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The Power of Stories and Testimonies
As I am sure you all can tell by now, I am a big believer in sharing with you stories and testimonies of God supernaturally showing Himself in any way, shape or form. I believe that these God-stories are extremely powerful and they all help us to continue to build our faith up in the power of God and the fact that He does want to become very active in our lives if we are open to allowing Him to come in. I'm sure most, if not all of you, have had some kind of supernatural activity with God where He has shown Himself to you in some specific way - whether it be to help get you out of jam or answer a prayer for a specific need - whether it be for yourself or someone else you had been praying for. What I have personally found through actual experience is that God really does want to become very active in your daily life and there are quite a few times He will show Himself to you in some kind of supernatural way. However, I have also found out that a lot of Christians are really scared of any kind of supernatural activity from God. They would prefer to keep God at a distance. It's one thing to know that God the Father is in heaven and can hear our prayers and control things at a "distance." It's quite another thing however to have God get close to you with some kind of supernatural activity - whether it be a vision, a dream, some kind of manifestation, a visitation, a healing, a deliverance of some kind, a prophecy, etc. As you can tell from reading some of my articles - myself and quite a few of my friends have had some incredible supernatural activity from God in reference to some deliverance situations where God really did show up in a supernatural way to deliver someone out of a dire situation. What I have learned the hard way is that some of this heavier stuff does freak people out if they themselves have not had much supernatural activity from God. To those of you who want to go into deeper waters with God and are not afraid of Him, I believe you will find these stories to be uplifting and encouraging. When you read about God helping someone else out in some kind of supernatural way - it builds up your faith even further because you will come to the conclusion that if God can move supernaturally to help someone else out - then He can also do the same for you since the Bible tells us that God is no respecter of persons. The Bible says your faith is built up by "hearing" the word of God. When you read these kind of dramatic stories and testimonies, you are actually "hearing" about them - which in turn will help build up your own personal faith levels with God. As I always do, I will end this short article with some extremely powerful Scripture verses to back up my arguments that God really does want us sharing these kind of supernatural stories with others who will feed off of them. He wants us recording them, remembering them and telling and sharing them with others who want to hear about them. However, the Bible also tells us not to give what is holy to the dogs - otherwise they will just tear to pieces with criticism and condemnation what you have just fed to them and they will then turn around and tear you personally to pieces. These kinds of God-stories are holy and I have personally learned the hard way to be careful who I share them with. Now here are some powerful Scripture verses backing up my argument that God really does want us sharing these kinds of stories with others who are open to receiving them. The Scripture Verses1. This first verse tells us that God has made His wondrous works to be remembered! And the best way to attempt to remember anything is to actually record them as they happen. I personally keep a "God Journal" logging every type of meaningful activity I get from God. I don't record every little thing that may happen with Him, but I will record the medium to heavier stuff that will make for a good story or a good teaching tool to help others out in their own personal walks with the Lord. There is no way most of us can remember all of the things God will do with you once He starts to become very active in your life. By logging these events down in some type of journal - you will have something you can share with others to help build up their faith after they initially get saved. This journal will also help you get through any storms that may come in your life. By going back and remembering all of the things God has done for you in the past will help get you through whatever your present predicament may be. If God helped or delivered you out of something 3 years ago - then He will help or deliver you out of whatever present storm cloud you may find yourself in now. Here is the verse. It is only a one liner, but I feel a very powerful statement is being made. "He has made his wonderful works to be REMEMBERED." (Psalm 111:4).2. This next verse talks about God making a comment that His people were not "mindful" of the wonders that He had done among them. Being mindful means you really cherish, think about, meditate on, record, share with others what God may have done with you by way of any type of "wonderful work." One of the secrets to getting God to become more supernaturally involved in your life is to be "mindful" and really cherish and appreciate it when He does do something rather dramatic for you. In my own God journal - I not only record what He does for me personally - but I also record what He does for some of my other friends who I am sharing my God-walk with. This way, I not only learn from what He is doing personally with me - but I'm also learning other things about God from what He is doing with my other friends. Here is the verse. Again, it is only one sentence, but a lot is being said in this one sentence. "They refused to obey, and they were not mindful of your wonders that you did among them." (Nehemiah 9:17).3. This next verse gets right to the heart of this matter. It specifically talks about speaking about the glory of God and to talk about and to make known to others about any of His mighty acts."They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom, and talk of Your power, to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of His kingdom." (Psalm 145:11-12) 4. This next verse also drives home the point about making known God's "deeds" to others and to talk about all of His wondrous works. "Oh, give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name. Make known His deeds among the peoples! Sing to Him ... talk of all His wondrous works! Remember His marvelous works which He has done, His wonders and the judgments of His mouth." (1 Chronicles 16:8-12)5. Here is another powerful verse telling us to speak about the might of His awesome acts and to "declare" His greatness. "Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts, and I will declare Your greatness. They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness." (Psalm 145:6-7) 6. This next verse tells us that we should not be afraid or ashamed to speak about God even to "kings" if we have to. "I will speak of Your testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed." (Psalm 119:46) 7. Though all of the above verses tell us not to be afraid to talk about God and what He may have done personally for you - this next verse also gives us a solemn warning in that we are to be careful with who we share these kind of stories with. This next verse specifically tells us not to give what is holy to the "dogs." This verse tells us two things will happen if we do. First, they will just "trample under their feet" what you have just shared or given to them. Second, they will then turn around and tear you personally to pieces for sharing this with them. I believe the word "dogs" are referring to unbelievers who are not open in any way, shape or form from hearing anything about God in their present situation. They are full of doubt, ridicule and have very judgmental and critical spirits. I have also found this to actually be true with quite a few Christians. Many Christians really do not seem to be in a real full surrender with God or have established any kind of real personal relationship with Him. As a result, they get very little, if any real supernatural activity with Him. They thus will have a hard time believing you when you try and tell them one of your God stories. They think that since none of this kind of activity ever comes their way - that there is no way that you are actually receiving this kind of supernatural activity from God. My advice to you would be to just use your good natural common sense and rely on your leadings from the Holy Spirit as to who to share these kind of God stories and testimonies with and who not to. Most of the time, you will have an "inner knowing" from the Holy Spirit as to who to share these stories with and who not to share them with. Now here is the verse giving us this warning: "Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces." (Matthew 7:6) ConclusionAll of the above Scripture verses tell us that God really does want us talking about Him and sharing with others our own personal "God adventures." That is why I have chosen to start up this website - not only to give you good articles about God and the Bible - but also sharing with all of you the actual stories and testimonies myself and some of my friends have had with God Himself. If there is one thing I have personally found out about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit is that they really want to show Themselves to you and they really want to become very active in your daily life. But they will only show Themselves to you and become very active in your life only if you really want them too. This supernatural realm is really for "seekers" only. To those of you who may be a little scared or skittish of having God supernaturally show Himself to you in any way - the one thing that I and the others can tell you, without any shadow of doubt, is that when God does start to supernaturally communicate with you in any way - it is simply pure joy and fun. When you start to meet God "head on" in this realm - you will find out very quickly that there is nothing to be afraid of when He does start show Himself to you. Our God is a very loving God and He is truly our one and only real Father. He has nothing but your best interests at heart and wants nothing more than to establish a personal relationship with each one of you. And in that personal relationship is a desire in Him to want to make contact and show Himself to you - so as to be able to help you along the way in your life's journey with Him. Article written by Michael Bradley of Bible Knowledge Ministries. Their website is a resource of Bible Knowledge, articles, commentary and teaching. They currently have over 100Bible articles.
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