and all depend upon Him.

May the result of our meditation be that we come to a place where we do recognize that as for ourselves, everything is impossible and hopeless.

~T. Austin Sparks~