The ERC Counseling Corner: September (Vol. 1)
With Counselor ‘T
TESTIMONIES OF THE BRETHREN (6)
“And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death” Revelations 12:11
“And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe” John 19:35
There is a widespread agreement amongst epistemologist that our testimonial beliefs (Beliefs held on the basis of testimony) are generally justified. It goes beyond the physical and moves towards a mental state. It changes your mindset towards a particular goal and demonstrates your capacity to have achieved the almost impossible (Matthew 17:20 “…Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you).
Most also agree that testimony is responsible for a vast proportion of what we know and belief. Testimonies from others can go a long way to build your trust and faith in God.
Why does God give us testimony?
It’s pretty simple, people!
Testimony is a powerful tool in sharing what God has done and is continuing to do in our lives. … It is important for us to realize the value of our testimony. Not only do our testimonies represent us coming to Christ, but they can also continue to bring others to Him when we share them.
Sharing your testimony helps you heal and bring us closer together. The Latin root for testimony is testis, meaning “witness.” Compassionate witnessing of our personal series helps us recover and help others do the same.
Christians in general, especially within the Evangelical tradition, use the term “to testify” or “to give one’s testimony” to mean “to tell the story of a specific event in a Christian’s life in which God did something deemed particularly worth sharing.
Being a practicing counselor, I can confirm that I have seen and experienced varying testimonies, either from my personal experience or the shared ones.
MY TESTIMONY
So, back in high school, I had this friend who was always inviting me to sneak out of school, break rules and all. I followed him so much that I lost my touch and things got really bad.
Years later, I attended a church program and he was the guest minister. I was wowed, extremely anxious to challenge him and find out how he got to this level considering he was the chief architect for our downfall at the time.
His response was quite decisive. He said God picked me up and for a minute, I could barely fathom what that meant. And then he narrated a similar experience to what Paul of tarsus experienced on his way to Damascus (Acts 9:1-19). He had joined a cult group and was on his way to supposedly commit murder only God to orchestrate his plans for him through what he called and i quote “mysterious means” (Anonymous, n.d.).
WOW! God works in mysterious ways!
To be continued in Volume 2…