The Greatest Testimony

When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.  John 19:30

The greatest testimony that has ever been told and will continue to be told is that of the cross, the redemptive work of Christ that reconciled man back to God. Jesus paid the price for my sin and shame. One fact I can't fail but comprehend is the love God has for me. Because of this love, he left his throne above, came to earth in the form of a man like me, the creator of all living creatures was born in a manger with animals for companions, the owner of all wealth and riches grew up in a low income household of a carpenter, and the great king over all the earth was no one important till it was time to fulfill his ministry.

Within three years, He changed peoples perception of what the kingdom of heaven is, was moved with great compassion several times and did works to glorify God the Father. Jesus was "oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth" Isaiah 53:7. Jesus died on the cross of Calvary, paid the price and in the process:

 The veil was torn and the door to constant access to the throne of God was opened. Yes, the door of unlimited communion with God was opened, we can "approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" Hebrews 4:16. The fellowship between God and man that was broken in the garden has been restored. The way to the Tree of Life is now open, which is the eternal life we have in Christ Jesus. We not only have abundant life but also every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms John 10:10, Ephesians 1:3. Furthermore, we have been given power to tread upon snakes and scorpions, power to decree a thing and it is established, authority to bind or loose on earth and as we do so, it is reciprocated in heaven, authority to say to mountains be removed into the Sea, power to be effective ministers for God in the strength and might of the Holy Spirit. God's divine power has given us everything that pertains to life and godliness 2 Peter 1:3. 

With such great blessings, what should our response be? As Jesus opened the way for us to reconnect back to God, He wants us to also open the door of our own hearts for him to enter in. This is the invitation we have been given;

             Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,

             I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. Revelation 3:20

This invitation was made over two thousand years ago and it is still open today. The question is "will you open the door?"

 

 

 

Would you be free from the burden of sin?
There’s power in the blood, power in the blood;
Would you o’er evil a victory win?
There’s wonderful power in the blood.

Refrain

There is power, power, wonder working power
In the blood of the Lamb;
There is power, power, wonder working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb.

Would you be free from your passion and pride?
There’s power in the blood, power in the blood;
Come for a cleansing to Calvary’s tide;
There’s wonderful power in the blood.

Refrain

Would you be whiter, much whiter than snow?
There’s power in the blood, power in the blood;
Sin stains are lost in its life giving flow.
There’s wonderful power in the blood.

Refrain

Would you do service for Jesus your King?
There’s power in the blood, power in the blood;
Would you live daily His praises to sing?
There’s wonderful power in the blood.

Refrain

 Words & Music: Lew­is E. Jones, 1899 

If you desire to respond to this invitation, pray as follows:

Thank you Jesus for dying and paying the price for me. I open the door of my heart to you and ask that you come into my heart. I believe that you died to save me from my sins and restore me back again to God. Thank you for coming into my heart In Jesus name. Amen

 

Jesus died and rose again on the third day and sits at the right hand of God. God has given us the Holy Spirit who is our comforter , our Companion and our Teacher who teaches all things. I invite you to take a step further and discover this amazing relationship. I invite you to give your all as Jesus gave his all.


Happy Easter to us all.

Encouragement

 

God has been good to me, meeting me at the point of my needs. Recently, I found myself needing an encouraging word and God sent his word to me several times. These words encouraged me and bolstered my faith and was also able to use the same words to encourage others.

In the past week, I experienced back ache that made me very uncomfortable, felt like there was a heavy load on me and could not even bend my neck without experiencing pain. I started praying for healing and also asked other people to pray for me. Early on Tuesday morning, God brought to my attention a verse  I had never seen before or taken note of. Psalm 41:3 " The LORD sustains them on their sickbed and restores them from their bed of illness". Meditating on the verse encouraged me greatly and I was able to remember a testimony of a healing that happened several years ago.

When I was in Senior Secondary School, I experienced back ache /pain over several months, the pain made doing any chore that involves bending down a nightmare. The pain was right in the middle of my back around the waist line, but because I was in a boarding school, I coped with occasional pain reliever which only gave temporary relief. On a fateful Sunday, we had a guest minister for Sunday service in the school christian fellowship, he was also a father to one of my kids in the school. After the preaching, Reverend Ajolore made an altar call and also asked that those that need a special touch of God to come out to the altar. I decided that I want the special touch of God because of the back ache I was suffering from. When the Reverend came to me, he asked me what I wanted and I told him about the backache. He laid one hand on my head and the other on my back and prayed for me. As he was praying, I began to feel myself turning round and round from my head to my waistline, meanwhile my feet was stationary in one spot. I don't know if my turning around was physical but my eyes were closed and I felt the going around in circles, It was like my waist was being screwed back to the top of the hipbone. That was the end of my backache and I have not experienced such type of back ache again.

On Tuesday afternoon, I went to the my K-LOVE app on my phone as I occasionally listen to music on it, but more often than not pray on some prayer requests. One of the prayer requests was from someone who was suffering from depression and anxiety attacks and whose spouse has just being deployed. Immediately, Psalm 46 came to my mind, I went ahead to read it from beginning to the end and it was an apt chapter for the prayer request and went ahead to share it with the woman. A few minutes later, I got a response that gladdened my heart, She said " Thank you so much! That literally put me in awe!". Why am I mentioning this? It's because God is opening my eyes to the fact that we are to keep encouraging each other, be it with Psalms, a song, a word of wisdom, knowledge or with prayers. God has equipped us with so many gifts not only for our use but for the edification of the body of Christ. 

Sharing our testimonies is one way we can encourage others, the testimonies tell others about who God is and opens the door for the inquisitive to say ' I want to know more about this God'. This week, I have been in sore need of encouragement on this blog because no one is testifying about what God is doing in their life or has done in times past. I know for fact that testimonies abound because God is good and his mercy endures forevermore. But God has encouraged me to forge ahead, if there is a testimony, I will publish it, if none, you may find just a song testifying to God's glory on this page. In the light of this, I decided to share a dream with you.

September 2015

The vision for this blog came originally in June but I shoved it to the back of my mind, but during service sometimes in early September, the instruction to have a place where testimonies will be shared came again. As I slept overnight that day, I had a dream which pressed that instruction home.

In the dream, I found myself telling three people that God told me to start a website where testimonies will be shared, after telling these people, I found myself on a field, it was initially small and was being plowed. As I kept on looking, some of those I had mentioned the website to joined me and the field became bigger , till it stretched far beyond what my eyes could see. The field was already plowed and prepared for planting, the soil looked dark and rich like a loamy soil. I expressed surprise that how did the field become so big in a short while and that who prepared the field for planting? As I was looking around, started seeing quite a number of people working on the field and planting. And I woke up. 

A crucial detail that I had forgotten came to remembrance when I was fretting on this blog and that is, there were other people with me on that field and quite a lot of people started working on the plowed field. Based on this, am throwing the blog open to as many as God as called to work in His vineyard. Are you a writer who can write better than me? Come on board! Do you have an amazing testimony of one thing you know has God written all over it? Share it! Are you an intercessor who can stand in the gap and believe God for breakthroughs? Then pray! Do you consider yourself a Barnabas? Then start encouraging others around you. We must unify together so that the aroma of Christ can permeate this present world and people can be prepared for the second coming of Christ. I encourage you to join hands with me to declare the glory of God.

1 Thessalonians 5:11" Therefore encourage (admonish, exhort) one another and edify (strengthen and build up) one another, just as you are doing."

 

 In light of the above, if you want to respond in one way or another, send me an email either via the contact form on this blog or directly to itestifytoyou@gmail.com. I covet your prayers so please pray for me. Thank you.

Background of picture 2 and 3 from Pixabey.com

 

God made it possible.

My Name is Mrs Fatoye and I’m blessed with two kids and a boy as our firstborn. On a fateful day, when the boy was still our only child, my husband, who is the first born of his family traveled in order to attend to a family obligation. On this day, I got home from work very tired and exhausted, I met the nanny with my Son  in the sitting room both looking quite disturbed, my Son  though a toddler of two years was very intelligent and could express  himself quite well  at that  age, ran to me and started crying, “Mummy, something is in my nose”. I was so scared and confused because I was alone with them and my husband was not around. Not knowing what to do, I attempted to check the nostrils but he won’t allow me. He was so uncomfortable, breathing out with his mouth, and mucus was dripping out of one of the nostrils. I took him close to the light to check what was there, shockingly; I saw a big bead inside the nostrils. Apparently, he inserted the beads into one of his nostrils while playing, and trying to remove it on his own made the bead to really move down the nose canal.

Immediately, I took him to a nearby Private Clinic for medical assistance, when the doctor examined the nostrils and the position of the bead, he told me, 'I can’t handle it', that the position of the bead is delicate and any mistake can force it down close to the brain. He advised me to take my Son to a Specialist to handle it.  From there, we tried 2 other hospitals but were also rejected. The last doctor referred us to the General Hospital in our locality.

When we got there, every effort to remove the bead was not successful at all and it  kept going deeper and deeper just like the first Doctor mentioned. At the end of the day, we were referred to a Specialist hospital in the heart of the City and was told there is a Pediatric Surgeon that is good at handling such cases. We left immediately to see the specialist because the Hospital was about 45min drive to the Satellite town where we live and it was already 9pm in the night.  

We got to the Specialist Hospital around 10pm, and met the Surgeon already rounding off for the day. After appealing to him to attend to us and the examination of my son, he concluded that the only way out is surgery. But considering the time, he won’t be able to do anything until morning. So he booked us for surgery and scheduled it for 8am the next day and we left the Hospital and went back home.

Getting home, I was alone in the room with him, helpless, watching him struggle to breath.

  In the dead of the night, I remembered the different testimonies I had heard about the efficacy of praising God in difficult times. So I decided to stand before God as He created me to engage in Praise. With tears in my eyes, I praised God like my life depended on it. I forgot about everything happening and I praised God from the depth of my heart till morning telling God,' You have done the miracle'.

Early in the morning, I stood up to go to the ATM in order to withdraw money that will be needed for the surgery, but was scared to leave my Son on the bed, so that he won’t use his hand to push down the bead further, so I decided to go along with him to the location of the ATM, though he was still sleeping. As we were about to leave the room, he woke up and asked for food ,in particular, Cereal.  

 After feeding him, he sat by the bed side and I saw a strange strength descend on him, as if something came over him, with so much strength, he shook his head with a very heavy strange breath, Behold the bead came out, he picked it from the floor and he said “Mummy Take, throw it away”  I TOOK IT AND STARTED PRAISING God , shouting and rolling on the floor. It’s not as if he sneezed, he pushed it out with his breath. This could only be God. Something that was scheduled to be removed by surgery, God used the same two years old boy to bring it out to show us that He is God, He took charge and took over the situation. He saved us from the stress, the pain and the expenses. He showed up for a helpless Mother like me. I give him praise and I will always remain grateful. 

Ever since then, I don’t joke with Praising My God in difficult times and I have always had testimonies. You can never go wrong with PRAISE.

Praise the LORD! Praise, O servants of the LORD, Praise the name of the LORD. Blessed be the name of the LORD From this time forth and forever.

Praise the LORD! Praise the name of the LORD; Praise Him, O servants of the LORD, You who stand in the house of the LORD, In the courts of the house of our God!

Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens; Praise Him in the heights! Praise Him, all His angels; Praise Him, all His hosts!

Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!

Praise the LORD. Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise in the assembly of his faithful people.

Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul! I will praise the LORD while I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. 

The dead do not praise the LORD, Nor do any who go down into silence; But as for us, we will bless the LORD From this time forth and forever. Praise the LORD!

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

 

(From various Psalms) 

Background for image 2 and 3 from Pixabey.com

God of Wonders

 

God the creator, who created the heavens and earth. The earth was a formless wasteland filled with deep darkness and God, the great designer spoke into being everything that exists on earth today.

The master porter formed man out of the dust of the ground and used a single rib to create the woman. A breath from His nostrils gave us life. What a wonderful God!

A generation later, He caused a great flood to wipe out all humanity and every living creature, gave us a beautiful symbol of His love and promise never to destroy the world with water again, the Rainbow, an awe inspiring sight anytime seen in the sky. And with the two by two replenished and repopulated the earth.

God made a rubbish of medical science when a man well past his prime and a womb long dead came alive and brought forth a child of promise, Isaac. He required a sacrifice from Abraham, yet made a magical presentation of a lamb for the sacrifice.  He called Abraham friend, oh what a relationship!

Joseph the dreamer of dreams went from favorite son to slave, from  favored servant  to prison, from favored prisoner to interpreter of dreams and then Prime minister. All in order to save and preserve God's people, the seeds of Abraham.

The land of Egypt never remained the same, when God decided to liberate His people by many signs and wonders. A bush that burned yet not consumed, a shepherds staff became the finger of God and a mighty blast of his nostrils created dry land in the middle of the red sea. For forty years manna came down from heaven and fed his people.

Out of twelve rods, Aaron's rod was the only one that sprouted, brought forth buds, yielded blossoms and almonds in one night!

At a triumphant shout, a mysterious demolition brought down the wall of Jericho and God honoring Joshua's spoken word, made the Sun to stand still upon Gibson and the Moon in the valley of Avalon for 24 hours. A single man was endowed with such great strength that he singlehandedly became God's battle axe against the Philistines.



By the majesty of His greatness, He transformed a young shepherd boy into a warrior and then a King after God's own heart. A sling and a stone became mighty instruments that brought down a giant measuring 10feet tall. Have you ever wondered how and where the Ravens  got the bread and meat they fed Elisha morning and night for several months. What a special delivery from birds that naturally fear man. A small handful of flour and a little oil was multiplied several times to feed three people for close to three years during a big famine. Oh what a wonder and miracle!

 

To prove He alone is God and there is no other, fire fell from the sky and consumed not only the bullock, but also the wood, stones, dust and licked up the water surrounding the altar. He is an all consuming fire, nothing can stand in His way.  At His instruction, ditches in a valley was filled with water without wind, nor rain. Three kings and their army with animals drank after seven days of thirst, yet the same water was like blood to the moabites. What an amazing God who can use the ordinary to do extraordinary things!

God allowed Job to be tested and to lose all, but yet Job was blessed again with double for his lose and a quiver full of children, among which were three beautiful young woman who were apportioned an inheritance in their fathers house. Can you imagine being burned by fire, and yet not be burned? Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had the privilege of walking in the fire with someone who looks like a Son of Man. Their bounds were loosed, hair was not singed, clothes did not smell of smoke, and led to their promotion. Lions had to go hungry for a night because an angel shut up their mouths so that they could not eat Daniel, but these same lions unleashed their hunger on Daniel's accusers.

Oh that my eyes be opened to see and understand visions and revelations like Daniel, God singled him out to expose future events and happenings to him,  he was able to stand in the gap for God's people, he went seventy days fasting and praying for deliverance. May I be endowed with such grace to persevere in prayers and esteem the things of God greater than material things!

God moved the heart of a king to favor Nehemiah. Cyrus became an instrument in God's hand in order that the walls of Jerusalem can be built again, all that was taken away from the temple was restored. The antics of God's enemies to stop the rebuilding was stopped. Mordecai was remembered at the right time for a good deed so that his enemy was humbled before him and the gallows meant for him was used for the same person who built it.  What a great deliverer God is!.

What a great wonder the path to our redemption was! The Holy Spirit came upon Mary and she conceived Jesus who is our Savior. God came down and lived among us in the flesh, within a period of three years, many hearts were turned and reconciled to God. Jesus ministry was evidenced by many signs and wonders, the dead were raised to life, long term illnesses disappeared, winds and storms went silent at His rebuke. An invisible scissors cut the veil in the temple into two at His death and the stone was rolled away at His resurrection and He is alive forevermore. What a wondrous sight to the disciples as He was caught up to Heaven.

God of wonders still does wonders today if only we can but open our eyes to see and understand, from the invisible angels that protect us 24/7 to numerous answers to prayers. God is great and His greatness is unsearchable. Praise him continually and tell of his many wonders in your life. Glory Halleluyah!

Language interpretation for Sonnie Badu's 'Wonder God'

The lyrics are a combination of English language, Pidgin English and the Yoruba Language in Nigeria, West Africa.

Weytin - What

Eledumare - Supreme Creator

Kabiyeosi - unquestionable God

Baba - Father

Na wa o/ Nawa yah o - An exclamation to show surprise, joy, happiness or otherwise

Iyanu ni oruko re- Your name is wonderful

Talodabire - No one compares to you

Osubare re re o - You are worthy to be praised

Thank you for sharing in my brief journey to extol the virtues of our God. Please share to as many as you can. Be an encourager!

Things to note:

If led to share a testimony, send me a brief email and I can call you to get it written down if you don't have the time to type it out. You can also make an audio recording if you want, I will transcribe it out. Thank you for being my co- laborers.