Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God and the power of Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night has been cast down. 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. Revelations 12:10-11 There are seasons in life where it feels like we are in a small boat in the middle of the sea and the storm around us Is raging, tossing the boat to and froe and we find ourselves holding on for dear life, feeling like we have no control over the storm raging around us. The storms we find ourselves in can be an illness that is sucking the life out of us, it can be money problems and we have too much month left at the end of our paycheck, the relationships we love and cherish can be crumbling no matter how much we fight to save them or it can even be bigger than us and the storm we are trying to weather is the political storm of fighting for our beloved United States of America. We are more than conquers with victory over sin and Satan, over the world, persecutions and trials and afflictions. Romans 8:31-34, 37 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Yet in all these things we are more than conquers through Him who loved us.” God has always had a plan of victory and it started with the Lamb, Jesus, who was slain before the foundation of the world. Jesus accomplished His responsibility of being born of a virgin, living a sinless life, dyeing a shameful death on the cross and rising from the dead victorious on the third day overcoming death, hell and the grave and now sits at the right hand of God making intercession for us. Jesus suffered all of that in order for us to have eternal life and to live a victorious life. We have forgiveness for sin and peace with God if we acknowledge our sin, asking Jesus to be Lord of our lives and turning away from the sinful life our flesh wants to indulge in. Not only are we in right standing with God, we have been given all authority. Luke 10:19 AMPC “Behold, I have given you authority and power to trample upon serpents and scorpions and (Physical and mental strength and ability) over all the power that the enemy (possesses), and nothing shall by any way harm you.” Jesus took back the authority Adam gave to the serpent (“The serpent of old called the Devil.” Revelations 12:9.) and he has given the authority to His bride, the Church, the Ecclesia, the faithful body of Christ. We have a friend that got saved in her mid-twenties and her friends took her into the back woods of Kentucky to a church that handled snakes as a part of worship. I do not believe that is what Jesus meant when He said He has given us authority and power to trample on serpents. Revelations 12:11 says we “overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.” Too many people in the church believe that everything that happens is the will of God and they do not want to rake responsibility for the part we are called to take to take the dominion Adam was given. In Genesis 1:28 God commanded Adam to “Fill the earth and subdue of, have dominion over ...everything that moves on the earth.” The Church needs to rise and take the authority we have been given and subdue our earth. Revelations 12 states we overcame the Devil by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. The definition of testimony includes: 1-the public profession of a religious experience, 2-Firsthand authentication of a fact, and 3-the Mosaic law (God’s word.)
Jesus told the disciples in Matthew 28:18-20 “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and lo I am with you always even to the end of the age.” Jesus told the early church leaders, the disciples and those who were with them on the Mount of Transfiguration to go and preach the gospel. We are living in a time of great deception and the modern church refuses to preach the good news of the gospel because they bought into the lie of separation of church and state, and now have accepted the politically correct doctrine, that we can not speak the truth because the truth might offend someone else. The exact opposite is true. John 8:32 “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” If people are not told about Jesus and they never know Him, they will always be in bondage instead of being free. It is time for the church to take the words of their testimony into the seven mountains of society; family, religion, education, media, arts & entertainment, business and government. We have all been given a responsibility to preach the gospel in at least one of these areas. We must start by taking back our families for Jesus and speak the truth in love to them. WE must take back our water downed churches that have no back bone and have bowed to the wicked government to keep their 501c3 tax exemption. It is time for the church to raise in power and teach their people hot to influence and take back the other mountains of society for Jesus. Throughout the Bible, the church controlled the government, even the religious leaders in Jesus time controlled the Roman government and had Jesus crucified. When the church takes a stand for righteousness, and the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will raise a standard against him. I believe that is what happened with Hurricane Katrina, the mayor of Houston tried to require that all pastors turn in their sermon notes ahead of time and get approval to preach what God had given them to say. God raised a standard and the attacks of the enemy were silenced.
Another form of a testimony is the firsthand authentication of a fact. I grew up in a time and denomination that testimonies were important. Every Sunday night people stood and testified of the faithfulness of God. Throughout the Bible, different altars were built to signify a place or time when God showed Himself to someone or gave a new revelation. The Jews still practice Passover to celebrate their deliverance from the Egyptians. The communion we take at church is the new covenant of the Passover, where we celebrate the blood shed for our salvati0n and the body that was broken for peace and healing. God told Joshua to instruct each of the tribes of Israel to take a stone from the dried up Jordan River and make an altar on the other side of the Jordan so when they walked by it with their children, and their children asked what the altar was for they could tell them of the faithfulness of God. When was the last time you told one of your children of the faithfulness of God? We miss so many teachable moments by not telling them how God has been faithful. Our son has been transferred for his job and he was having trouble finding a decent house in a school district that his children could thrive in, I felt the Lord impress me to text him a scripture of encouragement and he called me right away. I began to tell him about God promising me that He was giving us a new house (the one we live in now) and hoe God was faithful and worked everything out, we made an offer on this house and it appraised for $25,000 more than what we paid, the house we were living in had three offers and we got several thousand more than we were asking the first weekend it was on the market. As we were talking, I got on Zillow looking for houses and there was a house that had been put on the market earlier that morning in a small school district. Our son was headed to the new location that day and I told him about it and encouraged him to be led by peace and not fear or frustration. He drove by the house on his way to the office and he said this peace came over him. IT was the right house. He called his wife and his realtor and they looked at the house around 3:00. They made an offer and it was accepted early that evening. In less than twelve hours God had provided them a beautiful home. I will be the first to admit I have failed on several occasions to share the faithfulness of God with my children when the opportunity has arisen because I was busy or did want to come across churchy. Are you like me and admit there are some memorial stones you could show to your children? Have you told your neighbors and coworkers the faithfulness of God and told your testimony? Your testimony is your firsthand account to what you have witnessed God to do. In my life, he has always met my financial need, healed my body and made me whole, and so much more. He has never left me and is always just a prayer away. Another way we overcome the devil is by the law, the Word of God. The Bible has promises we are to stand on and claim for every area of our lives. We should find a scripture for hope over the problems we are facing and pray them, coming into agreement with the word of God in prayer, believing that God always keeps His word. The word of God is also a weapon we are to use to fight the enemy. After forty days of fasting in the wilderness and the devil came to tempt Jesus, Jesus rebuked the devil each time saying “it is written.” One of the greatest offensive weapons we have according to scripture is the word of God. Ephesians 6:17 “and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God.” “For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword.” Hebrews 4:12. We are to use the word of God to attack the enemy and not the body of Christ. Too often we spend too much time attacking other Christians instead of going on the offense against the devil. When we learn God’s word and we do everything that He asks us to do, we will be victorious and we will regain dominion of our world again. Too often we see the Bible as a list of don’ts and we forget to do the dos. 1 Corinthians 10:3-4 “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh; (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds,) casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” The battle begins in our mind, we are to control what we think and make our thoughts and emotions line up with what God’s word says instead of believing every lie the enemy throws at us. Proverbs 23:7 “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” Once we take our thoughts and emotions captive, then we can stand firm on the word and not only fight the attacks of the enemy, by quoting God’s word back to him, we can also be offensive. Jesus said in Mark 11:23 “For assuredly , I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, “be removed and be cast into the sea,” and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done he will have whatever he says.” Is it any coincidence that in the Bible, mountains represented governments? We need to believe and command this mountain (government) to be removed and cast into the sea. There are other mountains we face: finances, health, and relationships that need to move in the name of Jesus. Jesus also said in Matthew 18:18 “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” We should take His word and begin to bind the enemy from our lives and loose the blessings of God over our families and our nation.
You will overcome the devil by the blood of the lamb and the word of your testimony. The good news of the gospel, your testimony of the faithfulness of God and the word of God are all powerful ways to use your testimony to win the battle the enemy has waged against you. Stand and fight with your testimony and see what God will do.
Cathy Nesmith