Earth Shaking, Doors Opening, & Breaking Free! Acts16:26

 

Matt Desmond's Testimony


The lowest point in my entire life came on March 20th, 2003. That was the day that the Lord spared my father from a massive heart attack. We didn't really know what was going on for several days after he had his scare, and nobody was telling me anything.

I was in college at the time and spring break was just ending. I was 19 years old...my so called friends told me to come over and have some hard drinks and forget about it. Why I did is beyond me, but I knew one thing, I LOVED the taste of alcohol. It was just the most amazing taste in the entire world, and the feeling, well, that was even better. We drank, and we drank, and we drank and we drank some more. For almost an entire year I lived my life in a state of between being completely drunk and almost sober. It wouldn't be an uncommon thing for me to put away almost an entire fifth of Captain Morgan every single night. The saying in the dorms was: "Matt and the Cap'n Make It Happen."

I also really enjoyed the friendships I had made too. I felt important, everyone was impressed by my ability to drink everyone else under the table. I could be so severely intoxicated that I was on the border of getting alcohol poisoning. In fact, one night, if the fire alarm in the dorm hadn't randomly gone off, I probably would have died. Because immediately after going back up to my room, I emptied the contents of my stomach into a trash can. I swore no more drinking after that. Except that was pretty short lived. I think I sobered up for about a week, maybe two. But I was back to drinking again, and man, I swear if it weren't worse than before. Instead of saving my paychecks from my student job, I would take the money I had made and put it towards alcohol purchases. My alcohol budget at the time was probably $100 a week, and it was all hard liquor.

I realized at that point that I had become exactly what my father, my grandfather, my great grandfather had been...alcoholics. I tried to push all of the thoughts out of my mind about my grandfather. My first experience with the negative effects of alcoholism came when I was just a little duffer, maybe three or four years old. We were visiting my grandparents and my grandfather had poured himself a glass of scotch, took a few sips and went to the bathroom. My Dad took the glass of scotch and poured it down the sink. When my grandfather got back, he asked where his drink was, and Dad said: "You drank it, remember Dad?" "Oh, yeah, that's right, I did." Well that scenario went on for several hours, he would pour a drink for himself, get quickly distracted and my Dad would throw it down the sink. He died about two years later at the age of 63. It was November 11th, 1989. His liver was all shot from all of the alcohol he would drink.

Flash forward to January of 2005, I met this girl through some friends named Jessica. She sure was an amazing woman. I thought she was the one that I was going to marry. It turns out that God used her to turn my life around. By the time I got to my 21st birthday, April 16th, 2005, I had my final hurrah with drinking. April 17th, I woke up extremely hung over and in a cold sweat. I knew that this was the last day in my life that I would ever be hung over from alcohol. I quit cold turkey just like that. Let me be the first to tell you, not an easy task. It definitely sucked. There were times when I would see all of my friends go out to get wasted, and I wanted to go. But I didn't. There have been times even since I have been in church where I have CRAVED a drink of hard liquor. I have absolutely CRAVED it. But I have not given in to the temptation.

Anyway, some other stuff happened along the way that I don't feel comfortable airing out in public, but a few people on here know all of the details, and no they won't share under penalty of death! And I ended up getting a job at a bank where a bunch of people from my church worked and they witnessed to me. After several months, on December 4th, 2005, I walked in to the First Apostolic Church of Brewer for the first time. I thought the entire place was going to cave in with all of my sin. We had a lady preach a message called "Seven Days to Repent", I sure chewed on that message for a while, and I thought about it, and I kept coming back desiring more.

On January 1st, 2006, I was baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of my sins, and exactly 4 weeks later when Elder Cavaness from Indiana preached a revival, I got the Holy Ghost on Sunday night. It was amazing. Of course there was a naysayer there going around saying I didn't get the Holy Ghost, but on the drive back to my house I got refilled!

Has life been easy since I came to God? Uhm, nope! It sure hasn't! But I know what God has called for me to do, and I know the plan He has for my life. I wouldn't trade that for all of the Captain Morgan Silver Spiced Rum in the entire world!