John 15:26-27 NASB
[26] “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, [27] and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.
The early disciples have always fascinated me because of how they manifested the fullness Christ from the beginning without any hiccups. The times that Jesus released them to go out to the cities and villages to minister with his power and authority they demonstrated fully, the anointing that Jesus carried. After Pentecost they immediately and consistently flowed in the greater works ministry that Jesus had promised in John 14. It seems today that people are content from going from stage to stage in terms of manifesting the fullness of Jesus supernaturally, both in their interior life where holiness is concerned, and signs and wonders ministry of Christ released through them destroying the works of the devil in the lives of other people, but when I look at it biblically I don’t see this stage to stage development, but what I do see is a full release. Of course I believe that the Bible teaches there is a growth of maturity that we experience all the days of our life on this earth until we see him face-to-face, but I do not believe that victory over the power sin in us and over the power of Satan through us is something that’s reserved for somewhere down the road spiritually, and then only progresses one breakthrough till the next breakthrough, after the next breakthrough, etc. There are a couple of things in the two verses I listed at the top of the page maybe give us some insight. First, he talks about the Holy Spirit and he tells the disciples that the Holy Spirit will bear witness of Him (Jesus). He then tells them that they will bear witness themselves, of Him to others. Notice the sequence there; they were not able to bear witness of Jesus to others, until the Holy Spirit was bearing witness of Jesus in them. It is the Holy Spirit who makes the presence and the power of the indwelling Christ a vivid reality in us, and that is what the filling, or baptism of the Holy Spirit is all about. In John 16 Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will glorify Him. The word “glorified” simply means to “emphasize.” Make no mistake about it, the Holy Spirit’s primary role in our relationship with the triune God is to emphasize Jesus in us, so that we can steward the indwelling life of Christ, and cooperate with Jesus as He lives his life through us by the Holy Spirit. Only when the risen Christ is made a vivid reality in us by the Holy Spirit, can we then in union with the life of Jesus inside of us be able to manifest the supernatural power of his life through us, in bearing witness of him to others in supernatural love, and miraculous signs and wonders.
The second thing that I want you to notice from those verses above that I believe can give us some insight as to how they were able to flow so freely from the beginning in stewarding and manifesting the life of Christ, is what it says in verse 27; “because you have been with Me from the beginning.” They had spent more time with Jesus in an intimate setting than anyone else, and therefore had discovered His ways in the secret place of intimate fellowship. Put simply, they spent time enough, often enough, till they knew enough, so they could believe enough in childlike faith. It has always been interesting to me that Mary Magdalene was the first person Jesus revealed himself to having risen from the dead. He trusted her to believe first and the greatest miracle of all. I believe he knew he could trust her to believe because he saw such a childlike heart in her, that had been cultivated sitting at his feet. It seems like every time you see Mary of Bethany in the Gospels she is at his feet, beholding his face, and listening to his voice, or she is at his feet worshiping in one setting or another.