My Testimony

Wrote it a while ago so it's quite long!

As a child I was brought up in a non-Christian house hold. Life was life, I got on with it. As I grew through school I developed a very ignorant view of religion. I didn’t think about it, I didn’t want to think about it and I definitely didn’t think it could be real. Whilst growing through secondary school I began to develop my life and find out what I wanted to do. As I moved up I made friends, lost friends made new friends however one friend was always there. Eventually Ellie and myself got closer and closer until we decided to go into a relationship. At that time I had all I thought I needed. I was happy, I had a girlfriend, and I didn’t need anything else.

About 2 years later we fell out and had a rather large argument thus ending the relationship. Everything I thought I had, I seemed to lose. Over the next few months it spiralled down and down. I managed to find myself a new girlfriend but it wasn’t the same. Then approximately a month after that Ellie and me had another argument. This time it went that step too far. I tried to do something I never want to try again. Something no-one should want to do. Afraid I can’t quite say what because not many people know including my family. Either way I tried to do it and thanks to a friend at the time I was quite abruptly stopped from going completely through with it.

I went to a girl who was just someone I talked to a lot, didn’t know her name. Didn’t know anything about her but she was who I talked to. I saw her in school the day I got back and just fell to tears in her arms. We both grew closer as we started to look out for each other and eventually a relationship began. Katy was a Christian. I found this out soon after the relationship started. I didn’t have anything against it but it was clear I didn’t want to know. One Sunday I turned up at her house for what I expected to be a normal day with her. Knocked on the door and got told to turn around “We’re going out!” Little did I know my life was about to change quite dramatically.

That day she took me to church. Now, that is how you get me to do something. Give me no other options. We walked in she told me to sit down and listen. It was blunt but it worked. For the next hour I did what everyone else did. I stood up and sang when I needed to and I listened when I needed to. I then went up into the Sunday school at the church (Gorse Hill Baptist) where they key theme was Prayer. Of course me being me I thought it wouldn’t work. Turned out it did. I never remember what I prayed for that day but I know whatever it was, over the next few days, it changed for the better.

I really don’t know what possessed me to ask Katy and the Arnold family this but the next time I was there I asked quite bluntly “Who is God? “ and sure enough I got an answer and a very good one. I went back to church the next Sunday. Then again the Sunday after and soon enough I was there every Sunday. Now when I first became a Christian I tried to push it too far too fast. I went to depths I couldn’t handle. Eventually me and Katy broke up but in slightly better spirit than when me and Ellie broke up and slowly everything began to change again. All the routines changed and although I still went to church I found it hard to maintain the faith I had built up.

As I then moved on through secondary school and the first year of sixth form several people really helped me understand what I had put myself up for. How amazing it was that Jesus died to save us and just how wonderful and powerful the holy spirit can be.

All of this is good however it was not until around August 2008 I really decided I wanted to live for God. On August 11 2008 I arrived at Soul Survivor and at the first session in the evening I decided to give myself to God. Now as that week went on I started to pray for people I had never met and really grew to understand the pure power that God has and the confidence he can build in you. I saw people receive ministry and I prayed for those who wanted it but just weren’t there yet. I praised and worshiped God for hours on end whilst He filled me with His Spirit. Then come the following Thursday amazing things happened. I gave myself to God, A call for ministry was sent out. I got up, walked to the front and alongside many people like me who just wanted to be reborn in Jesus’ name I stood, still in body, silent in prayer. I waited, I waited for God to touch me in the way I had seen Him touch others.

As people began to prey for me I felt the spirit enter me and as the congregation sang praise to the Lord for what he had given in Jesus Christ I fell to the floor, as all of those things I had done, every sin I had committed came back to me. As I remembered all the bad things I had done across my life. As I remembered what I had tried to do after breaking up with Ellie I was in agony. However as the congregation changed song my life changed. In that second between songs my life was given back to me, fresh, clean. I had been forgiven and I had given my life to God. After I calmed down a bit I wondered what had happened, what was about to happen and eventually I knew. Later that evening God told me what I had done and as I thanked Him in prayer my life truly began.

After having written this testimony I looked through the Bible a bit. As I read through it I had trouble selecting the right verse to finish with. There was an incredible amount to choose from however, I chose this.

So in prayer I quote: Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You gave life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you. I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High, Almighty God, Amen

God is with you, even when you are so convinced that He is nowhere to be seen and that this omnipresence seems to exclude the little bit of ground you are stod on. He is there.

We all have problems, We all have worries and i am no different. I realised just how hard it can be to devote myself to God and to live for Him wich in turn reminded me just how amazing He is...

I am human and i forget, i sin and i go wrong. God isn't, God doesn't, He is unlike anything else and He saved us. He forgives us and to me, the most amazing thing is... He loves us. Whatever we do. If we turn back to Him, He will love us.

I don't understand me. I rarely want to but God is simple... Love Him, Fear Him and Live for Him in everything you do and you will be saved.