Look at the Instant Pot’s success!
Don’t we all love to get a glowing recommendation from someone affirming the good that our products or services have produced? While thanks are wonderful, positive word-of-mouth advertising shows the greatest appreciation and is the most effective marketing. Let’s talk up God, far more than everyone is talking up their Instant Pots!
Let’s do some spiritual witnessing!
A spiritual testimony is a personal declaration of what God has done for you. Gratitude with thanksgiving helps God raise other people’s interest level. It can be the doorway for bigger, better things for you and for those who hear your testimony.
When you receive Unbound ministry, you’re encouraged by Neal Lozano, Heart of the Father Ministries, and by our 5 Keys to Freedom in Christ team to write down what God did for you. It needn’t be a long essay fit for publication, though it could be! It may simply be responding to our request for an evaluation, and keeping a copy for yourself. It could be notes in your journal or in your computer or smartphone or in social media about what took place, how you felt before, during, right after, and/or upon later reflection. Whatever works for you! Having written down the important experiences is very strengthening, and helps as your memory fades. It can be especially strengthening to read what you wrote later, in a difficult time prior to your next breakthrough. (Yes, it’s common to have ups and downs in our spiritual lives, with multiple breakthroughs as we grow in holiness and intimacy with God. At times like that, looking back can uplift you.)
Questions to Ask in Coming Up with Your Testimony:
The following questions were written by Neal Lozano (in his Unbound Companion Guide) to guide you in preparing your testimony, but of course, you’re encouraged to personalize your testimony as you tell the story of God’s action in your life:
- What has the Lord done in my life through the UNBOUND message?
- What truths has the Lord revealed to me?
- What sins (or bad habits or addictions) have I overcome by God’s grace?
- What enemies or lies have I renounced that I now refuse to fellowship with?
- How has the Father revealed His love to me as His son or daughter?
- What blessing is He whispering to me right now?
You might also ask:
- How do I feel now that I have forgiven a person, an action, an omission, or hurtful words that wounded me?
- How do I feel as a result of telling my story and having it listened to with love and without judgment (if you experienced that, which is always the intention of UNBOUND ministry teams)?
- How do I see my UNBOUND experience affecting my life going forward? Has it already made a positive difference?
How Might I Share My Testimony?
- Send your testimony to the UNBOUND team and let them know whether it’s just for their edification or whether it might be shared (anonymously or otherwise) to help others — this can be done with an evaluation form, an email, by letter, or by recording (even on voicemail), or by taking a video of yourself speaking about your experience and sending it to the team who ministered to you.
- Allow the person doing a follow-up with you to take notes and share some of your story, after getting your approval.
- Share your testimony with others you know, perhaps in your family or among a small faith community — without going into too much detail, except perhaps to a few very well trusted believers or a spiritual director or confessor.
Tips for a Moving Testimony
First, your testimony should be personal.
- You could share what the Lord has revealed to you about lies you believed and the truth the Lord has imparted to you.
- You could share what sins you’ve overcome by His grace, or whom the Lord has led you to forgive (maybe even for what).
Second, it helps most if your testimony is specific and concrete.
- If you’re willing to share some details of previous bondage and specifically how the Lord has released you, others will be able to relate to your story and your words will bear good fruit for the Lord.
Do It, Because Jesus Asks Those He Heals to Witness to Others!
in Mark 5:1-20, Jesus cast out the demon called “Legion,” which had possessed a chained, cave-dwelling, screaming man in Gerasenes. At the demon’s request, Jesus sent the evil spirit into a herd of swine, which then ran off the cliff into the sea. The healed and now free man wanted to follow Jesus as he traveled around preaching, healing, and delivering others from evil. But Jesus wouldn’t let the man join him, because Jesus had greater work for the man to do than just being his follower. He said, “Go home to your family and announce to them all the Lord in his pity has done for you.” Jesus wants us to tell our story and pass on the miracles and healings that transform our lives!