My Testimony

 

I was born into a military family (Air Force).  My parents, at the time of my upbringing, were atheists. I was told, at a very young age, that ‘when you die, you die, there’s nothing afterwards’.  I tried to picture ‘nothingness’, but soon I concluded (perhaps through a revelation?) that there is no such thing as ‘nothingness’.  As I pondered what nothingness was, I saw something like molecules moving in perpetual motion!  I was about 4 or 5 at the time.  So, I decided that my mother was mistaken when she made this remark. 

Before coming to the faith, the Lord gave me a dream in 1974:

I had a dream when I lived in Miami Beach.  I dreamt that I was with a horde of people being herded forward by something dark and foreboding behind us.  There were dark clouds over us.  We couldn’t see this thing because we were jammed tightly together and could only walk forward and could only turn our heads to the right or left.  Anyone that’s visited Broadway’s Imperial Theatre would understand how close we were…like sardines.  Anyway, I was in the front section of the crowd.  We came to the banks of a very choppy body of water.  We looked to the person to the left and right of us, wondering what to do next.  Then I looked up and saw Jesus standing on top of a high rock, with a halo of light around Him, holding His arms out toward us.  I said, ‘Look!  There’s Jesus!  And I very excitedly jumped into the choppy water and swam toward Him.  Then the others started jumping in too and swimming toward Him.  When I reached Him, I suddenly found myself in a classroom with girls younger than I in it.  I was teaching them about Jesus.  Another person, a male from Delmar, appeared in the dream in a classroom of young boys and he was teaching them the same.  The love of the Lord was so heavy and thick and amazing; the like of which I had never experienced.  I was so happy and so were all of the others.  This dream happened in either 1974 or 1975, which was before I became a follower of Christ in 1976.

When my mother died, at the age of 46, I questioned the purpose of life.  So much unhappiness, and then you die???  I started having panic attacks.  I watched a Billy Graham Crusade one night and asked the Lord into my heart.  That is when everything changed.  I could not stop smiling!  I had peace and joy!  I realized that God and the Bible were real!  I had a spiritual rebirth, I was born-again, with the Spirit abiding in me!

I did not attend a church service until I was in my mid-twenties, after I asked the Lord into my life.  I would like to pay tribute to my beloved Grandmother, Ruth Hastings, whose prayers, I am certain, helped to bring me into the Kingdom of Adonai. 

When I first started reading the Bible, the devil, HaSatan was angry and he whispered accusing thoughts into my mind while I was reading scriptures.  He would whisper: “See what kind of God you serve; He kills women and children.”  He would accuse Adonai!  I didn’t know that there was a devil, HaSatan.  I thought these were my own thoughts.  I would pray and beg Adonai to forgive me for thinking such things.  When I found out about that liar, the devil, HaSatan, and his deceptive tactics, I learned to resist him.  Soon I was released to study the Bible without torment. 

After a few years attending a Methodist congregation, I started attending a ‘full gospel’ type congregation and gleaned all I could from there.  It was there that I met and married my beloved husband, Mark.  But the congregation did not appreciate it when I made the discovery that the ‘law of Moses’ is still in effect.  So eventually we parted ways.  You cannot walk together unless you are in agreement.

I must confess, my progress in keeping the commandments of Adonai was slow.  Initially, we started celebrating Passover in the 1980s, and did so yearly.  It is my favorite set apart time.  But the other moedim we came to observe later.  I didn’t start observing the Sabbath until around 1997.  It has been a lonely journey because the majority of believers in Yeshua do not recognize that we are expected to keep the commandments.

I am a simple human being, who has discovered the wonderful salvation my heavenly Father has provided through His Son’s sacrifice upon the execution stake.  His Son is Yeshua, the Messiah.  By my faith in His sacrifice and saving blood, I have received forgiveness for my sins.  If I confess my sins, when I fall into sin, for none are perfect, Adonai is faithful to forgive me.  Understand, if I sin deliberately, there will be a price to pay. 

The Lord has given me many revelations through His appointed times (see Leviticus 23).  He also gives me revelations when I study His word.  I love to read His word aloud for nothing better can come from my lips.

I am sharing my story so others may know that the Lord, Adonai, is real.  He loves us and wants us to have abundant life through the revelation of His Great Salvation, even His Son, Yeshua.  He wants us to walk in HIS ways, to love justice and mercy, and to walk in humbleness with Him.  The reward is eternal life, filled with love, peace, joy, wholeness, light and fellowship.

Just like the rest of us, I have been through many trials, of health, finances, family, etc.  My heavenly Father has sustained me through them all.  He can do this for every human being, if they would allow Him.  It is His desire to give us abundant life. 

 I am simply blessed!