Dear John,
I wanted to take the time to write down the communion testimony Jesus blessed me with today. I felt too good today to try to tell it!
I received the baptism of the holy Ghost in October 1985, and I received it with joy. Over the next 11 years I would pray and talk to Jesus and he would touch me and give me beautiful testimonies. But like many who are in Christianity, I could not fully understand the depth of the blessing of being filled with the Spirit.
I had been taught that in order to have communion with Jesus, I was to partake of the communion ceremony that was performed at certain times during the year at church services when the congregation together received crackers and grape juice in His name. I loved doing that because I longed for communion with Jesus.
In 1996, I was watching a Christian tv program which was telling about a famous missionary who had lived in Africa for many years. He loved Jesus so much that he would have communion every day; he set aside time each day to eat his crackers and drink his grape and spend special time with Jesus. He said it was available to anyone who desired communion to do that same thing. I wanted to do that, too, because I loved the thought of being able to have daily communion. Jesus used that program to touched my heart because he knew I desired real communion with him more often than just a few times a year. He was telling me I could have sweet communion with him every day!
I went to the grocery store and bought a small package of crackers and a small container of grape juice. From a sincere heart I told Jesus I longed for him. I put my crackers up on the top shelf of a kitchen cabinet and my juice in the back of the refrigerator. Each day for months I would find a quiet time with Jesus when Tim was at work and baby Jeremiah was asleep. I would get my cracker and juice and talk to Jesus from my heart.
Throughout the fall of 1996, I had been asking Jesus to let me hear and recognize his voice. Tim had begun going to some of the home prayer meetings of the saints held at Pastor John’s house. Tim never put any pressure on me to go, but by the end of the year, I found myself telling Jesus that even though I had had some very hurtful experiences with church religion and those in authority there, I was willing to put all my eggs in his basket again and go with Tim to the home prayer meetings. And when I went I learned about true communion in the holy Ghost and the fellowship of the believers with Jesus.
Real communion is not in ceremony, but it is in Spirit and in Truth with the blood of Christ flowing from Jesus through the body to cleanse, strengthen and bring joy. He is the bread of life. And fellowship with Jesus and the body can be had anytime we yield ourselves to the power of God. Jesus did not suffer and die to institute a dead ceremony of passing out bread and juice, but he sent back the holy Ghost so we can have a real relationship with him, we can eat and drink of him, and live, and we can have perfect communion with him every day!
Love,
Bess