I believe that God gives each of us signs, wonders and miracles of all kinds, large and small, which we may or may not recognize as such at the time. When He does open our minds to recognize them as such, He then wants us to give our testimonies of them to others. I believe that He wants us to do this because these testimonies of His movements amongst us are an extremely important (yet often overlooked) spiritual weapon by which for us to overcome the devil's incessant temptations to get us to fall from our faith.
Revelation 12:11 - ....they overcame him (Satan) because of the blood of the Lamb AND because of the word of their testimony....
This is because the miracles, signs and wonders (large or small) spoken of in our testimonies will bring forth hopes within the hearts of all who hear of them that can only serve to increase and strengthen their faith and inspire them to seek Him more and more in their own daily lives.
Hebrews 11:6 - ...without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Here's a sample testimony of a small private miracle from God to encourage me that occurred in my life a while back....
One day I was very upset with myself because I had accidentally betrayed a confidence with my uncontrolled mouth. This had a been a problem of mine ever since I was a young person. I had always talked too much and over the years as a Christian I felt that I had been getting this problem under control. But this night, as I drove along, I was under great conviction about this still recurring flaw and I was bawling like a baby before the Lord about what I had said and its consequences. Suddenly a car pulled right in front of me and my tear filled eyes fell upon its license plate which said -
At the sight of those words and the realization that they were sent as a sign to me from God to comfort me, all of my tears of repentance turned into tears of joy. I saw these letters on that license plate as being a prophetic word to me from Jesus by which He was reassuring me and consoling me in my extreme distress.
Then I began praising God for this wonderful message of compassion to me. It totally reversed my heartfelt distress! It also led me to ponder and then marvel at all that the Lord would have had to do in order to to put that particular automobile with that particular license plate right in front of me at that particular moment! Truly He is almighty and this sign on the run was a miraculaous wonder for me to behold!
Habakkuk 2:2 (Message Bible) - And then God answered: "Write this. Write what you see.
Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run....
One day I was very upset with myself because I had accidentally betrayed a confidence with my uncontrolled mouth. This had a been a problem of mine ever since I was a young person. I had always talked too much and over the years as a Christian I felt that I had been getting this problem under control. But this night, as I drove along, I was under great conviction about this still recurring flaw and I was bawling like a baby before the Lord about what I had said and its consequences. Suddenly a car pulled right in front of me and my tear filled eyes fell upon its license plate which said -
IEXCUSU
At the sight of those words and the realization that they were sent as a sign to me from God to comfort me, all of my tears of repentance turned into tears of joy. I saw these letters on that license plate as being a prophetic word to me from Jesus by which He was reassuring me and consoling me in my extreme distress.
Then I began praising God for this wonderful message of compassion to me. It totally reversed my heartfelt distress! It also led me to ponder and then marvel at all that the Lord would have had to do in order to to put that particular automobile with that particular license plate right in front of me at that particular moment! Truly He is almighty and this sign on the run was a miraculaous wonder for me to behold!
Habakkuk 2:2 (Message Bible) - And then God answered: "Write this. Write what you see.
Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run....
Does not this testimony of this small movement of God on my behalf also give you hope in the Lord? And when it matches right up to His Word as does this sign, does that not also help your faith in His Word. And when it also matches one particular paraphrase of the Scriprures like this one does do you not get more confidence in this paraphrase and maybe even all translations in general?
That's just what I believe that testimonies are supposed to do in order to overcome Satan's lies about God not existing and how we cannot trust the Bible or its translations and paraphrases.
Here's another testimony of one of the Lord's movements in my life....
One time a few brothers and I went to the next state in my van to the home of a Catholic family who had lost 3 of their 6 children to MD. They still had their other 3 healthy children living with them so we were ministering the gospel to the wife and those 3 grown kids. The youngest was moved to to repent of his sins and he asked the Lord into his heart to save Him (praise the Lord)! Just then the house filled up with smoke! Our first thought was that the house was on fire but a quick check revealed that we had been so busy in the Word and prayer that the wife forgot the 2 chickens that she had baking in the oven and they overcooked.
In the natural this seemed like just a small upsetting event but we were later led to see that in the spiritual the smoke in the room had great significance to that boy's true salvation. We came to believe that it occurred to supernaturally signal us that Jesus had entered in glory into the temple of that young boy's heart.
Revelation 15:8 - And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power...
A few weeks later when we heard the tragic news that he had been killed in a traffic accident we were led to encounter the above verse and we were shown that this unusual event of the smoke filled house was actually a reassuring sign to all of us that the Lord had truly entered into that boy's heart-temple before He took him.
Does this testimony not again accomplish the same things? Does it not give us increased faith in the existence of God and the reliability of His living Word? Let me go on with this testimony because we didn't know any of that at that time and there was more coming.
So, we said our goodbyes to them all and climbed into the van to leave. Just as we were about to drive off of their property, the husband, who unbeknownst to us had been secretly drinking in the back yard while we were ministering to his family, staggered around the side of the house and called for us to stop, which we did. We slid the side door open for him and he stumbled up into the back of the van to talk with us. As he got in, his feet were muddied and he tracked that mud onto the van's floor carpet.
When he noticed the mess he had made he apologized profusely but we reassured him that it wasn't important and that we'd easily clean it up right up at the gas station to which we were going. So he sat back in the van's couch and thanked us for coming and talking with his family and encouraging them. He said that he admired our faith and that he too believed in Jesus for his salvation but he just couldn't be religious himself (he was also known as a womanizer). He was very nice though and he wished us all well on our trip back.
I Corinthians 14:24 - But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called into account by all; the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.
Suddenly one of the prophetic brothers was moved to say to him, "You have a lot of nightmares don't you?" Startled, he replied, "How did you know about that?" The brother answered, "The thought just came into my mind and I felt moved by God to ask if it was true of you or not." So we all looked at him with compassion and testified to him that he might want to repent of his sins and begin to seek the Lord in His life like his son had just done.
He was half drunk so he peered at each of us a bit dazedly before proclaiming, "God is really with all of you guys! That's the only way you could possibly know about my nightmares! You're right! Maybe I should do that and start going back to church. This way of life really stinks!" Then he hung his head for a moment before thanking each of us again for coming and stumbling back out of the van. Outside he waved goodbye crying and we blessed him and left.
A bit later we were all discussing the subject of whether people in his condition were really saved or not, especially considering the notorious stereotype of Catholics carousing around on Saturday nights and then going to church on Sunday mornings. One of the brother's was thumbing around in his Bible as the discussion ensued when he stopped us by saying, "Hey guys, maybe the Lord is giving us our answer to this in this verse...
John 13:10 - ...He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean...
"Maybe God is saying to us here that this fellow's muddy feet were His sign to us declaring that this fellow is a saved man deep in his heart but he just needs to clean up his walk with the Lord. Maybe the mud on his feet and this verse are our sign from God that even though no drunkard or immoral person can enter the kingdom of heaven, this man just needs to change his attitude and his behavior and repent of and quit these sins and he will still make it. What do you all think?"
Well, after further discussion we all ended up agreeing that God had enlightened us to the truth on the subject of backsliders like this fellow by giving us this sign of his muddy feet and then giving us this verse thru our prophet.
So, we said our goodbyes to them all and climbed into the van to leave. Just as we were about to drive off of their property, the husband, who unbeknownst to us had been secretly drinking in the back yard while we were ministering to his family, staggered around the side of the house and called for us to stop, which we did. We slid the side door open for him and he stumbled up into the back of the van to talk with us. As he got in, his feet were muddied and he tracked that mud onto the van's floor carpet.
When he noticed the mess he had made he apologized profusely but we reassured him that it wasn't important and that we'd easily clean it up right up at the gas station to which we were going. So he sat back in the van's couch and thanked us for coming and talking with his family and encouraging them. He said that he admired our faith and that he too believed in Jesus for his salvation but he just couldn't be religious himself (he was also known as a womanizer). He was very nice though and he wished us all well on our trip back.
I Corinthians 14:24 - But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called into account by all; the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.
Suddenly one of the prophetic brothers was moved to say to him, "You have a lot of nightmares don't you?" Startled, he replied, "How did you know about that?" The brother answered, "The thought just came into my mind and I felt moved by God to ask if it was true of you or not." So we all looked at him with compassion and testified to him that he might want to repent of his sins and begin to seek the Lord in His life like his son had just done.
He was half drunk so he peered at each of us a bit dazedly before proclaiming, "God is really with all of you guys! That's the only way you could possibly know about my nightmares! You're right! Maybe I should do that and start going back to church. This way of life really stinks!" Then he hung his head for a moment before thanking each of us again for coming and stumbling back out of the van. Outside he waved goodbye crying and we blessed him and left.
A bit later we were all discussing the subject of whether people in his condition were really saved or not, especially considering the notorious stereotype of Catholics carousing around on Saturday nights and then going to church on Sunday mornings. One of the brother's was thumbing around in his Bible as the discussion ensued when he stopped us by saying, "Hey guys, maybe the Lord is giving us our answer to this in this verse...
John 13:10 - ...He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean...
"Maybe God is saying to us here that this fellow's muddy feet were His sign to us declaring that this fellow is a saved man deep in his heart but he just needs to clean up his walk with the Lord. Maybe the mud on his feet and this verse are our sign from God that even though no drunkard or immoral person can enter the kingdom of heaven, this man just needs to change his attitude and his behavior and repent of and quit these sins and he will still make it. What do you all think?"
Well, after further discussion we all ended up agreeing that God had enlightened us to the truth on the subject of backsliders like this fellow by giving us this sign of his muddy feet and then giving us this verse thru our prophet.
Again do we not get more faith in the existence of God and the fact that His Word is living and active amongst us from this testimony? Aren't we comforted in just reading it? Here's another testimony of the Lord moving within this group which should edify you.
One day our little group went to a drug abuse program to minister to one of the brothers' teenage son who was struggling with addiction. After visiting with him for awhile, we went to leave. Just then an older gentleman came up to us and asked us if we could help him get to another town which was over 50 miles away.
We told him that we were going that way but we were only planning to go about 1/2 that far and we would be willing to take him to where we were going. He turned us down saying that he had no money and wouldn't know what to do if he got stranded where we were going.
Matthew 5:41 - Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two (in principle).
So we all discussed his difficulty amongst ourselves and agreed that we had the time, the gas and the inclination from the Lord to go ahead and take him all of the way to where he was going. So he thanked us for this good deed and he got into the van with us and we all departed for his town.
During the journey there he explained to us just why he was there. He told us that he had an uncontrollable addiction to harlots! He said that whenever he got any money at all he'd rush right over to one of them and purchase her services. He said that he was helpless to this addiction and that he had been seeking help at that addiction center for it but they told him that they couldn't help him so he was going home. He told us that he believed in Jesus for his salvation but he was too embarrassed to bring this matter up to Jesus in prayer.
We then discussed his need to truly repent from this sin with him and to not be embarrassed about it with God but to instead actively seek the Lord's help to overcome it because He promises us that he will not give His Christians any more temptations than they can truly handle. As we arrived where he was going he promised us that he'd do that for sure and that he'd also go to church that night (it was Sunday).
As he was exiting the van he stopped and asked us if we could help him get something to eat? Well, we were all dead broke so we said that we couldn't help him with any money to buy food but that we could give him a loaf of bread which we happened to have with us. He accepted our offer by declaring that anything to eat would be fine with him because he hadn't eaten all day. So we gave him the bread, blessed him and left him there on the street.
The next day one of the brothers ran across the following verse -
Proverbs 6:26 - for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread!
Does not this testimony truly prove that this Word of God is living and active even today amongst us!?!
During the journey there he explained to us just why he was there. He told us that he had an uncontrollable addiction to harlots! He said that whenever he got any money at all he'd rush right over to one of them and purchase her services. He said that he was helpless to this addiction and that he had been seeking help at that addiction center for it but they told him that they couldn't help him so he was going home. He told us that he believed in Jesus for his salvation but he was too embarrassed to bring this matter up to Jesus in prayer.
We then discussed his need to truly repent from this sin with him and to not be embarrassed about it with God but to instead actively seek the Lord's help to overcome it because He promises us that he will not give His Christians any more temptations than they can truly handle. As we arrived where he was going he promised us that he'd do that for sure and that he'd also go to church that night (it was Sunday).
As he was exiting the van he stopped and asked us if we could help him get something to eat? Well, we were all dead broke so we said that we couldn't help him with any money to buy food but that we could give him a loaf of bread which we happened to have with us. He accepted our offer by declaring that anything to eat would be fine with him because he hadn't eaten all day. So we gave him the bread, blessed him and left him there on the street.
The next day one of the brothers ran across the following verse -
Proverbs 6:26 - for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread!
Does not this testimony truly prove that this Word of God is living and active even today amongst us!?!
Here's a testimony about fathers...
When our heavenly Father, in His infinite wisdom, decides to take one of His earthly fathers home, He does not leave their kids as fatherless orphans here because God Himself then takes his place to become their Father! And He becomes their Almighty Father (which can't be beaten) for the rest of their lives!
I was raised without my real father and when I began to believe this, I looked back in my life and saw that God had always been doing things for me even before I believed in Him. I also realized that He had done them for me better than any earthly father could have ever done for me.
I was raised without my real father and when I began to believe this, I looked back in my life and saw that God had always been doing things for me even before I believed in Him. I also realized that He had done them for me better than any earthly father could have ever done for me.
For instance, I was adrift as a teen-ager and got into some trouble but the Lord opened a door for me to get out of it and go into the Air Force where I was given discipline for 4 years while I matured and great IBM training which endowed me with a well paying lifetime career.
This was better for me than any education which might have been provided for me by an earthly father because I not only got educated for free but I also got paid while I learned and I now enjoy good pay and free Veterans Administration health care which is the best healthcare anywhere in the world for the rest of my life. No earthly father could have done all of this for me, so this is one way that I see my life without a physical father as a blessing, not a curse.
I am also probably now closer to God, my dear (Abba) Father, as a result of that hole in my earthly family life. I've met people who have loved their earthly fathers so much that they even put them above their heavenly Father in their thinking! So I'm thankful that due to my own circumstances from God, I have no earthly father to which to compare Him and perhaps fall into this terrible spiritual trap.
Here's another testimony of God replacing an earthly father that will increase your faith and hope in God -
One time I was moved by God to take 2 pre-teen orphan boys to a Father and Son Fishing contest. It was an overnight campout and fishing contest and we were so excited that we stayed up late the night before the contest, which caused us to oversleep the next day. Well, when we finally woke up and went to rent a rowboat and motor, they were all taken! What a bummer! Those 2 orphan boys were really disappointed as was I.
While we were standing there abjectedly on the dock wondering what we should do now, a very nice gentleman with a beautiful, large speed-boat parked there noticed our plight. So he said that he had some free time and he would be glad to take us all out fishing with him on that gorgeous boat! Wow! What an opportunity for these kids (and for me)!
So he took us for an exciting ride at high speed right to a fishing area that he knew of where we spent a few hours fishing during which time the boys each caught a small fish. When we came back we were quite happy but we were certain that one of the other father / son teams had surely won the contest with a bigger fish. But we were wrong! No one else had caught anything!
So the two boys won $25 to split and they had an absolutely great time and because of that fine gentleman and his boat they had an even better time than any of the other boys who were with their own fathers. This is what I mean about God being a replacement Father who's better than actually having an earthly father. This is one of His ways wherein He compensated these boys for their loss of their earthly father, if we can believe it.
This was better for me than any education which might have been provided for me by an earthly father because I not only got educated for free but I also got paid while I learned and I now enjoy good pay and free Veterans Administration health care which is the best healthcare anywhere in the world for the rest of my life. No earthly father could have done all of this for me, so this is one way that I see my life without a physical father as a blessing, not a curse.
I am also probably now closer to God, my dear (Abba) Father, as a result of that hole in my earthly family life. I've met people who have loved their earthly fathers so much that they even put them above their heavenly Father in their thinking! So I'm thankful that due to my own circumstances from God, I have no earthly father to which to compare Him and perhaps fall into this terrible spiritual trap.
Here's another testimony of God replacing an earthly father that will increase your faith and hope in God -
One time I was moved by God to take 2 pre-teen orphan boys to a Father and Son Fishing contest. It was an overnight campout and fishing contest and we were so excited that we stayed up late the night before the contest, which caused us to oversleep the next day. Well, when we finally woke up and went to rent a rowboat and motor, they were all taken! What a bummer! Those 2 orphan boys were really disappointed as was I.
While we were standing there abjectedly on the dock wondering what we should do now, a very nice gentleman with a beautiful, large speed-boat parked there noticed our plight. So he said that he had some free time and he would be glad to take us all out fishing with him on that gorgeous boat! Wow! What an opportunity for these kids (and for me)!
So he took us for an exciting ride at high speed right to a fishing area that he knew of where we spent a few hours fishing during which time the boys each caught a small fish. When we came back we were quite happy but we were certain that one of the other father / son teams had surely won the contest with a bigger fish. But we were wrong! No one else had caught anything!
So the two boys won $25 to split and they had an absolutely great time and because of that fine gentleman and his boat they had an even better time than any of the other boys who were with their own fathers. This is what I mean about God being a replacement Father who's better than actually having an earthly father. This is one of His ways wherein He compensated these boys for their loss of their earthly father, if we can believe it.
All of these testimonies can increase our faith in the existence of God and the authenticity of His Word and they can give us hope that God will also move in our own lives in some similar manner to so bless us.
These and many more great testimonies may be found at - http://knol.google.com/k/testimonies-of-god#
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