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"Seek Him"...... Testimonies
Brother Jerry's Testimony - Biker Bar Here is Brother Jerry's Testimony -the author of the true 'Biker Bar' story which was posted recently. What an Awesome God we serve!!!
Jerry's Testimony
I was born in a lower upper class neighborhood named Friendswood Texas.
My father was an ex-marine officer and a NASA nuclear physicist... He is retired now.
My dad was an atheist, who when he was not kicking us around he was gone... either into a back room he called, “his Lab”, or at work...
Unless My dad was punishing me, he was non existent in my life,...
I was always called a “loser” by him...
I grew up hating him and the world...
so I began my reign of terror as a child throughout our neighborhood, which lead to more and more discipline from him...
The time my father was disciplining me, was the only time he acknowledged my existance...
My self esteem was shot... I grew up the serial victim of bullies...
After a huge beating from the neighborhood bullies...
My dad took me aside and made me fight him and he beat me, and beat me, until I lost my mind and attacked him savagely...
It was the only time I saw him smile...
He then told me I was to win all my fights with this rage or he would beat me again if I ever lost... Oh what a lonely, lost boy, I was....
I wanted power and control and I fought brutally for it!
In high school, I was introduced to the power and fear over others that could only be found in the occult....
A college dude took me to my first "meeting" where the girls got tied up and used... I had never been with a girl, so I thought “I was home"...
I got deeper into the occult, and like a poor child, who sees a battery makes a flashlight work, I was fascinated! I was hooked and started to steal money from every source I could, to buy more and more items from the occult shop...
I thought, “the deeper into darkness that I went, the deeper the Power I would find”...and it was true....
However the risks I took to get there were becoming more and more frightening to me...
I knew something was going very wrong but the spiritual power I felt was intoxicating more then any drug I had ever experimented with...
I finally plunged into death magic that comes out of India... This development frightened my fellow “Witch friends" so badly that they stopped speaking to me...
The nightmares by now were an explosion of agony every night...
but the power I started to get was amazing even to me...
One night, while in a trance, I was visited by a Demon who promised me insane power over men, and control over my dreams, if I took him in...
amazed and interested, I performed the ritual opening a gateway to receive the fallen Spirit...
It was the stupidest thing A human can ever do...
I did have more power... I could give anyone I wished a migraine headache at will...
I could cause passionate hate filled arguments to burst forth between people by concentrating on it....
I could cause people to become so overwhelmed by fear that they would literally empty their wallets at a request...Just to make me stop...
My dad was finally under MY control too, and I used him like a puppet...
But the Cost.... the cost came in the form of blackouts,
where I would wake up having committed crimes that would have easily put me in jail if I had been caught..... many times over...
My hair started to turn white from the horror of my dreams and my "friends" did everything in their power to stay away from me...
I was becoming a slave and to the thing inside me!
I started to "black out” for hours at a time!
I was lost inside my own self... a prisoner in my own flesh...
Now enter "my Girl".... she was an immoral foolish girl,
her morality was as easily molded as pouring water from one shaped glass to another...
One day, She told me that she had met a "real Christian" Girl named Angela...
I laughed her to scorn, for the only Christians I had ever met were soft wimpy believers who had no concept of Spiritual power...
I asked to visit this "Christian Girl" I desired to meet her and to crush her, to treat her like a play thing...
I actually desired to take her and to use her, thru my demonic power, after I met her...
But what I meant for evil, God used as a divine appointment for good...
To make this encounter short...
I tried every incantation and spiritual assault in my arsenal and NOTHING touched her...
In fact it bounced back and hit me..... the sheer POWER that covered her was way above anything I had ever experienced!
And she seemed to have no clue of it’s magnitude!
When it came to Spiritual power, I was holding up a battery and she was standing in front of a Nuclear power plant!
I left her place intimidated by a thin little wisp of a girl.... her words haunted me in the day as badly as the nightmares did at night....
A year past and My health was now failing... I was anemic and washed out…
I was kicked out of my home after smashing my dad unconscious with an Iron...
Because I was a rich kid, who was hated by my parents, I was living on the Campus of the university of Houston...instead of thrown in jail where I belonged…
My room mate was so intimidated, that within days, he voluntarily moved down the hall... I relished this fact…
So, there I was 19 years old and a sold out agent of evil...
Picture a young adult with white hair, a grey beard, who wore black leather trench coats, and the face of a gaunt 40 year old man....
Now, enter ONE Pentecostal lunatic, who's only aspiration in life was to be a "hero for GOD"… His name is David Miller...
He fasted twice a week and went to church more than that... and when he was not studying for his exams, he was one-on-one witnessing!
Or He was on the roof of the dorms worshipping God at the top of hislungs
or preaching in the streets...
Yeah... He took one look at me...And KNEW.... “It was On...”
David followed me preaching everywhere I WENT... this lasted not for days but MONTHS.... I would walk out of my room and THERE HE WAS!!!
He even dropped all his classes and late registered for MINE! so he sat next to me and witnessed and preached as if to a wall...
All David got from me for the fist few months was a man with the face of flint, a heart of stone, and the tongue of white hot hatred...
Nothing My “Spirit Guide” and I could do would touch Him… No incantation, no curse, No dark ritual prevailed…
I became desperate to get rid of David… Finally, he made the mistake of following me at night, I stepped into a dark place on campus, I took him by the throat and beat him down...
He didn't cry out or whine for me to stop.... He just took it....and Took it…
and when I was too exhausted to continue to beat him, he gasped, "thank you"...
I said "what?"
He said “you just made me suffer for Jesus' sake, and great is my reward in heaven! You probably just bought me a Porsche or a Lamborghini.”
my jaw fell open... I walked away cursing loudly!
This was the first 2 way conversation we ever had...
But, David still didn't stop.... FOLLOWING ME...
Finally I caved in and said "Look if you promise to leave me alone, I will go to church with you...."
He surprised me again by saying "no"... "you are going to take ME to church with you... Your going to take me to the only Christian church in this city that fills you with fear..."
THAT CHURCH was the one that I had driven by after “The little Christian Girl” had whipped my spiritual rear and given me it's location.
THAT CHURCH made me want to vomit when I was only 200 yards away from it…
THAT CHURCH was named Life tabernacle, it was a Pentecostal church… whatever that meant…
I told David "no way.... I can’t get near that place… no!”
Another week passed of MORE DAVID....
Finally I caved in and told him I WOULD TAKE HIM THERE... if he promised to leave my sight forever...
He prayed to his "God" right in front of me , they came to a decision and he turned and agreed.
Now I give you the rest of my testimony as told thru the words of the Christian sister who also had a hand in winning my soul!
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The Witness
This is Angela Traub. The one whom Jerry calls his "wiry-haired" spiritual mom. He's just a little looney - but I'm sure you've figured that out by now. But he's still a good egg.
The reason he calls me his spiritual mom is because I was the one who initially spoke to him about believing in Jesus. He was really into some strange occultic practices that seemed to cloud his thinking and may have even controlled his mind. Not sure if that makes sense, but I'll try my best to make it clear to you.
Whew ! Let me get back to Jerry for a minute. As I said earlier, people will worship something to the point that it so dominates their thinking. Is this always bad? No, of course not. But when it leads a person to error, or immoral and harmful acts, or quite frankly, when it leads a person down a path AWAY from the one true living God then it is wrong thinking and dangerous
thinking. This is where Jerry was. He was involved in dark occultic practices he called eastern death magic he claimed that today's society takes lightly and promotes as fun (i.e. Harry Potter). I encountered this with him when I first met him.
It was at my high school at an awards ceremony where an acquaintance of mine introduced me to him. She was crazy about him and ranted and raved about him all the time. She thought he was so fascinating. I had been talking to her about the Gospel and she knew of my dramatic conversion to Christ (which I'll have to share with you another time) and had even visited my church with me once. She was caught in the middle between me and Jerry. I did not know this. I thought he was just some boyfriend of hers. I did not know how much he was involved in the occult and what a pull that had on her.
Anyway, she used to brag to him about me - "She's really a Christian.
She really loves God. etc" He wanted to meet me to take this on as some kind of challenge. You know Jerry here. Little did he know that he was not challenging me but God. I later came to understand that what seemed like a challenge to him was really his own hunger for God and the plan and purpose of God for his life was drawing him down this path. Anyway, he told me he wanted to ask me some serious questions about "my" God. I agreed to this. So one night, he and this girl show up at my house.
When he came into my house I sensed there was something very wrong. I sensed something dark came in the house with him. I was not afraid, but just aware of it. I knew nothing about him so I was going to wait and see what was going to happen. He began to say the most ridiculous things about Jesus - blasphemous things. It was clear to me how ignorant he was about Jesus. I thought maybe this is stuff he got in college. When it got to the point I could not take it anymore i told him "Look, you are in my house and as long as you are in my house you are NOT going to talk about my Lord that way. You can just leave! You told me you had some questions and you have yet to ask me. What is it that you want ? "
He smirked and said, "I want you to prove to me a few things. 1. That Jesus really died on the cross. 2. That there really is a God 3. That this God of yours really is good and holy. You see, I know what evil is. I have seen evil and the power of evil. I can't believe that there is any power greater than this."
What stupid questions! I thought to myself. I thought he was going to ask me something more complicated and philosophical. Then I felt God's Spirit convict my heart and to take him seriously. Somehow, God let me see through Jerry and I saw a human soul trapped, much I like was before Jesus saved me. I felt pity and compassion for him. I looked passed the blasphemous words and saw a lost soul.
The response was immediate, I told him, " You say that you know what evil is right? (he nods) Well, don't you know that there has to be something Good to measure what is evil. How can you call something evil without something good to measure it by ? How can you say you know evil powers without accepting the fact that there has to be Good or Godly powers in the world. How could you possibly know evil without recognizing there is God." He was dumbfounded and could say nothing. I sent them home immediately because it was getting late and my dad gave me "the Look."
I prayed for him and the girl that night. Later, I was awakened from a terrible dream that night, and in the darkness of my room I heard and felt what seemed like birds swooping down at me. It really frightened me ! I thought, what is this? I could hear the intense fluttering of something (like a bird trying to get out) and some weird noise. But it kept swooping down at my face ! I was flailing my hands to keep whatever it was (I really thought they were some kind of birds or bats in my room) away from me. But when I couldn't physically feel them when they swooped down on me, I realized this was something demonic.
I began to call on the name of Jesus. I got out of bed, fell to my knees and began to pray for Jerry. I knew this was what I needed to do. The Spirit of God came over me, and I began to pray with intercessory prayer (an intense spiritual prayer much like a defense attorney placing his clients case before the judge). I knew God wanted to save his soul and the devil was trying to frighten me. You see, God has a church (believers) and He works through His people, their prayers and their faith. This creates a Trust and Reliance on Him, and also creates a bond between the believers. The strange flying things seemed to just fade out and went away. When I felt peace about everything, I went back to bed.
Over the next several weeks, Jerry contacted me and my sister a few more times. He kept wanting to come over and talk again. When he finally did, he came alone this time. It was the same scenario, blasphemous expressions and indecent things. This time though , my sister and I had prayed before he came over. She stayed in the room with me and silently prayed while he was talking. I interrupted him and asked him, "Why are you even here ? Why do you insist on coming over and saying these things? What is it that you really want with us?" His response was a little odd.
He began to tell us that as a child he used to have these terrifying dreams of some white monster. It got to where he could not sleep at night. This monster used to torment him and he felt haunted by it. His mother took him to see a psychiatrist (I think) and the man told him, " If you can move this prism across my desk, you can conquer your dreams." And Jerry did exactly that! I may have this wrong, but I think that's what he said. This sent Jerry at an early age into hungering for metaphysical and spiritual things and powers. He related everything he had experienced thus far in his life in terms of "power". He even began to describe how in one of his meetings several months ago,(not sure what kind, but some kind of witch/satanic meeting) an experience that seemed very clearly like demonic possession. I won't go into it because I don't think it is worthy of the attention. His eyes were so dark-like. You know how normal people's eyes shine from the wetness. It seemed like his didn't. It was weird. They were just dark.
He also told us how a witch of some sort did the tarot card thing and told him he was called to be a warrior for the "sun-god" king. He took it to mean, the god of the satanic religion he was practicing, I think. She made some other kinds of pronouncements on him but I can't remember them exactly. Somehow I knew, he was called to serve the living God. The Son-God King! And that was why he was here! I understood what was happening now. We were to give him the gospel of Jesus Christ. It would deliver him from this darkness. His personality would change, too. It was weird. Almost like he was two different people. Most of the time he had this nasty look on his face - kind of sinister like - like someone up to no good. He spoke very bad things and was proud of it. But other times he seemed sad and with pathos, you'd notice the darkness of his eyes.
To end this incredible account. Jesus Christ did deliver him! He came to church and whatever it was that was controlling him became unleashed. He stood up during the service pointing at the lady who was singing a song "I give you Jesus" and was shouting out at her to stop singing that song. People in our church had seen this kind of activity before from wackos, so they began to pray. The ushers came and sat him down, after they offered him the door and he refused to leave. The pastor preached about Jesus setting you free. Somehow people were able to pray for him. He resisted them at first, then loudly mocked them. But when Brother Thompson, an old retired missionary to Columbia recognized that Jerry was possessed with some kind of evil spirit. Jerry turned on him and the evil spirit mocked him and insulted him, and his wife, in a Columbian accented Spanish dialect (Jerry doesn’t know Spanish). Bro. Thompson, the missionary, walked right up to him, laid his hands on him and commanded the spirit to release him in the name of Jesus. The account was that Jerry has thrown backwards like someone had punched him in the stomach and he fell down like a dead man. When he came to and opened his eyes, some said, Jerry said, "Oh my God it's over, it's over!" and he began to weep and thank God. People were worshipping and rejoicing with him. He later was baptized in the name of Jesus and came up out of the water speaking in tongues magnifying God. I know these expressions may be unfamiliar to some of you. And anything I have related to you that seems unclear, I will take the time to explain them to you as best I can with the help of Almighty God.
He did become a mighty warrior for Christ. He became an incredible soul-winner. He has blessed many people.
God has a plan and purpose for our lives. He knew right where Jerry was and where he was heading. Just like Jerry meeting this girl and through her, he met me, who directed him to Christ; you also have the same opportunity to know how wonderful and fulfilling the Lord Jesus can be as well. It really is an incredible story, but we serve an incredibly awesome God who loves and delivers and strengthens us all.
-Angela
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BTW: David miller had invited 5 of his friends from his Assemblies of God church to "come and see the Church that scares the Satanist" All of them were baptized in Jesus Name the same night i was delivered...
-Bro. Jerry :)
JustGiveMeTruth.com
posted by muttdog 2 days ago
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Hey Muttdog:
Great testamony, God is awesome! IC Rick
posted by vertigo1957
1 day ago
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Amen brother! So worthy to be praised! :)
posted by muttdog
1 day ago
Jerry's Testimony
I was born in a lower upper class neighborhood named Friendswood Texas.
My father was an ex-marine officer and a NASA nuclear physicist... He is retired now.
My dad was an atheist, who when he was not kicking us around he was gone... either into a back room he called, “his Lab”, or at work...
Unless My dad was punishing me, he was non existent in my life,...
I was always called a “loser” by him...
I grew up hating him and the world...
so I began my reign of terror as a child throughout our neighborhood, which lead to more and more discipline from him...
The time my father was disciplining me, was the only time he acknowledged my existance...
My self esteem was shot... I grew up the serial victim of bullies...
After a huge beating from the neighborhood bullies...
My dad took me aside and made me fight him and he beat me, and beat me, until I lost my mind and attacked him savagely...
It was the only time I saw him smile...
He then told me I was to win all my fights with this rage or he would beat me again if I ever lost... Oh what a lonely, lost boy, I was....
I wanted power and control and I fought brutally for it!
In high school, I was introduced to the power and fear over others that could only be found in the occult....
A college dude took me to my first "meeting" where the girls got tied up and used... I had never been with a girl, so I thought “I was home"...
I got deeper into the occult, and like a poor child, who sees a battery makes a flashlight work, I was fascinated! I was hooked and started to steal money from every source I could, to buy more and more items from the occult shop...
I thought, “the deeper into darkness that I went, the deeper the Power I would find”...and it was true....
However the risks I took to get there were becoming more and more frightening to me...
I knew something was going very wrong but the spiritual power I felt was intoxicating more then any drug I had ever experimented with...
I finally plunged into death magic that comes out of India... This development frightened my fellow “Witch friends" so badly that they stopped speaking to me...
The nightmares by now were an explosion of agony every night...
but the power I started to get was amazing even to me...
One night, while in a trance, I was visited by a Demon who promised me insane power over men, and control over my dreams, if I took him in...
amazed and interested, I performed the ritual opening a gateway to receive the fallen Spirit...
It was the stupidest thing A human can ever do...
I did have more power... I could give anyone I wished a migraine headache at will...
I could cause passionate hate filled arguments to burst forth between people by concentrating on it....
I could cause people to become so overwhelmed by fear that they would literally empty their wallets at a request...Just to make me stop...
My dad was finally under MY control too, and I used him like a puppet...
But the Cost.... the cost came in the form of blackouts,
where I would wake up having committed crimes that would have easily put me in jail if I had been caught..... many times over...
My hair started to turn white from the horror of my dreams and my "friends" did everything in their power to stay away from me...
I was becoming a slave and to the thing inside me!
I started to "black out” for hours at a time!
I was lost inside my own self... a prisoner in my own flesh...
Now enter "my Girl".... she was an immoral foolish girl,
her morality was as easily molded as pouring water from one shaped glass to another...
One day, She told me that she had met a "real Christian" Girl named Angela...
I laughed her to scorn, for the only Christians I had ever met were soft wimpy believers who had no concept of Spiritual power...
I asked to visit this "Christian Girl" I desired to meet her and to crush her, to treat her like a play thing...
I actually desired to take her and to use her, thru my demonic power, after I met her...
But what I meant for evil, God used as a divine appointment for good...
To make this encounter short...
I tried every incantation and spiritual assault in my arsenal and NOTHING touched her...
In fact it bounced back and hit me..... the sheer POWER that covered her was way above anything I had ever experienced!
And she seemed to have no clue of it’s magnitude!
When it came to Spiritual power, I was holding up a battery and she was standing in front of a Nuclear power plant!
I left her place intimidated by a thin little wisp of a girl.... her words haunted me in the day as badly as the nightmares did at night....
A year past and My health was now failing... I was anemic and washed out…
I was kicked out of my home after smashing my dad unconscious with an Iron...
Because I was a rich kid, who was hated by my parents, I was living on the Campus of the university of Houston...instead of thrown in jail where I belonged…
My room mate was so intimidated, that within days, he voluntarily moved down the hall... I relished this fact…
So, there I was 19 years old and a sold out agent of evil...
Picture a young adult with white hair, a grey beard, who wore black leather trench coats, and the face of a gaunt 40 year old man....
Now, enter ONE Pentecostal lunatic, who's only aspiration in life was to be a "hero for GOD"… His name is David Miller...
He fasted twice a week and went to church more than that... and when he was not studying for his exams, he was one-on-one witnessing!
Or He was on the roof of the dorms worshipping God at the top of hislungs
or preaching in the streets...
Yeah... He took one look at me...And KNEW.... “It was On...”
David followed me preaching everywhere I WENT... this lasted not for days but MONTHS.... I would walk out of my room and THERE HE WAS!!!
He even dropped all his classes and late registered for MINE! so he sat next to me and witnessed and preached as if to a wall...
All David got from me for the fist few months was a man with the face of flint, a heart of stone, and the tongue of white hot hatred...
Nothing My “Spirit Guide” and I could do would touch Him… No incantation, no curse, No dark ritual prevailed…
I became desperate to get rid of David… Finally, he made the mistake of following me at night, I stepped into a dark place on campus, I took him by the throat and beat him down...
He didn't cry out or whine for me to stop.... He just took it....and Took it…
and when I was too exhausted to continue to beat him, he gasped, "thank you"...
I said "what?"
He said “you just made me suffer for Jesus' sake, and great is my reward in heaven! You probably just bought me a Porsche or a Lamborghini.”
my jaw fell open... I walked away cursing loudly!
This was the first 2 way conversation we ever had...
But, David still didn't stop.... FOLLOWING ME...
Finally I caved in and said "Look if you promise to leave me alone, I will go to church with you...."
He surprised me again by saying "no"... "you are going to take ME to church with you... Your going to take me to the only Christian church in this city that fills you with fear..."
THAT CHURCH was the one that I had driven by after “The little Christian Girl” had whipped my spiritual rear and given me it's location.
THAT CHURCH made me want to vomit when I was only 200 yards away from it…
THAT CHURCH was named Life tabernacle, it was a Pentecostal church… whatever that meant…
I told David "no way.... I can’t get near that place… no!”
Another week passed of MORE DAVID....
Finally I caved in and told him I WOULD TAKE HIM THERE... if he promised to leave my sight forever...
He prayed to his "God" right in front of me , they came to a decision and he turned and agreed.
Now I give you the rest of my testimony as told thru the words of the Christian sister who also had a hand in winning my soul!
---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------
The Witness
This is Angela Traub. The one whom Jerry calls his "wiry-haired" spiritual mom. He's just a little looney - but I'm sure you've figured that out by now. But he's still a good egg.
The reason he calls me his spiritual mom is because I was the one who initially spoke to him about believing in Jesus. He was really into some strange occultic practices that seemed to cloud his thinking and may have even controlled his mind. Not sure if that makes sense, but I'll try my best to make it clear to you.
Whew ! Let me get back to Jerry for a minute. As I said earlier, people will worship something to the point that it so dominates their thinking. Is this always bad? No, of course not. But when it leads a person to error, or immoral and harmful acts, or quite frankly, when it leads a person down a path AWAY from the one true living God then it is wrong thinking and dangerous
thinking. This is where Jerry was. He was involved in dark occultic practices he called eastern death magic he claimed that today's society takes lightly and promotes as fun (i.e. Harry Potter). I encountered this with him when I first met him.
It was at my high school at an awards ceremony where an acquaintance of mine introduced me to him. She was crazy about him and ranted and raved about him all the time. She thought he was so fascinating. I had been talking to her about the Gospel and she knew of my dramatic conversion to Christ (which I'll have to share with you another time) and had even visited my church with me once. She was caught in the middle between me and Jerry. I did not know this. I thought he was just some boyfriend of hers. I did not know how much he was involved in the occult and what a pull that had on her.
Anyway, she used to brag to him about me - "She's really a Christian.
She really loves God. etc" He wanted to meet me to take this on as some kind of challenge. You know Jerry here. Little did he know that he was not challenging me but God. I later came to understand that what seemed like a challenge to him was really his own hunger for God and the plan and purpose of God for his life was drawing him down this path. Anyway, he told me he wanted to ask me some serious questions about "my" God. I agreed to this. So one night, he and this girl show up at my house.
When he came into my house I sensed there was something very wrong. I sensed something dark came in the house with him. I was not afraid, but just aware of it. I knew nothing about him so I was going to wait and see what was going to happen. He began to say the most ridiculous things about Jesus - blasphemous things. It was clear to me how ignorant he was about Jesus. I thought maybe this is stuff he got in college. When it got to the point I could not take it anymore i told him "Look, you are in my house and as long as you are in my house you are NOT going to talk about my Lord that way. You can just leave! You told me you had some questions and you have yet to ask me. What is it that you want ? "
He smirked and said, "I want you to prove to me a few things. 1. That Jesus really died on the cross. 2. That there really is a God 3. That this God of yours really is good and holy. You see, I know what evil is. I have seen evil and the power of evil. I can't believe that there is any power greater than this."
What stupid questions! I thought to myself. I thought he was going to ask me something more complicated and philosophical. Then I felt God's Spirit convict my heart and to take him seriously. Somehow, God let me see through Jerry and I saw a human soul trapped, much I like was before Jesus saved me. I felt pity and compassion for him. I looked passed the blasphemous words and saw a lost soul.
The response was immediate, I told him, " You say that you know what evil is right? (he nods) Well, don't you know that there has to be something Good to measure what is evil. How can you call something evil without something good to measure it by ? How can you say you know evil powers without accepting the fact that there has to be Good or Godly powers in the world. How could you possibly know evil without recognizing there is God." He was dumbfounded and could say nothing. I sent them home immediately because it was getting late and my dad gave me "the Look."
I prayed for him and the girl that night. Later, I was awakened from a terrible dream that night, and in the darkness of my room I heard and felt what seemed like birds swooping down at me. It really frightened me ! I thought, what is this? I could hear the intense fluttering of something (like a bird trying to get out) and some weird noise. But it kept swooping down at my face ! I was flailing my hands to keep whatever it was (I really thought they were some kind of birds or bats in my room) away from me. But when I couldn't physically feel them when they swooped down on me, I realized this was something demonic.
I began to call on the name of Jesus. I got out of bed, fell to my knees and began to pray for Jerry. I knew this was what I needed to do. The Spirit of God came over me, and I began to pray with intercessory prayer (an intense spiritual prayer much like a defense attorney placing his clients case before the judge). I knew God wanted to save his soul and the devil was trying to frighten me. You see, God has a church (believers) and He works through His people, their prayers and their faith. This creates a Trust and Reliance on Him, and also creates a bond between the believers. The strange flying things seemed to just fade out and went away. When I felt peace about everything, I went back to bed.
Over the next several weeks, Jerry contacted me and my sister a few more times. He kept wanting to come over and talk again. When he finally did, he came alone this time. It was the same scenario, blasphemous expressions and indecent things. This time though , my sister and I had prayed before he came over. She stayed in the room with me and silently prayed while he was talking. I interrupted him and asked him, "Why are you even here ? Why do you insist on coming over and saying these things? What is it that you really want with us?" His response was a little odd.
He began to tell us that as a child he used to have these terrifying dreams of some white monster. It got to where he could not sleep at night. This monster used to torment him and he felt haunted by it. His mother took him to see a psychiatrist (I think) and the man told him, " If you can move this prism across my desk, you can conquer your dreams." And Jerry did exactly that! I may have this wrong, but I think that's what he said. This sent Jerry at an early age into hungering for metaphysical and spiritual things and powers. He related everything he had experienced thus far in his life in terms of "power". He even began to describe how in one of his meetings several months ago,(not sure what kind, but some kind of witch/satanic meeting) an experience that seemed very clearly like demonic possession. I won't go into it because I don't think it is worthy of the attention. His eyes were so dark-like. You know how normal people's eyes shine from the wetness. It seemed like his didn't. It was weird. They were just dark.
He also told us how a witch of some sort did the tarot card thing and told him he was called to be a warrior for the "sun-god" king. He took it to mean, the god of the satanic religion he was practicing, I think. She made some other kinds of pronouncements on him but I can't remember them exactly. Somehow I knew, he was called to serve the living God. The Son-God King! And that was why he was here! I understood what was happening now. We were to give him the gospel of Jesus Christ. It would deliver him from this darkness. His personality would change, too. It was weird. Almost like he was two different people. Most of the time he had this nasty look on his face - kind of sinister like - like someone up to no good. He spoke very bad things and was proud of it. But other times he seemed sad and with pathos, you'd notice the darkness of his eyes.
To end this incredible account. Jesus Christ did deliver him! He came to church and whatever it was that was controlling him became unleashed. He stood up during the service pointing at the lady who was singing a song "I give you Jesus" and was shouting out at her to stop singing that song. People in our church had seen this kind of activity before from wackos, so they began to pray. The ushers came and sat him down, after they offered him the door and he refused to leave. The pastor preached about Jesus setting you free. Somehow people were able to pray for him. He resisted them at first, then loudly mocked them. But when Brother Thompson, an old retired missionary to Columbia recognized that Jerry was possessed with some kind of evil spirit. Jerry turned on him and the evil spirit mocked him and insulted him, and his wife, in a Columbian accented Spanish dialect (Jerry doesn’t know Spanish). Bro. Thompson, the missionary, walked right up to him, laid his hands on him and commanded the spirit to release him in the name of Jesus. The account was that Jerry has thrown backwards like someone had punched him in the stomach and he fell down like a dead man. When he came to and opened his eyes, some said, Jerry said, "Oh my God it's over, it's over!" and he began to weep and thank God. People were worshipping and rejoicing with him. He later was baptized in the name of Jesus and came up out of the water speaking in tongues magnifying God. I know these expressions may be unfamiliar to some of you. And anything I have related to you that seems unclear, I will take the time to explain them to you as best I can with the help of Almighty God.
He did become a mighty warrior for Christ. He became an incredible soul-winner. He has blessed many people.
God has a plan and purpose for our lives. He knew right where Jerry was and where he was heading. Just like Jerry meeting this girl and through her, he met me, who directed him to Christ; you also have the same opportunity to know how wonderful and fulfilling the Lord Jesus can be as well. It really is an incredible story, but we serve an incredibly awesome God who loves and delivers and strengthens us all.
-Angela
---------------------------------------- -------------
BTW: David miller had invited 5 of his friends from his Assemblies of God church to "come and see the Church that scares the Satanist" All of them were baptized in Jesus Name the same night i was delivered...
-Bro. Jerry :)
JustGiveMeTruth.com
posted by muttdog 2 days ago
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Hey Muttdog:
Great testamony, God is awesome! IC Rick
posted by vertigo1957
1 day ago
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Amen brother! So worthy to be praised! :)
posted by muttdog
1 day ago
2 months ago
On December 31st 2009 I will have celebrated thirty years as believe - born again Christian. Hears my story...
It was late fall of 1989 I was working partime at a Fed-Mart (now Wal-Mart) I had become friends with a girl "Ruth Barron." Man this was in love with Jesus stone head over heals in love. We kept running into one another in the store and lunch breakroom etc:. She was always telling me about Jesus. A few the guys I worked with started telling all about Ruth and her former life. I herd alot but it did'nt bother me. I herd she was the party Girl cat's delucks. Her I came from simler backrounds. We were both party kids and had done some crazy stuff.
Ruth invited me to a Bible Study one Friday night. I was welcomed and began meetting some folks that would help me with my questions and help me with getting to know Jesus. Soon I started attending church at the old North Park theater now known as Calvary Chaple North Park. The pastor was Mike Macintosh he had been part of the Calvary Chaple where Pastor Chuck Smith was the head pastor. One thing that struck me was the fact that on Wednsday evenings they had Christin Rock. Artists and bands such as Parrable, Dannel Amous, Keith Green, Larry Norman, Glenn Kaiser, The Rez Band, Darrell Mansfield, Lovesong, and Servent. Being a woobie musician this was the bomb.
A few month passed and when I herd that our church was going to host a Rockin New-Years Bash at the old downtown music theater featuring Darell Mansfield & Parable I just had to go. Darrell was the last to perform and when that brother told his story the light went on and I went foward to accept Jesus.
Now I'd like to say I've had a spotless, blaimless life with Jesus but that would be a lie. I have had more the Paul life with and in Christ. I have run from the Lord more time than I can count. I've been in and out of Jail a few times. I've been married and devorced two times the second was where I really ran in to trouble. We had a son "Warren" age eight now. He has Assburgers and there might be other mental illness assotiated with it. I have had a bunch of health related illness's (Dibeaties Type 2 Heart related illness etc:.)
I remarried for a third time to my crrent wife Carlyn (aka Songbird.) Togeather we lead worship at our church, We teach music and are at present putting a band together "One Small Stone" We also write our own music. One thing that has awed me is that Jesus has always stood by me no matter what. We care for my/our son Warren. His birth mother walked out on us and I was awared him when we were devorced.
A crazy life but a good one through Christ Jesus. I also am a Music Pastor here at this group's Sunday church "The Rock Of Ages' I really enjoy this group and thank God for it. Dutch, Desert have been like brother and sister to me. I've met some of you and you have impacted my life.
What is my/our future? Only God knows for sure. Now if I could get past the Paul thing and humble myself to serve God that would be awesome. Believe me I know what He God started won't be complete until He's ready.
God Bless You All - Rick Glenn
God Bless
It was late fall of 1989 I was working partime at a Fed-Mart (now Wal-Mart) I had become friends with a girl "Ruth Barron." Man this was in love with Jesus stone head over heals in love. We kept running into one another in the store and lunch breakroom etc:. She was always telling me about Jesus. A few the guys I worked with started telling all about Ruth and her former life. I herd alot but it did'nt bother me. I herd she was the party Girl cat's delucks. Her I came from simler backrounds. We were both party kids and had done some crazy stuff.
Ruth invited me to a Bible Study one Friday night. I was welcomed and began meetting some folks that would help me with my questions and help me with getting to know Jesus. Soon I started attending church at the old North Park theater now known as Calvary Chaple North Park. The pastor was Mike Macintosh he had been part of the Calvary Chaple where Pastor Chuck Smith was the head pastor. One thing that struck me was the fact that on Wednsday evenings they had Christin Rock. Artists and bands such as Parrable, Dannel Amous, Keith Green, Larry Norman, Glenn Kaiser, The Rez Band, Darrell Mansfield, Lovesong, and Servent. Being a woobie musician this was the bomb.
A few month passed and when I herd that our church was going to host a Rockin New-Years Bash at the old downtown music theater featuring Darell Mansfield & Parable I just had to go. Darrell was the last to perform and when that brother told his story the light went on and I went foward to accept Jesus.
Now I'd like to say I've had a spotless, blaimless life with Jesus but that would be a lie. I have had more the Paul life with and in Christ. I have run from the Lord more time than I can count. I've been in and out of Jail a few times. I've been married and devorced two times the second was where I really ran in to trouble. We had a son "Warren" age eight now. He has Assburgers and there might be other mental illness assotiated with it. I have had a bunch of health related illness's (Dibeaties Type 2 Heart related illness etc:.)
I remarried for a third time to my crrent wife Carlyn (aka Songbird.) Togeather we lead worship at our church, We teach music and are at present putting a band together "One Small Stone" We also write our own music. One thing that has awed me is that Jesus has always stood by me no matter what. We care for my/our son Warren. His birth mother walked out on us and I was awared him when we were devorced.
A crazy life but a good one through Christ Jesus. I also am a Music Pastor here at this group's Sunday church "The Rock Of Ages' I really enjoy this group and thank God for it. Dutch, Desert have been like brother and sister to me. I've met some of you and you have impacted my life.
What is my/our future? Only God knows for sure. Now if I could get past the Paul thing and humble myself to serve God that would be awesome. Believe me I know what He God started won't be complete until He's ready.
God Bless You All - Rick Glenn
God Bless
about 1 month ago
Praise the Lord Rick!
Philipians 1:6 - Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform [it] until the day of Jesus Christ:
Amen!!! :)
Philipians 1:6 - Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform [it] until the day of Jesus Christ:
Amen!!! :)
about 1 month ago
I am re-posting this testimony from Brother Jerry for those who didn't have an opportunity to read it. God is so awesome & worthy to be praised! Enjoy!
Biker Bar
I have a dear friend named Tim Taguchi. Physically, He is a small, little bitty, Asian guy with a thick Texas accent, which I tower over. That boy has the meekest of spirits! He also has the gift of divine healing, stronger and more pure then I have ever known in a person. He has been used by Jesus to relieve a simple headache from my brow, but also in many other ways as well!
When we were in college, we used to drive down to his place and eat real home cooking ministered to us by the hand of his Mom. He was attending a small Pentecostal church in a small south Texas town south west of Houston... His pastor is a fantastic man of God. Deeply in love with God! A Wonderfully inspired preacher! He did everything for that Church he could do. But when I met him, his church of around 150 souls was going thru a horrible time of stagnation… It was the oddest thing to sit in on the services… He would preach some of the most fantastic messages I had heard but it was always to a crowd of some of the most “wooden” Pentecostal believers I had ever seen. The fact that it was “Spring break”, and I was hanging out with Tim’s family for that week, and being that I was not under his pastoring authority, We visited him at his office and “humbly” asked him what was going wrong. I showed him the deepest of respect as we talked because, after all, he is a pastor and has a sacred calling that demands respect. I have left out the pastor’s name out of respect for this dilemma as it is not an easy thing.
His congregation was stuck. They weren’t rebellious; the church enjoyed almost perfect attendance at the weekly Thursday night prayer meetings. They desperately wanted revival, they prayed for it with tears. Basically he had taken so much responsibility in his church that his people were so comfortable and content, that they had actually forgotten how to witness. Tim told his pastor some of the wild things we had been seeing God do thru our aggressive university witnessing campaign. I suggested that, after he called my pastor, James Kilgore Sr., to get permission to borrow me, I would be honored to teach his people how to witness over the next month. He prayed about it, called my pastor, confessed his situation to him, and then called me at Tim’s house to ask us both for our help.
(Later, I found out that my pastor not only endorsed me but told Tim’s pastor to listen to everything I told him... My pastor also said not to tell me that he said this because he would have an almost impossible time popping my big head! ha ha ha)
We showed up an hour early to the prayer meeting and I told Tim that God was telling me to sweep the foyer. I had no idea, what so ever, WHY this was. The janitorial closet had a pad lock on the door. I became angry in the Spirit. I went to my car, got my (Jesus was a carpenter) driver out and proceeded to unscrew the entire locking mechanism off the door. I dropped it in the middle the floor and we busted out the brooms and mops. We began to sweep around the lock. We were halfway done when the pastor walked in. He looked around and flushed red with confusion and embarrassment at seeing me “his guest” sweeping his foyer.
He took away my broom and started furiously sweeping in anger and asked just what was going on. I told him that “Jesus wants him to learn why his church is asleep.” He froze. I picked up the locking mechanism and handed it to him and took the broom back. And, as I swept, God said thru me this: “Pastor, you are a good man! The Lord finds your labors in this church a monument of your love to these people and to Him, BUT, yes BUT
You have taken so much labor on your own shoulders that your flock has become guests in their OWN HOME. Do not lock your people away from serving God again! In fact you are to never clean this church again, EVER! It is time your people learned to serve their God. In fact, Jesus wants you to stand here now and watch your people as they serve their God.”
We then made him watch and follow us into the bathroom as Tim and I sang songs to Jesus while we busted out the toilets. The pastor was weeping in repentance by the time it was done. The entire congregation, as was their habit, showed up an hour later. He gave an awesome sermon about stewardship and service at that “prayer meeting”. He threw the lock on the floor from the pulpit and wept as he confessed how he was holding them back from serving Jesus. Tim whipped up the maintenance sign up list and the response was incredible. The congregation put the lock back on the door and handed out the keys to it, to everyone but the pastor. Half the pastor’s key ring was confiscated as well. He was never allowed by his congregation to touch a broom again. That was the first change.
The church paid for my gas to drive 2 hours one way. For the next four Sundays and Wednesdays. There was a short but excellent sermon. The pastor would then join the congregation and the witnessing classes began. Tim and I removed the pulpit and set out two chairs… and we sat down and started to eat our fast food breakfast. As we sat there and talked forever about our breakfast and what we ordered, the pastor, and his whole congregation sat there utterly perplexed and shocked … Tim finally dug in, and started to wolf down his egg and cheese biscuit, I gave Jesus thanks for mine. With his mouth full he said to me, “Hey man, why do you do that? Don’t you know you are just wasting your time?” I said “really! Why do you say that?”….and we were off to the witnessing races…! We covered multiple social backgrounds, Multiple type of sin addiction. We had the crowd start to get involved with points and suggestions. It was awesome This went on for the four weeks, and yet, not a single new person came into the churches door. I was confused and perplexed…
The last time I visited the church was at their prayer meeting on the final week. I asked the pastor if he had received any feed back. After sitting thru the Long list of compliments the pastor said that he had over heard one of the members say, “This is all fine and good but prayer is better then witnessing.” I sat there for a while and listened to all of them praying with tears for revival! The anger of the Lord profoundly fell over me!
I got up and shouted out loud as a I walked out the front door “You will never have revival until you get off your backsides and seize it.” There eyes rolled and they kept praying. I walked out of the church into the evening air and said “Why did you just have me do that Lord? What now! Here I am, lead me!”
Frustrated, I started to walk down the main street of the small town. That’s when I heard the glorious tones of Lynard Skynard calling out to me from a nasty looking bar with 20 or so Harley Motor Bikes out front.
The Holy Ghost Blew me away and I staggered in my suit and tie into the bar! Tim had followed me out of the church and had seen me just as I disappeared into the bar. It turns out this bar was very infamous for its violent crime problems. Tim ran after me.
The Lord God was so all over me I felt myself shaking. I remember buying a soda for the price of a beer and walking up to the biggest nastiest dude there. Sitting down, I told him boldly to his face that “God was going to have a show down with him here and now.” “Buddy” whipped out a big knife with his huge tattooed arm and stuck it in the table in front of my face, and said “run home to your momma boy, soda boy, before I skin you alive with this thing.” The laughter was defining! Tim walked in and turned white in horror.
God lead me to tell Buddy that “Jesus wants me to pray with you and that if you feel nothing, you are to throw me out of this bar and to kick my (Gluteus Maximus). Because if nothing happens, I am a liar and I deserve it…. I will press no charges.” He shouted, “Really, what if I just decided I wanted to cut you now.” I felt electricity leave my mouth as I leaned into his face and shouted back “You can’t… God won’t let you… Not until after I pray for you, Go ahead, try.” He reached out for the knife and could not take it out of the table. He pulled and pulled. The juke box stopped and the place fell silent… I stood up all the way, paused and reached out, paused again, so he knew what I was doing and then calmly put my hand on his temple and began to worship Jesus. “The Lord your God wants you to know he forgives you for what you did to your family in Florida. He wants to unite you, even this night! Jesus loves you so much! You can feel Him, can’t you…” the power of God started to fall on him. He began to shake as I started to worship Jesus in tongues… Buddy began to weep and then he confessed with large gasps of sorrow, how he had been reading a Motel Bible, the other day and asked God to “Prove He was real! He had shouted to God that he wanted a show down with him.”
One of his “Biker friends” got out of his chair and limped up to me from behind to hit me with a bottle. Tim Taguchi, my small Japanese friend had been slowly walking forward and caught his arm, and said under the authority of the Holy Ghost “You will no longer be called “Gimp”…. Jesus’ will now take that limp. The man fell down with his legs kicking! Other’s who were in the room, later said they saw his leg actually stretch in front of their eyes! He was healed on the spot! And He also started to weep as well. That’s when God said out of my mouth “The presence of the Most High God is in this place, come and know me says the Lord”. The place exploded as me and Tim took turns preaching! People were repenting all over the place. It was awesome!
We told them that a church was just down the street and that God wanted them to come now. As we left the bar, I casually reached out and removed the knife and handed it to Buddy. He wept even harder. The man with the healed leg ran next door to a vile apartment complex and shouted how he had a suit and wanted to wear it to the church! Tim followed him over and waited outside, while I lead the others up the street to the church.
As the healed man changed, Tim noticed a woman sitting at a concrete outdoor table crying over a cat fish dinner, her young daughter was trying to console her. Tim was perplexed because every True Texan knows it is impossible to cry over cat fish! It is way too good for that to ever happen. Moved with compassion he walked over, consoled her and talked her into coming to church as well.
12 souls followed me down to that church! I busted the front doors open and shouted “Behold, the glory of your prayers when they are linked to action! Man of God! Get up and start PREACHING!” Tim showed up shortly after. 15 souls heard the word of God. All of them repented, All of them spoke in tongues for the first time. The woman turned out to be Buddy’s wife from Florida! The church is now doing fine and holds more then 500 souls... The bar tender still hates all Pentecostals. The 13 bike gang members formed a Christian biker club with hundreds of members and meet at “Sturgis” every year to reach the lost…
Jesus was the author of every piece of this chain of events that worked out to be my greatest moment, thus far, in my life, ministering the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jesus and no one else deserves the Glory! He is the Lord of this victory!
I was just his willing son.
-Bro. Jerry
JustGiveMeTruth.com
Biker Bar
I have a dear friend named Tim Taguchi. Physically, He is a small, little bitty, Asian guy with a thick Texas accent, which I tower over. That boy has the meekest of spirits! He also has the gift of divine healing, stronger and more pure then I have ever known in a person. He has been used by Jesus to relieve a simple headache from my brow, but also in many other ways as well!
When we were in college, we used to drive down to his place and eat real home cooking ministered to us by the hand of his Mom. He was attending a small Pentecostal church in a small south Texas town south west of Houston... His pastor is a fantastic man of God. Deeply in love with God! A Wonderfully inspired preacher! He did everything for that Church he could do. But when I met him, his church of around 150 souls was going thru a horrible time of stagnation… It was the oddest thing to sit in on the services… He would preach some of the most fantastic messages I had heard but it was always to a crowd of some of the most “wooden” Pentecostal believers I had ever seen. The fact that it was “Spring break”, and I was hanging out with Tim’s family for that week, and being that I was not under his pastoring authority, We visited him at his office and “humbly” asked him what was going wrong. I showed him the deepest of respect as we talked because, after all, he is a pastor and has a sacred calling that demands respect. I have left out the pastor’s name out of respect for this dilemma as it is not an easy thing.
His congregation was stuck. They weren’t rebellious; the church enjoyed almost perfect attendance at the weekly Thursday night prayer meetings. They desperately wanted revival, they prayed for it with tears. Basically he had taken so much responsibility in his church that his people were so comfortable and content, that they had actually forgotten how to witness. Tim told his pastor some of the wild things we had been seeing God do thru our aggressive university witnessing campaign. I suggested that, after he called my pastor, James Kilgore Sr., to get permission to borrow me, I would be honored to teach his people how to witness over the next month. He prayed about it, called my pastor, confessed his situation to him, and then called me at Tim’s house to ask us both for our help.
(Later, I found out that my pastor not only endorsed me but told Tim’s pastor to listen to everything I told him... My pastor also said not to tell me that he said this because he would have an almost impossible time popping my big head! ha ha ha)
We showed up an hour early to the prayer meeting and I told Tim that God was telling me to sweep the foyer. I had no idea, what so ever, WHY this was. The janitorial closet had a pad lock on the door. I became angry in the Spirit. I went to my car, got my (Jesus was a carpenter) driver out and proceeded to unscrew the entire locking mechanism off the door. I dropped it in the middle the floor and we busted out the brooms and mops. We began to sweep around the lock. We were halfway done when the pastor walked in. He looked around and flushed red with confusion and embarrassment at seeing me “his guest” sweeping his foyer.
He took away my broom and started furiously sweeping in anger and asked just what was going on. I told him that “Jesus wants him to learn why his church is asleep.” He froze. I picked up the locking mechanism and handed it to him and took the broom back. And, as I swept, God said thru me this: “Pastor, you are a good man! The Lord finds your labors in this church a monument of your love to these people and to Him, BUT, yes BUT
You have taken so much labor on your own shoulders that your flock has become guests in their OWN HOME. Do not lock your people away from serving God again! In fact you are to never clean this church again, EVER! It is time your people learned to serve their God. In fact, Jesus wants you to stand here now and watch your people as they serve their God.”
We then made him watch and follow us into the bathroom as Tim and I sang songs to Jesus while we busted out the toilets. The pastor was weeping in repentance by the time it was done. The entire congregation, as was their habit, showed up an hour later. He gave an awesome sermon about stewardship and service at that “prayer meeting”. He threw the lock on the floor from the pulpit and wept as he confessed how he was holding them back from serving Jesus. Tim whipped up the maintenance sign up list and the response was incredible. The congregation put the lock back on the door and handed out the keys to it, to everyone but the pastor. Half the pastor’s key ring was confiscated as well. He was never allowed by his congregation to touch a broom again. That was the first change.
The church paid for my gas to drive 2 hours one way. For the next four Sundays and Wednesdays. There was a short but excellent sermon. The pastor would then join the congregation and the witnessing classes began. Tim and I removed the pulpit and set out two chairs… and we sat down and started to eat our fast food breakfast. As we sat there and talked forever about our breakfast and what we ordered, the pastor, and his whole congregation sat there utterly perplexed and shocked … Tim finally dug in, and started to wolf down his egg and cheese biscuit, I gave Jesus thanks for mine. With his mouth full he said to me, “Hey man, why do you do that? Don’t you know you are just wasting your time?” I said “really! Why do you say that?”….and we were off to the witnessing races…! We covered multiple social backgrounds, Multiple type of sin addiction. We had the crowd start to get involved with points and suggestions. It was awesome This went on for the four weeks, and yet, not a single new person came into the churches door. I was confused and perplexed…
The last time I visited the church was at their prayer meeting on the final week. I asked the pastor if he had received any feed back. After sitting thru the Long list of compliments the pastor said that he had over heard one of the members say, “This is all fine and good but prayer is better then witnessing.” I sat there for a while and listened to all of them praying with tears for revival! The anger of the Lord profoundly fell over me!
I got up and shouted out loud as a I walked out the front door “You will never have revival until you get off your backsides and seize it.” There eyes rolled and they kept praying. I walked out of the church into the evening air and said “Why did you just have me do that Lord? What now! Here I am, lead me!”
Frustrated, I started to walk down the main street of the small town. That’s when I heard the glorious tones of Lynard Skynard calling out to me from a nasty looking bar with 20 or so Harley Motor Bikes out front.
The Holy Ghost Blew me away and I staggered in my suit and tie into the bar! Tim had followed me out of the church and had seen me just as I disappeared into the bar. It turns out this bar was very infamous for its violent crime problems. Tim ran after me.
The Lord God was so all over me I felt myself shaking. I remember buying a soda for the price of a beer and walking up to the biggest nastiest dude there. Sitting down, I told him boldly to his face that “God was going to have a show down with him here and now.” “Buddy” whipped out a big knife with his huge tattooed arm and stuck it in the table in front of my face, and said “run home to your momma boy, soda boy, before I skin you alive with this thing.” The laughter was defining! Tim walked in and turned white in horror.
God lead me to tell Buddy that “Jesus wants me to pray with you and that if you feel nothing, you are to throw me out of this bar and to kick my (Gluteus Maximus). Because if nothing happens, I am a liar and I deserve it…. I will press no charges.” He shouted, “Really, what if I just decided I wanted to cut you now.” I felt electricity leave my mouth as I leaned into his face and shouted back “You can’t… God won’t let you… Not until after I pray for you, Go ahead, try.” He reached out for the knife and could not take it out of the table. He pulled and pulled. The juke box stopped and the place fell silent… I stood up all the way, paused and reached out, paused again, so he knew what I was doing and then calmly put my hand on his temple and began to worship Jesus. “The Lord your God wants you to know he forgives you for what you did to your family in Florida. He wants to unite you, even this night! Jesus loves you so much! You can feel Him, can’t you…” the power of God started to fall on him. He began to shake as I started to worship Jesus in tongues… Buddy began to weep and then he confessed with large gasps of sorrow, how he had been reading a Motel Bible, the other day and asked God to “Prove He was real! He had shouted to God that he wanted a show down with him.”
One of his “Biker friends” got out of his chair and limped up to me from behind to hit me with a bottle. Tim Taguchi, my small Japanese friend had been slowly walking forward and caught his arm, and said under the authority of the Holy Ghost “You will no longer be called “Gimp”…. Jesus’ will now take that limp. The man fell down with his legs kicking! Other’s who were in the room, later said they saw his leg actually stretch in front of their eyes! He was healed on the spot! And He also started to weep as well. That’s when God said out of my mouth “The presence of the Most High God is in this place, come and know me says the Lord”. The place exploded as me and Tim took turns preaching! People were repenting all over the place. It was awesome!
We told them that a church was just down the street and that God wanted them to come now. As we left the bar, I casually reached out and removed the knife and handed it to Buddy. He wept even harder. The man with the healed leg ran next door to a vile apartment complex and shouted how he had a suit and wanted to wear it to the church! Tim followed him over and waited outside, while I lead the others up the street to the church.
As the healed man changed, Tim noticed a woman sitting at a concrete outdoor table crying over a cat fish dinner, her young daughter was trying to console her. Tim was perplexed because every True Texan knows it is impossible to cry over cat fish! It is way too good for that to ever happen. Moved with compassion he walked over, consoled her and talked her into coming to church as well.
12 souls followed me down to that church! I busted the front doors open and shouted “Behold, the glory of your prayers when they are linked to action! Man of God! Get up and start PREACHING!” Tim showed up shortly after. 15 souls heard the word of God. All of them repented, All of them spoke in tongues for the first time. The woman turned out to be Buddy’s wife from Florida! The church is now doing fine and holds more then 500 souls... The bar tender still hates all Pentecostals. The 13 bike gang members formed a Christian biker club with hundreds of members and meet at “Sturgis” every year to reach the lost…
Jesus was the author of every piece of this chain of events that worked out to be my greatest moment, thus far, in my life, ministering the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jesus and no one else deserves the Glory! He is the Lord of this victory!
I was just his willing son.
-Bro. Jerry
JustGiveMeTruth.com
about 1 month ago
Thank you muttdog... The love and advice is recieved bro... Bikerbar was awesome Praise God...
God Bless Rick
God Bless Rick
about 1 month ago
Hi Diana.
Praise God and thank's for starting this post... Rick
Praise God and thank's for starting this post... Rick
about 1 month ago
Here is my testimony again for those who may have missed it the first time around:
Wow...where do I start? I was raised in the United Methodist Church. My parents took me to church every Sunday when I was a child...dropped me off...they didn't attend themselves at first. I think they dropped me off for 8 or 9 years without ever missing. I was well versed in the Scriptures & knew them. By the time I was a teenager, I had prayed the 'sinners prayer' so many times I lost count. I began to think there was no hope for me. I couldn't seem to keep myself from sinning. Then I would go to a good service & get under conviction & repent & cry & try one more time...only to continually fail & fall back into sin. This cycle repeated itself throughout my teen years.
I started smoking cigarettes in the fifth grade & drinking alcohol every weekend in the sixth grade, by the time I made it to junior high I was smoking dope. I stayed this course over the next couple years, getting worse & worse, doing more & more. Then about the 9th grade, there was this kid...his name was Irvin ...mean as a devil...feared of many...who would walk right up to you and stick his hand in your pocket and steal whatever you had & you knew better than to resist or you would pay with your blood & still be robbed. He had a reputation. You learned to avoid him at all cost. Anyway...this fella came into studyhall one day...and was smiling...he never smiled! & he had a book tucked under his arm...it was a Bible! He approached me at some point...real soft-spoken and serious with an entirely different demeanor which was foreign to him previously ...nice... loving ...caring....but SCARY!
However, though, you could not help but notice this transformation! He WAS changed! He wanted to talk to me about Christ & the plan of salvation...I said sure! Even though I knew I was well versed in the Scriptures...likewise I knew I was missing something too! I listened to everything he said...intently...knowing he had SOMETHING! & I wanted it too! He explained how we needed to repent & to be baptized. I explained how I have tried but keep failing, he asked if I had prayed through & received the Holy Ghost as promised in the Scriptures...I had not! He asked if I had been baptized since I believed? & if so, how? & what had I been baptized into? I didn't even know for sure...he expounded upon the Scriptures & showed me the plan of salvation in Acts 2:38 and invited me to his church. I accepted. I went for several weeks, I got properly baptized according to the Scriptures and sought to pray through to the Holy Ghost...I would pray & worship & seek, but it never happened & I became discouraged & quit attending & before I realized, I had slipped back into all of my old ways!
Time marched on, I got worse & worse & ended up on the hard stuff...I was doing everything that was offered me...cocaine, LSD, speed, crystal meth, quaaludes, anything I could get my hands on for a high... except heroin (which was offered.) I was 17 & going nowhere fast!
I feel like Matthew 12:43-45 & Luke 11:24-26 apply here, as I was worse off than when I had started because I did not continue seeking until I was filled! I still believed in God & did not understand why I seemed so powerless & hopeless over the sin in my life, & it was because I never prayed through! I never received the gift of the Holy Ghost! Which is the power! I didn't keep up my pursuit, the Lord requires us to relinquish ourselves to him 100% ... we must die to ourselves in order to live for Him... and I hadn't been able to overcome that barrier & I should have been relentless & persevered!!! (I didn't realize this or find it out until 12 years later)
I never had a girlfriend, and had only been on a few dates in my life. Though I was outgoing & an extrovert, when it came to females, I was shy & timid. But nevertheless, knowing the truth that relationships are about fidelity & marriage is a committment & vow to each other & God, and not about how many conquests...(so thankful for parents dropping me off all those years!) I prayed the Lord would bless me with a wife to grow old with...and though I wasn't right with the Lord or where I was supposed to be in Him...He is faithful & true & blessed me with the most wonderful woman, whom I just celebrated 26 years of marriage with this year!
I praise the Lord He allowed me to fall in love with her. Had I not, I was headed for ruin/disaster, maybe even prison & ultimately death. She laid down the law when it came to my drinking & drugging, and let me know I couldn't have her and them both. It was hard at first, and I quit for the most part...but until I was filled with the Holy Ghost later on, I slipped in and out of sobriety not being faithful to my pledge to be drug & alcohol free...because I didn't have the power over my flesh. I was arrested on numerous occasions over the first 9 years of our marriage on various alcohol related charges/incidents. I would then pledge to quit again & I would be good for a couple/three years and then convince myself I was able to drink again...only to continually fail & would always end up in more trouble.
In the meantime, my wife and I believed in God & the Bible, but could not find anyplace to worship where it was for real. It seemed everywhere we went & tried, they were just a bunch of hypocrites playing church ...everywhere! (Of course we were not right with God at this point either, but we were at least trying & not being content with where we were at in God, unlike everyone else who was satisfied with their hypocrisy.) We tried them all! The Church of God, The Church of Christ, Lutheran, Methodist, Nazarene, Presbyterian, Baptist, Southern Baptist, Assembly of God, Interdenominational, Non-denominational, Charismatic and many, many more I cannot even recall...all the while I had forgotten all about Irvin's church & his transformation & how I had been seeking to pray through, but did not persevere, but let discouragement overcome me.
Finally, after 9 years of marriage & military service, living in South Texas on the Mexican border, I was hungry for God! I knew this life was about Him & our souls! I realized I was living a lie! I was not honoring God with how I lived my life. I wasn't even close to being faithful, no matter how I tried to convince myself in my heart. I would try to justify myself by looking at others and saying I'm a better Christian than they are...look at them! But they were hypocrites and so was I! There was no comparison! I had to shamefully compare myself to the Word of God...and I wasn't lining up! I was a miserably wretched man living in sin! I NEEDED THE LORD, I WAS LOST AND I NEEDED TO BE FOUND!
Though I was very cynical and discouraged, I knew we needed to be in church. I asked my wife after work one day..."What are we here for?" ... and without having to explain, she knew I wasn't talking about Texas! She replied..."to serve God" and I asked, "Are we doing that?" she said, "no." I said, "we need to." We stopped right there and I said we need to pray, and we both prayed a prayer that God would send us to the church He would have us to attend. (After trying so many, we didn't want to waste any more time & went straight to Him about it...shoulda done that first!)
It is truly amazing what happens when you pray for the 'Lord's will' to be done and not our own! The very next day, I am sharing our spiritual situation with a fellow officer (I was an SP[Security Police] in the USAF) and he says..."you need to go to the church my wife goes to!" I then inquired further of him, asking if it was Spirit filled? and on fire? and his reply was.. "Oh yeahhhhh!!!" So I found out what the times of their services were and made plans, but I knew I would feel strange and out of place...not being invited or anything, plus a little scared...so I asked my buddy if he would go with us, after all his wife goes there. At first he said "no way!" which of course I questioned & he really couldn't refute, as it made me question the church...was there something wrong with it? is there something you're not telling us? I asked. Nope, not at all...it was just that he was backslidden and living in sin himself and was under great conviction when going there and did not want to, but for our sakes he said he would go, just that once! & he did! :) Thanks Michael! (my understanding is he has found his way back into the fold!)
When we arrived we were welcomed so warmly, unlike any church we had previously attended...they were genuinely happy and glad to see us there! You could feel the presence of the Almighty! His Spirit was there! in power & they were ushering in His presence with their praise! Enter His gates with thanksgiving & His courts with praise! It was such a wonderfully uplifting experience, we definitely wanted to come back and were sooo looking forward to it! We wanted more of what we felt! We could see something different in everyone..it was Jesus!
Over the next few weeks, we were so excited! Our lives were starting to center around the Lord...the way it is supposed to! Church was the main event...we looked forward to every service, it was joyful, uplifting, & spiritually filling....but we still hadn't 'prayed through' and been filled with the Holy Ghost as the Scriptures promise. However, we were making every attempt and was taking advantage of every altar call...my wife prayed through first, Praise God! She spoke in tongues as the Lord filled her with His Spirit, just like the upper room on the day of Pentecost...but I didn't get filled. We kept going for a few services, and each time I tarried at the altar, sweat and tears streaming down my face after close to an hour of seeking the Holy Ghost...but I still was not filled. Finally, the pastor sat me on the front pew and asked me if there was anything in my life that maybe the Lord would want me to purge or otherwise give up before He would fill me? and I thought about it....and he even gave me an example of a man who had a large collection of pornography while he sought God, but didn't get filled until he discarded it.
I then realized that I had a music collection of all the worst possible music a man could own, about $5,000 worth of compact discs, etc. I had already thought about getting rid of them shortly after going to the church, (knowing that none of it was edifying or pleasing to God,) but never followed through with it. Once I realized what I needed to do, I got rid of all my music, and the next church service I prayed through to the Holy Ghost...the Lord filled me up!!! I spoke in tongues as the Spirit of God gave the utterance and I surrendered to Him completely... the experience is unlike anything in all the world that I have ever experienced and trumps every pleasant thing! It was like every cell & molecule of my being was dancing & jumping for joy!!! There is nothing that can remotely compare... as Phillipians 4:7 says: And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
I remember how excited I was once the Lord filled me...the Scriptures came alive! He made my understanding fruitful & what a great joy to finally realize the mystery of the Gospel of Christ, to truly be enlightened! Thank you Jesus! Then I remembered Irvin! I called back home to find out where he was, as I desired to speak with him...to share the great news! Come to find out...he was living in Texas too! About a days drive away. Once I had his telephone # that his family had given me, I called. He was surprised to hear from me and the Holy Ghost moved upon him during that call and he began speaking in tongues to the Lord on the phone & was moved with great joy, as he had told me then, that he had been praying just recently and had asked the Lord about 'all those people' which he had shared the Gospel & had brought to church & when he received my call, it was like the Lord answering a prayer & encouraging him. God is sooooo Good!!!
By the way, the church was a United Pentecostal Church International (UPCI) for anyone interested. Many churches call themselves Pentecostal as we have learned through our search for truth, but this particular one is different than the others with 'Pentecostal' in their name. So if you are searching for a similar experience, stick with a UPCI church, they have a site here on the internet with a 'church locator' on the main page to assist you in finding a place of worship close to you. God bless you!
II COR 6:2 - (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now [is] the accepted time; behold, now [is] the day of salvation.)
Our lives have never been the same since those days...Praise God! We have had plenty of struggles, trials, tribulations & negative experiences (we could write a book!) but the Lord has seen us through them all! Our hope & trust is in Him, He will see us through all things, even that which we are struggling through right now, yet another battle!
I John 4:4 - Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
Praise be to Jesus!!! Hallelujah!!! Glory be to thy Holy Name oh God!!!
Thanks for the opportunity to share my testimony, what a blessing!
Wow...where do I start? I was raised in the United Methodist Church. My parents took me to church every Sunday when I was a child...dropped me off...they didn't attend themselves at first. I think they dropped me off for 8 or 9 years without ever missing. I was well versed in the Scriptures & knew them. By the time I was a teenager, I had prayed the 'sinners prayer' so many times I lost count. I began to think there was no hope for me. I couldn't seem to keep myself from sinning. Then I would go to a good service & get under conviction & repent & cry & try one more time...only to continually fail & fall back into sin. This cycle repeated itself throughout my teen years.
I started smoking cigarettes in the fifth grade & drinking alcohol every weekend in the sixth grade, by the time I made it to junior high I was smoking dope. I stayed this course over the next couple years, getting worse & worse, doing more & more. Then about the 9th grade, there was this kid...his name was Irvin ...mean as a devil...feared of many...who would walk right up to you and stick his hand in your pocket and steal whatever you had & you knew better than to resist or you would pay with your blood & still be robbed. He had a reputation. You learned to avoid him at all cost. Anyway...this fella came into studyhall one day...and was smiling...he never smiled! & he had a book tucked under his arm...it was a Bible! He approached me at some point...real soft-spoken and serious with an entirely different demeanor which was foreign to him previously ...nice... loving ...caring....but SCARY!
However, though, you could not help but notice this transformation! He WAS changed! He wanted to talk to me about Christ & the plan of salvation...I said sure! Even though I knew I was well versed in the Scriptures...likewise I knew I was missing something too! I listened to everything he said...intently...knowing he had SOMETHING! & I wanted it too! He explained how we needed to repent & to be baptized. I explained how I have tried but keep failing, he asked if I had prayed through & received the Holy Ghost as promised in the Scriptures...I had not! He asked if I had been baptized since I believed? & if so, how? & what had I been baptized into? I didn't even know for sure...he expounded upon the Scriptures & showed me the plan of salvation in Acts 2:38 and invited me to his church. I accepted. I went for several weeks, I got properly baptized according to the Scriptures and sought to pray through to the Holy Ghost...I would pray & worship & seek, but it never happened & I became discouraged & quit attending & before I realized, I had slipped back into all of my old ways!
Time marched on, I got worse & worse & ended up on the hard stuff...I was doing everything that was offered me...cocaine, LSD, speed, crystal meth, quaaludes, anything I could get my hands on for a high... except heroin (which was offered.) I was 17 & going nowhere fast!
I feel like Matthew 12:43-45 & Luke 11:24-26 apply here, as I was worse off than when I had started because I did not continue seeking until I was filled! I still believed in God & did not understand why I seemed so powerless & hopeless over the sin in my life, & it was because I never prayed through! I never received the gift of the Holy Ghost! Which is the power! I didn't keep up my pursuit, the Lord requires us to relinquish ourselves to him 100% ... we must die to ourselves in order to live for Him... and I hadn't been able to overcome that barrier & I should have been relentless & persevered!!! (I didn't realize this or find it out until 12 years later)
I never had a girlfriend, and had only been on a few dates in my life. Though I was outgoing & an extrovert, when it came to females, I was shy & timid. But nevertheless, knowing the truth that relationships are about fidelity & marriage is a committment & vow to each other & God, and not about how many conquests...(so thankful for parents dropping me off all those years!) I prayed the Lord would bless me with a wife to grow old with...and though I wasn't right with the Lord or where I was supposed to be in Him...He is faithful & true & blessed me with the most wonderful woman, whom I just celebrated 26 years of marriage with this year!
I praise the Lord He allowed me to fall in love with her. Had I not, I was headed for ruin/disaster, maybe even prison & ultimately death. She laid down the law when it came to my drinking & drugging, and let me know I couldn't have her and them both. It was hard at first, and I quit for the most part...but until I was filled with the Holy Ghost later on, I slipped in and out of sobriety not being faithful to my pledge to be drug & alcohol free...because I didn't have the power over my flesh. I was arrested on numerous occasions over the first 9 years of our marriage on various alcohol related charges/incidents. I would then pledge to quit again & I would be good for a couple/three years and then convince myself I was able to drink again...only to continually fail & would always end up in more trouble.
In the meantime, my wife and I believed in God & the Bible, but could not find anyplace to worship where it was for real. It seemed everywhere we went & tried, they were just a bunch of hypocrites playing church ...everywhere! (Of course we were not right with God at this point either, but we were at least trying & not being content with where we were at in God, unlike everyone else who was satisfied with their hypocrisy.) We tried them all! The Church of God, The Church of Christ, Lutheran, Methodist, Nazarene, Presbyterian, Baptist, Southern Baptist, Assembly of God, Interdenominational, Non-denominational, Charismatic and many, many more I cannot even recall...all the while I had forgotten all about Irvin's church & his transformation & how I had been seeking to pray through, but did not persevere, but let discouragement overcome me.
Finally, after 9 years of marriage & military service, living in South Texas on the Mexican border, I was hungry for God! I knew this life was about Him & our souls! I realized I was living a lie! I was not honoring God with how I lived my life. I wasn't even close to being faithful, no matter how I tried to convince myself in my heart. I would try to justify myself by looking at others and saying I'm a better Christian than they are...look at them! But they were hypocrites and so was I! There was no comparison! I had to shamefully compare myself to the Word of God...and I wasn't lining up! I was a miserably wretched man living in sin! I NEEDED THE LORD, I WAS LOST AND I NEEDED TO BE FOUND!
Though I was very cynical and discouraged, I knew we needed to be in church. I asked my wife after work one day..."What are we here for?" ... and without having to explain, she knew I wasn't talking about Texas! She replied..."to serve God" and I asked, "Are we doing that?" she said, "no." I said, "we need to." We stopped right there and I said we need to pray, and we both prayed a prayer that God would send us to the church He would have us to attend. (After trying so many, we didn't want to waste any more time & went straight to Him about it...shoulda done that first!)
It is truly amazing what happens when you pray for the 'Lord's will' to be done and not our own! The very next day, I am sharing our spiritual situation with a fellow officer (I was an SP[Security Police] in the USAF) and he says..."you need to go to the church my wife goes to!" I then inquired further of him, asking if it was Spirit filled? and on fire? and his reply was.. "Oh yeahhhhh!!!" So I found out what the times of their services were and made plans, but I knew I would feel strange and out of place...not being invited or anything, plus a little scared...so I asked my buddy if he would go with us, after all his wife goes there. At first he said "no way!" which of course I questioned & he really couldn't refute, as it made me question the church...was there something wrong with it? is there something you're not telling us? I asked. Nope, not at all...it was just that he was backslidden and living in sin himself and was under great conviction when going there and did not want to, but for our sakes he said he would go, just that once! & he did! :) Thanks Michael! (my understanding is he has found his way back into the fold!)
When we arrived we were welcomed so warmly, unlike any church we had previously attended...they were genuinely happy and glad to see us there! You could feel the presence of the Almighty! His Spirit was there! in power & they were ushering in His presence with their praise! Enter His gates with thanksgiving & His courts with praise! It was such a wonderfully uplifting experience, we definitely wanted to come back and were sooo looking forward to it! We wanted more of what we felt! We could see something different in everyone..it was Jesus!
Over the next few weeks, we were so excited! Our lives were starting to center around the Lord...the way it is supposed to! Church was the main event...we looked forward to every service, it was joyful, uplifting, & spiritually filling....but we still hadn't 'prayed through' and been filled with the Holy Ghost as the Scriptures promise. However, we were making every attempt and was taking advantage of every altar call...my wife prayed through first, Praise God! She spoke in tongues as the Lord filled her with His Spirit, just like the upper room on the day of Pentecost...but I didn't get filled. We kept going for a few services, and each time I tarried at the altar, sweat and tears streaming down my face after close to an hour of seeking the Holy Ghost...but I still was not filled. Finally, the pastor sat me on the front pew and asked me if there was anything in my life that maybe the Lord would want me to purge or otherwise give up before He would fill me? and I thought about it....and he even gave me an example of a man who had a large collection of pornography while he sought God, but didn't get filled until he discarded it.
I then realized that I had a music collection of all the worst possible music a man could own, about $5,000 worth of compact discs, etc. I had already thought about getting rid of them shortly after going to the church, (knowing that none of it was edifying or pleasing to God,) but never followed through with it. Once I realized what I needed to do, I got rid of all my music, and the next church service I prayed through to the Holy Ghost...the Lord filled me up!!! I spoke in tongues as the Spirit of God gave the utterance and I surrendered to Him completely... the experience is unlike anything in all the world that I have ever experienced and trumps every pleasant thing! It was like every cell & molecule of my being was dancing & jumping for joy!!! There is nothing that can remotely compare... as Phillipians 4:7 says: And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
I remember how excited I was once the Lord filled me...the Scriptures came alive! He made my understanding fruitful & what a great joy to finally realize the mystery of the Gospel of Christ, to truly be enlightened! Thank you Jesus! Then I remembered Irvin! I called back home to find out where he was, as I desired to speak with him...to share the great news! Come to find out...he was living in Texas too! About a days drive away. Once I had his telephone # that his family had given me, I called. He was surprised to hear from me and the Holy Ghost moved upon him during that call and he began speaking in tongues to the Lord on the phone & was moved with great joy, as he had told me then, that he had been praying just recently and had asked the Lord about 'all those people' which he had shared the Gospel & had brought to church & when he received my call, it was like the Lord answering a prayer & encouraging him. God is sooooo Good!!!
By the way, the church was a United Pentecostal Church International (UPCI) for anyone interested. Many churches call themselves Pentecostal as we have learned through our search for truth, but this particular one is different than the others with 'Pentecostal' in their name. So if you are searching for a similar experience, stick with a UPCI church, they have a site here on the internet with a 'church locator' on the main page to assist you in finding a place of worship close to you. God bless you!
II COR 6:2 - (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now [is] the accepted time; behold, now [is] the day of salvation.)
Our lives have never been the same since those days...Praise God! We have had plenty of struggles, trials, tribulations & negative experiences (we could write a book!) but the Lord has seen us through them all! Our hope & trust is in Him, He will see us through all things, even that which we are struggling through right now, yet another battle!
I John 4:4 - Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
Praise be to Jesus!!! Hallelujah!!! Glory be to thy Holy Name oh God!!!
Thanks for the opportunity to share my testimony, what a blessing!
about 1 month ago
Thank-You muttdog for taking the time to post these again! I hope everyone will take notice and read all the above testimonies that you have shared with us! They are wonderful and it just shows how AWESOME our God is!
about 1 month ago
Hi DesertStar! It is an honor & a privilege to share...I have found another testimony from Brother Jerry I would like to share...it is awesome...because so is our God! :)
Here it is:
First let me say, Your prayers worked. I am recovering well. The constant pain in my arm is gone. And my head is no longer permanently bent down and sideways. I am on Hydrocodone and I tend to fall asleep 8 times a day.
It has been 3 days since I was put under the knife. And The LORD has shown me some Amazing things.
Ironically, These last few days have been spiritually some of the best of my life. But for you guys to grasp how incredible they have been I must start form the beginning.
A month ago, having lost $50 thousand dollars in the stock market, I sold everything and washed out of the stock market. The check containing what was left of my inheritance was received, deposited two weeks later, and put on hold for 2 weeks more. At this time one of my born again, co-workers let slip to another that she was in deep financial trouble. And the Lord started to deal with me about her. You see, I have always had problems surrendering large amounts of money for anything. Much less willing to give away large amounts freely. This has always been a stronghold in my life.
The amount Jesus put upon my heart to give her sucked the wind out of me to say the least. And so, Jesus And I struggled over it for the entire month my “nest egg” money was locked down.
On Sunday the 22nd, My pastor preached a message about “greed and the power of giving” with all the biblical technicalities involved. This message cut me to the heart as my co-worker’s situation was brought back to me by the Spirit of Christ. Yet I resisted it, and when I got into my car to go home, the radio had the SAME message but focused upon the woman who gave Elisha the small cake. I Told Jesus I would give her the money but that I had to KNOW it was His will in a real unmistakable way.
My operation was scheduled on the afternoon of Tuesday the 24th. On that Tuesday morning my wife and I had an appointment at a coin shop to invest 25% of our nest egg in precious metals. On Monday the 23rd the money in the bank became accessible. On that Monday morning I arrived at work and on my desk was a breakfast biscuit, with a note on it saying “I will be praying for you and your operation” and it was from that same hurting sister in question whom Jesus had been dealing with me.
I went to the bank and pulled out all the money in cash my wife and I were going to need for the metal investment on Tuesday, plus the Large amount Jesus told me to give her. Honestly, when I gave her the money, letting go of all that money in the envelope was one of the hardest things I had ever financially done. She was weeping and praising God for it & it was the exact impossibly large amount she needed! That obedience was nice but also agony to me.
That same day my boss insisted I turn in my doctor’s note for my surgery, and the nurse in his office refused to fax me one, so grumbling about the hassle at lunch time, I drove all the way to my surgeon’s office in North Raleigh to pick up the note. On the way there, I called the Coin shop and got an updated quote on the cost of the gold we wanted to invest in. When I drove away from my Doc’s office, with said note I hand, I messed up and turned the wrong way. As I tried to figure out where I was and how to turn around, I drove right past another coin shop that had a sign out front with its phone number on it. Just for fun, I called the number, and asked the guy for a quote on the same amount of gold we where scheduled to buy the next day. Not only did the guy have the exact number of coins we wanted to buy, but he had personally bought them “cheap” for his own investment over the weekend! He told me these coins did not belong to his shop, so he was more then willing to turn them around for quick profit, tax free to me, if I could buy them in cash. Which I was carrying in my pocket! When he told me his price, I slammed on the brakes!
Ten minutes later, I owned the exact number of coins, my wife and I where already going to buy the next morning. And The LORD gave them to me, saving me, returning to me, the exact amount of money I had given away to my sister only TWO HOURS BEFORE!
GLORY!!!
But wait, there is MORE!
When I went to Israel last year, two of the things I wanted to buy there were a real 1st century roman silver coin and a real widows mite. I had done the research and even had pictures of them that I took on the trip with me. Both of which I could not find in Israel that was not a forgery or ridiculously priced. So I let that dream die. On Tuesday morning, the day of my surgery, my wife and I went to the appointment at the coin shop and bought silver. While we where there...expecting nothing...I asked if they happened to have any 1st century Israeli or Roman coins. They had BOTH a perfectly preserved, perfectly struck in Judea, fully documented Roman silver coin and a widow’s mite. I now own them both and picked them up for a fraction of the price the internet was quoting them to be. The shop owner and I weighed the real roman silver coin, ran the math, and I now have a small leather bag containing the exact amount of silver by weight that Judas sold out Jesus for. And it is shocking how little the bag weighs. Holding it, makes you want to weep for how cheaply Judas sold out his own soul.
But wait there is MORE!
The afternoon of Tuesday, I was checked into the hospital and was rolled into surgery.
I was scheduled to have a simple one hour operation to have my herniated disk removed because it was pressing my spinal cord in half and to have a cadaver bone put into it’s place with that section on my neck being fused by a small bracket.
BUT--- When they opened me up, they found my neck bones started to fall apart! It turns out that 6 months ago, the car accident I was in had broken my neck! I have been literally walking around for over 6 months with a broken neck, where one fall could have killed me or paralyzed me for life! Jesus had protected me all this time from this disaster, and the surgeon did not understand how I could have physically lived with the pain that long. My simple “one hour” surgery had instantly turned into a 3 hour “touch and go ordeal”. What was to be my 1 inch surgical puncture was turned into a 5 inch gash across my throat so they could “reach everything.” What is also amazing, is that my surgeon also happens to be one of the best traumatic broken neck repair surgeons in America. The situation I was in was right up his professional ally. Thank you Jesus!
But wait there IS MORE!
While I was under….
While I was under, in a surgically induced coma. I was not alone!
What should have been a few minutes of blackness for me, just to awaken to a nurse in “post op” turned into a 20 minute discussion with Jesus! I am weeping now just thinking about it!
There I was, laying on the operating table, under the lights, counting down, and everything faded to black. I was resting in this darkness, for what seemed a minute or so. Then I was walking in a field of waist high golden wheat. I had always been there. The day was a perfect “sun shiney day” but there was no sun! Just light. The wind that lightly blew sending waves through the wheat smelled lightly sweet of every flower ever created! The smell was so subtle and yet was overwhelmingly wonderful all at once. As I walked, feeling the wheat touching the underside of my hand I came across a small clearing where a large white and blue tallit was laid down like a picnic blanket. As I stepped onto it I realized it was a tallit and worried if I had gotten it dirty with my shoes. But I had no shoes on! And as I sat down I realized where I was, there was no such thing as dirt, or bugs, here. Everything was perfect! I was in perfect health. I was young, fit, and strong. Every hair on my body had a thing for this place. My very atoms harmonized and matched the glow of everything else in the field. I was finally in reality. A reality that was so perfect that our world seems rice paper thin, in all it’s fakeness, in comparson.
Then He was there!!!
Jesus took my hand and sat down next to me. Holding my hand in his we talked and talked. He laughed at my silly questions and answered them all. The thing I remember about Jesus’ face was His eyes, His eyes where such a beautiful brown and they looked through me, sending waves of love, acceptance and pure joy through me. I was so shy. So shy that I could only glance into those eyes only a few times before I blushed and turned away. The Love, the love was so thick, and strong that just sitting there I KNEW exactly how much he loved me, no matter how much of a mess I was. Jesus Loves me. He loves me with such a passion that my human words could never, ever, describe it well enough if I wrote about it for a thousand years. I am weeping as I write this! It was so overwhelming!
I was with Our LORD for what seemed 20 minutes and I can’t remember a single question or answer! But I do remember Jesus’ character. His casual, laid back friendship and my absolute utter acceptance by him. I feel like a 2 year old with a crayon trying to draw you guys a picture of the ceiling of the sixtieth chapel! I feel like a kid fresh out of a nazi consideration camp trying to describe the 15 course meal I just had with the Queen of England, and all I have to offer you is a pathetic Twinkie as proof! Heaven MUST have it’s own language because human words can’t even touch what I am trying to tell you about sitting in Jesus’ love!!!
I was in paradise holding the very hand of the lover of my soul and then, I was flat on may back, in agony, being yelled at by a nurse! I simply told her I wanted to “go back to the field”...I stopped breathing...the alarms went off and faded away. They had to revive me 3 times and each time I told them That “This place was only a dream and that I wanted to go back to the field to be with my LORD” and I would stop breathing. After reviving me for the third time the pain was so bad I could not find my way back home. All I could do was lay there weeping in pain and disappointment as I spoke in tongues. They then put me on the maximum dose of morphine and admitted me to stay in the hospital for overnight observation.
But there is MORE...
Around 8pm that night they rolled into my hospital room a man who had just had a heart attack! As they admitted him, they asked him if he wanted to talk to a chaplain, he cursed and spat out “no”. And hour passed and the man started to moan and cry out that he was going to die. He had No hope! None! Here I am having just spent the afternoon with the Creator of the universe, and this guy was so utterly lost that he could only moan and cry like a condemned felon with the death penalty. There could not possibly be a greater dichotomy of person’s experiencing the differences of grace in that room!
So I spent the night preaching through the curtain to him about the Love of Jesus for him! I told him that He was not going to die, because the Kingdom of God had drawn near to him and that Jesus had brought us both together for this very night! I said many things I don’t remember. But I do remember it was filtered directly through the very sense of character I had felt in that field.
When I checked out of the hospital, he had already had by pass surgery, and he begged me to pray with him. I lead him through repentance. He told me that his sister was coming to see him and that she was Pentecostal. I told him to go to church with her, to be baptized in Jesus’ name and that Jesus would meet him there with a power and grace he never imagined ever knowing and that when Jesus did meet him that he would shout in a new language when it happened.
Like I said it has been an amazing few days
But then so amazing is the God we serve!
Brother Jerry mentions his trip to Israel, and I also would like to share some of the pictures he took which were made into a video for him by another brother, here is the link: view link
Also, here is a link to another forum where Jerry frequents. He operates under the handle: Steadfast ... the name of the site is Just Give Me Truth! view link
Here it is:
First let me say, Your prayers worked. I am recovering well. The constant pain in my arm is gone. And my head is no longer permanently bent down and sideways. I am on Hydrocodone and I tend to fall asleep 8 times a day.
It has been 3 days since I was put under the knife. And The LORD has shown me some Amazing things.
Ironically, These last few days have been spiritually some of the best of my life. But for you guys to grasp how incredible they have been I must start form the beginning.
A month ago, having lost $50 thousand dollars in the stock market, I sold everything and washed out of the stock market. The check containing what was left of my inheritance was received, deposited two weeks later, and put on hold for 2 weeks more. At this time one of my born again, co-workers let slip to another that she was in deep financial trouble. And the Lord started to deal with me about her. You see, I have always had problems surrendering large amounts of money for anything. Much less willing to give away large amounts freely. This has always been a stronghold in my life.
The amount Jesus put upon my heart to give her sucked the wind out of me to say the least. And so, Jesus And I struggled over it for the entire month my “nest egg” money was locked down.
On Sunday the 22nd, My pastor preached a message about “greed and the power of giving” with all the biblical technicalities involved. This message cut me to the heart as my co-worker’s situation was brought back to me by the Spirit of Christ. Yet I resisted it, and when I got into my car to go home, the radio had the SAME message but focused upon the woman who gave Elisha the small cake. I Told Jesus I would give her the money but that I had to KNOW it was His will in a real unmistakable way.
My operation was scheduled on the afternoon of Tuesday the 24th. On that Tuesday morning my wife and I had an appointment at a coin shop to invest 25% of our nest egg in precious metals. On Monday the 23rd the money in the bank became accessible. On that Monday morning I arrived at work and on my desk was a breakfast biscuit, with a note on it saying “I will be praying for you and your operation” and it was from that same hurting sister in question whom Jesus had been dealing with me.
I went to the bank and pulled out all the money in cash my wife and I were going to need for the metal investment on Tuesday, plus the Large amount Jesus told me to give her. Honestly, when I gave her the money, letting go of all that money in the envelope was one of the hardest things I had ever financially done. She was weeping and praising God for it & it was the exact impossibly large amount she needed! That obedience was nice but also agony to me.
That same day my boss insisted I turn in my doctor’s note for my surgery, and the nurse in his office refused to fax me one, so grumbling about the hassle at lunch time, I drove all the way to my surgeon’s office in North Raleigh to pick up the note. On the way there, I called the Coin shop and got an updated quote on the cost of the gold we wanted to invest in. When I drove away from my Doc’s office, with said note I hand, I messed up and turned the wrong way. As I tried to figure out where I was and how to turn around, I drove right past another coin shop that had a sign out front with its phone number on it. Just for fun, I called the number, and asked the guy for a quote on the same amount of gold we where scheduled to buy the next day. Not only did the guy have the exact number of coins we wanted to buy, but he had personally bought them “cheap” for his own investment over the weekend! He told me these coins did not belong to his shop, so he was more then willing to turn them around for quick profit, tax free to me, if I could buy them in cash. Which I was carrying in my pocket! When he told me his price, I slammed on the brakes!
Ten minutes later, I owned the exact number of coins, my wife and I where already going to buy the next morning. And The LORD gave them to me, saving me, returning to me, the exact amount of money I had given away to my sister only TWO HOURS BEFORE!
GLORY!!!
But wait, there is MORE!
When I went to Israel last year, two of the things I wanted to buy there were a real 1st century roman silver coin and a real widows mite. I had done the research and even had pictures of them that I took on the trip with me. Both of which I could not find in Israel that was not a forgery or ridiculously priced. So I let that dream die. On Tuesday morning, the day of my surgery, my wife and I went to the appointment at the coin shop and bought silver. While we where there...expecting nothing...I asked if they happened to have any 1st century Israeli or Roman coins. They had BOTH a perfectly preserved, perfectly struck in Judea, fully documented Roman silver coin and a widow’s mite. I now own them both and picked them up for a fraction of the price the internet was quoting them to be. The shop owner and I weighed the real roman silver coin, ran the math, and I now have a small leather bag containing the exact amount of silver by weight that Judas sold out Jesus for. And it is shocking how little the bag weighs. Holding it, makes you want to weep for how cheaply Judas sold out his own soul.
But wait there is MORE!
The afternoon of Tuesday, I was checked into the hospital and was rolled into surgery.
I was scheduled to have a simple one hour operation to have my herniated disk removed because it was pressing my spinal cord in half and to have a cadaver bone put into it’s place with that section on my neck being fused by a small bracket.
BUT--- When they opened me up, they found my neck bones started to fall apart! It turns out that 6 months ago, the car accident I was in had broken my neck! I have been literally walking around for over 6 months with a broken neck, where one fall could have killed me or paralyzed me for life! Jesus had protected me all this time from this disaster, and the surgeon did not understand how I could have physically lived with the pain that long. My simple “one hour” surgery had instantly turned into a 3 hour “touch and go ordeal”. What was to be my 1 inch surgical puncture was turned into a 5 inch gash across my throat so they could “reach everything.” What is also amazing, is that my surgeon also happens to be one of the best traumatic broken neck repair surgeons in America. The situation I was in was right up his professional ally. Thank you Jesus!
But wait there IS MORE!
While I was under….
While I was under, in a surgically induced coma. I was not alone!
What should have been a few minutes of blackness for me, just to awaken to a nurse in “post op” turned into a 20 minute discussion with Jesus! I am weeping now just thinking about it!
There I was, laying on the operating table, under the lights, counting down, and everything faded to black. I was resting in this darkness, for what seemed a minute or so. Then I was walking in a field of waist high golden wheat. I had always been there. The day was a perfect “sun shiney day” but there was no sun! Just light. The wind that lightly blew sending waves through the wheat smelled lightly sweet of every flower ever created! The smell was so subtle and yet was overwhelmingly wonderful all at once. As I walked, feeling the wheat touching the underside of my hand I came across a small clearing where a large white and blue tallit was laid down like a picnic blanket. As I stepped onto it I realized it was a tallit and worried if I had gotten it dirty with my shoes. But I had no shoes on! And as I sat down I realized where I was, there was no such thing as dirt, or bugs, here. Everything was perfect! I was in perfect health. I was young, fit, and strong. Every hair on my body had a thing for this place. My very atoms harmonized and matched the glow of everything else in the field. I was finally in reality. A reality that was so perfect that our world seems rice paper thin, in all it’s fakeness, in comparson.
Then He was there!!!
Jesus took my hand and sat down next to me. Holding my hand in his we talked and talked. He laughed at my silly questions and answered them all. The thing I remember about Jesus’ face was His eyes, His eyes where such a beautiful brown and they looked through me, sending waves of love, acceptance and pure joy through me. I was so shy. So shy that I could only glance into those eyes only a few times before I blushed and turned away. The Love, the love was so thick, and strong that just sitting there I KNEW exactly how much he loved me, no matter how much of a mess I was. Jesus Loves me. He loves me with such a passion that my human words could never, ever, describe it well enough if I wrote about it for a thousand years. I am weeping as I write this! It was so overwhelming!
I was with Our LORD for what seemed 20 minutes and I can’t remember a single question or answer! But I do remember Jesus’ character. His casual, laid back friendship and my absolute utter acceptance by him. I feel like a 2 year old with a crayon trying to draw you guys a picture of the ceiling of the sixtieth chapel! I feel like a kid fresh out of a nazi consideration camp trying to describe the 15 course meal I just had with the Queen of England, and all I have to offer you is a pathetic Twinkie as proof! Heaven MUST have it’s own language because human words can’t even touch what I am trying to tell you about sitting in Jesus’ love!!!
I was in paradise holding the very hand of the lover of my soul and then, I was flat on may back, in agony, being yelled at by a nurse! I simply told her I wanted to “go back to the field”...I stopped breathing...the alarms went off and faded away. They had to revive me 3 times and each time I told them That “This place was only a dream and that I wanted to go back to the field to be with my LORD” and I would stop breathing. After reviving me for the third time the pain was so bad I could not find my way back home. All I could do was lay there weeping in pain and disappointment as I spoke in tongues. They then put me on the maximum dose of morphine and admitted me to stay in the hospital for overnight observation.
But there is MORE...
Around 8pm that night they rolled into my hospital room a man who had just had a heart attack! As they admitted him, they asked him if he wanted to talk to a chaplain, he cursed and spat out “no”. And hour passed and the man started to moan and cry out that he was going to die. He had No hope! None! Here I am having just spent the afternoon with the Creator of the universe, and this guy was so utterly lost that he could only moan and cry like a condemned felon with the death penalty. There could not possibly be a greater dichotomy of person’s experiencing the differences of grace in that room!
So I spent the night preaching through the curtain to him about the Love of Jesus for him! I told him that He was not going to die, because the Kingdom of God had drawn near to him and that Jesus had brought us both together for this very night! I said many things I don’t remember. But I do remember it was filtered directly through the very sense of character I had felt in that field.
When I checked out of the hospital, he had already had by pass surgery, and he begged me to pray with him. I lead him through repentance. He told me that his sister was coming to see him and that she was Pentecostal. I told him to go to church with her, to be baptized in Jesus’ name and that Jesus would meet him there with a power and grace he never imagined ever knowing and that when Jesus did meet him that he would shout in a new language when it happened.
Like I said it has been an amazing few days
But then so amazing is the God we serve!
Brother Jerry mentions his trip to Israel, and I also would like to share some of the pictures he took which were made into a video for him by another brother, here is the link: view link
Also, here is a link to another forum where Jerry frequents. He operates under the handle: Steadfast ... the name of the site is Just Give Me Truth! view link
about 1 month ago
Revelation 12:11 - And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
Several years ago, my wife and I were youth leaders and were at our Friday evening prayer service. We were about to end the service for the evening, but the Lord had impressed a young man on my wife's heart to pray for...urgently at that instance!... so we gathered the young people together at the altar and prayed fervently for about 30 minutes or so, weeping and wailing in the Holy Ghost until my wife felt a release. Thank God for her obedience! Several months passed, and we hadn't seen the young man we prayed for, as he had moved to San Antonio. Then one day, I saw him in the neighborhood and was glad to see him and began talking to him about everything (temporarily forgetting all about the prayer meeting) After conversing for a time and catching up on things I remembered the prayer meeting. I asked him if he recalled what he was doing on such and such a date at such and such a time. He stopped and pondered, then came a serious look on his face, and with tears welling up in his eyes, he said 'why do you ask?'...I told him about the prayer meeting and God impressing him upon my wife's heart and how we lifted him up to the Lord...he began weeping and confessed he was going to commit suicide that evening!
It is so very important to be in tune/touch with the Lord. It feels so good too when we act upon what He is telling us, though our flesh may try to suppress us. The confirmation often comes immediately after we are obedient and do what He's asked, but sometimes of course there is no confirmation at all. We must trust Him and move on. Sometimes the confirmation will come weeks, months, or even years later!
Praise be to God for His wonderful Mercy & Goodness!!!
Several years ago, my wife and I were youth leaders and were at our Friday evening prayer service. We were about to end the service for the evening, but the Lord had impressed a young man on my wife's heart to pray for...urgently at that instance!... so we gathered the young people together at the altar and prayed fervently for about 30 minutes or so, weeping and wailing in the Holy Ghost until my wife felt a release. Thank God for her obedience! Several months passed, and we hadn't seen the young man we prayed for, as he had moved to San Antonio. Then one day, I saw him in the neighborhood and was glad to see him and began talking to him about everything (temporarily forgetting all about the prayer meeting) After conversing for a time and catching up on things I remembered the prayer meeting. I asked him if he recalled what he was doing on such and such a date at such and such a time. He stopped and pondered, then came a serious look on his face, and with tears welling up in his eyes, he said 'why do you ask?'...I told him about the prayer meeting and God impressing him upon my wife's heart and how we lifted him up to the Lord...he began weeping and confessed he was going to commit suicide that evening!
It is so very important to be in tune/touch with the Lord. It feels so good too when we act upon what He is telling us, though our flesh may try to suppress us. The confirmation often comes immediately after we are obedient and do what He's asked, but sometimes of course there is no confirmation at all. We must trust Him and move on. Sometimes the confirmation will come weeks, months, or even years later!
Praise be to God for His wonderful Mercy & Goodness!!!
about 1 month ago
