Posted on 03/14/2021 9:14:07 AM PDT by .30Carbine
When I was a three-year old child, my father lay dying. My mother prayed for help as she sat on his death watch. She had been told by his physician that he would not live through the night. She had two children under the age of 6, no money, no income, no family she could call on. In the depth of the night, after praying, crying, and racking her brain to try to think of something she could do, "I finally said: 'I don't know what I will do'," she later told me, and at that moment she looked outside into the darkness, from the third floor of the hospital room, and, "Someone was out there. I don't know if it was Jesus an angel or what, but someone was out there. And suddenly I knew everything would be all right." It was. A calm and peace came over her. She fell asleep. When morning came, my father was much better. He recovered. Together, he and my mother raised their children and sent us to college.
Those who doubt such miracles--including those who can't manage to make them fit preconceived ideas about truth and reality--can do so all they want.
They can accept and receive the peace of God, or they can doubt. The truth will remain.
I have experienced many such miracles myself. My life is a testimony of salvation by Jesus Christ and answered prayers.
My understanding is that Jesus Christ is a manifestation of God, Who has many forms, and that as such he is eternal.
Many years ago, I asked Jesus Christ to guide me. I asked only that He protect me from all evil influences and all untruth. I believe that He has guided me, and has taken me to many strange and unexpected places. My confidence has always been in Him, and it will remain so.
He has led me to the concept of God as the Great Unmanifest, Which is the greatest Truth that my mind can comprehend, but I am also aware the Jesus Christ is the Same as God the Father, the Holy Spirit, and the Great Unmanifest.
I don’t mind being asked questions. I’ll be glad to answer them as well as I can.
Quick one-minute testimony:
Drank and drugged for almost 20 years, car wrecks, bar fights, and everything else that goes along with that life-style - leaving a path of destruction in my wake.
I was so lost, and I finally knew it - but did not know what to do.
One night (1992), in the middle of a drunken stupor I had a few seconds of absolute clarity and "sensed" someone telling me this was not His intent for my life and there was another way to live. That's it.
I went to an AA meeting the next day - never drank or drugged again.
I did, though, spend they next couple of years searching for that "entity" that spoke to me, because I knew it was from outside of me.
I found Him two years later (1994) when I finally saw that I was a sinner and needed a savior and hit my knees and asked Jesus to be my Lord and Savior.
I have been serving Him ever since, imperfectly for sure, but honestly and loyally.
I do need to be a better dispenser of grace, though - as any Freeper could probably attest, (I'm a work in progress).
Thank you. I’m so glad you have experienced miracles, especially getting your father back from the brink of death. I see Jesus at work in your life to reveal God in all his glory!
I tried to do a story but it was too personal to even tell. So I’ll just say I have had a special experience with answered prayer.
Around the year 1990 I was working for a guy from the South who was producing books in New York City. One evening when we were both working late, he came out of his office ostensibly to use the Xerox machine, and he said, out of the blue, “My daughter is in a mental hospital.” I think he wanted prayer for that. Of course I intended to pray for his daughter but I simply said “That’s a rough one.”
A short time later, he said to me, “They sent my daughter home. They said she was well and there was nothing they could do for her anymore.” My answer was, “See? Miracles really do happen.”
But then I kept hearing from old friends and people I knew more recently about daughters who were mentally ill. Every time I prayed for their healing, I heard later that their life had changed and they were healed.
So today I ask for someone special who apparently needs to be mentally complete and healed. Also the daughter of a friend. I try not to ask about her too often, but the few times I have asked how she was, the answer has been “the same.” I don’t want to give her a name, for privacy reasons, but please pray for this dear friend’s daughter, for her to return to perfect health.
I went to an AA meeting the next day - never drank or drugged again.
WOW!
I knew it was from outside of me.
It is so wonderful and awesome that God speaks in us and to us while remaining completely other than us. His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8)! I have never heard his voice audibly, but I have definitely heard his voice and have learned to separate his voice from my voice and from the voice of satan.
PS - I totally get it about being a work in progress! :)
Thank you for your testimony. I will certainly pray!
I was a teen during the 60’s and very much a member of “The Woodstock Generation”. Being and artist and a musician also placed me in the midst of drugs, free sex, and leftist politics. There was something in me that knew I was a lost soul, but that only caused me to sink deeper into nihilism, leftism, eastern mysticism, witchcraft, and self-hatred.
My husband and I married at 19, and were dirt poor. Since the only vehicle we could afford at the time was a motorcycle, I learned to drive on two wheels. A female biker who could ride on her own was unusual back then so, I got some respect and self-esteem from that, as well as being the front-(wo)man for a rock/blues band. So I was immersed in two somewhat sinful worlds, as a biker and rock musician, with all the stuff that went with that.
In 1981, my husband had a “Damascus Road” experience on a curvy road in Boston called “The Jamaicaway”. While he didn’t crash the bike, God gave him a vision of where he would go IF he did. It was shortly after that we both came to the Lord in a Pentecostal Church outside of Boston. Of course, I quit the Blues Band and got swept right into the Music Ministry, probably before I was mature enough to handle it.
Anyway, we went through some really difficult times, including church splits, false accusations, family issues, etc, and we finally moved away from Boston (for a job that never materialized) to Florida.
In Florida, things went well for a while, but then, due to a hideous bout of depression my husband took his own life exactly 10 years ago tomorrow. At the time, we didn’t have a church because we were so disillusioned, but We still had our faith in Jesus. About a year before my husband’s death, I had joined FR and started the Jerusalem Thread. The largest amount of kindness and support I received during that terrible time was from the Brothers and Sisters on Free Republic. I will always thank God for that!
In Florida, I became a Music Minister for an outdoor church that reached out to “outlaw” Bikers. The church still exists in Pompano Beach, although I have moved back to Boston. I am president of the Boston Chapter, and still have my colors.
Now I play bass and piano (not at the same time LOL!) at a very humble little A of G Church nearby. I love the church and its people, even though we can’t hug each other due to COVID regulations. The governor doesn’t want us to sing (!) but we do anyway.
The point I am making is that the Church is the Body of Christ, not a building, or a denomination, or a conference, or a synod. And, although I went through some really horrible stuff and did some SERIOUS sinning, Jesus never left me nor forsook me.
He was always there, calling me, even when I didn’t want to listen.
And now, I feel like I have come home.
For the last several years I have been hearing stories from missionaries of Jesus appearing in a dream to thousands of Muslims - drawing them to Him.
The Shepherd is searching out His own. And someday we will all be together after the end of days.
How awesome is Jesus!
I know you will agree that we can all experience miracles. God is there for all of us.
Yes - in Muslim nations where no evangelism is “allowed” the Holy Spirit breaks through the barriers in DREAMS! Completely awesome!
I have had a share of hurts from churches, too. They always drove me closer to Jesus, though, as it did in your case, so satan's attacks were thwarted. God truly does work all things together for good for those who are called and chosen (Romans 8:28).
Thank you for your kind words!
Please feel free to post on the J-Thread anytime! We would love to have you! :-)
You are so kind and encouraging!
Not always! ;)
All that is good in me is Jesus. Someday, wnen I see him face to face, I will be completely like him.
What a day of rejoicing that will be!
Yes, to be saved by the Truth means we are to defend it.
OK:
My testimony (and rather than using my slow stiff arthritic typo fingers I'm mainly using dictation box speech-to-text software available on the Chrome browser - even though I prefer Firefox - although I have to do some editing afterwards) of conversion is that of one raised in a strict devout Irish Catholic household in a predominate Catholic area in MA. Two of my uncles we're Catholic priests overseas, and as a family we never missed Mass or a holy day of obligation, etc I was/am the middle of five children and along with my two brothers I was an altar boy.
My dad sometimes served as an usher (and they took the 25 cent "seat money") and who was a very honest man of conscience as was my mother who was part of the Sodality. One time my mom told me that my dad was called upon to give an introduction to a speaker for a Holy Name society meeting, and had trouble providing an honest introduction. For he could not say, "it gives me great pleasure who introduce..." since it did not give him great pleasure. I forget what he came up with. But anyway that type of strict and conscientious upbringing resulted in me chafing at the yoke in my later years as a teenager and finally leaving home. I had started working at a local dairy farm at age 14 (dad said I was either going to get a job or work around the home property. I chose what I thought would be the easier alternative). After graduating from H.S. I also worked as a manager for gas station for a while and in the pool cleaning business.
After leaving home where I was paying rent I soon became part of a group of a number of guys around my age renting the "white house" next to the dairy. Later I was invited to become part of a group of four of the relatively more stable guys who rented another house in a nearby city, three of whom were in a rock band (we were also Star Trek devotees). At the dairy where I worked I had started working processing milk as well as making truck deliveries. This was all in the early 1970s. My life in this era was basically work and partying, drinking , smoking weed (almost perpetually) and seeking sex with women, and occasionally doing drugs. To a large part this life was a means of escaping or subduing conscience. However, after about 6 years of all this I became depressed, which was not normal for me, and although no one had spoken to me about salvation I knew that my problem was sin separating me from God, and I felt that I was as one on train tracks with the judgement train coming, and that I needed to get right with God.
Because of my upbringing and with my parents being those of integrity, I understood that asking God for forgiveness meant a change of life, in this case a permanent life repentance. I knew this would be quite radical and I did not feel ready for it especially since I was due to go to a wedding in a few months and I knew I would get drunk. I therefore entered into period of reformation in which I would stop or tone down my drinking etc. and sneak (lest my party bodies made fun of me) out to Mass mornings but not go to communion for I knew that that was wrong. My plan was that after this wedding then the coast would be clear to go to Confession and formally repent and obtain forgiveness. Note that at this time I knew nothing much more than Catholic teaching. And so that is what I did. I think that it was in October 1977 that I went to Confession at St Thomas Church with a priest who was a former drill sergeant. I tearfully confessed that I was away from God and the church and was repenting of my former life. He told me that took great courage and gave me some prayers to say and I went home.
Now my dad had reverenced the Bible hand occasionally read it and I knew it was the word of God - which is why I had not wanted to read it. But now I knew I needed to get a Bible, and so I went to the large Ann and Hope department store and look at the Bible's and pick the one with the most colorful cover which turned out to be the living Bible (I later felt it was a watered-down translation). Note that although I believed that was forgiven of my past life I became even more conscious my sinful nature, and sometimes would spend most of my Sunday afternoons - that being the only day I had off after working about 60 hours a week - repenting for basically having thoughts and feelings arising from my sinful nature. I also felt I needed to go to confession at least once a week even though I was living quite a straight life.
Someone also told me that there was a new Christian station that had just begun in the area, and so I began listening to it and which fed my hungry soul. And because I was repentant and wanted to please God then when I heard that salvation was by grace, and not by any merit of works that I had done or could do then I immediately told God (even if it meant pulling my truck over) that I trusted Jesus Christ for my salvation and not anything that I had to offer.
Sometime around this time I realized an inner change taken place in me. I'd become the main route driver for the dairy, delivering milk and ice cream, and would be driving down the highway and noticed that even nature seemed new to me, even though I was raised in a rural area. I also now saw woman as unique creations of God to be appreciated for what they were and not for their anatomy (although that certainly can be appreciated). I was also very eager to help people and was voted the most helpful employee at my work at this time, and I felt I could not think evil of anybody, and also felt much indebtedness to any who helped me. No, I sadly cannot say this innocence and constant goodwill etc. remained continuous (it is said there was only 11 days journey into the Promised Land if one stayed on the straight and narrow and overcame all obstacles), yet I had a definite conversion and experienced profound changes in heart and life. And rather that morbid introspection I started realizing I needed to thank God for what he had done for me such as in making me a "new creation in Christ Jesus," "accepted in the Beloved" " bought with a price."
I wanted to serve God yet I was still in the Catholic Church making every single Mass and holy day of obligation, and I also volunteered as a lector and served as a CCD teacher. However, I was different and after mass I would sometimes be sincerely telling others about salvation that I had experienced, yet with rare exceptions no other Catholics we're interested. My mother told me they considered it to be boring and my parents basically opposed it although they overall saw my conversion as a good thing. I also began to attend Catholic Charismatic meetings which is where I mainly met the few Catholics I found who were interested in the Bible and talking about the things of God .
And apart from church I was also telling others about Jesus and the need for salvation, and most of them were Catholic themselves if not practicing ones. I also even felt God wanted me to go on the highway and warn people not to go in the strip clubs but to repent, which I did many times, even after working till late at night, for this was all by myself while I was working at least 60 hours a week Much of this, as much as was of God, was to help me to trust in the Lord, to walk by faith even without much fellowship. However I did want and sought seek the latter, which is partly why I went to the charismatic meetings.
Now by this time I had known about other churches in other places that were what called born again churches, but even though I am sure I would have went to churches of ministers I heard on the radio like John MacArthur, Chuck Swindoll, Vernon McGee, Chuck Smith , etc yet I was not willing to trust the local ones.
Yet by this time I had known from the Bible that some of what the Catholic church was teaching was not that of the New Testament Church, and so about 6 years after my repentance and conversion then I humbly sincerely prayed to God (in the parking lot of where I worked) that if it was his will for me to leave the Catholic Church and go to a different one then I trusted that he would show me. and which He promptly did.
The next night going to the store where I worked I found an old friend of my dad's who sometimes did mechanical work for him. He was a senior citizen not only in age but also in height, and when I told him something about his need for God then he loudly proclaimed he believed in God and told me about a church down hand off the highway that he went to. and which is what resulted in my leaving the Catholic Church and into Evangelical Fellowship about 1983 and far more service, by the grace of God, thanks be Him.
However, this is not the end of the journey, or of only forward motion in sanctification or of repentance and seeking more, which continues, but only God deserves credit for salvation and for anything good done thru me, while the only things I can and must take credit for are my too-often failures in the full obedience of faith.
Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12-13)
I simply told them that I was more interested in reading the Bible than their pamphlets! When God has you in his hand, as he has had me, NOTHING can snatch you out of it!
John 10:28 “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”…
Wonderful thread!
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