The Power of Your Testimony and how to easily reach many with it

We’ve become so accustomed to hearing testimonies in church, we go ‘Wow’, feel a bit encouraged and then forget about them. Could your testimony be of more use than this? Could it reach a lot more people, even those who never experienced Jesus Christ and have a far wider impact? I can reply with a definite ‘Yes’ because I have experienced it on a large scale!

You are now probably thinking – oh, you probably had a fantastic testimony with lots of supernatural things in it, that’s why it reached so many people. I would have to reply to this: No, my testimony is more one of emotional healing and of God raising me up beyond where I would have imagined or could go by myself.

Every testimony is supernatural, even if it appears to be simple and not worthy of a movie script. And there are elements in your testimony that someone out there in this big wide world will relate to. You don’t have to experience amazing things to reach someone with your story, you just have to have content in your story that relates to something someone else is going through right now or has gone through. And I think this applies to most people out there, everyone has something that they have experienced in life which someone else can relate to. That’s why your testimony is powerful, regardless of how many exciting experiences it contains.

Let’s look at what God says about testimonies and how much He values them:

‘ For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, My Name shall be GREAT AMONG THE GENTILES. In every place incense shall be offered to My Name, and a pure offering; for My Name shall be GREAT AMONG THE NATIONS, says the Lord of hosts.’ Malachi 1:11

Malachi 1:14b:

‘ For I am a great King,’ says the Lord of hosts; and My Name is to be FEARED AMONG THE NATIONS.’

God’s purpose, desire and expectation is that His Name (which speaks of who He is and what He does for people) shall be great among the Gentiles, not just in the church. Is God’s desire and expectation fulfilled to the fullness? Is God’s Name – the name of Jesus – vastly known as GREAT amongst the budhists, the hindus, the muslims, the atheists, the pagans? Is the name of Jesus FEARED by the unbelievers?

Many people have asked, why doesn’t God just write something on the sky? Then His Name will be great and feared by all and it will all be easy! The answer is found in the book of Proverbs. God says in Proverbs 27:2: ‘Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth; A stranger, and not your own lips.’ In the same way as God tells us to let someone else praise us and not praise ourselves directly, He has chosen to have His Name made great on the earth mostly through His people and not through direct revelation. Therefore, the responsibility lies with us – under God’s leading – to glorify His Name in the earth.

Many times when we, Christians, think of glorifying God’s Name, we think of praise and worship or testimonies spoken in church by believers to other believers about what the Lord has done for them. While this is good and very needed, there is another aspect of glorifying God’s Name that I would dare to say has been partly neglected by the church: MAKING HIS NAME GREAT AND FEARED among the Gentiles, among the nations, AMONG THE UNBELIEVERS.

Think of all the unbelievers you know personally. How many of them, if asked what they think about God, would say: ‘Your God is renowned to be a great God and I fear Him! If this is not yet happening, then we need to come before God personally and ask Him what can we do individually and as a body to make His Name great among the unbelievers. He will show us ways that will even astonish us. He wants His Name glorified on the earth through us, and when we align ourselves with His purpose, He will turn heaven and earth so-to-speak to help us achieve this goal.

There are many ways God would want us to make His Name great among the nations and He will show each of us individually what is our part if we ask Him.

But what are a few of His ways to glorify His Name through us before the nations? Remember, this is not about glorifying God in secret, but in public, before the eyes of the unbelievers, before the nations. We will name some of the most important ones. We can glorify God’s Name before the unbelievers:

HOW GOD CAN GLORIFY HIMSELF THROUGH US AMONG THE NATIONS

     1. Through being a good example in our daily lives and through our good works – Matthew 5:14-16:

     “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so SHINE BEFORE MEN, THAT THEY MAY SEE your good works AND GLORIFY YOUR FATHER in heaven.?

     Let us draw nearer to God and let more of Himself live through us and through our works, so that Christ is revealed more and more to unbelievers through our livestyle and actions. Let’s behold and imitate Jesus in our daily lives and we will be transformed from glory to glory into the same image we are beholding (2 Corinthians 3:18). Let us submit ourselves to God’s cleansing fire so that the dross is removed and we shine more and more as pure gold and thus become a very shining light before the unbelievers.

     2. Through our mouth – the easiest and simplest way. We can use our mouth to tell unbelievers what God did for us at the cross by sharing the Gospel with them and also by letting them know the miracles that God did for us individually in our lives – our salvation and the blessings we have received from the Lord in every area of our life. Nobody can dispute our testimony of the miracles God did in our lives.

     3. Through mass-media – the way the modern society receives information today and gets greatly influenced in their belief system is mostly through the many forms of mass-media: television, radio, books, videos, CDs, internet, newspapers, magazines, etc. For too long, the devil has been brain washing the nations with his filth through mass-media.

     Now it is time for God’s church to rise and take the authority given by Jesus and make use of the mass-media to mass-tell the nations who God is and what He does and thus have His Name made great and feared amongst the unbelievers.

     Sometimes when Christians hear about using mass-media, they think shrink deep down in their hearts and think this is a big thing, hard or almost impossible for us, Christians, to achieve. I used to think so until God changed my mind.

     God wants us to have the mind of a conqueror and, like Joshua and Caleb, think that we can overcome in this area and conquer this giant. He doesn’t want us to shrink in doubt and unbelief about taking a share of mass-media for God. After all, God is the God of heaven and earth and He has a right to have a BIG voice in this world, since He owns it and we are His tenants. No one else in the universe has more right than God Himself to mass-communicate to the nations what He wants to. Yet He chose not to write on the sky, but to work through us. We can take a big share of mass-media for God and provide a large platform for God to be glorified before unbelievers.

     Let’s believe God together to take over large sections of mass-media and be used of God to flood the earth with the knowledge of who God is, by exposing the nations to the miracles God does every day in the life of Christians and to the message of the Gospel. And let us do it UNTIL the nations are filled with the knowledge of who God is and they respect Him as a great God and they fear Him.

     Let’s unite our faith, our hearts, our works together to take over a big share of mass-media for God’s glory and the salvation of many many souls. This is a fast and efficient way of telling the nations how great our God is.

WHAT WILL THE RESULTS OF SHARING YOUR TESTIMONY BE?

1. Many people will become aware of the existence of God and their doubts about God’s existence will start to dissapear. This will happen when they will see and hear the tens and thousands of miracles and amazing life transformations Jesus is doing in the world among the people. They might disbelieve one or ten stories, but it is hard to ignore tens and hundreds of people who testify of the existence and greatness of God. Being aware of God’s existence will then bring on the next question: ?If God exists, what are the implications for my life?? .

     2. As a result of the awareness of the existence of God, many will become hungry for spiritual things and they will begin to enquire more about the Christian faith. Spiritual hunger also releases God’s hand at work in the lives of the sincere and spiritually hungry.

     3. Many others may directly contact God in prayer and ask for their own miracle, which will release the miraculous hand of God in their lives.

     4. Others will contact Christian ministries and ask for prayer and help in their spiritual journey. This will result in many answers to prayer and much teaching being released to hungry unbelievers.

     5. Many who were ignorant or chose to ignore spiritual issues in previous times will be forced by the vast number of testimonies to seriously consider spiritual matters.

     6. Many who know about God, but choose not to follow Him will be coming under the conviction of the Holy Spirit through vast exposure to Christian testimonies and truths.

     7. Many who have been offended with God or have had wrong beliefs and misconceptions about who God is and God’s character, will understand that they’ve believed a lie about God and will feel freed to draw near to Him. The stories of many Christians who have been touched by the love of God will expose their misconceptions and will reveal to them the truth about God’s character.

     8. Many will be able to relate to the sufferings lived by Christians before or after they came to Christ and they will be able to see that there is a way out of their suffering through Jesus. It will spark faith in their hearts to believe God and draw near to God. If God did a miracle for someone in an area of life where they also suffer, then they’ll be stirred to believe God can also do it for them, if they come to Him and ask Him. Faith releases God’s hand at work.

     9. Our obedience in not being ashamed of Jesus and testifying Him before others will result in victory through the word of our testimony, joy, peace, fruitfulness and blessing in our lives.

And the end result of ALL the above will be that MANY WILL BE SAVED and BECOME THEMSELVES A TESTIMONY OF GOD’S GREATNESS.

Note: Apart from the fact that unbelievers will be affected by your testimony, the believers will also be encouraged to believe God and pray to Him and draw nearer to Him as a result and you are thus fulfilling God’s command to encourage your fellow believers: ‘Therefore comfort each other and edify one another’ (1 Thessalonians 5:11)

BE A DOER, NOT A HEARER ONLY!

Is this a cause worth giving our heart, time and life to? The answer is a BIG YES. The challenge is: will you answer the call to glorify God’s Name among those who do not believe in Him?

If your answer is yes, I encourage you to start praying to God and ask Him what is your part in the fulfilment of this great cause, apart from living as an example before unbelievers and sharing your testimony with people and the Gospel, which I believe are things we all should do.

And when God reveals to you WHAT to do, ask Him HOW to go about it and ACT, STEP IN FAITH under His directions to fulfill your part in this great cause.

HOW TO PREPARE YOUR TESTIMONY:

One practical thing you can do right away is to write down your testimony of what God did in your life and email it to us and we will publish it on this website. Since we get many visitors to this website, your testimony will be read by many people every year.

ALL you have to do is write down a description of the following:

1. How your life was before you gave your life to Jesus Christ

2. How you got converted

3. What difference Jesus made in your life after the conversion.

If you want to be contacted by the readers of your testimony, you can also include your email address. The people who relate to your story or are still struggling with areas that God helped you overcome will then be able to contact you and ask for prayer, encouragement or advice.

We also encourage you to give out the link of your testimony to others you are personally reaching for Christ in your daily life or to other believers who need encouragement and thus you can use it as an useful evangelistic tool.

You can email us your story at testimonies at christian-faith.com. We will place it on the website and email you the link where it is located, so you can share it with people you want to reach.

May God bless you as you glorify His Name among the nations!

Marilena Fackerell

marilenafackerell at gmail.com