Testimony Tuesday--What Is A Testimony?

Deuteronomy 6

We are walking in today:  Testimony Tuesday--What Is A Testimony?


David declared " I have inherited Your testimonies forever, for they are the joy of my heart" (Ps 119: 111 NASB).

What is Testimony and why is it so important? A testimony is any spoken or written record of what God has done. They reveal God’s nature and His ways. They create an expectation in our hearts for God's ways to be manifested in our lives. The Hebrew root word for "testimony" means "do again." Every record of what God has done in past genera­tions is a promise of what He will do again in our lives, because He is the same yesterday, today and for­ever (see Heb. 13:8; Acts 10:34).

When we declare what God has done, power is released to make that testimony happen again in the lives of those who hear it. The testimonies of God are what connect each succeeding generation of believers to His covenant promises. This is why God instruc­ted Israel in the Law of Moses to remember the testimony on a regular basis and teach it to their children. Their entire social structure of Israel was to be built on the repetition of the testimony (see Deut. 6·).

They were also instructed to build memorials to remind them of what God had done.

For He established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers, That they should make them known to their children; That the generations, to come might know them, The children who would be born, That they may arise and declare them to their children, That they may set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments (Psalm 78:5-7).

When we set our hope in God we strengthen our expectation of God’s power working in the midst of our situation. When this happens our faith level rises which actually releases the power of God to work in our situation.

Our faith level is critical because it impacts our ability to "keep God’s commandments" which is the basis of receiving blessing and protection from curses. We can only fulfill God’s commands through the supernatural empowerment of His Spirit that comes through faith. Faith and obedience go hand and hand.

When we stop keeping the testimony, our faith in the miraculous power of God to work in our lives diminishes, and correspondingly so does our obedience to God’s commands.

If you study the history of Israel you'll find that every generation that stopped walking in their covenant with God did so because they forgot His works. David goes on in Psalm 78 to describe such a generation:

The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, Turned back in the day of battle. They did not keep the covenant of God, They refused to walk in His law, And forgot His works And His wonders that He had shown them (Psalm 78:9-11).

The failure of Israel to keep the testimony led to forsaking God’s mission and purpose for their lives, which had serious consequences.

By choosing to coexist with their ene­mies in the same territory, they became vulnerable to idolatry, which led them to break their covenant with God which effectively removed God’s protection from curses. As a result they lost their identity as the people of God and became just like the people around them.

Failing to keep the testimony leads to an identity crisis, causing us to forget who God is and who we are. When this happens there is nothing to distinguish believers from the rest of the world with the result that the very purpose God created us and pours into us is nullified.

What does it take to keep the testimony so we can represent God with power and accomplish His mission for our lives?

God made it very clear what needs to happen. It includes establishing a culture of testimony around us such that our whole life is based on remembering who God is, proclaiming what He has done, and walking our His purpose for our lives. This is what God intended when He told the Israelites,

"And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." (Deuteronomy 6:6-7, ESV)

The New Testament parallel of this is Hebrews 10:16-18, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. "

How awesome, when we remember who God is and follow His ways He no longer remembers our sin. This is the nature of the New Covenant. The key is remembering Him, knowing His ways and obeying Him through the power of the Holy Spirit who is made available through faith in the power of the blood of Jesus.

The following verses stress the importance of knowing God and obeying His will:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 7:21, ESV)

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock." (Matthew 7:24, ESV)

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you " (Matthew 28:19-20, ESV)

“Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” " (Luke 11:28, ESV)

"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." (James 1:22, ESV)

Like the promises of God, the key to keeping testimony of God begins by meditating on them. Meditation powerfully engages our imagination. Long after the miracles of Israel crossing the Red Sea and the Jordan on dry ground, David writes in Psalm 66,

"Come and see the works of God ... He turned the sea into dry land; they went through the river on foot."

David could not have possibly seen God part the Red Sea and the Jordan River because they occurred long before he was born. However, through his imagination he owned these miracles as part of his story.

David states the importance of this imagination engaging activity of meditating on the Word— "I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation" (Ps. 119:99).

Remembering is critical to keeping the testimony and declaring the testimony releases God’s promises to those who hear and believe.

Revelation 19:10 says, "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."

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