Jason's Testimony

        I grew up going to a nondenominational church, and accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior at 4yrs old. I believed in healing and all the other gifts and wanted to please God. Around the age of 12 I witnessed a pastor yelling at my mom. My dad was on the worship team and my mother wanted my dad to step down because she had 9 kids and she couldn’t handle keeping them all in line by herself. I remember the pastor telling her that if she couldn’t handle her kids, she should stop having them, and that it wasn’t her place to tell my dad to step down. The offense that I held against this pastor who I looked up to and wanted to be like when I grew up, was a trap from the enemy because everything that I looked up to was shattered. I fell away, started being rebellious and didn’t want anything to do with Christians or church. I was confused and developed a hatred in my heart for pastors and Christianity. It wasn’t long after my family left the church and only did Bible study at home. Separating us from the body of Christ… divide and conquer. 

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          Fast forward a few years, at 19yrs old I got my girlfriend pregnant, and I was trying to figure out what I thought life was about. I thought just working hard and supporting my family was all I needed to do. After having 4 children, my marriage was falling apart, and my wife left me for multiple people resulting in her getting pregnant by another man. Soon after, I got mixed up in drugs, alcohol, and adultery. I was trying to hold on to anything that I could feel or touch that seemed real. Like most prodigals, I hit rock bottom. I came to a point where I had to choose either suicide or Christ. 

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       So, I started searching for God. I knew my way wasn’t working and I needed God but didn’t know how to go about finding Him. Not to mention making a decision to raise a child as my own that wasn’t mine by blood. Not knowing where to look I started going back to church trying to live the life I thought I was supposed to live. I started searching for the right church. I went back to what I knew which was a non-denominational church. They had feel-good sermons and worship songs, but it was dead with no fruit. Then I stumbled on a Hebrew roots church and boy did I think this was it. It seemed as though it was what I had always been searching for. I’m a go getter and hard worker so I foolishly thought that I could do this by keeping the law and doing all these works to get close to God. I ended up following this church out of state and decided that this is where my family and I needed to be. I sold everything, quit my career of 12yrs and headed out of state. The community and love that I felt at this church, seeing real love, and people searching after God was amazing. I was convinced this was it. Although I did receive some healing, and developed new and good habits that allowed some sort of structure and stability, I still didn’t have what I knew that I needed deep down, nor did I have the relationship with God I was searching for. I was simply caught up in religion and works which drowns out the transformative power of the Holy Spirit. I was trying to earn my salvation by good deeds instead of allowing God to come into my life and change me from the inside-out.

 

           Give or take 3yrs later, my marriage ended up falling apart and I was going through a divorce. While going through the divorce still trying to hold onto God by works, and what I felt was right, I fell into the old trap of drinking, hanging out with the wrong people, fornication, and adultery. 1-1/2yrs later, coming back down to rock bottom, I cried out to God. Saying "God, I can’t do this anymore. The women and friendships I’m in or pursue after are nothing. It’s fake, I’m fake and I’m tired of fake. Lord, I need real. Lord I can’t serve a silent God, I can’t serve a God I can’t hear or communicate with. I can’t have a relationship with a friend, or anyone else that I can’t hear, talk or communicate with. I can’t do fake and pretend anymore. So, God, if You are real, and if I can hear you speak to me, and I will serve You. But if I can’t hear You, or have a real relationship with You, I can’t do this." I heard and knew about God, even felt His presence but didn’t know Him personally. I then went on to tell God that I would fast from my life and put everything aside for 3 months and seek Him for an hour every morning. Well, after seeking Him for 7-10 days I started hearing Him speak to me. I was addicted immediately. I couldn’t go a day without hearing Him speak to me. My days changed from dreading to get up in the morning to being excited to meet with my Lord and Savior, my new friend. 

 

         I began to truly discover who God is. He started leading me down the road of getting me out of religion and into relationship. Religion is far more dangerous than being in the world because we are fooled into thinking we can earn our salvation by works, never truly surrendering to the Lord. During these times of meeting with God through the Holy Spirit, He brought me to a vision of the fig tree where he came to it for fruit but then cursed it for not bearing fruit.  He took me to where the servant and the master of the vineyard were talking about pulling out the vine that wasn’t producing fruit, where the servant was pleading with the master saying "Please let me fertilize it, let me water it, let me nurture it. Then if it doesn’t give us fruit, we can pull it out for taking up space. " The Holy Spirit showed me that I was the vine, Jesus was the Servant, and God was the Master; and they were talking about me! They said if I didn’t produce fruit in the next year, I would be dead and cast out! I fell on my face in the secret place, crying out to God for mercy and repenting. The emotions and convictions felt so strong, it felt like I was kicked in the chest, I was weak and couldn’t stop crying. It was so very real. Not long after my future wife, who I’m going to talk more about later, saw something under my eye and urged me to go get it checked out. I shrugged it off for a week or so but then gave in and went get it checked. The dermatologist didn’t find anything under my eye but as they did a full body scan, they ended up finding skin cancer on my back. Melanoma and carcinoma in two spots. They urged me to go into surgery asap. After the surgery was over, the doctor told me that I was lucky because the cancer was about to go through the fat layer and if it did I would have most likely been dead in a year. The warning I got was real. What was happening in the spiritual was happening in the physical.

 

         The next day or so I was in the shower praising God and thanking Him for saving me and not plucking me out of His vineyard. The Holy Spirit came over me and told me that the vine that I’m called to be, would be a vine that produces more fruit then all the other vines that were around me in the vineyard, and that it was no coincidence that people came from all over to my table to eat. That’s a different story, but I’m a good cook and people seem to enjoy eating my food. The memory He showed me as He spoke this to me was over 60 people coming to my tent just because of the smell coming from the pot.

 

            Three to four weeks after the Lord gave me the initial warning of plucking me from the vineyard, I ended up meeting the woman that is now my beautiful wife and true help mate. When I first met Sam, I was scared that she was sent to distract me from my newfound relationship with God. So, I asked God one morning if Sam was a distraction or a stumbling block to pull me away from Him. He answered me the next morning and told me that she was going to be a mirror of my relationship with Him and that she was to be my wife. This was 2 weeks from meeting her, so I was wondering how I would explain this. I explained what I heard to Sam, and she was like “Um, ok, I don’t know about that.” But she went and prayed about it, and God gave her an answer saying that I was the one she was praying for. Not long after, she came to me and told me that God had spoken to her and gave her the date we were to be married. She explained that she wasn’t going to tell me the year, day, or even the month. That if this was what God was really wanting, He would have to give me the date. She believed it so much that she went and took the day off work and the week after for our honeymoon.

Well, remember how I was hearing from God every morning? When I started praying about the date everything went silent for almost 7 weeks. I was like “Lord did I make a mistake? did I sin?” I was getting aggravated and impatient.  Around the 7th week my wife and I were praying one day after church. As I was praying the numbers 611 randomly came out of my mouth. Sam asked me “what did you say?” I replied “I don’t know? 611?” She said, "That’s the date, June 11th!" We were both in awe. The reason God had her take the time off of work right away was for proof that she wasn’t making it up. We both started crying feeling the love and hand of God moving in our life.

 

       We then started looking and making arrangements for the wedding as we only had 3 months to the wedding date. While we were looking, everything seemed to be booked out for 2-3 years. My wife had a vision of a pond and a cabin and as she explained it to me. I told her "I think I know where you’re talking about." I brought her an hour away to a property called Redemption Ranch and as we pulled up, she said "This is it!" This property was owned by a Christian couple that had a very popular wedding venue on 120 acres. Knowing this place was normally booked out for a few years, I went and asked the owner if we could have an outside wedding in the field under a cross. She agreed and as I asked her what she would charge me, knowing I owned a construction company, she asked me to trade installing a tile shower for the use of the property. Of course, I agreed. As we were leaving the property the Holy Spirit came upon me and told me that my wife was His daughter, and He was going to pay for her wedding. Well, the next day my wife asked me to text the owner of Redemption Ranch and ask a few questions. Before I could push send on my phone, the owner texted me and said that the main wedding facility was set aside on June 11th for a pastors conference and that they wanted us to have it. So, they gave us the main facility that was set aside a year prior. Then the Holy Spirit reminded of what He said about providing for our wedding. As soon as we found this out people started coming out from everywhere and saying they were going to provide our food and catering. Volunteers and help came from all over. It was more then we could have ever hoped for. I knew the Lord had us in His hands.

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         As we got closer to the Lord, my wife and I knew we were called to start doing street evangelism as well as starting our own ministry.  I know we are at a place where after experiencing deliverance, and having demons cast out of me, seeing Gods hand and power of the Holy Spirit working through me and others, I can boldly go and share the good news without hesitation. God is so awesome and watching His hand truly work through us is a miracle all by itself. I look back in amazement at how far the Lord has brought me these last few years. I know we have to keep pressing in and keep learning, leaning on the Holy Spirit our Helper and walking by faith. We must just go and do what God says to do. I’m finding out that my purpose is to do, to act, and go. To give the Holy Spirit free range in my life and love and enjoy the ride.

Even though I know this is only the beginning, I can’t wait to see what God writes next as He is the Author and Finisher of my faith. This is His story I’m just privileged to walk and live it out.

I praise the Father for saving me and pulling me out of my filth and not leaving me to my own destruction.