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Thread: When did you come to the Lord and what prompted that decision?

  1. #1

    When did you come to the Lord and what prompted that decision?

    I love hearing the testimonies of how believers came to the Lord. Some were born and raised in a strong Christian home and attended a good church, some knew there was a God but ran from Him while others were agnostic until some revelation prompted their belief.

    What's your story? Did you always 'know' there was a God? Did you immediately embrace Him? Where you saved as a young child or did your turning point occur later in your life? Come and share your testimony with us.

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  3. #2
    I was born and raised catholic and even went to catholic schools K thru 12 and while I was taught about God, to me it was presented more so as lessons about a historical figure rather than someone I could have a real and personal relationship with. We were taught to pray to God as well as to Mary and numerous other saints, say the rosary and other scripted prayers, go to confession, go to mass, light candles, etc, etc.

    I was never really sure about this God thing, I mean I had always hoped there was a kind and loving God somewhere out there but with all the other religions out in the world let alone all the denominations who could be sure if they were going in the right direction? So in essence while I claimed to be catholic I was actually an agnostic.

    Flash forward a few years and after some occasional dabblings in new age stuff and some half hearted searching for answers I finally thought that if there really is a God why couldn't I just ask Him directly for the answers to the questions I had. So I began doing that in earnest and slowly but surely the answers came.

    I even started running into a lot of Christian tv programing while using the remote to change channels and I'd find myself lingering longer and longer on those stations as they were addressing the things that I'd been searching for answers for.

    So finally at Thanksgiving time 1982 I sincerely asked Jesus to come into my life and be my Lord and it was the best decision I have ever made. :)

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  5. #3
    Administrator fuego's Avatar
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    Raised Southern Baptist. Quit going to church when my mother quit making me go, about 11. But that 'truth' was instilled in me, and I mentally agreed that Jesus was the Son of God, but never acted on it. I thought salvation was 'going up front' and signing a card and then an uphill battle to keep from lusting the rest of your life. I didn't realize that if you truly accepted Him that you could actually be changed.

    When I was 18 and a senior in high school ('74), I had a friend ask me to go to church with him, Danny Watson. He took me to Mt Paran in Atlanta which is a very large Church of God. I had no idea it was Pentecostal or what even Pentecostal was or that it even existed. In spite of it being a huge church, I remember there being a tongue and interpretation. Danny must have explained this to me somewhat before we went because when I heard it I wasn't freaked out at all and I remember thinking to myself, 'Wow, it would be awesome to be used by God like that once your life.' I didn't know anything about that at the time so I just assumed maybe if you were lucky God zapped you once in your life to be a vessel for that. When we left I remember telling Danny that 'this is the first church I've ever been to in my life that when I left I felt better instead of worse', which was obviously an affect of the presence of God being in that church, which I had never experienced before. I even went back to that church one more time a few months later and took my girlfriend telling her how good it was.

    So sometime in 1977, my best friend had been led to the Lord by his uncle who was a dentist. He told me, and I didn't really believe it, because I didn't know how anybody could be 'saved', even though I 'believed' in it. I just had no idea how to do it. Or at least how to do it other than just making some mental decision and then trying not to sin. Not too long afterward he gave me a book by Harold Hill called 'How To Live Like A King's Kid' (you can find an online version of it for free now on Google books). So I began to read that and it was the first time I had every read anything about God still doing miracles and that one could actually be changed. The book actually started with the author relating a supernatural story he was involved in. I devoured that book. I remember thinking that if someone had told me about THIS God, this supernatural God that still does miracles and can change you, I would have gotten saved a lot sooner. But at some point in the middle of the book, I just laid it down on the arm of the chair, and very simply asked Jesus to come into my heart. No fireworks or bells or whistles, just a simple sincere prayer, and picked the book back up and kept reading.

    So shortly after that, because the church my friend in high school had taken me to a Church of God, we looked for a Church of God since I knew they believed in the 'stuff' there and there was one just up the road from us. We (my best friend and I) were going to go to the morning service but overslept. So we went to the evening service instead. Well, to make a long story short, it was a divine setup. The pastor (Brother Smith, gone on to be with the Lord now), was preaching on the baptism in the Holy Spirit (that was back when Pentecostal churches still actually preached about it ). The pastor called my friend out and gave him a word of knowledge about finding what he was seeking, and said something to me too. When they gave the altar call to be filled with the Spirit, I went down and kneeled at the altar and several men gathered around me and laid hands on me to pray for me. I mean I still didn't know anything, but I was never scared by it. I just accepted it. The reason I say a divine setup also is that all the years I was at that church, he maybe only taught on the baptism in the Holy Spirit maybe one other time. So that sermon was set up for us. Although he displayed the gifts all the time. He flowed in prophecy and tongues and interpretation quite frequently as did others in the congregation because of his example.

    As they were praying for me, I felt something begin to rise in the depths of my belly. I could literally feel it like it was starting at the bottom of my stomach and filling me up. It was like this pure clean layer was rising up and pushing out what I called 'the 21 years of crap' layer. I could feel the two layers distinctly. When that clean layer had pushed the dirty layer up to where it hit my throat, I began to scream and cry out uncontrollably (not realizing until later once I learned more that I had actually been delivered of devils) and then began to speak in tongues on the tail end of that.

    And the rest is history. :)
    Last edited by fuego; 09-13-2015 at 01:15 AM.

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  7. #4
    I, too, was in a Baptist church (Swedish conference.. very conservative.)

    I was 6-9ish.. I can remember exactly where I was sitting, the person giving the lesson (Bruce Greenwood) when my lightbulb went on.

    I knew I was broken and sinful. I knew there was nothing I could do about it. I knew God loved me enough to come and die and take my punishment. I knew I wanted to be in God's family and asked for His forgiveness.

    Doesn't mean I didn't spend some amount of time wandering around my own personal desert.. but I also knew God was with me then, too.

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  9. #5
    My parents and older sister fully committed to Christ in a Billy Graham crusade in about 1956. I was saved when I was about 9 and baptized in the Holy Spirit at 12.

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  11. #6
    I was raised Baptist as well...I was 11, going on 12 years old when I "joined the church". The church gave out bibles to new believers when they join, so I got mine and started reading of all places, the book of Revelation. I think this was during the time the "Late Great Planet Earth" book was popular and I must have heard people talking about it. During those formative years, I was learning and growing, and had a limited knowledge of having a relationship with the Lord. Fast forward twenty years, I was beginning to hunger for "more". I wasn't getting it at the Baptist church I was in, so I began watching Christian TV and listening to Christian radio (Started listening to Joyce Meyer, she had a nightly 15 minute program of her teaching)...received the baptism of the HS one night listening to another radio program--but I didn't understand exactly was was happening, I just heard myself SIT and got scared and shut it down..had another encounter with the HS a year later in Tulsa, when I was considering enrolling in ORU, I was at a prayer meeting there..

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  13. #7
    Senior Member Nikos's Avatar
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    I was raised pentecost. Grew up in a pentecostal preachers home. I was saved when I was 9 years old at Four Mile Creek Open Bible in Des Moines Iowa where my Dad was leading an old time pentecostal revival. Many were saved including myself. I remember it well and served the Lord during my teens and stayed true to my salvation. I had cancer when I was in my senior year of high school and was miraculously healed. As a result went to Bible College was filled with the Holy Ghost and God gave me a beautiful pentecostal wife and we entered into the ministry. Served as an evangelist and pastor. Later went back to my Alma Mater and taught for 14 years. Altogether taught 24 years at the college level and pastored 6 churches. I will soon be 77 and I am a strong believer in pentecost. I live it and preach it when I can and practice it every day until one day Jesus takes me home. I am on my way to Heaven shouting GLOOOOOORRRRYY!

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  15. #8
    Super Moderator Quest's Avatar
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    I was introduced to 'church' by my grandmother from my earliest memory..she and I would walk to the First Baptist up-town. When she stopped going due to health I kept going. I was aware of the Holy Spirit's presence long before I knew who He was. I recall from time to time going into the church, which was always unlocked back then, and being at peace there.

    God enhanced my childhood memory so that now I see clearly and have words for what, then, I could only experience. As I reiterate my experience be aware that at the time what was really happening was not nearly as defined as it is now.

    I had reached a stage in life, around 10ish, where I recognized hypocrisy and injustice. During Sunday school the Lord and I had a conversation. He told me that I have a choice. I can chose to be like some I had observed who were prosperous and renown in the community as leaders but whom I knew did bad things and that was often how they GOT the wealth and position or I could be like my SS teacher. I believed He highlighted her spiritual condition for me at that moment because I had not really SEEN it before. But I recognized unconditional love in her..a beauty that I knew was from the Lord. I told the Lord, I want to be like her.

    My next clear memory is sitting in the sanctuary because they did not have 'children's church'. When my pastor finished preaching I suddenly just KNEW I was a sinner and in need of Jesus as savior. As they sang 'Just as I Am' I walked the isle to that alter and wept and prayed. I was born again that day. As I headed home there was a lightness where there had been heaviness. I told my grandmother..

    My WALK after that was a real struggle because I had no guide other than Holy Spirit and the Bible, neither of which I knew much about really. It was not until I was baptized in Holy Spirit at the age of about 21 that my walk began to be defined by them..

    I really started grasping the RELATIONAL aspect of my faith about 15 years after that as I committed to know the Lord regardless of where HE chose to lead me and began to trust Him to lead me to ALL truth and not just the truth within my denomination which was Church of God (TN version) ...when He led me to Toronto to TACF was a big turn for me...

    My walk has been really progressive although I can pinpoint certain 'suddenly' type landmarks I realize they were not suddenly at all..

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  17. #9
    Senior Member Romans828's Avatar
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    Cool

    1. Got Baptized at age 12

    2. Had no real "Saved" role models, so while Jesus was in my heart, he wasn't in my "walk" at all

    3. At age 28 started feeling conviction and wooing of Holy Spirit and prayed the "Sinners Prayer" over the phone with a 700 Club counselor on January 6, 1981, and made Jesus my Savior and Lord

    4. Got Baptized in the Holy Ghost a few weeks later

    5. My whole life changed, and I've never regretted it for one second.

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  19. #10
    my dad and I were baptized on the same day, together… well, not "together", together.. but, together.


    it was a neat thing.

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