The Power Of Testimony by Apostle Arome Osayi: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Hebrews 1:1-3

God, who at various times and in different ways spoke in the past to the fathers through the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son.

Revelation 19:9-10

The phrase "the testimony of Jesus" appears only four times in scripture, and every one of those occurrences is in the book of Revelation. That is not by accident. The purpose of the book of Revelation is not primarily prediction. It is possible for someone operating under a spirit of error to give a prediction that still comes to pass, so prediction alone cannot be the deeper object John had in mind. What Revelation is truly built on is testimony. It is possible to prophesy accurately, for that prophecy to come to pass, and yet for the one who spoke it to backslide before it happens, and be excluded from its fulfillment. It was not the prediction that failed. The person failed to keep step with the spirit of prophecy that carried the prediction in the first place.

What a Testimony Actually Is

A testimony is something personally received. It is encounter-based and revelation-based. What became the written scriptures originally existed as spiritual reality. Prophecy did not have its origin in man; holy men of old spoke as they were carried by the Holy Ghost. That means the words on the page are gateways into a spiritual dimension, not a substitute for encountering that dimension. A true student of scripture, studying under the Holy Spirit, eventually finds that words which have no life of their own outside the Spirit become infused with life, carrying the reader beyond the letters into the reality behind them. It is possible to be left holding only letters and mistake that for having received the counsel of God.

1 John 1:1

The man writing this was a fisherman, not a scholar, yet he reaches for language like "that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled." That is not the language of intelligence; it is the language of a man scouting for words large enough to carry the weight of an encounter he actually had. A testimony is always the byproduct of an encounter, and human words often strain to hold it.

Even proximity to Jesus did not guarantee recognition of him. His own disciples, who had spent three and a half years at his side, could not immediately recognize him after the resurrection. When Jesus asked, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am," the answers that came back from those who had merely sat under his teaching fell short. On the isle of Patmos, John himself could only say Jesus appeared "like unto the Son of Man," because Jesus revealed himself in an identity John's natural familiarity had not prepared him for. Mary Magdalene stood weeping beside the risen Jesus and mistook him for the gardener. Nearness to Jesus does not by itself produce knowledge of Jesus. Every true knowledge of him comes by revelation, and only the one who has a revelation carries a testimony.

Why the Church Is Full of Talkers but Short on Testifiers

A preacher can be a good talker for years, convincing an audience for a season, and still leave no transformed lives behind, because talent for speech is not the same as a testimony. Many congregations today are filled with people who have grown weary of church precisely because the voices they have been sitting under were empty of any real encounter. It is not that God failed the preachers; the preachers lacked testimony, which is a form of counterfeit ministry.

John 16:12-13

Jesus told his disciples he had many things to say to them that they could not yet bear, and that when the Spirit of truth came, he would guide them into all truth. Jesus's own ministry had a real limitation, not because of any lack in him but because of the capacity of his hearers; he would withhold what an audience could not receive. The Holy Spirit's ministry does not carry that same limitation of capacity, because the Holy Spirit does not primarily operate through the outlet of speaking the way Jesus did in the flesh. Instead, the Spirit takes a person into the very reality Jesus would have spoken about, so that the encounter itself becomes the basis of a testimony. This is also why fasting and prayer take on new importance now that Jesus is not physically present to simply be approached with a question; the flesh must be starved and the spirit fed in order to encounter him.

2 Peter 1:16-18

Peter insisted that what the apostles preached was "not cunningly devised fables" but firsthand testimony, because he and the others were eyewitnesses of Christ's majesty on the mount of transfiguration. Every genuine testimony has a back end, an actual encounter standing behind it. A man once began preaching an unfamiliar doctrine, and when senior ministers gathered him in and asked him to explain the back end of what he was proclaiming, he stammered for an hour, cut off contact with them, and eventually faded into obscurity. That is the pattern for anyone without a real encounter behind their words: they may be defensive before men, but they lack the substance to sustain what they are claiming. A testimony without an encounter behind it is smoke without fire, an echo rather than a voice.

A Testimony Cannot Be Received Secondhand

Acts 19:13-16

Seven itinerant exorcists tried to cast out an evil spirit by invoking "Jesus, whom Paul preacheth," and the spirit answered, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?" The man with the evil spirit overpowered all seven and sent them fleeing naked and wounded. The spirit realm keeps an accurate, constantly updated record of who has actually had a firsthand encounter with divine authority. It is possible to deceive people, but that identity cannot be manufactured in the spirit realm. When the seventy returned from ministry rejoicing that even demons were subject to them in Jesus's name, Jesus redirected their joy: rejoice not that the spirits are subject to you, but that your names are written in heaven. The point still stands, that the spiritual record of a person's authority is more reliable, and more feared by the enemy, than any human claim.

Testimony Is a Function of Revelation, Not Consensus

Matthew 16:13-17

When Jesus asked, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am," and then narrowed the question to "who do you say that I am," it was Peter who answered, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus's response was direct: "Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." The insight into who Jesus is has never come from popular opinion or from the crowd. It comes only by revelation from the Father, and it is that revelation, not eloquence or persuasion, that gives someone the authority to speak and be recognized by other spirits as genuine.

Matthew 11:25-27

Jesus thanked the Father for hiding these things from the wise and prudent and revealing them instead to babes, and for reserving the knowledge of the Son for those to whom the Son chooses to reveal it. Wherever a true testimony is present, it is proof that God has begun to reveal himself again. A man without an encounter is a false witness, however sincerely he may be masquerading, because no testimony was ever entrusted to him.

The Call to Seek a Firsthand Encounter

Heaven is desperate for bearers of testimony, not merely preachers. Few are diligent enough to listen for what Jesus is actually saying to this generation; most are in a hurry to speak. The one who takes time to listen is the one entrusted with a testimony that a hostile generation will not be able to deny, because it will be evident the words are not their own.

Ezekiel 37:1

• Let the hand of the Lord come upon each person here, carrying them by the Spirit the way Ezekiel was carried into the valley of dry bones.
• Let every closed door in the spirit be opened tonight.
• Let the silence of testimony in this generation be broken, and let fresh encounter be entrusted to willing hearts.

Isaiah 40:28-31

The everlasting God does not grow weary, and his understanding cannot be searched out. He gives power to the faint and increases the strength of those who have none. Even the young grow tired and stumble, but those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength, mount up with wings like eagles, run and not grow weary, walk and not faint. The journey into genuine encounter with God must begin, not remain a story told about other people's history.