Here's my testimony. I finally get to post it. I copied and pasted it from my facebook. It was written for this other lady (who does NOT believe this message) to read so it may sound like I'm treating you, the reader, like you know nothing. Not my intent.......but please read and comment if you care to.
Back as a child, I went to church. I remember going to the altar and asking Jesus into my heart. After all, that's what I was told to do. Every week I would go home and wonder why I didn't feel anything. I accepted Jesus into my heart, yet I knew as a 7-9 year old that something should have happened.
As I grew up, I still wanted a relationship with the Lord, but was unsure of what all it entailed. I never knew anything other than "accepting Jesus as your personal savior."
When I got out of school I: got married, stayed married for 3 1/2 years, divorced, got wild, had a child out of wedlock, then found the sweet man that I have now.
When he and I got together, I was told that he was an alcoholic and drug addict. The thing that drew me to him was that I saw a Bible on his coffee table. I KNEW that I could NOT continue in the way that I was going and I KNEW that I wanted to start going to church so I asked him if that was something that he wanted to do. He seemed ok with it so we dated. Didn't go to church during our dating months though.
We hit it off immediately. Ten months after getting together, we got married.
About 1 to 2 years after we got married, we started going to a methodist church. We continued in the sins that we had been living in. Smoking, drinking, lying, etc.- all that you could practically imagine, even after we had "accepted Jesus into our hearts."
After "accepting" Jesus, we were baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and STILL continued in our sins.
THEN one day, my husband was in the shower. He cried out to God and said, "If you're real, take these desires from me. The tobacco, alcohol, drugs, all of them, take from me." From that point on, he's been delivered from all of that. Praise the Lord.
Well, after about 2 years of attending that methodist church, my husband said that he wanted to go visit other churches, so we did. We went to brethren, other methodist, different kinds of baptist churches. Finally we settled on one of the baptist churches.
The pastor there really taught the Word. It was all Bible from that pulpit and boy, oh boy, did we eat it up! We were pretty involved there too. We were in the pastors home fellowship group and became really close to the people there.
During those times, my sister-in-law had been going to a pentecostal church. She kept talking to me about getting the Holy Ghost and speaking in tongues. I was totally against that. Thought it was so wrong. Thought that it was for that time only.
For several years, that was all that I heard from her, getting the Holy Ghost and speaking in tongues. It got to the point that I didn't even want to see her anymore. I thought it was like she was brainwashed and trying to brainwash me.
Then one day my husband and I were talking. He use to go to a pentecostal church in the country when he was married to wife #1. We agreed to visit there. (My sister-in-law went to a different one with different beliefs. I didn't realize that until later.)*****
During the service, the pastor was really preaching and in my mind I said, "God, if this is NOT of you, shut this man down." IMMEDIATELY the power was lost. The place went fairly dark, people scrambled to go find out what happened. The pastor tried to preach without his microphone. I didn't hear a word of what he said. I KNEW that God was telling me that THIS was not of Him. When service got out, there were these ladies holding the doors open for us and they apologized for the sudden darkness and said that they didn't know what happened as the rest of the neighborhood had power. They said that it never happened before but was sure that the guys would get it fixed and asked us to come back and visit. I KNEW what it was. It was not of God!
Probably about 6 months later, sister-in-law asked us to come to a Bible study at a family's house from her church. My husband agreed so we went. Got there and found out that it had been canceled at the last minute as the teacher had to go to Ft. Wayne to pray for someone. I told my husband that this is all of God as we weren't suppose to hear the false teaching.
A couple weeks later, sister-in-law asked us to go again. This time it was at (their) my brother's house. We went. But, in the meantime, I had really been studying and praying. I wanted God to use me for His glory. I wanted their blind eyes to be opened. I was all excited. Ready for anything that they would throw my way.
September 3, 2001
Got to their house. There were 5 couples (including us) and 8 children ages 10 months to 10 years. The kids were playing in the kitchen while we had the study in the LR.
There were some awesome verses that the teacher read. (I'll hit those in a minute.) There were many questions asked, too. (I'll hit those too.)
To give you the idea of the setting, I want you to know that this teacher that was there had the meekest spirit. He was never an in your face kinda person. He took us to passage after passage. Answered question after question. It was the meek instructor that was able to help us get out of the snare of the devil. (2 Tim. 2:24-26)
He took us to Acts chapter 2. The day of Pentecost. You know, when they had received the Holy Ghost, they spoke in tongues as the Spirit of God gave the utterance. He was telling us that it still happens today. We didn't think that you HAD to. He showed us that everyone that is born of the Spirit will have a sound accompany them, giving us the indication that he/she had indeed received the Holy Ghost. (Read John 3:1-8) In verse 8, it talks about the wind having a sound. It says "so is EVERYONE that is born of the Spirit."
I still struggled with it as I had NEVER spoken in tongues. Here's this guy telling me that I had to and I hadn't so therefore I wasn't born again. My husband asked this question: "Are you trying to tell me that if I don't speak in tongues, I'm going to hell?" Let me tell you, that entire place went quiet. All of the kids in the kitchen were silent. (And they couldn't hear what was going on.) It was as though a vacuum sucked every sound out of there. Incredible. Anyways, after a long pause, the teacher looked at my husband and said, "That's right." My husband was shocked. This guy was telling us that we weren't saved. That bothered both of us.
Well, to continue with Bible study.
Back to Acts. In Acts chapter 2 verses 37-38, there's some interesting dialogue taking place between Peter and the men that were listening to Peter preach. (Please read all of Acts 2 in it's entirety.) In verse 37, the men asked, "What shall we do?" Peter stood up and answered them. I'll put it here as to explain. "Then Peter said unto them, Repent (turn from your sin), and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission (forgiveness) of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." So we see that we must get baptized in JESUS Name. (Read Acts 4:12)
This teacher then, took us to Matthew 16:13-17 then immediately to John 10:30. After reading those continue with this...................
Ok, so in Matthew, I saw that even though Jesus was with the disciples, he still asked them who they thought HE was. After Peter told him, Jesus blessed him there and said that flesh and blood did not reveal it to him but "Father which is in heaven." Then I see in John 10 that Jesus said that he and the Father are ONE. Something clicked in me. Jesus is the ONE and ONLY God. It is only by revelation that we can believe that.
You see, this teacher that was going through this Bible study never said a word about/against a trinity. But God, who revealed it to Peter, revealed it to me that night. There is only ONE God. There's NO OTHER God. There's no trinity.
I knew just then that I needed to receive this Holy Ghost that I had read about. I knew too, that I needed to get baptized in Jesus Name for my sins to be forgiven. I just didn't know when and how to go about asking/telling.
When we left that study, I looked to my husband and told him that I believed (still do) what he said about this Holy Ghost. I believed (still do) that every one that receives it will speak in other tongues (just like in the Bible). I believed (still do) that we needed to get baptized in Jesus Name to have our sins forgiven. I believed (still do) that there is only ONE God and His Name is Jesus. He is the Father (John 5:43), the son (Matt. 1:21) and the Holy Ghost (John 14:26).
So on September 16, 2001 we went to church with them. (We had gone the previous Sunday.) After the preaching we both got baptized in Jesus Name for the remission of sins. I must say that when I came out of the water, I felt different, but I had NOT yet received the gift of the Holy Ghost. Neither had my husband.
On the next Sunday morning, Sept. 23, I received the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues as the Spirit of God gave the utterance. That evening my husband was filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit of God gave the utterance. All praise and glory to God.
I've been living for Him since. I don't know how I ever did it without Him. You know the Bible says that without the Spirit of Christ we are none of his. We NEED His Spirit; we MUST HAVE this Holy Ghost that I just told you about. We can't follow the Spirit if we don't HAVE the Spirit.
****The first pentecostal church we went to was a trinitarian one and that is why God shut it down. I thought that it had to do with the speaking in tongues thing.