Not The Standard, Still A Testament

Maybe it’s time to confess - Sometimes we forget.

We forget because our encounter with Jesus was so real, so life-changing, so powerful. It was personal. It was intentional. It was intimate. And because of that, we can slowly—often unintentionally—begin to treat our experience as the standard instead of a testament.

But our encounter with Him was never meant to become the measure of His glory.

God meets people in wildly different ways. Different rooms. Different prayers. Different songs. Different seasons. Different levels of understanding and brokenness. The moment He called us to Himself was sacred—but it was not sovereign. His glory is.

Scripture gives us a clear picture of this in John 4, the passage of the woman at the well.

Jesus meets a Samaritan woman—alone, midday, culturally dismissed, relationally broken. No altar call. No worship set. No crowd. No disciples even present. Just Jesus… and a conversation.

He doesn’t begin by correcting her theology.

He doesn’t demand repentance before revealing Himself.

He doesn’t require her to clean up her life first.

Instead, He asks her for water.

He engages her personally, intentionally, intimately. He reveals her truth without shame and offers her living water without conditions. And in that encounter, her life is transformed.

What’s remarkable is what happens next.

She doesn’t receive a checklist.

She doesn’t receive instructions on how to recreate the moment.

She doesn’t become the authority on how Jesus must meet others.

She becomes a witness.

“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.” (John 4:29)

Her encounter was a testament, not a template. And through her testimony, an entire town comes to know Jesus—not because her story became the standard, but because His presence was undeniable.

And yet, how often do we show up in spaces judging, advising, or offering sidebar critiques in the name of Jesus? How often do we assume that because God met us this way, He must meet everyone else the same way?

Our encounter is not the standard.

His sovereignty is greater.

As believers, disciples, evangelists, and teachers, this matters deeply. When we forget this, we stop leaving room for God to be God.

Discernment Without Humility

One of the greatest challenges I’ve faced after receiving revelation from the Lord—without submitting it to humility—is pride.

I remember a conversation where someone said something that lodged itself in my spirit:

“Discernment without humility produces pride.”

That truth exposed something uncomfortable. When humility is absent, discernment can harden our hearts toward our sisters and breed skepticism toward our brothers. We begin to trust our way more than His work. We become convinced that the song we sang, the prayer we prayed, the people we were surrounded by somehow validate or invalidate the authenticity of another person’s encounter with Jesus.

But Jesus is bigger than all those things.

He met Nicodemus at night with questions.

He met the woman at the well at noon with truth.

He met fishermen through obedience.

He met Paul through interruption.

Same Savior. Different encounters.

Grace-Led Living and the Whole Loaf

This is where grace-led living becomes essential.

As we approach, advise, and counsel our brothers and sisters, we must remember that we are testaments of His grace—not the standard of His glory. Our role is not to regulate encounters but to rejoice in redemption. Not to measure fruit prematurely, but to trust the Gardener.

The whole loaf is this: Jesus calls people to Himself.

Not to our method.

Not to our preference.

Not to our timeline or tone.

To Him.

That has to be the most important thing to us as believers, disciples, evangelists, and teachers. If it isn’t, then we’ve traded wonder for control and testimony for pride.

May we hold revelation with humility, walk in discernment soaked in grace, and leave room for the God of glory to move however He chooses.

Because we were never meant to be the standard—

only the testimony.

with love and grace

For more listen to The Whole Loaf Podcast