Friday, April 10, 2009

DAVID'S TRANSFORMATION


Several years ago, right after my husband Steve was totally transformed by the power of God through the Holy Spirit, we received a visit from a dear friend and business associate. His name is David and he had lived in the Hawaiian Islands for a while. David was back in the states and he called to say hello and that he wanted to come to see us. Of course we invited him to our home.
David arrived with a distant look in his eyes, which we later found out was caused by smoking some "funny weed". However, we were both glad to see him and invited him to spend the evening with us. He began to tell us about his new religious discovery. He said that he had discovered that he had a spirit guide from another spiritual world and it was leading him and talking to him through guided handwriting.
I was familiar with the same experience, though I had never embraced it, even though I had encountered the teaching in some books which I had initially read while I was on my quest for some power that would help me with problems in my life. Somehow I knew that the "spiritual guide" experiences were not my path to happiness. David had embraced it, though, believing that it would help him.
Since I knew that it would bring confusion to his life because it had done that to my life, I was eager for Steve to tell David that his "spirit guide" would only lead him to more confusion. Steve sat quietly listening to David tell us things that his "spirit guide" had told him, things that seemed to have no real relevance to successful living and problem solving. Steve continued to listen without throwing cold water on David's theories and experiences. I sat quietly seething because I thought that Steve should correct David and warn him about the dangers in listening to his false "spirit guide".
When David ran out of breath, Steve finally said to him, "I have a Spirit guide, too."
To which David said, "You do?"
Steve said, "Yes, I do, and His name is Jesus Christ."
Steve began to tell David his powerful testimony, how I had prayed in the Holy Spirit for hours every day for two years for him. Steve told David how he had unknowingly told another friend that he had turned his life over to Jesus, even though Steve didn't know he had. Steve told David that he had never heard that phrase before but he had used it in conversation and then started crying when he realized that that confession had come from his own mouth.
Then he told David about being instantaneously healed of alcoholism, cursing and tobacco smoking. Steve told him the supernatural orchestration that God had performed in order to get Steve to a place where he could eventually hear testimonies about God's power and His ability to change lives.
David had listened intently to Steve's testimony. Then David admitted that his "spirit guide" had not been supernaturally beneficial to his life, that his pursuit had been an intellectual pursuit with no real life changing power..
We asked David if he wanted to replace his ineffective spirit guide with Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit.
David couldn't get his, "Yes, " out of his mouth fast enough.
David left our house that night a new creature and transformed by the Holy Spirit. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead made David a totally new person, one who didn't need an inefficient intellectual spirit guide because David has God's powerful Holy Spirit inside of him now. David went to his home in another city totally changed, joyful and completely sober with no remnants of the drugs in his body.
David had such a complete personality change that his wife noticed immediately and she decided that she wanted the same life changing experience that he had. God obliged her, because He is true to his children, and God led David and his wife to a place where she could hear the same truths that David had embraced. His wife became transformed and Holy Spirit filled just like David.
When David had first come to our house Steve had used great wisdom by not opposing what David said about his "spirit guide" but Steve simply told him what the true Spirit guide, God's Holy Spirit, the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, would change David from a life of sadness to a life of joy. God did it, and He is still doing it.
David's entire life changed into a productive, joyful, blessed life thanks to the true "spirit guide", who is God's Holy Spirit.
People want to hear what we have experienced that has changed us and our lives. Our testimonies are more powerful than any philosopy, theology or doctrine.