Ephesians 6:13
What’s your story? I’m convinced that our lives are meant to be living, breathing, walking, talking worship. If that’s true, then sharing our stories—our testimonies—are some of our greatest declarations of praise and some of our greatest weapons of warfare.
In Ephesians 6, Paul spends twelve verses equipping us to engage and defeat spiritual enemies and overcome life’s adversities. It’s a reminder that each of us is designed for a specific role in the age-old struggle between the kingdoms of heaven and hell. Each of us has been assigned something to defend, something to defeat and something to declare.
It’s the declaration part we don’t always pull out of these verses. Ephesians 6:13 uses the same Greek word for “stand” as the previous verses, but it follows the statement “having done all.” The Greek word is katergazomai and it means to accomplish or achieve something. In other words, Paul is saying it’s not enough to fight and win. When we’re done kicking cans and taking names, we’re supposed to stand again. Why? So everyone will see who came out on top—to make a spectacle of the enemies of God.
That is what a testimony is for. So that all of heaven, all of earth and all of hell are made to face the crushing, humiliating, awe-inspiring victory of the children of God—to rub the devil’s nose in his failures and to inspire faith to rise up from the earth.
That’s why David didn’t just thump Goliath in the noggin with a stone. He chopped his great wooly head off and raised it as high as he could. When they saw it, the Philistines panicked and fled, but the Israelites were encouraged. The same soldiers who had been cowering in terror before this “invincible” monster, saw a boy effortlessly swat a giant aside. Their courage soared; they roared like lions; they leapt out of their hiding places, and they chased their enemies back to Philistia (1 Samuel 17).
That’s what your testimony does. It scares the tar out of hell and strengthens the Church’s hands for war.
Recently, I got the opportunity to share my testimony on the Joni Lamb show. At first, I struggled with whether or not I should do it. I’m fairly private, and I wasn’t sure I wanted the whole world seeing my laundry hanging on the line. But in the end, it’s clean laundry after all. And it’s God’s laundry, not mine. It’s also God’s testimony, because it was His work that accomplished the victory for me. What He has done in me is worthy of praise and worth sharing.
If you get a chance, check it out. I’m praying that when I hold up the head of my Goliath, your enemies will flee, your hands will find strength to fight, and you will be encouraged to take your own stand—and to share your own story.
daystar.com/ondemand/joni-his-story-zach-neese
Revelation 12:11
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”
