Part TWO – How I came to a cognitive knowledge of Who Jesus is and what He did for me.
Part THREE – Circumstances surrounding your conversion.
Part FOUR – How would you describe your spiritual growth from the time you accepted Christ to today?
I really do not have any memories of being apart from God. Farther back than I can remember I have always attended church and was taught about God’s love for me and I tried to live a life pleasing to Him. When I was five years old my father led me in the sinner’s prayer for the first time and I was baptized shortly there after.
In my pre-teen years I began to really dive in deep in my spiritual growth and God told me he had a purpose and a calling for my life. I freaked out. I wanted a future with material wealth and status. My great-granddaddy had been a lifelong preacher and he had neither of these things. I knew that ministry was not the path I wanted to follow and I ran away.
I closed off my future to God and began to live a double-life. At home and at church I carried on like nothing had changed, but at school and elsewhere I began to live like the rest of the world. I began drinking, smoking, and experimenting with drugs.
I was miserable. I was playing around in darkness, trying to stay within sight of the light. I was playing a dangerous game. I was “crucifying once again the Son of God to” my “own harm and holding him up to contempt” (Hebrews 6:6). I was definitely “near to being cursed” (Hebrews 6:8).
Everything changed when I was seventeen. My friends and I were parked behind an adult bookstore getting high when I was suddenly aware that I was no longer alone in the backseat of my friend’s car. I felt the presence of Holy Spirit come over me and my high was instantly gone. God began to ask me some serious questions about the game I was playing with my life. He asked me how long I thought I could continue to juggle the two worlds of my life and continue to keep them apart. God also asked me how long I thought He was going to tolerate my rebellion.
I was running out of time. My second chances were used up and I was tired of the living a double life. But, surrender came with a price. I knew that I could not just repent without also committing fully to the calling I had