Your Testimony

When it’s all said and done, all any of us have, in regard to faith in God, is our own personal testimony of what he’s done in our lives. And all that we really know about the way of Christ is what his Spirit has revealed to us, if we have the Spirit,, and if he has revealed anything to us. I had a responder to my website several years ago who wanted to engage me in a thread on his website, in regard to the subject of speaking in tongues as the initial evidence that someone has received the holy Ghost. I accepted, only because I knew that there were a lot of people who frequented his website who had some degree of interest in the things of God’s Spirit, or at least I hoped that they did. This man was supposedly a pastor and a very educated individual in seminary manufactured theology. Well whatever he was, it was evident that he surely was a ‘Christian’ minister by almost anyone’s standard. His big stumbling block was the fact that he absolutely did not believe in or acknowledge any kind of real life, real time experience with God, or any kind of true revelation knowledge (which also is an experience). It was all about pulling out scriptures here and there to try prove that he was right with God. He finally decided to end the discussion and to lock the thread because he had nothing left to stand on. The truth is, he had nothing to stand on at the beginning of the discussion, and I knew that. Anyone who actually denies the existence of a personal experience with God, and of real revelation knowledge through the holy Ghost, just doesn’t believe anything in the Bible. That’s all that’s there, and that is what the Bible and the Gospel is all about. If someone hasn’t experienced anything by the power of God, they just haven’t come clean with God. It’s that simple. And if they haven’t, well the good news is that they still can! God loves us regardless of where we are in our minds and thinking and so forth, but it’s not going to do us much good until we get or hearts and minds yielded over to him so that he can get us to where we need to be, which is being joined fully to him (I Cor. 6:17).

I absolutely love giving my testimony to people who are in need, because I know that God will do for them what he’s done for me, if they will believe and allow him to do it. I have hundreds, if not thousands of testimonies of what God has done in my life personally. After many years in Christ, shame on me if I do not. The personal testimonies of God’s redeemed is what people need to hear, because that is what the Gospel is all about. I can give my testimony to people without scripture, or with plenty of scriptures that coincide with my testimony. Whichever way I feel that a certain individual needs to hear it, I will do it that way. There simply is nothing as powerful as a real live testimony of the way God’s love and power has transformed, renewed, redeemed, and empowered someone’s life! I’ve been studying the scriptures and praying much for many years, and God has surely blessed my life in that arena. But I have to tell you that everything I’ve been allowed to learn in the Spirit and in the scriptures, all comes back around to the personal testimonies of God’s people. This is what Jesus died for, so we could have a testimony of what his resurrection power has done in our lives! If someone’s testimony of how they were born again is “Romans 10:9,10,” or “John 3:16,” etc.; then I know immediately that they have not been born again. Relying on the confession of scriptures to be your redemption story is not what Jesus died and rose for. He died and rose so that the same POWER that raised him from the dead, can also empower us to “walk in newness of life" (Acts 1:8; Rom. 6:3,4). He didn’t die and raise so that we could give people scriptures that will supposedly make them right with God. He suffered greatly so that we could be literally delivered from sin and it’s symptoms, and consequently have the "love that passes knowledge,” “the peace that passes all understanding,” and the joy that is “unspeakable, and full of glory;” and to give that to people! (Eph. 3:19; Philip. 4:7; I Pet. 1:8). If we have a true testimony of our own personal experiences with God, and keep them intact; then we have everything that the Bible is about my friend. Simple as that. Amen.