Building A Testimony
I woke up the other morning with a fresh dream: that God was eager to give me more testimonies.
Was it just a dream, or was God speaking? It could just be something on my mind, since I’ve been writing about the theme of building a testimony every week for the blogs for the online school of the Spirit. But it could also be God speaking; after all, I’ve had a theme for all the blogs every month this year without dreaming about them. And Romans 8:16-17 gives me a good reason to believe the dream may have come from God:
When I was a pastor, I often noticed that the best testimonies can’t be told. Many were highly personal, and many could embarrass others. So I often knew of wonderful things God was doing among us but most of the church was unaware.
And this week as my wife and I have been involved in a couple of artistic projects, we have testimonies we can’t share because they involve opportunities that may or may not pan out. They aren’t really testimonies yet.
JoAnn has produced a variety of prints over the years. We learned of an art show within walking distance of our home, and at first she was going to participate and then she changed her mind. I felt it was important to encourage her. So I worked on a project of my own to display – it took longer than expected – and she put in the hours to get her materials ready.
The only problem was that God set significantly better opportunities in front of each of us this week, and our participating in the local art show forced us to overwork this week. For JoAnn, it was an opportunity that could lead to a much larger assignment; she had to prepare this presentation in addition to the art show. And for me, I learned that I have a firmer deadline than I realized for turning JoAnn’s testimony into a book – it would be inappropriate to write about it, but God has opened a door and I need to be faithful to walk through it.
Where does suffering come in? Romans 8:16-17 says the Holy Spirit wants to talk to us about our inheritance, but part of our receiving it is suffering.
So far, in the context of the doors God has opened for us, our suffering begins with self-denial. We have to say no to good ideas – things like the art show – and even to things we want to do, so we can focus our strengths on the main challenges God has given us.
Further, spiritual warfare begins when we try to focus on the main thing God is telling us to do. There is no battle over non-strategic ground. Often our computer equipment and email, which work flawlessly most of the time, suddenly develop glitches when we have a deadline as we try to accomplish the main thing God has given us to do.
It takes an effort to receive our inheritance. God gives it freely, but there is always opposition. It won’t just fall in our laps. The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.