When I was 8 months pregnant with my daughter, the Lord started convicting me. I had a strong desire to repent. My parents had started going to a Baptist church and I told them I wanted to go with them. The next Sunday I did go with them.
I don’t remember much about what the preacher said; only the part at the end when he asked if you were not saved to raise your hand. (Everyone else had their eyes closed.) I raised my hand for prayer. When he gave the altar call I couldn’t get down there fast enough. I really wanted to repent. The preacher got down on his knees with me and read Romans 10:9-10 and then asked me if I was saved. I responded "I don’t know". He read it again and asked me again if I was saved. I said "I don’t know". As he started to read it again, I was thinking that if I didn’t tell him I was saved this time, we would be down there all day, so I told him yes just to get it over with. I didn’t feel any differently than before I went down. All I knew was that I had done what I thought was right.
I kept going to the meetings and pretty soon most of my family was going also. During this time I did get some touches from the Lord. (I think He saw my heart.) He let me get very disappointed after a couple of years of just salvation sermons. Every meeting was about getting saved. I was not getting anything out of the sermons. I felt just the same when I left as I did when I got there. I know now that was God letting me be very unhappy with what was there (or what was not there).
I had some health problems soon after this, and had to have some surgery. I had a lot of complications after my surgery and my husband was transferred to another town with his job, so we had to move again only a week after my surgery. This was a very lonely time for me. Two small children to care for and a husband who was gone most of the time with his job. I realized that there really was no one who could help me but God. This was when I really started seeking God. I knew that I had felt His Spirit and had loved the feelings that He gave me. I had heard about the holy Ghost and had started reading a lot in the Bible about it. I read people’s testimonies about things God had done for them since they had received it. It made me hungry for it too. I attended some home sharing groups with my mother where most of the ladies had the holy Ghost (they called it the holy Spirit). Sometimes the ladies would sit in a chair and the others would pray for them. This made me uncomfortable but I tried it. During this time my husband got a promotion with his job and we were transferred again. This was not what I wanted. To be so far away from everyone, but God was in all of it. It was a time when God had everyone and everything that distracted me far away. I sought God every day and finally He rewarded me by giving me the holy Ghost. It was a quiet experience, but one I didn’t doubt. The more I prayed in tongues, the more I wanted to. It just felt so good. I did not realize that it was also building up my faith, for I would need it very soon. This was in 1974.
I would take the children to churches where the Spirit of God was... Full Gospel, Four Square, Assembly of God and Pentecostal. I just could not feel right at any of these places. One day when I was praying, the Lord told me "Don’t go to church." I asked him, "What about the children?" He said they would be better off not going anywhere than to go some place and learn lies. The Lord supplied the faith I needed to obey this. It was easy to obey. It just felt right, so I did not go anywhere; I just stayed home and enjoyed the Lord at home. It was a wonderful time. I talked to the children about God. My husband did not want to hear anything about it at all.
Not too long after this a Baptist minister and a member of his congregation came to visit and invited me and the children to their church. I did not really give him an answer (sort of avoided it altogether really). After they left I knew they would be back and I dreaded their visit. When I asked the Lord what to do about it, he asked "What about the truth?" Well that was my answer....like it or not. It wasn’t long before they came again, and I knew what I had to tell them, so when they asked again and I said I didn’t think so, they said "Well, just let the children go. We have a bus and we can come by and pick them up." I told them I had prayed about it and that the Lord did not want us to go anywhere. They looked at me as if I were a crazy person but I just quietly and firmly stood my ground and they soon left. Thank God!! I was just so glad to not have to deal with them anymore.
I met John Clark around 1987 and soon started listening to some of the meeting tapes they were having. My sister had started going to his meetings and gave me some tapes to listen to. It wasn’t until John started visiting me on his way home to Lexington from the meetings in Henderson that some truth (a little at a time) started seeping into my heart. One day after quite a few visits from John, I was walking down the hall in my house when the words of the Lord, "THIS IS THE WAY" hit me so strongly that I fell to my knees. Along with these words came the realization that this was where I was supposed to go. Fourteen years after He told me to not go to church I finally had a Pastor and a place to go. Nothing could have done for me what the Truth has. It has changed my life completely for the better. I’m so glad the Lord saved me and my children from so many lies and burdens that Christianity would have put on us. Years of a mixed bag of doctrines and traditions of man.
My daughter is in the Truth and has the holy Ghost, also her husband. That is a wonderful blessing to me. She and her husband getting the foundation of sound doctrine and the best God has for them is something that is invaluable. I have a lot to be thankful for. God has done a wonderful work in their lives.