By Pastor Pat

Our lives are a series of testimonies.  Each circumstance and situation we encounter is a testimony in progress.  As we allow God access to our hearts and experiences and we yield to the work He began in us, He will shape our testimony through the process. 

Philippians 1:6 TPT

…the One who began this glorious work in you will faithfully continue the process of maturing you and will put his finishing touches to it until the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Jesus’ T.I.P.

A Coronation, A Cross and A Stone

Jesus rode into Jerusalem as a king. He entered unlike other kings… kings rode horses as a show of power.  Jesus rode a donkey as a sign of humility and peace. The people were compelled to celebrate his “Triumphal Entry”.  They threw down their cloaks and placed branches on the path to prepare the way for him. 

Jesus’ coronation culminated on the cross.  After being beaten, stripped to his undergarments, spat on and mocked, the guards placed a red cape on his shoulders and crowned him with a crown of thorns, and hung him on a cross.

He was sinless….. righteous before God. He did not deserve that moment in history, but he understood the testimony unfolding before mankind was God’s plan.

By choice he took on all sin, for all people, for all time.

He “became sin”.

He did this that his testimony might be fulfilled.

21 For God made the only one who did not know sin to become sin for us, so that we who did not know righteousness might become the righteousness of God through our union with him.       2 Cor. 5:21  TPT

The testimony of the coronation and the cross is powerful, but the story was not complete without the stone.

After three days, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary, mother or Jesus went to Jesus’ tomb. As they arrived they found the stone that sealed his tomb rolled away.  The tomb was empty.  The women were confused, perplexed and stunned by what they found.  Suddenly angels appeared before them and said:

“Why would you look for the Living One in a tomb?  He is not here, for he has risen!”       Luke 24:5 – 7 TPT

At that moment the revelation of the fulfillment of Jesus’ testimony broke upon the women.They shared this with the disciples who could not comprehend the Truth.  The surrounding circumstances spoke louder to them and clouded the testimony in progress.

The Truth:

He was resurrected…… He had died but was alive again!

Death and sin did not have the victory!

The very thing He said would happen, Happened!

But the disciples could not see this Truth, yet.

They were so caught up in the circumstantial evidence that when they encountered him on the road to Emmaus they did not recognize him.  Even when Jesus stood with them they couldn’t “see” him until he did something familiar.  Something they had seen him do many times before.  Suddenly their eyes and hearts opened and they saw Him.   They had been looking for the familiar when God was doing something NEW.

They saw the TRUTH of His testimony playing out in front of them.

At that point the power of  the coronation, the cross and the stone exploded into Life!

All the things Jesus had taught them….. 

All the life He shared with them, pushed all the negative “facts” of the circumstances out of the way……. 

Their personal stones, which blocked true belief and faith, were finally rolled away.

Hope broke open and faith for what God would do in them, around them and through them exploded in their hearts, minds and spirits.

An atmosphere of Truth and Life were released.  The bar of belief, hope, faith and truth was raised.

The impossible was revealed and realized as possible.

In our personal lives,  the circumstances we face in life are T.I.P.s  or Testimonies in Progress.

We may be weighed down or distracted by the negative “facts” of those circumstances.  There may be a haze or fog that attempts to settle in on us, to keep us from seeing God in the midst of our experience. Things may have turned out contrary to what we had hope or faith for.

As we live these “testimonies in progress”, it is our job and our challenge to rise above the circumstances and situations,  the negative “facts” and long waiting periods.  To look up to Him and see from His perspective. It is also our job and challenge to choose Life and not death, hope and not doubt, love and not fear.

We get to choose to:

May God bless each of us to hold on to Him in the process and to have the grace to live out His testimony in our lives.