The Straight Testimony
The Shaking – Early Writings pg.269-272
I asked the meaning of the shaking I had seen and was shown that it would be caused by the straight testimony called forth by the counsel of the True Witness to the Laodiceans. This will have its effect upon the heart of the receiver, and will lead him to exalt the standard and pour forth the straight truth. Some will not bear this straight testimony. They will rise up against it, and this is what will cause a shaking among God's people.
The question is, what is the counsel of the True Witness to the Laodiceans?
Revelation 3:18
18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Who is the "I" that counsel thee?
Let's go to the beginning of the counsel to see who is speaking.
Revelation 3:14
14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
Revelation 1:5
5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
Jesus Christ is the faithful and true Witness and it is His testimony that will cause the shaking.
Gold Tried in the Fire
1 Peter 1:7
7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
1 Corinthians 3:11-13
11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
Zechariah 13:9
9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.
The Gold tried in the fire is the character that must endure persecution. It is the faith that will not shrink though pressed by many a foe. The only way we can achieve this is through Christ.
Galatians 2:20
20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Colossians 1:27
27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
Revelation 14:12
12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
If we are to be successful during the shaking we must have the gold tried in the fire. It is the life of Christ that endured the most terrible onslaught that satan could heap upon a living soul and Christ endured and was victorious. This Gold is the character of Jesus, it is the faith of Jesus and the only way we can receive it is "Christ in you", the hope of glory. When Christ enters the heart he transforms it and it is His way that will be appreciated. His love will shine through.
White Raiment
Matthew 22:11-14
11 And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:
12 And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.
13 Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
14 For many are called, but few are chosen.
Zechariah 3:1-7
And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.
2 And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?
3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.
4 And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.
5 And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord stood by.
6 And the angel of the Lord protested unto Joshua, saying,
7 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.
The white raiment represents the righteousness of Christ. What is the righteousness of Christ? Is it His Character? Well, it is but not in the way you may think. When a sinner comes to Christ, the first work that Christ must do is one of conviction and conversion not forgiveness. How do I know this?
**Matthew 18: 25-27 23 Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants.
24 And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.
25 But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.
26 The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.
27 Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.
This illustration is quite clear. The king represents God and the first thing the King does is loose His servant. It does not make sense to forgive him his debts if he is still incurring debt. It means that he will continually need to be forgiven since he will never be in a position to repay. He makes him truly free by loosing him, then what he owes, that is forgiven. This servant is no longer incurring and and there is no outstanding balance against his name.
When a sinner comes to Christ the first work of Christ is to clean out his heart, to move in. This is when we receive the "Gold tried in the Fire". This is the first step. Although Christ moves in there is still a problem. The sins which we were guilty of in the past is still there, we cannot undo them. This is our filthy garments that we are wearing, it is our sinful deeds that we cannot undo, we cannot remove it from ourselves. Satan therefore now accuses us before God because he knows too well what we have done.
Christ is the only one that can "legally", and I use this word cautiously, remove our filthy garments, our iniquity from us. Why ? Well, because that's what he died for.
John 1:29
29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
So Christ removes our filthy garments, our iniquity, our sinful deeds that linger, and he can do that not only because he died to be able too, but we have also bought from him His "Gold tried in the Fire" remember. What he has essentially done is to disconnect us from our past and connect us to his future which is eternal glory, he then clothes us with the garments of the overcomer. His righteousness, His works, pure and undefiled, free from guile and the taint of sin. It contains no unholy motive. This robe we can never buy. This rob we cannot earn. It must be given, it cannot be taken.
When we wear this robe, we are seen in a different light, we are looked upon as an overcomer, as citizen of heaven. Our past is no longer in sight. We are truthful, we are honest, we are holy. We are clothed with all the good works of Christ. The reason we can wear his robe of righteousness is because we have on the inside his character and his faith ( His "Gold tried in the Fire" ). This is the "White Raiment" that the True Witness wants to give us.
Eyesalve, that thou mayest see...
Genesis 3:5-7
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
Genesis 21:17-19
17 And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.
18 Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation.
19 And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.
Proverbs 16:2
2 All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weigheth the spirits.
Matthew 6:22,23
22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
Luke 2:25-30
25 And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him.
26 And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
27 And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law,
28 Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said,
29 Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word:
30 For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
We have covered many verses speaking to the issue of sight. Satan clouded Eve's vision so that her perception was dull and her view was dim. What she taught would have brought her life and a higher state of existence, brought her death.
Hagar had left here child to die, she could not see any means of survival for them both until God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. God can put in our view what we need to see.
Simeon sat in the temple. He saw salvation. What did the other priests see, I wonder.
If the eye is single then there is light in the body. If the eye is evil then there is darkness.
We are about to enter into a time that the Bible did not describe, because it could not describe. According to Matthew 24: 22, the deception will be great. We cannot trust what we hear or what we see. This is not far fetched, because in this pandemic many of what we hear and what we see is far from the truth.
How then do we discern what is truth from error? How then do we make the hard decisions?
We need to see as God sees. Does that mean we are gods, oh no. We are given the insight needed to face the present crisis. God must control our eyes, our vision must be pure and we will readily spot evil. We don't need to know evil, pure eyes will always be offended by error. It will be evident.
This speaks to spiritual discernment, we must be able to see the approach of the enemy at all times, lest we be caught off guard. Does it mean we will be just standing there looking out for Satan's tricks, of course not. We must be busy doing the Lord's work but if the enemy should appear to derail us his character will be seen even though clothed as an angel of light.
Eve was perfect and yet she could not see. Simeon saw Jesus and rejoiced, all the other priests saw was just another bouncing baby boy. What made the difference? The spirit of God. The Spirit of God must be in full control of our lives to see what God is doing and where he is leading. Why ? Because He knows.
1 Corinthians 2:11,12
11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
Our physical eyes are worthless in a spiritual battle. If we look at life with physical eyes only, we will never see what God intends for us to see.
1 Corinthians 2:14,15
14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
The natural man is void of the spirit but the spiritual man full of the spirit judgeth all things. We need the spiritual eye sight to walk circumspectly. God has also given us counsel that we may see clearly, his instructions should ever be before us. Many have not fully surrendered to Christ, so they lack vision. That is why you must first receive Christ's "Gold tried in the Fire", then you are eligible for His "White Raiment" and then you will receive His "Eyesalve" thus giving clear vision.
This my Brothers and Sisters is the straight testimony. Now, why in the world would anyone kick against it. Simple. It goes against the heart and very few are willing to surrender their position to see its value. It is then that these verses below will be a reality.
Isaiah 30: 1,9-11
Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
9 That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord:
10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
The person here described will not be able to receive the straight testimony. And as a result
1 Thessalonians 2:10-12
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
This what will happen to those who will not endure the straight testimony. Jesus is calling you and I right now, he is knocking at your hearts door.
Revelation 3:20
20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
The straight testimony speaks to the heart. It speaks to our lifestyle that we don't want to let go. Lot's wife could not endure the straight testimony, which at the time was, don't look back. It was Christ warning them, the true and faithful witness. Judas could not endure the straight testimony, which at that time was repent and be converted, but the money was too dear to him. In the end he did not even want the money.
I pray that the straight testimony will find fertile ground in our hearts. Please don't reject the counsel of the true and faithful witness.
