What are the 3 witnesses? - 3 Major Divine Initiations on earth (1Jn5.8)

3 Times God says in Jer. 22.29, "Earth Earth Earth, hear the word of the Lord!!!"
Sometimes people have it the wrong way round.
They emphasize man "desiring God".
The Bible sets the record straight, "not that we loved God".
In fact our planet is quite fallen, entirely given over.
Yet God, 3 in heaven, which are one, strongly initiates towards us. He is not a God afar off. He is not far from each one of us. He has penetrated our world. He peers through the lattice. He desperately desires us. He pleads for us to be reconciled to Him.
He stoops down into our stock, and initiates 3 major witnesses, on earth (1Jn5.8)

The 3 Major* Divine Initiations on Earth:

1. GOD HIMSELF - The Spirit - The Holy Spirit - Different, Divine, Holy, Deeply, Penetrating our inner man, witnessing, showing, revealing, shining, touching, communicating, expressing, contacting us with nothing less that the Presence and Person of God Himself. This is God's Real Agent in the world today. Making men new. Convicting. Working. Connecting us to heaven.
2. THE PREACHERS - The Water - The Message (& messengers) - this is the clean, true, word - preachers, inspired prophets and apostles, contradicting the narrative of Satan and this world and our flesh's lies, this is heaven, reaching right down, penetrating our world, and strongly desiring us, trying to get our attention, getting really close, in our very ears and consciousness, in our native language, Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, English, expressing the very thoughts of the God who is in love with us
3. THE CROSS - The Blood - The Divine Blood of Christ - If the Holy Spirit and the inspired preachers (apostles and prophets) aren't enough to persuade us, get this.... God's greatest and most profound initiation - the Eternally Existent Son, entering in the human race, with the Perfect Blood of God, revealing the Perfect Divine Nature, pleasing to God, the only Perfect One here, offered, on earth, by heaven, on behalf of earth, back to heaven, appeasing heaven, freely for earth, a blood sacrifice - Calvary- which could cleanse and purge the conscience of men, bringing them to God, in one mighty powerful initiation, that in one drop, is enough to save the whole world. This blood, shed on earth, still affecting earth, was taken to heaven, standing against Satan and for men, forever.

These 3 Divine initiations, are enough to make us so full of faith, make us so God conscious that He is for us, with us and has blessed us because He desires us.

*There are many other incredible initiations of God to man, including general revelation, special revelation, angels etc (see Ps 19), but we focus on these 3 right now, as pointed out by John in 1Jn5.

What is communion?

The word AYRUB [Heb translit] has the idea of sharing communal bread in a communal place [Lightfoot, Talmud]. The place would be a common public place like a court or forum or barn. They would all bring their common/ shared bread into the common/ shared public location and eat it together. In John 21 we see this, except now, we're sharing the bread which He Hinself has privided (we didn't contribut anything), we just come and He provides the bread (which speaks of Him giving Himself). Christ, is what we have in common with each other, and communion is the coming together, in a public open forum of fellowship (KOINONIA) such as a service, meal, q&a rap session, or home bible study, to enjoy and express that Bread of Life.

You think you're special? 1Co 4.7

In the flesh, that is, in ourselves, summed up in all we are naturally, or all we received at our first birth, we are no different than anyone else. Nope. Nobody. What maketh thee to differ from another? The person who knows the cross knows that in his flesh, he's nothing special. In himself he is no more special than anyone else. Yet he glories. But not in himself. In the worthy Lamb. The unique, only, special, objective, well pleasing, perfect Son of God.

It's probably true, but I'm crucified! 1Co 4.3

With me it's a very small thing to judged by you. 1Co 4.3. CROSS CHECK!!! Being accused, judged, asked to justify yourself.
The finished work believer has already been crossed out, condemned, sub'd, replaced, crucified. Nothing is left to condemn! Jn 5.24! He's so "in Christ" that he know's he's nothing outside Christ. And when he's accused, his natural reaction is like David's with Shimeai... It's probably true... I'm actually worse than you're saying... I agree with you mr adversary... But it's really a small thing because there's just one thing you overlooked... You see, you came a bit late! I'm already crucufied! Buried! Raised! No more to be condemned. That's the part you forgot! And that's why it's a small thing to be judged by you. 1Co 4.3

Crucified fools with derived wisdom 1Co 3.18

Never mistake fools with divine wisdom for crossless wiseness. Pseudo intellectuals have nothing to say before a crucified fool. Crosslessness renders world wise people to clever for missions, and having too much natural cleverness for ministry. Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seem to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. 1Co 3.18

Tongues of fire Ac. 2.3

The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity (Js. 3.6)
On Pentacost, the result of redemption is a new tongue, a silver tongue, a tongue looking "characteristically like fire" (Wuest Expanded Translation). What an amazing plan from God, to take sinners, who have mouths of death, iniquity, poison, to redeem them, and to put the Bible in their Spirit in their hearts so that they, like the 2 witnesses in Revelation, have tongues of fire. Imagine the scene, the disturbance, the commotion, as prophecy was fulfilled by men with stammering lips, as a sign to the cultured educated men of Israel, who had just missed the boat, now hearing the wonderous works of God, from Galilee-accented, uneducated idiots (greek), in the non-sacred, "secular" heathen gentile langues, but with tongues of fire! That's not mamby pamby, that's not holding back, that's not ear tickling, men pleasing, compromising, crossless, live for now, popular, average, spirit of the age, flesh influenced, carnal, double speak, that's men with tongues of fire!

Prospering out of place, highly exalted Php 2.9

Some themes are often repeated in Scripture.
Abraham in Canaan
Jacob in Haran
Joseph in Egypt
Moses in Egypt
Daniel in Persia
Esther in Persia
They are all out of place, but prospered by God as a sign to others.
It can be sen as a picture of the believer who receives salvation, but more importantly, it points to the Person of Salvation, Himself. Christ came into this fallen world, A Root out of dry ground, humbled Himself, like Joseph in Egypt, was rejected, but because of His himility, and Who He Is, wherefore.. he is Highly Exalted!

Ethnocentric vs Christocentric Gen46.34

Ethnocentrism is assuming that ones ways are higher than others'. "Every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians." (Gen. 46:34). Everyone has their "them", which they look down on. To Egyptians, Shepherds and Hebrew were "them". But the true missionary has discovered that God's ways are higher than all of ours, and the only thing he "has" of any value, is that which he has received, derived, objectively, from outside of himself.

Apart from objective truth (Christ - the Living Word, and the Bible - the written word), all we have is ethnocentrism, subjective human evaluation and proud legalism. This is not ministry. This is the conceited plague of men's hearts. This is something outside of Christ. It is collective self righteousness. Self righteousness assumes self is superior, and prejudges others as inferior. And the world is full of it. The Christocentric minister recognizes that we are all fallen. All cultures are fallen. The missionary does not evaluate others by the subjective sunglasses of ethnocentrism, but instead, sitting where people sit, he manifests thoughts and ways that are higher than our thoughts and ways. (Is. 55) Thoughts that are Christ. And this is Life to people.

Infinately North-South, East-West

[rush transcript] -

Satan desperately wanted to ascend (North) into heaven and have his throne on the sides of the North;

But Jesus witnessed him "fall [south] like lightning."

Quite possibly this happened in the garden, just after the creation of Adam, the object of his jealousy;

Though he still had limited access to heaven (see Job), because the literal blood had not yet been presented yet, he would eventually be confined (further South), to earth. Some of his armies had already been chained further south, below the earth in Tartarus, but he remained free for a time. 

When Jesus came "from above", He entered Jerusalem and left it, through the East gate, which David used, and which He will use when His feet touch down on the Mount of Olives in the East, and it splits from North to Souh.

He was arrested in the East (Gethsemane), came back through the East gate, and was to take our sins, "as far as the East is from the West", in an infinite sense, when He was crusified for them at Calvary, in the North. 

Sheol was on the South side. 

Motivated by the "depths of His love", through absolute identification with fallen sinners, He then "decended into the lowest parts of the earth" (South), into hell, in order to rescue and "lead captivity captive" from one Kingdom (below) into another kingdom (above), by raising us up and made us to "sit above" in "heavenly places" (North), 

After the millenial reign, Satan will be cast down further, not just South, but to the "bottomless pit", (infinately further and further South forever). As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His thougs and ways higher than our thoughts and ways!