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Every born again Christian has many testimonies to share, true stories of how God has worked in their lives. How we came to know and accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior is perhaps the most important testimony that we have to share, but it is not the only important testimony that we can share. I know that to be a fact, after having walked with the Lord for almost forty years, I have many testimonies about how God has worked in my life.

Our Born Again Testimony
Our testimony, the story of how we came to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior is possible the most powerful tool that we have in our Christian tool kit to win lost souls for the Kingdom. Our Born Again testimony is a way of imparting hope, insight, and encouragement to those lost souls we are ministering to, especially when the trials and tribulations we suffered before coming to know Christ were similar to the trials and tribulations being faced by the people we are ministering to. Many of the most effective evangelists are those evangelists that can say, “I’ve been there. I’ve done that. I’ve been where you’re at. This is how God changed my life.” I have found this especially helpful in establishing trust when ministering to the homeless and to people who have been to prison. I have been homeless more than one time in my life. I have been to prison more than once in my life. I did hard time for armed robbery and for bank robbery and I came to know Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior while serving time for bank robbery. God desires every Christian to “declare His glory among the nations” (Psalms 96:3), so why do so many Christians fail to fulfill the Great Commission?

The Great Commission
In Matthew 28:18-20 (KJV) the risen Christ instructs his disciples, saying, “…All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” That Great Commission applies as much to us today as did to those disciples, so why are so many of us not fulfilling it? We are supposed to be doing what Mark 16:15-16 (KJV) is instructing us to do. Jesus went on to tell His disciples, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” We have been commissioned to preach the Good News to everyone, part of that is sharing our testimony of how God has worked in our lives, so why are we letting our risen Lord and Savior down?

Lack of Preparation
Preparation is the key to success in preaching the Gospel, to successfully spreading the Good News. Many Christians sidestep the Great Commission simply because they lack confidence in their ability to communicate orally or in written form. Glossophobia, the fear of public speaking affects 74 percent of the population. Glossophobia, classified as a social phobia affects 5.3 million Americans. The good news is that it is a social phobia that can be easily overcome through practice and prayer. Joining a Toastmasters Club is a good first step in overcoming glossophobia, having been a member of Toastmasters International since the 1960s, having belonged to dozens of local clubs throughout the United States, I can testify to their effectiveness in helping people overcome their fear of public speaking. Another important step in overcoming the fear of public speaking is knowing what you want to say. Take the time to write out your testimony and then rehearse presenting it in front of a mirror, record it on video and watch it to learn where you need to make improvements. You don’t want to memorize it word for word, you want it to sound natural, just memorize the points you want to cover and the order in which you want to speak on them. the biggest danger in memorizing a sermon or a testimony word for word is that if you forget one line, even just one word, of a memorized sermon or testimony, everything after that one line or word will be lost to you to recall. Even more importantly, memorizing what you want to say, word for word, leaves no room for the Holy Spirit to change what He wants you to say. Pray for the Holy Spirits guidance and He will give you the words He wants you to speak.

Lack of Belief
Another reason many Christians let Jesus down is because they lack confidence that God can really use them to win others to Christ. These are Christians who are discouraged with life, so discouraged that they have a hard time believing that God would use their testimony even if they were to share it. Those Christians are waging demonic mental warfare and are losing the battle and Satan is laughing gleefully. Many new Christians who came to Christ while in prison or while living on the streets feel this way. All that I can say to you if you are one of those Christians is that Satan is deceiving you because any testimony that glorifies Christ and doesn’t contradict God’s Holy Scriptures can and will be used by God to win souls for Christ.

God is not finished with me yet
“God is not finished with me yet and until He is, I can’t share my testimony effectively.” This is another classic lie that Satan uses to keep you from sharing your testimony, in some cases that may be true, but not in most cases. As Born Again Christians we are all a work in progress, our Christ Likeness will never be perfect(ed) until we go home to be with our heavenly Father. God wants you right now in all your imperfections, He can use your testimony about how you came to know His Son Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior right now to win others to accept His Son as their personal Lord and Savior too.

Writing out your testimony
In part 2 of this series I will introduce you to one method of writing out your testimony using the before, during, and after format, one of the most effective methods because it places events in logical order.

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