FrankLee
Member
My friend, you didn't find God. He ran you down and put His foot on your neck.
Pastor J. Vernon McGee
How was I saved? I have no idea. I was one man and after a few days I was, became, another with no one to explain to me what had happened. I did know men well enough that I knew none of them had any answers for me.
I was the sinner and if one ever needed to be captured and brought to God's mercy seat it was me. How blessed are those raised in a Christian home that were introduced to and followed after Jesus the Christ! I was not nor was my wife. Always a loner, I never joined anything and rarely anyone. Soft hearted, I put a hard veneer over myself to try and protect myself from the world. It didn't work though and I was just wounded by my own bitter spirit even more. My childhood home was dysfunctional to say the least. I idolized my father until as a teen I came in one day and found him with the neighbor's wife but I didn't understand. He may have asked my mother's forgiveness but never mine. He's forgiven now and died a Christian, but I despised him for years and we had no real relationship. Later I found that he had been saved at an early age but having no support faltered. His sin cost me a father and I made my shell even thicker. Sin makes big foul waves that wash over many lives. Even before I was saved I realized that I was no better than him and it was no relief for there was no where to escape.
Salvation the great mystery
God saved me but I don't know how except I had one uncle that prayed for me constantly. He told me this after I had become a Christian. All of a sudden my name came up on God's calendar and I began to change, rather be changed. It was the early fall of 1977. I don't know what day or even what month I was saved, but saved I certainly was. I no longer recognized the man I had been. He was a total stranger to me. We live in a rural forested place but that didn't stop the Holy Spirit. He came for me and I was glad to go with Him.
Jesus makes me brand new
suddenly I was a new man that didn't want to do the old things. I couldn't stand to be alone because there was nothing in me that I liked. The adversary filled my mind with garbage and God's conviction was very strong and went on for weeks even after I asked Him to save and forgive me. He was doing a very thorough job on me. As I drove to work He would remind me of past deeds and I'd have to pull over, pray and weep for awhile before I could continue. This went on for days on end. Some of it was the condemnation of the adversary no doubt but it did cause me to be in continual prayer and in search of the face of God.
Deuteronomy 7:22 KJVS
And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.
Those beasts I was certainly aware of. I was going to need a lot of healing and deliverance. I can look back and see that I needed setting free from a spirit of fear and all kinds of other things and unclean spirits. Even as a child I was in a home that understood nothing about God, I was tormented but no one there could help me. We were all in the same sinking boat.
I was saved but still very troubled. We were going to a little country Baptist church and I'd ask brothers there if they'd ever experienced any of the things I was going through. They all said no and just went back to discussing other things. This just discouraged me and gave the enemy ammunition. Being a new Christian alone is difficult. All I can say is Jesus was there to lift me up and keep me. One morning, perhaps in October of that year, 1977, I was watching a religious program on TV that had Shirley Boone on as a guest. She described an experience she had with God. Shirley and Pat were going through hard times caused by the Hollywood lifestyle. She thought herself to be very close to God but then found their troubles to be overwhelming. She went to the bedroom to pour her heart out to God in prayer and after awhile noticed that she had been speaking in some language she'd never learned for the past twenty minutes.
I'd never heard of such a thing and so just went to work. I came home early that day and was working in the attic of a room I was building. I began to pray and weep before God for help, since no man, not even our church pastor, could help me or even knew what to say or do. He'd even told me about how the enemy had been attacking him! As I prayed I thought of Shirley Boone's experience. I was so ignorant of God's ways I thought "well, I can see God doing something special for a movie star's wife". As I sat and wept a thought drifted through my spirit, "if God did that for that woman, maybe He'd do it for you too".
I didn't know what that thing was or that it was the Holy Spirit that made the suggestion, but in childlike faith I began to make up words, baby talk, anything at all and speak it. In a minute or two I didn't have to make it up! I had ignorantly asked God to baptize me with the Holy Ghost and fire and He had. He gave me the wonderful gift of tongues and I haven't stopped praying in the spirit for forty years.
Luke 11:13 KJVS
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
After He gave me the gift of tongues I wondered "what is this"? I knew nothing about it but started reading all the old and new testament scriptures that I could find on the subject. There are a lot of them. Outside of any church here in the wilderness God had visited a poor, needy, sinner, saved and filled him with His blessed Holy Spirit - and fire! From darkness to His marvellous light. If I had been sitting in a dead denominational church I would never have received God's gifts.
Isaiah 9:2 KJVS
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
Zephaniah 3:9 KJVS
For then I will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord , to serve him with one consent.
Jeremiah 31:2 KJVS
Thus saith the Lord , The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.
I've had ignorant religious people, allegedly Christians infer that I was not saved and my experiences were demonic. Thank God for faith, those words might have been devastating otherwise! Funny thing, for the 33 years I was a confirmed sinner I never had any such things happen. I had cried out to God with all of my broken heart and my answers were from Him. Oh yes, and the Lord told me that He wanted to start living His life in me at 33, the same age as Jesus when He was put to death on the cross. If I had been saturated in some denomination's "God doesn't" doctrine I'd have missed all of the wonderful works of God that my aging eyeballs have beheld. I needed real help from God, not some doctrinal statement.
Continued below;
Pastor J. Vernon McGee
How was I saved? I have no idea. I was one man and after a few days I was, became, another with no one to explain to me what had happened. I did know men well enough that I knew none of them had any answers for me.
I was the sinner and if one ever needed to be captured and brought to God's mercy seat it was me. How blessed are those raised in a Christian home that were introduced to and followed after Jesus the Christ! I was not nor was my wife. Always a loner, I never joined anything and rarely anyone. Soft hearted, I put a hard veneer over myself to try and protect myself from the world. It didn't work though and I was just wounded by my own bitter spirit even more. My childhood home was dysfunctional to say the least. I idolized my father until as a teen I came in one day and found him with the neighbor's wife but I didn't understand. He may have asked my mother's forgiveness but never mine. He's forgiven now and died a Christian, but I despised him for years and we had no real relationship. Later I found that he had been saved at an early age but having no support faltered. His sin cost me a father and I made my shell even thicker. Sin makes big foul waves that wash over many lives. Even before I was saved I realized that I was no better than him and it was no relief for there was no where to escape.
Salvation the great mystery
God saved me but I don't know how except I had one uncle that prayed for me constantly. He told me this after I had become a Christian. All of a sudden my name came up on God's calendar and I began to change, rather be changed. It was the early fall of 1977. I don't know what day or even what month I was saved, but saved I certainly was. I no longer recognized the man I had been. He was a total stranger to me. We live in a rural forested place but that didn't stop the Holy Spirit. He came for me and I was glad to go with Him.
Jesus makes me brand new
suddenly I was a new man that didn't want to do the old things. I couldn't stand to be alone because there was nothing in me that I liked. The adversary filled my mind with garbage and God's conviction was very strong and went on for weeks even after I asked Him to save and forgive me. He was doing a very thorough job on me. As I drove to work He would remind me of past deeds and I'd have to pull over, pray and weep for awhile before I could continue. This went on for days on end. Some of it was the condemnation of the adversary no doubt but it did cause me to be in continual prayer and in search of the face of God.
Deuteronomy 7:22 KJVS
And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.
Those beasts I was certainly aware of. I was going to need a lot of healing and deliverance. I can look back and see that I needed setting free from a spirit of fear and all kinds of other things and unclean spirits. Even as a child I was in a home that understood nothing about God, I was tormented but no one there could help me. We were all in the same sinking boat.
I was saved but still very troubled. We were going to a little country Baptist church and I'd ask brothers there if they'd ever experienced any of the things I was going through. They all said no and just went back to discussing other things. This just discouraged me and gave the enemy ammunition. Being a new Christian alone is difficult. All I can say is Jesus was there to lift me up and keep me. One morning, perhaps in October of that year, 1977, I was watching a religious program on TV that had Shirley Boone on as a guest. She described an experience she had with God. Shirley and Pat were going through hard times caused by the Hollywood lifestyle. She thought herself to be very close to God but then found their troubles to be overwhelming. She went to the bedroom to pour her heart out to God in prayer and after awhile noticed that she had been speaking in some language she'd never learned for the past twenty minutes.
I'd never heard of such a thing and so just went to work. I came home early that day and was working in the attic of a room I was building. I began to pray and weep before God for help, since no man, not even our church pastor, could help me or even knew what to say or do. He'd even told me about how the enemy had been attacking him! As I prayed I thought of Shirley Boone's experience. I was so ignorant of God's ways I thought "well, I can see God doing something special for a movie star's wife". As I sat and wept a thought drifted through my spirit, "if God did that for that woman, maybe He'd do it for you too".
I didn't know what that thing was or that it was the Holy Spirit that made the suggestion, but in childlike faith I began to make up words, baby talk, anything at all and speak it. In a minute or two I didn't have to make it up! I had ignorantly asked God to baptize me with the Holy Ghost and fire and He had. He gave me the wonderful gift of tongues and I haven't stopped praying in the spirit for forty years.
Luke 11:13 KJVS
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
After He gave me the gift of tongues I wondered "what is this"? I knew nothing about it but started reading all the old and new testament scriptures that I could find on the subject. There are a lot of them. Outside of any church here in the wilderness God had visited a poor, needy, sinner, saved and filled him with His blessed Holy Spirit - and fire! From darkness to His marvellous light. If I had been sitting in a dead denominational church I would never have received God's gifts.
Isaiah 9:2 KJVS
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
Zephaniah 3:9 KJVS
For then I will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord , to serve him with one consent.
Jeremiah 31:2 KJVS
Thus saith the Lord , The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.
I've had ignorant religious people, allegedly Christians infer that I was not saved and my experiences were demonic. Thank God for faith, those words might have been devastating otherwise! Funny thing, for the 33 years I was a confirmed sinner I never had any such things happen. I had cried out to God with all of my broken heart and my answers were from Him. Oh yes, and the Lord told me that He wanted to start living His life in me at 33, the same age as Jesus when He was put to death on the cross. If I had been saturated in some denomination's "God doesn't" doctrine I'd have missed all of the wonderful works of God that my aging eyeballs have beheld. I needed real help from God, not some doctrinal statement.
Continued below;