From Broken to Sent

How testimony becomes commission, and why what He broke off you is the message He is sending you to publish

Theme

Restoration · Testimony · Commission · Witnessing · Decapolis · Fire

Scripture

Mark 5:19-20 · Acts 1:8 · Revelation 12:11 · Psalm 107:2 · Isaiah 60:1 · John

Beloved, hear me. There is a season in many believers' lives where they get delivered but they do not yet get deployed. They have left the tombs. They are sitting, clothed, and in their right mind. They are no longer cutting themselves. The legions are gone. The chains are off. And there they remain. In the safety of the deliverance, not yet in the assignment of the sending. Grateful for the freedom but not yet aware that the freedom was the equipment, not the destination.

Friend, watch how Mark 5 ends, because the part of the story most believers never preach is the last sentence. The man asked to go with Jesus. He wanted to get in the boat. He wanted to stay in the company of the One who had set him free. He wanted to be near the anointing forever. Every part of that desire is understandable, and every part of it was wrong direction. Because Jesus said no. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee.

The deliverance was complete. But the deliverance had a purpose. And the purpose was not for him to stay close to the Healer. The purpose was for him to go and tell in the country that had buried him. Restoration is the setup. Sending is the purpose.

So here is the question I want to lay on you today. Have you been restored without being sent? Has the testimony been frozen inside you, locked in a private gratitude, never published in your Decapolis? Are you in the boat-seat the Lord said you should not be in, staying near the company of the saved when He is telling you to go back to the country of the lost? This chapter is going to walk us through the move from broken to sent. And along the way, you are going to discover something simple and shaking, the very thing Jesus broke off you is the message He is sending you to publish.

Beloved, watch four small words that hold the whole verse open. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not. That phrase is the Lord lovingly blocking an option the man wanted to take. The man wanted with. Jesus said go. The man wanted near. Jesus said back. The man wanted the boat. Jesus said the country.

And friend, hear me, Jesus loved this man. He had crossed a sea for him. He had cast a legion of demons out of him. He had clothed him, seated him, restored his mind. There was no shortage of compassion in the no. The no was because of love, not in spite of it. Jesus loved the country of the Gadarenes too, the ten cities of Decapolis, and the Lord saw that the way to love them was to send this delivered man back to them as the first evangelist.

Go home to thy friends. That phrase already does something to me, beloved. Because friends is a generous word. These were the very people who had tried to chain him. These were the very people who had run from him when he came running. These were the very people whose pigs had just drowned in the sea. They were not exactly going to roll out a welcome mat. But Jesus called them friends. The relationships were not dead. They had been disfigured by the bondage, but they were still relationships. And the same restoration that put the man in his right mind put the friendships back in their right place too.

Tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee. Not how great things you discovered. Not how great things you achieved. Not the philosophy you have now adopted. How great things the Lord hath done. Keep the testimony Lord-centered. The minute the story drifts toward your strategy or your effort, the breaking power leaves the testimony. People do not need your method, friend. They need your Saviour.

And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis. He did not delay. He did not negotiate. He did not write a book first or get a platform first or build a following first. He departed. He began. And the country he was sent to was ten cities, a confederation of Gentile towns nobody in the Jewish disciples' circle would have been allowed to enter. The first preacher of the Gospel to Gentile Decapolis was not Peter. Not Paul. It was a delivered demoniac.

Beloved, look at why the Holy Ghost was given. Ye shall receive power... and ye shall be witnesses. The power and the witnessing are joined by and, but the truth is, the second is the purpose of the first. The power is not for spiritual hobbyism. The power is not for the inflation of the believer's private experience. The power is given for the purpose of witnessing. Connect that to Mark 5 and the picture is one rope of revelation, the delivered man was given a voice so that he could publish, and Pentecost gave the church the very same equipment to publish the very same Saviour to a much wider Decapolis.

Witnesses. The Greek word is martus, from which we get our word martyr. A witness is someone who has seen something and is now telling what they saw. Not someone who has read about it. Not someone who has theorized about it. Someone who saw it happen to them. That is why the Holy Ghost came on the disciples in Acts 2 the way He did, they had seen the resurrection, they had seen the ascension, they had seen what the gospel does to a soul, and the Spirit was given so they could tell what they had seen with power.

You are a witness, beloved. You have seen something. You have seen Jesus do something in your life. You have seen a chain break that no man could bind. You have seen a yoke destroyed by the anointing. You have seen Him cross a sea to reach you. That is your witness material. You do not need to be a theologian. You need to be a witness, tell what you saw.

And notice the geography Jesus gives. Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria, the uttermost part. Jerusalem is where you are. Judaea is the region around you. Samaria is the place you wouldn't have chosen, the people you wouldn't have evangelized voluntarily. The uttermost part is places you have never even imagined. The Spirit will take you to all four. But it starts with Jerusalem, where you are, where the people who know your old story are.

That is exactly what Jesus told Legion. Go home to thy friends. Start in Jerusalem. Start where you were broken. Start with the people who knew the tomb-version of you. Because if they saw you in the tomb, they will believe in the testimony. Strangers may doubt; friends who knew the brokenness cannot doubt the restoration. The witness is most powerful where the witness was most broken.

Beloved, this is one of the great warfare verses in the whole Bible. They overcame him. Who? The brethren (verse 10). And they overcame him by, the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. Two weapons. Joined.

Watch carefully, friend. The blood of the Lamb is the legal basis of the overcoming. The cross is the verdict that has already been written in the heavenly court, Satan, the accuser, has been thrown down because the Lamb's blood paid the price. That is settled. But the verse says and by the word of their testimony. The blood is the legal basis, the testimony is the operational application. The blood made the victory possible. The testimony makes the victory active in specific situations. Hear me, beloved. Your testimony is a weapon. When you open your mouth and say Jesus broke this off me, Jesus delivered me from that, Jesus healed me, Jesus restored my marriage, Jesus saved my child, Jesus snapped the addiction, Jesus broke the generational curse, that is not autobiographical sentiment. That is artillery. The enemy loses ground every time a believer tells what Jesus has done. Why? Because the testimony of one delivered believer plants faith in other not-yet-delivered believers, and faith draws the same anointing that delivered you into their situation. The testimony is contagious.

And see the third weapon hidden at the end of the verse, they loved not their lives unto the death. They did not love their own reputation, their own comfort, their own respectability, their own private peace, more than they loved the sending. Friend, that is the heart of every delivered person who actually publishes. Because publishing your testimony costs something. It costs reputation, you have to tell people what you used to be. It costs comfort, you have to enter rooms where you would rather not enter. It costs respectability, you have to admit you were once worse than they currently think. But you do not love your life more than you love the assignment. You spend the comfort to buy the souls.

Beloved, what Jesus broke off you is the message He is sending you to publish. The very thing you are most tempted to hide is the very thing the Lord is most pleased to use. The addiction He delivered you from is your testimony to the addict. The barrenness He reversed is your testimony to the barren. The marriage He saved is your testimony to the marriage on the edge. The bloodline curse He broke is your testimony to the family still trapped in the same pattern. The breaking and the message are the same material.

Friend, this is the verse the redeemed cannot stay silent under. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. It is not a suggestion. It is an imperative, let them say so. The redemption is to be spoken about. The mouth is part of the redemption. Romans 10:10, with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Hebrews 13:15, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. There is a fruit of the lips that is part of the harvest of redemption.

Hear me, beloved. If you have been redeemed, you have been given a voice. And the voice is not optional. The voice is the evidence. The voice is the publishing. The voice is the Decapolis-fire. Heaven gave you a tongue to make a sound that will land in places your body cannot go.

And notice, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy. The redeemed are specifically those who have been pulled out of the hand of the enemy. Out of bondage. Out of accusation. Out of the legion's grip. That is the company being called to say so. The redeemed are not those who never had a problem. The redeemed are those who had a problem and Jesus dealt with it. So you do not need to be sinless to publish. You need to be redeemed to publish. Say so.

Beloved, before we close, let me hand you one more picture of testimony becoming commission. The Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. She had a history, five husbands, currently with a man not her husband, drawing water at noon to avoid the women who came at dawn. She had been hiding her story. And then Jesus told her all things that ever she did, and offered her living water, and she left her waterpot, the very thing she came for, at the well, and ran into the city.

Look at what she said when she got there. Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? She did not preach a sermon. She did not present a theology. She gave a testimony framed as an invitation. Come, see. That is the heart of evangelism. I am not asking you to believe me. I am asking you to come and see Him for yourself. And the men of the city came. And many believed. And later the verse says they said, now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves (John 4:42). Her testimony brought them to the place where they could hear Him for themselves.

Friend, you do not have to know all the answers to publish. You only have to know who told you the truth about your life. Come, see a man. The Samaritan woman is the New Testament's other picture of Mark 5:19, the delivered one running into the city to publish. And in her case, like Legion's, the city was transformed because one delivered person would not stay quiet.

Friend, let me lay down the operational pattern the Spirit has been pressing on me, because the move from broken to sent has a rhythm.

One, hear the voice of the Son of God. John 5:25, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. Before publishing, there is hearing. Tune your ears. Let your life and your situation hear the sound of Jesus now and arise.

Two, yield your body, soul, and spirit. Romans 12:1, present your bodies a living sacrifice. Yielding precedes anointing. Jesus, I yield my body, soul, and spirit to You. Come into me. That sentence opens the door of you to the operation of the Holy Ghost.

Three, receive the fire of the Holy Ghost. Acts 1:8 again. The power comes when the Spirit comes upon you. Pray with the boldness Pastor's heart prays, Holy Ghost, burn through me and release the fire upon me for freedom. The fire is not just for warmth, beloved. The fire is for fuel. You burn so you can carry heat into the country.

Four, publish what He has done. Mark 5:20. Start at home. Start with the friends. Start in Jerusalem. Start with the people who saw you broken. Tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee. Do not wait for a stage. Do not wait for a calling letter. Do not wait for a platform. Publish.

Beloved, hear me before we pray. You do not need a perfect story. You need a true story. Some of you have been silent because your story has rough edges. You think, if I were further along, I would publish. If I were more impressive, I would publish. If I were healed of more things, I would publish. No, friend. The very rough edges are the parts that authenticate the story. People do not believe perfect stories. People believe broken-and-restored stories. The seam in your testimony is where the credibility lives.

The Mark 5 demoniac did not wait until he had a doctorate in theology. The Samaritan woman did not wait until she had completed counselling for her five marriages. They published what He had done, and the Holy Ghost did the rest. Heaven was not waiting on their resume. Heaven was waiting on their yes.

So whatever uncomfortable thing the Lord broke off you, friend, that is the message. Whatever embarrassing thing He has restored, that is the testimony. Whatever long-standing bondage He has cancelled, that is the publishing material. Stop hiding the seam. The seam is where the gospel shows.

Lord Jesus, thank You for restoring me. Thank You that You did not bring me out of the tombs to leave me in the boat. Thank You for the no of love, the no that says go back, do not come with. I receive the sending.

I refuse to hide what You have done. I will publish it in my Jerusalem, in my Judaea, in my Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth that You give me. Holy Ghost, fill me with power to be a witness. Make my mouth bold. Make my story honest. Make my reach long.

Beloved, this closes the first major arc of the book. In the next chapter, Chapter 6, we are going to circle back to the woman with the issue of blood and learn what it means to refuse to stay in the crowd. In Chapter 7 we will look at the daily walk of those who carry heaven's package for exploits. And then Part 2 opens, the territorial arc of the book, where what the Holy Ghost has built in your private life moves out into your land, your city, your bloodline, your nation.

But do not wait for Part 2 to publish. Heaven is waiting for the verse you already have. Open your mouth this week. Come, see a man. Tell one person what Jesus has done for you. The country is waiting.

What He broke off you is the message He is sending you to publish.