Revelation 12:10-11
New King James Version (NKJV)
Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
This passage has been on my heart. So many sermons are being preached today that have nothing to do with personal testimony. Preach Jesus! Preach what He's done for you! You overcome sin by the blood of the Lamb, and by the WORD OF YOUR TESTIMONY!
It really irritates me to go to a church and hear some sermon the pastor (or fill-in) got from "1-800-dial-a-sermon" or "Sermons.com". What has this got to do with what Jesus has done for them?
Consider the early Christians. What did they do? Why were literally thousands of people getting saved daily? Because of the power that was behind the word they preached! Speak the truth, preach the truth! Peter, Paul, John, all of the early apostles preached personal testimonies! They relied completely upon the Holy Spirit! So many ministries have testimonies on their websites. And, sadly, most of them are testifying how great the ministry is, instead of giving God the glory and testifying to His truth and power.
Preach Jesus! When you share the truth of how God moves in your life, the Holy Spirit shows up in power and breaks the hardness off of hearts. How glorious!
Here's a testimony of mine. It's hard to share just one because God moves in my heart and life so often. Sometimes it's the little details, like giving me a pound of my favorite coffee or providing breakfast for me. Other times His glory puts me on my face with tears streaming from my eyes in gratitude.
My testimony: God showed me me, before I came to this earth. I was in Heaven, and there was a huge celebration going on over to the right of me, and I asked an angel what the celebration was about. She said, "Jesus has returned to Heaven! He's overcome sin on the earth! The celebration was so wonderful that I wanted to join in! But I wasn't allowed to. In order to receive Him, I had to come to earth and become a spirit, and accept Jesus as my savior in order to meet Him and know Him, and celebrate with Him! What a wonderful gift! I was warned that earth was an evil place, but if I knew Jesus, I would be saved. Please notice that even then, God did not interfere with free will. We're all here willingly so we can know Him.
I shared this with a few people, and they both asked, "Do you believe that is true?" I said, yes, because in Jeremiah 1:5 God says,“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”
God knew you before He formed you in the womb. He's set you apart for a special purpose, His purpose. You're here to get to know Him through salvation in Jesus.
Religion doesn't cut it.... And if you don't hear God's voice in your spirit, listen to Him! Listen with your heart! Pray and ask God to help you hear Him. Praying and fellowshipping with God is a two-way communication process. What is the point of spending any time at all in prayer if we aren't going to "listen" to Him? Sure, God speaks to us in His Word and other ways, but He also speaks. Because of Jesus and what He did, we can hear Him!
Our job is to share Him.
Preach Jesus!
