I promised that i would put up "my testimony" so here it is.
I was "born again" 3 years ago.Though I officially became "born again" in 1976.I had been living the standard non-christian lifestyle with a lot of drinking and the various things that accompany that.I was "saved in the usual way.went to a "jesus people" church service,heard the altar call and "dedicated my life to Jesus.And for the next 21 years went through all the traditonal "christian"things.became active in a charismatic church,strived hard to live the christian life and become a better christian.desired to achieve office in the church so that i could show that i had arrived as a true believer.and basically lived a life that would have made paul proud as he wrote in Phillipians 3:3-6 "If anyone thinks he has reasins to put confidence in the flesh,I have more:circumcised on the eighth day,of the people of Israel,of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews;in regard to the law,a Pharisee;as for zeal,persecuting the church;as for legalistic righteousness,faultless." I had managed to be head of or heavily involved with 17 different ministries of the church i attended.deacon,principal of the christian school,head of the mens ministry,cell group leader(three different times),head of the sound ministry,played guitar and bass guitar on our church worship team.....VERY spiritual in all the right ways.you get the picture.
if there was work to be done for the Lord i was doing it.at times i felt the Lords presence and at times he seemed not so close.at those times i was told that He doesn't withdraw from us WE withdraw from him.that perhaps if i fasted, or got up for early morning prayer, or read my Bible more then he would respond to me with the blessing of His presence.sometimes this actually seemed to work,if i fasted,he did seem closer.if i prayed or read my bible i did feel his presence more.but sometimes the formula didn't work and again i would feel as if somehow I wasn't measuring up.so it was off to another conference,or off to the bookstore to find just the right book to show me the way.or even to counsel with the pastor whose stock answer to me was that "the walls were broken down and i needed to get going and build them up again or else the enemy was going to come in somehow and make things even worse."
we live in a small town and stayed in this church for 21 years because we felt there was nowhere else to go.and there were times when things were really popping,when even a blind and deaf man could feel the Lords presence.at those times the feeling was we were in the "one true church" and that it was too bad that all the other people in town were so blind not to see it.we had an awesome worship team , our church gave 17% of it's budget off the top to missions we had good men of God as leaders and the church grew to about 350 people which for our small town is a good sized church.But there was always one more spiritual hill to climb,one more revival to seek,one more program that will push us to the very pinnacle of being in the spirit. how were we to know that at the very peak of this "move of God" that the true simple gospel was going to come and reveal itself.and in doing that would change the way many of us looked at our lives as christians forever.