The Word of Your Testimony — Sandeep Poonen

The Struggle to Remain Faithful

One of the things that I've noticed in myself and while dealing with trying to walk closer to God and trying to be faithful to God, that it's difficult to stay faithful. It's difficult to stay committed to the journey.

For so long in my Christian life there was such an up and down and there was such a battle and there still is a battle, but I wanted to share with you what I have seen as some of the ways God has been teaching me, the way the saints ahead of me have dealt with the battle and how they have addressed the battle and how we too can overcome like the saints ahead of us overcame while they were on this earth.

God doesn't want us to live an up and down Christian life. God wants us to grow into a life of overcoming and I wanted to share with you what God seems to have been showing me about how I too can overcome.

Overcoming Through the Blood, Testimony, and Perseverance

In Revelation chapter 12 verse 10 it says this, and I heard a loud voice in heaven saying now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ has come for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down who accuses them before our God day and night and they overcame him because of the blood of the lamb and because of the word of their testimony and they did not love their life even to death.

And I saw three things that they had done in there that helped them to overcome. One was the blood of the lamb, one was the word of their testimony and they did not love their life even to the death. Now I saw that, I wanted to just give you an understanding of how I understood this.

I split that up into three components. We've heard about ourselves consisting of our hearts or our spirits, our souls and our bodies. Our soul is what I look at as our mind. And I saw that in these three components, I could see that the way I could overcome Satan was by having an overcoming heart, an overcoming mind and an overcoming body.

And the way I had an overcoming heart was, there's nothing I could do about my heart. My heart was sinful and the only way I could deal with my heart was with the blood of Jesus. Hebrews 9 talks about that, that the blood of Jesus washed my heart clean and cleanses my heart clean.

There's nothing I can do to clean my heart. So I saw that the blood of the lamb helped me to overcome. Whenever my heart has sin in it, it's a very simple solution for me to get my heart to be clean. I just must ask for the blood of Jesus to wash over my heart and it'll purify me of the sins in my heart.

And in the body too, I looked at it as my external actions. I can do things in my external actions that can do that. And God was saying that the people who overcame are people who are willing to do anything, even if it meant sacrificing their own body physically to become martyrs.

But I also saw that the word of that testimony was something that I saw dealing with my mind. And I know word is something that you speak, but I realized that it's in my mind that most of the testimony is really where I have to address it.

And I saw that in terms of accusing against the accuser of the brethren, against the devil, I have to fight primarily for myself, I realized in my mind and out of my mind, I had to speak with my mouth.

So I discovered that there was a battle that was in my mind that I had to constantly be engaged with and constantly be fighting the accuser of the brethren to give him the word of my testimony. And that's what I want to share with you some of the words of testimony that I have seen in which the devil may accuse me, and how I could answer against it.

Recognizing the Many Voices of Accusation

Now who accuses me, I also wanted to share with you who I think accuses me. Of course, the devil does accuse me. But there are many others who accuse me as well. There's the devil, there's my sinful desires that accuse me saying, hey, you should do this and not that.

And then they tell you to do some things that you shouldn't do. It's the attractions of the world that can accuse me by saying this is the way you should live life, telling me to live away separate from God.

My past could accuse me. My preferences, my desires could accuse me. My personality is this way. The voices of accusation could come into my mind and can accuse me and can get me into bondage and can get me into living a life.

It could be the shame of a past sin that memory can come into my mind and accuse me and say you are not fit to be a child of God. I think all of you and all of us have experienced that. It's not something that we hear an audible voice, but the memory of it can accuse me and make me feel not fit.

And then the devil overcomes me or then my past overcomes me. And it could even be unconverted family or friends or even converted family or friends who say some word that's a harsh word that gets us and it gets me down and gets me discouraged.

The end result is I'm not an overcomer. But I feel like what God was saying was the overcomer is the one who overcomes whatever accusational word comes against me in my mind. Of course, it could be a word I hear from somebody else, but it's in my mind that I must battle it so that I can give the word of my testimony based on God's word.

Paul’s Pattern for Answering Accusations

And I wanted to go through a passage in Romans chapter 8 to show you how a saint of God battled these same questions and how he addressed it. And it brought great life to me as I saw how Paul as he was writing Romans 8 takes different accusations that the mind or even other people can give against you.

And if you're like me, you'll notice that a lot of these accusations have entered into our minds and some of these accusations may have rested in our minds for quite a while. Let's read Romans chapter 8 verse 28 through 39.

And then I'll go through that Romans chapter 8 verse 28 through 39. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.

For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son so that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. And whom he predestined, these he also called. And whom he called, these he also justified.

And whom he justified, these he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things?

Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ is he who died, yes rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? Just as it is written, for thy sake we are being put to death all day long.

We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered. But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor heights, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Accusation One: “God Is Mad at You”

I wanted to bring certain accusations that come against us and how Paul addresses it. Accusation number one, God is mad at you. I can't tell you the number of times I have stayed away from God's presence in the past because I have felt God is mad at me.

What am I going to do when I have this accusation come into my mind? God is mad at me right now. I must use scripture. Scripture is always the way to answer it but I see the answer whenever the accusational thought, the accusing thought comes into my mind that God is mad at me.

I want this to sink in for all of us. Whenever we hear, whenever we think God is mad at me, Romans 8 verse 31 must come to our minds. The almighty God is for me. This is the word of my testimony that when the accuser comes to tell me God is against you, God is mad at you, I have to say God is for me.

And the proof that God is for me is that he even gave up and delivered and did not spare his own son. This is the proof that I can give the devil and to my thoughts and to my past that God is for me. I must never entertain the accusing thought into my mind that God is mad at me.

Never. I must always retaliate with the word of God saying God is for me. It is written God is for me. He who did not spare his own son but delivered him over for us all will he not again also with him freely give us all things.

I must hit that accusation with a word of my testimony. God is for me. If it comes to me a thousand times a day I must hit that accusing word a thousand times away a day God is for me. Now this is a battle in my mind as I said.

This is constant and if we've tried to live this Christian life even for a year we know how constant and incessant this battle is. We're always getting these thoughts. Somebody said something, I did something wrong so God must be mad at me.

And we let that thought sit for days and weeks. And we sit discouraged in the meetings and we sit through life discouraged because we think God's mad at me. Let me fix my life. I must not get out of that.

Accusation Two: “God Will Punish You for Your Past Sins”

I must say God is for me. I must wage that battle in my mind picking up the sword of the spirit. Second accusation. God wants to punish you for your past sins. God wants to punish you for your past sins even maybe one minute ago.

So I have just sinned one minute ago. And now there's this thought that comes into me God's going to punish you. God's going to punish me for what I've just done. How must I as a Christian respond? Am I going to let that accusation sit?

I said oh yeah I'm going to be afraid. I'm going to be afraid God's going to punish me. Here's the response from Paul. God is the one who justifies. God's not trying to punish me. God's justifying me.

And the people he justifies and there is a condition on it. God looks as if I've never sinned When I embrace God's call to be conformed to the image of his son. When I have sinned one minute ago. All I've got to do is get myself back on the thing.

God you want me to be just like your son. So I'm going to get back up into this journey. I know I've fallen but I'm going to get back to becoming conformed to the image of your son. God says I justify you then.

Where do I get that from? Romans 8 verse 29. Romans 8 verse 29 tells me what my calling is. Those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he predestined. And he said I want the destination for such people to become conformed to the image of his son.

That's Romans 8 verse 29. But then it says in verse 30. For whoever he said hey you should become like my son. He called such people. And these whom he called he also justified. So if I receive the call from God.

God saying you I want you to become like my son Jesus. God says I also justify you. I'm looking at you just as if you've never sinned. So for me this has become my great access to justification as if I've never sinned.

Every time I sin if I get back onto the pathway of saying God I just sinned. But I'm getting back onto the pathway of trying to become conformed to the image of your son through your Holy Spirit. God says I justify you.

I'm calling you to this purpose. You're responding to that call. I justify you. And if you keep going on this pathway I'll one day glorify you. That's what it says in verse 30. I must have great confidence that God is not trying to punish me even for a sin I did one minute ago.

When I choose to get onto the pathway of becoming conformed to the image of his son. God is not accepting charges. I'm not trying to punish you. That's what it says in verse 33. Who will bring a charge against God's elect?

Definitely not God. God's not going to entertain charges or convictions. Because he's not in the business of charging people with crimes. He's in the business of justifying us of our crimes. Just as if we've never sinned.

Not just forgiving us. Justifying us. All he's asking you to do. Will you get onto the pathway of saying God I want to become like your son. That's all. Get back onto the pathway. Even if it was a minute that you sinned.

He's not trying to punish us. He's trying to justify us. I hope this is getting through to you. Because I know these accusations are coming at you. It comes at me all the time. And God was showing me through the words of Paul.

How Paul was dealing with it. How Paul was dealing with these accusations. He says I don't want to stand for any of these accusations. Who will bring a charge against the God's elect. That's an accusation.

Accusation Three: “Jesus Looks Down on You”

I know it's not true. God is the one who's justifying. We must believe in this God. That God is not trying to punish us. Accusation number three. Jesus looks down on you because of your actions. And when I mean actions.

I'm talking about the sins that you're committed or are committing right now. And you look at it and you say Jesus you're looking down on me. You don't want to be anything to do with me. You're condemning me.

You're saying man I don't think you're good enough. You're second class compared to me. Is that the words of Jesus? And that's verse 34. Who is the one who says you're second class? Who's the one who relegates you to somebody else?

Paul is saying not Jesus. Jesus is the one who died for you. Who's now at the right hand of God. And who's interceding for you. He's your lawyer. He's not against you. He's on your side. He's standing right next to you in the heaven.

He's pleading your case. You've got it all wrong. Is what Paul is telling us. You've got it all wrong. If you think Jesus is the one trying to call you second class. Because of your past or present sins.

God's not calling you second class. Jesus is not looking at you as second class. Jesus is the one who died for you. Jesus is the one now who's up in heaven. And Jesus is the one who's on your side as your lawyer.

Pleading your case against the devil. God does not condemn you. Jesus doesn't condemn you. He's your advocate. It's the lies of the devil. It's the lies of our flesh. It's the lies of the world. It's the lies of the past.

And it's the lies of our preferences or personality or whatever it is. That tells us that Jesus wants to push you away. No. We don't understand the love he had for us. That he died for us. That he's now the most powerful person sitting at the right hand of God.

And he's our lawyer. We must have our eyes open to this beautiful punch. That we must give to the accusation of the devil. We must hit it hard. It's a battle in our minds as I said. This is where the word of our testimony is being won or lost.

This is where we have to be relentless. Especially us young people. We must be relentless in our minds to fight this battle. That no Jesus. By the authority of your word. You are not condemning me. You're on my side.

Accusation Four: “God Doesn't Love You”

Accusation number four. God doesn't love you. Just look at your present circumstances. What is the response? This is my response to it. What will come in the way of my embracing God's love today? Nothing.

This is how I read Paul's verse in Romans 8 35. Paul's asking a rhetorical question. Who is going to separate me from the love of Christ? Tribulation? Is that what it's going to take? To suddenly say no God I'm going to be away from your love.

I talked on Sunday about the love being like a river that's flowing. And all we got to do is just jump into the river. Or get in the way of that river. And it will flow right all over us. And Paul is saying.

What's going to stop you from getting into the love of God? Not you loving God. What's going to stop you from getting into the river of God's love flowing over you? What's going to stop you from getting into the waterfall.

Which is God's loving you. Baptizing you into his love. What's going to stop you from it? Is a little bit of tribulation going to stop you? Is distress going to stop you? Is persecution going to stop you?

Maybe not having enough food a couple of days. Is famine going to stop you? Is nakedness or the threat of a sword going to stop you? Paul says nothing is going to separate me from the love of God. Nothing.

And then he says in verse 38 and 39. I'm convinced that not death. Not life. Not angels. No principalities. No things present. Nothing in the present. Nothing in the future. Nothing is going to be able to separate us.

Nothing is going to come in the way of separating me from the love of God. God's love is flowing towards me. The only person who is going to stop it is going to be me. If I allow some of these circumstances to stop me.

These circumstances don't prove that God doesn't love me. No. Nothing is going to get in the way of me embracing the love of God. Nothing. No co-worker shouting at me. No spouse saying a nasty word to me.

No children having something bad happen to them. Nothing is going to separate me from me being able to get under the waterfall of God's love. From being able to get into the river of God's love and saying God you love me.

Nothing will separate me from being. Nothing is going to stand in the way. I will accept no obstacle as being something that can separate me from getting into the love of God. This is the battle we must fight in our minds.

Accusation Five: “You Will Never Get Victory Over Sin”

Every day. 100 times every day. Nothing is going to separate me from the love of God today. Nothing. Not what anybody says will ever separate me from the love of God. Accusation number 5. You will never get victory over sin.

You will not overcome your sins. This is the response of Paul. Verse 37. In all these things we overwhelmingly conquer. Through this great love. That's coming towards me. By constantly leaning on Jesus and his love.

I will. I will conquer. And I do conquer. If you're not in the I overwhelmingly conquer. Start saying I will overwhelmingly conquer. But through Christ who loved me. It's through his love for me. All I've got to do is get into the river of God's love.

All I've got to do is keep embracing God's love over me. And I will overwhelmingly conquer. And I will go from wanting to overwhelmingly conquer. To saying I will overwhelmingly conquer. To say I do overwhelmingly conquer.

I will not listen to the lie of the accuser. Who says you will not overwhelmingly conquer. Have we listened to that lie in some area in our life? Is there some circumstance or some situation in our life.

Where we say God I cannot overwhelmingly conquer. It's impossible. By your own strength. Definitely it's impossible. That we've probably all tried it and failed miserably. But have you tried the method of staying in the love of God?

Have you tried the method of overcoming sin. By which we say God I'm going to stay in your great love for me. And tried that method to overcome sin. Maybe we haven't. But this is the method that Paul prescribes.

I overwhelmingly conquer through Christ who loves me. Through this great Christ who is loving me all the time. I overwhelmingly conquer. I just need to embrace his love for me. One last accusation. Accusation number six.

Accusation Six: “Your Past and Present Are a Mess”

Your past and your present situations are a big mess. What is our response to that? That either our past is a mess or our present situations are a mess. My job is just not working out. It's a mess. God must not love me.

Not getting married on the time schedule that I thought I would get married. No God doesn't love me. My past. I've done all these messy things in my past. So God must be judging me. God must be out to punish me for all my past.

My past and my present situations are a big mess. What is my response? Romans 8, 28. We know that verse. All things work together for good. All things. We must live and die by these promises of God's word.

We must not allow any of the accusations of the devil to come in. We should not let the accusations of our own fertile imagination come in and say this past is the reason why God's punishing me and has not given me success.

It must be my past this and that. No, God will cause all things to work together for good. Because God, I'm going to love you. You're calling me on this pathway to become conformed to the image of son.

So everything is going to work out for my good. But what is my good? Is it that I'll finally get married? Is that the good? Is it that I'll finally get the great job which makes me the million of dollars?

Is that the good? I saw a definition of good that I really liked in Psalm 73, verse 28. I hope that this will become our good. God will work all things together for good. That means I get the bigger house.

It means I get the bigger pay increase. What is my good? Psalm 73, verse 28. But as for me, me who am I? I'm a worshiper. I'm the one who has come into the sanctuary and seen that I don't want to go into the ways of the wicked.

But as for me, somebody like me who decides to cast in my lot with God, this is going to be my good. Nearness with God. All things will work together for me to get close to God. Every single situation, this miserable job that I have, this second-rate house that I live in with all the kinds of problems it has, God, every situation will work out for my good.

But as for me, my good is nearness to you. So God, I want every situation to be an opportunity for me to draw near to you. There's not going to be a single situation where I don't use that as an opportunity for me to look at how I can use this to draw closer to you.

I want every single situation to be an opportunity where, God, I want to see you a little bit more closely. I want to understand your principle. You don't have to give me what I seem to want or desire in my heart, but I want to be drawing near to you.

Training the Mind for Spiritual Battle

That's the good that's going to work out in my life. No other good I want. As for me, your nearness is my good. These are six accusations, family of God, that I wanted to share with you. These are accusations from Romans 8, 28 through 39, that come through to us in so many different ways.

We can all hear these words, but it's in our mind that we must fight. I fear that a lot of us, young people especially, our spirits are good. We've been taught that we consist of three parts. We consist of the spirit, we consist of our soul, which includes our mind, and we consist of our body.

I think a lot of us have been taught over and over again that our spirits must be in the right place, and our spirits must be poor. That's humility. The blessed are the poor in spirit. A lot of us may be humble.

A lot of us may be trying to be humble. Blessed are the pure in heart. God, I don't want to desire filthy things in my heart. God, I genuinely want you. So our hearts and our spirits are good. Then on the other hand, you've got your body, and you've got your body which is actually trying to do good actions.

We're trying to do the right thing. We're not trying to be bad people. We're trying our best to stay away from sin in our actions, in our outward actions. But it's in the middle area, in the soul. You've got the spirit okay, the body is okay, but in our souls, in the mind, especially in our mind, our mind is completely a wasteland.

We don't pay any attention to our mind. We let thoughts come in whatever it wants, and we think, God, I just want to be humble. I want to be humble. God, just help me. He's saying, let me show you that verse in 1 Peter 1.

He says, buckle up, gird up your minds for action. 1 Peter 1 verse 13. Therefore, read verse 12. 1 Peter 1 verse 12. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you and these things, which now have been announced to you through those who preach the gospel to you, by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.

Things into which angels long to look. You've got this incredible gospel. You've got this incredible message given to you. So what must you do? You must get your mind ready for action. You must get ready in your mind for war.

And 2 Peter 1 verse 5, it says, applying all diligence. It's a great battle that we must do in our minds to fight the accusations of the devil. And what I think I like about Peter is that Peter was one of these most emotional disciples.

Peter was a disciple who didn't seem to think too much about it, but he was right on with God. He really wanted to go all the way with Jesus. I think he genuinely wanted to lay down his life for Jesus.

But somewhere along the way he fell away. He just couldn't follow through on it. And even when he did do some kind of actions, it came out all wrong. He took out his sword and he cut off somebody's ear.

And he thought he was backing Jesus up. Jesus heals the ear and rebukes Peter. Peter couldn't get to do anything right. And when he tried to do something right, he would just fail. It was this up and down life.

And what I've really gotten from the story of Peter is how Peter, this emotionally driven person, this person who was up and down, this person who could never get this life together through the power of the Holy Spirit, even after he was filled with the Holy Spirit, years later he says, you get your mind buckled up.

Faith, Diligence, and the Necessity of Works

Grab a hold of your mind for action. Apply all diligence to your faith. Take your life seriously. Do something in your mind so that you battle this every day. So I say on the one hand, and you've heard me speak about this, that we must depend on God.

Dependence on God is the source of it. Faith is dependence on God. It is impossible to please God without faith. But on top of this dependence of God, I must apply, 2 Peter 1, I must apply diligence. And James tells it to me this way.

Faith, dependence on God, without works, is dead. So yes, we must say, God, I depend on you. God, I depend on you. God, I depend on you. It's the worst thing I could do to try to live independent of God.

Absolutely. But with this dependence on God that we keep crying out to God, God, I need help. Apply works. That's the work in our mind where we with great diligence must fight the accusations of the devil.

And this is where God has spoken to me throughout the scriptures, especially to me as a young person, 2 Timothy 2, where he talks about us being soldiers, us being athletes trying to win a prize. It keeps coming to me in so many different passages in scripture.

I must have that mentality of trying to win the prize. I must have that mentality of suffering hardship, 2 Timothy 2, verse 3, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Have we bought into such a grace or dependence, faith-driven gospel that we have ignored the works that we must do as well?

That we are unwilling to suffer hardships as a good soldier for Jesus Christ being disciplined in our body because we say, no, no, no, no. Salvation is of grace, not of works. So I discard works altogether and kind of sit back and say, God, I'm going to sit on the easy chair depending on you, but I don't have to supply any works.

I don't have to supply any diligence. I don't have to take my life seriously. And I think that that's that's another deception we can go through. Some of us are working too hard trying to work salvation all by itself.

And God says, that's not the way to do it. Salvation comes from faith. But then we have to work out that salvation by applying all diligence. And I know for myself that there was a great need for me and a lot of us who are young people who live in such a comfortable era for us to really suffer hardship.

In our minds, that doesn't mean we have to become ascetics. That doesn't mean we have to give up our money. But that means in our minds, we have to suffer hardship. We must take every thought captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ.

This is a 24 by seven activity. I'll tell you a recent testimony of my own. There was I was. I have tried to be in the habit of talking to God regularly many times a day, just checking in with God, whether I'm at work, it just may take a minute or two.

But I have tried to maintain that habit just to check in with God and say, God, how am I doing? How are we doing? What are you about? What is your business? What is what business are you doing? I know what business I'm doing.

I'm here at work. What's your business? Can I be about your business, too? Is there somebody I should be praying for just in the minute that I have as I'm going to wash my face or wash my hands or as I'm going for lunch?

God, what's on your mind? What's on your kingdom that ought to come on this earth? And I try to have these conversations often with God throughout the day. But there came a period of time just a few weeks ago where it decreased.

I checked in with him in the morning but hours went by. Hours went by before I talked to him again. And it went on for a few days and then I felt something was wrong. And I was thinking about that and meditating on it and God says, why are you taking so long to jump back into the river of God's love?

Every time we talk, don't I tell you that I love you? Every time we talk, don't I tell you that I love you? Why has it been hours since you last talked to me? Why does the whole day go by and you don't want to talk to me?

I'm trying to tell you I love you because you're listening to some accusation that all things don't work together for good so you have to work out your own circumstances your way. You have to plan your own life your way so you just push God to the side and say, God, maybe later.

And God says, you've got the wrong God if you think that. You're starting to believe the lie of the accusation of the devil that says, I have some hard word to give you. You've forgotten. After months and months of constantly hearing me first tell you that I love you, you suddenly have started to pretend as if I've got some hard word for you right away.

No. My first word to you is always that I love you, that I'm for you, that I want to work out everything for your good, that I want to be near you. You've started listening to a different voice. It's not the voice of God.

And I realized how I had started to be deceived because I started to think that God had something difficult for me to say, first of all. And God says, why would you ever not want to hear somebody tell you that he loves you?

Why would you ever not want to pick up the phone when the first thing you're going to hear is, I love you. This is me, is what God was telling me. Wouldn't you always want to pick up that phone? And you get busy at work at times, but hours go by and then the next day it's the same thing and you don't want to check in.