25/05/2024
FAITH AND TESTIMONY:
- A testimony (in Latin: testimonium) is solemn declaration or affirmation made for the purpose of establishing or providing some facts.
- In scriptures the two tables of the law or the ark of covenant (Exodus 16:4, 28, 25:10)
- The book of the law or precepts of God (2 kings 11:12)
- The gospel which affirms of Christ and declares the will of God (1 Corinthians 1:1, 2 Timothy 1:1).
- Faith and testimony are always going hand in hand because sometimes to improve or empower (boosting) someone's faith, there must be testimony telling. A testimony is also an affirmation of results of faith, so we see their inevitability.
EFFECTS OF A TESTIMONY ON FAITH:
1• IT IS THE SOURCE OF ENCOURAGEMENT:
- People pass through different difficulties, that as the body of Christ we sometimes do not know so when you tell a testimony you will encourage someone not to lose heart or grow shallow in faith because they will be uplifted to say that if God did it for you, He can do it for them. Paul wrote a letter of testimony to the people of Ephesus to let them know of the troubles he was facing but them not to lose heart but rather be honored:
• 13 So please don’t lose heart because of my trials here. I am suffering for you, so you should feel honored. 14 When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father,
Ephesians 3:13, 14
- To a person who sensible enough will understand the importance of testimony in the verse above is that it has now introduced another principle which is prayer. What prayer does is to bring patience and as we talked in the topic "Faith at work" that faith works with patience so we see this can tell someone to and keep on believing that God at the particulate time will act.
2• HELPS IN OVERCOMING:
- A testimony doesn't only encourage but help the encouraged party to overcome what they are going through:
• 11 And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.
Revelation 12:11
- In overcoming the devil it is by faith also (1 John 5:4) in other ways when the two are combined they make a good weapon.
3• PROVIDES EVIDENCE OF THINGS:
- The problem with man most of the time is that he wants to see first then to believe but that is not faith, so God had to provide His testimony to remove doubt from man. For instance we have the Spirit of prophecy to tell the evidence or the testimony of Jesus:
•10 Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said, “No, don’t worship me. I am a servant of God, just like you and your brothers and sisters who testify about their faith in Jesus. Worship only God. For the essence of prophecy is to give a clear witness for Jesus.”
Revelation 19:10
- Most of the people are doubtful of miraculous sign and wonders like healing, provisions, protection,etc so God did not leave us without
witnesses:
•17 but he never left them without evidence of himself and his goodness. For instance, he sends you rain and good crops and gives you food and joyful hearts.”
Acts 14:17
- When we talk about what witness do we have to say that we have eternal life, then the evidence is the giving of His son:
•11 And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
1 John 5:11
- The bible says that you shall know the truth and truth shall set you free (John 8:32). In this case the testimony is setting you free from any doubt.
- For the study of testimony as evidence (1 John 5:7, John 15:27, Revelation 22:16).
INDIVIDUALS WHO USED THEIR TESTIMONY TO EMPOWER THEIR FAITH:
1•JACOB:
- When Jacob was returning to his homeland he had fear that his brother Esau will attack him in vengeance for the stolen blessing but then He remembered the God of his forefathers (Abraham and Isaac):
•9 Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my grandfather Abraham, and God of my father, Isaac—O lord, you told me, ‘Return to your own land and to your relatives.’ And you promised me, ‘I will treat you kindly.’
Genesis 32:9
- He also remembered that the unfailing love and faithfulness God had shown to him, he was unworthy of so God can't be unfaithful now:
•10 I am not worthy of all the unfailing love and faithfulness you have shown to me, your servant. When I left home and crossed the Jordan River, I owned nothing except a walking stick. Now my household fills two large camps!
Genesis 32:10
- Jacob story could incomplete if this was his end but when the Lord saw that he was trusting (standing) His promises. He (God) then performed according to faith though he was afraid but his testimony became an encouragement to him that is why he did not return but listened to God and went on with his journey.
- What is your matter today? Are you in need of the fathers help? You have both the testimony and promises to tell God that I am trusting no matter what though my mind or eyes may see this as a dead end but your faithfulness nor unfailing love has ever change.
2•MOSES:
- Moses sent out twelve men to explore the land God had promised them. After forty days they came with a report which scared the people saying that the people living in the land are giants so they couldn't be able to conquer them, forgetting that it was not by their power that conquered different circumstances on their journey (Numbers 13:1-33). So the Lord was angry with them and wanted to destroy them for their faithless behavior but Moses told God that the testimony of salvation He did for them and God spared them for that time because He didn't want that faithless behavior to influence the incoming generation, He erased those who were of age twenty above except for Joshua and Caleb:
•11 And the lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? Will they never believe me, even after all the miraculous signs I have done among them? 12 I will disown them and destroy them with a plague. Then I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they are!” 13 But Moses objected. “What will the Egyptians think when they hear about it?” he asked the lord. “They know full well the power you displayed in rescuing your people from Egypt. 14 Now if you destroy them, the Egyptians will send a report to the inhabitants of this land, who have already heard that you live among your people. They know, lord, that you have appeared to your people face to face and that your pillar of cloud hovers over them. They know that you go before them in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. 15 Now if you slaughter all these people with a single blow, the nations that have heard of your fame will say, 16 ‘The lord was not able to bring them into the land he swore to give them, so he killed them in the wilderness.’ 17 “Please, Lord, prove that your power is as great as you have claimed. For you said, 18 ‘The lord is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion. But he does not excuse the guilty. He lays the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations.’ 19 In keeping with your magnificent, unfailing love, please pardon the sins of this people, just as you have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt.” 20 Then the lord said, “I will pardon them as you have requested. 21 But as surely as I live, and as surely as the earth is filled with the lord’s glory, 22 not one of these people will ever enter that land. They have all seen my glorious presence and the miraculous signs I performed both in Egypt and in the wilderness, but again and again they have tested me by refusing to listen to my voice. 23 They will never even see the land I swore to give their ancestors. None of those who have treated me with contempt will ever see it. 24 But my servant Caleb has a different attitude than the others have. He has remained loyal to me, so I will bring him into the land he explored. His descendants will possess their full share of that land.
Numbers 14:11-24.
- The way of the Lord never leads to death so what are your fears? Can He just save you just to give in you to death? No, no then that's not the Lord. When He saved through your faith in Christ, He can't just allow death to outwit you because your life was found when you found Christ meaning that life without Christ is dead and empty but when you found Christ you are now defined by grace as to being a person:
•9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. 10 “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.”
1 Peter 2:9, 10.
3•PAUL:
- Paul was on a great trial questioned by king Agrippa about the the accusation raised by the people about him. So Paul explained his matter about him persecuting the Christians but then the Lord met with him face to face and asked him that why are you persecuting me, Paul first did not the Lord at first but when he asked who are you Lord, He (the Lord) introduced Himself to him (Acts 26:1-16). Paul told the king that after I was converted the Jews seized me and tried to kill me but then he remembered how the Lord had been of greater help to him:
•20 I preached first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that all must repent of their sins and turn to God—and prove they have changed by the good things they do. 21 Some Jews arrested me in the Temple for preaching this, and they tried to kill me. 22 But God has protected me right up to this present time so I can testify to everyone, from the least to the greatest. I teach nothing except what the prophets and Moses said would happen—
Acts 26:20-22.
- Paul knew that the same God who has kept him is the same God who spoke long ago and will keep him now.
Note: He is the same God, He was the healer then, He is a healer now, He was a provider then, He is the provider now, He was a miracle worker (making way where there is no way, from stone gushing out waters) then, He is a miracle worker now, He used to deliver then, He delivers now, He was a savior then, He is a savior now. Whatever He used to do in the past He will always do it, all we need to is just believe Him and He will do just He said:
•So, dear friends, take heart. I believe God will do exactly what he told me.
(Acts 27:25|MSG).
CONFESSION:
Father thank You for love You shown upon my life. Thank You that You have not changed. Lord when troubles try to close me in, I will not give up but rather I will remember my testimony of how you saved, loved, provided, healed, done miracles for my life and my family. My faith will never shatter nor my courage be lost because Your promises are my strength in Jesus name. Amen
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