The Christian’s testimony is a hugely effective tool to open doors to share the Good News (Gospel) of Jesus with nonChristians. Essentially a testimony is an account of your personal experience with Jesus. The reality is, every Christian has a testimony. Many do not believe they have a testimony because they grew up in a Christian home. Yet, if Jesus is your Lord and Saviour, then you have experienced Him in your life and therefore you have a testimony. That testimony is a powerful tool of which we need to avail ourselves. A great example of this is in the book of Acts chapters 22-26, the Apostle Paul shares his testimony three times!
As Christians we know the Bible tells us very clearly to share our faith. One of our struggles is finding a bridge to bring the Gospel into the conversation. It can prove difficult to transition from the secular to the spiritual. As your testimony is an account of how you went from a life without God (secular) to a life hidden in God (spiritual), it carries with it a natural shift to talking about spiritual things. Since a testimony is an account of personal 
experience, it brings the Gospel from the realm of the abstract (from which one can distance himself personally) to the tangible (showing that the Gospel is applicable in a personal life). It is also easier for a person to relate to a personal story than it is cold truths. I say ‘cold truths’ because if they do not see how those truths relate, they simply do not warm up to them.
However, when your life is a result of a relationship with the Truth, then that truth is perceived as a living truth and they can see the power it has had in your life. This can bypass intellectual defences that a nonChristian may hide behind. Another interesting fact about your testimony is that it is a unique account of God’s work. Every Christian experiences the same truths, but the contexts in which those truths are revealed is variable.
It is also important to remember that our witness (testimony) is not to be in our own power. Acts 1:8 says that “you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be witnesses unto me.” That means that God’s Spirit will enable your witness. If you consider this in legal terms, a witness takes the stand and responds to the prompting of the lawyer (i.e. the lawyer asks a question and the witness responds with giving an account of their experience). It is not for the witness to convince the jury. It is for the witness to give an account. It is the job of the lawyer to convince the jury. In a sense, the Holy Spirit is the lawyer and as we rely on Him, we relay those experiences that He can then use to convince the hearer.
Since we understand that our testimony has great value, how do we relay share our testimony? We can draw some wisdom for the Apostle Paul. Acts 26 is a good example to consider when sharing our testimonies. Paul’s testimony here can be broken up into three sections:
- Before: What his life was like before Christ (Acts 26:4-11).
- How: How Paul became a Christian (Acts 26:12-20).
- After: What difference Christ made in his life (Acts 26:21-23).
- Follow Up: Moving from his personal experience to their personal need (Acts 26:24-29).
1. Before
As you think about the work God was doing in your own life, what were some of the things that revealed your need for God?
- Inner unrest
- Emptiness
- Life seemed without meaning
- Loneliness
- Lack of security
- Lack of purpose
- Fear of death
- Futility of religion
It is important to share only a few of these experiences. It is better to focus more on one or two points than to vaguely mention many. It is also important to always be honest. Never try to embellish your testimony (that would be bearing false witness and thus cannot be true witness).
Many without Christ are struggling with a huge sense of lack. The Alpha Course has caught onto this with their slogan “Is there more to life than this?” As you share about the need that you sensed you can then share about some of the pursuits you tried to fulfil that need with. Here are some examples.
Relationships- Sex
- Power/Influence
- Sports
- Entertainment
- Money
- Substance abuse
2. How
What was taking place that helped you realize that your pursuits could not satisfy your need? What was the event (or sequence of events) that led to your conversion? Was there a crisis involved? What were some of the biblical truths that became clear to you at that time? This is a good place to share the Gospel in your testimony. The Gospel is fundamentally:
- Everyone has broken God’s good and holy law (Romans 3:23)
- The just penalty for breaking His law is hell (Romans 6:23).
- Jesus lived a perfect (lawful) life so He could pay our penalty (2 Corinthians 5:21).
- Those who trust in Jesus’ work and receive Jesus as their Lord have eternal life (Romans 10:9-10).
3. After
How has Jesus been working in your life? How has He changed you and filled your great spiritual need? How is the reality of your spiritual need being met seen in your life? i.e. the sense of significance I lacked which I tried to fulfil through being a workaholic, is fulfilled; my significance is in the fact that God loves me and gave Himself for me.
It is important when sharing this not to lead your listener to assume that your life is now easy and without difficulty. Christianity is not an escape from hardships.
Different people have different testimonies
If you grew up in a strong Christian home, your testimony may seem a bit different from the person who was a prostitute or a drug abuser. However the Gospel is the same for all people. For example, you may have grown up in a Christian home, but maybe you thought religion or morality was going to save you. Your testimony may be about needing to repent of self-righteousness. If you remember receiving Christ as a child and have always walked with Him, your testimony may have less “before” content, however there is always a before.
4. Follow Up
After telling your story
This is often a good opportunity to invite the person to whom you are testifying to talk about spiritual things. You can ask questions such as:
- Has anything like that ever happened to you?
- Would you be interested in talking about what the Bible says?
- What do you think happens when you die?
If they respond with a lack of interest, you can leave the door open for future discussion by saying something like, “These are important things. If you ever want to talk about the Bible or spiritual things, let me know, I’d love to talk about this with you.”
Some last notes
Try to make sure that you avoid the foreign language of “Christian-ese”. Here are some terms that we Christians are familiar with but nonChristians may not understand. Along with these words are some possible substitute phrases.
- Believe/Accept -> Trusted in, Relied upon
- Sin -> Breaking God’s law, Disobedience
- Saved/Born-again -> Became a real Christian
- Christian -> Committed Christian, Real Christian
- Righteousness -> Having a right relationship
It may also be helpful to write down your testimony and to memorize it as well as any Scriptures you use in connection with it. This doesn’t imply that you read your testimony to people. Our testimony should not simply be a mechanical exercise. I often find that the details that I share with one individual may be different from the details I share with another individual. Pray and ask the Lord to lead you as you share your testimony. Pray for the Holy Spirit to give you the words to say and that the Holy Spirit would open up the hearer’s heart to receive.
If you are interested in hearing some testimonies, a good place to go is iamsecond.com. Many of these are well worth watching.
What does it mean to help someone? There are many ways in which we can offer help (or even things that we perceive as helpful that are actually unhelpful). What caught my eye here was a view into the biblical theology of real help. To really help someone is to tend to their 'realest' need. For example, we can help someone who has a headache by giving them paracetamol. But whether that actually is helping them is not immediately clear. If their headache is simply a symptom of a much greater problem, and the paracetamol only relieves the symptom but ignores the true need so that the person being helped can ignore the urgency of their real need, and thus we haven't actually helped them. In fact, we have given them a drug with which to escape the reality of a pressing need.
