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I’m making this video in response to a few people who have asked me to make my personal
testimony of where Jesus brought me from, to where I am today seeking Jesus full time,
and so this video is going to be simply on directly how Jesus got my attention.
When I was very young my entire life was saturated in church, my parents brought me up in church,
I was never raided in a church that was denominational, we moved from church to church, but I was
saturated in church. My parents did “Worship music”, and all
my life I was in church and in church programs. When I was graduating from high school some
people in my family encouraged me to become a pastor
and I decided I wanted to work with youth. So at that time I prayed and I said; “Lord
I want to serve you” and I became a pastor at a Baptist church,
and for over 7 years I was a pastor at a Baptist church. During this time I attended a
4 year university and I got a degree in Biblical Studies and Literature, and I minored in Christian
Ministries as well. And throughout all this time I was preaching
sermons, I was serving in the church, I was working with youth and with families
and I was a licensed minister. I thought I knew everything there was to know. And it
was about maybe a year and a half ago now, maybe 2 years ago that I started asking myself;
“What if I was in the wrong religion?” And I thought at first; “Well this is a
stupid thing to think because I know the Bible is true, and I know
the Jesus that I follow is true.” But I thought to myself;
“Doesn’t every pastor or doesn’t every teacher of their religion believe that their
religion is truth?” and I thought to myself; “No person teaches what they think is a
lie, people teach what they think because they believe it IS the truth.”
And so what I believe to be the truth, a Buddhist monk is going to think he is in the truth,
the same as a Mormon, a Jehovah’s Witness, or an Atheist. So how
do I know what the truth is? And you know someone who is raised in a certain denominational
background; they believe that their specific denomination
is absolutely true. There all these different denominations and they all use, you know,
this same Bible. And so I though; “How do I know that I have the truth?” I really
started seeking this out and I prayed at one point and I remember I asked Jesus; “What
is the power of prayer? I really want to know what it is because I feel like my prayers
are useless.” You know, I would pray and I would hear nothing. So one day I wrote down,
and I wrote: “Jesus tell me what the power of prayer is?” And I put that up on my wall
on a sheet of paper and I tacked it to my wall, and almost every day I prayed and ask
Him to reveal that to me, and I started asking Him to reveal to me His truth, and if I was
in deception to show me. It wasn’t very much longer after that the Lord started leading
me into truth. And it was a long time before I completely accepted that. There were many
times the Lord would give me a dream, and He would show me something, and I would write
it off and I’d say; “That can’t be Lord, that can’t be.” And at some time point
the Lord spoke to me and He said; “The people in church are not glorifying Me.” And I
struggled with that, I kept that in my mind for about a year, and I didn’t really do
much with it and I just kept on doing what I was doing and I started to feel more and
more convicted. But I kept on praying. And at this point, I had myself surround by my
fellowship, my Christian friends and mentors who encouraged me. And I also started praying
about that, I sad; “Lord if my mentors and all these people I have in my life, if they’re
wrong let me know.” And I’ll tell you something; every single one of the people
that I considered a mentor in my life, every single one of them, the Lord Jesus gave me
a specific dream about them, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM! And a specific dream, and I know
it wasn’t just a dream either because then it happened before my eyes. It was a prophecy
about them and I watched it happen and I KNEW the Holy Spirit was speaking to me. And I
said; “Jesus I want to follow you because all my wise counsel, all my friends were leading
me astray.” One night the Lord spoke to me in, I don’t
know if it was a dream or a vision, but in the night,
I’m not sure even at this point if I was asleep or awake, but I heard in my ears or
in my spirit the word, “WORMWOOD”. And I didn’t know what that meant, and I
woke up, I went to my computer and I googled that and
I researched it in my Bible and what I came across was a passage in the
Old Testament where the Jewish people had let false gods and idols infiltrate their
belief/faith in God. And the Lord Jesus spoke to me on this; “HE
said; “There are false idols and gods in the church.” Not the church I was in particularly,
but not that church excluded, but when I say “In the church”, ALL THE CHURCHES, ALL
THE CHURCHES OF MAN, and He said; “They do NOT glorify Me. They are in idolatry.”
AND He also showed me the idols that were in my life. I said; “Jesus what idols are
in my life.” And He showed me the idols that were in my
life. And all those idols I got rid of a quickly as I could. I watched movies quite a bit,
and I got rid of all my movies, I threw out my TV, I don’t watch any television or movies
or anything like that. I also was in a band, a rock band and I listened to a lot of music
and I went to a lot of these hard-core, metal shows and these punk-rock shows
and what not and the Lord spoke to me on that and said; “That is an idol” and He said;
“Give it up.” So I took all my cd’s and my Ipod and I
threw it all away. You know I threw thousands and thousands of dollars worth of stuff away
and it pleased me to do so, I didn’t feel like I was giving up so much because the message
from the Lord that came to me was so REAL that I didn’t care.
I said; “Jesus I’ll give it up for you because you spoke me, and you are real to
me and I will follow you.” I got rid of all those idols
and when I did the Holy Spirit started literally transforming my mind, everything I knew.
My entire degree that I had in Biblical Theology/Literature ALL of that, He broke me down,
cut me all the way down and then He started building me back up from scratch,
everything that my mentors taught to me in church the Holy Spirit started re-teaching
me. He started filling me. It happened that I
would go to sleep at night and the Holy Spirit that is in me would speak to me throughout
the night and when I would wake up the Holy Spirit had
put words into my spirit. He was transforming me, and to this day I still seek the Holy
Spirit and He still conforms me into His likeness. And
I said; “I want to seek after Jesus no matter what.” At another point I went into my pastor,
my boss at that point and said; “Jesus has called me and He has told me the church does
NOT glorify Him and I cannot worship here and I cannot be a pastor here any longer.”
And he said; “Well are you going to be at another church?” And I said;
“No the Holy Spirit is calling me out.” And He DID, the Holy Spirit called me out.
I put in my resignation at my job, you know the church I was working at, and I did exactly
what the Holy Spirit called me to do, the preach the message FREE of charge. And
to warn my family and friends about the judgment that is coming upon the church and upon this
world who are not in submission to Jesus. So I gave up my job without any other job.
I gave up all of it because Jesus became real to me,
and He showed me exactly what I needed to do. I gave up my job in faith, not knowing
where I was going to go, and people thought I was heinous.
They thought it was the stupidest thing, but I said; “Jesus if you are going to take
care of me I need YOU to take care of me, and I don’t want to rely on men anymore.”
And from that day forward JESUS has been taking care of me. He will give me work.
He will, if I don’t have enough money, money will come it. It doesn’t make sense to me
but He somehow provides day by day and I continue to serve Him because HE is
my provider. HE is the One who takes care of me. He’s the one who gives me the messages
I put up. Those messages don’t come from me, I don’t
contrive them. The Holy Spirit, HE is the One who has started His work in me and
I have chosen to follow HIM regardless of what people think or regardless of what they
do to me. My eyes are fixed on Jesus and I will continue to follow HIM. So I hope
that this testimony encourages you. I hope that you can also become transformed by Jesus
by the power of His Holy Spirit. May the grace of Jesus be with you.