“Do not despise prophecies, but test everything: hold fast what is good” 1 Thess 5:20
I was brought up in a strict religious upbringing. The gifts of the Spirit were a thing of the past - a distant memory of things that don’t happen in this day and age.
Since then I’ve also been exposed to charismatic Christianity where every bizarre occurrence is a “sign” of the gifts of the Spirit and seen people totally deceived by almost occultic events.
Slap bang in the middle of all this was an event I experienced almost ten years ago. I was privileged to attend the Feast of Tabernacles in Israel in the Jubilee year since it’s rebirth. I was part of the International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem (ICEJ) conference held in God’s City in 1998.
I was travelling with the Director of South Pacific Island Ministries (SPIM) and his wife - dear friends of my parents going back decades. Every year, they bring along a group of delegates from one of the islands they minister to in the pacific region.
In 1998, I was travelling with a group of Tahitians who spoke only French and wore the most colourful costumes Jerusalem ever experienced. So much so, that they made national headlines. As an “adopted Tahitian”, I wore their national costume and was quizzed by many as to why I didn’t look like the rest of the group. I explained to them that I was just an Aussie travelling with the group.
The conference was held in Jerusalem’s main exhibition centre where you had your typical stalls in the foyer area with Christians and Jews trying to sell their spoils. It was here, during a break that something strange indeed happened.
I visited a stall and started chatting away with the owner who happened to be an Aussie Messianic Jew. Being Aussies, we clicked right away and she introduced me to her husband. Although he was a Messianic Jew also, he would have fit right in with the Hells Angels - such was his demeanour.
Almost right away, he asked me if I wanted to hear a message from the Lord. Thinking he was a little “charismatically” strange, I had no choice but to accept this invitation to hear from God from the Messianic bikie dude.
Before he went on his “Godly inspired spiel”, he asked me to look at his arm.
“Nice tatts”, I said as gawked at all his tattoos splattered all across his arms.
“No. Look at the hair on my arms”, he said pointing to hairs looking like someone threw a bunch of Viagra on his upright hairs all over his arms.
“So you have a lot of static electricity on you. Must be the carpet in this place”, I replied thinking to my self that that was a good line.
He walked over to someone standing near by and I saw his hairs fall down onto his arm. He walked over to me and they rose again. He repeated this one more time and declared it was I causing this.
Before I could say, “OK, maybe it’s me with the static then”, he told me that God had a word for me and if I was ready to hear it. OK by this stage, he had my attention and I wanted to hear what he had to say. And this is what he said:
“This is what the Lord says to you. I am going to use you as my tool first in your church and then in all the churches in Melbourne”.
And then he turned and walked away leaving me kind of shell shocked as to what all this meant. I think he knew I was from Melbourne in that his wife introduced me as a fellow Aussie. But still his words resonated within a deep part of me - something totally strange to experience.
Anyway, breakout finished and it was time to go back to the sessions. Next I went to a Bible Study session and took a seat in the back row and was reading my bible waiting for the session to begin when this lovely little old lady came up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder.
“Can I pray for you?” she asked.
“Sure. Go for it”, I answered still a little bewildered by what the Messianic bikie dude had just said. And so she placed her hands on my head and started to pray - in tongues.
Something in my spirit started to feel really awkward as she got more aggressive in her prayers. So I asked God the following, “Lord if this is something from you, please let me understand. But if this is of the enemy, put a stop to this right away.”
All of a sudden, she took away her hands from my head as if she got some kind of electric shock and scurried away looking back at me totally shell shocked. As you can imagine, my weird day just got a little weirder as I tried to gel all this things together and determine what on earth was going on.
That night I was talking to my friends from SPIM - Vic and Elsie Sclatter and I told them as to what happened. In sobering Godly wisdom, they explained to me what might have happened.
If the bikie dude was true in what he said, then I was to experience more dramatic spiritual attacks as I was now a marked man. Evil is always looking out for the means by which God will advance His Kingdom and now this knowledge was known to all.
I took this advice seriously as these guys had planted over 100 churches in the Papua New Guinea wilderness and have experienced demonic attacks modern science would fail to rationalise. What freaked me out more then that was that they openly state that there is more demonic activity in modern Melbourne than they experienced in PNG.
They asked me to commit this to prayer and wait on God.
As for the little old lady, they flat out mentioned that I had cast away a direct demonic attack on me by calling out to God when I felt totally strange during her “prayer’. This seemed to align itself with what they said about the bikie dude incident - that I would now be open to spiritual attack.
They also mentioned to keep guard on my spiritual walk in the coming years and that I may be open to more attacks as the enemy now knew God’s method of action in my area.
Well if it was just mere coincidence or fulfilled prophecy, I cant say. But since then my walk with Jesus took a battering and I have barely managed to keep it alive. I have struggled with sin more then ever and have had illness ruin my life on many fronts.
But I still remember the events as if they happened yesterday. Ten years on I still wonder what they meant and would love to see them played out in my life. Not so I can get a big head, but that God could choose me, of all the disgusting people on this earth, to bring forward His Kingdom. What an honour to work for my King!
Like when Mary must have buzzed out when the shepherds came into the manger and told them what the angels have said about her baby (Luke 2:8-20), I too treasure these things and ponder about them in my heart. Not that I’m going to give birth to the Messiah, but that He may choose me to fulfil a very specific purpose in His Kingdom in my home city that He decided to reveal to me in His earthly city of Jerusalem.
Lord if this was your word back then, may I not find peace until I achieve what you have set me to complete. Guide me Lord. Today. More than ever. And may I not despise this prophecy but test to be proven true.
My heart and mind shifted when I was reading this. A similar incident happened to me on a mission trip a few years back. The pastor looked into my eyes, into my heart and spoke as if he had known me my whole life. I had never met the guy, none of us from our church or any of the groups had met him. He told me that if I followed God I would do amazing things. He told me about a lot of the sin I had committed in detail, and also advised me to be strong. Since then I have fallen out of my faith and I cried when I read that you have as well. I have been riding the Christian roller coaster since that day. My faith is now stronger then ever and I hope to keep it that way. Stay strong and understand that God isn’t only a spirit that sits in heaven, he lives in each one of us that chooses to allow it. Wow what a perfect timing for this article. Trust in the one and only, and only look to him for advice. I will be praying for you. God Bless
Sounds like a good time to chime in on something magical that happened to me as well. To this date since I spiritually awoke I am spreading the good news everywhere, everyday. My web site is http://www.godsmessageontheweb.net
Please pray about this to validate it to yourself that it really happened.
My personal story of Faith - Why I know there is a Heaven
May God bless all of you for searching for the truth in God’s Message. The Bible has brought me back tothe church. It has been the catalyst in taking my family to church for the first time. As well as re-dedicating my life to Jesus Christ after almost 30 years of being lost. Sunday the 18th of June, 2007 after going back to church I went forward to ask the church to pray for me and to welcome me back into the flock.
I would like for you to open up your heart for a minute and consider the story that has happened in my life. In short I believe God is working within me to get a message out. I have been praying very hard for God to come into my life and show me what my purpose is. No matter what the cost. My faith is STRONG in the lord because of my story of faith. I was reminded of some very significant events that
happened in my life. One very significant event that I feel needs to be shared so you might learn from my mistake and make a better informed decision about the after life.
I was baptized at a very early age, about the 4th grade. It was a big deal because for my love for the Lord and the deep involvement of the church elders who were leery of my young age. I was mentored and tested by them and was baptized because they firmly believed I was ready at my young age. As I lost my innocence and grew up I started falling away from the things of the Lord. When I was 17 I was in boot camp at the Great Lakes Naval training facility in Chicago, IL. Well into my eight weeks I was tempted by a man in my sister company on a smoke break who said he was a preacher in a Satan Worshiping Cult. Not the obvious temptation. I thought he was kidding. He was boasting, bragging about it. The year was 1980 and Ronald Reagan had just become president. I was missing my girlfriend and was expressing my disappointment that I could not call her for another month.
Laughingly, he said he could put us in communication and asked my name and hometown and her name and home town. I forgot about it in 5 minutes as the smoke break was over. That night as I was relaxing in my bunk and getting ready to fall asleep my soul was literally pulled from my body by Demons and I was descending somewhere terrifying. I heard distant screams, horrific screams. I could feel the touch of two or three Demons as they encircled me, pulling me down. Laughing at me with a Demonic laugh I could feel them touching me, guiding me with an unholy embrace and I feared my soul was already lost. I could smell smoke and fire but could not feel it. I was helplessly lost my brothers and sisters. This went on for a short time and there was nothing that I could do to save myself. Just then I realized the contact I had with the alleged Satan worshiper and I knew that all was now lost. I had been tempted by the evil one and lost.
As quickly as I was pulled from my body/this world, whatever you want to call it, I was returned to my bunk bed covered in sweat. I was shaking and crying to myself, and very terrified over what just happened. Everyone else in my Company was asleep except the watch. I prayed very hard that night thanking God for rescuing me. I never new the extent of God’s Love for me until this night.
I never mentioned the event out of fear. The next day when my sister company and my company had a smoke break I could not find the individual as I was going to confront him about my experience. He was gone already the next day. The roving security guard caught him in the Laundry room of the adjacent barracks performing a ritual worship unto the Devil and I was the obvious sacrifice for my ignorance and stupidity. I have been walking around with this knowledge now for over 27 years. God saved me that night. My heart was hardened over this so hard that I only thought about it briefly over the next 27 years.
I had been living in sin during this time even though I was a nice person. I was not keeping God’s commandments.
On my birthday this year I received an IPOD and began looking for the God’s Message (The Bible) in some form to study and found the Daily Audio Bible. I soon started listening to God’s Message every day. I
started going back to church and I took my family to church for the first time as well. I went forward for the prayers of the church and to repent of my sins. I started praying to God to come back into my life and to fill my heart with his will. I prayed for my purpose to be revealed to me. And I also prayed for God’s will to be done. I was reminded about the things I have seen and that I should share this message with others so they might believe before it is too late
It proved to me that there is in fact a real Hell. And it is not the place that most people would like to believe. I believe many religions have made changes to accommodate that Hell is not so bad. From what I experienced has come STRONG faith and it has been re-ignited it in me. Please listen to God’s Message through the Bible’s on this site or any site daily and I guarantee it will change your life. I understand that many people may have trouble with what I am saying. When you pray next ask God about the Authenticity of my story. I am going out on a limb per say with this web site and story. Meet me half way and if you believe in my story or not read or listen to the entire Bible for yourself. You owe it to yourself to be informed of God’s kingdom in the same way you understand anything that is important.
May God bless each and every one who visits the site and is interested in learning God’s word. I truly believe that if you base your life off of the principles in the Bible and follow God’s Message that you cannot go wrong. Study the scriptures with us in our Bible Study section as we learn God’s Message together. And do the things that are necessary to be pleasing before the Lord your God!
Josh & Greg,
Thanks so much for responding to this post. When you think about it, this topic can open up a can of worms with no bottom. Glad we’re all on the same team trying to figure this whole thing out.
At the end of the day, my hope is that we all bring glory to Jesus in our lives. If the stories mentioned above achieve this, then we have done what is expected of us.
Pleasure serving with you guys.