On this page you will find testimonies we have been receiving from various friends we have "met" through the ministry of ekklesia4him. These are testimonies of the wonderful Grace of God, and His protective and keeping power. The Spirit of Grace is at work. Praise the Lord! Read, and be encouraged.
Added June 23, 2010
I was raised in a non Christian home, born 1st August 1983. My biological mother believed in Idol worship. My dad was a bit neutral about Idol worship and the Catholic Church. I was not a person interested in religion. I can remember when I was young, like most children I did feel God’s presence. I could have gone far in so much gross sins but I realized a Power keeping me. I was so much in doubt why people were so interested in immorality and other gross sins. When I have tried over and over to willing and foolishly go into the practical act of these shameful, abominable sins without 100 percent result, it amazed me where the keeping Power came from. I was told in a dream it was for a purpose. Indeed everyone has a purpose in this life but it can only be accomplished in CHRIST. I was then about fifteen years or above.
This keeping Power I heard from the testimony of different Christians even before they came to Christ. Though not going into the practical act of committing that filthy thing called fornication, I was so deep in other gross sins which are not edifying to mention.
I came to Christ about the end of 2005. It was during a time of personal contemplation, while I was on assistance teaching in a high school and a junior school, just after I completed my High school. I was not interested in school during my primary and junior school years. My father wanted to remove me from school when I was in grade eight to be a fisher man, for I was failing my exam. I became very serious. It was through the counsel of my dear step mum my father changed his mind. From that time onward I became a different student. By the time I came to high school I became the best student as a science student. All those who knew me were very surprised about me. I was so quick, especially in mathematics and physics that some of my classmates thought I was using magic.
During my final year I suffered from chronic Tuberculosis. I was advised not to take the final exam till the following year for I was missing many lectures. I sat for the final exam and to the surprise of all I came with a good result. Some say it was one of the best in the country. This was around the year 2003 to 2004.
In 2004, I was hearing about the wonder of the Name of JESUS. The first time I entered a class room to assist high school students, being very shy and young; I pray that JESUS will help me teach the student well, though a stranger to the precious Name. To my surprise, when I finished teaching the mathematics class, the students were shouting and jubilating and I had never seen such in all my life. Though they were Arts students, yet I do not know any who did not understand what I was teaching.
I stated contemplating about JESUS from then. It was in the rural areas and there were no Pentecostal churches. I asked the LORD to help me find a Pentecostal fellowship when I come to the city. The time I came home I found my younger brothers were going to a Pentecostal fellowship. I spent about a year and half in that fellowship. I found Pentecostal love dancing and I have never dance in any fellowship, not that I am against it but I never believed in carnal dancing. I was blamed for that by some elders. I also saw they liked blaming people when you dress simple while they entertain seductive dressing. I was blamed for putting on slippers by a preacher on a pulpit. The women will dress half naked and the preachers like telling them it was just the heart. This grieved me a lot. It is really the cause of much immorality in Pentecostals circles. The LORD later called me out from that fellowship to join another Pentecostal fellowship. I was really blessed during my time in this denomination. The preachers there emphasized the FEAR OF GOD. The women were not loose, even in their dressing. Some of these women helped me a lot in my work with the LORD. Fornication and adultery are things you hardly hear of in their fellowship, such as was in the other loose Pentecostals.
I spent about a year to two in that fellowship, until the LORD later called me out in August 2008 and revealed to me in a measure THE BODY OF CHRIST. It was a tough time, as I had never seen a Christian with such a call. I was labeled a false prophet, proud, extremist. My friends were warned not to have anything to do with me.
I was so lonely. The LORD was with me in all of my affliction. He never told all that HE was leading me to. I also faced a lot of attack from Satan. One day I heard him shout to me with the dirtiest voice I have ever heard, to return to the denominations. The LORD later revealed to me some of the truth in Philippians chapter three; and for about two weeks I would fall to the ground for the glory and the deep thing in these scripture. Sometime I even feared opening Philippians 3, for the devil was in a great rage about the truth in that scripture. The LORD later gave me strength and boldness, and I purposed if I will die let me die but I will not go back. The LORD later showed me through the Internet about this world-wide WORK HE is doing. During this time I was working to continue a career at the university to further my education. The LORD told me to quit it. It was the most painful thing for me to do. Coming from a very poor family and the first born it was not just easy. For I fear how I will survive in the future. With all my good result. The LORD used HIS brittle to discipline me. I later surrender all to HIM. The reason why HE told me to do so, I cannot still understand. For HE once told me about Sir Isaac Newton. I knew about Newton as a scientist but not as a Christian, before the LORD told me about Him. I thought he was a pagan. It was a time when some carnal people were forcing me to marry carnally. The LORD told me HE is the one to instruct me who and when to marry. He told me one day about Newton how he was godly and kept himself pure from every woman though he never married. HE also told me HE was the one who revealed to him the natural laws. I later went to the Internet to search about Newton biography and I was so amazed that He was a Christian and also wrote Christian books.
I went through many periods of shame, temptation and darkness but the LORD’s power was above all. In 2009, about August, the LORD told me to walk barefoot like a mad man on the street. It was for something very spiritual which I am not in the position to speak here. Those in the denomination were very happy when they heard about it. They thought I was going mad. Then when I finished the work I visited a brother whom the LORD also later called out from organize religion, he also told me how the LORD told him He had sent me to do a certain work that very morning, before I explained him everything. The LORD later show me in the scripture how HE sent the disciples to preach barefooted. About two week later the heavens were opened to me. I had a foretaste of SEEING THE LORD AS HE IS. I saw the LORD in all things; the trees, plants, the bird of the air, stars, etc. Yes, I saw that HE really FILLS ALL THINGS. I was elevated to a higher realm of purity where nothing but purity exists. I saw something in seeing JESUS; something higher than seeing HIM through bodily form or vision. That is to be changed to HIS image from glory to glory. I was later convinced even the saints in paradise see HIM in this realm of HIS glory; not just a person sitting on a majestic chair like an earthly king. It was during this period the LORD by HIS mercy taught me about some of the aspect of the perfection HE is calling HIS people to. It was a glorious time. I never wished to return to the earthly realm but to just behold HIS glory.
It was quite amazing to be receiving the teachings because it was so different from what I learned from Pentecostal tradition. The LORD helped me to understand if HE is showing me a truth, and I refuse to open my heart HE will not tell me more. I opened my Heart to HIM and HE started teaching me. After the five-day period of revelation I wanted to go and share these teaching with friends. The LORD told me not to do so, for HE was able to teach others the same things. About four months later the LORD told me to compile the writings in a book. He later told me the place I should print them, though I never knew that company printed books. After printing them, we distributed them here in the Gambia. I thought the writings were only for our people in Gambia here. I was surprised when HE told me to send them to the outside world through the Internet. I obeyed HIM and I believe HE will accomplish HIS purpose.
Dear saints, keep looking to HIM who is above all, and nothing will keep you down in the mire of Sin and filthiness. Trust HIS divine power in all things. Amen.
- James Jarjou
Gambia, Africa
Read James' e-book at this link: http://ekklesia4him.net/PDF/A_Call_To_Perfection.pdf
Added June 23, 2010
I was reading recently something I wrote to speak it to a ladies group at church about thirty or so years ago, and was remembering when my new birth started. I was in my thirties when I was searching for the Lord. I had been in church most of my life, having made “a decision for Christ” at twelve at the Baptist Church, and at this stage I was in a full gospel Pentecostal Church. It was very legalistic, (I did not know it at the time) and the pastor was the “touch not my anointed” kind of pastor. I was dissatisfied but did not know what to do. Church was ‘something you did’ if you were going to have God. What I spoke to those ladies was the beginning of my new life. I thought I was telling the ladies for them that there was a difference between religious flesh and the Spirit of the Living God in a person. Boy did I have a surprise coming! I was going to eat my words. Remember in Ezekiel 3:1 where God told Ezekiel to eat the words He gave him and Ezekiel did and it was sweet as honey, and then came the standing on those words.
Here’s how it worked for me.
To be born again is a new beginning in the spirit. It is coming loose from the flesh in thinking, perceiving, understanding and interacting. The word of God I received and acted on was, “Come out of her my people. Come out of Babylon.” I did not now what that was at the time. I would begin a life of coming out of the religious flesh first.
Religious flesh looks like this: it quotes scripture, has a spiritual vocabulary, does good deeds, defends what it believes is right doctrine and tries to convert others, etc. All the religious things I did had a motive. God exposed my motive through circumstances I went through, but I learned it was done out of fear – the wrong fear and guilt. I was in a place to feed my fear and guilt. Let me say I was sunk in the quicksand of religiosity.
Now for us Pharisees, letting go of all that religion is a miracle! Paul experienced it at the beginning of his new life. For me it took a long time, step by step. We like our flesh whether it is religious or not. We love lies.
I learned a painful hard truth about myself, and it was that I was on this ‘salvation’ road because I feared God with the wrong kind of fear. I saw Him as a hard God who would punish you if you messed up. As a child we were punished sometimes by being put in a dark basement, and I transferred that to the high authority, God, as I had never known love from my earthly father to realize a Fathers Love.
Talk about being a pleaser! I learned to please God and not man by standing for the truth God had given me against the opposition. There was more involved with my religious flesh, and it was where I started and became free, but it was only ‘anesthesia’ for the next surgery. The good I received from each step helped me for the next place of stripping. For me the flesh was what I trusted in and depended on, my image of myself, as a wife, mother, sister, woman. My flesh relationships. My Dad, Mother, brothers, sister, children, my whole way of thinking, doing and acting.
It would take a long time to explain it all, but I will take one place. Death to self in religious flesh produces what is true concerning it. God replaced in me his authority or truth because His Truth is His authority. I can recognize this religious flesh, have authority over it. I know where I came from and I am grateful for what Father has taken away and what he put in its place. He took death working in me and replaced it with His Life-giving Spirit, and it was not in the twitch of a nose either. He brought me out of Babylon to get Babylon out of me.
You see religious flesh is a religious spirit, and there is as much false in it as tares is to wheat. Tares are real deceivers and it is because tares are religious flesh, without the life-giving Spirit of Jesus. What I have learned is that the separation of flesh and spirit allows us to be vessels of the Spirit of Truth. Truth is not just about doctrine. It is also ontological, which is to say it is the way things really are – Reality. Any truth in life is God. He is the author of and judge of all truth. It is truth in the inward parts, integrity, total honesty in our dealings with people and telling the truth in love – a love of the truth. We become vessels of God’s truth and love. It is God’s very life in our flesh. That little speech I gave years ago wherewith God would bring me forth, and as in the beginning it was, because God said to my soul “LET THERE BE LIGHT,” to a creation of flesh, to make me a unique creation, a spiritual son. Today I am still on the journey, walking by faith and not by sight. HALLELUJAH!!
- Pat
Tennessee, USA
March 9, 2009
This testimony is of the greatness of God and His ever-present and watchful care over us. It is meant only to glorify God and not meant in any way to suggest that I am more special to Him than any other child of His. I hope that it will promote peace and the knowledge of how safe we really are if we belong to Him.
One evening a friend of mine and our sons were leaving church (when I still attended church) and had decided to have a bite to eat before going home. The boys in the back seat voted for pizza and so we headed in that direction. This particular stretch of highway is a bit confusing and it was already dark. The highway is two lanes on both sides with a wide esplanade in the center. In addition the access roads on both sides are two-lane and two-way! I did not often drive this stretch of the highway and somehow became disoriented. I thought I was turning up the access road when in fact I had turned up on the highway and was headed directly into oncoming traffic. The traffic light ahead had just changed to green. Headed in our direction was a pickup truck and it just bolted from the intersection. Quickly I looked for a place to avoid a certain crash. On my right was the esplanade, but it dropped off shortly, and didn't seem safe; I feared that I might roll the car. Also there was a car in the other lane beside the pickup. With so little time to decide, and no real place to escape, I prepared for the worst. Suddenly the headlights of the pickup were right on us and the light was blinding! I closed my eyes and braced for the impact. Moments passed, I opened my eyes and checked the rear view mirror. To my astonishment, the tail lights of the pickup were in my mirror and we had not been hit! In some miraculous way God had suspended time, space, and dimension to save our lives. In the simplest way I know how to say it, the truck just went THROUGH us. My friend and I just looked at each other in amazement. "What just happened?" we said to each other. The boys in the back seat seemed completely unaware that anything had happened. The most wonderful peace filled us and the car. I have been in near misses before, as most of us have, and the adrenaline rush usually causes my joints to melt into jelly. But this time, just peace. We continued on for pizza and to this day I have no other explanation of how God did what He did. I have come to believe that the bright light was His presence and not so much the headlights of the truck. I also believe that our days are numbered in a way that we will leave not one day sooner than we are meant to. I have heard testimonies of too many others who faced certain death and were spared. In today's world, and all that may face us in the future, I hope that my little story will cause great trust and abundant faith in God. He is truly present every second of our lives and is our certain safety for all of our days.
- Cynthia
Texas, USA
February 19, 2007
In the spring of 2005 I was an extremely successful junior executive. I had been in the fast lane, and made a horrible amount of money very quickly (we had a $3/4 million home). I was wallowing in sin; boastful, prideful, scheming, carnal (as a man can be), a drunkard and absolutely miserable. When I reached a fifth of liquor a day for about six months straight I lost it one afternoon and "blew up" at my boss. I lost my job; we lost our house, our cars, and our savings - everything, in the quick, downward spiral that followed. The whole house of cards came down. I nearly lost my family too!
Over the next year I tried in vain to replace that job. I had interviews and hiring decisions that went on literally for months. I am pretty good at interviewing, but I never could land a professional job. The drinking was done for, but that was more circumstance, surroundings and money than anything else. I prayed sometimes, usually when I felt I might be close to landing something, or at other times when there was nothing in sight. I wanted a second chance, but did not see anything significant that I needed to change about myself. I knew that I had made some mistakes, but I blamed other people more than myself. I worked here and there, but not with any conviction or commitment.
My last interview was for a position in another city, six hours from my family. Getting the position would mean that I would be separated from them for at least six months since we did not have the money to move, or risk on another move. Things were pretty bleak by that point. If I did not land the job, then I would have no choice but to significantly modify my long term plans (career and finances).
The interview went very well I thought. On the drive back from the interview to where my family and I were living with my wife's parents, I was ecstatic. I just KNEW I had the job "in the bag." I was busy thinking about how I would replace the junker of a car I had, get a fancy "pad," start drinking again and how I would keep it all under wraps. After all, I had learned a thing or two after the last time, right?! Just to be safe, I prayed many times on the drive home that God would "get me that job."
You probably know what's coming - I did not get the job. It was devastating. No reason given, no words of advice, just "no thanks." I had no alternative but to go take whatever work I could find.
Something happened then. I don't want to write that I had a vision, or an epiphany, or a sudden flash, because those did not happen! I just gave up. I quit. I realized in the bleak way that failure tends to impart that I had...failed completely. All that I once had was gone. Every creature comfort I once had was a memory, along with all of the other sordid memories. There was nothing left but to focus on salvaging the love my family had for me, accept where I found myself as being what I deserved, and go forward. So, I took the first job I could find and for $8 an hour I performed clerical work. That was down from $150,000 a year as a rising star to be VP.
Over the next days and weeks, I turned back to God whole-heartily, without caveats, reservations, or agenda. I started to see all of the times that He had been with me and how blessed I had been. I saw how despicable I had been in my self-magnification, pride, arrogance, gluttony and covetous manipulations. I surrendered completely and totally and placed myself in God's hands. Once there, I simply pleaded with God to teach me, to use me, to take my life and use it for His will.
I found peace, and I began to learn. The Bible became understandable, and meaningful, and awesome. I began to see a rich tapestry of God's work and plan. I began to feel God's presence with me and guiding me.
Three months later, out of the clear blue I received a call. The employer in the city where I had applied wanted to offer me a job. It was for a different position than the one I interviewed for. Without any interviews! They asked me when I could start. The answer was simple, and I have been there ever since. And with God's help, my family will join me here this summer and we will continue rebuilding our lives with God's hand guiding us!
My wife has begun to accept God more, and my children look for God. The body of our family is quickening more and more... Recently my daughter told me at the conclusion of my prayer over our meal, "Daddy, you are my brother in God." She is seven. In that moment she helped me to understand my role and what a blessing she and her brother are!
It has been a year since I have had a drink. Not even a SIP of wine - nothing. I promised God I would NEVER drink again, and He has made it so easy not to; not a single craving. I am not making the money I used to, but am doing well. Well enough to unite my family and let my wife go back to school. It is enough; He provides!!
I wanted to pass on my history so you could pass it on to others as need be ~ Jesus never forsakes and patiently waits!
- Robert
Texas, USA
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Stella Paterson | Box 22003 BDPO | Brandon, MB R7A 6Y9 | Canada