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My Personal Testimony
The purpose of this page is to share with the world what the Lord Jesus Christ has done in my life. My prayer is that you will be blessed and drawn closer to our Awesome God.
My story starts where everybody's story starts -- when I was born. I was blessed to be raised by parents who feared God and raised me in church. My mom tells the story that the first time I ever went to church, I was six weeks old and she carried me in on a pillow. I praise God for that. I remember growing up in the Baptist church, and being there every time the doors were open.
One thing I remember from as far back as I CAN remember is that even from an early age, I wanted to please the Lord. My heart was drawn to the Lord, and I was always aware of His love for me. I knew that I did wrong, and that I didn't always do the right thing (obey my parents), but I knew that, even in spite of that - no matter what I did or didn't do - that the Lord still loved me. His love for me was constant, continuous and never-changing.
I gave my heart to Jesus when I was eight years old. I remember vividly as a little girl being in the pastor's office, and he explained to me what faith was in a way my mind could understand. He told me that faith was, in its simplest form, believing in something. He said to me, "When you came in my office today, you had faith that the chair would hold you up. That's faith," he explained.
He also explained to me that that chair was created to hold me up - it was fulfilling what it was made to do. That's what Jesus did when He died for me - He was fulfilling what He came to earth to do. And he told me that when I pray and ask Jesus to come into my heart, all I needed to do was just believe - believe that He will do what He said - save me - and that's faith! I praise God for a sensitive pastor who heard God about what a little girl could understand!
He talked to me a little bit and I remember he told me he was going to pray a prayer, and he wanted me to repeat that prayer after him. But, he said, "only repeat it if you really mean it." He cautioned me not to merely repeat what he said, but to listen to what he said, and if I understood it and meant it, to pray it to God. He told me prayer is simply talking to God and meaning it. He admonished me not to pray or say anything I didn't mean.
So he began to pray what is commonly known as *The Sinner's Prayer.* I began to pray after him, and as I began to pray, there was a very bright light that appeared over my head. (I am sure that this light was only visible to me) My mother was there, too, and I asked her later if she saw anything unusual, and she said no. The more we prayed, the closer the light got. And when I said, "Jesus, come into my heart," the Light came into me! That's the only way I know how to explain it. Now keep in mind, I'm just a little Baptist girl who never has been around or heard of anything even the least bit "supernatural!" And when the Light (and we all know that Jesus IS THE Light) came into me, I knew that I was born again at that very moment!
Another unusual thing happened that day -- as I began to pray, I thought I literally raised my hands up toward the light. The next day, I did ask my mother if I had raised up my hands when I prayed, and she just looked at me funny and said, No. But in my heart, I knew I had, even if it was just in my mind. It was like I was reaching out and receiving Jesus, The Light. And He flooded me with an incredible peace and joy that I can remember to this day. I definitely know that I was born again and made a new creation that day. (November, 1965)
Now I just rocked along during my childhood and went to church with my family. I remember learning the basics of the Word of God -- the Bible stories you hear in Sunday School -- and I remember learning about being diligent in reading your Bible and praying every day. I can remember before I knew anything about worship or communing with the Lord through song, that there were certain hymns I just loved and would almost always bring me to tears, even though I was still a child. Looking back, I can see God was teaching me how to worship Him, even then.
When I was a teenager, I was blessed to have a pastor and a youth pastor/music director who were excited about teenagers and really promoted the youth ministry. The Lord definitely used those men at that time in my life, and through the programs they implemented, I grew closer to the Lord during my teenage years. I prayed and really developed a relationship with the Lord -- on the knowledge that I had at the time. The Lord taught me that He loved me and desired for me to fellowship with Him daily. The thought that God wanted to spend time with *ME* was a revolutionary thought and it changed my whole life! For most of my teenage years, I was as much of a witness and godly example to my peers at school as I knew how to be. Yet I still felt something was missing -- for example, I knew I didn't have the boldness I desired to speak out for the Lord. I did live a godly life, but I was still intimidated by the kids around me who were not Christians.
Well, time rocked on, and when I turned 19, and was in college, I began to look around at some of the people in church, and something just wasn't right. I read the Word and saw signs and wonders, and people with power in their lives -- praying and actually getting answers. Then I looked around me and didn't see anything even close to that. By this time, the pastor and youth pastor who had been so instrumental in my life had left the church and we had another pastor and music minister. I began to get disillusioned with the church, and began to think that the things I had experienced were just childish and maybe I had not perceived things correctly, and now that I had *grown up* (or so I thought), I needed to adopt another viewpoint. Just about the time I was ready to give up on church altogether, I met some people who (unknown to me at the time) were from the Assembly of God church which was just a block down the street from my Baptist church. I began to go to a prayer meeting, and to make a long story short, the Lord filled me with His Holy Spirit one night, and my life has never been the same. That night, I prayed a prayer something like this,
"Lord Jesus, I want to make You the center of my life. I want to consult with You on every decision, small or large, that I make from this point on in my life. And Lord, I really don't care what You do with me -- You can put me on a shelf, or You can put me in the spotlight. But from now on, I will serve You with my whole heart. I bow my knee and my life before You now, and I worship You with all my being."
At that point, I began to be filled with a joy that I had never felt before, and a heavenly language began to well up within me and I began to speak -- not just a word or two, but it was like a "well springing up within me" -- it was the most awesome thing I had ever experienced! I know it was probably at least 2:00 that morning before I ever even went to sleep! I just kept praying and praying in tongues! This was on a Saturday night, and I got up the next morning and went to church, and the first thing I did was find my best friend and tell her, "You have GOT to experience this!!! You just HAVE TO!!" (Needless to say, shortly after that, she was also filled with the Spirit!!) I began to attend a Bible study and a coffee house (after all, this WAS in the '70's!). We would meet every Friday night and praise and worship the Lord. More and more kids from my youth group started coming to the coffee house and getting Spirit filled! God is so awesome! He began to touch my life and my friends' lives in a way that we were never the same.
My life since that time has gone from glory to glory! There have been so many things the Lord has taught me -- I could spend hours relating them here, but let me just talk about one thing that is near and dear to my heart -- worship! There are many exhaustive sites on this subject, and I won't attempt to include this one in that category. But I do know that the Lord has called me to walk in that ministry, and He has been faithful through the years to teach me about how to worship Him "in spirit and in truth." He is the Holy One and we should, as the song says, "stand in awe" of Him. One thing I have learned about worship that is VERY important to our Christian walk is that worship is a form of warfare to defeat the enemy in our lives, both personally and corporately. We are to come into His Presence with thanksgiving! And as we worship the Lord in our private time, it DOES break bondages off of us ... it DOES defeat the enemy in our lives like nothing else we can do. There is also something special about worshiping the Lord with a congregation - there is an anointing that is not there in your individual worship time with the Lord. There is a power to break down principalities as we join together in worship of our Awesome God. If one can put a thousand to flight, and two can put ten thousand, how many can a congregation who flows in unity put to flight? It boggles your mind to even try to think! God has given us this weapon, and it is and will continue to be one of the most effective weapons against the devil and his legions. There IS a warfare going on (for those slow ones among us) and the devil wants to do everything he can to keep the Body of Christ from worshiping in unity. But he is a defeated foe! Hallelujah!
I hope this page has ministered to you and encouraged you. Please let me know if the Lord has blessed you - click on the image below to email me and let me know your thoughts:
He Died For Us -- He Is Worthy of Praise!
This page created on my new web site
on Monday, April 22, 2002.
This testimony was refreshed and reworked
on Thursday, May 1, 2008.
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