Let's have a Testimony!

Just an observation, for whatever it's worth.

I doubt there's many, if any, who have stopped believing in Jesus Christ who are still hanging around this forum. They are probably posting on a forum dedicated to their new/current position.

 

Hi Steaver,

I think I'm born again, but after reading your description, I'm not sure I understand what you mean by born again. Does it always center upon a new knowledge that you are a child of God? I'm sorry if this is distracting from the primary purpose of your thread. Does it always include an instant moment where you completely changed so much that you seem to be a new person?

What about this testimony for example, a moment of illumination that this person was a true child of God (this isn't meant to be a trick, I should warn you this was a catholic priest)

 

Could I describe my 'born again' experience and get your opinion on whether it is valid? I've shared it with Catholics but since a born again experience is considered optional there isn't really a criterion other than "spiritual awakening" has to occur. Would this thread be okay for that?

 

Here's my testimony. I would like to know if any of the experiences here qualify as being 'born again' the way Baptists understand it. I won't take it personally if people say no, I just want to know what to make of my experiences and where God wants to take me:

I was 23 and I had spent years going down a bad and dangerous path, bad even from the perspective of a non-believer, and from the perspective of the law. I believed in God and had received sacraments and knew I was wrong with God, (but the question of faith vs works was not in my mind at all at this time). I felt belonging to God was much more than external religious acts I had taken part in and I believed it required a complete giving of ourselves to God. I understood that my life was a mess and I desperately needed God to come into my life.

I decided that I wanted to be a Christian. I prayed and I asked God to come into my life. I said that wanted to give my life to Him and I believed in Him and wanted to belong to Him. I resolved from that day forward to turn away from my old life and live as He asked us to. I said from this day forward I would live my life for Him. I prayed and spent some time talking to God and thinking about this new way of life I was starting on, wondering where it would end up. But there wasn't any profound prayer, I didn't see lights or experience an unusual sense of God's presence. I felt happy and close to God but the prayer experience wasn't dramatic. But I consider that the day I was born again because it marked the beginning of my walk with God. Before that my life was distant from God, even if leading towards Him somehow, but now I was walking with God.

I expected this to mean that I would start observing religious rules and avoid the serious sins I was aware of and I that I would profess to others that I was a Christian. But it turned out so differently than I expected.

Over the next days I began to see God at work in my life. My conscience came alive showing me that there were so many things I would do differently now that I had never even considered. The first thing I noticed was that my conscience convicted me when my boss at the fast food restaurant I worked at offered me some coupons for free hamburgers that he had taken and was giving to employees. This was a far cry from the big things I had done wrong, but I realized that even in little things I would have to become righteous, and couldn't accept those coupons. I didn't know how to pray, but I asked the Holy Spirit to teach me to pray and would experience words come into my heart and mind showing me what to pray for and how to worship God. I hadn't been to the church just a block and a half from my house, but I went there and it was different from any church I had been to before and I felt a great sense of peace and connection with God and his people over the centuries while there. I feel that God's providence led me to have an apartment near this church where I would be able to feel accepted (I was quite shy). Learning from God continued over the years and I have been growing closer to God and learning how to be a Christian since then. For example teaching me how to truly love another person and leave behind unloving attitudes like jealousy. Spending time with God in prayer has changed my life.

16 years later (just last year) on a retreat I experienced 'baptism in the Holy Spirit' where I was given an interior vision of a transformation/healing worked in me and a sense of being God's child. The experience included a taste of my future in heaven worshiping God. I believe I actually experienced heaven (or aspects of it) for a few minutes. I don't understand if God was trying to make this transformation happen in me right then and there, and I didn't go along with it, or if it was meant to give me hope of His plans for me in the future. It had a huge impact on me and gave me great overwhelming joy and a knowledge that God was watching this miracle take place in me where I became a new person filled with joy and peace and was quite satisfied with himself for what he had worked in me. It came with such strong emotions that I couldn't think about it without weeping for weeks after.

 

'You never mentioned Jesus.' Well, yes, JoJo has, plenty of times and JoJo has given enough of his testimony prior to this statement to convince me that JoJo is 'born again' in the Baptist sense of the expression.

'Not about prayers or sacraments' Well, that is your opinion. For one thing, when you gave your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, didn't you pray? What you meant to say was that it is not about the kind of prayer you suspect JoJo prayed because you know JoJo is Catholic, right?
Also,you include all Lutherans, Anglicans, Prebyterians, Methodist, etc., etc. when you say it is not about sacraments. The VAST majority of Christianity disagrees with the Baptist idea of 'ordinances'.

 

Wow. A testimony with no mention of my savior's name. That is quite sad.

Even though I consider Jesus to be God, and refer to Him as God, how could I not mention his name even once?

 

I can't remember NOT believing the good news about Jesus in the Gospels. My problem is with the various denominational interpretations of the Bible.

 

Yep, maybe I was jumping to a conclusion.

 

No. My pastor did not ask me to pray. He asked me if I understood that I was a sinner. He asked me if I understood the penalty for my sin. He asked me if I trust Christ alone to save me.

But he didn't ask me to pray. He asked me to believe.

 

Thanks Walter.
What I find noteworthy about my testimony is that I started with the understanding that I would have to work hard and do a bunch of things to be Christian. But what I found instead was that God (Jesus? Holy Spirit?) Was transforming me in ways that I hadn't expected. So I just had to go along for the ride as God worked in me to make me a new person. It wasn't about my effort at all.

 

Oh no. And all this time I thought I was saved.

What must I do to be saved?