From the Editor
The Power of Story
STACEY MCKENZIE
Sharing our testimonies about Jesus
As a believer, how often do you share your testimony of meeting Jesus? Do you feel that it is compelling? Or do you feel that it is underwhelming compared to what you’ve heard from others? How often do you experience God’s activity in a way that causes such excitement that you need to share it with others?
We can never underestimate the power of story in the hearts and minds of those around us—particularly narratives where God’s involvement is unmistakable. In a time of great cynicism and skepticism, a story about God’s work in our lives—or about a series of events with distinctive characteristics that would make a hearer stop and ponder their meaning—can go a long way toward creating sensitivity and openness to the gospel. Hearing those kinds of descriptions of God’s participation in life with us—and the vibrant and cheerful way the events were described—first opened my eyes to the reality that there may be more for me on my journey of faith than what I had already understood and experienced.
What I have appreciated most about a Pentecostal approach to faith, if I may describe it like that, is the ability to recognize and even regularly anticipate the Spirit’s movement in some way. We have tangible encouragement that God is still involved in our day-to-day circumstances to bring reassurance, warning, strength, comfort, healing, provision or intervention precisely when needed. It brings a level of credibility when speaking about Jesus and our testimony about Him, or about the latest thing we have seen Him do, that is infectious. Before I came to faith, when a friend was speaking about something God was doing in her life spiritually, I remember clearly thinking, “What is she doing that I’m not doing?” It was the beginning of my journey toward encountering the living Christ for myself rather than merely knowing about him intellectually. I moved beyond mere mental assent that Jesus was born into the world to grow up and walk as a man on earth, lived a perfect life, willingly died for the sins of humanity, and then rose from the dead to rule as a risen King until the Day of Judgment. He became the Living Word for me, and I still marvel at how He removed the veil over my heart (2 Corinthians 3:15-16).
Along the way, there have been challenges to that newfound faith, but the Spirit’s faithfulness in illuminating the Scriptures and manifesting evidence of God’s presence in the circumstances of daily life have helped me persevere. Scripture is filled with stories of God’s work among the people He created—everyone from kings and queens to peasant shepherds. Engagement with passages describing how God has revealed Himself to people in their times of discouragement or need can hearten us to expect the same when we are dejected or dismayed, no matter what our station in life is. And when we have doubts about God’s presence or His ability to transform a situation in response to prayer, we can remember Thomas, whom Jesus showed great compassion to when Thomas had serious doubts that it was really true that He had risen from the dead (John 20:24-29).
Our testimonies matter—whether they are simple or whether they are complex or astonishing. And there are many more of them to come, even if for now it may seem like a lull is the new normal. Continue trusting God to reveal Himself as gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness (Exodus 34:6; Psalm 103:8). What He has already done for you may be exactly what someone needs to hear to spark their own journey of faith, and as long as you have life, He will give you more stories to tell. So, invite the Lord to give you opportunities to share all that He has done and the boldness that the Spirit provides to speak about His amazing work (Psalm 150:2). Jesus’s presence and activity in your life will do much more than you could ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20).
This article appeared in the April/May/June 2024 issue of testimony/Enrich, a quarterly publication of The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. © 2024 The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. Photo © istockphoto.com.