Testimonies

[Charles YTK]

On these forums we speak a lot about Law and Doctrine and religious matters. I want to take this thread to share with you some stories of my experiences with Yeshua. I want you to understand that I am not doing this to make myself look like someone special but to bring honor and praise to our Master Yeshua the Messiah. All Glory goes to him. I am amazed at the things he has done in my life. He does this not because of me, but in spite of me. He is Good and faithful even though I am neither.

Some will read these and say, "Bull" and some will doubt, and some might find a bunch of reasons why it can't be true. All I can say is that these are true and were witnessed by those present at the time. I have left out some of the details for bevity and changed some of the names to protect the privacy of some. I share them now before I am no longer able to and so that our faith can be built up as we prepare for the days ahead.

Feel free to add your own testimonies to these.


Gert.....My dear friend.


This summer we took a road trip from Florida to Minneapolis to visit family and friends. We made stops in Indiana and Michigan. We stopped in to visit with some friends in Michigan who we knew 25 years ago. Tony and I were two of the 10 elders (Shepherds) who watched over groups of the congregation. I asked if Tony or Anne (His wife) ever see Gert. Their eyes lit up and said, “Yes we saw her a couple months back and she is doing great. You know every time we see her she tells us the story of that thing that happened when you were teaching the adult bible school.”

The Pastor had asked me to take over the Adult “Pastors Class” so that he could attend to other duties and prepare for the services. I was glad to do it. The Pastors wife and several of the elders were part of the class of about 20 people. One Sunday I was teaching on the validity of the spiritual gifts and how the Apostles testimony was verified with miracles. (This was a United Methodist Church). I noticed that one of the older ladies in the class was holding her arm which was in a sling, and was rocking back and forth in pain. I stopped the lesson and asked what had happened to her. She said that she had fallen down a small flight of stairs, about 5 steps. He arm had been broken in 3 places, in the Humorous near the shoulder. The doctors at the hospital emergency room X-Rayed it but could not set it until the swelling was able to go down. Gert was in her early 60’s at the time. She was all wrapped up and in a sling. She was really worried because her daughter was going to have a baby at any time and she feared that she would not be able to hold the New Baby or help with delivery.

I felt a nudge of the spirit which said, “Are you going to teach it or live it?” So I asked Tony to stand with me as we laid hands on Gert and prayed for healing. We did and this in itself was unusual for a Methodist church. She seemed more at ease. The next afternoon we received a phone call from a very excited Bert. She had returned to the hospital as scheduled to have the arm cast. She reported to the Doctor that the pain was gone. When they did the X-rays to check alignment, the arm was totally healed, and no longer broken. As you may be aware, with older patients healing time is usually greatly extended. But for Bert the time was cut from 8 weeks down to three days. Praise HaShem. This is the kind of provision we need to have in the days of tribulation that are coming. To this day Gert tells her story to everyone she meets. This is the kind of witness that makes the Lord real to us.

[Charles YTK]

Deliverance.

We got a call from some close friends in the church. The ladies step sister was in need of ministry. She had been diagnosed as Manic Depressive and had become very unstable and violent. She had been institutionalized on several occasions. Nothing seemed to help. On this occasion she had surprised her husband by pulling a gun on him and threatened to kill him the children and herself. He got the Gun away from her and she had been placed in a hospital for observation. I was not going to be able to go to Grand Rapids and stay for the time that might be required to speak with her, so Kathy and our friend went to Grand Rapids and got the women out of the care facility she was in and brought her to our home. The husband remained in Grand Rapids with the kids, but moved to a new temporary location to protect the children for any possible aggression from the woman. When they arrived the woman looked wild in the eyes, was unkempt and had not bathed for some time.

Over the next few days we prayed with her, ministered to her, told her about Yeshua and how he would like to help her. At times it seemed like we were getting through to her and she would weep and be agreeable, but then suddenly she would completely change and become excited and violent. What we thought were break-throughs were only swings of her Manic depressive state. More than once I had to wrestle her to the ground and sit on her to keep her from hurting herself or someone else. We remained in contact with her husband so that he knew what her status was. On the second day he told us that he had decided that he could not take the craziness any longer and had decided to divorce her and take the kids.

The way we minister to people is to ask the Lord to show us what the problem is and to deal with those one at a time, as they are revealed through confession, or repentance or healing. We can’t see where the problems are, but God knows exactly what is wrong, and through gifts of knowledge he gives us the answers we need. On the 4th day, we finally got just the key that we were looking for, and it was something completely separate from what we had expected or imagined. We addressed this situation and when we did the woman went into a total rage. It was the only time I had aced total Demonic control over a person. But now that the spirit was identified we were able to exercise the Masters will and release her from this nasty thing. The change could be seen in her eyes right away.

We was 10:30 in the evening when this final piece was reveled and the deliverance took place. The next thing we did was to intercede for the Husband and children. We prayed that the marriage would be healed and the children protected.

A few days later we called her husband and asked him to come down and pick up his wife. He told us that two nights earlier that he had the kids in the car and was driving them out o state to hide them from his wife, when suddenly at 10:30 in the evening he was overcome with a sense of warmth and protection. He could no longer drive because of what he was feeling. So he pulled to the side of the road, and got out of the car. The feeling of Gods presence totally enveloped him. He told us that right then and there he got on his knees and asked forgiveness from the mistakes in his life and with tears running down his face he accepted Yeshua as his Saviour. It was at the very same moment that we had prayed for him more than a hundred miles away.

When he arrived to get his wife the next day, he told me that she had not looked so beautiful since the ay they were married. She was clean, her hair fixed, the wildness of her eyes was gone, replaced with Holy Joy. The Lord delivered her, and healed the relationship between her and her mother, that was at the heart of this demons control over her, healed the marriage, and they both began to attend a good fellowship and live for the Lord.

He is still our deliverer and our healer.

[Charles YTK]

I posted this recently as part of another thread but it is sort of lost, but fits here.

When we lived in Michigan, we had built our own home and after two years we built a very large family room onto it. It was open beam very rustic with 16 foot ceilings. There were two sources of heat for this room, a solar panel, which did not work well on cold stormy days, and a wood stove. We used this room for our home church and for ministering to people. The year that we built it, the winter was long and hard and we were down to our last bushel of firewood having consumed almost 5 cord since we opened the room at the beginning of winter. The snow cover was deep and frozen making he cutting of additional wood too difficult. We didn't have enough money to heat it with electric heaters and were living pretty much hand to mouth. We prayed about it and said that we would continue to use the room and have our meetings until the wood ran out, and we had a good month or so to go in cold weather. The next morning when we opened the room and I went to stoke the fire, the stove was still hot and full of wood and hot coals. Later in the day when I checked it again, the room was still warm and the wood stove full. This was very unusual. Another night and another morning and the stove was hot and the firbox full. I asked my wife if she had filled the stove during the night. She had not. I got a few sticks of wood and put them in but the stove was really not burned down. And so on it went for several weeks, each time I checked the stove it was burning hot and not in need of much refilling. When the very last of the bushel of wood ran out, a warm front moved through the sky cleared and the solar panel took over heating. In some mysterious way the Lord had made a small bushel of firewood last almost a month, and our ministry and church continued to grow warmed each day by his provision. A simple miracle witnessed by all those who met there.

I have seen many such miracles in my life. God can provide. And it is this provision which we can rely on during the tribulation that is coming.

[Charles YTK]

Alaska,

We had sold everything, and left our house in Michigan to be sold and drove to Alaska. We had a temporary place to stay there but it would not last long. Living in Alaska is expensive. I needed a good Job. We prayed about it before leaving on our trip north and were praying very specifically for a Job, in Valdez, working on the Alaska Pipeline Terminal as an instrument Technician and with a salary about three times my previous in order to survive in the high cost area. I had tried to contact the managers there without success. So we left for Alaska on faith and enough money to get there and back and to stay about three months.

Upon our arrival I tried without success to get an interview or to talk to the mangers in charge of the Instrument and Electrical departments. It was like a stone wall. Finally I decided I would fly to Anchorage and see if I could find some other work. The plane from Valdez to Anchorage was a small Beachcraft Baron which holds about 6 passengers. As we got to altitude the man sitting across from me suddenly let out a whelp and held his jaw. I asked if he was OK and he explained that he had gone to the dentist and got a Root canal and now the change in pressure was killing him. I showed him how to use acupressure on his ear lobe to control the pain which gave him relief in just a few seconds. With the pain under control he became busy with some papers. I looked at the papers and noticed they were Loop Drawings ( Electrical Schematics) I asked him if he was in the Instrument business. He then introduced himself as XXXX (Name withheld) and said that he was the Instrument and Electrical Manager at the Pipeline Terminal. I said, “This is incredible. I have been trying to get a letter to you for months.” I told him that I was an Instrument Technician. He was kind of upset because he was in rout to Anchorage to interview people for the Instrument position at the Terminal and could not understand why I had not been put on the schedule. So for the next half hour I was interviewed on the plane and won the position. I got what I had prayed for a Job in Valdez, at the Pipeline Terminal, as an instrument Technician, at three times the salary I had been making.

I think the trick is not to decide something and then ask God to bless it. It is better to determine what God would have you do and then do it knowing that he WILL bless it.

[plum]

These stories are praises to G-d. Thank you so so much for sharing them. My heart is lifted!

I hope to read much more in this thread and perhaps add to it.

[Charles YTK]

It was a cold January day in the Pacific Northwest. I was working in a small pipe cage about 10 feet in the air, boxed in by hot pipes feeding into the furnace below me, where the crude oil is heated to about 900 Degrees before going to the flash tower. I was calibrating a couple flow transmitters up on the platform. My partner was talking with the operator. We were late for our coffee break and a chance to warm up, but I wanted to finish the Job so that I would not have to climb back up in the tight overheard space, because you are trapped once you are in there. I felt a sense of urgency that was more that a desire for Coffee.

There was a crew of Mechanics starting another job just below where I was working. They were opening a large 3 FT diameter pipe. I finished my job and got my partner and went across the street to get some coffee. I just sat down in the break room when there were two very loud explosions that rocked me out of my seat. We ran to the door and saw a huge ball of fire coming from the Crude unit and pieces of metal still going upward and other pieces falling. We ran to the crude unit to help. Exactly where I had been working moments earlier was total devastation and engulfed in flames. If I had remained there I would have been trapped on the small platform in the middle of this explosion and fire.

I did rescue and first aid with several men. A dozen were hurt and burned. The one I was helping was burned so bad that I could not tell who he was. I was afraid he would call me by name as I would not be able to do the same. I stayed with him and tried to help until the Helicopter came to transport him to the Burn center in Seattle. ,He died later that night, leaving a small child and young wife who was pregnant with their second.

This does not seem like a miracle in it’s telling, however this was not the only time that the Lord took me out of danger at the very last moment as saved my life. It is only one of a dozen or more of such events.

[Tishri1]

great Idea....My testimony would be nice here but I would have to keep part of it back cuz it gets rather sad in places:sigh:...

[Charles YTK]

Derrick

When our 4th child was born it was a troubling day. The doctors told us that he had a severe heart defect and there was no chance of surgery to repair it, (not in those days) and he had jaundice really bad and would probably have brain damage. His heart was so noisy that you could feel the buzzing vibration on the outside of his chest. We were told to take him home but not to get too attached to him because he would not live more than a few days. We were also told not to take him around other people because the slightest exposure to a cold would be fatal. We were told to bring him back each day for Jaundice tests.

As we left the Hospital in Valporaiso, Indiana, we stopped by the Cathedral at the university. And we prayed over the child and wept together. The next day we took him to our prayer meeting in South Bend, “The People of Praise”. There were usually upwards of 1200 people there from all denominations. The Baby was fussy from being sick and he would not be comforted. The lady sitting next to us asked if she could hold him and try to quiet him. We said sure, told her about his bad heart and gave him to her despite the warnings against exposure to people. Soon this good lady gave up and he was passed to the next person. And soon the next person gave up and passed him again. After a while he was way on the other side of the large circle of people. We could hear him in the distance. And I image each person got the story and said a prayer over him. By the end of the meeting we had him back and he was exhausted from crying. We took him upstairs to the healing ministry partners and we prayed over him.

The answer I got was not what I expected, a word was given, “Baptize the boy and all will be well with him.” I said, let’s do it, lets Baptize him right now. The team said, “No, We got the impression that you are to baptize him yourself.” And I asked, “And the Lord will heal him?” They looked a little uncomfortable and said, “No, all will be well with him.”

We took him home and the following day called the Pastor at our church and invited him and a few close friends from the church to join us. I told the Pastor that I wanted him there as a friend and to witness but that I would be doing the Baptism. He was really upset and said he would be right over.. He came with a stack of books from the Methodist church and was telling me and showing me why I was not supposed to baptize the child but that the preacher was supposed to. I set my Bible on top of his stack of books and said, “Show me in this one.” With that he said, “I can’t show you from there. Technically you can perform the baptism, but it is against church doctrine.” And seeing that I was not going to give in he said he was leaving and would have nothing to do with the baptism and would not come as a witness.” That evening our friends came over and I got on my knees with the baby and Baptized him in a basin of water and anointed him with oil .

The following day we got up and got ready to take him for his daily test and his skin and eyes were snow white. All the yellow of Jaundice was gone. When we took him to the Hospital for his test and he was clear having dropped from an off the scale reading to clear. The Pediatric cardiologist who saw him listened, and listened over and over to his heart and looking at me quite perplexed said, “There is no more heart failure. He is going to live! It’s a Miracle! He has a beniegn murmur that is all.”

Derrick continued to have the loud Murmur but suffered no ill health because of it. He was fully active physically. When he was 13 his heart began to labor and he was once again faced with heart failure. But now medical advances and his age allowed the surgeons to repair the faulty heart. He was never sick, never had brain damage and graduated top of his class in High school and college from Western Washington University. He works today as a software engineer and has married and has a son of his own. God gave him the support and the protection he needed until the fix was available to him. Why didn’t God just fix his heart? I don’t know, but I thank God for doing it his way, the perfect way according to His will.

[Charles YTK]

Hope you will share some too.

[Charles YTK]

I have so many testimonies, I am afraid people will get sick of reading them. But this is what builds us up and creates unity, focusing on Yeshua and what he has been doing in our lives. If this is not wanted someone just tell me "enough!"

[stone]

i'm enjoying reading them, i have some to add, but i think i should wait awhile.

[MyZz]

Thank you so much for your testimonies Charles...just awesome and so encouraging:thumbsup:
I for one won't tire of reading them,
blessings:hug:

[Charles YTK]

Gods Economy

There are many stories that I can tell about how the Lord provided for us on a regular basis. But a few interesting ones for now.

In Michigan City, Indiana there was a small privately own and operated Christian book store. It was much like the larger chains today having a mixture of books music and artwork. The Owners were faced with a difficult situation as the man had been diagnosed with Cancer. In order to keep the store running they had to hire someone to help run the store. On my way to work for a 4-12 shift I stopped in to pick up a book to read during the quiet times should any become available to me. I found a small book of interest, and it was only three dollars. I went to the counter to pay or it and the newly hired lady was there. I handed her the book and opened by wallet. As I reached for the cash the spirit told me in that subtly way to give to the owners. So I had two twenty dollar bills. I gave them to the woman at the counter and told her, “Keep the change and put it in the register for the owners.” She looked at me with tears running down her face. She asked, “Who told you to do this?” I said, ”It s what the Lord would have me do.” She said, “It is amazing, look” and she lifted the cash drawer, and showed me that it was literally packed with twenties and fifties and hundreds. She said “Everyone who has come in here today has done the same thing. There must be thousands of dollars in here. And it comes just in time because the owners were going to have to close the store.” I looked and Just praised God.

LK 6: [38] Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

Once I needed a new starter for my van. I didn’t have enough money to buy one. And I needed the van to drive the 38 miles each way to work. I had a friend take me to the Auto Parts store in the hope of giving the owner a portion and owing him for the rest which I would be able bring on Payday. When I got to the Auto store he brought out a starter. He told me it was 90 dollar. And then he said, “I’ve got a bunch of these on the shelf and I can’t sell them all, give me 48 dollars and its yours. I had just that much money in my wallet.


Then there was the time that we had run out of money due to some unexpected expenses and nobody but we and the Lord knew about it. And the next day when I went to the mail box there was a plain envelope inside with no name and 200 dollar cash inside.


Once we had committed to go to a church fund raiser dinner. When time for the dinner came I felt we needed to keep our commitment even though it would take the last of our budget for food to do so. We decided that we would find a way to get by even if we had to eat canned fruit or mac and cheese without the Tuna Kicker. So went to the dinner and paid our commitment. It was Italian food and it was really good. But as it turned out the weather was bad with a good amount of snow and so a lot of people who had reserved a place did not show up. After the dinner as we were leaving one of the ladies from the Kitchen came chasing me and said Charles I need your help. I thought maybe she needed me to carry something. So I went with her and she showed me two restaurant size trays of Lasagna on the counter. I asked her where she wanted me to take them. She said, “I want you to take them home and eat them or they will be wasted.” I was reluctant and thankful. We took them and ate really well for the next week.


The point is, these were not exceptions. This was the way we lived for a long time, God supplying what we needed. We gave our tithe and gave to charities for children and he took care of us. I think that is the way his economy works, Give and it will be given to you pressed down shaken together will men give unto your bosom.

[stone]

I have one that i will share to keep this going. regulars here i'm sure have seen me cut and paste it in a couple of other threads over the last year i've been hanging around here at cf. It is my most favorite to share and that i experienced.

This took place about 10 years ago now. I never talked about it to anyone till about two years ago now i think. I guess i just didn't know how to go about talking about it, i mean, shoot i didn't even speak the language much, and i had a hard enough time trying to tell them i needed a wrecker truck to tow my car. I ended up haveing to draw pictures on paper to get them to understand i needed a wrecker. Then some old guy shows up after i finish my breakfast with an old beat up pick up truck and a rope. lol It worked and i'll never find any place in the U.S. to rebuild my motor for the price he did it. The police pulled us over not but just a few feet from where it broke down when we started to pull it off and gave us a fine for no lights or something like that. I gave the police man cash right there on the spot to pay the ticket. I don't have anything good to say about them, so i won't say anything... yet.


Before it happened i've always believed in g-d and J-sus and all that stuff, but i guess my faith was just like anyone elses. It's difficult to maintain a belief in something you can't see, especially today with Science on every channel bragging about how man evolved from apes and here's the proof. They do have some very interesting science.

I remember i was asked once to be a pall bearer for a guy from work who passed on. He was an atheist, and all his relatives were atheist. I remember that a manager read from Dr. Seuss's CAt in the Hat at his funeral... lol I just didn't know how to tell them, they are wrong about thinking there is no g-d. I prayed for him, was all i could do.

I'll stop rambling and just post the story already:

My 1st Angel


I was traveling to Tula to work at the Pemex refinery. Some new reactors were being installed. I was taking some transducers with me that we were going to use to inspect pipe welds and the welds on the reactors.

I guess it was about midnight, actually, i recall it was right at midnight. I was going down an incline on the mountain side. There was a convoy of 18-wheelers going up on my left and a wall of rock on my right. All of a sudden right in front of me there were a set of headlights comeing at me. I had enough time to get two words out... O' s- . lol

I remember jerking the wheel to the right, i guess hitting a wall of rock rather than a big truck was more tempting. The truck hit me. Glass flew all over the place. I remember the sound, it was not very pleasant. The car was skidding down the road, i looked back and saw the red lights from the trucks going over the top and disappear. I remember thinking, that i could not believe no one stopped! I turned back around to look in front of me and the car was skidding to a stop. My body was shaking. I made myself stop shaking, as best i could. My car was totaled. I had just bought it too.

Later, after the federales came, they made their report and all. I had to hitch a ride, and not speaking spanish, made things very difficult. When they guys i got a ride with were driveing off, i saw the federales again about a mile down the road at the scene of another wreck except this one looked much worse than mine. The people in that car were dead. The wreckage was balled up into a little crushed car.

Long story short, i had decided to have my car repaired thinking that it would be much cheaper in Mexico. Boy was i ever wrong, i got ripped off.

Several months later, I had to fly back into Mexico to go and get my car. I took a bus from Mexico City to where my car was.

The next day, while driveing out of the mountains, and this would be between Tampico and the mountain range i decided to give it a little gas, since i was out of the moutainous terrain and had some straight road now i wanted to see how it was driveing. The motor started makeing a clacking sound and looseing power. Eventually, it died and left me literally out in the middle of no where. I could see nothing around, nothing at all. I recalled seeing a little village a couple miles back so i hicked to it.

Once there i began to try and communicate that i needed some water for my car. That wasn't going very well, but they seemed to get some humor out of the fact that some foreigner was walking around out in the middle of nowhere. When i gave a few pesos it seemed to help move the negotiations along well.

I went back to the car, poured the water into the radiator and it started. i was off and down the road. As soon as i got to the next town, it died and i coasted into the 1st gas station. I went up to the clerk and tried to tell him my car was broken and that i would be back as soon as i can get a wrecker. I don't think he understood anything i said, and just said, "sisisi" lol

So i flag down a cab and get taken to a hotel, i get a room, check in, and get something to eat. This was already night tiime. I decided to go out and walk around the town square some. Everything was dead except for one place that had some people going in and out of it and small groups of people standing around outside. I went there and went in, ordered a beer and sat down. There were alot of people in there. It was big and alot of folks were danceing.

After awhile a girl came to me and started saying a whole bunch of stuff and i couldn't make any of it out. I just looked at her and smiled. lol I tried talking to her, but she just kinda smiled back and walked away. She soon returned, with what i guess would have been a group of her friends, and they all started talking to me! Jeez! i couldn't understand any of them. They just all started hanging out around me and motioning for me to go with them, so i did.

Later, i left, outside we all went. One of the girls was motioning for me to go into the back of a truck. It had a camper shell on it. I then looked into her hair and saw what looked like cob webs? and a spider! I said, no, i'm gonna go to bed and walked off, i went back to my room and went to bed. I guess my instincts kicked in or something?

The next morning, i woke up, sat up in bed. I started thinking, o great, what am i going to do now. I just spent thousands of dollars getting a car back that broke down on me on the side of the road and i'm stuck here in Mexico!

I saw something moveing up in the top right corner of the room. I looked and saw a woman standing, looking at me. She looked like a nun to me. Her head was covered with whatever you call that thing they wear. I could see her clear, except she looked so clean and the white cloth was so white. She raised her hands together to her mouth, kissed them, then threw them out towards me. A white dove flew out from her hands towards me. I watched it fly towards me, past me towards the window. I looked back to see her, and she was gone, i looked back to see the dove and it was gone. The dove had flown towards the window, so when i looked back to see the dove, all i could see out of my hotel window was an enormous beautiful catholic church. The feeling i got then was unlike anything i have ever felt before. I had never felt so at peace in all my life. It is a feeling of pure good, there was no fear, not a drop. It is just amazeing!

this was many years ago. i never really understood any of this till recently. I was in my room getting ready for work and i heard a voice tell me that i must believe the word of Jesus. I looked around and didn't see anyone. I kinda figured it was an angel, since i had been haveing lots of dreams at that time of me and angels hunting demons. They would show me where they are and i would attack them and send them back to wherever they come from. lol

So this is what has gotten me to read the bible so intensely on a daily basis now. I've learned alot from the bible that explains alot of these experiences i have had.

edit 7-28 *** today, i know why i never found the dove in the curtains, well... i've known for sometime now, just figured this is a good place to insert this bit of info, I found it right here inside of me.

[Charles YTK]

The Vision

We had gone to a couple in home prayer meetings in our area, a small group of people who were really on fire for the Lord. A different level of excitement than what we had experienced before. They said that they go every week to a larger prayer meeting held at “Christ the King” in South Bend Indiana. The group was called “The People of Praise”. It would become our new home. The meets were held in a large gymnasium set in a circular fashion with the music ministry in the center and microphone stations set around at several places so that anyone who had something to share could step to the Microphone and speak.

A woman got up and went to one of the stations and began to sing a beautiful song which I had never heard before and which was trying coming out of the spirit in her. Then musicians began to play along with guitars and flutes and other instuments, some following the melody and some providing the chords. I thought for a moment that is was rehearsed but then I felt word welling up inside of me and the entire group and the song moved into a new chorus and I somehow knew the words and the melody and was singing along with 1200 other people who had just heard that same song of praise in their hearts.

I was brought to my knees in the presence of Holiness almost like the Shekinah in the temple of Solomon. It was thick and at the same time luminous. I was on my knees eyes closed hands lifted toward the Tabernacle of heaven and I saw a vision. I saw my wife standing and weeping and the Lord had come to her and wrapped his arms around her. I went to the Lord n he vision and held onto the sleeve of his garment and wept with my wife. And as the song ended so did the Vision.

For the next few days Kathy and I were both sort of Quiet and introspective and said very little to one another. As the time for the next prayer meeting approached Kathy opened the subject and asked “ Are we going to go back to the People of Praise?” I told her that I needed to go back but if she didn’t want to it was OK. She told me that something happened when we were there. She said, “ You might think I’m a little crazy, but we were singing and I saw you on your knees and I couldn’t help it but I started crying and then I saw a vision like a dream. I was standing there crying and I saw Jesus come up to me and hold me in his arms. And then you came over and were also in tears and you grabbed the sleeve of his garment and we stood there together.”

Did we see the same vision, or did the Lord come to us in a special way in that place, or did we go where John had gone when on Patmos? I can not say, even today I don’t know. Whatever it was it changed my life.

[Mela'h]

great Idea....My testimony would be nice here but I would have to keep part of it back cuz it gets rather sad in places:sigh:... Mine is also sad dear Tishrihttp://www3.christianforums.com/images/icons/icon12.gif, but God has given me back the years that the locusts ate and more! Praise only to him!

Thank you Charles for sharing about the vision you and your wife had while praising God with song - very, very powerful:)

[MattyJames]

Interesting reads folks. Keep em comming.

regards,

Matt James

[Charles YTK]

Anyone like to share a testimony?

[visionary]

When my children were little, I often looked for opportunities for them to have a relationship with the Lord. One day, my oldest seeing snow on the ground came running from the window excited, "Can I wear my new snow boots? IT is snowing out." I said "sure" and with that she went running to her room. But it was not but a few minutes later, she came tearfully back to say shw could not find them.

I ask if she looked really hard for them, she nodded. I asked if she asked God where they were, for God would help her to see them. She shook her head. So we bowed our heads, and she asked God to put it in her mind where to look.

After amen, she waited a moment then turned to me and said "God hasn't told me where to look" then immediately the lightbulb came on, and she bolted to her bed room and found the boots in the closet. She came running back excitedly telling me how God put the picture of where the boots were in her mind. Now even today, I praise Him for that.

[Tishri1]

My oldest (now 19, then only 4) was playing at a neighbor's one day while I went to a funeral of a dear friend (my first funeral)...I had a sitter and he was only suppose to be at the friend's house till they took off for a DR Apt. right after lunch...

Well the neighbor told my son it was time to go home and thought he had left but he had gone into their backyard to get his jacket , and she locked up the house and left...

He was lock in her back yard and couldnt get out! He screamed and cried for long time...our babysitter had taken the opportunuty take a nap and couldnt hear his cries for help:doh:

When I was at the funeral I felt uneasy.... I thought that maybe it was because this was my first funeral, I found out later why...

My son had cryed , messed his pants and was exhausted with fear and then he prayed for God to help him....God told him to look up.... My son , who still remembers this day; looked up and in the sky all the clouds turned into mansions and castles.God said to him,"There is nothing more to worry about ...your Mommy is on her way home and I am watching out for you till she gets here"(It was at least a two hour drive home)....he spent the next hour or so watching this scene in heaven unfold before his eyes, he said later, when I got home that he saw his mansion and mine and everyone's and how BIG they all were....

After the funeral they had invited me back to the house but by this time all I felt it was urgency to go home and after calling the house and no one answered I really felt it nessessary to leave right then...The drive home I felt peace but not if you know what I mean....when I got home and saw the babysitter sleeping I screamed "wheres my son!" She said at the neighbors so I ran over there and no one was home! I ran back home and was panackd and yelled at her to get up and help me find him.....She thought I was a crazy person and said he was playing over there and the lady was home, I said no she isnt and said how long have you been asleep! She looked at the clock and then it hit her, she had been asleep for 3-4 hours! We went back outside and pounded on the neighbor's door... my son heard all the yelling and screamed "I'm back here mommy, Jesus and I are in the back yard!"
I had to climb up onto the fence to reach the latch and then I just grabbed him in my arms


he said "you came home just like Jesus said you would"...I said "yes , he told me you needed me and I left right away"... he said God and Jesus baby-sat him and showed him what heaven looked like while I was coming home, and how neat it was there

"I was scared but God told me He had sent you an urgent message to come home and that He was in charge of me till you got home...I wasnt scared after that Mommy"

I was soooo happy that my son, age four, had experienced that personal encounter with God and Yeshua:clap:,

my son even knew that the babysitter was at home asleep and that is why she couldnt hear him....

I was still shaken as I drove the sitter home, but I didnt let it show...My son on the other hand told eveyone he knew about his special time with God, he truely felt like a prince that day he spent with the King of Kings :clap:

[stone]

wow :clap:

[Charles YTK]

VIS and TISH
Thank you Both. Our Lord is Risen. He is alive.

[visionary]

Surely.. God has been working in your lives.

It could just little things like the way that the Lord is moving in the little things of my husband's life. We have had things happen which smooth out a path which look like hardship coming, with such great timing that even my husband noticed and gives God the glory. That in itself is the miracle which I praise the Lord for. God is coming alive in my hubby's world. May the Lord receive his prodical son with open arms.

[Mela'h]

Tish, what a powerful testimony - thank you!:hug:

And Visionary, yes, the little things seem so small and yet when they come from God's hand, they have eternal impact and meaning.

[plum]

watch out for threads that go BUMP in the night!

[visionary]

Thanks for the memory... maybe we have others here who will give testimony to the Lord's hand in their lives.

[Torah]

My testimony

My name is Otto Strand
I was born in NorforkVA in 1953; my parents moved to MiamiFla in 1956. My Mom & Dad were good parents My Dad took me fishin, hunting, & camping. But when it comes to things of G-d my parents did not put much time into. I might have went to Church two or three times. I had no teaching of G-d. When I was 15 I had my first girlfriend, I was in love!. After 3 weeks she broke up with me. I was crushed, I said to G-d that night. “I hate you for allowing this hurt” This was the first time I even though about G-d. But at that moment there was an awakening in me that there was a G-d. At about the same time my Sister turned me on to smoking pot. This started a 6-year drug and alcohol abuse.
Each day started with smoking a joint (Marijuana cigarette) driving to a construction job.
Where at break time I would smoke more pot, Lunch time was the same thing, afternoon break same. After work I would go Disco dancing heavy drinking and sometimes popping pills. To help supply my drug habit I would sell drugs. I had friends who were killed, arrested, and overdosed on drugs. At one time I even smoked and sold drugs to an under cover cop. I guess I was just a middleman and he was after bigger fish. After about 5 years of this life style I was sitting on the roof of my apartment complex on a Saturday night. I looked up at the stares and said. “G-d is this all there is to life. Getting high, go to work and then get high again? God if your there let me know”.
It was 1974 and I went to see a play called “Jesus Christ Superstar” There was a seen where People with disease were pushing in on Jesus and asking him to heal me. Jesus yelled at the people stop pushing me there are too many of you. Leave me alone! I had little knowledge of who Jesus was. I new he was born at Christmas and died at Easter. After the play I started to ask myself. Did Jesus push people away? Was he as the play portrayed him? About this time I met this nice girl, Jackie. She was refreshing from all the girls I was use to hanging out with. We started dating. She was a Jewish girl that was raised Catholic. She too was having questions about G-d. She had a Good News Bible that we would sit and read and try to figure out what we were reading.
I had moved into a new apartment and meat a man and his wife Tom & Gill. And it did not take long before they started buying their drugs from me. In 1976 Jackie and I got marred. I keep up my drug use and would still sell to my friends. Tom & Gill had not come by my apartment for about 3 weeks; So, I went to their apartment to see how they were doing.
When I saw them there was something different about them. What was it? There was a glow or something?. “What’s up”, I asked. “You got some good dope”. They just smiled and showed me a new Bible. O-NO I said. Don’t tell me you guys are Jesus freaks! They
Tried to tell me about being born again. And ask me to come to Church with them.
”No way! am I going to a Church”. I did not see Tom & Gill for about 3 month’s. One day
They show up at my door. Otto & Jackie they asked would you come to some friends house with us. There will be a gaiter player from the group called “Black oak Arkansas”. This got my attention, I loved rock music. And I had a chance to meet a rocker. G-ds trap was set.
What I didn’t know was that the rocker was going to give his testimony and the house was part of the Vineyard movement. And the gentlemen that lead Tom & Gill to the L-rd
Would be there also. [Wade] Tom & Gill picked us up and we went. The Rocker sang some songs and then give his testimony. The gentlemen Wade sat down and talked to me. He laid out G-d’s plan for salvation from Genesis to Revelation. He spoke of things like sacrifice and blood Atonement, and how Jesus was our Sacrifice and one time blood atonement.
We talked for hours. He answered all my questions. Then he asked me! Would you like to ask Jesus into your heart right Now? “Now?. But I do drugs; I drink like a fish,
I use bad langue. I said, That’s O, K Wade said, don’t worry about that stuff. Come to him just as you are. So I said O, K. He leads me in a prayer, and I repeat what he say’s. The prayer is over, but I keep my head bowed and my eye’s closed. I’m thinking I want what
Tom & Gill have, but what will all my friends say. But tom & Gill look so happy & new,
But my friends. I want it, I don’t, I do, I don’t, do, don’t, do, don’t. I felt like I was about to explode. Then I threw both my arms in the air and yell. “JESES”. With my eyes still closed. I saw a hole open in my chest and a light comes out of me. I was standing in the living room looking at myself and could see the light come out of my back and my chest and out the walls. I was next standing in the street and could see this light going through the houses and down the street. I was next in space and could see the light going off into space. I open my eyes and it felted as if I had just taken a backpack off my back. My skin felt as if it was aglow. For month’s people would ask what was different about me.
When we were driving home that night, Wade said to me, that I should tell someone as soon as possible what happen to me tonight. I rolled down the car window and yell at some lady
Walking her dog. “Jesus saved me tonight!” When I got home I pulled up the 6 Marijuana plants and put them in the trash, I flushed all my pills’ and poured out the booze.
My life was changed that night. The craving for drugs, pills and booze was gone.
My old friends eventuality stop coming by. But the trade was worth it.
One week later Wade, Jackie, Myself, and another brother named Trace.
Went to a little food store to hand out tracks and to tell people what happen to me last
Weekend. We were handing out tracks when a Policeman drives up. I hand him a track
And he becomes irate with me for handing him some religious martial.
He starts accusing us of soliciting for money. He makes us stop handing out tracks.
I start telling people what happen to me last week. The police officer ask for our
Idenafaction, witch we hand over. He puts our driver Trace in his portal car and tells
The rest of us to go home. This we can’t do. We tell him because you put our driver in your portal car. He tells us to stop talking to people about Jesus or he will run us all
In. We keep sharing. Sundely! In front of the convenient stores there is a three-car accident. In about 30min there are now. 6 police cares and
2 ambulances. By this time people start gathering around to see what is going on.
Thanks to that angry police officer I got to shear with a lot more people than if he had not showed up. After the accident was cleared up and all the people left Trace was cleared and we all went home.
I begin to read the Bible with a new understanding and hunger. One day while I was reading my Bible I come to
Psalm 103:12
“As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”
As soon as I read this I hear a small voice say, “I showed you this.”

I know that I have been given a FREE gift. And there is nothing I can or could ever do to deserve this free gift of my salvation. This is perfectly clear to me.


In 1996 something started to happen to me that was as powerful as my salvation exspearrents. I started to wonder after reading. 1Corinthians 5: 8 “Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.”
Now I have read this scripture 100 times. But this time it jumped out at me.
“Let us keep the Festival”. Keep Passover? I was not keeping Passover. I went to my Pastor and asked, “ Why don’t we do Passover.” Because! He said, that’s OT teaching and we are free from all that. Wait a moment this is the NT.

I called a local Synagogue and asked their Rabbi where I could find information about putting on a Passover Seder. He sent me to my Library. In 1996 I held my first Passover Seder.
In 1997 I held another Seder at home. And in 1998 I held a Passover Seder at my church.
My wife and I started asking more & more questions about the Jewish part of Christianity That was not there. We had more questions?



I started wondering about:

John 7: 2 But when the Feast of Tabernacles was near, 10 however, after his brothers had left for the Feast, he [Jesus] went also, not publicly, but in secret.
“Jesus keep the feast of Tabernacles [Sukkot]? Why don’t we keep the festival of Sukkot?

John 10: 22 then came the Feast of Dedication [Hanukkah] at Jerusalem. It was winter,
23 and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon's Colonnade.

Jesus keep the feast of Hanukkah? Why don’t we? What other Feast is there that we don’t keep? And why not? Pastors would tell me. “That is all the OT and we don’t need the OT we got the NT.” “NO! This is all NT,” I would say. One pastor told me The Jews have there Holidays and we have ours. And this is how it has always been. “Why”?
I just had more Questions, like

Luke 11: 27 As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, "Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you."
28 He replied, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it."

“Obey the word of G-d”? Jesus could not have been talking about the NT! The only other word Jesus could have been speaking of was the OT. “OBEY THE OT”?
This is not what Pastors are teaching! They wanted me to shut up and go along with what has been tough for about 2700 years. But why? Where did Christmas come from? Or Easter? Or Halloween? And why have we made them Christian Feast days? No place in OT or NT does G-d call these Feast days his. And what about the seventh day being the Sabbath? and how and when did it become the first day. And I learn very quick not to bring up OBEYING [as Jesus said] Leviticus chapter 11. So!

My wife and I started praying about, wanting to know the truth about the Jewish root of scripture. One Friday night we were driving by this Church and we notes a big Star of David that covered a cross that was on the front of this church. [This Messianic synagogue rented this church for Friday night] My wife and I decide to try this synagogue next Friday night. We arrive late and the service had already started. When we walked through the doors I feel the L-rd speak to me, “This is where I want you”. I no sooner had this though and my wife says to me. “I feel the L-rd just spoke to me and said, “This is where I want you.” At this point my wife and myself knew nothing about Messianic Judaism. But if this is where G-d wanted us, then we will do everything The L-rd say’s.

It was not till almost a year after we entered this Messianic synagogue that I was reading Exodus 19: 7-8 and this scripture jumped out at me. Befor knowing, we said, “We hear and we will obey”. We felt like the children of Israel who had received their salvation from slavery [in 1976] and, now, were on our way to receive G-ds instructions on how he wanted us to live our life befor him.
We had questions, fear, and needed understanding. A new world open to us, and it was overwhelming at times but we know that we know, that were on the path HE has called us to.
Shalom

[Torah]

I started this in another Thread but believe it would be more appropriate here.
I spent about 7 years on the street of Miami evangelizing to and at bars, strip joints, hookers, drug users, bikers, and cops. would go out on Friday nights & or Saturday nights from about 11:00 till 2 or 3 in the morning. I always cared a lather pouch on my belt with tracts and a small Bible in it. This happen to me one night. It was Saturday night at about 2 am and I am sound asleep, suddenly I am wide awake and want to go out. I get dressed and start driving around, not knowing where to go. suddenly I see a bar and the L-rd said stop!. I am sitting at the bar drinking a Coke when this guy sits next to me. I reach into my pouch and hand him a track, [The Big ?] and say to him: “where would you be if you died tonight. This man starts crying & ask me to follow him to the parking lot, when were out there he starts telling me that he use to know the L-rd but started drinking and lost his job, & family and decided that he was going to get drunk tonight and end his life. We talked & talked and right there on the hood of his car he give his life over to G-d. There are many more times like that but it would take to long to share.

[visionary]

Amen... I too, was convicted of the importance of the feasts but did not find or know of others who were convicted the same. I didn't know where or who to go to .. to learn more abou the feasts. There was this one fellow in the hills of Oregon, who after much study put to gether a paper on the Jubilee, which had some interesting points but my heart said there was more. It wasn't til the internet opened up for me in the last couple of years, and I found this forum and this little corner of the forum where people actually keep the feasts. From what I learned here, bless you all, I found a congregation in the neighboring town which I can fellowship with.

[Torah]

There was a park that I would go to each weekend at 12:00 midnight; large group of youth would hang out there on the weekends. I became a regular with the kids and they got use to me showing up on the weekend. Each weekend a young man would drive up in a Porsche and all the kids would go up to him and buy there drugs, and then he would leave.
Him and I become friends and I would sit in his car after he made his deals, and talk about the L-rd for long period s of time. Each weekend before I would leave him I would ask him: Would you want to ask the L-rd into your heart tonight? And always, “no” was his answer. One time he showed me a wad of $100.00s and said to me: “your going to tell me what you have is better than this”? My reply was:” Without a doubt”. Each weekend would come and go, and he would still say “no”. Then one weekend when I give him the offer he said “Yes” “I want this life changing experience”. He prayed and asked Jesus into his life and to take control of his life. He raised his head a new man. He ask me to go with him into a bowling ally, we went into the bathroom and as I held the door closed he emptied pockets of drugs that had been sewn on the inside of his jacket.
He started going to Church with my family and after about 2 months he moved back to New York to reconcile with his Mom & dad.

[Torah]

One day shortly after my wife and I were saved, we were eating a sub sandwich in our car on an out side mall. A bag woman= (homeless) was pushing a basket down the street. I feel the L-rd speak to me “give this woman your dinner!” I think to my self: “No L-rd I’m hungry!”. I no sooner thought this and my wife says to me, “You know, I feel the L-rd wants me to give my dinner to that bag woman”!

This is from part of my testimony; it is to show that when the L-rd speaks to me he has confirmed it by my wife.
[This Messianic synagogue rented this church for Friday night] My wife and I decide to try this synagogue next Friday night. We arrive late and the service had already started. When we walked through the doors I feel the L-rd speak to me, “This is where I want you”. I no sooner had this though and my wife says to me. “I feel the L-rd just spoke to me and said, “This is where I want you.”

[Tishri1]

http://www.christianforums.com/showpost.php?p=31966262&postcount=83

OK you didnt ask me to do that (post this ) but since I'm looking for this thread for you I thought I should add to it too...:wave:

Bumping for a friend:hug: