Thank You Lord! If you are so sure that the Almighty God is arising for you today, give God a great shout. Please, let’s go ahead and begin to worship the Lord, worship Him by His name, please lift up your two hands, tell Him that He’s a good God, a great God. You are my rock, You are my defense, You are my buckler, You are my ally, You are my supporter, You are my lifter, You are my rock.
If I were you, I would call Him by His names; You are the Alpha, You are the Omega, You are the beginning, You are the ending, my fortress, my high tower, Lord I worship thee, in Jesus name we have worshiped.
Please lift up your two hands, we are still praying, you will say my Father, my Father, arise and give me new testimonies, fill my mouth with laughter and my tongues with new songs. Shout the name Jesus and pray. In Jesus name we prayed.
As I continue, permit me to tell you that anything you want to do within the next 30 minutes, it must be done in a noisy way; whenever you are saying amen, allow your amen to be noisy. In the name of Jesus, Lord, we worship You, You are the King of kings, You are the Rock of ages, You are the Ancient of days, You are the Lily of the valley, You are our rock, our strength, our ally, our fortress, our buckler, our high tower, accept our worship in Jesus name.
You are our healer, our promoter, Father, accept our worship in the name of Jesus. Lord, we have come before You today and we pray that on our behalf You will arise and fill our mouth with laughter and give us new testimonies and our tongues with new songs. Do something new in our lives, make today a memorable day in our lives. Thank You because You have answered, for we have prayed in Jesus name.
I am glad to be here again and I bring greetings from the national headquarters of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, fondly called Ebute-meta, and I’d like to assure you that after this service the Lord will give you new testimonies, He will fill your mouth with laughter and your tongues with new sounds.
I would like to appreciate my friend and his wife, the pastor of this church; we have known each other before getting to this position, that he always invite me here not because I’m the SATGO Admin, but I believe is because of the power of relationship. And when I look at this church, you’ll discover that every day the church is wearing a new look, you’ll discover that even the capacity has been enlarged.
On behalf of our parents in the Lord, I sincerely appreciate you. When I get home, I will tell him what I have seen again in Lagos 20, and I pray that the Lord will bless you, increase you, bless you, ma, and take you to greater heights. And to all my leaders on the altar, I am still loyal, the Lord bless you.
I have been mandated by the pastor to speak on the topic “The Power of Your Testimony,” and I’d like to take my text from Revelation 12: 11. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death; let’s read Romans 10:17, so then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. I also want us to read 1st Samuel 17: 34 – 36, “And David said unto Saul, thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock.
35And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. 36 Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. Testimonies wield tremendous power.
I want you to know that your testimony is more powerful as you think; it is not just the story of what happened to you, it is a living proof of what the Almighty God has done for you. Whenever we are talking about testimony, I want you to know, my people, that your testimonies are very powerful, it is not just a personal story, it is a living proof of what God has done to you.
There is someone listening to me now, the Lord asked me to tell you, the greatest testimony of your life is coming your way. The kind of testimony that will turn you to a global champion, that will turn you to a global phenomenal, may you receive in the name of Jesus.
So when we are talking about your testimony, I want you to know that your testimony is powerful. In the Bible passage we read, the Bible says they overcame by the blood of Jesus and their testimony, in other word, your testimony is a spiritual weapon, is a tool that can give you further victory. If you have not shared any testimony before, I tell you, before the end of today you will begin to share your testimony.
What is testimony or what are testimonies? I’d like to say a testimony is a personal declaration of what God has done to you. When you stand in the midst of the congregation and you begin to give testimony, you begin to declare, to talk about what God has done for you. That is testimony. It is a personal evidence.
The young man standing before you today, I tell you, I am a bundle of testimony, and even if you are not yet a bundle of testimony, I tell you before I finish this sermon, you are becoming one. So when you declare personally, you give personal evidence of what God has done for you, you are giving testimony. It can be spoken or it can be written down.
Maybe I should give you one testimony; in year 2017, when I became a full-time pastor, I was posted to Benin City, the day they were introducing us in Benin City, I went with two of my children, biological children. When we got home that night, one of them looked at his mom and said, “Mom, I know you very well, I observed you from the beginning till the ending of the service, mom, why, you are not happy? I guess that you don’t really like this church.”
And that is the truth of the matter because I was transferred from Ibadan to Benin City, and the church I left in Ibadan was much bigger than the one in Benin city. Maybe because of some things that my wife saw, she wasn’t really happy and her son took notice of that, but then I began to pray, I said God, You have told me to come and I have come, and in the Redeemed Christian Church of God you don’t even dictate, it is wherever you are sent you will go, but I prayed a prayer that resulted in a testimony, I said God, don’t forget me here in Benin city, very soon remember me, I don’t know how You can remember me but I know You will do it.
Five years later, if anybody told me, mentions 100 Redeemed churches you can be transferred to, either by age, either by qualification, either by anything, there is no way I will mention the national headquarters. But lo and behold, before I left Benin, someone came to me and said I had a dream; I said what was your dream? He said in my dream I queued to get my letter of transfer but rather than seeing my letter of transfer, it was your own letter of transfer that I saw sir, and I asked him what did you see there? He said when you open the letter I saw number one.
That was how God took me from number 13 to become number one. There is someone listening to me, today by the reason of the testimony you will have, your number will change to number one.
So testimony is the personal evidence and account of what God has done for you. Today you are going to witness the power of God in action. I am alive today because God is alive, I don’t know whether I’ve said it here before; my biological father had eight wives and gave birth to 23 children, he contributed his quota to national productivity, I’m sure you will know the kind of acrimony and pandemonium that will exist in such home.
So one day my own biological mother died mysteriously, and maybe two or three days later after my mom’s death, I saw one of the wives of my father who came to me in the dream and said, “Now your mother is dead, it is your turn to follow your mother.” And in that dream, she mixed up a concoction and gave me to eat; I got the concoction maybe because I was still a younger Christian because the dream I’m telling you now happened in the year 1985, that was the year my mother died and I ate the concoction.
Then in the dream as soon as I ate the concoction my intestines began to break but I remembered one name, I held on to my tummy and I kept on shouting Jesus, Jesus, I woke up alive and since then I’m still alive. Tell your neighbor, God is alive, in fact, say it with confidence, He will surprise you today. So when you give personal evidence the way I’m doing now about what God has done for you, I am telling you, you are giving your testimony.
And when you see a philosopher giving testimony about what God is doing, you will know that God is real, if you know anything about philosophy, but I tell you our God is real. Today, the kind of testimony that people will listen to from you and turn you to a global champion, may you receive in the name of Jesus.
Quickly let’s look at some examples of testimonies in the scripture, I’ve given some personal example, look at the example of David; for several days Goliath was threatening the children of Israel, nobody could rise up to fight him, he was threatening them. But when David got to the battle front and he opted to fight Goliath, everybody was discouraging David, even his elder brother said we know that you have come here because of the naughtiness of your heart, and King Saul told David, there is no way you can fight this man.
David gave a testimony that I read to you, he said, “I was given my father’s flock, my father’s sheep, a lion and a bear came out to take a lamb, I rose up, got out the lamb from the lion and the bear, and the lion and the bear arose against me. But by the power of the Lord, I smote them, I defeated them, the way I smote those bear and lion, I will smite this uncircumcised Philistine”. That was a testimony, and because of that testimony, at the end of the day, even though he had no sword, he cut off the head of Goliath. From today, your testimony will begin to speak for you.
Let me give you another testimony; you know our church, Redeemed, is a complex church; when I was a zonal pastor, some of the pastors working under me, they wrote a 16-page petition to the General Overseer concerning me. Actually the enemy wanted to use them to destroy my destiny, maybe they have seen the future, but all those who are planning to destroy your destiny, your testimony will set them ablaze.
The GO passed the petition to the highest court in Redeemed and the highest court in Redeemed then was headed by Pa Abiona, the deputy General Overseer, and when you go before that court, may God have mercy on you, you are gone. So when I appeared before that Baba and if you know Pa Abiona, the elderly ones will know he had a baritone voice, he saw me a gentle boy, then I was in my late 20s and he spoke in Yoruba, he said, “You this boy, you have been embezzling church money right from youthful age, today when I deal with you, heaven will not receive you.”
When that baba said that word to me, my heart began to freeze, I knew the end had come but I said even before I die, let me say a word so that at least that will be my last statement or last testament. I said baba, I didn’t embezzle money, I took over four churches in six months, I have turned those four churches to become 16 churches; he said my son, what did you say? I said from four parishes to 16 parishes, he said sit down, nobody will send you out of Redeemed Christian Church of God. That was how my testimony spoke for me.
The baba began to read the allegation one by one; you said allegation number one, the one who has turned four parishes to 16 parishes in six months cannot do this, I cancel it, he cancelled all of them and today I’m still standing before you. I hereby decree, wherever you go your testimony will speak for you.
Another man who gave testimony in the scripture was Bartimaeus the blind. In Mark 10: 46-52, he couldn’t see but he heard the testimony that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, and because of the testimony he heard, he kept on shouting “Son of David, have mercy on me”, and God had mercy on him. Today the Lord will have mercy on you.
There was another man, the Gadarene demonia, the mad man of Gadarer in Mark 5:18-20. After Jesus healed him, he told Jesus, “Let me follow You and continue to be with You,” Jesus said, “No, go back to Decapish, begin to give testimony about what the Lord has done for you.”
You also remember the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman in John 4. She went to people and said come and see, oh, I have met someone, a Messiah who told me everything about my life. And because of her testimony, a lot of people came to the Lord Jesus. I decree powerful testimony that will shake your working place, that will shake your career, that will turn you to a great phenomenon, may you begin to give in the name of Jesus.
What then is the power of the testimony? Number one, testimony builds your own faith and increases the faith of others. When you are talking about the power of testimony, when you give testimony it gives you confidence. You see, I’m talking now with confidence, I told you I am a bundle of testimony because I know this God can never fail, this God can never disappoint.
One funny fellow in my university where I was lecturing before came to me and said you this man, when you talk about God you talk as if you and God reside in the same room, today we want to test you and know whether you have the power, I said no problem. He said we will show you a tree on the campus, you will pray that within 3 days the tree should be dried up. I said is that all? He said yes sir.
And because of the testimony I’ve been giving my faith rose, I said we are not going to use the tree as a specimen, we are going to use your life as a specimen. I hereby decree that within 3 days on this campus your obituary shall be publicly announced; he prostrated and said pastor, we are only joking. When you give your testimony it increases your faith, it shows you that God can do anything. This God we are serving is a living God, He cannot fail, He cannot disappoint.
Testimony increases your faith, it also increases the faith of others. It was testimony that Bartimaeus heard, he couldn’t see, when he heard the sound of multitude moving on, he said what is happening? Someone said Jesus of Nazareth, he asked again, are you sure? That Jesus that healed a leper, that healed this? He said yes; are you sure he’s not Jesus of Oyingbo, are you sure not Jesus of Calabar? They told him, this One is not the fake Jesus, He’s the original Jesus.
He began to cry, my day has come, because of testimony his faith increased. May I announce to you, your day has come, all those who are planning to truncate your destiny, by the power of your testimony or the one I’ve given, they shall be destroyed.
Number two, testimony makes God real to you. You know there are so many funny people now, I won’t mention name, some people said when God created the world, He withdrew to heaven, He has nothing to do in the affairs of men. In philosophy, we call them ‘Deists’; they are saying, oh, we know that God exists but He’s dead, He has nothing to do in the affairs of men.
But then there are people like daddy GO who believe that God is alive, He has many things to do in the affairs of men. That is why he could give testimony that he was drinking tea and God was drinking tea with him but some people couldn’t understand. I tell you that testimony makes God real to you; when you share your personal testimony, even though people may be doubting God, but you will know that this God actually exists.
Testimony turns abstract belief into a tangible reality, they make God personal and undeniable. Testimonies are very powerful. Go ahead and shout hallelujah!
If I share another testimony, I know you won’t believe me, but it makes me know that God is real. When I was in the university, we will go out, preach the gospel, do everything, exam will be coming, I don’t know but a day before the exam I will dream, I will see someone wearing white and he will show me all the questions the lecturer will ask the following day.
I’m not saying student should not go and read their book, I’m telling you of what He did to me. The first time it happened, I said the dream I had yesterday everything I saw; the next time it happened I didn’t waste my time, I only picked three questions and mastered it. When I got to class, I started writing, the other students when they saw the way I was writing, they were saying HOD, they didn’t know they were prophesying because I later grew to become the head of that department.
So because of that, it doesn’t matter what others may say about God, God is real. I want you to say it louder. I don’t know the problem you are facing, I don’t know your challenges, by the demonstration of the power of God that is going to give you testimony, your song will be ‘God is real’.
You know that man in John 9, the blind man, when Jesus opened his eyes, they (the Pharisees) went to him and said please give God glory, don’t tell anybody, when you come to the public don’t confirm that it was Jesus that healed you. He said you are joking, whether the man was a sinner or not a sinner, he said I don’t know, one thing I know is this, God is real, once I was blind, now I can see.
Testimonies make God to be real to you, very soon you will be telling the whole world come to Lagos 20 and see what the Lord is doing. Go ahead and shout hallelujah!
Number three, it gives you boldness and courage to confront further challenges. When David stood before Goliath, in everything there is no way David could be a match to Goliath; if you are talking of stature, he was taller – 6ft taller than David, if you are talking about weapons of war, he was wearing metallic jacket and the elders of the Yoruba will say how many years are you spending that you are wearing metallic jacket, he had special assistant in charge of weapons, armor bearer.
But because of the testimony of how David defeated the lion and the bear, he looked at him and said you may be tall from the earth to heaven, I will bring you down, I come against you in the name of the living God, you are defying the living God, today I will cut off your head. What gave David that courage was the testimony, if he could kill a lion, a bear, he knew that with God on his side he will confront Goliath, and he confronted Goliath with boldness.
I don’t know the problem you are facing, I don’t know those who have gathered saying that you are not going to achieve anything this year, they will bow before you, the Lord will deliver their head into your hands. The boldness and the courage to confront Goliath came because of the testimony he gave.
One day, one woman wearing aladura dress came in front of my house and she was ringing the bell, ‘pray for Dele, I can see blood’. I came out, I said mama, you have seen right, the blood you saw actually is the blood of Jesus covering me from head to toe. The woman ran away with disgrace, the blood she was talking about meant accident but I came out with courage and boldness, confronted her that the blood you have seen is the blood of Jesus. After all, the Bible says I will overcome by the blood of the lamb, and so it gives you courage.
I don’t know the problems you are facing, whether in your career, whether over your children or in your business, I tell you miracle is on the way.
Number four, it showcases the efficacy of God’s power. You understand that one.
Number five, it opens doors for more miracles and testimonies. When you give one testimony, it will open door for more miracles, for more testimonies. When the Lord Jesus Christ healed 10 lepers, Luke 17: 11-18, how many were they? 10. All the 10 were healed but one of them returned to give the testimony and that one was made whole.
There is a difference between wholeness and just healing, when you are whole, it means that for the rest of your life, there will be no sickness again. So when you give testimony, it opens door for more miracles, it glorifies God.
Testimonies glorify God.
And finally number six, it is a tool for evangelism. That man, the Gadarene demonia, Jesus said return to your people, go and tell them what the Lord has done to you. Originally the man was created to be an evangelist, but God now said go and be giving the testimony of what God has done to you and he began to publish it in Decapolis, and a lot of people became born again.
Do you know that through your testimony people can come closer to God? Do you know that through your testimony those who have been ridiculing God will return to give glory to God?
Let me close with this testimony; in 1983 when I gave my life to Christ, I was living with one of my uncles who drove me out. He drove me away and said Dele, in the name of Jesus Christ you claim to have accepted you will never make it in life, he was cursing me using the name of Jesus, he said in that name of Jesus you claim you have accepted you are going to become slave of slave. But to cut the story short I was driven away from home in 1983, somehow by year 2000 I had risen to become a state pastor in this church.
That was a testimony on his own and my uncle heard and sent for me; he said Dele, I have heard what God has done to you, I said yes, that Jesus whom you used to curse me 17 years ago stepped into my life and He has helped me to make it. You will make it. Listen to me, all those who have written you off will hear your testimony. So my uncle begged me, he apologized, as I was going he said one thing, he said Dele won’t you pray for me? I said pray for what? He said we have heard your testimony, we have heard what the Lord is doing in your life, he said I want my life to be like yours and the life of my children to be like yours.
I looked at him, I said, “Egbon, the Dele standing before you is not the one you sent away, the one standing before you now is a big pastor, if you want me to pray for you, you must go down on your knees.” And my uncle said what am I doing that I will not kneel down? He knelt down with all his children, and because I have little shakara, I deliberately moved closer to him, I slapped with head and said ‘in the name of Jesus’. By your testimony all those who say you will never amount to anything will bow before you.
Rise to your feet. There is power in testimony, so lift up your two hands, just one prayer point, you will say my Father, my Father, the kind of testimonies that will turn me to a global champion, the kind of testimony that will turn me to a national evangelist, the kind of testimony that will make my enemies bow before me, Father release unto me.
Our God is able, He’s real, there is power in your testimony. Say Lord, the kind of testimony that will turn me to a global champion, that will turn me to a great phenomenal in my school, release unto me, in Jesus name we prayed.
Let me add this to it, whatever challenge you have now that you want God to turn to testimony, this is how you will say the prayer, say, God, this is my challenge, turn it to testimony. If it is health challenge, mention it, if it is financial challenge, mention it.
Lift up your two hands, say my Father, my Father, whatever may be my challenge now (and you will mention that challenge), say by Your power, turn it to testimony. Go ahead and pray. Say Father, whatever may be my challenge now, You are the living God, You are able, turn into testimonies, in Jesus name we prayed.
From wherever you are, just stretch forth your two hands towards the altar; in the name of Jesus, the kind of testimonies, the kind of miracles that will make your neighbors open their mouth and they will not be able to close it, receive in the name of Jesus. The kind of testimonies that will turn you to a global champion, that will turn you to a national evangelist, that will make you confront your enemies, receive in the name of Jesus.
I decree in the mighty name of Jesus, all challenges you have brought here today shall turn to testimonies. The Lord will give you new testimonies, fill your mouth with laughter and your tongue with new songs. So shall it be. Bless our pastor, bless our mommy, give them new testimonies, in Jesus name we prayed.
I’m sure you know that hallelujah is a testimony, so you are going to shout one great hallelujah that you allow the next speaker to beg you before you stop. Move to your right, move to your left, miracles are going to happen in your life and the whole world will hear, jump up and shout hallelujah!
