Greetings friend, welcome back to the purity course today. I’m excited to share with you this excellent method that God has given us to overcome the evil one, through sharing our testimony.
Revelation 12:11 NIV They triumphed over him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
In Revelation 12:11, we see that there is power in the message of the cross (the “blood of the Lamb”), and in sharing our gospel-focused testimony. We “triumph over him...by the word of our testimony!”
As we share the cross with others, and how it is changing our hearts and lives, it emboldens us in our walk with the Lord, and others are encouraged and given hope by our story of grace. This is how God has designed it to be.
A testimony is to provide hope to the one who is reading or hearing it. We noticed how Paul’s testimony was explicitly designed by God to provide hope to others:
1 Timothy 1:15-16 NIV Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. (16) But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.
Paul was shown mercy “as an example for those who would believe and receive eternal life.” As we see Paul’s rebellion against God, his evil life of persecuting the church, and then see the changes made in his heart, we should think: “if God can be merciful to a terrorist like Paul, he can give me mercy too!” That’s the very thing God wants us to think.
And so it becomes clear that God wants to give people hope through the sharing of a cross-focused testimony.
But many “testimonies” are simply people sharing their life-story, and there is no overcoming power in this. It gives no one hope to hear where I was born, how people treated me in school, how I came to move from one spot to another, what I did for a living or any number of other personal facts about my life. We must learn to discern the difference between a Christian testimony and a life-story.
A Christian testimony always includes my sin, the forgiveness I received at the cross, and the heart change that comes from believing the gospel.
Because of the importance of sharing a gospel testimony, today we will look at a biblical testimony and examine the specific points of it.
In the next lesson, you will have an opportunity to share your testimony, and we want our testimonies to be powerful in our own lives, as well as hope-giving to others. We want to “overcome him by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of our testimonies.”
Please read the following passage and provide your answers below:
Job 33:19-26 NIV “Or someone may be chastened on a bed of pain with constant distress in their bones, (20) so that their body finds food repulsive and their soul loathes the choicest meal. (21) Their flesh wastes away to nothing, and their bones, once hidden, now stick out. (22) They draw near to the pit, and their life to the messengers of death. (23) Yet if there is an angel at their side, a messenger, one out of a thousand, sent to tell them how to be upright, (24) and he is gracious to that person and says to God, ‘Spare them from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom for them— (25) let their flesh be renewed like a child’s; let them be restored as in the days of their youth’— (26) then that person can pray to God and find favor with him, they will see God’s face and shout for joy; he will restore them to full well-being.
Question 2. What is the problem discussed in Job 33:19-22?