How to Share Your Testimony
As we continue our series, “God’s Gossip,” and discuss the need to share the gospel, we have looked at two, simple methods for telling the story of Jesus: the ground-level gospel and the sky-level gospel. In this post, however, I hope to persuade you that it is not enough to simply know the gospel story with your head, and be able to communicate that information clearly. You must also know it to be true and effective with your personal experience, for your words to carry any meaning to those you are sharing with.
Your personal gospel testimony is your direct connection to God’s story in human history and is a tool He will use for leading others to Himself. In sharing your testimony, you are connecting your own personal story and experience to the gospel story from 2000 years ago. When people hear the effects the gospel has on you, it opens them up to what it might do in them.
The Power of Testimony
“The Hebrew word for testimony, ‘edut,’ and the Hebrew word for witness, ‘ed,’ both come from a root word meaning ‘to duplicate or repeat.’ This means that in sharing our testimony, we are asking God to repeat the action in the lives of those we share with. This can be our salvation testimony as well as our testifying to other works of God in our life, such as being healed or set free from addictions.
Sharing the testimony is a way of saying, ‘If God did it for me, He can do it for you.’ This honors God by giving Him credit and it raises faith in the person, so that they can believe God will do it again for them, as well.
Keeping the Testimony is Commanded by God
If sharing a testimony is declaring ‘God can do it again,’ and builds faith in Him, then is it any wonder that all throughout the Old Testament God commands His people to share the testimonies of His faithfulness with the next generation? In fact, the command to keep God’s testimonies is usually connected equally to keeping His law!
Just look at Deuteronomy 6:17,
You shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you.
Look at King David’s charge to his son, Solomon, from his deathbed,
…keep the charge of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn…
1 Kings 2:3
It even seems like one of the major messages of Psalms is that mankind lives best when we follow God’s laws and remember His testimonies. For example, read through Psalm 119, which begins like this:
Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD! Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart,
Psalm 119:1-2
Sharing the Testimony is Expected by Christ
In the Old Testament, testimonies were to be passed down through the generations. In theNew Testament, however, we see that it is the privilege of the Christian to be Jesus’ story-tellers, spreading the testimony to the world!
We are called to be witnesses. In legal terminology, when a “witness” is called in court, he shares his “testimony.” For us to be witnesses for Christ, we too must be able to share our own testimony of the gospel. What is it that we have seen and experienced of the gospel we are sharing.
This is exactly what the first apostles were doing, that displeased to leaders of Israel. When they were tried and ordered to stop sharing their stories, the first apostles couldn’t obey!
So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”
Acts 4:18-20
Testimonies are Prophetic
As we have seen, the Old Testament word for testimony means “do it again.” However, to extend this idea further, John writes in the book of Revelation,
“the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
Revelation 19:10
What this means is that when we declare the good things God has done for us in the past, it not only builds faith in the hearers, but there is actually a prophetic release that what God does for one, He will do for another. It should create hopeful expectation.
This is why when we do large gospel events in Africa, sharing testimonies plays a large part in everything we do. When I preach the gospel, I always include my own testimony of who I was before Christ, and the effects on my life and destiny that have come from believing in Him. These are verifiable details. You can call my high school friends to find out if I was really an alcoholic. You can call my family to find out what my life dreams and goals were before. You can see, in reality, that God has done a great work in transforming me to the man I am today.
When it comes time to pray for the sick or do deliverance ministry, I always share testimonies and stories of the great healings we have seen in the past. If people in the crowd have been healed, we invite them to come forward and share publicly what God has done for them. We have seen, over and over again, that through the sharing of testimonies, the expectation for healing goes up, and so does the fruit of the ministry. More people get healed when they hear what God has been doing already.
How to Share Your Salvation Testimony
Since we are talking about sharing the gospel, I want to give you some idea of how you can share your own “gossip” of what God is doing in your life. Simply put, sharing your personal testimony requires you to know where you were before Christ found you, how the gospel came into your life, and the change God has brought in you now.
For me, that means I share something like this, in as few or as many words as I have time for:
Before Christ
“I am not the man I was before Christ saved me. I was a teenage slacker, alcoholic, trying drugs and experimenting sexually. Even visiting churches with friends, I was a hypocrite, drinking with my youth leader on Saturday nights, just pretending to be a good person…
How I Was Saved
“Thank God, He used an unknown evangelist at a small church camp when I was 16 years old to speak to me. I was sitting under a tree, praying and asking myself questions about my own salvation, when he came by, took time to talk to me, and led me to full faith in the Lord. Though I knew the stories of Jesus my whole life, I finally put my faith in Christ to be saved…
After Salvation
“Today, I am free from all those addictions and perverse lifestyles. I am faithfully married, and have the privilege of sharing this gospel all around the world as a missionary.”
What is your Gospel story?
It is not a shame to share what your lost self did before Christ saved you, as He will use it to bring others to Himself. We must know the gospel in our heads and with our lives. Then God will use us to reach others as well.
I encourage you, if you have never taken the time to do so, spend a few moments this week writing out your own testimony. Who were you before Christ? How did He finally reach you and save you? And what has happened to you since? After you write it out, practice reading it out loud. Get comfortable sharing the points that excite you. Don’t hesitate to share the things that used to bring shame and condemnation. I promise, as you find the boldness to share with others, God will use it to change lives for eternity.
I would love to have anyone who wants to share, post their testimonies in the comments below.
Let’s Connect
If you are enjoying what you are reading, it would be my honor to have you sign up for my weekly content newsletter, below. I promise not to spam your inbox or share your information with anyone.
You can also follow me on social media. I can be found on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Parler. I’d love to see you there.
Don’t forget to leave your thoughts, questions, or personal testimony stories in the comment section!
© Anthony Scott Ingram 2020
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”
Cover Photo by Dylan McLeod on Unsplash