The Good Laodicean - THE TWO WITNESSES AND THE BASICS OF LIFE

No. 80 - THE TWO WITNESSES AND THE BASICS OF LIFE
By: John Blanchard
Saturday, December 24, 2005

Good morning, brethren. Today’s sermon will be about the two witnesses, but I want to take a little different tact than we normally would when speaking about the two witnesses. I want to talk about who they are, how they live and how they die. Also I want to talk about how they are resurrected. This is a companion to the “Seasons of the Church” series, especially tapes one and two. If you recall, tape one is “To Be A Witness” and tape two is a “A Witness For Every Season”. But it is going to be different because we are not going to focus on the length of time they work or anything like that, but rather just who they are and what it takes to make one live.

I want to call this sermon “The Two Witnesses and the Basics of Life” because we are going to talk about what it takes to live. This sermon is going to demonstrate that the two witnesses are not just referred to in two places in your Bible, but actually throughout the Bible. The Bible is the story of the two witnesses in some ways.

FOOD, WATER AND AIR
In order to talk about them we must first talk about physical life. We must examine physical life itself. All life starts with the same basic ingredients. We must have dirt, and then the three ingredients to make that dirt live are food, water and air.

Food is for nutrition for our body. It helps the body produce energy and to heat. The building blocks of life and the healing processes come from the food. Water is essential to all living things. The human body must have water in order to dissolve the food (the nutrients) and carry them throughout the body. Water also provides the medium for which the chemical reactions can take place to break down that food. After the body receives nutrition throughout, it has to dispose of the waste and toxins. There again, water cleanses the body and takes away the waste.

The third ingredient for life is air. Without air no amount of dirt, food or water could sustain life. All three of these ingredients are carried about in a body in the blood. That is why the Bible says the life is in the blood. The air is the essential ingredient that oxidizes the food (the nutrition) so it can be burned. That burning produces energy. It produces the things that we need to live and conduct work. It produces heat. It produces energy, as we said.

These three ingredients are not all equal. Air is actually the very most important of the three. As I said, no amount of dirt or water could live without air. You can live approximately one month without food. You can live approximately one week without water. But without air, we can only exist for a few minutes.

Let’s turn to Genesis 2:7 to see where the human race received the breath of life. Genesis 2, verse 7: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” Man became a living being by the breath of life. At that point he was just dirt with a certain amount of nutrition in there, but just dirt. Without the breath of life, Adam’s eyes would never have opened, and his heart would have never started beating.

If you were to read the story, you will notice God soon took Adam to the Garden of Eden where there was both food and water to keep sustaining that life. But when the air stops going into the man, the man stops living even when food and water are still present. We must have air.

The human body is essentially always slowly burning the food that is within it in a base of water because of the presence of air. It is always slowly burning the food it needs to live. The constant breathing in and out supplies the air that sustains life.

If you were to have rapid oxidation, which is the rapid burning of any fuel, you would actually have fire. It is called combustion. Inside the human body, there is a slow fire that is always burning because of the air mixing with the food and the water carrying the nutrition about the body.

PHYSICAL CREATION SHOWS GOD’S SPIRITUAL PLAN
When He created Adam, God’s ultimate goal, as we know, was spiritual. There is a spiritual essence to a man that God has put into man, which seeks to get to know God. God wants that in there so that the human being will perform the functions and the purposes that God intends. Those purposes are spiritual. God still starts with dirt (a human being), but He must supply three basic ingredients of life that are spiritual. It is spiritual food, water and air. These things are spiritual and, therefore, cannot be seen by the human eye. But because of physical existence and physical creation, we can imagine them, we can study them and we can learn about them.

Romans 1:20 speaks of this. Actually, it is an amazing statement made here. Romans 1, verse 20: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse…”

Physical creation helps us to clearly see God’s invisible attributes. We can see what God is doing, and we can imagine it because of the physical creation that we all are a part of. As physical beings, we can look at ourselves to learn what God is doing in mankind. We can determine His eternal power. We can look into His mind and His nature! Just as a human being can create things that give us an idea of what goes on in his brain, so it is with God. It is very similar to a painting made by an artist. When you stare at that painting and meditate on that painting, you get a glimpse into that artist’s mind, what he was thinking when he was painting the painting. Likewise with a sculpture. When we look at a sculpture, we can envision what the sculptor was thinking. An invention reveals something of the mind of the inventor. A structure reveals something of the mind of the designer and builder. A book reveals something about the mind of an author. All reveal attributes of minds. God says here in Romans 1:20 it is the same principle that exists in creation. We can look at creation and look at mankind, and examine His thinking and look at His purposes. We can learn about His invisible attributes because of physical creation.

Turn, if you would, to Hebrews 11 which is the Faith Chapter. What do we see? We see that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Read Hebrews 11:1-3. Faith says we believe God, but creation helps us to examine what we have faith in. We understand that He has a great purpose for mankind. We know we can look at creation and understand His invisible attributes and look into His mind. By faith we can believe that He is going to do something awesome with mankind.

Physical evidence is required because we are physical human beings. We have eyes, ears and a sense of touch and smell so that we can experience life and imagine God! It is a beautiful creation out there that God has made, and this is a wonderful idea from the mind of God that we can look at it and think about Him. We can examine His invisible attributes. Faith requires that these unseen things exist and that there is a spiritual realm out there. That requires faith. You cannot determine that alone by looking at creation.

God started with dirt, and He added the spiritual basics of life. That is what we are going to talk about today. He added food, water and air but all of a spiritual nature. Yet the physical equivalents are out there for us to examine, study, feel and touch.

Turn, if you would, to I Corinthians chapter 15. Verse 20: “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.”

Please drop down to verse 42 of I Corinthians 15. “So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being.’” We saw that in Genesis chapter 2. “The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”

Verse 46: “However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.”

What are we seeing here? God is talking about making physical dust and human beings into something spiritual, a new man! It started with a second Adam, Jesus Christ. Just as there was a first Adam that was a pile of dirt that received the breath of life, there was a second Adam, Jesus Christ. Within Him He had the breath of life and was a life-giving Spirit. He could share that breath with others creating a new type of human being (a new man). Let’s read just a little bit of this going back to Ephesians chapter 4.

Read Ephesians 4:20-24. Once a person is converted and receives this new breath of life, this person is a new man. We are to set aside the old man and carry about the new image of Jesus Christ. This is what God is creating, and it is spiritual. But because we have physical creation, we can imagine it. We can read about it in God’s word, and we can picture what He is trying to do because it is something invisible.

By faith we look at physical creation and know there was a Creator. By faith we know that God put the breath of life in Adam. By faith we know He is going to put the breath of life into a new man in the hopes of eventually giving all mankind eternal life. That is the promise. Part of it is physical that we can see, and part of it (the most important part) is those things that we cannot see, but by faith we must believe.

SPIRITUAL FOOD
The new man needs a new type of the basic ingredients of life. He needs spiritual food. Turn to John chapter 6. Christ is speaking here. Read John 6:47-58. This is the bread of life. It is the spiritual food that God gives.

Drop down to John 6:62 where Jesus Christ concludes: “‘What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.’”

Because Jesus Christ had a physical body and the Spirit within it, His words gave life and were food. That perfect life (that perfect existence) that He lived and then His death give that life to all who will believe and eat of that bread (of those words).

Turn, if you would, back to Matthew chapter 4 where we see the temptation of Jesus Christ by Satan. Keep your fingers in John. Read Matthew 4:1-4. Every word that proceeds from the mouth of God can become bread if we believe.

Read John 1:1-5. Jesus Christ, indeed, is the Word, and within that Word is life. It is food for mankind. By the end of His physical life, very few living in darkness, indeed, really could see the light that He had brought and the food that He had brought. But enough did to begin the work of Jesus Christ through His body, the Church. They needed food, and He was that food.

SPIRITUAL WATER
Spiritual water is also a necessary ingredient. God must also supply spiritual water. John chapter 4 discusses this spiritual water. Read John 4:5-14. Jesus Christ also provides the second ingredient (the water) which springs up in the individual to become a spring of everlasting life.

Turn to John chapter 7 just flipping over a page or two. Read John 7:37-39. Christ said if you come to Him, He will give you the water of eternal life. Within us it will become a spring. Therefore the begotten sons of God (these other firstfruits as we read earlier) are the firstfruit of many brethren. These other firstfruits would have this spring of water within them. A spring of water gushes forth for other people. It can share that water with other people. It is water to slack thirst. It is water to provide the medium to carry the food and the nutrients that we need to have a living body. It is also water that is cleansing. The words of Jesus Christ have a cleansing effect. Turn to Hebrews chapter 10 to read about this.

Read Hebrews 10:19-22. We can have our bodies washed with pure water when we approach Jesus Christ. It is the fountain of water.

Turn back to Ephesians chapter 5 because this is mentioned again. It is referring to marriage, but the ingredient of water is mentioned here. Ephesians 5, verse 25: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word…”

In our physical marriages the husbands are supposed to love their wives. This helps the family be clean when people love each other the way they should. But in reference to Jesus Christ and His Church, He is the bridegroom who is going to marry the Church. He says I can wash you with the water of the word.

Continuing on in verse 27: “…that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” Jesus Christ wants a clean and beautiful bride. He washes that bride with the water of the word, removing the spots and the blemishes. He cleans the bride up and gets her ready for the big day.

Water is also necessary to sprout the seeds that become food. Turn, if you would, to I Corinthians chapter 3 and read verses 5-9. Paul said Apollos and I are both ministers in the Church, and it is our labor to provide this food and water. One of us may plant the seed within an individual, and another may water that seed to get it to sprout, but the two of us are one because it is one Spirit working through us. This is what Paul is saying. He says do not look at us as anything special. We are just sharing what we have been given (the food and the water which are spiritual).

We understand the concept of seed and watering the seed because of physical creation. Could you imagine trying to understand scriptures such as these without understanding some principles of farming and how seeds are propagated? We understand how water is incredibly important to get them to produce. We have to have physical creation in order to understand these scriptures, and that is a confirmation of Romans 1:20.

Water is God’s thoughts. That is what it is. Those thoughts come down from heaven in the form of the written word, which we have before us called the Bible. It is the doctrine, the historical record and the evidence of what God is thinking and saying! It is recorded on the pages of your Bible.

Turn, if you would, to Isaiah 55, for that is exactly what we are told here. Isaiah 55 tells us that God’s thoughts come down to us in the form of rain. Isaiah 55 beginning in verse 8: God says, “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater…’” Paul and Apollos would not have even had the seed to sow had the thoughts not come down from heaven.

Verse 11: “‘So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.’”

God calls His thoughts rain. We have all seen rain, and we understand what rain can do for the earth. It can land on parched ground and sprout seeds and turn that parched ground into beautiful lush green verdant foliage, grass and crops. That is what God says. My word does that within people! That is what My word does within people.

Isaiah 58 tells us we need to dispense that water. In order to be a well-watered garden, we need to also share the rain. Read Isaiah 58:7-12. So much is within those few verses, brethren. But ultimately we need to share that rain with others who are hungry and thirsty. There are others who are suffering and in a drought. There are those who are oppressed. We must not do it by pointing the finger of wickedness and judging. We must help them lift the burden of the yoke off them and free them from ignorance. We need to direct them toward God’s ways. If we do that, we are a green and verdant garden for God. We are a well-watered garden that is passing on the rain (the water and the food) so that others will have spiritual drink and spiritual seed to sprout food. It is an amazing thing, brethren. God is showing us here that His thoughts form the initial outpouring of that water. That water landing upon the earth becomes springs within those who believe Jesus Christ, and they can then share that water with other people.

God in essence, as we have learned before, is a spiritual farmer. Turn, if you would, to James chapter 5 for the scriptures concerning that. We have a sermon about God being the Master Farmer, so we are not going to dwell on this too much, but I just want to read these scriptures. Read James 5:7-10.

There is a former rain, and there is a latter rain. It has to do with the prophets and the apostles. The prophets recorded the Old Testament word of God. His thoughts were sent to them by God and recorded in the scriptures so that we could take that written record. It is the rain that is written into the pages of your Bible! We can then sprout crops with that record.

He says there is a former rain and a latter rain. There is an Old Testament and a New Testament to bring the crops that I want the earth to bear. He said you have to be patient just like a farmer, for God is a farmer. He wants to see this occur in the right time (the right season). We have studied this in our “Seasons of the Church” series. We are told here not to judge or condemn, because then we could interrupt that flow of water. That is essentially what we are told right here.

God provides the food, and He provides the water, but those are only two of the three basic ingredients of life. The new man needs all three. You still cannot live with just food and water. It is essentially the same as physical man. Food and water can be present, but without air, there is no life. We need all three of the basics of spiritual life to be alive.

TREES BEARING FRUIT
The spiritual basics of life beget spiritual living things (the new man). We will take another view and come from a different angle. We will look at the new man by turning to James chapter 1. Turn, if you would, back a couple of pages to James 1:17. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.”

The truth all originated with God the Father and Jesus Christ. It comes down from the Father to the earth in the form of rain to create the firstfruits (the new human being, the new man). But fruit grows on trees, brethren.

Turn to Psalm chapter 52. These trees are very, very important to God. They need water, light and nutrients to make them grow. Psalm 52:8 speaks of this. This is King David speaking, who is one of the prophets of the Old Testament. “But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. I will praise You forever, because You have done it; and in the presence of Your saints I will wait on Your name, for it is good.”

David understood that he was like a green olive tree in the house of God (a spiritual tree bearing fruit for God). He understood he was letting the rain, the sun and the nutrients in the ground all bear fruit within him. He was just a man, made of dirt like you and me.

Turn back to Psalms chapter 1. Read Psalm 1:1-3. The righteous man who meditates on the word of God draws that word in and is receiving the water. He is like a tree planted by that river of life. It becomes full of the sap and full of the nutrients that it needs to produce foliage and not wither. It bears fruit in the proper season. This is the destiny of a spiritual tree.

Because they share the water and share the food with others, trees are in essence teachers of the truth. They are recorders of the doctrine. When David wrote this Psalm, he was recording God’s thoughts. He was distilling the rain water into words that we can read to this very day! They are recorders of prophecy. They are workers for God, as Paul said in I Corinthians 3. We are the field. The ministry are the workers. We are all to share that load and work together in the field to produce a crop for God.

A principle tree spoken of in the Bible is Jesus Christ. If you would turn briefly to Revelation chapter 2, verse 7 this is what is referred to by the tree of life in paradise. It is Jesus Christ who stands in the midst of the Churches. Revelation 2:7 tells us: “‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.’”

Jesus Christ said I am the bread of life. I am the food of life. He is the tree of life. He is the initiator of the seed and the food and the water that we need to become living trees for Jesus Christ and God the Father.

David said he was an olive tree. What do olive trees bear? They bear olives. What do we do with olives? We press olives into oil. We squeeze the oil out of olives. It is one of mankind’s most perfect fuels. Did you know that? It is possibly the cleanest burning fuel on the earth. Olive oil is good for many foods and is good for healing. It is good for so many things. It is the symbol that we use when baptizing and anointing the sick.

I want to tell you some interesting things about a tree. Each branch on a tree looks like the tree. Have you ever noticed that? You can take a branch off the tree and turn it away from the tree. Look at the branch, and it would look like the tree. The branch would then become the trunk with little twigs coming off it. Then if you take off one of those little twigs, and you turn it away from the branch and just look at the twig, it also looks like the tree. The smaller branch has a trunk. It has little tiny twigs off it and leaves. Then if you go far enough and look at the leaf, within the leaf you will see the veins that look like another tree. That is what David was telling us in the Psalms.

He was saying that he was a tree. In Psalms it says blessed is the man who is like a tree who has foliage. Right down to the leaves that bud, the leaf, the twig and the branch all look like the tree because they are all connected to the trunk which is connected to the roots. Jesus Christ is the trunk and the roots that make the tree live by drawing in the nutrients up into the tree. Isaiah chapter 11 tells us exactly that.

If you would, turn back to Isaiah chapter 11 please. Verse 1: “There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse…” This rod means a branch, and the stem means a trunk, by the way. “…and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.”

Any branch that comes from the trunk and the roots (that are Jesus Christ) that feed that branch becomes part of the living tree and a tree in its own right. But it must be connected to the trunk and down to the roots in order to live. That is the way the nutrition gets drawn up into the tree. The sunlight, which is God’s source of light that comes into the tree that turns into the leaves that you see (and produce fruit), must have water. Those are two forms of food. The water that comes up into it and the sunlight that strikes it physically picture the things that we learned. God is saying now these are spiritual lessons for us to draw from because this is what God is doing spiritually in His Church.

Christ has many firstfruits which form these branches connected to the tree. Turn back a few pages to Proverbs chapter 11, verse 28: “He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like foliage.” A righteous person flourishes like a branch full of leaves (full of fruit). That is what Jesus Christ is saying. You stay connected to Me. Do not trust in your words. Trust in My words. Trust in My riches, and you will be like a branch that is full of leaves and bearing fruit for Me. That is what it means to be part of the firstfruits and bear fruit for God.

The former rain and the latter rain each feed the tree. One comes before Jesus Christ (the Old Testament recorded by the prophets), and the other writings come after Jesus Christ (recorded by the apostles). That is who composed the book that you are holding, the Bible. One came before Christ’s first coming and one after Christ’s first coming. One forms a tree that is a group of people (the prophets) who worked on the word of God. And the second forms another tree (the apostles) who wrote down the word of God so that others could bear fruit once connected to the tree.

Turn to Hebrews chapter 4. This is explained in Hebrews chapter 4. Both the Old and the New Testament come together to form one living body of Christ. Read Hebrews 4:11-13. The word of God is the living word within the Church of God. Put this together with what we are told in Ephesians chapter 2. The word of God we know is composed of the Old Testament and the New Testament. In Ephesians 2 we are told that the two come together in the body of Christ. Read Ephesians 2:14-18.

Jesus Christ bridged the gap between the Old Testament and the New and brought them together as the living word of God within one body (His body), the body of Christ (the Church). It is a miracle, brethren. It is awesome to comprehend this! If we go now and look at the scriptures typically referred to as the two witness scriptures, we will be able to understand them better.

Turn to Zechariah chapter 4. Read Zechariah 4:1-5. Drop to verse 11, and read verses 11-14. Picture these two olive trees. There is one to the left of Christ and one to the right of Christ. One preceded His first coming, and one came after His first coming. Each is an olive tree composed of the branches who are the anointed ones.

That term “anointed ones” means sons of fresh oil. What do olive trees do? They produce oil. It is the job of the sons of fresh oil to produce oil for God and fruit (olives). Once squeezed, pressed, tried and tested they become olive oil. Olive oil is very important to have because that becomes fuel to keep the body going. It is converted sunlight and converted nutrients from the ground that become oil. It is a miracle! It is spiritual food.

Each tree must have this food and water within it to exist. Each tree must pass on the food and water to others in order to get the seed to sprout in other people and give the water to make that seed grow. Then more trees and more food exist to be passed on to others. It is important to do that because we are all physical human beings with a short life span. The Church must live from Jesus Christ’s first coming right through to His second coming. The Church must live as a body for Him for two thousand years. So this tree stays alive by passing on the food and water to succeeding future generations. But we are still missing one essential ingredient. We are missing air.

We can have all the oil in the world (because of the food and the water we have given the tree), but you cannot do anything. It is just sitting there. It needs something to burn. A living thing must have heat and energy from fire within (from the oxidation that takes place within the body). So we need air. Nothing burns without air. You cannot perform work without burning something for energy.

A WITNESS
Before we look at air, I want to define what it means to be a witness. Let’s talk about this term we have been reading about. In the New Testament witness comes from the Greek word martus. Witness, by analogy, means martyr. It also means something evidential. That is your Greek definition for the word witness. It means a witness, by analogy a martyr, and something evidential.

Why is it by analogy a martyr? Because once a person becomes converted, receives the Holy Spirit and dies with Christ (who was begotten of God and crucified), they become essentially a martyr. They have given their life to God whether they actually die a martyr’s death or not. Many faithful people have not died a martyr’s death, but they were martyred by analogy, for they gave their life to God.

The Old Testament term for a witness is ed, which means in concrete terms a witness; in abstract terms it means testimony and specifically a recorder of that testimony who duplicates and repeats what he hears and testifies to it. That is why the Old Testament witnesses wrote down the words that we have. The New Testament witnesses (the 12 apostles to start with) wrote down the words that we have in the Bible for the New Testament, but the living word was passed on to succeeding generations in the body of Christ. Now it can live within us if we receive the word, believe that word, we are converted and the Holy Spirit mixes with it. This is where we come to the discussion of air.

SPIRITUAL AIR
A person can own a Bible, which is the truth. That is having the water and the food in your house. One can read it every day and still not have the fire burning within. In order to be a true witness, we have to have the air that makes the fire. Then we have the capacity to have energy and do work for God.

The witnesses testify of God’s power, of His invisible attributes and of His plan. That is why in Zechariah 4:14 the anointed ones are called sons of fresh oil. You have to keep producing fresh oil because you keep burning it. It is just like putting fuel on a fire, you keep burning your oil. You can never stop doing good works. You can never stop telling the truth. You can never stop being a true witness for God. You have to keep providing oil that God can burn within us.

Air is an essential ingredient of life. The following scriptures are going to demonstrate just how essential air really is. We won’t have to turn there, but in II Timothy 3:16 we are told that all scripture is God breathed. It comes from God’s breath! The words recorded in our Bible by the Old Testament prophets and the apostles were breathed by God! As we saw in John 1, Jesus Christ is called the Word. Therefore hearing that properly is like having His breath breathe on us!

Turn, if you would, to Acts chapter 2. It is the first Pentecost of the Christian era. We are going to read a little bit about what happened that day on the first Pentecost. Read Acts 2:1-4. These men had the fuel. They had heard Jesus Christ. They had imbibed of the water and had taken in His word, but they had no fire yet. They could do nothing. What was the first thing that happened on Pentecost? The air came into the room like a rushing mighty wind. Now that fire could be ignited, and they saw it. The fire came and sat on each of them! It took more than just food and water. It took the fire and the breath of God to get it going. That was the Holy Spirit descending upon them. The wind provided the air to kindle that fire and to keep it going.

If you back up to Acts 1:4, you will see what this turned the apostles into. Read Acts 1:4-8. It was the beginning of the two witnesses in the Christian dispensation, and that is when it started with power right there at the first Pentecost. He said you will be witnesses for Me, eventually to the ends of the earth. The body of Christ would take two thousand years to get to the ends of the earth where we are in this day and age, but it started with them becoming witnesses on that first day of Pentecost.

Now go to Acts 4:32. “Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.”

It is what gave them the power to be a witness, because now they had all three of the basic ingredients of life. Dirt could now speak the truth of God, perform miracles and do some amazing things as we will see. Because a witness was alive in them, they could now speak the truth. How do you speak? You speak by exhaling. You have to inhale in order to exhale. Christ gave them the breath of life on that first day of Pentecost. From that time forward the witnesses had to be inhaling and exhaling constantly to be able to speak, to be able to have the fire burn, and to be able to utilize the food and the water that God had already given them in the Bible. Turn, if you would, to Matthew chapter 5. We are told exactly that.

Read Matthew 5:14-16. Back then they did not have electricity. That lamp back then was oil. Olive oil must be pressed out of the tree to fill the cup that gets set on fire in the presence of air. We are converting spiritual food and water into fire in the belly (the ability to preach the truth) and also to let our lamps shine. It lets them burn brightly.

When that lamp goes out, darkness comes upon the house. They used to keep that oil lamp going so that light would be throughout the house. A proper witness combines the truth (the food of God) with the Spirit (the air) to burn brightly for all men, so that they can see the things of God. John chapter 20 brings in the aspect of forgiveness with this. God is in the forgiving business.

Turn to John chapter 20 if you would please. Jesus Christ often spoke of forgiveness. Even when He was going to heal someone, He would tell them your sins are forgiven. If He is the trunk and we are the branches, we must be in the forgiving business as well. Read John 20:19-23.

Therefore, that breath that went into the apostles shortly thereafter, He was demonstrating what it was going to be. But on the first Pentecost that wind came in that was the breath of God that kindled the fire. He says now I am sending you as the Father sent Me.

In John 6 we saw that He is the breath of life sent by the Father, and the words are truth. His flesh is flesh indeed that will give life. Therefore, He said now I am doing what My Father did through Me I am doing through you. So within you, you need food, water and air. He will provide all of those ingredients, but you have to keep producing oil so that the fire can keep burning within. Your lamp will glow brightly for the whole household and eventually all of mankind. This is what God is talking about.

If we forgive, we are forgiven. If we do not forgive, we are not forgiven. That can be a two-edged sword. It can hurt us if we are not operating this principle correctly, as we will see.

We can shut off the air we need for life! We can actually shut off the air that we need to live with spiritually. Turn to I Thessalonians 5 where it tells us to keep that fire going within your life. Read I Thessalonians 5:12-22.

That is how we keep the truth going. We keep breathing in and out, and don’t quench that spirit. Don’t choke off the air. Please don’t render evil to anyone else. Please be kind to the faint hearted. Be patient with all. Do not turn away from the truth. Do not preach untruth. Do not despise the prophecies. Hold fast to what is good. If we do those things, we are going to continue to produce the oil. If we have the fruits of the Spirit in our lives, we are going to continue to produce the oil, so that the fire will not get quenched. We will have the air continually mixing with it to burn a fire.

THREE WAYS TO CHOKE OFF THE AIR
How do we choke off the air? There are three ways that I have noticed that we can choke off the air that we need to live. Luke chapter 6 tells us that judging harshly and not forgiving is one of them. Turn to Luke 6 and read verses 37-42.

Much is said here, brethren, but the key point is we must forgive in order to be forgiven. The measure we use when we forgive others, we bind God to using on us. We want to freely forgive, and we do not want to be a hypocrite by always pointing out others people’s problems without dealing with our own. One way we can choke off the air of God is by not forgiving and by judging harshly. We can end up tying God’s hands!

Turn, if you would, to Matthew chapter 6. It is the model prayer. Read verses 9-11. Give us the food we need. Continue reading verses 12-15. We can tie God’s hands, and we can choke off His breath if we do not practice the forgiving business, for that is what the trunk of the tree came for. He wants the branches to duplicate His efforts.

The second way we can choke off the air is by preaching falsehood. There are many scriptures that we have looked at in the past to prove this point. But I just want to turn to James chapter 5 this time. James 5, verse 19: “Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth…” (turns away from what is right in God’s word) “…and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.”

The way of death is to turn away from the truth. You are losing the food! You are not going to keep the fire. You will not have the necessary ingredients to stay alive. So Jesus Christ appreciates it whenever we turn someone back to the truth, so they are tied into the true word of God. It is the food that they need as one of the necessary and very basic ingredients of life.

The third way we can choke off the air is with a lack of love. I Peter chapter 4, just flip over a few pages, read verses 7-11. We are to treat each other with love and kindness because love covers a multitude of sins. That love keeps the air coming. When we exhibit love and tell one another we love each other, we are inhaling and exhaling the breath of life. That keeps the fuel burning and the lights glowing. Food, water and air are the three ingredients of spiritual life, brethren. We compared physical existence to understand this.

At the end of the age, where we are in this point in time, the fire is going out in the Church! The air is being choked off. Turn, if you would, to Matthew chapter 25. The Parable of the Ten Virgins describes this very well. Read Matthew 25:1-13.

TRIM THE WICK
The Son of Man is going to take the Church by surprise! When we understand the spiritual signs and wonders, we can see that we are well along the track. (It would be good to review those sermons and booklets about the signs and wonders.) We are farther than we ever dreamt. The fire for the oil is going out because the wick needs to be trimmed. What we are teaching needs to be correct. What we are doing in our lives must be righteous. We must be using the water of the word to cleanse every spot and blemish. If we do not do these things, if we preach error, if we do not set a good example for the world and we don’t love one another, we are choking off the Spirit! The wick is going out.

If we have enough oil by virtue of the fact of living a life of building character and getting the fruit we produced pressed into oil, and if there is enough oil left in the lamp, that wick can be relit. But what does it take? It takes breath. Have you ever tried to light a fire and you had to blow on it to get it to go? So it is with a wick that is hard to light because it needs to be trimmed. It has a lot of charcoal and soot on the end of it. It is hard to light. We need to trim that off. If you were to follow up and look into the definition of these words in the Greek, it means preach the truth of God. We need to get rid of the lies and get rid of the hatred in the Church. We need to stop judging one another harshly and stop being foolish.

If we had been so foolish as to let that oil go out, brethren, and to have an empty vessel, we are in deep trouble. Maybe there is still enough time to put oil in the vessel and get the wick going, but there is not much time left. I would admonish all of us to get our vessel and our wicks in good shape, so when the breath of life blows across it, it can be ignited and the fire burns once again.

The two witnesses at the end of the age have quenched their oil. The people (the body of Christ) carrying the living word of God (the word written down by the first tree and the word written down by the second tree) are the fruit of those words. We are the witness of God. We have let that fire be quenched. Maybe there is a spark left at the end of your wick and my wick. Please ask God for the air to blow across it and reignite it. Please make sure there is enough oil in the vessel to provide the fuel, so that we can share the lamp (the light, the truth) with all within the house (the Church). Take care to ask Him to grow and eventually to share it with the whole world. This is what it takes to be a good witness for them.

The two witnesses have collapsed. Turn to Revelation 11:7. “When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.”

Brethren, the bodies of the Church (the Church is Christ’s body) have gone down because the air has been snuffed out. It has been choked off. Many of us still have the truth. We have the Bible. We are keeping the Sabbath. We are keeping the holy days, but we need air to breathe. Food and water are not enough! We need air. We need the breath of life. The Church has become like the walking dead, and that is why they do not need to be buried.

Continue with Revelation 11, verse 9: “Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves.” This has occurred, and I believe it is ending! The Church has been down and out now. It has been choking because there is no air. The breath of life is leaving it. That means we are like the walking dead because physically we are still walking around! We have our physical life. We still eat physical food, drink physical water and suck in physical air, but spiritually we may only have food and water. We may have no oil. We may have no fruit in our vessel, which means we need air, fuel and water in order to live.

We have lost our power at the end of the age, brethren. Because of a lack of time we won’t go there right now, but Daniel 12 tells us that when the power of the holy people is completely shattered, you know that it is almost over! It is almost finished, and that is where we are right now! We have lost our power to teach as a witness. We have lost our power to call down fire from heaven (the Holy Spirit) like on the first Pentecost. We have lost our power to bring rain and water to others, because we are preaching so many harsh doctrines and mischaracterizing the name of God. We cannot turn water into blood properly because of an unforgiving attitude, so the blood of Christ does not work.

When a minister baptizes someone, they turn the water that the person is dunked under into Christ’s blood. But we have to be operating on the principles that Christ installed in the Church at the start, in order to have that work. Back up to Revelation 11:3-6.

THE TWO WITNESSES
Verse 3: “‘And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.’” Go back and listen to the “Seasons of the Church” series to understand that. “These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth.”

Verse 5: “And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner.” The enemies of God’s Church (the enemies of Jesus Christ) must be converted by the word of God and receive this fire, in order to ever have a chance at eternal life!

Verse 6: “These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire.” Yes, brethren, we can cause a drought purposely when we refuse to teach someone in a bad attitude, where we refuse to give them water. We can also cause a drought if we are not living correctly as a Church of God, bringing a famine of the rain and water, so that there is no food. This is what has happened to the Church in the last days. There is a famine of the word. The water is in short supply, and the food is in short supply.

Turn quickly to Isaiah chapter 59, where it tells us the result of not teaching and preaching. Keep your finger in Revelation chapter 11. Go back to Isaiah 59:14 where we find out what happened. You can read the whole chapter on your own sometime, but in verse 14 we are told in the end of the age this is what has happened. “Justice is turned back. And righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.”

It is the truth that has fallen in the street, brethren. When the air was choked off and when the food and water became bad, truth fell in the street. It is not the physical Jerusalem in which Christ was physically killed, it is in His spiritual Jerusalem, which we have studied many times. Go back and look into those scriptures which speak of that.

In Revelation 11:11 what do we find? “Now after the three-and a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.”

The ones in fear here are not the peoples of the earth as mentioned earlier who can watch dead bodies walking, it is the fear of the nations over the earth! It is the kingdom of Satan! It is the principalities above the earth who are in stark fear, when they thought they put the Church down and the Church receives the breath of life and the fire begins to burn again spiritually!

We need this breath of life, brethren. Pray for it earnestly, and beg God that we receive it because we have to have it to combine with the fuel in order to have the fire within. We need it in order to burn and to have light to share with others. We need this air to get back on our feet once again, brethren, and to prepare for the next episode, the resurrection!

If you keep reading in Revelation 11, you will see the next thing that happens is a voice calls and says in verse 12: “And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, ‘Come up here.’ And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them.” The next thing to happen is the resurrection, brethren! Christ is at the gates.

My concluding scripture today is I John chapter 5, beginning with verse 1: “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God…” That means begotten of God and has His seed. “…and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him.” We should all love one another.

Continue reading in I John 5:2. “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born [begotten] of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is He who came by water and blood Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth.”

Continuing in verse 7: “For there are three that bear witness in heaven…” And I am going to read this correctly here, brethren, skipping the words that were added. Verse 8: “…the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son. He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son.”

Verse 11: “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.”

Brethren, when the three basics of life are within us, we have the witness within us. When the air gets choked off, the witness and the truth collapse in the street. Please give yourself to God! Have an ear to hear, and let Him blow into your life the air that you need to burn brightly once again!