Continue To Testify! :: Deeper Devotion

John 12:19

So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him.”

I don’t believe I have ever noticed this verse before. What an amazing testimony to the influence of Christ! “The world has gone to him.” Can you imagine how much frustration must have been involved in that conversation? I find great encouragement in the Pharisee’s discontent. It has allowed me to realize how helpless the enemies of our Lord and Savior really are. The Pharisees were a ruling party among the Jews. They believed that they held a monopoly of power within their religion. Yet, in all of this, they only had as much authority as the Lord allowed them.

I have recently been discouraged by the amount of demonic influence in our society. It’s hard to escape the many traps our adversary has designed for us. It’s easy to believe, as the early followers of Christ did, that those in opposition to Jesus have the upper hand. I encourage you not to give in so easily to the roar of these lions. I pray that you might find the strength to stand up and proclaim Christ as King. I have often prayed that my relationship with the Lord would be so strong that even the unseen opposition to Christ would shutter when I entered into a room. Have you ever stopped to think about that? How strong of a presence does the Holy Spirit have in your life? Is Satan or his demons threatened by your presence in a room… or are you of no concern to them? A great way to gauge this is by the testimony you leave behind after you are gone.

John 12:17 reads, “So the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to testify about Him.” This verse is an example of how the power of Christ affects those who witness it. After the people saw what the Lord had done in Lazarus’ life, they continued to testify about Christ. So much so, that they even lined the streets to greet Him as he entered into Jerusalem. They proclaimed Christ as King, and the Pharisees suddenly became aware of how little influence they really had.

I pray that you would be more aware of the impact your relationship with Christ can have on those around you. It is my desire that after leaving a room, people will continue to talk about Christ, and the unseen enemies of our Lord will have nothing to say but, “Look, the world has gone after Him.”

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