What is a Testimony? Last week I was quite severe on the situation that most churches find themselves today, I maintained that they were merely religionists because Jesus is not in the vast majority of our local churches - a reference to Mark 2:1. Bear with me this week for I want show the positive side of what it would mean to have Jesus in the house; in a typical British town or village. It is very important that Christians have a good testimony; and they will have, if Jesus is really inside, by the filling of the Holy Spirit. Any local church in this enjoyment of the manifest presence of Christ will have a great testimony in the community, it will be well known by the vast majority of people and highly respected; just like the first church in Jerusalem. Acts 2:47. A church testimony is simply – how the people of God are perceived by the community - it is - what they are saying about us! When God is among His people, things happen that prove it, undoubtedly! The church leaders will be known and appreciated for their visitation of the sick, elderly and disadvantaged folk in the community, real pastoral care will be the norm for everyone. City Centre churches will be known by the local shop and office workers as a place they can go lunch times for peace and quiet, even a cup of tea and a word of counsel if needed. Shoppers too, will be glad of a drop in facility where they can have a respite from their shopping with an inexpensive cuppa. When a church meets in a residential area it will be known as friendly, where good friendship and advice can be given on any number of issues. CAP [Christians Against Poverty] groups in churches have been well appreciated for their expertise in debt counselling for many years now. A crèche facility is still a good way to help local parents. The Church building will never be closed! At least one elder will always be available for personal counselling; a care phone line available 24/7. The deacons of the church will be well known in the poorer part of the neighbourhood too, as parcels of various kinds, quietly find their way into needy homes; the local Food Bank; knowing where the needs are. The youth of the church will be active in the community and the gift of helps will be appreciated as many needs are met with vocational help. The needs in our society are very great, even affluent folk are needy in many ways; often it is the wealthy who have the greatest emotional and moral needs, for love is often absent where the emphasis is on the accumulation of wealth. So family and marriage counselling will be done. All of this and more makes for a good testimony of any church; these things are the basics and are some of the many ways in which the Christians are the salt of the earth; this is salt in action motivated by love for Christ; for it all flows out of real communion with Him! Its not they have great preachers, they will, but what really counts is that the majority of the members are exercising their own gift in Holy Spirit power. This is the #1 priority for elders, to get all the church working so that the testimony is as it should be, very broad; this is achieved by very extensive and regular pastoral care. [Elders will also be aware that there are always Pretenders in the church, Satans 5th column as he seeks to bring in problems and troubles. A united oversight, a team of elders, will be able to negate the Pretenders influence; as long as they are united.] Church members will be highly respected and their neighbours will know and appreciate that they have Christians next door! Christian families will be admired as their children will be well behaved. Friends of the children will get used to giving thanks at meal times! Friends invited into the home will marvel at the atmosphere of love and gratefulness that pervades the home. The testimony of the family will be so good that when neighbours are asked if they would like attend a service with them, there will be a ready acceptance. People will want to know how such families tick! It will not be long before neighbours ask them of their hope, and there will be a ready and convincing answer, 1Pet 3:15. Then there are the organised services in the church building! What will they be like? Firstly, they will be crowded, because many people will readily accept the invitations; the testimony is very attractive and the Holy Spirit draws many in through the love of Christ being evident among them, Tit 2:10; secondly, visitors will feel accepted by the church, there will not be a sense of them and us! There will be a beautiful inclusiveness as the love of Christ is very evident and visitors will appreciate the welcome. Probably, two services will be necessary on Sunday to accommodate everyone; unless they meet in a football stadium! Thirdly, services will be powerful! The singing will be vibrant and loud. The prayers will be accompanied by many tears and will be so real they will seem to touch heaven! The praise will never cease! The preachers will also have many tears and have an unction from the Holy Spirit so that people will be broken under conviction of sin and there will be many conversions. There will be baptisms, by immersion, every month, at least! This is the Light of the world shining! Alongside the salt - bringing out the God flavours in the community, the corporate Light will be shining very brightly, Matt 5:13ff. This is a powerful and fruitful testimony! Corporate worship is the most powerful testimony of all, as people see Christians delightfully happy as they praise God. A word about the oversight in this, because it is key to it all. A united team of elders will be praying like we have never seen in our generation, they will weep as they beg God for the grace and strength to serve His people; and the wisdom to know what to do when problems arise; for Satan will be busy there. Due to the great growth, there will be a full time team from the elders who will be responsible to maintain the pastoral care that initiated the revival and the awakening that has created the growth. A united church oversight is the way to great blessing. There will be new church plants on a regular basis, real growth will be very evident; not necessarily new buildings but lots of house churches. The Light exposes the evil and therefore dispels the Darkness, because that is the way it works. It cant be otherwise! There is no concord between light and darkness, switch the light on and the darkness is gone. The light of Christ is a very beautiful and powerful thing in a community! Not only does the salt bring out the best in people, it also is a great preservative and maintains the good as long as the Light shines! This is how it will be when a church has a good testimony! Testimony is oldish word only used in certain circles today, but it is the best word to describe what happens when a church is what it should be; it will have a very good testimony, just like the believers in Antioch when the Pagans called them Christians for the first time; they recognised them as the Christ like ones! Acts 11:27; they were so like the One they always talked about! The church will be the talk of the town! This is how God is glorified today, a company of people who own His Name and honour Him by using the many gifts the Spirit has given in fruitful service and worship! As we said last week – everyone knows it when Jesus is at home and the house gets very crowded! When the majority of churches in one locality enjoy revival, amazing scenes will take place as it seems that mostly everyone is in church; not that everyone are believers, but even those who dont believe, will be in church because they dont want to be seen as the evil people who dont go to church. And I havent mentioned the signs and wonders that will happen when God validates the gospel message, Heb 2:4, they will happen and it will convince our secular society that Jesus is in the house. Such is the depth of the worlds depravity it will take some spectacular conversions to convince everyone that God is at work; for communities will be radically changed because of changed lives, changed families; all because of changed churches, that is the greatest wonder of all! In 1905 all that and a whole lot more happened in many communities all across Wales because everyone knew where God was! Atheists are silenced in revival and awakening, and God wants to do it again, are we willing? I am convinced there will be a great revival before the Rapture, God will be glorified before that great day, so that a terrifying fear will be instilled into all those left behind. An Arab prince will then rise to convince the world of what did not happen to the billions who vanished into the clouds, 1Thess 4:17; that will be the great delusion, The Lie of 2Thess 2 and it will be the revealing of Antichrist who will then be made the great ruler of the 5th kingdom of Dan 2, and he soon will make a 7 year peace treaty with Israel, which will usher in the Tribulation Period. So, I believe we are on the very threshold of these things, we live in awesome days, but its up to us to bring about a revival, we will have to repent and pray. If we dont, God will use the Asians; perhaps the days of Japeth in the tents of Shem are about to finish, Gen 9:27, but its up to us! [It seems that God is now preparing for something very big as millions of Muslims are being saved in North Africa and the Middle East, not to mention the huge Chinese and Asian church!]. In all prophetic matters there is always a big - IF and WHEN - about it all! So, when we repent for our awful failure, then the Holy Spirit will be able to lavish the love of Christ into our churches and it will certainly escape into the community; for love NEVER fails! John 13:34-35, I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. As I have loved you, you should also love one another. By this all shall know that you are My disciples, if you have love toward one another – a good testimony is as simple, beautiful and powerful as that! Thank you very much for reading through this longer than usual blog, if anyone has any questions or points, please make them in the comments section, or PM me; but most of all, lets join to pray that revival will come to our western world soon, it will give a tremendous boost to what God is doing in the Middle East; for if we do, I believe that Islam can be defeated by the love of Christ in the gospel, rather than by the sword of a WW3. I am convinced that Islam, the new kid on the block, will be defeated before the Rapture. It seems to me that God will deal with the old feud, Israel and the Arabs, Isaac and Ishmael, later at Armageddon. God is not mocked like many are today. These times are at hand! We are immensely privileged in these days to see God drawing everything to a head. For Jesus is coming soon!
Posted on: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 09:10:49 +0000