The Kingdom: Testimony
The Kingdom: Testimony-Message 1
Jude 1-3, 1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: 2 May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Judgment on False Teachers, 3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. ESV
Verse one and two are our theme verses for the year because I believe God desires to Multiply Mercy, Peace and Love to His Church…Jude however in verse 3 clues us in on something very interesting…
- I was eager to write to you about our common Salvation…
- But it was more urgent to write to you about contending for the Faith…” The Revelation of God in Christ.”
- This is the only revelation delivered once and for all to Humanity and that will save Humanity.
In the Old Testament we are given 3 things we are to Remember…Hold on to…Remember to Remember!
- The Commands of God…
- The Statutes which are the Values, Principles and Promises of God…these are not the same.
- The Testimony of God
All He Did and All He Has Said…
- God’s word is Confirmed through Testimony…
- I love walking down memory lane and remembering testimonies of God’s Faithfulness…
- A testimony is a weapon that Helps me Contend for Faith…
As a kid I remember hearing so many testimonies of God healing…but rarely did I see that testimony lead to others in the room receiving their healing, miracle or breakthrough…I think a Testimony Should Build Faith for Contending toward other People to receive their Miracle…
March 6th, marked 29 years ago, that Jesus walked into my home in Oklahoma and Healed me of an incurable disease that was taking my life…I was literally dying…But God had other plans!!!! The Great thing is…I have used that testimony over the years to contend for Faith that others may experience the same miraculous power of God that I have experienced.
Rev 19:10, 10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” NKJV
This is a Powerful verse of Scripture. For the Testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” There is power in a Testimony…but often times we lose the prophetic edge or the power that should be captured in a testimony and especially the testimony of Jesus.
I. What Is A Testimony?
a. When we think of testimony most of the time we think of our personal Journey to come to know Christ or someone else’s story and how they came to know Christ…
b. But know this…We are never the central theme of a true testimony…
c. They become a testimony when God is the central figure in the story and what He has done…then it becomes a testimony.
d. When the Testimony of Jesus is seen in our Story…others can step into the miraculous…they can experience the Power of the Kingdom…because we are acknowledging the King.
The power or the prophetic edge is found when Jesus is the center of the story…
II. Purpose of a Testimony
a. There are many purposes that are found in a testimony…I think we need to look at the Life of Jesus, our example of Kingdom living, to grasp the full value of a testimony and maybe begin to touch on the different types of testimonies…
b. Jesus Had Three Testimonies in His Life…
i. Number One was the Testimony of God’s activity among humanity as it is recorded in the Scripture…
In John 5 Jesus says, “I do what I see my father doing and say what I hear my father saying…Jesus was observing the activity of God among people then responded to that…
ii. The Second Testimony Jesus probably learned from His Parents but especially His Mother (Mary)
- 1. Luke 2:19 says, “Mary pondered all these things in her heart…”
- Joseph had dreams…
- Both were spoken to by angels and were led by angels
- You know they had to have a conversation about his birth and the things that surrounded his appearing…
- Your Children and Grand-Children need to hear your story…they need to hear the Testimonies of Jesus in Your Life…
iii. The Third Testimony Jesus had was the Holy Spirit…that same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will quicken you and me…
a. Jesus taught His disciples in John chapter 16:13 “the Spirit will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak….”
b. Jesus giving this instruction of the Holy Spirit’s role was revealing to us how Jesus himself lived…
The Psalmist wrote: Ps 119:111 “I have inherited Your testimonies forever, for they are the joy of my heart.” (NASU)
The testimonies of the Lord are our inheritance. So what is a testimony? ”IT IS THE WRITTEN OF SPOKEN RECORD OF ANYTHING GOD HAS DONE IN HISTORY.”
III. The Need of Powerful Testimonies
a. Scripture, Miracles, Signs, Wonders and your testimony of the Activity of God are prophesy of our potential, a potential that we must pursue throughout our entire lives….
b. Who we are to become
John 1:12-13, 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: NKJV
Rom 8:29, 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren NKJV
Eph 2:10, 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. NKJV
c. How do you and I know the Character and Nature of God?…it is revealed in what He does…works cannot save us, but without the fruit of good works in our lives, we lack the evidence that identifies us as new creations in Christ….
d. To be conformed or transformed into His likeness is that we reveal His nature in what we do…that should be our testimony…but not that alone.
IV. Jesus’ Testimony was found in both what He taught and Did
a. John 14:8-11, 8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. 11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves. NKJV
b. Many Christians mistakenly believe that some of Christ’s commands, like the command to love your neighbor as yourself, is possible for us to accomplish, while others, like the one to raise the dead, are impossible.
i. The truth is that all of Christ’s commands are impossible to fulfill apart from His Grace and supernatural power through the Holy Spirit.
ii. We can’t live out His Statutes without the Power of the Holy Spirit…
c. John 20:21 says, “As the Father has sent me, I also send you…”
d. We as sons and daughters are destined to reveal the Father to a world that doesn’t know him or they have a tainted testimony of Him…
Do you realize the anointing to heal and bring deliverance only has value here on earth?…when we get to heaven we will no longer need that anointing for it won’t be needed. Let me go a bit deeper if I may…
V. Fight for Truth
a. Most of us would not deny we live in a world at war. But the war isn’t over power, land or money or even good and evil. It is something even more basic. The war is over truth and the battlefield is the mind of every individual.
- i. Just a quick note: Facts and truth are not the same thing…
b. Rom 1:18-22, 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. NKJV
i. The Phrase “clearly seen” literally means “seen from above.” When Adam and Eve fell, they fell from God’s perspective of reality.
ii. To Contend for Faith sometimes means I’m contending to see things from God’s Perspective
c. That is why it is so essential we learn to see things from a Kingdom Viewpoint…we can’t do that without Testimonies…
i. Testimony of Jesus…His teachings but also His Miracles, Signs and Wonders…
ii. Testimonies of those who have run this race before us…
iii. And last but the greatest….Your personal testimony of Jesus in Your Life, will release the Prophetic in Your Future…
VI. Testimonies prophesy to us the purpose of God…
a. Acts 4:33-34, 33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. ESV
b. The Kingdom.
1.Jesus in Matthew 6:9 taught his disciples to pray beginning with the acknowledgment of:
- Thy Kingdom Come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…
2. Then the 6th chapter of Matthew closes with “seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you…”
3. But see this and I’m going to Pray for Folks
Matt 6:25-33, 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. ESV
All this Worry and Anxiety is a result that they have forgotten the Testimony of Who God is and What God has done…And if we’ll Seek His Kingdom First…we’ll first remember all the Testimonies…then secondarily all these things we have need of will be added to us!
Rev 12:11-12, 11 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. NKJV