Pastor Jonathan Glover

My Testimony    We all have a testimony.  Jesus died for us all, no matter if you were deep in sin and God saved you from years of sin like me, or if you got saved when you were a kid and never strayed away from Jesus…your testimony is powerful and important!Our testimony is so important because there are times when we are not going to be able to use the Bible or church or any kind of religion to win others to Christ.There are tons of reasons people cannot be won by the Gospel alone, so that’s when you must give your testimony.  People can find all kinds of reasons not to believe the gospel, but when you are witnessing, and you tell them your testimony, and you begin to open up about what God has done personally for you…and you tell them with tears in your eyes…That I was addicted to drugs for almost 20 years. I was run over by a car, literally had tire tracks across my chest, tail pipe burns across my stomach and feet…but I had no broken bones and only two stitches…Because I had a family praying to Jesus Christ. After a long, hard road I finally gave my life to the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and within the first six months, I surrendered to a call to preach the gospel, and then started doing it.I was excelling in my job. My family did not know what to think because that old Jonathan was gone, and there was a new Jonathan that was happy, loving, peaceful and trustworthy.All due to a life given to Jesus.  They sent me to psychologists, psychiatrist, rehab, detox centers, interventions, AA, NA, and anything else the world said to try…But it wasn’t until I stopped running from God and said, “Lord, I surrender all, I can’t live like this anymore, Jesus help me! I am through running. I’m done trying to do it without You and Lord whatever I have to do to be in Your will I will do!”See how you can feel and believe what I am saying because you can tell my testimony is genuine…and now the person has a dilemma: they can tell there’s been a drastic change and that it is all because of Jesus.The person who at first was not going to listen to the Gospel or the Bible, can now see God’s work, can see God’s effect and then the Holy Spirit takes control.But even though you are telling your testimony, when you get saved and baptized, your testimony is now one with Christ’s testimony.Romans 6:3-8 says 3 Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, 7 since a person who has died is freed from sin.So you are literally dying to the old sinful person, just as Jesus died for that sinful version of you… then here’s the good part…you are raised from the dead just like Christ and now the only thing left was the testimony.The nail holes were there, but the crucifixion was complete. The nail holes did not hurt anymore, but the testimony literally changed the world!But, it would not have made a lick of difference if no one testified to this testimony…which leads me to my next point.Don’t be ashamed of your testimony and do not be ashamed of the Gospel either!II Timothy 1:8-9 8 So don’t be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, or of me his prisoner. Instead, share in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God. 9 He has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.
Our testimony is also meant to encourage other believers!3 John 1:3-4 3 For I was very glad when fellow believers came and testified to your fidelity to the truth—how you are walking in truth. 4 I have no greater joy than this: to hear that my children are walking in truth.
John is saying “I have no greater joy than hearing about my spiritual kids walking in the truth, the gospel…but, Church, John never would have known unless someone told him!It’s not a testimony until you testify!Ephesians 4:11-12 11 And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ.Church, there are some of us with a call to preach, some called to be missionaries, some called to teach…But the ones I am talking about here are called to do these things to equip the others to testify! We are all called to be a witness!  I can tell you that if you have been a Christian for more than the time it took to give your life to Christ, then you have something to testify about to someone. I don’t know about you, but God has saved me from myself…He has saved me from brokenness…He has saved me from sorrow…He has saved me from an eternal damnation of Hell, which is what I deserved…And God gave me happiness…He gave me joy…He gave me life and life more abundantly…He gave me sobriety, …He gave me more years with my mother…And He gave me eternal life in the presence of God the Father.  He gave me the one and only Spirit of the Living God to guide me in all my ways, And He gave me his son, Jesus Christ to die for my sins…To cover me with His blood and to set me from the bondage of sin.  So I don’t know about you, but because of God, I have a testimony, and I can’t keep it to myself because having my testimony is great but until I testify and fill that lost person in on what he is missing, I have not done what God told us to do.He said to go to all the world, all nations, and make disciples of all nations. That is all our responsibility. We are in the world passing people and they are either going to heaven or hell and we have the answer to their problems.  This is the reason we have to be rooted in the Word and on fire for Jesus because it is up to us to be witnesses.  Acts 1:8. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Don’t be afraid of rejection or saying the wrong thing, because God has his own “Witness Protection Program”! He gives us the power of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit will tell you what to say, and I promise that even if the person acts like they are rejecting what you are saying, the Holy Spirit is going to be working on them![Example: Office Depot test]2 Timothy 1:6 6 Therefore, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is in you through the laying on of my hands.Paul is telling Timothy to be bold and strong. Paul tells timothy no less that 25 times in 1st and 2nd Timothy to be bold to be strong. This implies that Timothy, like many of us, is shy and doesn’t want to talk to people. He does not know that for a disciple of Christ it is a must.  We have to share our faith with people - by how we live first - and then by a testimony and the Gospel.  When Paul says “stir up the gift of God which is in you” that means just because God give us a gift, God does not work His gifts through us like robots.  We must cooperate with God to fulfill the purpose of His gifts in us. Some of us are waiting for a dramatic new anointing from God…and God is waiting on us to stir up what he has already given us.The Greek word used for stir-up is anazopured which means either “to kindle afresh” or “to keep in full flame”.  When I saw this, it jumped out at me because everything God asks of us and everything God demands of us points back to our spiritual life. If you are spiritually cold, it is going to be a difficult task to do anything God asks and expects.  If you are luke-warm, you could possible be a little better than the spiritually cold, but probably not, because the luke-warm are very confused and spiritually deceived.But when you are on fire for the Lord, you can’t help but witness. It is just like when you start a fire with a starter log.  That starter log burns hot and burns consistent and any other logs that get around that starter log will soon be on fire too.  When you are on fire you cannot help but set others a blaze. That excitement and hunger for God is contagious.  So Paul is telling Timothy if you are not on fire you better fan the flame, because you have to be white hot on fire and hungry for God to be the testimony He calls us to be…To testify that Jesus Christ is Lord of your life and He died on a cross for everyone who ever lived in sins…And that he conquered death on the 3rd day and was resurrected from the dead and 500 people witnessed him after he rose…And this is the gospel and testimony that is going get us to heaven and that’s what I’m going to testify to anyone who will listen and to those who don’t want to listen too, because once you have the love and fire of God living in you, you can’t keep it to yourself.  It is a gift that I just can’ keep to myself.2 Timothy 1:7 7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and sound judgment.Paul has been telling Timothy to be bold and not to fear and now He gives him a spiritual reason he should not be timid.  The Spirit God has given us is not a Spirit of fear. We have to be feeding His Spirit and by feeding it, we become more bold and more outspoken about what God has done for us.  The first step in dealing with the fear of witnessing to people is realizing that the fear we feel is not from God. And if it is not from God then that means it is a spirit that is fighting against God and trying to keep us guilty.If God has become #1 in your life and the blood of Christ has overcome Satan in your life, then Satan definitely does not want you to testify about it!  Satan knows the only thing worse than you becoming a true disciple of Christ is when you are a bold, outspoken disciple of Christ!  So, the 1st step in overcoming fear is understanding that it is not from God…and the 2nd Step is understanding what God did give us…which is a Spirit of Power and love and of a sound mind.  When we give our testimony, witness to people, proclaim His word and represent His kingdom, we have the power of God supporting us. We are safe in His hands!  The 3rd thing is…God gave us a Spirit of Love. This love tells us a lot about the power also. Many think of power in terms of how much we can control others, but Jesus’ power is expressed in how much we can love and serve others!  Yes the power gives us boldness and strength, but that power combined with love and compassion speaks to all humans. When you start telling someone your testimony, boldly and genuinely with love from God, it is powerful!  Then you add the sound mind God has given us. The Greek word used for sound mind meant calm, self-controlled and that is in contrast to panic and confusion that a fearful mind brings.  Paul wrote this to Timothy because it is our duty as a Christian to use what God has given us to touch His people and a needy world. Fear and being timid will keep us from using the gifts God gave us.  God gives us His power, His love, and His calm mind to overcome fear…so He can use us to testify.2 Timothy 1:8 8 So don’t be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, or of me his prisoner. Instead, share in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God.So now Paul has pumped Timothy up. He has told him to stay on fire for God, and then he has explained to him what the Spirit of God gives us.  He encourages him to follow-through and be bold and not to be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ or the fact Paul is in jail. He is saying, “You tell the testimony of our Lord until the ones who hate us make you suffer also!”  Church, we have it so easy today! Church, there is power in our testimony…power in the gospel…power in God to save souls and transform lives!  We Christians know that. We understand that. We know that if we do not reach out and tell someone they could spend eternity in hell and live life without the love of Christ.  Church it is time to testify!  We just went through these verses and saw that God has given us everything we need to boldly spread the gospel…to lovingly tell someone our testimony…to urgently tell a lost soul how to be found!Revelation 12:10-11 10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our Godand the authority of his Christ have now come, because the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been thrown down.11 They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; for they did not love their lives to the point of death.These two verses in Revelation really emphasize the power of a testimony!  So this first verse, verse 10, is talking about the day that Satan lost his access to heaven. The devil was in heaven accusing God’s people of sin; sin that we are guilty of.  I can just imagine Satan standing before God saying, “Look how they sin; they love me more than you. They say they love you but look at the sin they are guilty of.”  The Bible says Satan was the accuser day and night until Christ died on that cross…rose from that grave…and paid the debt for our sin. Satan has now been cast down!  What changed? What overcame him? The Bible says they overcame him (him being Satan) by the Blood of the Lamb 1st! The Word of their testimony 2nd.So Satan cannot accuse us any more because our sins have been covered by the Blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ our Savior!And then the 2nd thing that overcame Satan and got him thrown out of heaven was the word of their Testimony!  If the Scripture tells me that there is just a couple of things that overcame Satan, then I will hold those things as very valuable to me as a Chrtistian!  The testimony helped them overcome Satan because Satan works by using deception and that testimony overcame his deception. Knowing and remembering the work of God in their lives and our lives protects us against Satan’s deceptions!  As faithful witnesses, we all have a testimony to bear because we know what we have seen…and heard…and experienced from God in our lives…and when you know what God has done for you and through you, you can’t be deceived by Satan’s lies; he can’t tell you that your testimony isn’t true, because you know what your life was like without the love and joy and compassion of Jesus and you know how your life changed once the Holy Spirit of the only true God came to live inside you!  Church that should stir your spirit to think about what God has done in your life…how God has provided…how God has redeemed…how God has healed and transformed your life.  Church that’s our testimony, that’s what we should be telling to everyone we get a chance to talk to.  Testimony means do it again God and it started with the gospel; God is still doing it through us, every day of our lives!  The blood of the Lamb who was slain to overcome Satan’s accusations. The testimony of what God has done in your life personally overcomes his deception and lies.  So church, I would say our testimony is important to hear! Our testimony is a physical sign of what God is doing and has done!      
In my life God has done so much! I know when I was about 15 years old that God called me to preach. It terrified me!!  I had just gotten saved, but I wasn’t willing to accept that I was going to be a preacher of any kind.I was really good at sports, especially baseball. I was in the top 3% in the nation my Sophomore and Junior years of high school. I truly loved baseball, but I also was falling away from God and I was smoking weed and taking pills here and there.  I had this love for the gangster type of life and by my Senior year I didn’t even make it to baseball season. I was smoking weed every day and taking pills more and more frequently until I just quit school all together.  It’s hard to this day to talk about. It was like a part of me, a large part of me, died when I quit school.  I tried to play summer ball but I couldn’t keep up and I quit baseball, which really hurt me even worse.  See the devil was taking everything that I loved and cared about and everything that was good for me and he was getting rid of them one by one and replacing them with drugs and fantasies of being some big drug dealer.  Years went by and I was completely addicted to drugs.  I spent my 21st birthday in detox.   Around the age of 25, one of my closest friends called my family and put together an intervention, which I believe saved my life at that point.  When I was 27…Run Over Testimony.3 months later Car Wreck.Bad Dream With Demon14 days Bad Relationship, Demonic Attack At 2 A.M. For Months Memphis trip…That Brought The Demon Attack To LifeMom Getting Cancer and Praying To And From WorkI had finally gotten my life on track. I was living good. I had started back to church. I had a good job and I was really reading my Bible every day and seeking God.And then I got pneumonia and I couldn’t get rid of it. The doctor said it was from the smoking and vaping. I had been sick for three months. During that time I had been watching videos on YouTube about God and growing in my faith and that led to me quitting smoking. And that was when my spiritual life took off.It was like smoking was holding me back from stepping into God’s will and call on my life!  And God is restoring…redeeming…healing…teaching and preparing me in so many ways!  My testimony is only partially written.  God brought me through all those things and I believe He is preparing to bring me to a lot more things, new things, that will be an addition to the kingdom.  You see church, it’s not a testimony until we testify!