Renungan Harian - House Of Peace

“And they overcame him [the devil] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of
their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.” (Revelation 12:11).

Your testimony is about what you have experienced – what you have seen and heard.
A real Christian can talk about their experiences with God through Jesus Christ. We
as Christians are called to a relationship of real communication with the Son of God.
God comes to live inside us. Things change. God deals with every person in a
different way. The more Christians that come forward and talk about how God has
intervened in their life, the more people will begin to realise that God is for real,
miracles do happen, and prayer works. This will inspire others to seek God and turn
from their sins so that they too can know the peace and satisfaction that comes to a
person who truly gives their life over to God.

Acts 1:8 says, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you,
and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to
the end of the earth.” To be a witness to Jesus is to speak and communicate the things
that you have seen and heard in your life, that happened because of Jesus. Its the
Holy Spirit who makes Jesus real to us, and makes Jesus real through us.

God’s plan is for people to hear the good news that Jesus Christ payed for their sins,
and conquered death for us through rising from the dead. After believing, people
should go on to receive the power of the Holy Spirit, and then testify to others what
God has done for them.

One of the greatest testimonies was from a power pagan emperor who came to know
that the God of Israel was indeed God over all. King Nebuchadnezzar actually said in
an announcement that went across the whole known world:

“I thought it good to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has
worked for me.” (Daniel 4:2).

Like Nebuchadnezzar, we should seek to glorify God all over the world. Now, with
the advent of the internet, it is possible to do this all over the world with very modest
resources. I want to encourage YOU to do your part in spreading the fame of our
God by writing down your story and sharing it with us all through the medium of the
internet. I have done this myself and my story, although not especially dramatic, has
reached thousands of people around the world and continues to provoke responses
from readers in the form of e-mail messages. I personally have collected scores of
testimonies from all over the world, many of which can be read on my Christian testimonies page.
Many people are getting challenged and uplifted by this. You too can share your
story with the world through this site and others with a similar purpose. You can
reach people that no one else can reach.

The Bible says, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; Make known His
deeds among the peoples!” (1 Chronicles 16:8). If you have been rescued by God
from your sin and the consequences of it, one of the ways you can express
thanks to God is by telling others of what happened. Writing your story down
will equip you to share it verbally with others, and will enable you to reach at least
one person per day for the rest of your life for the Lord.

Other Considerations on Sharing your Testimony

If you have really drawn near to God, you will be like Peter, who said, “For we
cannot but speak of the things we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20) even when
he was persecuted and threatened on account of his testimony, and the power of the
name of Jesus that he was operating in. The most important thing to testify of, though,
is not physical miracles, as wonderful as they are, but the way God has redeemed
your soul – bought you out of the hand of the devil for himself. The Bibles says in
Psalm 107:2, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Whom He has redeemed
from the hand of the enemy”. Its a wonderful thing when we can honestly testify
that we now know God has forgiven our sins. If God has redeemed you, then you
should say so – publicly. And one of the best public forums today for this is the
internet.

What if your testimony is not so great?

Your testimony does not have to be super dramatic or unusual to be effective. Not
everyone can relate personally to a sensational testimony. If on the other hand your
testimony is weak because you can’t point to a change in your life, could it be that you
have not really consecrated your life to God properly? Are you trying to living with
one foot in God’s Kingdom, and the other in Satan’s?

The Bible says, “For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor
covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of
Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of
these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.”
(Ephesians 5:5,6).

Is your heart still in love with this present age, this world system? If so, it would be a
great time to decide to live for God and to get serious about it, because none of us
are guaranteed a tomorrow. Perhaps your testimony is weak because you have not
given attention to the wonderful truths concerning the Holy Spirit and overcoming
Satan that can be found in God’s Word. I have begun to explain these things on my
site elsewhere, for example, here. God wants your testimony to be strong, so you can
live unashamed before God and men, and give honor and glory to God. He wants
your life to show forth His power – what He can do. And God has done absolutely
amazing things for people in all kinds of trouble, who were messed up and without
natural hope. Some testimonies of how God helped such people can be found on this
site.

If God has worked powerfully in your life, please share it so others can benefit. It will
remind you of how God has worked and it will encourage others to believe in God. It
may be the means by which another precious person comes to a saving knowledge of
the Lord Jesus. So do it. Begin to write down your story.

How to Organise your Testimony

If you read Acts 26:1-29 and Acts 22:1-21 you will see two examples of how the
apostle Paul gave his testimony in the midst of great pressure, where his destiny hung
in the balance. Paul talked about his early life, before meeting Christ – both the good
and the bad points. Then he talked about how Christ revealed Himself to him and his
response. In Acts 26 (where he was not interrupted) he is able to spend more time
talking about his life since his conversion. Its good to devote about 40% to “Before
Christ”, about 20% to the conversion experience, and about 40% to “After Christ”.
People want to know what kind of a difference Christ made in your life. Be honest
and authentic. Don’t try to make it look better than it is, or to make your past sound
worse than it really was. God will bless a testimony that is truthful. People are usually
pretty good and spotting phony things. Don’t be like the American poltician who
reputedly told voters how important religion was to him, and how his favorite verse
was John 16:3 when he probably meant to have said John 3:16. You’ll get a laugh if
you read what John 16:3 actually says.

PRACTICAL POINTS

PLEASE DON’T WRITE YOUR TESTIMONY IN CAPITAL LETTERS.
Use lower case, its much more attractive. Try to break up the main sections or
thoughts into different paragraphs. Use short sentences and a simple, unaffected style.
It makes it easier to understand. Aim to point out the effect that meeting the Lord had
on your soul, after you surrendered to Him. Share how you felt. Don’t use religious
words and biblical phrases that people untrained in the Bible are not familiar with.
Even a lot of church people don’t understand a lot of the biblical phrases, or the
meaning of words. Try to make your testimony clear for someone who has no
knowledge of God or the Bible, and as you write it, put yourself in their shoes.

How to Publish your Testimony

Besides e-mailing your testimony to me and others who may wish to publish it on their
sites, it is really a great idea to get your own free home page. These can be obtained
in many places. You can make slightly different versions of your testimony and set it
up at multiple home pages. You can also include on your site other information that
relates to you. You might wish to write about your hobbies, your family, or your
interests. If you have knowledge of something in life that others may benefit from,
consider making a page or two about it and publishing that – people will find that
information and some of them will come to your testimony. Make sure every page on
your site links to your testimony. Then submit your pages to http://www.google.com
and other places. If you want to invest some money consider getting a domain name of your
own, because this may get you better listings. Its definitely worth it to reach more
people for the Lord. Try to get reciprocal links with other Christian testimony pages
because it will bring more traffic in for your page too. All this does require a bit of
effort but it is not as difficult as it sounds. Consider investing a few hundred dollars to
get a professional to do it for you if you want to do something really nice but don’t
have the technical expertise. At the very least, type your testimony in, and e-mail it to
me. You could also try recording it on a tape. Audios can also be published on the
internet.

I encourage you to do this today. You can always upgrade and improve your
writing but the main thing is to do it. You will then have something which God can
take hold of and use for His glory. Then register on this site and create a blog post with your testimony so it can be published. I do publish most of the testimonies I receive. God
bless you.