Personal Testimony: New Life.

Well, I’ll try to be as concise as possible. I grew up in a Christian home, first catholic, then, when I was about 8 years old, my parents became evangelicals. I always tried to be a "good person" by my own efforts, but, like Jesus said in Matthew 23:25. I was like that, a hypocrite, looking good outside, but inside I was rotten. Many sins and problems, like depression, unforgiveness, hate, among others. I had one foot in the church, another in hell. A couple times I thought about committing suicide, I couldn't find anything worth living for. In my mid twenties, I started seeking God with all my heart. Then the enemy (the devil), offered me stuff, friendships, pleasures, then I drifted away from God. For many years I was running from God. It's incredible how many times God spoke to me, even trough my unbelieving friends. I remember couple times when I was saying or doing foolish things, a friend used to say: You need Jesus in your heart! That was the most horrific thing someone could say to me, it was like a sword piercing my heart. But, nothing ever changed. Until one day I decided to come to America to spend a year, it was a crazy thing, my friends called me crazy, I was leaving everything behind, girlfriend, business, friends, etc., but I didn't care. One month latter I arrived in U.S., first month, nice, after that things started getting terribly bad, I had to get a job, so I started delivering newspapers in the morning (Illinois is really cold in the winter). As I didn't have anything better to do, I started going to a church, playing in the worship team, time went fast, was already time to go back like I had planned. One night at church, in a prayer meeting (that day I was so depressed, like never before), I was crying before God, asking Him why my life was so horrible, nothing was changing, even if I was seeking Him everyday, but then, a lady stood up and said: "Julio, God is saying if you stay here He will change your life". Man, I felt so much peace and joy at that moment, things that I never had before (I couldn't believe few minutes before I was disgusted with my life, so depressed), it should be God. It was God. So, I decided to believe and stayed here. Couple months after that I got married (part of the change). Then I started seeking God in my mornings, praying, worshiping. It was like I was getting closer and closer to God. One day, I took the newspapers and was going to deliver them. I was driving, then, suddenly I started seeing a vision: I saw myself in an big auditorium, there was a man leading worship (it was a strange thing for a rational, conservative guy), I was driving and at the same time I was seeing and hearing like I was there. Then the worship leader said: If you want to be free, have your life changed, come and I’ll pray for you. Then I went there, he started praying for me, then God said to me: "I will free you, break your bondages, give you a new life and I will anoint you, because I have a calling for you, I'll send you to the nations to preach the gospel". Then, as the vision came, it disappeared. For weeks, I kept thinking about it, it was the strangest thing ever. A few months later (6 at least), a worship leader was came to Chicago, his name is Marco Barrientos (check his website: http://www.aliento.com), some friends from church were going, I decided to go. We're there, Marco started leading worship, he was speaking and singing, I started thinking: I saw this before, I’m sure. Then the Holy Spirit remembered me: THE VISION! Then Marco asked: "If you want to be free, have your life changed, come and I’ll pray for you". I jumped from my chair, run to the platform, then he started praying, to prophecy, at the end, he said the same things God spoke to me in the vision: "God is setting you free, breaking your bondages, giving you a new life and anointing you, because He has a calling for you, He will send you to the nations to preach the gospel". After that day, God used me with different gifts and started a process in my life called Sanctification. It's amazing how accurate and truthful the Bible is, like when Jesus says in John 8:36. It's been over 9 years since God freed me, life is still hard, but God is still good, like it says in Hebrews 13:8. Despite our weakness and sins, He loves us like He always did, even when we don't feel like being loved. There are other things I didn't write, it would take a lot longer, but I can tell you one thing, if we sometimes doubt that God loves us , it's because we don't know Him enough. Read the life of Job, after going through all that pain and suffering, he says in Job 42:1-5.

How to discern between Faith and Positive Thinking.

First: We need wisdom from God to discern it. James 1:5.
Second: We have to check our motivation. Why do we want it. Is it what God has for us? Did God really promise us? Will it bring glory to God? Do we really need it?
Third: Is it the right purpose, the right time and the right way? Ecclesiastes 8:6.
Fourth: If all the above is correct, we need to persevere. Matthew 7:7-8; Luke 18:1-8. There are many people (the prosperity gospel preachers and alike) saying today, that everything that is written in the Bible (the good things of course), are for you, just “Name It and Claim It,” but in fact, that is far from the truth! Why? Because if you cannot apply that "health and wealth" and "name it and claim it" mentality to every God's servant in the Bible, how can you know if you're among the "privileged people", or the "blessed ones", who will always be "healthy and wealthy" and if there's any need, whatever it is, can just "name it, claim it and receive it"?
If God planned for every one of His children, to be wealthy, why do we find so many people in the Bible that were poor? Like in Revelation 2:8-9? What about 2 Corinthians 8:1-2? What about Luke 21:1-4? We must test the spirits: Angels, demons, people, to know if they're speaking the truth (of course a demon will never speak the truth), as is written in 1 John 4:1.
Conclusion: If you study hard, work hard, live in a prosperous country and being rich is your goal in life, you may end up being very rich, but, you may get a lot of money and yet be a beggar, or, you can be very poor and yet be wealthy in God's sight. The God's concept of riches is different from the men's concept. Of course, if God promised to make you wealthy, He will do it. Like Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 1:20. At the end we will all stand before Jesus Christ and only thing that will really matter is: Did we know Jesus Christ and did we do God's Will? As in Matthew 7:21-23. My advice to you is: Make knowing Jesus Christ and knowing God's will for your life as necessary as the food you eat and the water you drink!!!

What is Faith?

Here is the Biblical definition of faith: Hebrews 11:1. If we consider the entire biblical context, from Abel to John the Apostle, we cannot separate faith from the Will of God. In Hebrews 11 we see examples of faith, like Abel. Just by reading Genesis 4, we may think that Abel just did what was convenient, because he was a shepherd he offered a lamb, it doesn't look like Abel act by faith at all, but in Hebrews we see that the sacrifice he made, he did by faith, because from the beginning God was announcing that The Perfect Lamb, Jesus Christ, one day would be sacrificed for our sins, and because of that, Abel's sacrifice was accepted. What about Abraham? We see from the beginning of his walk with God, that his faith was conformed to the Will of God. Genesis 12:1. Because he obeyed, he saw God's faithfulness. Along the way, God tested his faith, and his faith increased to the point that he was called Father of Faith. How much faith John the Baptist needed to fulfill such a tough calling? What about Jesus' disciples? There are many wonderful examples of men and women of faith in the Bible that should be enough to lead us to believe in the Word of God.
Conclusion: Real Faith is always according to the Will of God, and if faith doesn't lead to works, it is dead, James 2:26.