Not knowing any different, I thought that’s what all churches were like.  And when it came to thinking about God, well, I didn’t dare think about Him too much for fear that He would strike me down.  In those years growing up, I never heard one word from a priest that gave me any hope or assurance that God was one Who loved me so much that He became a Man and came to earth to die in my place for my sin so that I could then turn to Him, receive His forgiveness and become His follower and friend.  Not only that, but neither was I told that being a friend of Jesus automatically made me a friend of His Father and the Holy Spirit – that is – a friend of God Almighty Himself.

I thank God with all my being that the god I grew up hearing about was not the same One who revealed Himself to me in such a dramatic way some twenty-three years later.  See my About page and But they still have a god post.  I had already spent nearly two years getting to know the true God of the Bible and I was experiencing Him in reality through much mercy, love and peace.  Nevertheless, on the day we went to that local church I was still expecting some form of solemnity.  That’s why we were pleasantly surprised and greatly impressed.  None of that was to be seen.  Respect or reverence for God, yes, but not solemnity.

The Bible tells us that where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom/liberty 2 Corinthians 3:17.  I did not know that at that time, but when I found out, it helped to explain to me the great difference between being religious and being a Christian.  My early church days were not Christian experiences, they were religious experiences.  Those old priests manifested lots of solemnity and no liberty, so I can only assume they had no Holy Spirit dwelling within them.  They were religious, but not Christian.  If it were otherwise, Holy Spirit freedom and liberty would have been demonstrated by them and the same would have been evident within the people under them.

It is also only in the Bible where one finds we are to test the spirits to see if they are from God or not.  So one of the ways to test which spirit controls a church and its leadership, is to do just that – test by asking, “what spirit controls this place and these people?  Is it the Holy Spirit?  Or is it an unholy spirit of religion, or politics, or control?  Or is it all three?”  Being led by the Holy Spirit as we apply Biblical tests, we can find out.  Sadly, most churches throughout the world are controlled by the latter - the unholy trinity.  Jesus said we would know by their fruits what kind of people we were amongst.  So what kind are they?  Are they religious legalists, or Spirit-led, liberated people?

While the relatively new pastor of our local church faithfully taught the Scriptures with his expository preaching and systematic Bible teaching, God faithfully honoured His promises and that church began to grow spiritually and numerically.  Just a couple of years prior to us joining, this same church was dying with only about thirty people in regular attendance.  By the time we arrived there were three times that many and it was continuing to grow rapidly with new people in attendance nearly every week.  Because the Holy Spirit was in charge of His church, He made sure our hunger for biblical knowledge of God was being satisfied.

Overseas Bible teachers came on a regular basis over three or four years and because their time was limited we thought nothing of attending mid-week night and all weekend classes, soaking up as much of God’s word as we could.  Dramatic changes were resulting in people’s lives with lots of spiritual, mental and physical healings taking place, broken relationships being restored – both in the church and in the local community.  Opportunities for ministry increased with a second and third pastor coming into the church, young men were being raised up as preachers who preached in other churches where a minister was lacking, as well as doing short-term overseas missionary work. 

Multiple water baptisms by full immersion, were a regular occurrence, resulting in people being empowered by the Holy Spirit to take up ministries in Bible teaching, youth ministries, music ministries, women’s ministries, street ministries and radio broadcasting ministries.  It was an exciting and miraculous time.  God was doing so much in that local church that people left other churches to come and join with us.  The main pastor was regularly asked to go to other churches and give guidance and advice on how to replicate what was happening and he also was able to frequently spend some weeks at a time in the USA, studying and teaching.

Over the years this man constantly reinforced to us the need to know our Bible.  He said that if we did not know our Bible and the doctrines within in their right context, then the cults would chew us up and spit us out as we faced them.  I have found that statement to be an on-going reality among far too many people who claim to be Christians.  He also constantly reinforced the need for us to know God and to know who we are in Jesus Christ and that if we didn’t, then we leave ourselves wide open for the devil to do what the cults will do.  Following these warnings he often reminded us to look to no man, but the Man Jesus alone.

Then at about the end of the fourth year of our attendance, it became noticeable to me and a few others that this same pastor was spiritually declining.  Because I was part of the ministerial team I noticed it first after his return from one of those USA trips.  Money appeared to be now playing a role I’d not seen previously as he began to dress more fashionably.  As well, money became a frequent topic in his conversation at our weekly staff meetings.  He was always a strong leader who sometimes did not demonstrate the love of Christ to those closest to him, but by now he began to be intimidating and bullying to people whom he knew would not stand up to him. 

The assistant pastor and his wife, who were there for over three years left the church without really saying why.  The man also appeared to enjoy the glory given him by far too many people, in spite of his earlier warnings to avoid giving to or receiving such glory from any man.  Politics became a prominent part of his game.  Added to that, this man began to compromise the biblical standard that he previously spoke up for.  Not only that, but he once asked me to do something that both he and I knew would compromise that standard if I yielded to his manipulation. 

When I said I would not do as he requested, it was not too long when I became his enemy – subtly at first, much less subtle later.  His marriage and family life crumbled as well and it was not long before they separated.  Here’s the saddest part of all.  Among his many warnings to us as a church, he used to say, “Whatever is in the heart of a person will always get exposed.”  With that he gave much admonition that we allow the Holy Spirit to reveal all in our lives that was ungodly.  It’s known as the sanctification process and if we do allow the Spirit to reveal, then He can deliver us from whatever it is and empower us for holy living.

He also used to constantly teach that holiness was not the criteria for operating in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but rather, it was faith.  See my post:  By way of gradualism.   In other words, he was saying that one’s character - or what is in one’s heart, can be filthy, but God will still use you, based on your faith in being open to receiving the Spirit’s gifts.  That is very hard to believe, but it’s true.  All over the world, down through history, “mighty men of God” have done mighty things in His name, but because their hearts were not right (willfully sinful), God eventually exposed them and they fell from great heights into great shame and disgrace.

That is what happened to this man.  He preached it but he failed to live it.  It has been said that when ministers fall into sin, it is in the area of the three “G’s”: glory, gold and girls.  Well, it was those three things that appeared to expose the heart of this man.  He demonstrated a love for glory.  He demonstrated a love for money.  And most devastatingly of all, he refused to allow God to deal with his black heart.  He was warned privately that if he didn’t, then it would be all over for him.  Sexual immorality was part of that blackness.  Adultery was to follow soon after.  The effects of that act are still rippling today, eighteen years later. 

That man, by choice, turned out to be a true hypocrite.  At no time would he admit his culpability in any of his behaviour.  Although he fought hard to hold his position in that church, he eventually had to leave.  He is still pastoring a church, but in another country.  To this day he has not repented of his behaviour, otherwise he would have returned to put things right with all whom he destroyed.  After he left, that church was to go on and further self-destruct.  It seems he was not the only one who failed to heed his advice to allow the Spirit of God to show them their hearts.  More about that in my next post.  “……you have sinned against the Lord; and be sure your sin will find you out.”  Numbers 32:23.  “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”  Matthew 5:8.

© 2010, Roger Williams. All rights reserved.

Of the many hundreds of people that I met doing this work

As a result we were able to build meaningful relationships.  Mr and Mrs Wells were a great example of this.  See my post:  He gets angry and he kicks ‘em out!  Even though I may have visited only three times in a year, it was a relationship that lasted over seven years.  I had left that particular church fellowship by then and was no longer doing street ministry, but I was still made welcome in their home.  Their troubles with sickness and sadness did not cease with that first visit.  They lost their second son to cancer not long after we first met and it was not to stop there.

Mrs Wells could not get over how well her husband Larry got on with me, given that he was so anti-religious.  She said he told Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses in no uncertain terms where to go when they knocked on the door, even when it was she who usually answered that door – “but you’re invited anytime.”  We got on well because the Holy Spirit of God is genuinely and sincerely interested in people for their own sake.  That means He is not threatened by a persons’ rejection of His message.  The rejection grieves Him, but it doesn’t threaten Him. 

That’s the way it is with His Spirit filled/led messengers too.  Under His anointing, we cannot be anything other than genuinely and sincerely interested in a person for their own sake either.  It has to be the work of God, otherwise it’s not too long before it will show up as phony.  The people know it and so does the messenger.  That is why so many Christians start out well in ministry, but they don’t finish well.  They give up and say, ” ah well, perhaps God wasn’t in this in the first place.”  Personally, it is my belief that we had better find out if God is “in it,” because too often it is God who is made to look silly when we run away.

Mrs Wells told me one time that she had given up on prayer because she knew of six people who had died that year, “and it’s only September!”  My encouragement to her was to keep at it even if she was the last person standing, because Christ is always in control anyway.  She was greatly helped by that and I think Larry was too.  Such help comes from genuine interest, not preaching.  One day I called to be told another son was going to the hospital with a growth on his throat.  Less than nine months later he died.  This was the third son they had lost to this disease.  

Not long after his death, practical and financial help was urgently needed for his widow and child.  She was charged nearly two hundred dollars for not cleaning the Housing Commission dwelling they were living in prior to his death.  No amount of protest to the contrary, would the powers that be listen to.  I prayed to God on her behalf.  Contact was then made with the Tenants Union and Association to take up her cause while we helped her move to another home in the meantime.  Within a few days she got her money back.  God hates exploitation and injustice of any kind, but especially that put upon widows, the fatherless and defenceless.

Twenty-one months after that, Mrs Wells went into hospital to have two cancers cut from her bowel.  The operation was successful but she lived with worry and tiredness for a long time after.  She was more open to Christ than her husband and would often take up prayer for herself when encouraged to do so.  In her heart I believe she experienced the Lord’s reality many times based on some of her speech, but with Larry around she kept a lot of it to herself.  Sometimes that’s the wisest thing to do.

One day a daughter of Larry phoned to inform me that he had died.  He was eighty-six when I met him and now he had not long turned ninety-three.  She asked me if I would conduct his funeral service because, “it was what he wanted.”  I didn’t hesitate to respond in the positive.  I considered it an honour to be asked to do so with people I had grown to know and love.  Larry was such a person.  As is so often the case, I learned more about my old friend in death than I did in life.  He was a strong, committed and hard working man who never missed one day of work regardless of illness.

In the days before motor cars were affordable he rode his pushbike all over town, carrying the necessary building tools, somehow strapped to the bike, as well as over his shoulder.  It was his job for many years to dig the foundations for each building.  He had an extremely high work ethic and that influence was embraced by his family of five boys and five girls.  Larry retired from work when he was seventy-three years of age.  He and his wife were married for nearly seventy-three years.

As is stated in my earlier post, this old man had no time for religion as he understood it.  In my discussions with him it was clear he had no respect for the one who hid behind his robes, powers and authorities impressing upon one and all that he was a cut above the rest.  Apparently he had experienced this type of person numerous times in his long life.  The same applied to many ordinary church-goers.  Angels on Sundays, devils on Monday to Saturday was how he thought of them.  I didn’t disagree with that but I did say that if it was not for the daily reality of Christ in my life, then in all probability I would be among them.

Larry always gave me an attentive ear when I mentioned the Lord.  Often I encouraged him not to think bad of Christ because of what some hypocrite did or said in His name.  He was not envious, but he was appalled by the overwhelming wealth and assets of the churches and he saw the whole thing as a sham.  Again, I could not disagree and I told him so, saying also, that not all that people do in God’s name is approved or sanctioned by God.  We spoke about the day of judgement and the fact that an account will be given and that God, in His justice, will pass the appropriate sentence upon every one of them.

Some Christians focus lots of their time on God’s justice.  But I prefer to focus on God’s mercy and that was always the impression I left with Larry and his wife after our meetings.  There is justice in God.  It is justice and not mercy that will be demonstrated at the great white throne judgement, at the time of the world’s end Revelation 20:11-15.  But in the meantime, it is mercy and not justice that God wants everyone of us to know about and receive from Him through Christ His Son.  If we receive His mercy here now, we do not face judgement and justice then.  Like most people however, Larry and his wife struggled with that concept.

Why do people struggle with the concept of a merciful God?  There are countless reasons, but in the case of this old couple, they were a product of a “Christian” theology that denied the Biblical declaration that salvation is a free gift, received through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, plus nothing else.  Not only were they the products of such, they were also the victims of such.  The Bible gives plenty of warnings about this, but if one does not know that, or has spent a lifetime not wanting to know, then struggle will be the name of the game.  It can’t be anything else.

I don’t know if Larry received the Lord Jesus Christ before he died.  But I do know clear distinctions were given so that he need no longer remain confused by Him and those who claim to represent and follow Him.  I also know that God will go to extremes to call all to Himself.  Therefore, no excuse for rejecting Him will be accepted on the day we stand before Him.  “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.  As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him.”  Psalm 103:12-13.   

© 2009 – 2010, Roger Williams. All rights reserved.

He then asked what kind of work that would be.  I said, “If you’re Jesus, then you can tell me.”  With that he laughed, and then went got a little red Gideons New Testament and started to read from John’s gospel Chapter 7.  Was there any significance in what he was reading?  None that appeared obvious.  Then he produced an Old King James version of the Bible and proceeded to read something from that.  

It’s fair to say that this man was not of a sound mind that day and given the culture of many in his generation I suspect he was on drugs.  Regardless, he let me share the gospel of Christ with him and then pray for him.  My ministry was to his spirit, not his mind.  He was thankful as he shook my hand and parted.  I saw the visit as God at work again.

I met Irene, a lady in her twenties who was a music teacher.  She told me her church background was Greek Orthodox but she had not been back since she’d left home some years earlier.  Then she said that she was studying philosophy and, “I much prefer that to religion.”  She was surprised when I told her that had been my exact experience also.  I explained to her, that it was as a result of my informal studies of philosophy, that I found a pathway to truth that I had never found in practicing religion.

She wanted to know more.  I said to Irene that in my personal search for truth I found the writings of the philosophers to be extremely enlightening.  In fact so enlightening, that over time I was driven to find out, “where this truth came from.”  I then told Irene that my search led me to the Bible and the Lord Jesus Christ, whom I discovered to be the Ultimate Truth and Ultimate Reality, just as He said He was.

From there I shared the story from the book of Genesis of our first parents, who originally experienced ultimate truth and reality every day as they walked with God, but when they decided to listen to the Ultimate Liar and embrace the Ultimate Lie, they fell into unreality, and as a result, they lost their paradise.  Irene didn’t like what I had to say next however, because in my sharing, I used the word “sin.”

I explained the meaning of “sin” as “rebellion against God” and that this was the problem with each one of us in the world today.  It is a problem because we are their offspring and not only have we inherited their rebellion against God, but we’ve contributed with lots of our own as well. 

Irene did not like it when I said the only solution to the rebellion problem was to turn to Jesus Christ, the one who died on a cross as our substitute, making it now possible for each of us to turn back to God, to again live in ultimate truth and reality.

She said to me, “You’re making me feel guilty.”  My response was to inform her that she was, at that moment, under the conviction of God the Holy Spirit who was confirming to her the ultimate truth of what I was saying.  She was lost for words however when I told her Jesus Christ hates “religion” as much we both do and that if she responded to the Lord she would experience the truth of my message.  Irene was not over-joyed with what she heard, but she genuinely thanked me for talking with her.  I saw the visit as God at work again. 

No sooner had I mentioned the word “church” to a young mother and she turned red and fumed with anger.  She told me to, “!*!xx!*!” in no uncertain terms and slammed the door so hard the door frame shook.  She opened it again, ran outside and picked up a young child playing next to me.  I had nothing to lose, so I said to her that she was not angry with me and suggested she stop running from God.

The same lady phoned the church later in the day to complain about the “rude man who was questioning my baby.”  She didn’t know it was me who answered the phone so I went on to say, “Jesus said……”  She slammed the phone down hard.  I saw these events as God at work again. 

A mother, in her fifties said she couldn’t give me, “any more than a few seconds” but she actually gave me three quarters of an hour.  She stood in her doorway asking questions and was fascinated by the responses given.  Then her twenty-one year old academic son, who had been listening inside came out to tell me he was, “only interested in proof of God through science.”  His mother told me he was not at all interested in Jesus.

I took advantage of his “no interest” to talk a little about my former life as a foul-mouthed music sales rep and musician who was (basically) drunk three nights a week and smashed the other four.  Both mother and son refused to believe it.  They told me they just could not imagine that to be true.  So I told them if they wanted verification I could get it for them in less than an hour.

I explained that I was no longer that person, but I then asked the young man if he thought the change was brought about by science or by Jesus Christ – given that Jesus promises such deliverances, but science does not.  He remained silent, but his eyes were open and so were his ears.  I was given time to speak about the power of God, in Jesus’ name, being available for anyone who genuinely wanted to experience it, but that God has always had trouble trying to get through to people who want proof before they will believe Him. 

The young man needed to hear that his stumbling block to “proof” was in fact unbelief in disguise.  I then suggested to him that his unbelief was a choice - a choice which only he alone could change – and that if he chose to believe, he would prove for himself the truth and reality of God.  His mother said she owned a Bible and that Jesus was her Lord and Saviour, “in my own way.” 

Christ touched both mother and son mightily that day.  Words do not do this testimony justice.  Most certainly, I saw the visit as God at work again.  “Jesus answered them and said, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me.  If anyone wants to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.”  John 7:17.    

© 2009 – 2010, Roger Williams. All rights reserved.

And what a tremendous time of visitation this turned out to be for both of us.  Stan was his name, an 82 year old man originally from Lithuania.  As a child in Lithuania the family lived on a farm and were quite well off in comparison to city dwellers in spite of Russian oppression after the first world war and the same from the Germans and Russians during the second world war.  During the latter part of the second war He was working in Germany and was called into the army.  The thought of having to join up and become part of Hitler’s plan was not at all appealing so he and a friend asked a lady to lodge them at night and they hid in bushes during the day.  Later the Americans liberated them and Stan was placed in a refugee camp for the next four and a half years.  In 1950 he migrated to Australia, got married quite late in life but his wife had since died. 

As a messenger of the Christian gospel one of my prayer habits is to ask God to put questions into the mind and mouth of each person I meet with and then to grant me the wisdom required so that a satisfactory answer can be given, or, that it would lead to further questions.  Stan was full of questions in the three to four hours I was with him, it was a pleasure to experience his very sharp mind.  He asked what the differences were between all the Christian denominations, telling me that in his own times of giving thought to that question over the years it seemed that they (differences) were created by influential religious and political people with other agendas, rather than God Himself. 

Having lived under Communism and Nazism, Stan had a clear insight into the power of unity – either for good or bad – but he told me that he failed to see such unity in church groups who claimed to be followers of Jesus Christ.  I simply explained that most (not all) people who attend or are associated with churches do so, not on the basis of Biblical truth, but rather, on the basis of fellowship or religious obligation.  In other words, most people commit to being part of a church because they seek to belong with others, they don’t, primarily, join to become committed seekers of truth as it’s found in Christ. 

 Consequently, such people are happy to sit passively in their pews every Sunday morning for an our or so and let the priest or minister do his job and after it’s all over, they gather with tea and coffee or a barbecue and talk about anything and everything except the truth of God’s Bible, which was given to them so that they could know God and know how he wants them to live under His reality and power.  For others, I explained, it’s simply a weekly obligation or a religious duty that they’ve ritually practiced since childhood and they live with fear and guilt if they don’t attend.  Stan nodded thoughtfully.

He then went on to ask about evil in the world, himself having seen and experienced such a lot of it in 82 years.  It’s a common question to ask but wisdom dictated that I avoid giving him a common answer.  I responded by encouraging that he, for the moment, lay aside thoughts about the origin of evil and concentrate on the fact of evil, plus the fact that we’ve all made our own contribution to it.  I then explained that the Bible tells us that all evil is sin, that Jesus Christ came into the world as Saviour to deal with this sin in our individual lives, by removing it’s power and control over us  and, that he could experience the reality of such for himself. 

Stan sidetracked the subject of sin by asking questions about the purpose of our existence.  I continued to say that the Bible tells us our main purpose is to know God, to love Him and to serve Him and, as a result of this knowing, loving and serving we get to discover who we are in the process and how we can experience our life’s purpose as an on-going, creative, living reality.  Somewhere this struck a cord for Stan, his face changed, he smiled and nodded and then he got up and poured us each a bowl of soup with some lovely fresh bread.  As we ate he continued to ask more questions about God and angels.  When he mentioned these I found myself asking him to tell me of his experiences of both, further saying that I strongly sensed he’d experienced them more than once in his life-time. 

Stan again nodded and told me I was correct.  Then he shared with me that he’d “missed death by inches” many times in his life.  When he was a young man in Lithuania the Bolsheviks raided their village and killed a few people, they then took over the town and locked the villagers up, including Stan.  After some months another group or enemy of the Bolsheviks came into the village and the Bolsheviks & jailers ran away, leaving the prisoners to their own devices.  He let himself out of the jail and was walking to another village where he stopped for a drink at an inn. 

He saw his former jailers at the inn and he spoke with them.  Stan went on to say that all of a sudden he felt a power shoot through his head and a voice saying, “It’s time to get up and get away from here.”  A few hours later on his journey he was told by someone  who had given him a meal of bread and milk that the inn was attacked and that people had died.  I said to Stan that the voice he heard in the inn was God’s or an angel’s and that this was the reality and power of God for him.  He firmly agreed.

Another time he was sitting at a table in an inn and a group of men came and sat with him drinking alcohol and they asked him to join them in a drink.  He thanked them, shook his head and declined the offer.  Next, he was told to drink.  Again he declined.  With that, one man pulled a pistol from under the table, placed it on the table pointing towards Stan, looked him evilly in the eye and said, “Drink.”  Stan drank.  This was his first experience with alcohol and it went to his head quickly.  But also fear came upon him for his safety, he genuinely believed they would shoot him regardless of his drinking with them presently. 

A few minutes later, in what Stan described as a miracle taking place before him, these men received a message that immediate danger awaited them and that they should get up and go now without delay.  Stan knew yet again, that he’d experienced divine intervention.  He went back further in memory.  When he was 3 years old he toppled out of a chair into a large open fire.  His father pulled him out with little to no injuries.  Another time he was lying down on a steep hill where timber was being cleared and a log rolled by missing him “by a hair.” 

I then had an opportunity to inform Stan that even though he’d had the hand of God on him all his life, he still lacked a personal relationship with God.  But, through trusting Jesus Christ as his living Lord and Saviour, it was God’s will that he have this relationship now.  By this point in our conversation, the vast difference between man’s religious practices and a genuine relationship with God was clearer in Stan’s understanding.  So I asked him if he wanted to invite Jesus Christ into his life.  He hesitated, saying he needed more time to think.  I responded by saying he’d thought about it for nearly eighty years, and, given what he’d spent the last three or four hours sharing with me, what more was there to “think.” 

With that, I told him that the reality of God was with him again today in the form of myself as a messenger, and that this meeting was not one of chance or coincidence.  Stan’s eyes glowed and he asked me to pray with him to God.  I prayed a long prayer and then got him to ask Jesus Christ to enter into his life.  In a moment Stan’s face glowed as he told me he was experiencing peace all over and clarity in his head.  Then he told me his chest was warm.  How honoured I felt to be telling this old man that he was having his own miracle with Christ.

Later on my way out Stan told me that in all his years he’d had many people tell him about God, but not in the way He was explained to him that day.  My response to that statement was to say that it is the Holy Spirit of God Who makes the difference.  As we shook hands I asked hm what was going on for him right now.  The glow in his eyes and on his face was very visible, he said, “I feel secure.”  That was the first of a half dozen meetings with Stan, over some months, where I continued to give him some Biblical teaching over lunch or coffee, but not long after he went to live with a niece in Sydney.  “The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul.”  Psalm 121:7.                  

© 2009 – 2010, Roger Williams. All rights reserved.