Giving God the Glory: The Power of Speaking Out
Jesus has instructed the church to continue to minister with miracles, signs and wonders today followed by testimony, both as a way to show God’s great love and to bring Him glory.
There is a direct correlation between testimony and the glory of God. In fact, the number-one way God glorifies His name is through the sharing of testimony. Put another way, the most significant way in which God reveals His glory is through what He does—through His mighty acts. The Bible is so replete with His supernatural deeds that it is impossible to read it and miss God’s glory. One of the mightiest demonstrations of God’s glory was the gift of His Son. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). The writer of Hebrews put it thus, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word” (Heb. 1:3).
The life and ministry of Jesus was characterized by supernatural deeds, all of which were intended to bring glory to God. In chapter 5 of the gospel of Mark, Jesus has just driven out a legion of demons from a man who was living among the tombs. Upon being set free, the man begs to go with Jesus, but Jesus has another assignment for him. He doesn’t intend for this particular man to become a disciple but rather an evangelist, telling him to go and share his testimony. Jesus has instructed the church to continue to minister with miracles, signs and wonders today followed by testimony, both as a way to show God’s great love and to bring Him glory.Second Corinthians 4:13 says, “It is written, ‘I believed; therefore I have spoken.’ Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak.” Paul is quoting David here but what I hear him saying is that as believers we need to live with the kind of faith that motivates outspokenness without regard to the consequences. We should be living with the certainty (the faith) that the One who raised Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus (2 Cor. 4:14), and that He will touch us today with miracles, signs and wonders. We should never be embarrassed by our testimonies. I think we are taking away from God’s glory if we do not testify to His mighty deeds. We must be motivated to be a charismatic people out of a desire to glorify God.