Video Transcript: How Your Testimony Spreads Christianity

I'm Henry Reyenga, and welcome back to this multiply Christian leaders course,  in this section, I want to invite you to write your testimony, your journey of how  the Lord saved you and called you into ministry. One of the most profound  stories of leadership transformation came in the life of Nicodemus. So here's  Nicodemus. He's a ruler, one of the rulers of the Jewish ruling council, and he  sees that Jesus is performing wonders and signs, and at night, Nicodemus  comes and says, Who are you? What's this all about? Everyone knows that you  must be a prophet sent from God, because no one could perform the signs that  you do, unless he was of God. And Jesus says, You must be born again. And  Nicodemus says, how, how can I be born again? You can't be going back into  your mother's womb and be born again. And Jesus says, well, to enter into the  kingdom of heaven, you must be born with water that is through human birth,  but also born of the Spirit, a spiritual rebirth. And the Nicodemus, you know?  How can this be? How can this be? Questions. And then Jesus says, the wind  blows, where it blows, no one sees it. They not. They're not sure where it's come from. So it is someone born of the Spirit. You understand that. You understand  God blew into your life and gave you an introduction to Heaven, to another  reality, a spiritual reality, and this spiritual reality is a relationship with the God of  the Bible, Father Son and Holy Spirit. This relationship, John, 3:16, a few verses later, God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that ever whoever  believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life. It is a spiritual  relationship where the wind of the Holy Spirit blew in your life. Now, throughout  the history of the church in ministry, we're always looking for those windy places. Where are those windy places where I can't predict that the Holy Spirit is going  to show up, but I know there are windy places. Well, I know the Bible is a windy  place. If somebody dares read the Word of God, I can't guarantee that the Holy  Spirit will change a heart, but I know the Holy Spirit changes hearts through the  word of God. In fact, through the word of God that is a double edged sword. I  know that the Word of God's mission will be accomplished. But what is a  relationship with God? Well, in many ways, a relationship with God is like any  human relationship, and we all have testimonies about our human relationships,  but let's talk about some of the characteristics of a human relationship and then  apply them to christiandom and then apply them to writing a testimony and  sharing that testimony. So first of all, a human relationship is talking, listening  repeatedly. Talking to God is prayer, listening to God is his word repeatedly is a  habit. A human relationship, when we meet anyone has those types of  characteristics. When I met my wife, I had to go through the habit the ritual of  dating. We were talking, we were listening. Out of that interaction, a relationship  was formed, and at some point we made a commitment, we said our vows, and  we were married. Any human relation has habits to it. It has knowledge. I had to  get to know my wife. It had experience that. Feeling of being in love, that  connection. And lastly, there was a commitment, a saying, a vow, till death do us

part. So a relationship with God has those same characteristics, but we often do not think about it, but Christiandom seems in various approaches to Christianity,  those distinctive, distinctive approaches are considered very windy places like  John 3 talks about like the Spirit blows. You don't hear it sound, but we do notice that there are windy places where when the Word of God is preached, where  prayers occur, relationships are established with God. Now, what do I mean by  that? Well, there's a reading that I have that you can look at next. I'll just shoot  over to a minute in a minute, and we see there's basically the four winds of faith. There's the wind of habit or ritual, the wind of knowledge, the wind of  commitment and the wind of experience. And at those four places, it can be very windy, but I want to apply that to Christendom. So if you look at christiandom,  you see churches, ancient churches that are that habit or ritual places. They  weren't always like that, but that's how they are. Now, you go to a weekly mass,  there's a liturgy. It's just a habit. Ancient church leaders believe, hey, maybe  you're not going to know everything. But when you're there in the service, and  there is the breaking of bread, there is the mass. That is the foundational piece  of relationship. Your sins are forgiven through the cross of Jesus Christ and His  victory. Now we can talk about our theological disagreements. Community  means this. Lord's supper means this. The Catholic Church isn't scriptural. This  way, somebody may say, the Catholics can argue, no, this is the rich tradition of  Christianity. But in the end, they believe that going every week to church,  whether you understand it all or not, is a habit of relationship that eventually the  knowledge will be enough. The experience will be enough. Maybe it's the  pageantry. Maybe it's coming to mass at Christmas, and the commitment there  will be that confirmation of commitment, that will be a relationship with the Lord.  And you will know the Lord you are a Christian. And what we notice at Christian  leaders Institute, many of your testimonies say that is how you were grounded  and founded and called into ministry. And we have at Christian leaders Institute  many of those who come from that ancient place where the wind blew, the way it blew, and it hit a heart and it pointed to Jesus Christ. So that's one way, and  maybe that's your way. But then there are other aspects, or windy places of  relationship that traditions or approaches of Christianity developed. Mine  happens to be knowledge. I was born and raised at a Christian going to a  Christian Reformed Church in Delavan, Wisconsin. We went every week, twice  every Sunday in our home, we read the Bible every day. By the time that I was  15, 16 years old, I knew the Bible pretty well in and out. I knew this. It was  knowledge. I knew a lot about God, but that didn't necessarily mean that I was a  Christian. I knew a lot about a relationship, but that doesn't mean that I was  walking with the Lord, talking, listening every day, redeemed personally through  the blood of Jesus. Now, what I did in our tradition, you have a profession of  faith, that's the time when you say this knowledge is making sense, and I  commit myself to serve the Lord. So Christian leaders Institute comes out of that

tradition from myself as the founder, Dr Feddes. So here we are strong on the  knowledge piece of a relationship with God and of a Christian leader. Now that's  another approach. Another approach from that is the approach of commitment.  And there are many churches who have have had altar calls, you know, here's  the knowledge, here's the gospel, and it's time for you to surrender your life to  Jesus Christ. Now in the ritual traditions, or the knowledge traditions, yeah, we  talk about that, but we don't emphasize it, like that windy place, like, let's say the Baptist would do. But there's even another approach, and that's called the  experiential side of relationship. When I started dating my wife, so we did our  ritual of dating. We got to know each other into the knowledge we're getting to  know a lot about each other. At some point, experience set in, where we really  felt, this is the love of my life, and then commitment, where we said our vows to  each other, said our vows before our congregation. But if you look at those first  three, the habits that doesn't necessarily make someone want to make a  commitment, or you look at knowledge, yes, knowledge is very good, but for you to get to the altar, you've got to have that fourth piece experience. You've got to  experience the love, the presence. In the world of Christianity, it's the same way  at some point the Holy Spirit does blow where you have an encounter, where  the Holy Spirit changes your spirit where you're surrendering, where you're  putting together all the knowledge makes sense. So traditions have gone down  that flavor. Now here at Christian leaders Institute, we believe there isn't one  right one, and we don't have an environment where we criticize different aspects or different approaches from Christianity or different aspects then of relationship. Instead, we say, You know what? God shows up, where he shows up, and what  we've noticed in now 1000s, 10s of 1000s of relationships where God calls  people to study ministry, to study Christianity. No one story is exactly the same.  Some people, it's a little breeze in a ritual church that changes their life, but the  Holy Spirit did it. Other people, it is a powerful encounter in a Pentecostal  church that changed all of their life. In others, it's that time of making a  commitment in others, it's that knowledge that just kicks in. So now your  testimony, as you consider how to develop your testimony, feel free to reflect  upon how the windy path blew in your life and how God used, you know, here's  an example like we see this so often, somebody was born and raised in a  Catholic church, and they went their entire childhood, but, you know, it never  kicked in. And then all of a sudden they they had an encounter, and they went to a Pentecostal church, for instance, and all of a sudden, it's like the experience  set in. But the fact is that even that upbringing where they just heard and heard  about Jesus through the liturgy, and they experienced what the mass was all  about. They were being cultivated for that time when the Holy Spirit would  change everything. One thing I noticed many Catholics are amazing. Christian  leaders, Institute students, if you have a Catholic background or orthodox  background, you get about the habit of studying. You're about the habit of 

growing, and that habit is now being used by the Holy Spirit as part of your  testimony. I've also noticed many who come from an experiential side begin to  appreciate the knowledge and appreciate the habits of other christiandom as  they grow into a balanced Christian leader, so as you are developing your  testimony after you read about the different quadrants and then read the  literature a testimony. So important, and as you articulate how God worked in  your life, this becomes a tool to share the gospel with others. And you can feel  confident when you meet someone that comes from a different approach. You  don't have to try to change them and make them feel bad about their approach,  but you recognize it. It's a windy place in Christendom, and your goal is Jesus  Christ, to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and get confident and confident  incredible as a Christian leader, so that your testament can be a testament of  witness Acts 1, you will be my witnesses in your communities, throughout the  whole world, God has placed a calling in your life, and that calling is a story, too,  and that story is shared, and that's a lifelong story that goes into all of eternity.  So you can multiply Christian leaders by being self aware of how the Holy Spirit  blew into your life, and self aware how you can share your story that the wind of  the Holy Spirit, through the word of God, through the power of God, the  transforming act of the Gospel goes forward through you, through your story,  through your preaching, through your ministry, through your actions, that more  and more people might be reached as Christians and as Christian leaders