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Testimonies
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RONDA FERNANDEZ'S TESTIMONY
There are so many things the Lord has done in my life to speak of in
> >testimony. The Lord has put this one on my heart to share.
> > When I was 12 years old I was in a car with my mom and oldest
> >brother and we were hit by a drunk driver. The driver hit us and took
> >off. My brother hit the roof of the car because he was not wearing his
> >seatbelt but was unharmed other than a little sore. My mom hit the
> >steering wheel and has had internal problems to this day. I was sitting
> >in the front passenger seat where the driver hit us and I was thrown
> >into the windshield and dash, even though I had a seatbelt on. The force
> >was so hard that the seatbelt was stuck and they had trouble getting me
> >out. My head hit the windshield and my face hit the dashboard pulling my
> >front teeth out (roots included) and my knees also hit the dash. Causing
> >my left leg to go up into my spine, my spine curved as did my neck.
> >After all the physical therapy and everything that came with the
> >accident, I was left with a curved spine, neck injury and my left leg
> >only came down to my right ankle bone. ( put your legs out in front of
> >you and put your left foot down to your right ankle bone-that is how
> >much shorter my left leg was left shorter than the other) Well, 5 years
> >later I went to a church called Church on the Rock in Chandler Oklahoma,
> >and the lady spoke up and asked if anyone wanted to come forward to
> >receive healing. She pointed at me and asked I wanted to be healed. I
> >was 17, pregnant and married as I went forward in faith. I watched as
> >the Lord healed me and my leg grew out to it's normal size, my back
> >straightened out and neck did too!! Glory be to God. I left that night,
> >learning to walk normal again!!
> >This goes to show, with the faith of a mustard seed, as it says in
> >Matthew 17:20-21, mountains can be moved!! Thank You Jesus.
> >
> > Ronda
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The Conversion of Charles Grandison Finney
by Keith J. Hardman
One writer has described Charles Grandison Finney before his conversion as a “splendid pagan—a young man rejoicing in his strength, proudly conscious of his physical and intellectual superiority to all around him.”
He was six feet, two inches tall and weighed 185 pounds. Strikingly handsome, he was regarded by the opposite sex in Jefferson County, New York, as a most eligible bachelor. Young Finney was well-known for his dancing, cello playing, and athletic prowess. As a man studying for a career as a lawyer and the leader of the church choir, his influence was especially large among admiring young people.
There was, however, one problem: Finney was not a Christian. That thought increasingly gnawed at him.
Finney related in his Memoirs that in the autumn of 1821 he resolved to settle the issue of his soul’s salvation. Since no one else was in the law office one Monday and Tuesday, he had opportunity to study his Bible and pray. He stopped up the keyhole so he could not be heard; “but still it seemed as if my heart grew harder. I could not shed a tear; I could not pray…. Tuesday night I had become very nervous; and in the night a strange feeling came over me as if I was about to die. I knew that if I did I should sink down to hell.”
The questions still weighed on his mind Wednesday morning as he started for the office. Convinced that he could evade the issue no longer, he turned into the woods north of town, resolving to “give my heart to God, or I never will come down from there.”
Finney found a spot near a tangle of fallen trees where he might evade prying eyes. As he dropped to his knees, a reassuring passage of Scripture, Jeremiah 29:12, came: “Then shall ye go and pray unto me, and I will harken unto you.” He had believed the Bible intellectually, but the truth had not come to him that faith was a voluntary trust and not merely an intellectual state. Now, by faith he became a Christian.
After hours of prayer, Finney left the woods to go to the office. He attempted to play his bass viol and to sing some sacred pieces, “but as soon as I began to sing those sacred words, I began to weep. It seemed as if my heart was all liquid.”
He was interrupted when his law partner, Benjamin Wright, came in. After Wright left for the day, the emotional impact of Finney’s decision struck him again. One of the choir members dropped by and was amazed to see Finney weeping loudly. Finney said that he was not crying because in pain, “but so happy that I cannot live.”
The next morning, as he described it:
“There I was having the renewal of these mighty waves of love and salvation flowing over me, when Squire Wright came into the office. I said a few words to him on the subject of his salvation. He looked at me with astonishment, but made no reply whatever, that I recollect. He dropped his head, and after standing a few minutes left the office. I thought no more of it then, but afterward found that the remark I made pierced him like a sword; and he did not recover from it till he was converted.
“Soon after Mr. Wright had left the office, Deacon B_____ came into the office and said to me, ‘Mr. Finney, do you recollect that my cause is to be tried at ten o’clock this morning? I suppose you are ready?’ I had been retained to attend this suit as his attorney. I replied to him, ‘Deacon B_____, I have a retainer from the Lord Jesus Christ to plead his cause, and I cannot plead yours.’”
Thus Finney soon moved in the direction of Christian ministry.
Reprinted from Seasons of Refreshing: Evangelism and Revivals in America by Keith J. Hardman. Used by permission of Baker Book House Company, copyright © 1994. All rights to this material are reserved.
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My Testimony of God’s Amazing Grace
By: Shelia Holcomb
Before I begin my testimony I feel it is important to give you some information on my childhood, so you will be better able to understand some of the decisions I made in my life, however stupid they may have been. But every decision I have made during my lifetime good or bad is what has brought me to where I am now and I am very thankful for the mountains and the valleys.
When I was born my mother was only fifteen years old and now years later and after I went through the process of forgiving her and working through many things, I am now able to look at her life through her eyes to try to better understand how she must have felt. Someone gave me this advice when I was really struggling with all of this, I was told that maybe I could forgive easier if I try to see her life through her eyes and not the eyes of a hurt child, you know what, it worked, I can understand her more clearly now. She was not mature enough to take care of herself much less a baby. So she would send me here and there to whomever would willing to take me at that particular time, most of the time it was my grandmother, several times throughout my life she would decide that she wanted me back and she would come and uproot me again. I never really knew any stability in my life and I always felt as if no one really loved me or wanted me.
Then at the age of nine she came and got me and took me away from my grandmother which, really at this point of my life, was the only mother I had ever known and I was very attached to her. Anyway, my mother came and took me to Illinois where she lived, by this time she had remarried and she had two more children by her new husband. He hated me and the only reason I could figure out was simply that I was not his child. Now this was not my fault, although I did blame myself for many years. He started just physically abusing me, but at the age of nine that changed, he raped me and this abuse went on until I was thirteen and I finally told my mother, she didn’t believe me, actually no one believed me. Finally I just let it drop and I buried all of those feelings of anger and hate for years, that has now all been dealt with and forgiven and now it is all under the precious blood of Jesus, Praise God. I told my mother that I wanted to go back to Memphis to live with my grandmother and she consented just because she felt I was causing so much trouble and she did not want to be bothered.
Now my grandmother was now also remarried and I resented him for taking her away from me too. You must remember I was only a child and I felt like she was all I had and now I had lost her too. I was very hateful to him and caused so many problems, he was very kind and loving to me but I just could not accept what he was offering to me. My grandmother finally after a long struggle went to the courts and told the judge that I was out of control and they just could not handle me any longer, so they removed me and placed me in a foster home, the home I went to was wonderful, but at that time I could not see things clearly, all I could see was that the only person who should love me had now turned her back on me as well, I just wanted my grandmother so, I ran away. The courts then really called my bluff, so as a ward of the State of Tennessee I was placed in a Catholic all girls reform school for three and a half years. Now as I look back, I can honestly say it was one of the best things that ever happened to me. But at that time all I could see was that I was totally alone, unloved and unwanted in this great big world.
Now I will jump ahead some. In 1987 I lost my three children to their father and I totally lost it. I turned heavily to alcohol and eventually that turned into crack and cocaine. By this time I had lost everything including my dignity as I had turned to prostitution to support my drug habit. I was arrested several times on various charges, but I was never convicted and I never served any time, I know that God was taking care of me even back them in my sin, He saw what I would be one day in Him. I give GOD all the PRAISE, HONOR AND GLORY for all that I am today and all that I will be.
The drugs and my roaming had taken me to many places but on December 20, 1990 I came across a man that told me about Jesus and how He could deliver me and make my life an example to others. I had not eaten in a couple of days and he asked me if I was hungry, so he took me to a restaurant and bought me something to eat. The entire time he shared about Jesus Christ with me. He told me Christ could and would set me free if I was willing, and how He (Jesus), would give me a new life without all the pain and turmoil I was living in. Of course being a Christian does not eliminate us from pain, trials and tribulation but with Christ in our hearts He will give us the strength to overcome and withstand even in the worst times. I began sharing my life story with this man and he still said Jesus is the answer, and boy was he right. Right there I gave my heart to the Lord and I decided to live for Him and serve Him for the rest of my life.
I had been singing for many years and I had destroyed my voice through drug abuse, I just abused the gifts that God had given me. So I prayed and told the Lord that if He would heal and restore my voice I would use this gift for His glory for the rest of my life. Now, God has done exceedingly and abundantly above all that I could ask or think. The songs that I sing and others that I have written they are all His I am only an instrument holding the pen. It does not matter where you are, Christ will come to you and meet you if, you are willing to let your life go and let Him be God of and in your life.
I have had so many miracles in my Christian life as I am a walking miracle myself. One of these miracles really stands out to me and I would like to share this with you as well. About four or five years ago I was diagnosed with an incurable bowel condition, the doctors were not real sure what it was exactly, but they had come to the conclusion that with ulcers all through my body and many in my bowel system, they said they wanted to do surgery and remove some of the bowel. My reply was that I wanted to get prayer for this and that I believed that God was going to heal me and I will not need the surgery at all. They went ahead and scheduled me for another scope the following week, just a few days after Christmas. Then on Christmas Eve I placed a long distance call to a minister friend of mine and asked him to pray for me, he said no problem but he would need to call me back in a few minutes. While waiting for him to call back I got about ten bibles and placed them opened on the floor in a circle and one opened in the middle of the circle. When he called me back I knelt on the bible in the middle and said, “pray”. When he prayed for me the fire of God hit me and went through me, I had such a peace come over me. I went over to my bed and fell asleep (now Adam was put into a deep sleep in Genesis when God removed the rib to create woman) God did the same for me as I lay there sleeping He performed surgery on me to heal my body. I slept for seventeen hours and when I woke the bleeding had stopped and so had the pain, I knew without a doubt that I was healed by the precious hand of the Master. I was on about $400.00 worth of medicine a month and I went into the kitchen and threw it all in the trash. I did go back for the scope when I was scheduled and the doctors were amazed there were no ulcers anywhere and I just praised God for His healing power.
I am now an ordained minister and I am married to a wonderful man who is also a minister. We know God has put us together for a ministry and we are enjoying serving the Lord together. I am now a southern gospel singersongwriter. The Lord has blessed me and I will continue on this road He has placed me on for my desire is only to serve Him. I will travel anywhere I am invited to give my testimony or to sing or both. God is wonderful and it is to His glory that I am writing this, if one soul is reached in any way then this is worth everything.
Again I cannot stress enough that this is for the glory of God that I am here and that my life is what it is today, for without Christ we are nothing, but through Him we are joint heirs with Him. He is our Deliverer, Savior, Helper, and Healer and any problem we may have is never to great for Him to help us, we just have to take it to Him and leave it at His feet and in His care. I thank God for His power is still healing, still saving and still delivering. He is good all the time. I have made my mistakes but His grace is sufficient. God loves us and if we truly repent and confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we can help anyone out there, please contact us at the information provided below and we will do our best to help in any way we can. If you have questions about loved ones who may be on drugs or other addictions we will try to answer your questions, if we do not know we will do our best to find the answer for you. If you have loved ones that you need prayer for we will gladly join you in agreeing for that person for the Kingdom. Please always remember we are human and we will make mistakes but just confess to God those mistakes and get them under the blood of Jesus as soon as possible, God still loves us and He will help us in all of our situations.
GOD BLESS AND KEEP YOU ALL. I GIVE FULL PERMISSION TO ANYONE WHO CAN USE THIS TESTIMONY TO COPY IT AND GIVE IT OUT OR TO SHARE IT PUBLICALLY, BUT PLEASE GIVE ALL THE GLORY AND PRAISE TO GOD. THANK-YOU. WE ARE YOUR BROTHER AND SISTER IN CHRIST JESUS.
Jerry & Shelia Holcomb
Feel free to email us at:
rainbow@imws.net
www.rainbowoftexas.org
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Hi, My name is TRUDY and I live with my family in Ontario, Canada.
I will try to give you a mental picture of who I am, where I came from and where I am now, spiritually speaking.
My teenage years were very rough, I did hang around with the wrong crowd and I did not know how to get disentangled. My young life had been ruined, I had chosen the broad path. What to do next, I did not know. Where to turn to?? Would death be the answer?
I was living in Holland and in my early twenties when I was in a very desperate situation, I had contemplated suicide. I called upon God, not really knowing on whom I was calling. I was not a Christian at that time, not even a churchgoer. Shortly after, I met a young Christian family via an elder of a local church who did not know how he could help me. He thought perhaps if I could find somebody with whom I could have a social time, such as reading or knitting together, it would help me get over my problems. I told him that it would not do me any good, my problems were so obvious you just could not talk them away. I needed more than a knitting friend, I needed God to help me, I needed a miracle. BUT HOW ?
So, the elder suggested me to contact this family, who lived just down the road. But, he said not to pay too much attention to the man of the house.... he believed in miracles and so forth.... Ooh..Ah....Ja......... That did draw my interest. I thought maybe this miracle believing man has something to offer me.? .......I will call this man John.
I got all my courage together and paid these people a visit. The very first night John told me about his own life; what all happened to him during the war; that he had betrayed his own people; how God met him when he was working for the enemy, the NSB. He told me how God had opened his eyes and showed him all his wrongdoings. Then he realized he needed forgiveness and turned himself in at the Dutch Government.
John was just beaming while he was telling me about the treasure he had found in Jesus, the happiness and peace of mind, knowing that his sins were forgiven. I had never heard a testimony like this. I also knew that this man was not making up some sort of a story. This was for real and I could sense a deep truth in it.
I was all ear and soaked every word in like a sponge. It all did sound like music, beautiful music, what my soul had been thirsting for. I felt right away, that it was exactly what I needed. I envied John for his faith and he told me, if I just would believe in Jesus as my Saviour, He would give me faith too.
I started to forget my own problems and my attention was drawn to my oldest sister, who had been suffering from some sort of mental disorder, shortly after the World War 2. For the past 10 years she had been in and out the mental institutions, receiving terrible treatments,such as 24 electric shocks. If you just knew what that meant!
* * *Years later when I lived in Canada and took training in the Health Care field, I saw a video on how in those earlier days electric shock treatments were applied. The body of the patient was strapped down to the stretcher. Electrical wires were connected to the patient's body, mainly to the head. Once the electricity was turned on, the body started to shake violently, so much so, that if the body would not be strapped down it may have jumped of the stretcher. Needless to say, how I felt where my dear sister had gone through. I cried... and cried... also, because I remember how she cried. When she had to go for those treatments she begged my parents : No.. No....please, no electric shocks. I have often wondered, if she experienced those treatments without anesthetic. * * *
So, I told John all about her and I was wondering why God had not healed her. John replied,"Did anyone pray for her healing or deliverance"? I could not tell, but I knew that sometimes deacons from the church had visited, but as far as I knew the subject of Maria's sickness was never touched.
How can we expect God to do something if He is not asked and if there is no faith, John said. But would God answer such a request, I asked again. At this point the Bible in John's hand was opened and he read: Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever. Oh, I thought finally something concrete, somebody I could depend on:
"The Same, He is always the Same".
How could Maria receive healing when nobody believed, was my question. John explained, that if I brought her in faith to the Lord, He would heal her. He said: "When Jesus walked on the earth, He healed all who came to Him and the Bible says that All things are possible for them that believe. If the Lord would not keep His Word, how could we be sure of our Salvation.
In the mean time I did do some arithmetic: 2+2=4, nobody can change that, so it is with the Scriptures. Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and forever. He healed then, so He heals now. That was as clear as a bell and simple as pie.
But how could I bring my sister in prayer to the Lord?
I did not have any faith myself. John said that I only had to be willing, that the Lord will give me faith and do the rest. I thought for a while: I have to give my will to Him, then He will bring it to pass. Well, my life was already a mess anyway, so to be a fool again would not hurt. But.... That "RISK" could mean my sister's healing. So, I said to John: If the Lord is going to heal my sister on that condition, then I will follow Him.
What a wonderful Gospel, I had never heard anything like it.
It was 10 O'clock that night when I went to my apartment, which was only a couple of houses down from John's home. Of course, John went right down on his knees to call upon the Lord, little did I know. When I came in my apartment, a very special feeling came over me. I experienced a lightness, as if a heavy weight was taken of my shoulders. All of a sudden I felt in my heart, that something had happened. I opened my curtains and looked at the dark sky. I do not know how to explain it, but I said out loud: Lord I do not understand where you are, but I know You just healed my sister. Lord, I don't know it with my understanding, but I feel it in my heart that it is true.
I was so certain that it had happened, that I wrote a letter to my parents that same night and put it in the postbox at the corner of the street. Now, isn't this a little bit foolishness?? You would nearly think so, wouldn't you ! The next day I became a little worried and I had to find a place to pray at my job. Lord, I said, "I wrote in that letter to my parents that Jesus had healed Maria, I don't care if they call me crazy, but I have used your Name in that letter. You put that certainty of Maria's healing in my heart, please, now confirm it in Jesus Name."
Of course, the Lord had healed her, so much so that Maria gained 20 lbs within 2 weeks. This was also the doctor's observation time before they sent her home.
What had happened that night when I visited John ?
My sister who was in a private cell (room), had asked the nurse for a pail of soapy water and a mop, because she did find it quite dirty - and it probably was. The nurse could not believe her ears and asked Maria what she was saying. The request was repeated, and the nurse provided the pail, water and mop. So, Maria started to wash the floor, while the nurse was looking on. She went down the hall, the stairs etc. etc. with the nurse following. Anyway, my sister did not even realize that she was a patient, she thought she was housekeeping staff. Before she became institutionalized she worked in a nursing home in that capacity. Maria's healing started to take place as soon as I walked through John's front door.
HALLELUJAH ! WHAT A WONDERFUL GOD WE HAVE.
He answers even before we ask.
After two weeks my parents could take her home and of course they brought Maria first to my apartment. My sister responded in a normal fashion, she liked my room and the view from my window. It seemed such a long time since I've heard her speak a normal sentence. I started to cry and so did my parents.
My father asked me to tell him exactly how this all came about. I did not know where to start. So,... quietly I said to the Lord: "I don't know what to tell him and how to explain it, because there is no explanation". I just opened my Bible and there was the answer right in front of me. There were a couple of more questions and the Lord gave me the answers in the same manner. Then my father said: How do you know all that, have you studied theology. I replied," Father don't ask me, I don't know".
This first miracle in my life changed me completely, as you can well understand. I also had a desire to live with my parents again to support my sister. My father was not exactly thinking the way I did. He felt he would like to move out of the city where people knew him so well, because of my previous guestionable reputation. It took a while before they had found a suitable home in a small village. Now I needed a job and not too far from our new home was an ammunition depot from the Ministry of Defence. I read in the paper that a secretary was needed.
I did apply for that job, but after my medical examination I was turned down, due to the fact that my lungs did not appear to healthy. According to the Xray I had all dark spots on the tips of my lungs and the doctor thought that I must have suffered from pleurisy at one time. I told him I never had been sick with anything like that, but that I had been a very heavy smoker. Whatever.... I did not get the job.
I went to Neeltje Bouw, the lady preacher, and told her how much I needed that job and what the Xray had shown. I said, "If the Lord can heal a mental sick sister, He Could heal my lungs and make them clear. So, I asked Neeltje to pray for me, but she did not think it was needed. You show faith by making that statement, so the Lord will do according to your faith, she replied. And He did. I reapplied, knowing that not too many would go for a job in an isolated area, where about 120 men and one woman worked as soldiers and civilians.
Once more I underwent medical examination, with the same doctor. He asked me already, haven't I seen you here before. Yes, I smiled, knowing that this time he would see something different on the Xray. After a while he came out of a dark room with a large piece of glass with the picture of my lungs on it (old fashioned Xray).
With bewilderment in his eyes, he walked up to me and said, weren't you recently rejected, wasn't there something wrong with your lungs? Yes, I replied, but something has happened. Again he went into the dark room and came back with another Xray picture on glass, from my first examinitation. I don't understand this at all, he went on, the same person and two different Xrays within a couple of weeks. He looked at me for explanation. I know, I said, it is hard to explain, but my lungs have been healed by the Lord.
Of course, that was not a good enough explanation for a doctor. The Lord...... who the Lord !..., he replied. This gave me an excellent opportunity to give my personal testimony, and.... I got the job. The doctor was never the same again !!!
So, I went to live with my parents in Schalkwijk... had a job and supported my oldest sister, emotionally and spiritually. It was not always easy, but the Lord was good and all things were working together for good, for me who loved Him.
Whenever friends and family came to visit my parents' house, I had to clear the downstairs of anything that showed my presence. For me, my life had changed and I had accepted Jesus as my Saviour, but my parents could not fathom that. I was a little too fanatic for their liking.
Someone drove up the driveway, one afternoon, and came to visit us unexpectedly. I had to go out the backdoor, waited until the visitors were in the livingroom, then I had to sneak down the hall and upstairs to my bedroom. My father did not want anyone to know that I was living with them. I often cried and felt unwanted, but I knew the Lord was in charge of my life, He was on my side and working on my behalf.
One evening the minister and an elder from the church came to visit us. They had heard about my sister's healing. The minister said to me: "So, you think that God is just like a lightswitch, you push the button and the light goes on. Well, I replied, you sing in church Psalm 81 vers 7, Thou called in time of trouble and I delivered thee and vers 10, open thy mouth wide and I will fill it. "Ask and thou shall receive". That is what the Scriptures say... not me. Then I asked my sister Maria if she would tell the minister what had happened. Maria stood up and said: I cannot explain what happened to me, but I know that Jesus Christ has healed me. I was sent upstairs, because my father thought I had responded inappropriately to the minister's remark.
I had met the Saviour and nothing was getting between us. The joy of the Lord was far greater than any suffering. Within a year I met a young Christian man and we married two months later. Irresponsible??...Not knowing each other ??...Humanly speaking, yes, but God was in control of my life. Want to read this exciting story ? WOW !!
Here it is: " WEDDING BELLS" (just click on it when you're done with the rest) The Lord knew us...and by now we have been married far over 35 years.
God does not make mistakes!!! Ah.. ah ! DID YOU HEAR THAT !We just have to work on it. The Lord gave us 4 children and we immigrated to Canada in 1966.
This is part of my testimony and I just have touched the tip of the iceberg.
God is unlimited and He will manifest Himself in our lives, if we let Him to.
To Him be the Glory, great things He has done.
It is no secret, what GOD can do. What He does for others, He will do for you!!!
I believe God's Spirit is revealing Himself to your heart right now, that is why He told me to bring this Good News on the Internet. Don't be afraid to lift up your hands towards heaven and cry out to HIM. He is just waiting for that !
Never give up !! When you think ALL hope is gone there is still HOPE! ALL things may fail, but Jesus never fails. If life has been beating on you and you're nearly down and out .... WAIT.... LISTEN .... He's calling your name ! You've been staring at your own limitations, disabilities, qualifications, failures, borders, obstructions, what have you. Now look up into His wonderful face, grab His Holy Hand, reach the "IMPOSSIBLE" with the Lord. Remember, He can do a LOT more than you. Throw yourself into His "lifeline".
Allow Him in your life and you will be "eternally" thankful.
He is always one step ahead, one page further,
a breath closer, a touch away, always in sight, within reach.
He'll hear your cries, see your tears, feel your hurts,
know your fears, heal your wounds, answer your prayers,
lift you up and carry you over hills and through valleys.
Dr. Trudy Veerman © 1999, 2000
Surrender your ALL and put ALL your trust in the Father, who sent His Son Jesus Christ to set you free!!!
"Who the SON has set free, is free indeed"
Personal account by Minister Trudy Veerman, Th.D., Ph.D., C.C.P., Webmaster.
Copyright © 2001. All rights reserved
http://achristiancounselor.com/witness.html
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THE UNEXPECTED TRADE
by Luis Palau
In Acts 7, a disciple named Stephen was brutally martyred while others watched. Was it something about Stephen’s death, however, that helped make a Jewish zealot named Saul into the beloved apostle known as Paul?
I wish following God and obeying His will sometimes had different earthly consequences. For Stephen, it meant death. But for Saul, Stephen’s death may have played a critical role in leading him closer to a new life in Christ. What man meant for harm, God turned for good. The following story shows how God allows a faithful follower to impact thousands in the midst of trial and adversity
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National Football League running back Sherman Smith, the “Sherman Tank,” stood six feet four inches tall and packed 225 pounds of the most solid muscle you’d ever want to tackle. His reputation for bowling over defensive linemen raised his celebrity to near-cult status in the Pacific Northwest, where he played for the Seattle Seahawks. Sherman couldn’t cross a Seattle street without being stopped, patted on the back, or asked for an autograph. He was treated like royalty among the gentry.
Without warning, the Seahawks traded their most popular player to the San Diego Chargers. Everything changed for this running back whose Christian faith was as rock-solid as his rib cage. Sherman arrived in a city where nobody knew him and nobody cared. He wasn’t with the Chargers for more than a few weeks when he blew out his knee. While in rehabilitation, he wondered, Lord, why did You ship me to San Diego?
While his knee mended, Sherman participated in team meetings and joined the club on road trips. He also spoke boldly about his faith—fellow Chargers knew exactly where he stood.
Once while flying back to San Diego after a game, Sherman stood in the aisle with a Bible the size of the Ten Commandment tablets in one hand while leading a Bible study for several players. A defensive back named Miles McPherson asked Sherman to move so he could use the restroom.
Sherman didn’t know that Miles had a line of cocaine in his pocket and was planning to get high, but he knew his teammate did not have a personal relationship with God. A good-looking party guy, Miles was a single who knew how to mingle.
“Can I get by?” Miles asked.
“What’s up, little brother?” Sherman responded.
“Who are you calling little?”
“You!”
“Okay, okay,” Miles laughed. They both knew who the big guy was on the plane.
Before he let Miles pass, Sherman asked him point-blank, “If you were to die today, what would happen to you?”
“I would go to heaven.”
“How do you know?”
“Look, man, I went to Catholic school for eight years. I wore a green suit every day. I’m going to heaven for that.”
“Nah, you ain’t going to heaven for that.”
“Look, man, we used to have nuns in our school who were five-foot-two, 260 pounds, and they used to smack us in the head. I’m going to heaven for that.”
“Nah, you ain’t going to heaven for that.”
“Why not?” Miles asked.
“Let me tell you a story, little brother.”
Sherman proceeded to tell Miles about Nicodemus from the third chapter of the Gospel of John. Nicodemus was well-educated in Jewish culture and the Old Testament. He had watched Jesus Christ heal lepers, raise a little girl from the dead, and restore the sight of a blind man.
Nicodemus said to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
And Jesus said to him, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”
Miles thought about Sherman’s message for a long time. On April 12, 1984, after doing cocaine all night, Miles got on his knees and surrendered his life to Christ. He prayed, “Jesus, I ask You to be my Savior today, and I will surrender my whole life to You. I don’t want to live for myself anymore. I will do whatever You want me to do. I will be whatever You want me to be.”
When Christ became his Savior, Miles stopped doing cocaine, stopped smoking marijuana, stopped cursing, and stopped picking up girls. He also told Sherman what happened. Sherman and two other players began meeting with Miles to study the Bible, helping him learn from the Word of God. When Miles said he wanted to share his faith with others, they said, “Go for it.”
Today, Miles McPherson is an outstanding youth communicator who preaches to tens of thousands each year at Miles Ahead crusades.
Miles and Sherman both know now why the “Sherman Tank” was traded from Seattle to San Diego. God had a plan.
Used with permission from It’s a God Thing (Doubleday). Copyright © 2001 Luis Palau. All rights reserved.
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A TESTIMONY FROM REINHARD BONNKE'S CRUSADE
Lightning Struck…
Working in the fields with his father, Omar Mohammed watched a black scowl gathering across the face of the sky and heard thunderclouds growling with menace. Omar and his father ran for shelter, the storm pursuing them with lightning flashing like a glittering sword.
Presently he stirred, finding himself alive. Near by, his father’s twisted form lay sprawled. Omar crawled over but could see he was lifeless. The angry storm had robbed him of his father. What would have been his shocked scream of panic, issued as a wordless croak. He could not utter a syllable. He was dumb!
Uncanny silence also engulfed him. Neither the thunder nor the hissing of the gale were penetrating his ears. They were dead. In fact, later diagnoses revealed that the high electric voltage lightning had burned out his voice and aural capacities. In one tragic second his future had been wrecked.
Desperately ill, in hospital, doctors and specialists studied and examined his injuries. Weeks, months, no improvement. More hospital visits, more examinations, more consultants and the final verdict – the damage was irreversible. Nothing in the world could be done for the young man.
Omar had grown up in Southern Sudan, the only country in Africa with a religious government, where Muslim Shariah law operated. Now he was officially registered as having a major handicap, being deaf and dumb. The government granted him identification as a disabled person, giving him license to beg.
Begging was his only way to survive. Omar set himself up daily outside the busy campus of the Khartoum University and for over five years became part of the scene familiar to thousands.
Then at the beginning of the year 2000, he read that the German evangelist Reinhard Bonnke and the Christ for all Nations team were coming to Khartoum for meetings in the vast Green Square, the area where government rallies were held. For Omar, events were rare, especially free events like this one. When he saw people moving in like great streams, flooding the square, he joined them.
…Twice
The multitude sang around him and Omar could see this man speaking from the platform. But despite the high-powered amplifiers not a word reached him He grasped what was happening however, when the evangelist made a prayer for all sick and afflicted people, for many pressed forward to demonstrate they had been healed. In his silent word he heard the whisper of hope.
On the second afternoon Omar was there again in the service near the front. Once more the preacher spoke, following it with instruction and prayer for the afflicted. Then it happened. Bitter fate had once flashed from the sky and wrecked his life, but as Reinhard named the name of Jesus, it felt to Omar as if lighting had again struck him. He was felled to the ground as before. What now?
He soon knew. An explosion of sound burst upon him – two hundred thousand people roaring with joy. He could hear, acutely! He leaped to his feet and shouted, in words! It was impossible but there was his voice back, full strength! Heaven held no angry kismet. This Jesus about whom Reinhard Bonnke spoke wielded better power than destructive judgment. This God of mercy had targeted a shaft of healing at him and healed him.
Totally Healed
He became conspicuous, jumping delirious with joy. Close by sat important officials of the Khartoum government keeping an eye on these Christian proceedings. Muslims all, they saw what they never dreamed possible on this earth, a deaf-mute restored, shouting and hearing. The magnitude of the marvel before their very eyes stunned them, moved and touched them. They knew Omar, like thousands did. In this moment sheer gratitude naturally meant that they had to thank God. Who would wish to deny it was the hand of the Almighty?
On the last day of the mission Omar came and stood before the multitudes demonstrating the restoration of his faculties, his once lost voice declaring the goodness of the Lord. He said he was returning to his home in the south to take up work, no longer having to beg, now able to earn his daily bread. As 210,000 spectators praised God, He announced he would be surrendering his disability document to the appropriate officials together with the explanation that he no longer needed it as Jesus Christ had healed him.
Reinhard Bonnke stood with Omar and prophesied that God had His hand upon him, and that one day he would preach Jesus, and become an evangelist.
He will not be the only one. Many others are being launched into the service of the Lord from the Bonnke campaigns, to stun the world with amazing stories. Knowing a Jesus like that, who would expect them to stay quiet?
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Derek Prince's testimony
Derek Prince was educated in Britain at Eton and King's College, Cambridge.
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In the summer of 1941, I was part of a medical unit of the British Army billeted in a hotel on the North Bay of Scarborough in Yorkshire. The hotel had been gutted of all its furniture and fittings. Our "beds" were simply straw mattresses on the floor. While in Scarborough I had some brief contacts with Pentecostal Christians, who confronted me for the first time with my need to receive Christ as my personal Savior. At that point in my life I was a nominal Anglican, who never voluntarily attended church. I had never before heard of Pentecostals, and I had no idea what they believed or what kind of people they were.
About nine months previously, however, I had started to read the Bible through from beginning to end. I had no religious motive. I regarded the Bible merely as a work of philosophy. As a professional philosopher, I felt it was my academic duty to find out what the Bible had to say. At this point I had come as far as the book of Job-but it had been a dreary task! Confronted in this way with the claims of Christ, however, I decided about 11 o'clock one night to pray "until something happened." I had no idea what I might expect to happen. For about an hour I struggled in vain to form some kind of coherent prayer. Then about midnight I became aware of a presence and I found myself saying to some unknown person what Jacob had said when wrestling with the angel at Peniel: "Unless you bless me, I will not let you go" (Genesis 32:26).
I repeated these words several times with increasing emphasis: "I will not let you go, I will not let you go..." Then I began to say to the same unknown person, "Make me love you more and more". When I got to these last words, I again began to repeat them; "more and more and more..." At this point an invisible power came down over me and I found myself on my back on the floor, with my arms in the air, still saying, "more and more and more...."
After a while my words changed to deep sobbing which rose up from my belly through my lips, shaking my whole body convulsively. The sobs did not proceed out of anything in my conscious mind. I had no special sense of being sinful. After about half an hour, without any act of my volition, the sobbing changed to laughter. I had no more conscious reason for laughing than I had for sobbing. The laughter, like the sobbing, flowed from my belly. At first, it was quite gentle, but it gradually became louder and louder. I had the impression that I was being immersed in a sea of laughter that reverberated around the room.
At this point the soldier who shared the room with me woke up to find me on my back on the floor clothed only in my underwear, with my arms in the air, laughing uproariously. Rising up from his mattress, he walked around me rather helplessly two or three times, keeping at a safe distance. Finally he said, "I don't know what to do with you. I suppose it's no good pouring water over you." An inaudible voice within me responded, "Even water wouldn't put this out!" However, I remembered dimly having heard years earlier in church that men should not blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Contrary to all my natural reasoning, I knew that what was in me was the Holy Spirit. In order not to offend my friend, I rolled over onto my face and laboriously crawled to my mattress. Pulling the blanket over my head, I eventually fell asleep, still laughing-quietly.
Next morning I awoke to an amazing, but objective, fact: I was a totally different person. No longer did vile language flow out of my mouth. Prayer was no longer an effort, it was as natural as breathing. I could not even drink a glass of water without pausing to thank God for it. At six o'clock, as was my usual custom, I went to the pub for a drink. But when I got to the door, my legs "locked." They would not carry me inside the pub. I stood there having an argument with my legs. Then, to my surprise, I realized I was no longer interested in what the pub had to offer. I turned round and walked back to my billet. Back in my billet once again, I opened my Bible to continue reading. At this point, however, I discovered the most amazing change of all. Overnight the Bible had become a completely new book. It was as if there were only two persons in the universe-God and me. The Bible was God speaking directly and personally to me. This has never changed, and it is equally true of the Old Testament and the New.
I opened by chance at Psalm 126:1, 2: "When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter..." (KJV). At that point I paused, "That's exactly what happened to me," I thought. "It wasn't I who was laughing. My mouth was being filled with laughter from some other source!" Upon further reflection, I saw that this strange, supernatural laughter was the way that God's people expressed their joy and excitement at being delivered from captivity. Turning back to Job I came across another passage that apparently referred to the same strange phenomenon: "Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man.... Till He fill thy mouth with laughing, and thy lips with shouting for joy" (Job 8:20, 21 KJV Margin)
In this case, too, I saw that the laughter did not proceed from a person's own will, but actually from God Himself. Furthermore, it was a response to the assurance of "not being cast away"-that is, of God's acceptance. As I read on into the Psalms, I made a further discovery: God Himself laughs. Furthermore, God's laughter is not-as we in the West think of it-a reaction to something comical. It is the expression of total triumph over His enemies. When earth's rulers decide to reject God's government, what is God's response? "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision" (Psalm 2:4 KJV).
Again, when the wicked plots against the righteous, God's reaction is the same: "The Lord shall laugh at him: for he seeth that his day is coming" (Psalm 37:13 KJV). Psalm 59 opens with a vivid description of the evil activities of unregenerate men, but once more the Lord responds in the same way: "But thou, 0 Lord, shalt laugh at them: thou shalt have all the heathen in derision" (Psalm 59:8 KJV). When the righteous see God's inexorable judgment on the wicked, it is natural that they, too, should respond in the same way as God Himself. "The righteous shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him" (Psalm 52:6 KJV).
There was another area, too, in which the Bible shed its light on all that had been happening to me. I came to see the identity of the person I had been asking to bless me. It was Jesus of Nazareth-the same person whom Jacob had encountered at Peniel. Jacob had encountered Him before His incarnation; I had encountered Him after His resurrection. I could find no other way to explain the related passages of scripture. The person whom Jacob encountered was both a man and God-and also an angel, that is, a messenger from God to man. (See Genesis 32:2430, Hosea 12:34) There is only one person in the universe who answers to that description, the one who came to earth in human form as Jesus of Nazareth.
One evening about ten days after my first encounter with the Lord, I was lying on my back on my mattress in the billet and I began to speak an unfamiliar language that sounded to me like Chinese. Once again, I dimly recalled something I had heard in church about "speaking with other tongues." I knew it was connected somehow with the day of Pentecost. At first I spoke timidly and hesitantly, but as I relaxed, the flow of words became free and forceful.
Once again, the initiative did not come from me. I was responding to a powerful inner force that came very specifically like my previous laughter from my belly. The following evening I again found myself speaking an unknown language, but it was obviously different from the language I had been speaking the previous evening. This time I noticed that the words had a very marked poetic rhythm. After a few moments of silence, I began to speak in English, but the words were not of my choosing, and their content was on a level far above that of my own understanding. Also, they seemed to have a rhythm similar to that of the words that I had previously spoken in an unknown language. I concluded that my words in English were an interpretative rendering of what I had previously said in the unknown language.
One brief section of what I said in English remains indelibly impressed upon my memory. In vivid imagery it outlined God's plan for my life. Looking back over more than 50 years, I can see how God's plan has been-and is still being-progressively worked out in my life. In retrospect, too, I have gained a new understanding of my initial experience of supernatural laughter. Unconventional as it was, it proved to be the divinely appointed door through which I entered a lifelong walk of faith. It also had the effect of liberating me from many preconceptions of my background and culture which could have been a barrier to my further spiritual progress.
In Matthew 12:33 Jesus states the most decisive test that must be applied to all forms of spiritual experience: "a tree is known by its fruit." I have to ask myself therefore: What has been the fruit of my strange experience? Is it possible to give an objective answer? Yes, the fruit of that experience has been a life converted from sin to righteousness, from agnostic dabbling in the occult to unshakable faith in Jesus Christ as He is revealed in the Scriptures-a life that has been bringing forth fruit in God's Kingdom for well over 50 years. Certainly that was no transient product of autosuggestion or of some mere emotional extravagance.
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ROB'S TESTIMONY
I was born and raised just outside of Chicago, Illinois. I was a very good baseball and basketball player growing up. Sports is all I wanted to do when I was growing up. I wanted to become either a professional baseball or basketball player. But little did I know all that was about to change. My parents divorced, I started to be rebellious, and hanging around with the wrong crowd. Getting in trouble, the next thing I was smoking pot and doing drugs. And my life was out of control. I was in and out of jail, in and out of foster homes. I quit school and didn't know where to turn. I began doing drugs more heavily. I was selling marijuana and having a good time.
Then one day I was at rock bottom and didn't have any money and I needed drugs, so I decided I was going to burglarize somebody's house to see if I could get some money for drugs. Well I got caught and they put me in jail. I got 2 years in the prison. That was the scariest time of my life. When I was taken to maximum security prison and they put me in a cell and slammed the door. It was eerie. I finally did my time and got out. When I got out I went right back to drinking and doing drugs. The devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy. And he tried all three on me.
I met my wife, Wanda that year and four months later we moved from Illinois to Alabama. After living together for several months we later got married. The drinking and drugs continued and led to marriage problems and abuse. Our marriage consisted of fights and turmoil. Later we separated in 1988 due to alcohol and abuse. We got back together on conditions, the alcohol and drugs were to stop.
In 1994 after moving from Alabama back to Illinois to Virginia back to Illinois back to Alabama again. Always moving never contented anywhere. We moved to Alabama due to Wanda's health problems. At one time doctors suspected cancer. She underwent a series of test. I was off work for about a year while she was sick. One day while we were living in a mobile home next door to Wanda's mom. My brother in law came by and invited us to go to a tent meeting in a near by town. He was persistent coming by often asking us to go. Finally we went to shut him up.
I had always had a heart towards God but unwilling to give in due to the things I saw my dad do when we went to church. He left my mom for the choir girl in our church and I guess I had a bad outlook on going to church again. Brother John Meador was the evangelist preaching that night under his tent. He was preaching that I was going to hell if I didn't come to God. Not literally but it sure fit my situation. I was so impressed by what this man was saying I went back the next night. This man appeared to be a true man of God there was something different about this enviroment. Something holy.
We began going to various cities were Brother Meador was holding revivals. Then about 3 months later I surrendered my life to Christ. We started traveling the next spring helping set up that old gospel tent. I have seen so much since 1995 traveling with Bro. Meador. Souls, saved, delivered, healed and encouraged. I want to make a difference in others lives the way Brother Meador has made a difference in my life. To show that true and sincere love of God to others. We are called of God to be tent preachers. Hoping to be good soldiers in the army of God.
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