What if they lied to you?

Thanks to kindpng.com

At 13 years old, the born again lifestyle never ceased to amuse me: seeing fellow teenagers preaching the Gospel, leading prayers, leading worship services, and generally being involved in church activities with such a passion and energy.

It was a little strange to me, because I had never thought about serving God the way I saw those fellow young people do. Back then,  in my traditional church, young people were rarely given such opportunities. One was required to study first, and then become a Reverend in order to lead prayers, let alone preach in church. I had never bothered to give it thought, because it seemed far off.

And back then, I wanted to grow up to be a doctor, but I didn't see or know very many Reverends who were also doctors at the same time; so, me thinking about serving God, it meant that I couldn't do anything else apart from being a Reverend.

I remember most of the first Sunday services and weekly fellowships I attended in my school's student-led born again church, I just kept staring blankly at everything and everyone during the prayer sessions; watching young people lifting their hands in worship, some even crying deeply as they called out and sang to God, and others bubbling out things that I couldn't understand, yet all these were more or less my age-mates, my schoolmates, my classmates. I was amazed. I loved to watch, my mind was always puzzled as I kept wondering what was going on in their seemingly young minds and hearts, while they worshiped and served God the way they did. 

While I was starting to settle into the born again church, one day our school fellowship hosted a guest preacher who wasn't very kind to people of the traditional religious church. Among other unkind things, he said, "Those folks are not worshiping God the right way!"

I got offended immediately, after hearing that, since I was coming from a traditional church. However, I also remembered that the Reverend had never been verbally kind to born again Christians either, never at all!

Okay, since they each said the other was wrong, then who  was right? My 13-year old mind was indeed puzzled.

"I'm sure the born again Christians are wrong," I convinced myself, because I was coming from a religious church background. My parents' religion simply couldn't be the wrong one! My brain, however, continued to think of a more valid reason as to which religious belief was right and which one was wrong.

During this time of distress, I remember a conversation that sparked off between my mind and myself:

My mind: They both might not agree on some things, but what do they agree on? 

Me: Well, they both agree that:

1. God does exist and

2. That the Bible is the word of God. 

My mind: Perfect! Then that's all you need!

Wow! I don't remember the exact time, day or month but that amazing incident marked the beginning of my wonderful journey with the Holy Spirit and the Bible. 

From that day, I made a personal decision, which was: If something does not agree with the Bible, then it's a lie. 

The Bible says it this way, "Let God be true and every man a liar." (Romans 3:4). It didn't matter if he was a Pastor, bishop, priest or teacher, if what he/she said was not agreeing with the Bible, then he/she was lying.

No, I didn't get saved because someone told me about hell or eternal life. No mighty man of God laid hands on me. Just like that, I accepted the Bible to be the true living word of God; Jesus, the son of God who died and rose again, and that I have a helper and comforter, the Holy Spirit. 

2 Timothy 3:16 

     All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what       is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.

I find it quite amazing that I get to share with you my salvation story, but I mean this blog is called, "My Christian Walk", and for 28 weeks we have shared about the Christian walk. So today we get to share the official start of that walk.

I gave my school teachers some good trouble (please accept my apologies if you were one of them and you happen to be reading this article). Most of them couldn't understand why I seemed okay, actually even seemingly happy while serving my punishments. 

Most times I would tell myself, "Well, Dianah, that was a stupid decision, you know you deserve a heavier punishment than this!" Yet if I wasn't the bearer of the decision that led me to that punishment, for example if I'd done it because of peer pressure_ because some 'wise' colleague  advised me to_ I would be very bitter, convincing myself that I didn't deserve the punishment at all, since it wasn't me who made the dumb decision, meaning that I never got the chance to weigh the pros and cons of it by myself.

What I am saying is; whatever belief system you have right now, is it your personal decision? Is it your parents' or a friend's? Is it because it is the trending choice? Is it a decision that you have personally made and fully believe? Do you own the decision to be a born again Christian, a religious Christian, a Muslim?

While not fully trusting either my traditional religious church or the born again church (simply because they continued to attack each other most of the time), I still attended my religious church during holidays and the student-led born again church while at school.

With this mistrust, I asked God, "Please God, if there is anything that the born again Christians or the religious people do that is truly of You, for example healing, please do it through me, to me. Not through a third-party." Well, that's because there was no way I couldn't trust my personal behind-the-scenes experiences.

Relying on the Bible and the communion of the Holy Spirit, I started to ask questions, some from the Bible and others from experiences that had began to happen.

Mark 16:17-18 

These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name, and they will speak in new languages. 

They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won't hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed."

Why was it that many believers don't function as the Bible says, like Mark 16:17 says? Why is it that they don't believe God can heal the sick through them? This verse doesn't say, "Those who believe and are pastors, bishops or priests...", It simply says, "All who believe." This and many verses left me quite puzzled.

The biggest challenge came when I started to experience these things, one by one: being able to interpret my dreams and reveal solutions to the bad dreams,  hearing God's voice became a part of my normal daily life, I started speaking in tongues. Most times I couldn't comprehend what was really happening.
To top it up, as I was praying one day, I got "slain" in the spirit; it was an interesting experience. 

All this happened without a third-party, without a pastor, priest or Reverend leasing it upon me. It was just me, the Holy Spirit and my Bible.

This COVID-19 lockdown/quarantine vividly reminds me of those days, when I prayed so hard because I didn't expect anyone to pray for me, and spent countless hours reading the Word because I knew that if I didn't, then no one would teach it to me. I relied so much on the Holy Spirit because I had no spiritual mentor to ask the hard faith questions.

The purpose of sharing this today is not to suggest which religion is "THE ONE", no. Rather, it is to remind us that the curtain was broken and all of us can now have amazing communion with God for ourselves, by ourselves. Which is what He desires of us, instead of getting torn apart by our religious denominations.

It breaks my heart when I see people suffering, seriously getting oppressed by life, yet they can't ask God to deliver them, to heal or restore them simply because their religion doesn't believe so. No testimony makes sense to them because they were told that all the testimonies and miracles are staged or made up. Well, maybe some are indeed staged; but what if they lied to you? What if many of those testimonies are real?

On several occasions, I have placed my hand over myself while sick, and I was healed. God has told me something before and it happened the next day. I sure can't defend the testimonies you watch on TV, but I can't deny my experiences. 

And that is what I am saying here; talk to God and ask Him for your personal experiences of what He (God) is and what He is not, what He can or can't do.

Just like the blind man Jesus healed said:

He replied, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!" John 9:25 

We can take years debating about God, science, religion and life itself, but really we can't debate about your personal experiences. If you ate rice today, for example, I can't argue that you didn't. In the same way, if you have experienced God, I can't convince you otherwise. 

Like it is said, "A man with an argument has no place near a man with an experience."

God is happily waiting for you to talk to Him today, we always say this while saying The Grace:

May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,

The love of God, and 

the fellowship of the Holy Spirit...

Fellowshipping is what the Holy Spirit does, He loves to do it and He is waiting for you to ask Him everything and anything, especially regarding God.

I can't say how blessed I am sharing this article with you.

It's been an amazing Wednesday.

May God bless you.