Do you have the Spirit's "Witness"?

At my office recently, I was speaking with a man whose life I knew. He was not converted - he had never received the Spirit of God. We were talking about end time events, when to my surprise, he told me that he considered himself "born again". I did not believe him. I COULD not believe him. For I heard the testimony of his own lips, but he lacked the testimony of the Spirit.

The Spirit's witness, also called the Comforter's Testimony, sets God's way of salvation apart from all religions on earth, for no other religion bears God's mark of approval: the Spirit's testimony. Only God's is a two-testimony religion. Throughout history, men from every culture have claimed to belong to God, but man's testimony alone is insufficient and untrustworthy. It is the second testimony which confirms God's covenant.

Paul wrote (Rom.8:16), "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." These are the two witnesses, my reader: God's Spirit and yours. I know that you have one of them, but what about the one that confirms the covenant, the Comforter's testimony? "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me" (Jn.15:26) . In other words, did the Spirit of God testify through you in tongues when it entered? Without this witness from God, man's testimony, being alone, carries no weight at all in heaven. No one's claim to be born again is valid until he is baptized with the holy Ghost and speaks in tongues, for the baptism of the Spirit, first given on the day of Pentecost to Jesus's disciples, is the new birth experience (Rom.6:3; 1Cor.12:13; Gal.3:27).

The gift of God's holy Spirit, and the miraculous sign it brings with it, came to us at a very great cost. It cost God the sending of His beloved Son from the perfection of his heavenly home to an earth steeped in heartache, sorrow, disease, sin, and death. It cost the Savior inexpressible anguish and ignominious death on Calvary's cross. Other miraculous wonders preceded the death of Christ Jesus, but not the sign of the covenant: the Comforter's Testimony.

This New Covenant of the Spirit is eternal and unchangeable. Jesus declared, "My words shall never pass away." We must go God's way, for "he that climbeth in some other way is a thief and a robber." Upon reading Paul's words, "tongues are for a sign to unbelievers" (1Cor. 14:22), one should ask, "A sign of what?" The obvious answer is that this heavenly utterance is a sign intended by a loving God to guide sinners to the right way.

After the Lord ascended, his disciples went forth with miraculous signs attending their message. Jesus had told them to teach others "whatsoever I have commanded you." And what had he commanded them? He commanded them to preach the gospel, saying, "These signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents. And if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover" (Mk.16:17-18). Yes, speaking in tongues is one of the signs of the body of Christ. Because Jesus's words here clearly show the difference between the body of Christ and the many churches of Christianity which are not of God, Christian scholars have made great efforts to discredit these verses; but every faithful child of God knows that these words are from Jesus. "Without the Spirit we are none of His". Let those words sink in! Without the Spirit, we are not Christ's... and without the Spirit's [Comforter's] Testimony, we do not yet have the Spirit in our bodies.

Not knowing what the Comforter's Testimony is, misguided disciples of Jesus, more full of confidence than of knowledge, often refer to their happy feelings as proof that they possess the Spirit. Eventually, however, such people, if sincere, must admit that this witness is an unreliable one. It will fail them in time of greatest need. Now, while in favor with men, while in health, while financially secure, while surrounded with friends, they feel blessed; but later, when those conditions are reversed, they will feel unhappy. They will lose what they now suppose to be the Comforter's Testimony. Others point to "what the Scriptures say" as proof of their having the Spirit; but, friend, the Bible has never said anything. It is a book. Everything anybody has ever received from the Bible he has read, and whether or not someone understands what he has read is the issue we are discussing.

Some, in the face of Jesus's declaration, "When the Comforter is come . . . he shall testify of me" (Jn.15: 26), think that this testimony of the Comforter is their peace of mind; but when they see many who claim no religion at all apparently having the same peace of mind, their concept of the Comforter's Testimony proves insufficient to sustain their faith, or to give them trustworthy assurance. When the dark hour comes, they, too, must face defeat and surrender their claims as being false and satanic. But what joy, peace, and righteousness come to those who have the witness of God--to those who have the real holy Ghost and who have learned to walk in it!

Jesus promised this divine witness to his followers and died that they might have it; so "why should it be thought a thing incredible with you" that God should still be testifying today through those who yield themselves to His will and power?

"When the Comforter is come . . . he shall testify of me. And ye also shall bear witness. . . ." (Jn.15: 26). These are the two witnesses: God's Spirit and yours. Are you among the many who can say only with their voice, "I am born again"? Or do you have the second Witness that you are born of God? Please don't allow a man with nothing but a doctrine to steal your hope of eternal life. Many trust that they are being led rightly, when they are actually being carried by Satan's deception into temptations and pits of evil. Jesus, who loves you, offers you life.

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