The Power of Your Story!

 

There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t reflected on things God has done in my life. Hillsong United wrote a song called “When I think about the Lord.”

I can't help but be reminded how He saved me, raised me, filled me with the Holy Spirit, healed my body, mind, and emotions, how He turned me around and placed my feet on higher ground.

When I think about the Lord has done for me, it makes me want to shout, it makes me want to share it with others. If I don’t share, I help no one. You have a story someone else needs to hear. I know what you are thinking…”my story is pretty ugly or even sensitive.” Can I tell you from my personal experience being willing to go into the secret, uncomfortable places of my life and be transparent in sharing it with others has not only helped others, it has helped me? Sharing your story can be therapeutic for you and life changing for others.

The truth is not how insignificant we feel our story is, God has been with you all along, even in dry seasons writing your story and He wants to see it through to the end.

The reason stories are so powerful is because they have a way of bypassing people’s defenses and winning their hearts. This is what happened in the New Testament when the church was dealing with a difficult theological issue regarding the Gentiles.

The thought was how could the Gentiles possibly be included in the Church of Jesus Christ? Anyone who even hinted at the thought of a Gentile being accepted was meet with great hostility. We see this in [Acts 11:1-3].

Some of the Jewish believers in Jerusalem had problems doctrinally with the fact that Peter ate with uncircumcised Gentiles. To them the Gentiles had no place in the covenant community of God.

 

God knew, that before the believing Jews would ever accept the Gentiles as equals in faith, they would need to have a change of heart on the heated doctrinal issue. So, God made it easier for them to relate by giving it to them in a story.

 

By turning the whole thing into a story, He bypasses the people’s defenses. So, when Peter was confronted by the Jews for eating with uncircumcised men, he simply told his story.

 

So, Peter begins to tell his story. [Acts 11:5] (NKJV) "I was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw a vision, an object descending like a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came to me.

 

From there he went on to tell how the voice from heaven told him not to call unclean anything that God had cleansed. Acts 11:7-9 (NKJV) And I heard a voice saying to me, 'Rise, Peter; kill and eat.' But I said, 'Not so, Lord! For nothing common or unclean has at any time entered my mouth.' But the voice answered me again from heaven, 'What God has cleansed you must not call common.'

Notice what happens after he tells his story. He ends up in Caesarea and while preaching the Holy Spirit fell suddenly on them and they began to speak in tongues and magnify the Lord.

 

Peter did not tell Cornelius’s version of the story, found in [Acts 10] In fact he didn’t even mention Cornelius’s name. He simply told the story as he himself experienced it. He knew if he told Cornelius’s story it would have no impact, but if he told his version it would hold power.

 

There is something about sharing your story that allows others to see and connect. You are no longer telling a story of something you read or heard you are sharing something you experienced and encountered. That is what causes people to sit on the edge of their seats and listen.

Last year, I had folks in our church stand and share their story before I preached. Never once did I heard of anyone judging them because of their past but rather they celebrated the victories with the individuals. I watched as people in the congregation wept as they too could relate to what the individual was saying. I had them share because each of our stories are different, each story has the ability to reach someone new because each of us has different audiences.

I encourage you to use the things that have brought you much pain, heartache, and misery to release someone else from their current season of captivity.