**The witness of the spirit, the water and the Blood upon the earth**
1Jn 5:8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in/as one.
If you take a look at the verse just before this, 1 Jn 5:7, you’ll notice that the word “spirit” is used differently on purpose.
1Jn 5:7 For there are three that bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit: and these three are one.
Verse 7 is referring to the Holy Spirit, the 3rd person of the Godhead, whereas verse 8 is referring to the human spirit or the spirit of a demon, referred to as an unclean spirit.
Spirit= pneuma πνεῦμα G4151, and it means: sometimes referred to in a way which emphasizes personality and character, the vital principal by which the body is animated, the rational spirit, the power by which the human being feels, thinks, decides, the soul, also used of demons, or evil spirits, the disposition or influence which fills and governs the soul of anyone.
Holy Spirit= hagios ἅγιος G40 pneuma πνεῦμα G4151.
Examples of “spirit” used in the NT.
Mat 10:1 And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.
Mark 8:12 And He sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation.
Mark 5:7 And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. *This spirit was testifying/witnessing that Jesus was the Son of God.
Mark 9:17 And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit;
Luke 1:47 And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
Luke 24:39 Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have.
John 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Witness: martureō μαρτυρέω G3140, it means: to be a witness, to bear witness, i.e. to affirm that one has seen or heard or experienced something, or that you know it because it was taught by divine revelation or inspiration. To give testimony.
Now if you have even a small grasp of the Gospel, you’ll have an understanding of how the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit are in agreement and bear witness in Heaven, but in this article I’m going to attempt to break down for you how the spirit, the water and the blood bear witness upon the Earth aside from the obvious example of the moon being turned to blood, waters being turned to blood, or waters parting. I’m going to take things a bit deeper.
Here we go…. Let’s start by backing up a bit in this chapter to verse 6.
1 Jn 1:6 This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is Truth.
The words “that came by” in this verse in reference to the water and blood, are two words in Greek that mean: to come by the means of; how you arrive or arrived, made an appearance or how you came to be known, came into being or became established. They are the words erchomai G2064 and the word dia G1223.
In this verse we can see what is reiterated in verse 5:8. The human spirit bears witness, demons or unclean spirits bear witness, water bears witness, and so does the blood of those born of His Spirit. Those born into the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit that is given to us by our Father, by the BLOOD of our Savoir Jesus, in whom the bible tells us we are co-heirs with, and are seated with Him in heavenly places. Rom 8:17, Eph 2:6.
Verse 10 says: He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness IN himself: he that believeth not, God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the witness that God gave us in His Son.
Verse 11 says: And THIS is the witness, that God hath given to us eternal life, and THIS LIFE is in His Son.
Verse 12 says: He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath NOT life.
Now it’s important to understand that the word “life” here is not just the word in Greek for merely being alive, but is the word zōē G2222 which means: the state of one who is possessed of vitality or is animate; of the absolute fulness of life, both essential and ethical, which belongs to God, devoted to God.
This “life” explains why Jesus told the man in Luke 9:60 “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.” Jesus is talking about the spiritually dead, those that verse 12 says “hath not life” those that do not have the Spirit of His Son and cannot bear witness to the Spirit of Truth.
Rom 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
The spirit witnesses and testifies, but if you’re wondering how the water and the blood witnesses and testifies, I’m about to show you.
The first time the word “water” is used in the New Testament is in Mat 3:11.
“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and with fire:”
Why did John baptize with water? It served as a witness. From the books of the Old Testament we can see water being used to bear witness on behalf of God aside from the well known witness of The Flood.
Gen 21:19 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.
Gen 24:43 Behold, I stand by the well of water; and it shall come to pass, that when the virgin cometh forth to draw water, and I say to her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water of thy pitcher to drink;
Ex 4:9 And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.
Ex 7:19 And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone.
Exo 14:21 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
Ex 17:6 Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
This is really only a handful of the times water is used in the Old Testament to serve as a witness for God.
Let me show you a few of the key times water is used in the New Testament to bear witness for God on behalf of Jesus Christ aside from the witness of the baptism of Jesus in which we all should know. Even Jesus had to fulfill prophecy and be baptized, because the water serves as a witness before God and man.
There is Jesus and Peter walking upon the water.
Mat 14:28 “And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.” Mat 14:29 “And He said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.”
Mar14:13 And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water: follow him.
Jesus commanding the water.
Luk 8:24 And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm.
Jesus turning the water in wine.
Joh_2:7 Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.
The woman at the well being ask for a drink of water by Jesus. The Lord used women at wells a lot in the OT.
Joh 4:7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
Joh 4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
Joh 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Rev 8:11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.
So we see that water indeed can and does bear witness upon the earth.
Now lets delve into the word “blood” and how its serves as a witness for God upon the earth. This time I’ll start with the New Testament.
Mat 27:24 When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.
Here we see Pilate using water as a witness that he is innocent of the shedding of innocent blood.
Mat 23:31-36 Jesus says “Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, ALL these things shall come upon this generation.”
The word translated as “generation” here is genea γενεά G1074 and it means: bloodline, that which has been begotten, men of the same stock, or family line, fathered, birth, nativity. It is where get we get the words gene and genealogy.
Why did ALL the righteous blood that was shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel up until a more current innocent person Zacharias, have to come upon and be counted against that particular generation/bloodline? To bear witness upon the Earth against them on behalf the three that bear witness in Heaven and are in agreement; the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit.
Mat 27:25 Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.
Why? To serve as a witness.
Mat 26:28 For this is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
Why was it shed? To serve as a witness before the Father on behalf of sin, and the atonement that is provided by that witness.
Joh 19:34-35 But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And he that saw it was the witness, and his testimony is true: and he knoweth what he saith is true, that ye may believe.
Act 5:28 Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.
Moses was of the bloodline of the priests, and his name means “drawn from the water” and God used water to serve as His witness before Moses’ brethren, the children of Israel, that he was indeed called of God. When the Red Sea parted for the multitude to cross over saving generations of the people of God from perishing, they needed no more convincing that He was from God.
Deut 18:18 I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
Why did the prophet that God spoke of to Moses, have to be among their own brethren? It is so blood could bear witness. The prophets needed to be of their own bloodline as the Lord told Moses, for blood to be able to testify on behalf of God unto those brethren. Making their bloodline accountable before God by their own brother. Blood witnessing and testifying to blood.
We see right at the beginning of Genesis Chapter 4 that blood testifies and bears witness. We read about how Abel’s blood cried out to God from the ground as a witness against his blood, his brother Cain.
Gen 4:10 And He said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.
There is a VERY significant reason that Jesus and John the Baptist were cousins/blood and that Peter and Andrew were brothers/blood, as well as James and John the sons of Zebedee. John testified on behalf of Jesus and Jesus on behalf of John. Andrew testified before Jesus on behalf of his brother Peter. James and John were a set of walking blood witnesses. Jesus called James and John the “sons of thunder” I believe because they packed the witness of two whenever they traveled together, and as we all know the bible says “let every matter be established by two or three witnesses”, and “if a prophet speaks, two or three are to judge whether it be from God.” James and John could deliver the blood witness of God to their brethren/blood with a double witness. The word “thunder” is only used 3 times in the New Testament and two of those times its representing the Voice of God. In the Old Testament, “thunder” represented the Voice of God’s judgment. I believe Jesus stopped James and John from calling down fire from heaven saying “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of” because they actually COULD have called down fire from heaven and prematurely brought judgment upon those Samaritan men before their appointed time. Jesus had to remind them that “the Son of man had come not to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” It’s just like Revelation 11 tells us that the Two Witness will be able to do, by smiting the earth with all plagues, as often as they will. Rev 11:6 says that they will have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophesying, and that they will have power to turn the waters into blood. Why? To be a witness for God upon the Earth.
Jesus, was the cousin/blood of John through his mother Mary. Mary was the cousin/blood of Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. Both of John’s parents were from the Tribe/blood of Levi as the book of Luke states and Elizabeth is mentioned as being from the daughters of Aaron. So John the Baptist was from the Tribe/blood of Levi just like all the other prophets in the Bible. Levi and his seed/blood were called by God to be the Priests and witness of God to His people upon the earth. Jesus was adopted by Joseph, and was registered by his parents in Bethlehem at the census decreed by Augustus, as being from the Tribe/blood of Judah. Jesus, in order to be the foretold Messiah, and come in the order of Melchizedek, being both priest and king; had to be a son of David, from the Tribe of Judah, and from the Tribe of Levi. For Jesus to serve as a prophet amongst His own brethren, in accordance to the Word of God to Moses in Deuteronomy 18:18, He had to be counted among the sons/blood of Judah, whom Jesus referred to as the “Lost Sheep of of the Tribes of Israel” whom He was sent to by His Father to speak on His behalf. Judah and Levi were brothers/blood, through their father Jacob/Israel, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham. So Jesus was from the blood of Judah, but though Judah’s father Jacob. Since Jesus would only carry the blood from His mother Mary. That means that Jesus had the blood of Levi the blood of the Priests coursing through His veins while He walked upon the Earth as well as the rightful fulfillment of being a son of David through the bloodline of Jacob the father of all 12 tribes, not just Judah.
Jesus is our High Priest, being actually from the bloodline of Levi the priests, God’s witnesses upon the Earth, through his mother Mary, and He was their king by being adopted into the Tribe of Judah, and being a son of David through the bloodline of Israel, and was recognized by the Jews though Joseph the husband of Mary, a son of David. Caleb was also adopted into the Tribe of Judah and served as head of the tribe of Judah even though he was born into the bloodline of Esau. Jacob and Esau share the same blood remember, though their father Isaac. Judah is a son of Jacob and Jacob is the twin brother of Esau.. Jacob redeemed Esau’s seed when one of the sons of Judah through the bloodline of Jacob, adopted a son of Esau, and in this case it was Caleb. The blood of Esau was used as a witness on behalf of God against the blood of Esau when Caleb killed and ushered his own blood out of their territories so they could be given to the blood/sons of Jacob. The Bible says that Caleb was the son of Jephunneh, and Jephunneh was a Kenizzite, the son of Kenaz, one of the seven dukes of Esau, Gen 36:11, yet God chose Caleb to be the representative for the entire tribe of Judah when going in as one of the spies to witness God’s promise to His people or fighting as the head of the household of Judah. Adoption is a witness of blood on behalf of blood, that is also why we read about the kinsmen redeemer in the story of Ruth and Boaz in the book of Ruth. Boaz is mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus though the bloodline of Joseph. Gentiles, are all those that are not counted among the Tribe/blood of Judah, according to the Jews, but as Paul tells us in his message to the Romans, that “we are given the spirit of adoption.”
Rom 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
But, as we all know, Jews, or rather those from the bloodline of Judah and Benjamin (Benjamin assimilated his bloodline in with the bloodline of Judah and together make the peoples referred to as the Jews in the New Testament) they STILL share a common ancestry/blood through the sons of Isaac, Jacob and Esau. That is why the Lord says this through the prophet Malachi:
Mal 1:11 My name will be great among the Gentiles, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the Gentiles,” says the LORD Almighty.
The word “gentile” is ethnos G1484 in Greek. It’s where we get the word ethnicity from, and it means: a multitude of individuals of the same nature or genus, the human family, a tribe, nation or people group.
These significant adoptions I’ve pointed out with Christ and Caleb into the Tribe/Blood of Judah, shows us that their were adoptions taking place on the behalf of bloodlines in order for blood to bear witness for or against blood as a testimony for God upon the Earth.
Okay, I think I’ve successfully brought some strong scriptural evidence to demonstrate and break down how the spirit, the water and the blood, bear witness upon the Earth.
Now, I’m going to attempt to break down HOW the Two Witnesses that the book of Revelation calls prophets to the nations/ethnos, will be blood witnesses before the whole world.
According to Deut 18:18, for these two males or females, (the scriptures do not specify male or female, it could be one of each) to even qualify as prophets in accordance to the words of God to Moses, they would need to be blood, meaning an ancestor of the blood of those they are bearing witness to and for on behalf of God upon the Earth;
Now, I know personally that this IS possible based on some genealogical findings of my own, but, I prefer to keep them personal. I will however tell you this: One single individual CAN have the blood of an entire ethnos/nation of people and it IS completely possible for two people to testify on behalf of all the nations/bloodlines of the earth from both side of the equator. Before your brain explodes; ask yourself this? Do you believe that everyone is a descendent of the first created man and woman, Adam and Eve? Do you believe that their was a chosen seed appointed by God, Seth, given to Eve after Cain shed his brother Abel’s innocent blood? Do you believe as many theologians do that the seed of Cain made it through the Flood by Noah taking Naamah the daughter of Cain, to be his wife? Noah and Naamah had 3 sons, Ham, Shem and Japheth. The son of Ham, Canaan is the very first to receive a curse upon the newly cleansed Earth, and we see that it is Ham’s seed/blood, through Cush, that all the nemesis’s of God’s chosen seed are descended from. Two stand as witness on behalf of God upon the Earth for that bloodline, and they are descended from their brothers, Shem and Japheth. Their blood is still living upon the earth. The blood of Seth which mean “appointed or chosen” was carried by Noah, and passed to the blood of Shem which means “NAME” and the blood of Japheth which means “OPENED”. They are still waging war and bearing witness against the blood of Cain to this very day. Remember in the Parable of Jesus; the field was the earth and the wheat was the children of God and the tares where the children of the evil one? Those tares are what the enemy has sown among the children of God, while we have been spiritually asleep for centuries, but the Spirit testify to our spirits that we are the children of God. It’s His Word that separates the Sheep from the Goats. Those that can hear, DO what they hear, and that witness is their seal from God that they will overcome the world.
You may not know them when they appear, but they will share your blood from some distant generation. The Two Witnesses will testify on behalf of God to their blood/seed upon the earth and they will be able to be counted among you as your blood/brethren . God will not transgress against His Word.. Blood testifies to blood.
I humbly ask that you pray, and do your own study on these matters to further convince yourself if you’re not already convinced. Remember, there are three that testify upon the Earth, the spirit, the water and the blood, and these three are in agreement.
God Bless you, Be Free and Set Free in Jesus Name!