Your testimony revolution: Shifting your story to change lives

This post is part of the Testimony Revolution series. Get future posts delivered to you for free by grabbing the RSS feed or email updates.

If a friend asked you to share your testimony right now, how would you begin?

“I grew up in a Christian home but drifted in my teens…” (The Prodigal Child version)

“As a kid, my dad used to beat me, and I hated him for it…” (The Heathen version)

“My parents were basically good people, but I never had a personal relationship with Christ…” (The Pop version)

Your testimony no doubt is unique. Perhaps it falls generally under one of these intros though. If so, your testimony – generally speaking – is the story of how Christ came into your heart.

And that’s wonderful. These have a specific purpose.

However, I’d like to propose an alternate map for your testimony. If you’re willing to hear me out (read: read), I believe we can shift your testimony to reflect a more accurate, more compelling gospel message.

To begin, let’s take a look at my (clumsy) diagram of your life.

Your Life Timeline

<—————(B.C.)————— | Conversion | —————(A.D.)—————>

Some labels to notice:

B.C. = before Christ
| Conversion | = the point in your life when you decided to allow Christ into your heart
A.D. = after decision

If you follow one of the general versions at the top, the testimony you are accustomed to telling (and most often hearing) looks like this:

Your B.C. Testimony

<—————(Testimony)————- | Conversion |

Comparing your full Life Timeline with the B.C. Testimony, what do you notice? That’s right. Your testimony corresponds with your B.C. days. In other words, when asked about your testimony, you explain what happened BEFORE your conversion.

You explain how you sinned and what influenced you before you made your decision. Sometime during these B.C. days, God influenced you to change your path. Your testimony is the story of how that happened.

The climax of your testimony then is your conversion. That seems emotionally powerful, but it’s not. It’s limiting. If your testimony has a climax, your testimony has an end.

You’ve probably seen a few movies or read some books like this. The main character braves the elements, climbs the volcanic mountain, throws the ring into the molten lava, and… and… and talks to his friends for half an hour? What’s that about?

The climax signals the end. So too in your testimony. If the climax of your testimony is your conversion, you’ve ended. It’s all downhill from there. You’re focusing on becoming a Christian instead of being a Christian. Which is the goal, becoming a Christian or being a Christian?

Let me offer a different picture.

Your A.D. Testimony

| Conversion | —————(Testimony)—————>

If you compare this to the Life Timeline, you’ll notice your A.D. testimony is entirely on the other side of your conversion. Bluntly, I’m suggesting your testimony should be what God does in your life AFTER He enters your heart.

Why do I say this?

Biblical Support for A.D. Testimonies

Let me point you to a few passages in the Bible that speak directly of testimonies…

“You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.” – Matthew 10:18

“Then a certain Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good testimony with all the Jews who dwelt there…” – Acts 22:12

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.” – Hebrews 11:1-2

“By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, ‘and was not found, because God had taken him’; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” – Hebrews 11:5

“And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” – 1 John 5:11

Each testimony is of life AFTER Christ entered the hearts of the believers. Their testimonies are a declaration of the work Christ led them to do, a declaration of the power God gave them. Testimonies are about what Christ has given us.

Logical Support for A.D. Testimonies

When you think about it, A.D. testimonies simply make more sense too.

From a buyer/seller perspective, we use testimonies to discover or convey the value of a product. Check the back of best-selling books or products on T.V. — almost every form of advertisement uses (or could benefit from using) testimonies.

Testimonies are the life of persuasion. Facts are great, but we really want a story of how the product affected someone. After all, that’s why you and I are interested — we want to know how the product will make a difference in our lives.

From a legal perspective, testimonies help us understand the truth of a matter. Expert testimonies give us information about a particular subject. Eyewitness testimonies help us understand what happened in a certain situation.

The point is this: we use testimonies to get a human perspective we don’t have.

Back to your testimony to your friend — how does it offer a perspective your friend doesn’t have?

Your friend lived without God. More often than not, your friend is still living without God. Your friend knows what it’s like to live without God. What your friend does not know is what it’s like to live WITH God. That’s where your testimony is important.

Your testimony must offer a perspective your friend doesn’t have. That is part of how testimonies deliver value. If a testimony is not delivering value, what’s the purpose?

Three Benefits of an A.D. Testimony

1) Your testimony will be dynamic. Your testimony will adapt to the situation. The climax of your testimony will not be locked into one event in your life. It will reflect the continual working of the Holy Spirit upon your life. Instead of explaining what God HAS done, your testimony will explain what God IS doing.

2) Your testimony will be positive. Your testimony will describe your life with God, not your life without God. Rather than expounding on your pain and hopelessness before Christ, your testimony will reveal the glory and security of life in Christ. Your friend will recognize the benefits of life after conversion and will want it.

3) Your testimony will be others-centered. Your testimony will focus on contribution rather than consumption. Your testimony used to build only to your own conversion. But what if your testimony didn’t climax in YOUR conversion? Isn’t that almost selfish? What if instead your testimony climaxed in your FRIEND’S conversion? How powerful would that be?

Why this is a revolution

In the 16th century, Nicolas Copernicus published a treatise explaining his revolutionary view of the universe. Before Copernicus, scholars believed the earth was the center of the universe and the sun revolving around it. Instead, Copernicus argued the earth revolved around the sun. His revolution then was that he repositioned earth in relation to the rest of the universe.

Your testimony revolution is similar. You are repositioning your testimony in relation to the rest of your life. Copernicus’s explanation drew a torrent of criticism but eventually allowed astronomers to explain the universe more accurately. I believe switching your testimony to the other side of your conversion will allow you to explain the gospel more accurately.

We will explore this more thoroughly in the upcoming posts in this series.

Serving Suggestions:

(1) Mentally reposition your testimony to coincide with your life AFTER your conversion.

(2) Stay tuned for the rest of this series where I explain how to create, prepare, and deliver your revolutionized testimony.