I love being able to share with others what God has done for me-He is so good!

I am really not trying to "prove" anything, but would like to just share my own testimony with you. I am not a debater, but I have had a wonderful experience, and just want to share it with others.

During my growing up years, I did not live in a home where we attended church. I visited church with my grandmother a time or two, and also with friends from school, and neighbors.

I was blessed to have parents that taught me honesty, generosity, and how to be a hard worker. My parents showed my brother and I what a commited marriage looked like-they were married 38 years before my father passed away. I am thankful for the good things they instilled in me.

When I was 15, although I am not proud to admit it, my life began heading in the wrong direction, and quickly. I began taking dangerous chances with my life. That is when God reached down! He was already reaching for me, but His wooing to my soul became unresistible! He completely touched and changed my life!

My brother became friends with a couple of girls from school, and they invited him to church.  He fell in love with Jesus, and then invited me to join him.  I visited church with him, and did not expect to feel all that I felt!  I was warmly welcomed, and when the service began, I had never felt the presence of God like I did that night.  It actually caused me to have a lump in my throat, His presence was so full in the air.

I visited the church with my brother for a few more weeks, and then decided I wanted what God had to offer me-sweet salvation! 

I was thrilled to have the power of Jesus' name wash away my sins in baptism!  And a week later, I was filled with the Holy Ghost.  The chains of bondage had fallen off of my life, and I was free!  I've never forgotten that incredible night in my life-it changed my destiny in so many ways. 

Along the years of growing up and visiting churches, there was something that I noticed. So often, churches offer all of us a God we can't feel, that we are supposed to believe in, and solely by faith.

Many people have heard that the way to be saved is to accept the Lord as our personal Saviour, and ask Him to come into our hearts. I have thought, How can the Creator of the universe, Who is so BIG, come into our hearts when we ask Him to, and yet we don't feel any different-we should just believe that He is there?

The more I have read the Bible, I have realized some things, and I know what the difference is between the times I just had to try to believe and go on faith, to where I am now-KNOWING that God is real and alive in my life.

I'd like to share with you a few things in the Bible that many people are not aware of, which made all of the difference in the world to me!

In the Bible is the book of Acts, which is the history of the first Christian church after Jesus was crucified. This book tells us how the church did things, and many of the events that happened at that time. Many churches barely read out of this section of the Bible, and they are missing so much!

As mentioned before, many churches teach that you accept the Lord as your Savior, and ask Him into your heart, and this is the plan of salvation.

I learned that in the history of the church, there is not one place that people accepted the Lord as their personal Savior--there is not any scripture that says to do this.

What they DID do to be saved is, they repented of their sins, and then they were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and then God promised them the Holy Ghost! And in each instance where people received the Holy Ghost, the Bible says that the evidence of it was that they would speak in tongues, and they did! Jesus said that we would recieve power after we received the Holy Ghost, and they felt that power! The first time this happened was in the book of Acts, chapter 2, and it talks about how they felt God's Spirit(the Holy Ghost) so much, that they were staggering around as if they were drunk!!! They DID feel something when the Creator of all the Earth filled their souls! They didn't just go by faith, hoping--they KNEW!!!

When I was growing up, I had asked the Lord to be my personal Savior many times--but I never felt sure that He was in my heart, and so I would ask Him again and again.

When I was 15, God led me to a church that preached salvation the way they preached it in the book of Acts, and He gave me the Holy Ghost! I felt him fill my very soul! I have never had a doubt since! And it didn't stop there-He's worked miracles for me, and has continued to work in my life for the past 25 years. I am ever grateful that He is alive and well!

I do want others to know that if you have had a "dry" experience with religion, maybe like my own experiences when I was younger, that God does have a deeper experience for you! Something you can FEEL, and hang on to in the good times and the bad. And THIS experience never has to grow old!

I hate to know that anyone feels empty, but I surely know WHO can fill that emptiness!

Thank you for reading my testimony-I hope it has been an encouragement to you. Truly we live in a time when people's worlds are shaken every day. I am thankful to be able to share Jesus with all who have chosen to read this-and it is my hope that someone will find hope and a greater experience than they've ever had.

I've been the recipient of so many blessings of God-unexplainable peace in times of trouble, love like I've never felt before, and most importantly, salvation from the God of the universes, who robed Himself in flesh to walk with man, and who willingly died a horrid death on a cross for ME-and YOU.

I've learned so much more about trusting Him, how to let go of the past, and so much more about what love really is. And to top it all off, Jesus even healed my son when he was partially deaf, heading for ear surgery!

How can I resist such an awesome God?