{"id":11835,"date":"2021-01-16T23:59:51","date_gmt":"2021-01-16T23:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pjhmail.wordpress.com\/?p=11835"},"modified":"2021-01-16T23:59:51","modified_gmt":"2021-01-16T23:59:51","slug":"leikas-testimony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/11835\/leikas-testimony\/","title":{"rendered":"Leika’s Testimony"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi Pastor John,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I would love to share my life testimony and how I received the Holy Ghost baptism.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was raised by “born-again christian” parents (they believe in the Trinity and water baptism).\u00a0 They were originally from the Catholic religion and then converted to become born-again christians.\u00a0 We are six children, and I am in the fifth.\u00a0 My papa was such a zealous man of his faith that he shared with his catholic friends the good news of Jesus and that God was angry when we worship a stone god\u00a0(we have a lot of stone saints\u00a0in Philippines).\u00a0 When I was eight years old, my papa changed and backslid from his faith because he got into gambling and drugs.\u00a0 My parents got separated.\u00a0 From that time, I was raised by a single parent – my mama.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I was a child, there was a Vacation Bible School for children (VBS) every summer in our place where we lived (not in the city I live now).\u00a0 One of my favorite stories was the story of Enoch.\u00a0 I was really amazed by the story of the first man God took, and their intimate fellowship.\u00a0 I was very excited every time there was a VBS and heard the stories in the Bible.\u00a0 I remember that we had a Bible verse on the wall in our house that said, \u201cIn all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your path.\u201d\u00a0 As I grew up, I used to think that there were only two religions: catholic (false) and born-again (true).\u00a0 Inside my heart, I believed that my religion was true.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My siblings were not interested in the Bible and church, but they believed that Jesus saves and that He will come to judge the earth.\u00a0 Also, my mama got very busy in supporting and raising her six children.\u00a0 So, she had no time for teaching us about the Bible.\u00a0 She always said for us go to church because it is required and Jesus was happy if His children go to church.\u00a0 My mama was a cook in the church, and still is.\u00a0 At that time, I used to think that every Sunday was the church day, so I needed to go to church so that Jesus would be happy for me.\u00a0 Or felt guilt if I didn\u2019t.\u00a0 Many times, I didn\u2019t go to church but still believe that I am a christian.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I was in college, the church we used to attend had a conflict between pastors.\u00a0 The pastor who was dear to my mama left and started up a house church. Five families gathered together\u00a0and\u00a0had fellowship.\u00a0 I went with them.\u00a0 Then I started to serve children and a praise and worship ministry.\u00a0 I decided to repent and “accept Jesus Christ\u00a0with my whole heart\u00a0as my personal Lord and Savior”, and I got baptized in water.\u00a0 Before I got baptized, the pastor taught me about sixteen fundamentals of truth, and I became a true member in church after my “acceptance” of Jesus and I was “saved”.\u00a0 But I did not fully understand all that because I was young.\u00a0 I was just happy that Jesus saved me and I was officially a member of His family.\u00a0 At that time,\u00a0I used to think that I just needed to believe and serve\u00a0faithfully\u00a0and that was enough to be saved.\u00a0 As time went by, I had questions in my mind about who God really was, and am I really saved? Because every time I read the Bible of my mama, I didn\u2019t understand it, and every time I prayed was not long like the others in churches I used to attend.\u00a0 So, I read books in the bookstore, every break time in my college days, about testimonies from people about their experience with God.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A friend of mine in the church said that she was reading a book, \u201cPurpose-driven Life\u201d, by Rick Warren, and she wanted me to read the book because it was a good book for the young people who had questions about their purpose.\u00a0 The book said \u201cWithout God, life has no purpose, and without purpose, life has no meaning.\u00a0 Without meaning, life has no significance or hope,\u201d and \u201cYou discover your identity and purpose through a relationship with Jesus Christ.\u201d\u00a0 And I ended up questioning myself.\u00a0 What is my purpose?\u00a0 Why am I here? and Is Jesus still working on us today?\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know God, and I didn\u2019t understand it when I read the Bible.\u00a0 Though I grew up in Christian family, I was not living in a godly way and didn\u2019t know who God was, and I had a doubt about my relationship with Jesus, if I was truly saved.\u00a0 In that book, it made my heart seek God more to know my purpose\u00a0and my identity, and I couldn\u2019t know myself if I didn’t know God personally.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I sought God with all my heart, and I woke up often at three or four AM to pray and devotional.\u00a0 And I didn\u2019t know what to say to Him, and I just always said,\u00a0 \u201cLord, I want to know you and I want to experience that you\u2019re real of what the Bible said about you.\u201d\u00a0 And I poured out my heart to God.\u00a0 Many days went by.\u00a0 I looked up in the sky and said, “I believe that you\u2019re there.”\u00a0 Sometimes, I knelt down and cried and said nothing, and let my heart speak to Him, and I read verses in Psalms.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then I had an experienced in the Lord that I\u2019ve never forgotten in my whole life.\u00a0 Before morning, I sat in the corner and let my heart speak to Him, and I began to feel cold in the room, and I heard a wind so cold and a voice said, \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid, for I am with you.\u201d\u00a0 After that voice, it entered into my heart, and I felt there was something in my stomach\u00a0bubbling up\u00a0that made my mouth move.\u00a0 My eyes were crying, and I had a thought of “What is happening to me?”\u00a0 It took a long time for me to feel that.\u00a0 The question was what was happening to me?\u00a0 Did that come from God?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So I shared it with the pastor, that there was something in my belly that was bubbling up, and I didn\u2019t know what was happening to me.\u00a0 And he said, \u201cMaybe you reject the Holy Spirit.\u201d\u00a0 After that conversation, I cried again to the Lord that I didn\u2019t reject His Spirit and to search my heart to make it pure.\u00a0 Many days went by, and I set aside that experience, but I was still hoping for the answer.<\/span><\/p>\n

I graduated college when I met a Seventh Day Adventist.\u00a0 He was zealous about his faith, and\u00a0he believed also their religion was true.\u00a0 It was my first time hearing about another religion.\u00a0 So I began to search online the faith of Seventh Day Adventist, and I found out that we just had the same faith (believed in the Trinity and water baptism).\u00a0 I questioned\u00a0why there were so many religions, and not\u00a0united\u00a0in serving the Lord?<\/span><\/p>\n

These experiences urged me that I need to read my Bible, and did fasting.\u00a0 I started reading the New Testament from Matthew to Acts, and took down notes of the important verses, the disciples and Jesus, who they were.\u00a0 I spent time for this and it came to the point that I was more at peace when I was alone studying the Bible than going to church.\u00a0 Gradually, I understood the Bible, but not all.\u00a0 I desired to become a missionary because I wanted God to work in my life, and I served God with my whole heart in the church and to share the gospel of Jesus to the people that were lost.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The pastor gave me a book about baptism with the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 I began to search on the internet about the Holy Spirit, and there was something in me that I needed to know, that maybe we had the same experience in the Lord.\u00a0 And I became interested in the experience of the people who were baptized by the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 There was an event where we were invited, and the people spoke in tongues when they worship God.\u00a0 I had thought that I wanted to speak in tongues also because the pastor said that it\u00a0was a language of heaven but not a new birth.\u00a0 In the church where I used to go, they didn\u2019t preach about speaking in tongues.\u00a0 They just believed it was a gift given by God, but not all can speak in tongues.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fast forward.\u00a0 I came to the website of Pastor John when our pastor in church assigned me to search a gospel tract for evangelism.\u00a0 My first gospel tract that I came across was “The Father and the Son”.\u00a0 And I searched more gospel tracts and the\u00a0God had a Son before Mary Did<\/em>\u00a0book, and I read them.\u00a0 The book convicted me that God was not three-in-one, and \u201cCome out of her my people!\u201d\u00a0 After that, I didn\u2019t go\u00a0to church for three Sundays so that I could study the book, and my church mates and pastor messaged me of what\u2019s happening to me.\u00a0 And I said that I was studying the Bible.\u00a0 I messaged back to the pastor in church and his wife that I needed to talk to them about the doctrines of Christianity and water baptism, that they were not right and not from God.\u00a0 We need the Holy Ghost baptism to be born again.\u00a0 I explained to them the true doctrine.\u00a0 And he said \u201cI don\u2019t believe what you said, Leika, that the blood of Christ is the Spirit, and be careful what you believe now because I had a dream that you were possessed by a bad spirit.\u201d\u00a0 And his wife said, \u201cLeika, I know that you\u2019re searching God and have questions, but we cannot fathom God.\u201d\u00a0 And I cried in front of them that I believed the gospel tracts and I couldn\u2019t be in church anymore.\u00a0 And they hugged me.\u00a0 I received a lot of messages from church members that they were disappointed and sad because they expected me to become a missionary, but now was believing in a different doctrine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

God was the one who called me out from the confusion of Christianity.\u00a0 After that, I no longer attended church.\u00a0 New experiences happened to me, and every time I prayed to God, my stomach was bubbling up and felt joy and peace that I couldn’t explain.\u00a0 I remember that it was God who baptized me with the Holy Ghost when I sought Him with my whole heart.\u00a0 I didn’t know about the Baptism of the Holy Ghost; I just sought God.\u00a0 He answered me, and I praise God that He is still working today, and in the generations to come.\u00a0 Along the way, the Holy Spirit guides me and teaches me the truth.\u00a0 And as I look back on my experiences, I know that God is true and that He sent His Son so that we can partake in His divine nature and live in righteousness and holiness in the Spirit. And those who seek Him wholeheartedly surely shall find Him.\u00a0 I am thankful that He lead me to Pastor John and the peaceful music I heard from Sister Donna, Brother Gary, Brother Darren and the others.\u00a0 Thankful for you all.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you,<\/span><\/p>\n

Leika<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi Pastor John,\u00a0 I would love to share my life testimony and how I received the Holy Ghost baptism. I was raised by “born-again christian” parents (they believe in the Trinity and water baptism).\u00a0 They were originally from the Catholic religion and then converted to become born-again christians.\u00a0 We are six children, and I am […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-netmail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11835"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11835\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}