Stage 4 Stage 4 Stage 4

Have you ever been to a carnival or fair? Except for the roller coasters and spinning rides, they are fantastic. The funnel cakes were amazing, too. It was a cardinal sin to attend a carnival without getting a funnel cake. The most popular thing to do was the house of mirrors. It was the easiest thing to get lost in there.

The glass house was simply a big house with many different glass walls, and you had to find your way through a maze. You would run into glass wall after glass wall, and you’d run into many dead ends. But all that was a part of the fun.

The mirror house, on the other hand, was simply about distortion. You would look into one mirror and find yourself extremely tall, or in another mirror, extremely short, and in other mirrors, skinny or large. It was comical and entertaining.

A key part to your faith is the idea of windows and mirrors.

Tim Elmore in his books called Habitudes does a great job illustrating this for us.

He shares the importance of being a window to people when you are sharing a story or presentation. Your audience, be it a vast auditorium full of people, or a small setting of friends and family, need to see into your life. A window allows for that. It allows for you to see out, but also for others to see in. 

But an interesting thing happens when you provide insight into your own life…it becomes a mirror.

As you share your experiences, your life, and your stories, people begin to reflect on their own experiences and stories and the areas of commonality or differences that they have with you.

Windows and mirrors. It’s extremely important to have both when sharing your story.

Pause.

Wrap your mind around this for a moment.

Revelation 12:11 is describing Christians who have overcome. In fact, overcoming is a major theme in Revelation.

“They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”

Notice: there are only two things that we overcome by.

One is the blood of the Lamb, which means the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is referring to His sacrifice on the cross.

It starts there. As believers, we don’t overcome our sin, death, and hell without Jesus. We need Him.

But…

The second thing that follows that is “the word of their testimony.”

What in the world is that?

It’s our stories. It’s our witness for Jesus. That’s what the word “testimony” means there. It’s a court forensic term. It’s the idea of a witness on a stand.

We must witness about Jesus. We testify about Him. We must tell our stories about Jesus and what He has done in our lives.

Why? Because it plays a part in overcoming the evil of this world.

Now, there are typically some responses to this idea.

For one, some people think that this is primarily for the pastors of churches.

Well…yes; it is the role of pastors everywhere to talk about Jesus and to share the story of what Christ is doing in their lives.

But that’s not their only job.

“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” - Ephesians 4:11-12

This verse says that the actual job of pastors is not to simply share about Jesus and share their own stories, but to equip all the Christians on the planet to be able to share about Jesus and their stories.

So the first myth is believing that it’s just for pastors.

The second obstacle is not thinking that you’re good enough to do it.

If you are married you will get this example, but if you are not just imagine you are. When you first married to your spouse, you didn’t know everything about him or her. You didn’t know every last detail. To this day, you will not know everything about your spouse, but you know more than you used to.

But just because you didn’t know everything didn’t stop you from entering into a relationship with him or her. And just because I didn’t know everything about her didn’t mean that I didn’t talk about her when we first got married.

I just talked about what I did know.

When it comes to sharing about Jesus and your own stories, just share what you do know. Share what you know until you know more about God and then you’ll have more to share.

If you know about God’s forgiveness, share about that. If you know about His love, share about that. If you know that He is a provider, then tell people about how He has provided for you.

And then trust God.

“Do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.” - Luke 12:12

You’re not alone when you share about Jesus.

He’s with you. The Holy Spirit is right there, to guide you and to give you the prompts to talk about the things that you need to talk about.

All you have to do is listen. Pray to Him. Quietly ask God to give you the boldness to say what you need to say. Ask God to give you the insight to speak about the topics that you need to speak about. Ask God to give you the right demeanor and tone of voice to speak to that person.

He’s there. Don’t be afraid.

Open up. Share about what God has done in your life. Let them see into your windows. And you might just see them begin to reflect on what God can do in their lives as well.

Scripture Reference:  Revelation 12:11, Ephesians 4:11-12, Luke 12:12