Your Testimony

By Doug Cook  2016

One of the nice things we get to share as believers is our testimony of how the Lord has previously worked in our lives to change us from glory to glory. I’ve seen God use some testimonies to encourage other Christians while they are going through a similar challenge in their own lives.  I have heard some powerful evidence over the years of God reaching into seemingly the very pits of hell to save someone who most of us would have deemed unreachable.  It reinforces the fact that God is infinite in His power and ability to take someone from the gutter-most and use them for His uttermost.

Being in Texas for most of my life (until a few years ago when the Lord moved us to Tennessee), on occasion brothers and sisters would share their testimony in our fellowship. It was nice hearing how the Lord worked in the believers’ lives and seeing the end results of His enduring grace and patience with all of us.  Most of these testimonies were very uplifting and encouraging.

However, as with all things the Lord intends for good, the evil one seems to always manage to manipulate someone to use it for harm, and unfortunately most of the time it is someone in the body of Christ referring to themselves as “Christians.”

Shortly after our arrival in Tennessee, during the time we were looking for a place to live, we would visit other church buildings seeking fellowship with other local believers.  One of the places we visited was a denomination where all the people dress alike, the women cover their heads and sit on the opposite side of the men in the building.  We never had the opportunity to visit a sect like this previously so out of curiosity we dropped in to visit them.  Before and after service many of them introduced themselves and made us feel welcome.  We ended up with the bishop inviting us to their house for lunch.  I thought this was a very nice touch for the leader to reach out to us with that much hospitality, so we accepted.

While the ladies were preparing lunch, we men sat in the living room visiting.  Very shortly the bishop asked me for my testimony so, thinking he was interested in how Christ had worked in my life, I shared a few things about my life before I was saved and after I was saved.  Almost before I was finished with my short testimony the ladies had the dinner ready and we were escorted to the dining room.

During the middle of the nice dinner with some pleasant conversation with the bishop, his wife and their many sons and daughters, I soon uncovered the motivation behind the invitation to lunch.  The bishop all of a sudden questioned me about a “sin I still had in my life!”  From my testimony, the bishop had decided I was still in sin from something I had done over 30 years ago BEFORE I was saved. I was completely caught off guard because I couldn’t believe what I was hearing coming from an elder who was supposed to be a “Christian.”  As an elder myself, I quoted him verses and he quoted me verses and it did no good.  He was the BBIC (big boss in charge) of his sect and had no intention of reconsidering his false charge of me being in sin from something that happened over three decades ago and made it known that we would not be allowed to join “their church” unless I corrected the sin in my life.  I informed him I was not in sin because I had been forgiven at salvation and we didn’t visit with the intention of joining “his denomination” anyway, so before the conversation went from stressed to worse I decided to politely dismiss ourselves.  I gave him a hug going out the door and said I loved him anyway, but it was like hugging a telephone pole as he was stiff as a board and didn’t know how to react to another believer showing love after being so publicly condemned.

After discussing this topic with a deacon from this same denomination, I found out the standard procedure for a visitor coming to this specific denomination was to invite them to a meal and get them to share a testimony to see if the new people are “good enough” to join “their sect.”  They use a person’s testimony to judge what kind of “Christian” this denominational faction thinks they are.  This is wrong, wrong, wrong and grossly errs from the scriptures and commandments of God.  For the sake of understanding, we need to let the scriptures reveal how far off the denomination and this bishop was from showing biblical Christian love for another in the body of Christ.

1Corinthians 3:3-4 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

First off, when one says they are of Paul; they are of Apollos; they are of Cephas; they are of Christ; they are of Baptist; they are of Catholic; they are of Pentecostal; they are of Seventh Day; they are of Church of Christ; they are of Mennonite; they are of Amish; etc. etc. etc… auld nausea, “there is among you envying, and strife, and division, are ye not carnal and walk as men?” If you have denominated (caused division/faction in the body of Christ) and are deeply intertwined to your own religious sect as this bishop was, the verse says you are walking in carnality (walking as men) which means you cannot spiritually discern anything, especially someone in sin.  This applies to anyone who is unified with ANY denomination.

Galatians 6:1 Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

Therefore, if you are integrated into a denomination (walking in carnality) as the bible says, you are not biblically qualified to help anyone else with their sin.  The bible is plain; “ye which are spiritual” are to help restore people with sin, not you that are carnal!  You cannot be spiritual and carnal both, you are either one or the other as they are polar opposites.  “No fountain both yield salt water and fresh,”  “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”

Matthew 7:1-3 Judge not, that ye be not judged.  For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.  And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

God’s Word is plain.  As believers, we are not to judge any other believer, especially if we are hearing their testimony for the first time and don’t even know them.  This is a dangerous place to be for this carnal bishop and his sect because by the very type of judgment they are dishing out to others, God will be judging them the same exact way.  In the fellowship I led in Texas, we welcomed everyone.  If they truly had any sin they were wrestling with, they would either deal with the sin or leave because of the amount of conviction God placed them under.  We didn’t judge anyone.  When we consistently taught the true Word of God, the conviction in their spirit from the spoken Word would be so great they either sought deliverance or ran away from the conviction.  We are placed in peoples paths to help… not condemn.

Matthew 18:15-17 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.  But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.  And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

God’s goal is to keep any sin hidden from public view until all other attempts to lead the person back to the right path have been exhausted.  “And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity (agape love) shall cover the multitude of sins.”  If we truly love (agape) other brothers and sisters we will try to cover their sins, not gossip about them to the rest of the church at our very first opportunity.

The Lord has a VERY specific plan for dealing with a person who is actually in sin.  As we can see in the scriptures above, the first step in this plan is if you think a person is in sin, we are to go to that brother or sister alone, one on one, and discuss the problem in private.  If there seems to be no progress with reaching the person, we should give the Holy Spirit a season to place them under conviction.  If after a time the person has not changed we are to take no more than two others along with us and discuss it with the person again in a very private situation.  The Holy Spirit again needs to be given time to convict the person before proceeding to the next step.  If…IF…the person still refuses to deal with the sin, then the matter is to be presented publicly to the church body.  God’s Holy Spirit must again be given time to work with the person after the sin is made public.  If, and only if, they still don’t repent, then is when they will not be allowed to be part of the church.  What also needs to take place in this process is the person who is bringing the accusation most likely will not have complete knowledge of the scriptures and history involved in the supposedly sinful person and must be willing to consider himself to be in err and ready to be corrected by the person he is accusing of sin.  This is why Galatians 6 says the person must be “spiritual” who is trying to do the correcting because an elder who is a BBIC with a carnal inflated ego will NEVER be open to the fact that he himself may be the one in gross doctrinal errors.

Did the carnal bishop follow this procedure out of the Word of God to deal with my supposed sin?  Hardly!  The first time I heard about it was publicly in front of the church (His whole family and mine) and then was told we would be excluded from joining “their church.”  In his pride he didn’t hesitate to jump right over God’s biblically outlined 4 step plan and condemned and shunned me and my wife from “his” church… Step 1 through 4 was combined together and delivered at one time.  The bishop was himself in sin and absolute rebellion against God’s holy procedure in the Word.  As an elder in the body of Christ myself, I had every biblical right and with plenty of witnesses to use the Matthew 18 procedure against him, yet I chose not to pursue it because his carnal ego would never have allowed him to see the error of his ways.  There was too much strife and division that had already been created by him and the situation needed to be diffused.  It was one of those times we are to turn the other cheek, allow ourselves to be wronged and surrender the situation to God.

2Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

The last and most important point concerning this bishop and his denomination is basic faith in Christ and what I find most believers still don’t fully comprehend.  When we make the decision to surrender our lives to Christ, “old things are passed away.”  Every sin we ever did before we were saved was paid in full by Christ and completely forgiven and God will NEVER hold us responsible for them again.  God casts those sins into the sea of forgetfulness and puts up a sign that says “NO FISHING.”  When we accept Christ, we become “a new creature,” “ALL things are become new.”  If we try to accuse any believer of being still in sin because of something they did before they were saved, we are ignorant of the true gospel and what Christ did for us on the cross.  If anyone tells us we must atone for something we did before we were saved they are deceived and are preaching Old Covenant law and salvation by our own works.  May the Lord have mercy on those who do this to other believers.

I was really surprised and caught off guard by this whole situation, but I also know “God works all things after the counsel of His own will.”  I always try to evaluate situations like this that God places me in to learn whatever lesson the Lord is trying to teach me.  What I gleaned from this is that the body of Christ needs to place limits on our testimonies and be very restricted in our disclosure of information about our previous unsaved lives.  We don’t need to give information that the devil can use through other Christians to divide the body of Christ any more than it is already divided.

Well… Fast forward one year later and I run into another “Christian” that asks for my testimony very early on in our communications.  This time the testimony was very short and sweet and no information was given that could be twisted and used against me in any way.  However, after attending this leader’s home group meeting one time and staying for dinner afterwards, my wife (sitting at the leaders table) finds herself being grilled about our past life, all under the pretext of “getting to know you,” to the point she finally had to excuse herself from the table to put a stop to it.  And in my communication with this leader afterward I again am finding myself accused of some sin of “not walking in love,” and after his last correspondence he quoted Titus 3:10 out of context to accuse me (without him actually saying the word) of being a heretic, sincerely believing God appointed himself the BBIC to judge everyone else.

Wow!  Ok Lord, what are you trying to teach me about all these supposed “Christian” leaders insisting on testimonies?

I have discovered some idiosyncrasies that most of these “Christians” requiring testimonies have in common.  First, as of yet, I have found none of them that have the baptism in the Holy Spirit, which means they are operating without the Spirit of God residing within them (see my article The Spirit of Truth).  This means they are operating in carnality, which means (according to Galatians 6:1) they are not biblically qualified to judge anyone.  Without the Holy Spirits assistance to discern spiritually, they have to resort to getting a testimony for carnal criticism of others.  They are extremely judgmental in nature, completely ignoring the commands of God to not judge.  They are so deceived they sincerely believe God has appointed them to be judges over the body of Christ.  They belittle others in an effort to try to build themselves up (puffed up).  Their carnal egos have not been taken to the cross and crucified with Christ, but instead have allowed these egos to be inflated by their limited knowledge of the Word.  (“Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.  And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing as he ought to know.”)

However, when you dig deep below all of these surface traits in their personalities, you will find one problem that is the root cause of all their insecurity.  Their relationship with Christ is in total and complete disarray.  They have mistakenly substituted religion and bible knowledge for relationship and, even though they cannot see this about themselves, are secretly desperate for a fulfilled sincere personal relationship with Jesus, but are clueless as how to find it.  So when we are persecuted by these testimony seeking “Christians,” we need to turn the other cheek and pray for them, not condemn them.  Anyone could be deceived as easily as they have been.  I have earnestly prayed that the ones that crossed my path will be delivered from deception and find the true relationship they are so desperately longing for.  Remember, we are not fighting against flesh and blood, “but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of the world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”  It’s the evil one that is the driving force behind their deception.

Nevertheless, this examination is not about the people that are asking for our testimonies; it’s about taking a look at our own testimony to see what, when, and even if we should be giving ours.  The key here is to be completely led by the Holy Spirit as to content and timing of a testimony IF we give one.  In order to discern this spiritually, we need to have the Holy Spirit of God residing within us, which means we must have the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Spirit of Truth).  We don’t want to give the evil one an opening (like I did) to use our testimony to divide the church just because we love to talk and want to tell others about the Lord’s work in our lives.  I had mistakenly revealed too much information in my testimonies to carnal believers before checking with the Holy Spirit first.  My hope is we can all learn from my blunder.

Testimonies have their place in the body of Christ.  Over the years I have witnessed small testimonies being used by God to minister to others when there was a one on one conversation between believers.  One of the believers was ministering to the other one who was going through a difficult situation in their life and it encouraged the distraught believer to keep trusting Christ and press through the problem.  God used these testimonies to help other believers in their walk with Christ.

I have also observed many testimonies given in front of the church.  Some of these were given by what I call “professional testimony givers” as they make the rounds throughout the whole church system traveling from city to city giving the same profession over and over again.  They attracted a lot of Christians with their ear-tickling testimony, but I never personally witnessed any lives changed because of them.  Most of these public testimonies seemed to major on how bad of a person they were before they were saved.  How many times have we heard the pride filled ego of a person testify of how much they suffered while in sin.  They are so proud of how awful they were that they want everyone to know just how great they were in their wickedness.  Then the congregation applauds and worships the knuckle head as if they were something great.  We have all reaped from what we have sown.  When a person has truly repented, it is because he has truly seen how evil he was, and believe me, such a one should not covet anyone else knowing about how evil they were and hopes that Yahweh will be merciful and not let the news of it be spread abroad.

If “old things are passed away,” how come we try to bring those things up again and again, especially if God has forgotten them?  If we are “a new creature in Christ,” why aren’t we spotlighting our new life instead of bringing up the past? The bible says, “I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.”  The Lord does not want us dwelling on our past evil, but focusing on the present good.  If we are asked to give a personal witness about our lives in public, we need to sincerely seek the Lord as to IF we should even consider it.  And if we have fully suppressed our egos enough to actually hear the Lord telling us “yes,” then we need to be in constant prayer as to what and how much we should reveal.

Through my experiences, I reason that any believer who runs into someone who is insisting on a testimony should probably not be given one, especially if they are trying to dig up information about your past life.  If they cannot spiritually discern your relationship with Jesus by your spirit witnessing to their spirit (1 John 4:2-3) in love, then they are operating in carnality, and you need to be cautious of anything you speak to them, much less reveal anything about previous discrepancies God has delivered you from years ago.

Philippians  3:13-14 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

On occasion it is recorded in scripture that the apostle Paul revealed a few things about his past and the persecution he conducted against the church.  However, he did not dwell on the subject and was very precise in his delivery for the circumstances he was in at the time.  In the Philippians passage above he stated his true hearts desire was to forget his past life as a Pharisee and completely focus on being more like Christ every day and every way.  After years of experience with testimonies, I have come to fully understand what he was trying to say here and I think this is very wise council and should be our primary goal when and if we share anything about our own testimonies.

Testimonies are for edification and inspiring those in the body of Christ, not for judging and criticism.  We need to make sure we utilize them for the purposes God intended.

James 1:19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;

Our testimonies would be much more effective if we believers actually strove to obey this scripture!

May the God of grace be with you in your endeavoring to be more like Jesus.

Your servant in Christ.