"And the Word of their Testimony"

Revelation 12:11

I've been in church long enough to know that we tend to go to extremes. Whether is is the disagreement between Calvinists and Armenians, or charismatic and non-charismatic, or any other division, we decide to be polar opposites so that we do not get mixed up with each other. Christian testimonies are another such disagreement. Some people take testimonies to an extreme and that overshadow scripture. On the other hand, some teach that testimonies have no place in a church. This is not scriptural either.

---

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.

Revelation 12:11

---

The "him" in this passage is Satan. This verse, speaking of the defeat of Satan and Christians' victory over their enemy, says there are two things that defeated him. The first, and most important part is the "blood of the Lamb". Jesus's death on the cross and resurrection from the dead defeated Satan. Without that, there is no victory at all. However, without the "word of their testimony", that victory is not applied to the individual believer. As believers, our testimony is what Christ has done for us and through us. Jesus was victorious over Satan, and we have victory in and through Him. That victory we receive in Jesus is our testimony of what He did for us.

As we continue to live in Christ, He will continue to work in and through us. He works in us by making us more like Himself. We call this sanctification. He works through us by the good works that we do. There are also times that He works through others towards us as well. No matter how he chooses to work in our lives, that is also part of our testimony. When you read the New Testament, it is really all testimony of what Jesus said, or did, or it is testimony of how God's Spirit led. In Acts 12, Peter gets arrested. Long story short, an angel helped him escape the jail and he went to one of the Mary's homes. When he was finally let in, he shared his testimony of what God did by the angel to help him escape death. The first thing Peter did when he came into the company of believers is to share his testimony. His testimony did not supersede scripture, it demonstrated the truth of scripture and the faithfulness of God.

Perhaps this is where some people get turned off by testimonies. Sometimes there is more emotion and hype being proclaimed than actual Biblical truth. I'm not saying a testimony is preaching, but a true testimony will never contradict scripture. I have heard God blamed for leading people to do things that are completely unbiblical. I have walked away from some of these and said to another person, they might have been led by a spirit, but it wasn't God's Spirit. We should not deny people the privilege of sharing testimony of what God is doing in their life. At the same time, if you are going to accuse God of doing something, you better make sure your testimony is true and not perjury. To accuse God of something He did not do or say is to be a false witness and a liar.

Father, what a blessing to be able to testify of Your continued work in our lives. I pray that more people would live lives that demonstrate Your ongoing work in them. I pray that as we hear testimonies, we would be encouraged and strengthened in our faith.