On a trip to New York City, I lost my wallet and spent several hours on the phone canceling every credit card and membership I had. The goal was to erase my identity before someone else misused it.
But this was four months after 9/11, and the new faceless me needed a copy of my birth certificate to board a plane for home.
While identity theft is a serious concern today both financially and legally, there are two facts of our identity that cannot be taken from us – our physical birth into this world, and our spiritual rebirth into the kingdom of God. And with regard to the latter, we are called upon by God to share our identity with enthusiastic abandon, giving testimony to God’s identity within us.
In giving testimony, we follow a long lineage of those who have come before us. John the Baptist pronounced the coming of Christ. “He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light” (John 1:8).
Christ, who was this “light,” came to testify to the love and sovereignty of God the Father and ultimately to secure our salvation. And the disciples and apostles who followed gave testimony to Jesus as Lord.
“In our faith we follow in someone’s steps,” says Max Lucado. “A parent, a teacher, a hero – none of us are the first to walk the trail. All of us have someone we follow. In our faith, we leave footprints to guide others. A child, a friend, a recent convert. None should be left to walk the trail alone.”
Just as Paul and others were empowered to testify, so are we. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
As a witness to others, we recall not only the events of our own conversion experience but what our faith means to us today.
Pastor and author Rick Warren suggests our testimony be presented in four stages – what our life was like before meeting Jesus; how we realized we needed Jesus; how we committed our life to Jesus; and the difference Jesus has made in our life.
However, we don’t need to walk around with a script in our pocket; these important details of our life should be written on our hearts. Still, we do need to be ready. “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15).
God has prepared each of us for this task in a special way, based on our personal conversion experience and our unique personalities and gifts.
Paul was a prolific writer and no doubt a persuasive speaker, and while he claimed shortcomings, God used him mightily. “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God” (1 Corinthians 2:1).
Even if we don’t utter a single word about our faith, we live in a state of constant testimony. Every day in our actions, attitudes, choice of words and conversations, we testify to the presence – or absence – of Christ in our lives.
Opportunities to testify directly to others don’t come every day. When they do come, we must trust our words and voice to the Holy Spirit and let God handle the details.
A hundred years ago, Oswald Chambers cautioned against obsessing about success. “We have a commercialized view; we count how many souls have been saved and sanctified, we thank God, and then we think everything is all right,” he said. “Yet our work only begins where God’s grace has laid the foundation. Our work is not to save souls, but to disciple them. Salvation and sanctification are the work of God’s sovereign grace.”
Giving testimony is the greatest gift we can give another person. For the non-Christian, it may help lead to spiritual rebirth. To a longtime Christian, it may provide affirmation during troubling times. For us, giving testimony can be an act of renewal. Like looking at our birth certificate again, we recall those disciples whose labors helped bring us to new life, the time and place we first gulped in the Holy Spirit, and our first steps of faith.
We remember again and rejoice in our true identity as children of God.