The Word of Their Testimony
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”
Revelation 12:10-11 (NIV)
Have you ever been accused of something you didn’t do? Or have you had something held against you when people only knew a slice of the story without having the whole truth? It’s quite frustrating, demeaning and discouraging to be looked down upon by others in that situation.
In grade school, I remember acting in self-defense against another student. In his anger, the other student told the teacher on me, but he only shared his perspective without telling the whole truth of what happened. The teacher told me I had to see the principal later that afternoon. I feared what the principal might do to me, was ashamed of what my teacher and friends thought of me, and was frustrated thinking no one but my accuser and I knew the whole truth of what happened. However, by the time we met with the principal, someone who witnessed the incident shared his perspective with my teacher and my accuser. The principal invited the witness and me to share our versions of the story, which caused my accuser to back down and admit that I had acted in self-defense. Based on my testimony and the account of the witness, the principal decided to inflict no punishment.
Satan is the accuser who constantly reminds us of our sin and seeks to heap guilt and shame on us for what we have done in our past. But only when we include Jesus can we see the whole truth. The whole truth consists of the fact that Jesus, the Son of God, lived a perfect life so that He's worthy of taking the punishment for my sins, and He died in my place so that I could be free of the condemnation of my sin. God raised Jesus from the dead to prove that Jesus is indeed the Son of God and has the authority and power to free us from the penalty of death. Jesus has won the victory over our accuser, Satan, but sometimes Satan still tries to put the guilt trip on us. We can still be hindered and discouraged by the shame of our past. Sometimes, we need to be reminded of what God has already done.
The blood of the Lamb has given us the victory, but the word of our testimony, the story of what He has done, reminds us that we have the victory. The whole truth of what God has done in our personal lives also helps others realize that there’s someone who’s been through something similar and encourages them that they can have victory as well. We have victory by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.
Application: Write the story of how God has worked in you. Include a couple of sentences for each of these points: My life before trusting Jesus, how and why I trusted Jesus, and the difference Jesus made in me.
Prayer: Father, thank You for what You’ve done for me. Give me Your perspective to see opportunities to share the story of how You’ve worked in me and help me see Your work in my life each day.
“… Our Father in heaven…” Matthew 6:9b (NLT)
- What do You want to say to me today as my Father?
“… may Your name be kept holy.” Matthew 6:9c (NLT)
- What do You want to reveal to me about Your power today?
“May Your Kingdom come soon.” Matthew 6:10a (NLT)
- Help me make Your priorities my priorities today.
“Give us today the food we need,” Matthew 6:11 (NLT)
- Is there anything specific You want me to do with my time or the people I’m around today?
“and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us” Matthew 6:12 (NLT)
- Reveal to me anyone I need to forgive or ask for forgiveness.
“And don’t let us yield to temptation…” Matthew 6:13a (NLT)
- Is there anywhere I’m vulnerable to temptation?