Jesus said, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:" Matthew 28:19

Thank you, Heavenly Father, for Your Son and Your Spirit. Amen.

Apologies from the start if this blog includes a lot of "I's," as it is challenging to write a testimony without using "I." 

With that being said, I was a disobedient and unruly child, teenager and adult. When I was around 12 years old, I tried to "kill" myself by taking baby aspirin, which was just a feign attempt at garnering attention, and distracting my mother from my misdeeds, which were really the issue.

After that, I heard my sisters tell my mom that she should take me to church, so we began attending the First Baptist Church. "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6. Amen.

The church had Sunday school for children my age, so I began attending. Sadly, even at Sunday school, I seemed to fall in with the kids that were going behind the church to smoke cigarettes. Little did I know that God had other plans for my life. I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior shortly after starting to attend the church. I do not remember if I even really knew what that meant at the time. Then, around the same time, I was baptized in water, in front of the church congregation.

A short time later, the Sunday school class hosted a church camp for two weeks, and I attended that as well. At the camp, they were baptizing people in the lake, so I lined up with my friends to be baptized again. From the moment I put on the white garment and walked into the lake, the whole experience was surreal. When I was raised up out of the water, I can only describe it one way, I was in love with everyone and everything.

I did not understand then, but I can now understand how Jesus felt when He was baptized by John the Baptist, and a voice came from heaven and said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased. Matthew 3:16-17. Praise God. Thank you, Jesus.

I could not understand why everyone was not lining up to be baptized, so they could feel like I felt.

After church camp was over, within a couple of weeks of returning home, hanging out with my same old friends, doing the same old things, not nurturing the Holy Spirit inside me, the warm, fuzzy, feelings faded. I spent the next 45 years being disobedient and unruly, running from God and, worse, denying Him. 

In my 20s, my mom would tell me to "get back to God, Melanie," and I would reply with something like, I don't believe in that stuff, Mom. Bless her heart. In my 30's, I began to believe in something, a Higher Power, and I subjected my young daughter to six years at a metaphysical church. Bless her heart, also, because she came to God before I came back to Him, and she has raised her children with Jesus Christ. That has nothing to do with how I raised her obviously, or with her father, whose family is Jewish. Only God could save someone in the face of that adversity! Praise God. Thank you, Jesus.

From my 40's to 50's, I wandered in my sin and lusts, still believing something, but no knowledge or understanding of it, and not having a spiritual home.

Most of my adult life, I have watched all manner of violence and horror on TV, as this was my preferred genre. Then, Ancient Aliens, which led to Biblical archaeology. I was searching for something. It was at my fingertips but I couldn't reach it.

Then, one day, five years ago, at 58 years old, over 45 years after accepting Jesus Christ as my savior, being baptized twice, and receiving Holy Spirit, during a wicked storm in our area that was rattling the walls, the light bulb went off, the light shined into my heart through the darkness surrounding it, and I understood that God, the Father in heaven, IS the Higher Power.

After that, I could not get enough of His Word. Still being blinded by the ruler of this world 2 Corinthians 4:4, I could not understand the King James Bible, so I began reading the easy-to-read Bible, which is written at like a 9th grade level, and it was awesome. Then, I heard of the Amplified Bible, and I loved how descriptive it was, with the footnotes. I now read the King James Bible (almost exclusively), with ease. Thank you, Lord.

At that time, I also heard that if you read the Bible from start to finish, God will give you revelations. Who would not want to hear revelations from God? And, I was still soaking up His Word like crazy, every day, all day, writing blogs, listening to Him, obeying. So, I started to read the Amplified Bible from Genesis to Revelation. I read the entire Amplified Bible in four months, August to December 2021. In the first 10 days, I was already in the book of Joshua, and God was not disappointing with showing me great and mighty things. Jeremiah 33:3

Within the first month of beginning to read, I prayed for and received from Holy Spirit the gift of [praying in] tongues Acts 2:4. It was then that I became aware of the evil and immorality abounding around us. I now understood clearly the scripture, "Love not the world, nor the things in it. For if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him." 1 John 2:15-17. I could no longer watch the movies I had loved for 50 years. I could no longer listen to the same music. I understood inherently that it was all against God's Will and purpose for our lives, and designed by Satan to pull us away from God, to worship idols even. It saddened me to know that I had wasted my whole life running from God, denying Him, and living my life in all manner of vileness.

Praying in tongues also immediately brought my Spiritual journey into a greater reverence for Jesus Christ and His mission to love and serve. I now understood His love for the lost, weary and forgotten, and more importantly, I had a yearning to serve them. I now understood 1 Corinthians 13:13: "And now abides faith, hope, charity [love], these three; but the greatest of these is charity [love]." And, the greatest commandments to love God and love our neighbor as ourself Matthew 22:36-40, because we are all one in Christ Jesus. 1 Corinthians 12:12-27

So, my husband and I began serving the homeless. First, by making Blessing Bags and handing them out to the homeless at street corners. Then, we learned of people who live in tents in our area, year-round, even in the snow, so we started taking food to them and sharing God's Word with them by putting scripture in the bags, or just sharing a kind word and a hot meal, and telling them that Jesus loves them.

I noticed later that I wrote very few blogs during the August 2021 to December 2021 time period, when I was entrenched in God's Word, reading it from Genesis to Revelation in four months.

In December 2021, however, at the end of the reading, God had much to say in my writings/blogs and testimonies about His systems on earth: Seed plant harvest, tithing, giving, His Son, Jesus Christ, His plan for man before time began, and, also, that He is our Source, and we are all one in Him.

He is available to all who seek Him, and He will never forsake us, even unto the day our bodies return to the dust and our Spirit returns to God who gave it. Ecclesiastes 12:7

The "free cost of grace" is that without God's grace, all men would have perished, but with God's grace, or favor to man, given freely to all who believe in His Son, and keep His commandments, all men might be saved.

There is a meme that says, You know the kingdom of God is within you Luke 17:20-21 when you want to obey Him. In my experience as written here, this is 100% the truth. 

Accept Jesus Christ and keep His commandments. Believe and be saved:

John 3

16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."

Pray for Holy Spirit to transform your heart from glory to glory in God's image:

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 2 Corinthians 3:18

Maybe other people have different experiences. God does work in mysterious ways, and He will keep trying to reach us any way He can, until we turn to Him and away from the sin in our lives. I would love to hear those testimonies.

I pray this word reaches and helps those who need it on their journey to find, accept, believe, obey, and have faith in, God and His only begotten son, Jesus Christ. Hallelujah! Praise God. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.

"HUMBLE YOURSELVES" AUDIO BLOG

"Humble yourselves [with an attitude of repentance and insignificance] in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you [He will lift you up, He will give you purpose]." James 4:10

Heavenly Father, thank you for hearing our prayers, and promising healing, restoration, and the peace that passes all understanding, if we pray. Let Your words flow through me and not my own. Let those with ears to hear, hear. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Praying is new for me. I think that is another part of the reason why I started attending Saturday Night Prayer Meeting at church. I was hoping to hear people pray, so I could get a clue, and also, hopefully, the courage to pray out loud with other people. Of course, I now realize that it was not courage that I needed, but the Holy Spirit, because if you have the Holy Spirit, then God will give you the words to say at the right time:

"For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict." Luke 21:15

Knowing that still does not break down 'the Wall' we have put up around ourselves, which comes from a lifetime of self-conditioning to keep people away. I say, "we," because I know I am not the only one. I have heard too many people say, even recently, that they like animals more than they like people, or even, God forbid, 'I hate people,' which a family member told me very recently.

Since some coincidences, however, are God-scheduled opportunities, I took that opportunity with my family member to tell her what I had learned about hating recently. I said something like, I was there (hating people) not long ago, but I love them now. It is hard, but you have to look at everyone as if they are you.

Thank God, she is on her own path with God, and she replied, 'You know what is so weird? I had that exact same thought yesterday. I was judging someone. I literally thought to myself, what I would have said in her position.' 

Praise God. God is Great - All the Time!

​LOVE EVERYONE

​Hate Evil:  ​Proverbs 8:13

Love Your Enemies: Matthew 5:46

Bless those who curse you:  Matthew 5:44

Now, God's Word literally tells us everything we need to know to have productive, happy, fulfilling, and abundant lives, now and in life everlasting. Jesus boiled down all of the Law and the prophets that were prior to Him into two things, two things that could change the world: Love God with all of your heart, mind and soul, and love your neighbor as if it were yourself.

That is it! Most, if not all, of God's blessings are unlocked by loving Him and others: tithing, offerings, meditation, healing, prayer, which brings me back to the topic of this blog: Prayer.

We only began attending church at the end of 2021. I had been watching some Pentecostal sermons online during the lockdowns, and was hoping to find a Pentecostal church. However, when there is a church a half a mile from your house, you have to give it a shot, so we did.

Lovely church, lovely people. It could have been home, except it was missing one very important element to me: The Holy Spirit. Not only could you not feel the presence of God in the church, it felt almost stifled. We attended only twice, and then started looking again. 

Thank God, we found our current church. I really believe the presence of God is in the entire church building all of the time.

Prayer is a big part of the church. After each worship service, we have a prayer time. Our pastor has always encouraged people to come up to the altar and pray. Again, I am new to prayer, and to God for that matter, but what I know is that God has been talking to me for three or four years now, and almost all of that time I was not even attending church.

Really, I just started praying more regularly, other than at meals, in the last couple of years, in my home, in the shower, in the bed half asleep in the middle of the night, occasionally getting up and praying, but never on my knees. I mean, it hurts.

So, recently, the last couple of services, Pastor has been encouraging us to kneel to pray (at the altar, in the pew, wherever). Again, I was like ugh. There is a little bit of guilt then, for not kneeling, which probably comes from the Holy Spirit, so I got up and kneeled to pray when he said it. But, again, ouch.

In the back of mind, I am thinking, God listens no matter where you pray. I know this firsthand. So why should I cause myself pain? Forgive me, Lord, and Pastor David.

Then, today, because God is Great All the Time, this showed up as the Verse of the Day on biblegateway.com:

"Humble yourselves [with an attitude of repentance and insignificance] in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you [He will lift you up, He will give you purpose]." James 4:10

Now, as I have written about many times recently, we know God's Word is alive and powerful. I also KNOW that the Holy Spirit is present in my church. Knowing those two things, and now knowing the Scripture James 4:10 above, I would be pretty dumb not to humble myself in the presence of the Lord by kneeling.

God's Word tells us to do this one thing, humble yourself in His presence, and be exalted, raised in character, elevated, raised high. 

Merriam-Webster

Definition of exalt:

1: to raise in rank, power, or character

2: to elevate by praise or in estimation

4: to raise high

So, do you have to kneel, or even pray around the altar? No, of course not. We have something called 'free will,' and it allows us to do pretty much whatever we want, within the law, and hopefully within some moral limits.

To activate God's blessings, however, we have to obey Him. His Word is written for us, to tell us how to activate His Power on earth, and, of course, in eternal life everlasting.

Kneeling, as a sign of respect for, and surrender to, the One who created all things, may hurt for a moment, but the blessings may very well last a lifetime. 

"O come, let us worship and bow down,

Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker [in reverent praise and prayer]." Psalm 95:6

And, of course, in the end, we know that every knee will bow to Jesus, and every tongue confess to God. Romans 14:11-12

This body of flesh is temporary. This pain is temporary. God forbid we ever forget the pain Jesus endured for us ​(see video below). Isaiah 53:5-12

Hallelujah. Praise God. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.

"THE HOLY SPIRIT" AUDIO BLOG

"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Matthew 18:20

Our God is a supernatural God. What does supernatural mean?

Supernatural

soo͞″pər-năch′ər-əl

adjective

1. Of or relating to existence outside the natural world.
2. Attributed to a power that seems to violate or go beyond natural forces.
3. Of or relating to a deity.

Is your church a supernatural church? Is the Holy Spirit present? Can you tell when he is present? If not, find a new church. Sad but true. Sorry not sorry. You cannot be a supernatural church without the presence of the Holy Spirit. God has put on my heart many times in the last two years that we are moving into a supernatural explosion of God into the hearts of believers. We are already seeing more and more (lay) people expressing new gifts from Holy Spirit.

Of all the religious denominations, I believe Pentecostal is considered THE supernatural church. We believe in gifts from the Holy Spirit, and his presence in our worship:

1 Corinthians 12 

4 "Now there are [distinctive] varieties of spiritual gifts [special abilities given by the grace and extraordinary power of the Holy Spirit operating in believers], but it is the same Spirit [who grants them and empowers believers]. 

5 And there are [distinctive] varieties of ministries and service, but it is the same Lord [who is served]. 

6 And there are [distinctive] ways of working [to accomplish things], but it is the same God who produces all things in all believers [inspiring, energizing, and empowering them].

7 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit [the spiritual illumination and the enabling of the Holy Spirit] for the common good.

8 To one is given through the [Holy] Spirit [the power to speak] the message of wisdom, and to another [the power to express] the word of knowledge and understanding according to the same Spirit;

9 to another [wonder-working] faith [is given] by the same [Holy] Spirit, and to another the [extraordinary] gifts of healings by the one Spirit;

10 and to another the working of miracles, and to another prophecy [foretelling the future, speaking a new message from God to the people], and to another discernment of spirits [the ability to distinguish sound, godly doctrine from the deceptive doctrine of man-made religions and cults], to another various kinds of [unknown] tongues, and to another interpretation of tongues.

11 All these things [the gifts, the achievements, the abilities, the empowering] are brought about by one and the same [Holy] Spirit, distributing to each one individually just as He chooses."

At our church, which we just started attending, we have a prayer meeting Saturday nights at 7:00 p.m. I attended it for the first time on November 20, 2021. Even though there were only three people present at the prayer meeting, you could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in the room. We prayed for various things, and people who had submitted prayer requests, and others who had not.

I have personally seen amazing results from prayer, even when I pray alone, much less three righteous people, God's house, in the presence of the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah! Praise God!

Prayer is not a one-time, one-shot deal. Imagine if the whole church were praying for the same things, at the same time.

​Needless to say, I will be praying for all of our prayer warriors to show up at all prayer meetings. Amen!

Now, one of the other things I prayed for Saturday night is for every seat in our church to be filled, all sermons, meetings and classes. Thursday morning, also on Thanksgiving Day, God put on my heart that our church is getting ready to explode, not only in members, but also in the presence of the Holy Spirit! I even saw a tent, and shuttles transporting people! Hallelujah! Amen!

These are great times we are coming into. God is making it known that He is real, and He is here. There are wonders and signs and miracles happening all around us ..... open your eyes to see, your ears to hear and your heart to understand ..... but do not expect to hear or see them from the false prophets (fake news).

All honor, glory, praise and thanksgiving to God, the Most High.

​Hallelujah! Praise God! Thank you, Jesus! Amen!

"THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE" AUDIO BLOG

This morning, my husband and I were talking, and he said something like, "You're not a social butterfly." I said, "No, but I can be. I stopped trusting people." Later, I was looking for scripture to respond to a Facebook post, and God directed me to 1 Corinthians 13. I read it, and thought, That doesn't really fit what I need. Plus, I know I've posted that recently.

So, I tried my "Bible ritual," where I pray for guidance and then pick up the Bible and open it to the Word God wants me to see for the day. Today, I prayed and opened the Bible to . . . drum roll please . . . 1 Corinthians 13.

As I was sitting at my desk, reading it again, the light bulb went off. It wasn't meant for everyone else. It was meant for ME. And God kept showing me, because I wasn't listening. I was not paying attention to Him.

I had just told my husband this very morning, that I stopped trusting people. And God told me, no, no, no. You will not. You will love and trust, because HE loves and trusts me.

"Love never gives up on people. It never stops trusting, never loses hope, and never quits." 1 Corinthians 13:7

So, moral of the story, Don't give up on people, don't stop trusting, don't lose hope, never quit, and always love!

Also, listen and pay attention when God talks to you!

1 Corinthians 13 

Let Love Be Your Guide

1 "I may speak in different languages, whether human or even of angels. But if I don’t have love, I am only a noisy bell or a ringing cymbal.

2 I may have the gift of prophecy, I may understand all secrets and know everything there is to know, and I may have faith so great that I can move mountains. But even with all this, if I don’t have love, I am nothing.

3 I may give away everything I have to help others, and I may even give my body as an offering to be burned. But I gain nothing by doing all this if I don’t have love.

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous, it does not brag, and it is not proud.

5 Love is not rude, it is not selfish, and it cannot be made angry easily. Love does not remember wrongs done against it.

6 Love is never happy when others do wrong, but it is always happy with the truth.

7 Love never gives up on people. It never stops trusting, never loses hope, and never quits.

8 Love will never end. But all those gifts will come to an end—even the gift of prophecy, the gift of speaking in different kinds of languages, and the gift of knowledge.

9 These will all end because this knowledge and these prophecies we have are not complete.

10 But when perfection comes, the things that are not complete will end.

11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, and I made plans like a child. When I became a man, I stopped those childish ways.

12 It is the same with us. Now we see God as if we are looking at a reflection in a mirror. But then, in the future, we will see him right before our eyes. Now I know only a part, but at that time I will know fully, as God has known me.

​13 So these three things continue: faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love."

​God Bless You and Jesus Loves You! Amen!

​