My 1GOD Testimony

 

Like most people who were not raised in a churched family, I was clueless about the Bible, although I believed in God from childhood.

Not all ONES are created equal. -religiously speaking.

The Lord was drawing me in my late 20's and when a trauma event happened to me, I realized how messed up my life was and I reached out in prayer with all my heart to call upon Jesus, not really knowing if He would answer. 

In the months that followed, I was drawn to read the Bible and suddenly, to the shock of many, I wanted to go to church.  So I called my mother and said I would go with her to her sleepy little Baptist church where I began to attend faithfully.

I remember my Baptist "new convert" class. Another lady and myself sat there while the pastor explained the trinity doctrine to us and said "do you understand? God is three persons."

We both nodded in dull ignorance.

2 years later I was introduced to the "Oneness" version by a friend and swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. They showed me "One God and He is Jesus." Becoming a zealous advocate for that sect and reading scripture for myself, I learned our view thoroughly and became a hard-nosed militant Pharisee in the process.

Knowing about God, knowing theology, and knowing religious observances can never take the place of knowing the Lord, and will often become a substitute for knowing God. This can be a lifelong process and God may reveal things to us that our church experience cannot.

So I went from a trinitarian Baptist to Oneness (aka Modalist) Pentecostal/ non-denominational for the next 35 years. I was the guy that put tracts on the cars in other church parking lots, debated all comers. Zealous. Acts 2:38 or hell.
I followed the pulpit and the theology books and passing the District Board,  was ordained and on the path to the <professional> Ministry.

35+ years went by...and as we transitioned into a non-denominational, watered-down, luke warm assembly, doctrine was not important. Just "believe", come to church, pay tithes, and be involved in church life.
But I still held to my Oneness theology, just not as dogmatic as before.

THE QUESTION:
Then one day a friend who had attended a UPC church in Modesto, and who read the Bible, asked me about John 20:17,    "does Jesus have a God?"

It was a stunning question and the moment that grabbed my attention.
I started looking at the scriptures and there were 14 places referenced for Jesus and "MY GOD".
How could this be!!?? 
I did a Bible Word Search for the phrase that I had taught, believed, and contended for all those years, i.e. "JESUS IS GOD". Simple.
But to my shock, like the word "Trinity", it was not in any scripture or Bible translation.

𝐒𝐮𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐈 𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐈 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐈 𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐰.
"Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them,
‘𝑰 𝒂𝒔𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝑴𝒚 𝑭𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝑭𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝑴𝒚 𝑮𝒐𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝑮𝒐𝒅.’

The Lord began pointing out to me many many scriptures I had not seen with seeing eyes.
One example was in Acts 2:34-35
 "𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑳𝑶𝑹𝑫 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒚 𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒅...", which had always bothered me 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗜 𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁.
-because it did not fit my theology and there was no coherent explanation from the Oneness view.

As I pondered Jesus as being a man, and wrestling with my former thinking "Jesus is God!", how could this be? I wanted Jesus to be God.
But as I began to see the man Jesus Christ from the gospels in a personal way, like the people that knew him and heard him did, the man I thought was GOD was a man. I still wanted Jesus to be GOD.

The assumptions, conflicts and "what about???" were many.

How the Lord led me.
He gave me a thought to do a Bible search for the words "I SAW" and see what the prophets saw IN HEAVEN and the throne. They said  "and I saw". I remembered Daniel 7, Ezekiel 1, Isaiah 6 and others, but now I wanted to look close and use some imagination to visualize what they saw.

Reading every one of those passages with a desire to "see" what they "saw", I found they all saw the Father, translated variously as "the LORD".  "Yahweh. aka Jehovah. "GOD ALMIGHTY". "LORD GOD" "HaShem".. depending on translations whiich I searched through to compare.

But there was no doubt, HE is ONE GOD alone.

The seers:
Moses, Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Macaiah, John, Stephen. They all saw YeHoVaH GOD. Of whom it is written: The Father. GOD alone. "I AM HE". "I AM GOD". "ME". The jealous GOD.

The seers, prophets,  all saw One. The Creator. Glorious.
"He" was not the "son of God" and none saw Jesus with HIM.

𝐁𝐮𝐭 "𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓???  -you know the verses, I knew them too.
Even though I had been a Bible reader, and taught ACTS for many years,
𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐝 this 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭 and
The Lord directed me to focus on Jesus 𝐚𝐬 𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 *𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝* 𝐛𝐲 𝐇𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬, 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐬.
HOW SIMPLE!!
Just read WHAT THEY PREACHED and what they told people who Jesus is.

Boom.
 Jesus is THE MAIN subject of the preaching of the gospel after Jesus had departed to the Father!

How in the name of remnant Christianity could we have missed THAT?
𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐧 in the Book of Acts 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐣𝐨𝐛 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐉𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐬 𝐢𝐬!

I had NEVER heard anyone approach Acts to see what the preachers told the Jews, pagans, Samaritans, Greeks, Kings, High Priest and Sanhedrin who Jesus is.

So I compiled their "sermons" the major ones and the minor ones, and even where Jesus answered Saul's question "WHO ARE YOU LORD?"
When I read and re-read their words,
I saw who Jesus is. It was The simple Truth as *they* preached Jesus in Acts.

The revelation that Peter received in Mat. 16:"18 was now mine.
It was there all the time but veiled.
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God".

So they preached Jesus Christ according to the "great commission" as:
"𝒂 𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝑮𝒐𝒅" Acts 2:22,

- forgiveness of sins through that man. Acts 13:38.
- The man that died and who GOD raised from the dead.
- The man by whom God would judge the world. Acts 17:31
- "This same Jesus is whom they crucified, God has made both Lord and Christ".

THEY SAID THOSE things 𝐛𝐮𝐭 *𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫* 𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐚 𝐩𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐚 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲, "deity of Christ", 𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚 "𝐉𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐆𝐨𝐝"..
and once again we realized we were taught wrong by the churched majority.
We searched the scriptures and began to repent.
👉𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑮𝒐𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑭𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝑳𝒐𝒓𝒅 𝑱𝒆𝒔𝒖𝒔 𝑪𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕, 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆, 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒍𝒊𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒕.
2Cor 11:31
.. and one by one, all the "WHAT ABOUTS'S!!??" were cleared up.

But there was a new dilemma. 
I did not know a single person that believed what I was seeing in scripture.
Later, God would bring them into my life.....

Speaking Of Tongues

 

About tongues, The Scripture for tongues, the foundation, early mention, Jesus referring to them, the disciples experiencing them in multiple places, Paul distinguishing their use in the assembly.

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Isaiah prophesied of a spiritual "rest" and tongues:

Isa. 28:11 by [men of] strange lips and with another tongue will he speak to this people;

12 to whom he said, This is the rest, give you rest to him that is weary; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.

-Joel prophesied of the coming of the Spirit in Joel 2:28 Peter referred to Joel when he explained to a crowd what the believers had just experienced.

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Jesus said it was a sign of "them that believe. Mark 16:18

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When the Spirit came in Acts 2, ALL the disciples and apostles spoke in tongues.

When a crowd saw and heard the manifestations of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, Peter said "THIS IS THAT spoken by the prophet Joel, in Acts 2:17

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In Acts 10:44-48, the Jewish disciples knew the gentiles were converted and Spirit-filled "for they heard them speak with tongues.

((note: the gentiles there were of a family and friends, Romans. There was no crowd, nobody came to see what was happening like Acts 2.

Yet in Acts 11, Peter told the church at Jerusalem the gentiles received the Holy Spirit in "like manner" as the Jews on Pentecost.

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In Acts 19 a group of Ephesian proselytes of John the Baptist, to whom was preached that "He that comes after me... shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit.."

This group of converts met Paul and Paul laid hands on them and the 12 men received Spirit baptism speaking in tongues and prophesying.

PRAYING IN TONGUES

I would point out that it is possible to learn other languages apart from God. I am bi-lingual having learned Spanish in my work life..

But when I pray and speak in tongues, it is not in Spanish. My prayer tongues is not understood by me as Paul said "when I pray in tongues my understanding is unfruitful".

1cor 14:2 For he that speaks in a tongue speaks not to men, but unto God; for no man understands; but in the spirit he speaks mysteries.

14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.

15 What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also

The GIFT of tongues in the assembly:

Talking to a born-again assembly, not evangelizing the lost:

NOTE 1Cor 11:18 ====> For first of all, WHEN YOU COME TOGETHER IN THE CHURCH,<===== I hear that divisions exist among you; and I partly believe it............

SEE THE CONTEXT???

now we understand better what he is saying to the established saints:

1cor 12: 1 Now CONCERNING SPIRITUAL GIFTS <in the church assembly!>,

I would not have you ignorant. "given THROUGH THE SPIRIT", is not a learned language.

For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom; and to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit:

9 to another faith, in the same Spirit; and to another gifts of healings, in the one Spirit;

10 and to another workings of miracles; and to another prophecy; and to another discernings of spirits; to another [divers] kinds of tongues; and to another the interpretation of tongues:

11 but all these worketh the one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one severally even as he will.

There in 1Cor 12 is the GIFT OF HEALING< MIRACLES, TONGUES, INTERPRETATION, .... "WHEN YOU COME TOGETHER"

If a church is not manifesting the least of those they have fallen short of the common experience of believers in the Bible, and word "THAT YOU COME BEHIND IN **NO GIFT*** until the coming of the Lord".

Now we can understand the "administration" for those "good and perfect gifts coming down from the Father.." (perfect meaning mature in Christ).

SPIRITUAL GIFTS, as functioning together as a body.:

1Cor 12:27 Now ye are THE BODY of Christ, and severally members thereof.

28 And God has set some in the church, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, [divers] kinds of tongues.

29 Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all [workers of] miracles?

30 have all gifts of healings? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?

31 ==> But desire earnestly the greater gifts. <====

AND DO NOT FORBID TO SPEAK IN TONGUES. (1Cor 14:28

They can be imitated and parroted, but when a person is Spirit-baptized or renewed, they will usually speak with other tongues.

*warning:

There are churches and pastors that deny them and speak against that which God has given. Others will relegate them to human languages only. This is quickly disproved and overcome by believing the words Paul wrote as we believe the apostles and not those that reject the Word.