I was saved at age 15 because of a recurring thought in my mind as I tried to go to sleep: “If you die tonight, you are not prepared to go to heaven.” It was the Holy Spirit or one of my guardian angels speaking continuously. I got up and my parents took me to the pastor’s home where he prayed the “sinner’s prayer” with me.
However, the church I was saved in had a lot of deception in it. For example, we had no musical instruments as they were of the devil. We were the only denomination that had truth and was going to heaven. We could not marry outside our denomination.
God’s Spirit placed a deep passion in my heart to love and obey the Scriptures. As I read, I found verses like, “Praise the Lord with the timbrel and harp” (Ps. 81:2). I showed these to the elders, and they just said, “We don’t do it that way.”
I was crushed! I thought we followed the Bible. I was shattered. With great fear and trepidation, I left that denomination, even though they assured me that if I left, I would be going to hell. It was the Spirit, I’m sure, that placed the faith and conviction in my heart that this is what I needed to do.
God led me to a better church, then to a good Christian college, and then to Derek Prince who taught me all about the Holy Spirit.
With each of those steps, I battled fear because I was being painfully stretched with a truth outside my theological box. I kept enlarging my box to allow NEW ideas and people whom I had been taught were wrong, evil, and heretics. However, as I sat and talked with these people, they were loving and kind. They had Scriptures to support their positions, and many times they did not even believe what I had been told they believed! Really? Yuck. I had been lied to!