My Testimony

(Please note the highlighted Bible verses in brackets below will show the scripture if you click it on your phone or move your mouse over on a computer)

Hello, My name is Ben and I want to share my testimony with you.

On the 27th of January, 2017, I became a new person. This wasn’t something that I could have made happen by my own will, something supernatural happened that changed me.

The night before, I had got down on my knees and prayed to Jesus Christ. I told him I was sorry for the life of sin that I had lived (Romans 3:23 NKJV). I told him that I had done things my way and now I wanted to do things his way (Isaiah 53:6 NKJV). I did this because I had made a decision in my heart that I now wanted to live for him.

The afternoon of the next day, while outside, there was a moment where I suddenly noticed everything seemed brighter. I felt this warm tangible sensation come over my body. The colours of the trees and the sky were more vibrant. The way I could best describe it is as if I had been living my life by walking around looking at my feet and I looked up and I could see the truth in the creation around me. It was as if my eyes had been opened and I was no longer blinded. God was manifesting himself to me and what I felt I now know was his presence coming upon me. I felt happy and I had a smile on my face that would have been hard to get rid of even if I tried. I knew something had changed inside of me. There was no doubt in my mind Jesus had heard my prayer of repentance and answered me. He answered my prayer by giving me a new life.

This was the start of my Christian walk.

It is written in the Bible, that when you come to God he will give you a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26 NKJV). This is exactly what happened to me. Jesus changed me. I was not the same person. I had no desire to live the way I had lived before. Many of the worldly things that had interested me, I was no longer interested in. I truly wanted to live for him and be pleasing to him.

Prior to this point I had a problem with alcohol for many years and I drank most days. I knew that I wanted to stop drinking and had made a number of attempts to do so. Out of those attempts, about two weeks was as long as I could go without drinking and then I would give into temptation. I was a couple of weeks into another attempt when I gave my heart to the Lord. This time was different though, I didn’t give in. The desire to drink had left me and it didn’t feel like it was a struggle not to drink. I was now finally free from this addiction and I made a decision not to go back to it. I have been sober ever since.

So what else changed?

God taught me how to receive his supernatural peace and how to rest in him. His peace covers you and protects your heart and mind as the Bible says (Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV). In this place of rest you don’t have to fear, worry or feel anxious because your trust is in him. A number of people have commented how I appear to be calm to them in the workplace even in difficult situations. One person told me if some of the things that they saw happen to me had of happened to them, that they would have “lost it”. I am glad that I am a testimony to them by the way that I uphold myself in difficult situations. I have also had people say that when I have walked into a room that they have felt peace. I do not attribute this to myself but to the Holy Spirit that lives in me.

I now hear Jesus speak to me. His word says, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me (John 10:27 NKJV). I don’t hear his voice audibly with my ears but I hear him speak to my heart. How do I know it’s him? I have learnt to recognise his voice and he has confirmed to me that it is him speaking by telling me things that only he could know. One time he asked me to go into the city and speak to someone named Alex. I had never met this person and didn’t know where to find them. I went to the city, got out of my car and walked up to the first person I was drawn to. I introduced myself and they told me their name was Alex. There are many times he has spoken to me and told me things I couldn’t just make up myself. He has proven he is with me and speaks to me and he wants to speak to you too.

I used to be very self centred and I did what pleased myself. Even though I did do things for others at times, usually there was some motive behind it to get something for myself. God has taught me that this is not how we are to live. We are to love others as ourselves and do good to them without an ulterior motive.

I used to use foul language to express myself. My way of speech changed and I used new words where once I would once have used swear words to express myself. My swearing used to be so bad that I didn’t even realise what was coming out of my mouth. Many years ago when I was in the world I had a friend and his Mum would tell me not to swear. I was like, “What did I say?” I really had no idea of what was coming out of my mouth half the time. These are just some of the changes that happened to me. God is continually working on my heart and perfecting me so that I look like him (1 John 2:6 NKJV).

So what led me up to that point where I prayed to Jesus?

I’m sure that most of us at some stage have thought about our existence. For example: Why are we here? What is our purpose? There was a time in my life I used to be pretty depressed thinking that we are just made up of atoms and once we die we just end up back in the ground and cease to exist. No real point or purpose. However deep down I hoped this wasn’t the truth.

For a brief moment when I was young I believed in Jesus. I had heard about him in a religious education class in primary school and I decided I wanted to follow him. I remember once I was raking up some leaves in the backyard and I prayed that the wind wouldn’t blow them away. I was seen by one of my parents and they asked me what I was doing. They didn’t believe in Jesus, so I felt self conscious that they saw me praying. I remember also worrying that my family wouldn’t go to heaven because they didn’t believe. My father used to say that once you die you would go into the ground and that was the end. Now I don’t exactly know what happened because I was young, but I drifted away from my faith and went into the world.

After many years of searching for something more and many wrong turns, I kept getting pointed back to Jesus. The stories of how God changed people’s lives amazed me and I started to truly believe them. So I came to the conclusion that God is in fact real. I then thought, well I just need to read the Bible and go to church. I ended up getting a verse of the day app on my phone which I enjoyed reading. I also did give some thought about what those verses meant. I went to church a couple of times but I wasn’t feeling so to speak. So essentially I kept living the life of sin I had been for a few more years. I still had in my heart though that I needed to know God.

God kept calling me and one day I was watching some videos on YouTube from a Christian that said you don’t need to go to church to find God. I think this was the key for me. Although many people have found God as a result of going to a church, this isn’t what happened in my situation. What I came to realise afterwards is that you can come to God anywhere. I came to him down on my knees on my bedroom floor at home. So this preacher said that you needed to repent of your sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus (Acts 2:38 NKJV). He said that you need to be born again (John 3:3 NKJV). Previously, I might have made fun of somebody if they told me they were a born again Christian. But this is exactly what I found out you need to do and this is what happened to me when I gave my heart to the Lord. He changed me.

So why do we have to be born again?

The reason we need to be born again is because we are all born with a sinful nature. We inherited this nature from Adam in the garden of Eden. When they sinned against God, sin entered the world and corrupted their nature. That fallen nature is passed on from generation to generation. We are all born with it and we have all sinned against God (Romans 5:12 NKJV). The Bible says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23 NKJV). This is not just a physical death but a spiritual death and separation from God. The Bible says though that it is not God’s will that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9 NKJV). And God made a way for us to be washed clean from our sins and become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV).

How did he do this? He sent his son to die on the cross to take the punishment that you and I deserve (John 3:16 NKJV). Jesus did what only he could do by dying on the cross. Through the shedding of his blood we now have forgiveness of our sins (Ephesians 1:7 NKJV). The Bible says that death couldn’t hold him because he had never sinned and he rose again on the third day after he was crucified (1 Corinthians 15:3-4 NKJV). By raising from dead he proved he was the one sent by God. And through his willingness to save the world he has made a way for all of us to have the relationship with God that was lost in the garden of Eden. We can now live without fear of death knowing that a place is prepared for us in heaven (John 14:1-4 NKJV).

So what do we do?

We need to die to this old way of thinking so that we can be born again with the nature of Christ and become a new creation. We need to put the selfish, self seeking nature to death and be born in the likeness of Jesus Christ (Colossians 3:8-10 NKJV).

You do this by repenting. Repenting is turning away from sin and turning to God. You confess your sins to him and ask him for forgiveness and he will give you the free gift of salvation (Romans 6:23 NKJV). He will give you a new heart and you will become a new person, walking holy and blameless in his sight. Your old self needs to die, the old way of doing things. We are told to put to death the sinful nature. This is not who you really are.

So this is the message that I have for you all is that there is a choice you need to make. Although you may not believe it, when you die you won’t cease to exist. Your soul will leave your body and you will stand before Jesus Christ (Hebrews 9:27 NKJV). He will judge you for the life you lived on this earth and you will either go to Heaven or Hell (Matthew 7:13-14 NKJV). There are countless cases of near death experiences, where people have been clinically dead for a period of time, have left their body and seen and heard things that should have been impossible for them to know. There are many doctors that have studied this and many books have been written. Many of these people that have left their bodies have been shown Heaven and Hell and met Jesus Christ.

If you choose to live your life seeking after your own desires and choose not to repent of your sin you will go to Hell (Matthew 25:41 NKJV). This is a place of torment and eternal suffering (Mark 9:47-48 NKJV). This is the punishment for rejecting God’s everlasting love and his judgement on those who commit sin (Matthew 25:46 NKJV). While you are alive on this earth you still have a chance to know him and obtain mercy. You at least owe it to yourselves to quiet down your lives and seek the truth. I understand it seems hard nowadays to seek the truth with all the distractions in this world. It is easy to become content now with the many forms of entertainment such as TV, movies, video games, the internet and many forms of social media. But if you want to know God, he has made a way for you to know him. He says that if you seek him with all your heart that you will find him (Jeremiah 29:13 NKJV). God wants you to become a part of his kingdom.

There are actually two kingdoms though, God’s eternal kingdom (John 18:36 NKJV) and Satan’s kingdom of this world (Matthew 12:26 NKJV). Most of the world unfortunately is following Satan. The Bible says the whole world is under the sway of the wicked one (1 John 5:19 NKJV). A lot of rich and famous people have openly admitted that they got where they are by selling their soul to the devil. The devil deceives them into following him by offering them money, fame and the things of this world. He then uses them as pawns to deceive others. He entices people with carnal desires that lead to death. It is however our choice who we choose to serve. If you are self seeking and walking after canal desires then you are serving Satan whether you pledge your allegiance to him or not.

I have chosen life.

The life I have chosen to live I now live for him and here is no turning back. Knowing what I know now, the consequences for turning my back on God are worse than If I had never known the truth (2 Peter 2:21 NKJV). I understand that most people will choose not to believe what I’m telling them. However it is my obligation to tell people what I know. It is your choice to accept or reject what I’m telling you, however the consequences are eternal. We are only on this earth for a short time. It is better that we give up our selfish desires and live for Jesus now then spend an eternity in Hell. I now believe in God without a doubt and know the words written in the Bible are the truth. I’m also prepared to continue to forsake my own desires to serve God until the end.

Are we supposed to go to church?

The Bible says that we are supposed to fellowship with other believers (Hebrews 10:24-25 NKJV). The purpose is to encourage and build each other up, to be there for one another and share the joy of our common faith. The true church are those that walk in the truth and have a relationship with Jesus Christ. The sign of a true believer is a sanctified life. They have changed when they came to Christ.

We see a lot of churches today have become organisations that are run like businesses. In these churches many people claim to know Jesus but their lives do not change (Matthew 15:8 NKJV). They have the appearance of Christians, they worship and say Amen at the right times but they are still in bondage to sin. We see that the leaders are preaching a watered down message that tickles the ears but doesn’t convict the hearts of sinners (2 Timothy 4:3-4 NKJV). Many do this because they have a fear of offending people with the truth and because the members might take their money somewhere else. These churches have been infiltrated by Satan and the truth is being compromised. I will give you an example of the Bible not being followed. The Bible clearly states that the position of a Pastor is exclusively for a man (1 Timothy 3:1-5 NKJV). The reason is because God has ordained men to take the leadership positions within the church (1 Timothy 2:12-14 NKJV). What we see today though is many women taking this role when they have no authority to do so. This may not sound inclusive by today’s standards but we aren’t following the world, we are to follow the word. And by the word I mean the word of God. So my warning is to stay away from any church that isn’t walking in truth.

Now not all churches are like this but churches that truly serve God, are few and far between. You don’t have to worry though. If you give your life to God he will lead you every step of the way and show where to meet up with other believers. Just remember though you don’t have to be part of an organisation to know God. You can meet up in other people’s houses, a cafe or even a park. The Bible says, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”” (Matthew 18:20 NKJV)

So how are we supposed to live?

We are no longer supposed to live for ourselves, but live for him (2 Corinthians 5:15 NKJV). We are to use the example of Jesus’s life and be like him (1 John 2:6 NKJV). We are to treat people the way we want to be treated (Luke 6:31 NKJV). We are called to love one another (John 13:34-35 NKJV). We aren’t to look down on those who we think are lower than ourselves. We are called to be humble (James 4:10 NKJV). We are to help those in need (Hebrews 13:16 NKJV). We are called to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Those who know him will hear his voice and follow him. He says that if you love me you will keep my commandments (John 14:15 NKJV). When you come to him he will start changing you if you are willing. He will transform you and give you the grace to do everything that he has asked you to do. Remember his yoke is easy and his burden is light (Matthew 11:29-30 NKJV).

If you want to know Jesus Christ. Go to a place with no distractions, where you won’t be disturbed. Humble yourself, confess your sins and ask for forgiveness (1 John 1:8-10 NKJV). You have to be prepared to stop sinning (1 John 3:4-6 NKJV). You have to be prepared to give up the cares of this world and live for him (Mark 4:18-19 NKJV). You can talk to him like you would your best friend. You need however to seek him with your whole heart. If you want to know more please feel free to email me:

servantforchrist296@gmail.com