RECEIVING AND GIVING YOUR TESTIMONY, PART 2.

Giving testimony is the act of the telling a story about something spectacular that the Lord has done for you that is worthy of sharing or testifying to the body of believers.

Receiving testimony is being what God says you are, what God says that you can do and receiving what God says that you have . This is about God’s testimony of your life, what God is saying about you. Ephesians 4:29&30 “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (NIV). Do not let any negative words, evil words, and corruptive words, words that break people heart or make them weep to come out of your mouths. Condemning charges, malicious words, unedifying words, words that create fear in people or causes them to feel guilty, stay away from such words. Malachi 3: 13 “You have said harsh things against me, says the Lord. Yet you ask, what have we said against you? (NIV). If God Himself, the creator of the heavens and the earth, who many revered and says that your words have been harsh against you, are we to spare any human being? Avoid these irritating words, words born out of pride and ego, deceitful, insincere, corrupt and unholy words, outrageous words. The kind of words that should come out of your mouth are words that are encouraging, delightful, and helpful. Roman 12:16&18 “Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you. Live at peace with everyone” (NIV). Words that are loaded with humility, love and goodness, faith, tolerating words, brotherly kindness, self-control, perseverance, joyful words. Load your lips with those words like the baron of the gun you want to fire. These words must be selected, don’t just allow empty words come out of your mouth, the word that must come out must be born out of the spirit, it is the spirit that is giving out the words to you. When the person listening hears these words, the person will be encouraged, edified, exhorted and guided because they are all refined words, good words from above. Roman 12:18 “Do not be conceited. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you. Live at peace with everyone” When you decide to live in peace with everyone, the words that will come out of your mouth will cement and help the relationship, the words that come out of your mouth will be tolerant, and you will not use the weakness of people around you against them, you will become a strength to the weak. We must be willing to establish our world making it peaceful all around us. Then the peace will multiply and flourish. It will not be chaotic, and we must make our garden where peace rules and love dominates. It is your desired state and it happens. So long it is in your power, live at peace with everyone. These are people who testify the peace of God in their lives, marriages, places of work, in their families. You delight in it and contribute to the peace, you work it out and make it happen. What you desire, you act on it. 1 Peters 5:5 “Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothes yourselves with humility towards one another, because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (NIV). There are two heads to this: it says young men should be submissive to the older ones. See those that are older than you whether at school, place of work, at home, do see them as your parents. Whether they are your biological parent or not, you will have to be obedient unto them. See older persons and submit to them, always try and get the blessings of people especially the older ones, behave in a way that the person will bless you. Say good words to people. This is a testimony about your life; the older person must give testimony about your life, that you are of good behavior, you are taught of the Lord. You have a good character. That is the attestation of your life. The testimony of your life. Good behavior, well obedient, disciplined and can be trusted. Let people give a positive testimony about you. Don’t be rude. God will resist you if you are proud, if you are living an insincere or empty life. Life is empty when is not born out of the Word, your action are not guided, driven and powered by the Word. They are empty, meaningless, purposeless, useless words. Your words must achieve a desired purpose when they are born. When you give out a word, does it achieve the positive purpose, is it directed towards building another person? What will be the result of what I am saying, is it going to destroy or build? The words that come out of your mouth must benefit those who listen. What you hear people tell you about their lives that made them changed persons is the testimony. Do not let any unwholesome word out of your mouth. Whenever you talk and the people around you hear the words that come out your mouth, they may not be the person you’re addressing, but they will pick a meaningful thing that will change their lives for good, so be honest and helpful with your choice of words, so that it can help people grow, build and strengthen their lives. The words that comes out of your mouth must benefit people around you and it must be the testimony about you and also to the people that listen. Colossians 1:12-14 “Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (NIV). When you cannot use your mouth to testify for the adversary nor speak evil, offensive or cage your spirit but releasing. You speak forth the Word. Because you are a qualified citizen in the kingdom of light. You need to give thanks to God always, share in the inheritance of the saint. There are two kingdoms: Darkness and Light. God is light and He rules in light. We were once darkness but now we are light. That is a testimony and we live as children of the light. We seek out what pleases the Lord. God our Father is light and we are not different from Him, we are children of light. There is no change or shadow of turning in Him. We are the light of the world. On the other side is darkness where Satan rules and everything that Satan represents is in that kingdom: sin, death, sicknesses, diseases, curse, failure and all kinds of evil is found in the kingdom of darkness. If light see those things, the light will rebuke them. The entrance of the light means those things will disappear. The testimony is that we have been moved from darkness into light and we have received the inheritance which is light. Being born again qualifies us to receive this inheritance, we moved out of darkness to God’s light. Darkness cannot rule over us, it cannot dominate, oppress and accuse us, we are free from darkness. Darkness cannot confront light in any way, whenever it sees light, it disappears. Acts 20:32 “Now I commit you to God and to the word of His grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (NIV). God gives us peace and grace. From the Word comes the inheritance from above that are imperishable, they are eternal. Acts 26:18 “To open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (NIV). When you are in the light, it opens your eye and you are free from the oppressive power of Satan. You now focus on God afterwards you receive forgiveness of sins. For our sins to be forgiven, Jesus died for this purpose and His death is never in vain, it is the reality. Titus 2:11&12 “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “NO” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives this present age” (NIV). Have you experience this grace that teaches us to say no to anything that is evil and ungodly? The grace of God has appeared to us. To avoid all kinds of condemning words, it teaches us to be self-controlled. The believer supposed to measure his life, his progress in self-control. We are quick to control other people but left ourselves unguarded. The Bible did not say that we should control other people, it says, we should be self-controlled, when we control ourselves there will be no opportunity for condemning charges against one another. The grace of God is here with us and it has been revealed unto us all. When it was here from the beginning, many did not know, they were living under self-righteousness. They were always guilty of one sin or the other, they struggled with sins. They were not yet free. Their minds still reminded them of sins they committed a very long time ago. They live life defeated and frustrated in sin-consciousness. The age we are, we need these qualities to progress in life and live victorious; godliness, uprightness and self-control. 1 Corinthians 15:57&58 “But thanks be to God. He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brother, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain” (NIV). God gives us the victory that comes in the finished work of Christ. We were under oppression or the dominion of sin, sin was our teacher, always leading us against God, doing what pleases the flesh. We were chasing after shadows, empty things. Sin was our master, but God gave us victory over the sin and the victory God gave us is our testimony, the testimony of the Word of God and it is real. Satan is no more our master. We are not under any law but grace has come and we are under the grace of God. This has been there since the beginning of time by the appearance of our Lord Jesus who has destroyed death brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. The grace has appeared and we share in this extra-ordinary overflowing grace that is heavenly given. These are the good things that are here with us. He gave us the victory in Christ and now He says we should stand firm. We will see tribulations, trials will come, and persecution will come, there will be moment of hardship, moment of famine but God says, we should stand firm. The testing of your faith must be proved, something must prove you that you are self-controlled. We will be tested, if you are a patience person something will come test your patience to see if really you can endure to the end. If you know you have God in high esteem, you trust God and you think nothing can distract you, something will struggle with you and draw you away from the focus on God. You will always be tested to see if truly you are holding up. No promotion to anyone unless there is a tests. If you want to scale the ladder of spiritual growth and developments, you will be tested, that is when you will know whether you are a real Christian or you are just faking it around. Your time, body and your love for God will be tested, commitment and love for your family will be tested too. Let nothing move you from the faith you have in God. No matter the test you face in any way, you can survive it. Isaiah 62:6, 7&8 “I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth” (NIV). This is what Christians should be doing now, we must not be silent, and those who are testifying are never to be silent because God is speaking all the time. What makes it possible is that God indwells us. He lives in us and not outwardly. It is only those who live in the theory that God did not speak to but those who believe that God lives in them, they are the ones God speaks to all the time. God is in us because we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. This body is not our own, we are bought with a price and we must glorify God with our body and spirit. God is present everywhere, there is confirmation about His presence. Call upon God anytime to make you His praise on the earth. And you shall be a testimony. Jeremiah 20:9 “But I say, I will not mention him or speak any more in his name, His Words is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot” (NIV). Somebody has been struggling with testimonies, whether to give testimony or not, that means the testimony is not from God. If the testimony is from God, there is no way you would be struggling with it. It is not your own, it is from God, you need to tell it to people. The testimony from God is fire, you cannot hold it back because it burns, until you drop. God gives you a message and you are the errand, the message, and you want to sleep on the message! The Oracle is delivered. That message that will revolve and bless people, you want to keep it; the message of salvation, healing and deliverance, blessings and breakthroughs. The message must be timely delivered. The Word is double-edged sword, it is active and living. Release the Word so that it will serve the purpose. The Word wants to open the eye, it wants to change someone’s life entirely who has been suffering for years, God sent forth His Word and healed the people. The Word wants to raise people that are perishing, you cannot hold the Word back, and you cannot be silent in it. Acts 2:4 “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them” (NIV). The ability to do things, things that are only enabled by the power of the Holy Spirit. Things you cannot do before you start doing them with the help of the Holy Spirit. You can forgive, you can love and be caring; these are things outside of the flesh. The flesh does not know how to love. It is in false love. The love that kills it is from this world. The eternal love saves, delivers and blesses, that us the true love. The love that came from heaven that made Jesus to die and save us. John 3:16 “For God so love the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (NIV). That is the love from above. The love of this world is deceit and perishable, people are not fulfilling their promises, they feel unconcerned about people. The love of God is selfless. What a love that made a man to give His life for His friends! He who loves has passed from death unto life because he loves the brethren, but he who does not love is in death, he remains in death. 2 Corinthians 4:13 “It is written I believed therefore I have spoken. With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak” (NIV). You have heard the testimony about you, your marriage and everything about your life. About the good thing the Lord is doing, you can also do the good things. You can now think faith, speak faith and act faith, it is written of you, the letter written from above. You are strong because the Word lives in you and you have overcome the evil one. You see the extra-ordinary things, things of testimony, and the greater things. The Word is present in your life, it is backed up with miracles. The Word will never fail to heal, bless and deliver, it will never fail to prosper and quickened and also prove which is eternal. With the same spirit of faith we also believe, therefore, speak the good things. What you speak will always come to pass in your life. Whatever you speak in this life you will experience. When you allow the Word to live in you and actualize it, you will be like a tree that is planted by the river side and you shall yield fruits in many folds in season. You are fertilized, enhanced, enriched and surrounded by great witnesses. You are fruitful: spiritually, materially, intellectually fruitful, and living in a fulfilled life. This is the Word of God. Philemon: 6 “I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ” (NIV). Talk about good things and acknowledge them, speak of the good things you have. The kingdom of God is inside of you. God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is inside of you and you are One with God. In faces of tribulations and challenges, keep saying the good things. Never you stop speaking of the good things that are in the Word because you have the Word in you.

I leave you with the Word!