Testimonies

this is a really good thread you started. i hope many others have something to share. surely there must be many victories. with all the sermons and books we've heard and read, many teachings we've shared,and so much scriptures we have boasted of, there must be some testimonies!

i love hearing testimonies. they give so much glory to God!

i posted this on another thread, sharing a little of my testimony from 2006 to the start of o7. God bless.

God has been so gracious in encouraging me this starting new year. i just feel so alive in Him! words cannot express the joy and love He has filled me with. oh, the faith, the trust i have in Him, causes me to rise up and not be ashame of Him, looking forward, pressing on, knowing i have overcome thru Him!

2006 was a year of struggling,cleansing, testings, trials, bringing upon death to me, making me more genuine in Him!

oh how the Lord has blessed me right from the start of this new year! it just seems that the day is so much brighter, the darkness has scattered, and the lonliness has been driven away by a touch of His presence! for i know he has brought comfort to me because i dare not run to man in those times of darkness, but to God alone knowing He is the only one who could save and deliver me, seeing that even the times of darkness was brought to me as an opportunity to make me more genuine in Him! i did not despise those dark times, no matter how painful and lonely i felt, i kept looking to him for strength knowing that times like these will break ME and bring about more of Christ in me! oh, how i love Him!

even in dark times i knew and still know that God was always with me, though my feelings wanted to deceive me and the world tried to entice me away, and the devil attacked me, thru the end of it all i believed His word, and now i stand!(faith in Him kept me standing firm)

now i am bless with the feeling of knowing!

i KNOW that God is with me! i know, i know, i know!

oh Lord You are so glorious! may the saints truly lift You up this new year.

oh Lord let it be our deep cry, that we desire only You to be lifted up, and us to be put to death!

Psalm 18:28-30

28 For You will light my lamp;
The LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.
29 For by You I can run against a troop,
By my God I can leap over a wall.
30 As for God, His way is perfect;
The word of the LORD is proven;
He is a shield to all who trust in Him.

amen! thankyou Lord for the victory!!!

Day and night I have cried out to the Lord for specific direction, after a long season of night watches, the Lord my God has spoken into my soul a vision, a direction, a mission!!! I have now a few months to lay a foundation of prayer with fastings before time to go forth, I thank God my Lord who has been faithful to hear and answer the cry of my heart! In the months to come I'll be more specific, as this directive comes to pass. God Bless Bro. Daryl

Maybe the reason many people have read and not posted on this thread is because there are so many areas where testimony could emerge from it is difficult to pick just one. Also for me it is important to really have the time to do it justice.

I am sharing this in the hopes that it might set someone else at liberty.

I was saved in 1976 and powerfully baptised in the Holy Spirit while asleep. I know some may see this process differently than I do, but I was totally unschooled in religious matters. Not raised in church, no instruction of any kind. My husband and I had been into the drug party scene and when one of our fellow partyers got thrown in jail for selling cocaine my life took a real turn. He began to write me letters about the Jesus he had recommitted his life to in jail. He was in jail for 2 years and wrote me huge, long letters witnessing to me about my lost state and need of Jesus. The amazing thing about my friend is he was a backslidden preachers kid and now he is a preacher himself. It took jail to wake him up. God doesn't waste anything!

Finally I submitted my life to Jesus and went to church for the first time since I was 8 years old when the Baptist bus picked me up for a few weeks. My husband and I went forward for salvation and were prayed for and we were asked if we wanted to receive the Holy Spirit, having no idea what that really was, we said yes, I suppose just because they said we needed it. They prayed over us and encouraged us to open our mouths and let the Lord fill it with a new language and it went on and on. I suppose out of embarassment we garbled a few sounds and they said we had recieved it. We both knew we really hadn't recieved anything. However, I continued to ask God if this was for real and something He wanted me to have to please fill me. Three nights later I was sound asleep and I sat bolt upright in the bed with my arms our cross fashion and what felt like electricity was charging through my body and I was speaking in a unknown language.

I know some might not agree with this and say all kinds of things about this experience, but I have to say that my life was radically changed from that moment on. I had what I can only describe as a big lump on love in my heart. It burned there for months. It oozed out to anyone I came in contact with and most of the people I was in contact with got saved. It truly was the power to witness.

My husband did not go on seeking for the fullness of the Spirit and after a year he backslid, but many years later I am still walking with the Lord. I attribute that to recieving the Holy Spirit. I can look back to that one event as monumental and so real that there is no question in my mind that He is real.
It has undergirded me.

I have read numerous books about the baptism of the HS and seen many different testimonies. I believe God meets us where we are. This was what I needed to have and God gave it to me. Someone else may recieve differently. All I know is my experience revolutionized my life and I became a loving mother and wife. I learned it isn't all about me, but in losing my life I find it. The more I give the more I recieve. That is a far cry from the self-centered brat I was before. Truly all things became new. I don't even recognise the person I was before 1976. She is a dead woman and I'm glad she is.

I thank God for my salvation for a young man converted in jail and for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

PRAISE GOD! i enjoyed reading everybody's testimony. thank you Father for much mercy and grace!

kathy clark, i share a similiar testimony. my husband and i were junkies too. we shot up heroin and coke, and grew pot plants in our room.

what really woke me up to God is when my husband overdose on heroin. i thought my husband was having a good high so i left him there laying on the bed for about 40 minutes! i didn't realize he overdose until i saw pink foam coming out of his mouth. when the ambulance came, they told me that i waited too long and that he wasn't going to make it. when i got to the hospital, there were about 5 doctors working on him. one of the doctors came out and told me that he seen too many cases like this and that i need to prepared and know that he will not make it, and if he does he will be a vegetable all his life. oh, i was so desperate. i got down on my knees and cried. while crying desperately, i heard the name Jesus whispered in my ears, so i was moved to cry out to jesus. i told Him that if you would bring life to my husband, i will dedicate my whole life to You. after that prayer, the doctor came out and told me and his family that a miracle happen. the doctors could not believe that my husband made it. the nurses was so shocked that they would come by my husbands room. they would share with us how they have his chart in their break room and that everbody just could not believe that my husband lived thru that. they say his body was overheating inside, causing all his organs to shut down. he should of been dead or a vegetable. the doctors told my husband that it will take awhile for his body to heal, and be brought back to normal. but, my husband was healed quick and was out of bed the first week and gain back his weight quickly!

after we came home from the hospital we went to look for a church. we did not know wich church to go to. here in texas, there are so many churches! we knew nothing about christianity. i've never heard the gospel growing up, only that Jesus love me, but never understood why he had to die on the cross.

the church we picked was a non denomination, very charismatic church. both of us knowing nothing about christianity got freaked out by the big choir with shiny purple robes, people walking down the aisle holding huge christian banners. it was very showy and scary for us who just came out of drug infested street scene. but, we told each other that maybe the preaching will be good. well, the pastor preached about tithing, so we ran out, thinking the church just want money.

we gave up after one church. we didn't try very hard. we just didn't know where to look. we were so at a lost, not knowing wich denomination is right. there were so many churches that it made our head spin. so, we slowly went back to drugs. we thought it would be o.k. just to snort drugs because we never heard anybody dying from snorting. our minds were so wasted that we really thought it was o.k. to snort and smoke pot. shooting it up is what makes you a junkie, so we thought. well, when you been shooting up for awhile, snorting does nothing to you, so we went back to shooting up. God had so much mercy on us and sent someone to us. my husband use to work with this christian guy that would witness to him. after so many time in asking us to visit his church, we finally went.

i thought his church was weird too. if it wasn't for the gospel message that broke my heart, i would not have stayed. everybody there seem so superficial to me. it was too yuppie for me and i felt like stuck out big time. my husband got saved before me. and, man when he got saved i could tell he was totally a NEW PERSON! after the first day visiting church, i stopped, but my husband kept going, and one day he came home changed! i could really sense God in Him. my husband came home after being saved and cut down all our pot plants. it really scared me and i knew if i don't convert there was no way we could be together. just to let you know that he was my boyfriend back then. i was planning on moving to california to live with relatives. my husband ask me to just give Jesus a chance. ask Him tonight to reveal himself to you. so,i told him i would do that. that night i seriously gave a short prayer, asking Jesus to reveal himself to me and let me know if he was the true living God. i was raised bhuddiast/hindu and got into all different religions. so i was pretty confused wich God was the ONE. well, that night, God gave me a dream. i saw myself down on my knees in prayer outside in the dark. i looked up and saw the dark clouds parting and bright beautiful light shined out. the light came and beam straight at me and covered my body. i was covered in this light. i woke up crying out that Jesus is God! God touched me in that dream. the next time i went to church, the pastor shared the full gospel! God brought understanding to me. i was so broken seeing the love of God for me! i saw hope in being set free! i was so touched by God's love and mercy that i got down on my knees during service and broke down, confessed, and i cried out that i am His! after that i was filled with LOVE, LOVE, LOVE. it was love undescribablwe. i loved everybody out of a pure heart! my husband and i was right away delivered from drugs when we got saved! we went home that day after my conversion and threw away our t.v., posters, cd's, all our photo pictures of our "old man", and our nintendo! no one told us to do this. we were so inlove with God that we wanted nothing between our realationship with Him. our conversion started a small revival. people were so encourage by our commitment to God. no one taught us how to pray, it came natural to us because we were just so inlove with Him. my husband and i love to pray and we got the whole body praying and fasting. how revival stopped is another story that i'm gonna have to share later. revival always stop when man gets in the way thats for sure!

Dear Bro. richardf,

Now that is a great testimony, thanks for sharing it. It is such a blessing to hear a young person stand up and testify.

I want to give you a nugget or two, being an old person who has learned by trial and error at times.

First. One of the wonderful things that God showed me was that light dispels darkness. Just as when you go into a dark room and switch on the light the darkness doesn't leave the room, but is swallowed up by the surpassing greatness of the light, just so, when we saturate ourselves with the Word and worship and fellowship our darkness is swallowed up by the the surpassing brightness of God. The darkness is only subdued as long as we abide in Him. If we return to fellowship with darkness our life will manifest what we fellowship with.

Secondly we become like what we behold.

[color=0000CC]1Jo 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.[/color]

The Lord showed my in a very practical way one time that I get out what I put in. In my minds eye I saw a shelf partly in front of a window and partly in front of a wall with flowered wallpaper on it. Two crystal vases were sitting on the shelf, one in front of the window and the other in front of the wallpaper. The window vase was all aglow with the brilliant sun shining through the window, shimmers glistening off the cut facets. The wallpaper vase was obscured by the design behind it and barely noticable.

The Lord then spoke to my heart about how people who study the stock market all the time talk about the stock market, those who study history, talk history, those who look for faults in others, become full of faults themselves through bitterness and a critical spirit. We become like what we behold. If we behold His beauty we are changed from glory to glory into His image and our darkness is despelled by His light.

Saturate yourself with the word of life and you will have life. You will find this always brings joy and the other grief.

I thank you for sharing your testimony. Keep on keeping on!

Dear myfirstLove,

That is also an awesome testimony. Isn't God good! We have so much to be thankful for. Glory, glory, glory.

Thanks for being open. This is what touches hearts. I know that others who have stuggled will find hope through these testimones. Praise the Lord.

It is so inspiring to see these wonderful testimonies! Praise the Lord!

I wish that one day I could share one like these, but for now I simply couldn't say that I am a New Person, totally different from the old me. So, what I’m sharing here may qualify as a testimony. I became a Christian about six years ago, and I was filled with joy after my baptism. I loved reading my Bible, although didn't quite understand what I read; I told my good friends far away about the Gospel but they didn't receive; Novels (all kinds, esp. romantic novels) that I used to addict to (I could sit in front the monitor 4 hours straight) and TV no longer attract me; I loved going to church and old hymns often brought tears to my eyes, although I had to hide it cause it seems nobody was crying. But, I still cannot overcome my tamper; my husband’s words of criticisms still disturbed me; I still find myself unloving and even judgmental to others; I still constantly waste time surfing the internet…
You see, I was changed but not dramatically conformed. Family members say that I was changed for better, but I’m very aware of the fact that I’m soooo far away from being holy, which the Lord had commanded. I don’t think that I was filled with the Holy Spirit. I was so unsatisfactory that from time to time I doubt if I was ever saved. Sometimes I doubt that maybe my belief was only on intellectual level; maybe I was not among God’s elected ones.
About four years ago, I left the Baptist church in which I was baptized because of job change. Knowing very little about the different denominations, I joined a charismatic church. After being taught to speak in “tongues “ at a special meeting, I thought that I was filled with Holy Spirit. Wasn’t I excited! However, I didn’t see the fruits of the Spirit growing in me (or others in church). I became further concerned after attending one so called Holy Spirit led meeting, when the “prophet “ talking as if he was the Lord, and other weird things. My husband and I finally decided to leave this church, and that’s a year ago. We’re yet to find a church home. I thanked God for this forum. I received some very helpful counsels from brothers and sisters before we made the final decision of leaving that church.
I just feel very poor in spirit. I found that I don’t even know how to pray (not just murmur some words as a routine thing). I desire to meet Him, to know him personally, to be transformed by Him. I believe that the Lord is leading me one step at a time, but at times I become impatient, wondering if I will ever truly get there as other have.

Many people would think me a liar if I told how many times the Lord has protected me from death or serious injury. Quite a bit happened before I was born again and much happened since being born again but, one thing is for sure, the Lord has protected me.

One night just a few months ago, I sat in the chair that I am now in knowing that if things didn't take a turn in my health that I wouldn't be around in a few weeks. I told the Lord this and also said that it was ok if I didn't make it but, if there was a work for me to do I needed to get better. Within about 10 days things got better. I want to thank him for one more of many times that he has protected me from death or injury. He surely does know the hairs on our heads and notices the falling of a sparrow. He surely is a rock of protection and a high tower to run to. He's a city of refuge and a wall of fire around us. There really is a place under his wings.

Dear GaryE,

That is a great testimony. God is faithful to His children.

Psa 91:1 ¶ He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

Psa 91:2 I will say of the LORD, [He is] my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

Psa 91:3 Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, [and] from the noisome pestilence.

Psa 91:4 He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth [shall be thy] shield and buckler.

Psa 91:5 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; [nor] for the arrow [that] flieth by day;

Psa 91:6 [Nor] for the pestilence [that] walketh in darkness; [nor] for the destruction [that] wasteth at noonday.

Psa 91:7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; [but] it shall not come nigh thee.

Psa 91:8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.

Psa 91:9 Because thou hast made the LORD, [which is] my refuge, [even] the most High, thy habitation;

Psa 91:10 There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

Psa 91:11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

Psa 91:12 They shall bear thee up in [their] hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Psa 91:13 Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.

Psa 91:14 Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.

Psa 91:15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I [will be] with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.

Psa 91:16 With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.