Monday, February 1, 2010

Personal Testimony: To Be Born of the Spirit.

Well, as I said before, God sometimes tested my faith in unusual ways. One day, God told me that we were leaving the church we were attending. After a couple months, one early morning, God said to me: "Go and tell your pastor that you are leaving, you are going to another church, I will tell you where to go. This will be your last week at this church." I was terrified, because it didn't make any sense, but, I told the pastor what God said to me. Well, he didn't understand, actually, nobody understood. I was acting like a crazy person (again). I had to speak to the worship team to tell them the "good news", it was tough. My last sunday there, I spoke to the church, and it was even harder. The worst part, I had no clue where we were going, our pastor gave me a "list" of the churches around, I prayed a lot during the week and chose one (I thought I did). Next sunday, we went there, a small church in Long Lake, the previous one is in Mundelein. When I entered the sanctuary, God said to me: "This is the place". It was awesome. Next week, we came back, then I told the pastor that we were there to stay, and he said: "When I saw you entering last sunday, God told me that you came here to stay for a little while". I asked him: "Why a little while?". He said He didn't know why, but He was sure about it. Well, we stood there for less than a year. One day, the pastor asked me to find a church where we could have baptism; it was winter, a very cold one. I spoke to my former pastor, he introduced me to another pastor friend of his, and they had a place for baptism. Then this pastor asked me if I could play Bass, I said yes, and then He asked: "Why don't you join our worship team?". Next sunday I was praying and God said to me: "You are leaving this church and you're going to another one." At this time, I was ok, I already knew where we were going (I thought so). Our last sunday at the church was not nice, to say the least. Again, it was like leaving our family behind, but we decided to obey God. On sunday, the day we suppose to go to this new church, I was praying and God said to me: "You're not going there, you are going to this one". At this time I was not just terrified, I was sad, mad, confused, etc. Why? I knew the senior pastor's reputation: A tough man with a strong vision. I begged God to go anywhere else, but, GOD'S NO MEANS NO. Then God's presence in my car (I was delivering newspaper) was tremendous, then I started PREACHING, like I was in front of thousands of people (it happened before just like that), I could even hear my very loud voice. Well, the preaching was about PRAYER. At the end, God said to me: "Go and tell the pastor that I'm sending you there to lead one day of prayer, because I'm calling the church to pray". Well, we went to the church God told me, first sunday, everything new, the worship was beautiful, everything was going well. After that, the pastor started the preaching saying: "I spent a week alone with God, praying, fasting, reading the Bible, and God made very clear that we need to pray, God is calling us to pray". Then he started preaching, it was the very same preaching I was preaching in the morning, amazing, but I still had to tell him why I was there. At the end of his preaching, he said: "If you believe God is calling you to lead one day of prayer, come and talk to me". I waited to see if anyone would go, nobody did, so I went to talk to him, I said what happened in the morning, he was shocked, amazed, so much so, that he asked me to pray for him. Well, it never happened, I never led one day of prayer. NO REASON IS A GOOD REASON FOR DISOBEYING GOD. I had a meeting with the pastor, I told him everything God did WITH and THROUGH me up to that time, but, nothing changed. One day, I was at the service, after the worship time, the pastor was praying, I had my eyes closed, then I felt a presence, a demonic one, a very powerful demon, I opened my eyes and saw a lady and a gentleman sitting down, that lady was "carrying" that demon. After a couple weeks, God told me to go and speak to the pastor about things that were coming to happen at the church. I tried to. One day, after the service, I told the pastor that I needed to talk to him, just a few minutes, He was very cold and said to me: "you have 30 seconds!". Well, the only thing I said was: "God is saying that the enemy is coming, you have to close the door". He coldly answered: "Ok". That was it. After a couple months we left the church (again). One day, I was talking to a friend of mine that used to go there, and she told me what was happening at that church: The senior pastor, the assistant pastor, the elders, had disagreements that led them go different ways. On top of that, the senior pastor was having a hard time, a lot of problems in his family (sickness), and personal problems, besides the church ones. One thing I can say for sure: He is a Man of God! Maybe because I was a strange stranger, speaking nonsense words (humanly speaking), and never fitting the profile (nice person saying nice words). Unfortunately, he didn't believed what I said.
Conclusion: Isaiah 55:8-9 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts higher than your thoughts. 1 Corinthians 2:16 For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ. Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. John 3:8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit”. In these passages we can see that the Holy Spirit will lead us TO DO GOD'S WILL and TO GO WHERE HE WANTS US TO BE. The question we have to answer is: ARE WE BORN OF THE SPIRIT?

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