Monday, March 11, 2019

YOU NEED JESUS NOT RELIGION - My Testimony



Jesus Christ is ALIVE. He SPEAKS and
His sheep HEAR His VOICE. I am one of His sheep, He speaks to me, He
guides me, I hold His hand and I follow Him. Like so many believers I
was ignorant. I did not know Jesus even though I believed in Him, but
Jesus disclosed Himself to me. He spoke to me.
I was religious and I was deceived.
Many years ago I first believed in Jesus. I repented and was
baptized. Then for years I was seeking the baptism in the Holy
Spirit, but even though others that I knew received the baptism in
the Holy Spirit, with evidence of speaking in tongues, I did not
receive it. I grew despondent and I was disheartened, and then I gave
up. I decided to live holy, in obedience to Jesus and then I received
the baptism in the Holy Spirit. While praying, one day, I felt the
joy of Jesus coming over me and then I started speaking in a heavenly
tongue. It was wonderful. I was filled with enthusiasm and eagerness
to witness for Jesus.
I was 17 years old. I started street
preaching and praying for the sick. Many were healed. I was going
around preaching and witnessing for Jesus. I left the church because
they wanted me to be part of their programs. I then got involved
with a group that were casting out demons and doing deliverance. They
were also speaking personal prophecies. What I did not realize is
that I was not focused on Jesus any more. I had become part of a
group, a ministry, led by men. They were manipulating group members
through prophecy. This group was also preaching for men to stay
single and not marry. For others they were prophesying to marry
specific members of the group. One day they prophesied something over
me that infuriated me. I was left with the belief that in order to be
pleasing to God I should be celibate, and that did not appeal to me.
I turned away from the group but I was also no longer with Jesus. I
was foolishly, mad at God also, and I went my own way. I was
spiritually destroyed. At that stage I was also unemployed because I
had left my job to be full time worker, or missionary in this group.
I found a job and started building my
life, working hard but I allowed sin to creep in. Before long I was
living a godless life. I got married and we had two children. I was
doing good in my work, making good money, bought a house, climbing
the corporate ladder, but then there was a car accident. My wife was
alone in the car. After lying in hospital in a coma for three weeks,
she passed away, leaving me, a widower with two little boys, the
youngest 9 months old.
Prior to the accident she had a
premonition. She would often say to me that if she dies I must marry
again, and I would say to her not to talk like that. That was a very
difficult time in my life, but in the back of my stubborn sinful mind
I knew God was speaking to me through my wife's death, calling me
back to Him.
During that time I met wonderful lady
whom I soon married. She was a godly woman though, and many fights
ensued because she wanted to drag me to church. I knew the Bible well
and I knew the hypocrisy of the church. One night my wife managed to
drag me to a tent service and I sat there listening to the preacher
with animosity and skepticism, but the Holy Spirit spoke in my heart
and I realized that my case was with Jesus, not with religion or with
a church.
I prayed and I said:”Lord, if You
want me back, I dearly want to come back to You, but I have fallen
far.” Jesus took me back. I was changed. It was the beginning of a
long, hard road that did not only change my life but also impacted on
many others. It is a the journey on which I am still today. I learned
much and I am still learning every day.
There was one thing that I asked of the
Lord and that is, I said:”Lord, I want to be ONE MAN, all the time,
that You can be pleased with.” I used to be a good actor, different
persons in different situations. I was man of the world at work and
with my friends, another person at home and yet another person when
my wife managed to drag me to church. That stopped. Jesus changed me.
I am His man, all the time. As result of that I did not fit in any
more. I did not fit in at work, they fired me. I did not fit in with
my friends, they left me. The family though I was crazy, they
rejected me. I did not fit in with church, they rejected me. That is
what happens if you follow Jesus. Jesus said:”You will be hated by
all men, because of Me.”
We went through much hardship, but in
that time we truly got to know Jesus. We learned to trust in Jesus,
not in friends or money. We often did not have money, no medical
insurance, no fixed job, no securities. We learned to pray and trust
the Lord. We never begged, nor slept on the streets, nor went without
food. That hardship lasted for more than 3 years, then the Lord
changed our fortune and it went extremely well with us, but we never
forgot what it was, not to have, and we learned to depend on Jesus in
the worst of circumstances. I can write books about the things we
went through and some of my testimonies are on Youtube and on my
website.
To practice religion is easy and
convenient, because you can always generalize, apply scripture to
your beliefs to your situation. You can justify many things that are
wrong, you can justify your own shortcomings, but if you follow Jesus
there is no place to hide. He takes you on the narrow road, the often
impossible road and you have to decide all the way along the road,
whether you will stay with Jesus or whether you will follow your own
way. The way that Jesus shows you often does not make human sense. It
is often humbling, humiliating, daring, uncertain and downright scary
but if you are not willing to follow Jesus by faith and do what He
tells you to do, you go into darkness. Your faith will be tested. Do
you really trust Jesus? Do you really love Him? Will you go with Him
all the way? He gives you the choice, all along the way. You can quit
at any time, but then you are on your own, in darkness, heading for
destruction. You can always ask Him for confirmation of what He told
you to do, or what you believe you should do. He will answer you but
you have to trust Him. If you doubt Him and start asking the opinions
of other people, you are lost.
Jesus has through the years spoken to
me many times and in many ways. He has spoken to me in a voice, in my
spirit. You look around and wonder whether other people also heard
Him. At other times softly, in a dream, in a vision. He has told me
things about people. He has said to me”That woman is lying.” He
has given me names of places and people and sent me to them with a
message, people that I did not know. Jesus has corrected me, taught
me, warned me, given me revelation. In 1998 I died of a heart attack
and even though I was seriously following Jesus, I found myself on my
way to hell. I pleaded with Jesus to allow me to come back and tell
the world that Jesus is alive and hell is real. I was following
Jesus, but at times I was not focused. He made me understand how
important it is to stay with Him every day all the way until the end.
My testimony is on my website and on Youtube. Jesus has sent me half
way around the world to do His will. In 2017 I was diagnosed with
rectal cancer. I ended up in hospital with sepsis after botched
surgery. I was in ICU unconscious for a month. I died twice. They did
not expect me to survive. I was so weak I could not even comb my hair
or brush my teeth. I had to learn to walk again. In that hospital I
had the opportunity to testify for Jesus to many doctors, nurses and
patients, people I would never have met, had I not gone through that
ordeal. In that hospital Jesus spoke to me. He also spoke to my wife.
He speaks to us all the time because we follow Him, we live for Him.
You cannot be fruitful for the kingdom
of God is you do not follow Jesus, if you are not led by the Holy
Spirit. You cannot serve Jesus by being religious, going to church
and following other people. My wife and I are normal people, we have
children and grand children. We have been married 35 years, but we
together follow Jesus. That is what He requires of us and of everyone
who wants to be fruitful in Jesus.
We share our testimonies and that which
Jesus teaches us and gives to us to share with others, hoping to
encourage them to also become disciples of Jesus and follow Him, so
that they can have eternal life.
Jesus has a specific mission and task
for everyone who believes in Him and follows Him and we can only
achieve His will, if we follow Him and are led by Him. We have to
follow Jesus, to have eternal life, not just believe in Him. How can
we serve Him, know Him and be part of His kingdom if we do not listen
to Him and do what He tells us to do? We have to know and hear from
Jesus for ourselves, not from other people and through others. Jesus
might send someone to us with a message, but that message will always
bring us back to the right relationship with Jesus so that we can
hear from Him and follow Him.
My life has made many turns and taken
unexpected directions along unplanned paths but in all of it Jesus
was there, teaching and guiding and giving understanding. He has
taught me not to trust in people, neither to follow them, only Him,
and so should you, dear friend.
Seek Jesus and you will find Him. Obey
His commands, repent and be baptized. Turn from sin and from
following your own ways. Seek Jesus with all your heart and He will
give His Holy Spirit in you to guide you all the way until the end.
Without Jesus, we can do nothing.


May Jesus bless you.

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