Bill Johnson - The Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy
Hi, a number of years ago, I embarked on a journey. I asked the Lord a question. I had read a passage in Revelation 19:10 that just leapt off the page at me. It says, «The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.» I remember when I read that—I was stunned by the words. I had read it many times before, but this time seemed to become food, and yet I couldn’t have explained it if my life depended on it. I just knew I needed to discover what it meant. So I said, «God, teach me what this means; show me what it means.»
Over a period of time, people would bring me stories, testimonies of what Jesus had done. A testimony is a spoken or written record of any of God’s activities in our lives. They would bring me stories, and I remember one particular man who, that afternoon I prayed the prayer, stood in the doorway of my office and told me what God was doing in his marriage. Then he stopped and said, «You can share this with anyone you like.» It hit me that that was, in part, the answer to my prayer. He was saying, «Share my story with someone else to give them hope of what God would do.»
I realized the testimony of Jesus prophesies to the people who hear what God is willing to do for them. Testimonies are important because they are stories—stories about God’s nature. They reveal His heart, His person, His values, and His interactions with people, His history with mankind. Every time we tell a story, we create an opportunity for that story to be duplicated. I was stunned when I found that one of the Old Testament words for testimony actually came from another Hebrew root word that meant «to do again.»
So, the very nature of keeping the testimonies He commands in Scripture was that He was already committed to do the same thing again. It fascinates me. I’ve experimented with this through the years. We share stories to see what God would do; we share stories just to bring encouragement; we share stories basically to give God glory. We report what He’s done, and people celebrate His kindness. But I don’t want to stop there, because I have found that when you share a story in the room, it becomes pregnant with the possibility of God doing that same miracle again.
One reason we share the stories of God’s interventions in our lives is that it keeps people aware of the nature of God, the heart of God, and creates a readiness to see God do it again. I encourage you to listen to testimonies and share them; you’ll change the atmosphere in which you live.