God let me join a church with my family. I wanted to be able to speak with tongues and asked God for the same. He said He would do it but we had to do it His way. We had joined a Free-will Baptist Church in our town. They baptized with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit phrase. God showed me that they failed to take authority in the name of Jesus, in scripture. I wanted to just go to a Pentecostal Church, but God made me go to the Baptist Church and show them the scripture references. To my surprise, the Reverend and the head Deacon went through the scriptures and agreed to re-baptize us. Enter Satan. The Reverend's wife comes from a long line of Baptists. When she heard of the plans, she gets on the phone to an uncle from the good ol' Southern Baptists. Soon a whole committee of preachers start calling and talk them out of it. They called me in to tell me and I said: "You'll understand then if we go somewhere else." They were all for it, they just wanted out from under the conundrum.
We started going to a little Pentecostal Church in the small town where we lived. They were told of our unhappy baptism, and immediately they arranged to baptize us again. They did, but I still didn’t get the gift new tongues. God had already called me to preach, and I did so in this little church. My wife and I felt they were a little fanciful and magical about their beliefs and we grew to doubt that baptism also. So, we went to the mud flats at the edge of the lake to baptize each other. I took authority in Jesus’ name and dunked my wife. Then I took the palm of my hand and covered my nose and eyes waiting for her. She said that somehow, she was about 5 feet away from me; so she started toward me. To her surprise, I went straight back into the water and came back up. She said: “How did you do that?” I said: “do what?” I told her she dunked me, she said she didn’t. Something had grabbed and did it for her; something invisible. We deduced it was an angel / cherub. I felt something pulling me down into the very deep, cold abyss of what felt like death. My eyes were closed, but I saw the surface of the water disappearing above me. It was very cold, and it felt like death. That was my vision of my baptism. We both came up speaking in tongues as the Lord promised.
A little later, we came to believe that a woman couldn’t do the job of a minister. That was why God did it the way He did. We put our doctrine together as a unit. The scriptures led us to believe the whole house can believe one way together. I was still driving the truck and the Lord told me I would have to give that up. I had a spinal-fusion surgery 5 years earlier, and I really had no business driving a truck. It is hard to quit when the money is good. So I did not share what the Lord told me, and He then told my wife also. It would be a big step of faith to just quit, so I didn’t. Less than a month later, another truck pulls out of a truck stop at the Texas line and stalls across both my lanes. He was going north and I was heading south. At first, he was straddling the median area and my right most lane was clear. When I get right on top of him, he starts rolling backwards. I don’t know what to do so I kind of half get on the hard dirt outside the lane and hit my brakes. I immediately went into a high-speed jack-knife and wound up digging grass up in the median of the divided highway. I didn’t even have my seatbelt on. When the rig came to rest, my driver’s door was flung open and the trailer was pushing the tractor sideways. I think the way things happened, I had divine intervention again, because I should have been ejected out that door.
I did not think I was hurt, so I have the boss tow me another tractor to take the load on to just below Ft. Worth. I drive to the destination and go to bed in the bunk. The next morning, I realized I did something to my back. I could barely move. I called my boss and he arranged for some help to unload the trailer. When I got in and went to the doctor, he said I had a sprained back. Doc wouldn’t let me go back to work. I had talked with one of my fellow drivers that was having trouble making the alter call. When I convinced him that God was already providing for his family and he could trust the Lord to do the right thing by them. While off three weeks my back was getting a little better. I heard they were having a big layoff at work. I went down to check if I had a job; they said I was okay. I then asked who the last one they let go; in other words: who would get my truck if I quit? The very same guy that I led to the Lord. My wife and I took that as a sign: so I let him have my truck. To be continued.
We started going to a little Pentecostal Church in the small town where we lived. They were told of our unhappy baptism, and immediately they arranged to baptize us again. They did, but I still didn’t get the gift new tongues. God had already called me to preach, and I did so in this little church. My wife and I felt they were a little fanciful and magical about their beliefs and we grew to doubt that baptism also. So, we went to the mud flats at the edge of the lake to baptize each other. I took authority in Jesus’ name and dunked my wife. Then I took the palm of my hand and covered my nose and eyes waiting for her. She said that somehow, she was about 5 feet away from me; so she started toward me. To her surprise, I went straight back into the water and came back up. She said: “How did you do that?” I said: “do what?” I told her she dunked me, she said she didn’t. Something had grabbed and did it for her; something invisible. We deduced it was an angel / cherub. I felt something pulling me down into the very deep, cold abyss of what felt like death. My eyes were closed, but I saw the surface of the water disappearing above me. It was very cold, and it felt like death. That was my vision of my baptism. We both came up speaking in tongues as the Lord promised.
A little later, we came to believe that a woman couldn’t do the job of a minister. That was why God did it the way He did. We put our doctrine together as a unit. The scriptures led us to believe the whole house can believe one way together. I was still driving the truck and the Lord told me I would have to give that up. I had a spinal-fusion surgery 5 years earlier, and I really had no business driving a truck. It is hard to quit when the money is good. So I did not share what the Lord told me, and He then told my wife also. It would be a big step of faith to just quit, so I didn’t. Less than a month later, another truck pulls out of a truck stop at the Texas line and stalls across both my lanes. He was going north and I was heading south. At first, he was straddling the median area and my right most lane was clear. When I get right on top of him, he starts rolling backwards. I don’t know what to do so I kind of half get on the hard dirt outside the lane and hit my brakes. I immediately went into a high-speed jack-knife and wound up digging grass up in the median of the divided highway. I didn’t even have my seatbelt on. When the rig came to rest, my driver’s door was flung open and the trailer was pushing the tractor sideways. I think the way things happened, I had divine intervention again, because I should have been ejected out that door.
I did not think I was hurt, so I have the boss tow me another tractor to take the load on to just below Ft. Worth. I drive to the destination and go to bed in the bunk. The next morning, I realized I did something to my back. I could barely move. I called my boss and he arranged for some help to unload the trailer. When I got in and went to the doctor, he said I had a sprained back. Doc wouldn’t let me go back to work. I had talked with one of my fellow drivers that was having trouble making the alter call. When I convinced him that God was already providing for his family and he could trust the Lord to do the right thing by them. While off three weeks my back was getting a little better. I heard they were having a big layoff at work. I went down to check if I had a job; they said I was okay. I then asked who the last one they let go; in other words: who would get my truck if I quit? The very same guy that I led to the Lord. My wife and I took that as a sign: so I let him have my truck. To be continued.
