the enemy's plan b

A while back, I posted a blog about how the enemy comes after our destiny. Here's the linkback, "call it what it is", because this is part two.

I was talking to a dear friend the other day, and over the course of a couple of conversations, we got to talking about the validity of a person's testimony. A testimony, by definition is an account of a person's own experience. The validity of one's testimony depends on whether the person is truthful in relaying their story.

But what about when someone has an honest, radical encounter with God in which He performs a miracle in their personal life, but then, over the course of time, some of the things that He changed begin to revert back to their former state. Or, more accurately, they look as though they're reverting to their former state. Is that person's testimony still "valid"?

Imagine someone has been in a wheelchair for years, and one day, God chooses to miraculously heal him. He stands upright and walks as though there has never been a pain in his body. Over time, however, some of the pain returns, and he is sometimes forced to use crutches or his wheelchair, especially when he's tired or has been on his feet all day. Is his testimony of God's miraculous healing invalid?

My answer is definitively no. 

When God moves, He moves! When heaven intersects Earth and we have the privilege to bear witness to that account, whether in our lives or someone else's, it is miraculous, and we testify to that experience. God has revealed Himself awesomely, and we get to tell others what we've learned about God from that revelation. 

I've found, when Satan cannot destroy your destiny, he goes after your testimony. There is so much power in our testimony, and our enemy knows it. It has been taught, and I think rightly so, that speaking our testimony is like speaking prophecy. 

Revelation 19:10b says, "For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." 

I don't pretend to understand the full context and ramifications of this verse, but I do know that when I hear the testimony of a true God-encounter, my faith is strengthened. I know that when someone says, "this is what God did for me", I think, "God could do that for me too". So in that sense, the person's testimony speaks the prophecy of what God could do in my life.

At first, Satan goes after our destiny. He tries to thwart God's plans for us even before we are born. But God is so much greater than he who is in the world. The power of God comes through to help us overcome the plans of the enemy, and out of the abundance of our hearts, we bear witness to His story in our lives. We tell of His greatness. We testify. And Satan hates the power in a testimony.

So, when plan A fails, Satan goes after our testimony. He tries to shut us up.

He will attack places in our lives where he has lost his hold - whether in finances, health, the breaking off of strongholds, in gifts, wherever he can. And he will attempt to convince us that our testimony is no longer "valid".  We stop speaking about what God has done, because, in our eyes, the story is ruined in one way or another. 

That is Satan's lie. What God did, HE DID. What happens next bears no impact on our story.
What happens next is up to God and up to us. Don't let the enemy try to steal your testimony. Don't let him trap you in old habits. Don't let him convince you that a setback is a relapse. Don't let him convince you that people won't care - that they won't want to hear your story - that it's not convincing enough or powerful enough or "good" enough.

Speak out the testimony of what our great God has done. There is power in our testimony.