Thanks Alex,
Would you mind telling me a little bit more about how you found Christ at 32?
This is a long story. Before my experience at the age of 12, I had a Catholic friend at the age of 5. His religion was strange to me. I asked him who was Jesus and he told me he was God. His answer made no sense to me. How can a man become God? Nonetheless, I remember crying out to Jesus for him to save me at that age. With no church or encouragement in faith, nothing changed in me. Although in hindsight I believe Jesus answered my prayer and came into my heart as a dormant seed. When I was 10 years old I remember my father looking me in the eyes and telling me that there is no God. I remember the thought going through my mind, Yes there is, in contradiction to his statement. I also remember at that age in speaking spontaneously in tongues. I had no idea what that was, then I heard about the Southern States snake handlers who spoke in Glossolalia. I was very interested in that topic since I had that spontaneous experience, although I never pursued it.
As a teenager I began reading the Carlos Castaneda books on the Yaqi Indian who took peyote to access the spiritual world. I grew up in the San Francisco bay area during the 1960's where drug taking was quite common among the teens. So I read his books, took LSD on occasion, and tried to be consciously aware of myself in my dreams by writing down all my dreams in a journal. This did make me aware of my being in a dream when I was asleep. Later on I was told that the Castaneda books were actually fiction, although I do not know for sure.
As a young man, after graduating high school, I moved to the northwest when I was 19. Because of my dream journal-ling, I had out of body experiences where I would sit up in bed and "see" the room I was sleeping in and could "see" my astral body, which I believe now to be my soul. My arms and legs were translucent white. At that time in the northwest, I decided I should find out why this book called the Bible was so popular and had lasted thousands of years. So I read the book from cover to cover, with the exception of Psalms which I assumed was merely poetry. During my reading of the Gospels I had two
rhema experiences (
rhema is the Greek word for spoken word, and is used by Pentecostals in reference to the experience of a verse "jumping out at you"). The first verse was in the Beatitudes: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. When I read that I knew that I would someday see God. The second verse was in the parable of the sower and the seed: the good soil bore fruit a hundredfold. I knew, too, that I was good soil.
I have always been an avid reader. And I loved science fiction and fantasy. I had read "Brave New World" and I still love "The Lord of the Rings". During this time while reading the Bible, I had a dream where I was in a friend's house in his living room with the TV on. An old man came up to me who had a frisky quality and very youthful feel about him. He told me the book, "Brave New World" was going to be on TV. I thought that was great. The old man sat down on the couch in what I had considered to be my spot, so I stabbed him in the butt with a small knife. He got up and apologized for taking my spot. When the show came on TV, instead of "Brave New World" the title of the show was "The Silmarillion". This dream happened in 1974. At that same time I had found a book store that I was buying fantasy books from. The Wizard of Oz series, George MacDonald's books, and CS Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia and Perelandra trilogy. The bookstore was a Christian bookstore, although I was unaware of the significance at that time. I told the bookstore owner about my dream and he told me that the Silmarillion was an unpublished book [it was first published in 1977) that was scheduled to be published in a few years by JRR Tolkien. I was thunderstruck. I had never heard of this book before, so I knew it could not have been a subconscious memory. I knew I had a dream that had come from God.
In hindsight as a Christian I understand the dream. The old man was the Lord. The spot on the couch was my control of my life of which I was not ready to yield to him. He was very gracious in letting me keep my spot. The Brave New World was not the Huxley book, but the Bible. And the Silmarillion is Tolkien's bible of Middle Earth.
Shortly afterwards I had an out of body experience. I had sat up in my bed with my soul and saw a large orange orb floating in front of me. The orb came towards me and became smaller. My jaw dropped with my mouth opened, and the orb came inside me. To this day, I do not know what that means, or what it was. Perhaps it was the Lord germinating in my heart.
Flash forward to when I was 32. I had by that time moved to the east coast and had tried to create my own acrobatic gymnastics program, but lacked the knowledge to train high levels. There was a Russian Jew who was both a Moscow circus performer and Soviet Sport School acrobat who had moved to New Orleans and created the premier program in the country. I knew I had to move south and train with him to increase my knowledge. A friend told me that this coach had become a Christian and was known for his evangelism. I did not care. I needed the knowledge.
Shortly before moving, I had another out of body experience where I was visited by an angel that I could not see but I knew was in front of me. She (I knew she was a female angel by the sound of her laugh that I heard) cleansed me with something like electric scan lines we used to see on TV screens. I felt very strong as a gymnast and had a great workout later that day.
In New Orleans, my coach Igor, asked me some important questions. Did I believe in God? Yes I did because of my dream experiences. Did I believe that Jesus was God? No, I held fast to my childhood reasoning that a man could not become God. Did I believe that all things were possible with God? Yes, of course. Then could it be possible for God to become a man? The light bulb lit up. It never occurred to me that God could become a man. Put that way, of course it was possible. Did I believe in a spiritual world? Oh yes. I was certain there were angels. Did I believe in Satan? Absolutely not. Why not? Don't you think it would be to Satan's advantage for people not to believe he exists? After all, if I were a thief, I would not want people to know I was here. That made sense to me. And I knew angels existed, and I was told that Satan was a fallen angel. Suddenly, I realized that I had an enemy who wanted my destruction. Suddenly I realized that I needed a Savior, and at that moment I believed the Gospel. I prayed with Igor to receive Christ into my heart that night, which was a Friday night. On Sunday morning I had an overwhelming sense that I needed to go to church with him. He attended the Assemblies of God in Metairie. I sat through the service not understanding anything that was said. But when they gave the altar call, I jumped out of my seat, stumbled over Igor and our friends in the pew and actually ran to the front. In front of 500 people I raised my arms and cried out to Jesus to save me. The Holy Spirit came on me like oil poured over my head and I wept for 3 hours uncontrollably. I did not understand at the time why I was crying, but in hindsight I know I was weeping for all my sins. Three days later, Igor prayed with me to speak in tongues.
I hope my story helps you.
By the way, as a post script, I was sharing the Gospel with a woman in a laundromat while I was doing my laundry. A little black boy came up to me and asked me if I was a preacher. Only being a year in the Lord (1987), I said, I guess, since I never thought of myself in that way. The little boy told me that I had a phone call on the pay phone. When I picked up the phone a woman on the other end told me I was doing a great job preaching the Gospel and to keep up the good work. I recognized the voice and asked her if she was an angel and what was her name. She said Yes, her name was Helen. I asked her if she was with me when I lived on the east coast. She said, Yes, how did I know? I told her I heard her laugh. I had never heard from Helen again, because I did not need to hear her again. I could now hear Jesus directly. Hebrews tells us:
Heb_1:14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?
I was no longer in a "shall be" but was now already saved.
