 Jesus said, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:" Matthew 28:19 Thank you, Heavenly Father, for Your Son and Your Spirit. Amen. Apologies from the start if this blog includes a lot of "I's," as it is challenging to write a testimony without using "I." With that being said, I was a disobedient and unruly child, teenager and adult. When I was around 12 years old, I tried to "kill" myself by taking baby aspirin, which was just a feign attempt at garnering attention, and distracting my mother from my misdeeds, which were really the issue. After that, I heard my sisters tell my mom that she should take me to church, so we began attending the First Baptist Church. "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6. Amen. The church had Sunday school for children my age, so I began attending. Sadly, even at Sunday school, I seemed to fall in with the kids that were going behind the church to smoke cigarettes. Little did I know that God had other plans for my life. I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior shortly after starting to attend the church. I do not remember if I even really knew what that meant at the time. Then, around the same time, I was baptized in water, in front of the church congregation. A short time later, the Sunday school class hosted a church camp for two weeks, and I attended that as well. At the camp, they were baptizing people in the lake, so I lined up with my friends to be baptized again. From the moment I put on the white garment and walked into the lake, the whole experience was surreal. When I was raised up out of the water, I can only describe it one way, I was in love with everyone and everything. I did not understand then, but I can now understand how Jesus felt when He was baptized by John the Baptist, and a voice came from heaven and said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased. Matthew 3:16-17. Praise God. Thank you, Jesus. I could not understand why everyone was not lining up to be baptized, so they could feel like I felt. After church camp was over, within a couple of weeks of returning home, hanging out with my same old friends, doing the same old things, not nurturing the Holy Spirit inside me, the warm, fuzzy, feelings faded. I spent the next 45 years being disobedient and unruly, running from God and, worse, denying Him. In my 20s, my mom would tell me to "get back to God, Melanie," and I would reply with something like, I don't believe in that stuff, Mom. Bless her heart. In my 30's, I began to believe in something, a Higher Power, and I subjected my young daughter to six years at a metaphysical church. Bless her heart, also, because she came to God before I came back to Him, and she has raised her children with Jesus Christ. That has nothing to do with how I raised her obviously, or with her father, whose family is Jewish. Only God could save someone in the face of that adversity! Praise God. Thank you, Jesus. From my 40's to 50's, I wandered in my sin and lusts, still believing something, but no knowledge or understanding of it, and not having a spiritual home. Most of my adult life, I have watched all manner of violence and horror on TV, as this was my preferred genre. Then, Ancient Aliens, which led to Biblical archaeology. I was searching for something. It was at my fingertips but I couldn't reach it. Then, one day, five years ago, at 58 years old, over 45 years after accepting Jesus Christ as my savior, being baptized twice, and receiving Holy Spirit, during a wicked storm in our area that was rattling the walls, the light bulb went off, the light shined into my heart through the darkness surrounding it, and I understood that God, the Father in heaven, IS the Higher Power. After that, I could not get enough of His Word. Still being blinded by the ruler of this world 2 Corinthians 4:4, I could not understand the King James Bible, so I began reading the easy-to-read Bible, which is written at like a 9th grade level, and it was awesome. Then, I heard of the Amplified Bible, and I loved how descriptive it was, with the footnotes. I now read the King James Bible (almost exclusively), with ease. Thank you, Lord. At that time, I also heard that if you read the Bible from start to finish, God will give you revelations. Who would not want to hear revelations from God? And, I was still soaking up His Word like crazy, every day, all day, writing blogs, listening to Him, obeying. So, I started to read the Amplified Bible from Genesis to Revelation. I read the entire Amplified Bible in four months, August to December 2021. In the first 10 days, I was already in the book of Joshua, and God was not disappointing with showing me great and mighty things. Jeremiah 33:3 Within the first month of beginning to read, I prayed for and received from Holy Spirit the gift of [praying in] tongues Acts 2:4. It was then that I became aware of the evil and immorality abounding around us. I now understood clearly the scripture, "Love not the world, nor the things in it. For if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him." 1 John 2:15-17. I could no longer watch the movies I had loved for 50 years. I could no longer listen to the same music. I understood inherently that it was all against God's Will and purpose for our lives, and designed by Satan to pull us away from God, to worship idols even. It saddened me to know that I had wasted my whole life running from God, denying Him, and living my life in all manner of vileness. Praying in tongues also immediately brought my Spiritual journey into a greater reverence for Jesus Christ and His mission to love and serve. I now understood His love for the lost, weary and forgotten, and more importantly, I had a yearning to serve them. I now understood 1 Corinthians 13:13: "And now abides faith, hope, charity [love], these three; but the greatest of these is charity [love]." And, the greatest commandments to love God and love our neighbor as ourself Matthew 22:36-40, because we are all one in Christ Jesus. 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 So, my husband and I began serving the homeless. First, by making Blessing Bags and handing them out to the homeless at street corners. Then, we learned of people who live in tents in our area, year-round, even in the snow, so we started taking food to them and sharing God's Word with them by putting scripture in the bags, or just sharing a kind word and a hot meal, and telling them that Jesus loves them. I noticed later that I wrote very few blogs during the August 2021 to December 2021 time period, when I was entrenched in God's Word, reading it from Genesis to Revelation in four months. In December 2021, however, at the end of the reading, God had much to say in my writings/blogs and testimonies about His systems on earth: Seed plant harvest, tithing, giving, His Son, Jesus Christ, His plan for man before time began, and, also, that He is our Source, and we are all one in Him. He is available to all who seek Him, and He will never forsake us, even unto the day our bodies return to the dust and our Spirit returns to God who gave it. Ecclesiastes 12:7 The "free cost of grace" is that without God's grace, all men would have perished, but with God's grace, or favor to man, given freely to all who believe in His Son, and keep His commandments, all men might be saved. There is a meme that says, You know the kingdom of God is within you Luke 17:20-21 when you want to obey Him. In my experience as written here, this is 100% the truth. Accept Jesus Christ and keep His commandments. Believe and be saved: John 3 16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." Pray for Holy Spirit to transform your heart from glory to glory in God's image: "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 2 Corinthians 3:18 Maybe other people have different experiences. God does work in mysterious ways, and He will keep trying to reach us any way He can, until we turn to Him and away from the sin in our lives. I would love to hear those testimonies. I pray this word reaches and helps those who need it on their journey to find, accept, believe, obey, and have faith in, God and His only begotten son, Jesus Christ. Hallelujah! Praise God. Thank you, Jesus. Amen. For an in-depth look at the heart of Jesus, watch the "Jesus Film" (1979) below:
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"OUR WORDS ARE ALIVE" AUDIO BLOG Images above, left to right: Rosehips thorn bush; Virginia creeper vine; King Bolete wild mushroom. Heavenly Father, thank you for our many blessings. Thank you for the Power in Your Word, and in the blood sacrifice of your only begotten son, Jesus Christ. Thank you that this Power is for us, Your Children. Let Your Words and Your Will always be ours, and let Your children see and hear. In Jesus' Mighty Name. Amen. Sometimes it can take a minute or two, or year or two, to understand what God is telling us, or me, because as is often the case, I started writing this on August 4, 2022. Just today, I realized what God has been trying to tell me. Actually, He began showing me this through scripture and other videos about physics, which I first posted about a couple of years ago here at "God and Physics." So, I am a really slow learner. Forgive me, Lord. Many times I have written that God's Word is alive and powerful, but what about our own words? Just this morning, I began to realize what God has been showing or trying to show me, that our words are alive as well. Because God will never forsake us, and He promises to show us great and mighty things, He gave my husband and me examples this year of how our words create. I mean, I am sure there are many examples in our lives everyday, but these four were undeniable. Bear with me, because this may sound a little crazy, but our God is a supernatural God, right? So, supernatural can seem a little crazy if we do not have faith in God and His Word. Also, I do not believe in coincidences as much as I did before God was in my life. I saw a meme last year that said something like, Coincidences are God-inspired opportunities. Amen. So, the first three examples of our words creating that happened in our lives this year were concerning our yard, the front yard, a big ugly hill in the front of our house to be more precise. This hill could be called a proverbial thorn in our sides, which will seem funny in a moment. It is covered in useless vines that don't even flower; they just cover everything; and there is other equally useless stuff growing on the hill as well. Last year, I was thinking a lot about the hill; thinking about, and researching, what we could plant on it that may overtake and coverup the vines. Last year, I also became interested in medicinal and edible wild plants and weeds. I commented to my husband, Maybe we should put an edible bush with thorns; that seemed appropriate on a hill. One of the other things I talked about was a Clematis vine, or Virginia creeper, a ground cover vine, and especially the Virginia creeper, which turns red in the fall and the birds love the berries. I thought maybe it would cover the other vine, and the red on the hill would be pretty in the fall. Finally, I thought about and talked a lot about the Forsythia plant, which is the pretty, bright yellow bush we see everywhere in the spring/summer. All of that was in 2021, and in 2022, this spring, you can't even make this stuff up, the following three things started growing on the hill. Completely self-started. God-started! We did not plant anything on the hill, ever:
We have lived in this house for almost six years, and have never seen any of those growing on the hill! Rose hip berries are nutritious, medicinal, edible berries, which are concocted into syrups and used to make teas. As I was writing this, I researched again whether Virginia Creeper vine is edible or medicinal. It does have some uses in those areas, although only in extreme circumstances in my opinion, because it is known to be toxic to humans in some instances. The Virginia creeper vine, however, does attract a variety of birds, depending on your zone:
We have been feeding the birds for some time, and have talked frequently about what we could plant around the yard to attract more birds and bees. Our words are alive! Jesus says, By our words we shall be justified, and by our words we shall be condemned. Matthew 12:37 It only makes sense that this means now, in our lives on earth, we justify or condemn ourselves and our lives by our words: In other words, by our words, we create good things around us, love, peace, joy, abundance, et cetera, or we create bad things, strife, poverty, lack, unbelief, et cetera; we create all of these things in our lives with our words. And, in the end, when every knee will bow to Jesus, and every tongue confess to God, we will be justified and condemned by God, by our words as well. Romans 14:11 Especially since the LORD God tells us in Deuteronomy 30:19: "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:" Life and death. Blessing and cursing. Only two choices: Choose God or choose Satan. This is why God's Word tells us repeatedly to meditate on His Word, get it down inside of us, "Store it in our hearts so we do not sin against Him." Bring into captivity even our very thoughts to the obedience of Christ. So that our first choice is always God's Will, and Jesus Christ, the way, the truth and the life. So that we create blessings, not curses, around us now in this life, and in life everlasting. Amen. There are many times that I have said to my husband, Hey, I just said this yesterday, or recently, and look, here it is in the garden, or on television, or a video, or Pastor David talks about it in church that morning, right after I said it. I am sure if you think about it, you will realize the same in your life, or maybe you already have. Hallelujah! Praise God. Amen. If not, then refer to the previous paragraph: Bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. The last thing I want to write about today are wild mushrooms. Last year, I became somewhat interested in wild mushrooms, watched a couple of videos about picking wild mushrooms, and then found some mushrooms in our yard, on a rotted tree. Subsequently, after researching them online, I determined that they were poisonous. And I commented out loud that it would be nice if they were not poisonous, and we talked about and researched how to grow mushrooms. I even bought a book on how to identify edible and poisonous wild mushrooms. Again, that was last year. This year, this fall, we had a whole patch of King Bolete wild mushrooms, which are apparently highly desired and sought after by wild mushroom connoisseurs. Now, that is four examples of our words creating in our life, which just came to me this morning. Do you see things like this in your life and know it is God, or do you just look at them as coincidences? Give all glory, praise, honor and thanksgiving to God, the Father, always. If we start having faith in God, the faith that can move mountains, then we will move mountains! The Impossible Rice Experiment Our words are alive! The time is at hand. Choose God. Praise God. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.  "And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you." Romans 8:11 God truly works in mysterious ways. Can you see all of the ways He works in your life?
Heavenly Father, thank you for our many blessings. Thank you for not forsaking us. Let Your words flow through me and not my own. In Jesus' name. Amen. So, we did not go to church this morning. We had that 'nor'beaster' come through New England. We probably got 5 to 6 inches of snow at our house Saturday, and it was pretty windy all afternoon and night. I prayed this morning and asked God if we should go to church today, which I try to do on a regular basis. We live about 30 minutes away. Anyway, I kept getting the same answer, No. I had no idea why, but we stayed home. Instead, I pulled up our church service on Facebook, and sang along with the Worship Team. When I opened the service on Facebook, my husband said something like, Hey, it is just like being in church. I said, Yeah, but not really, I don't feel the Holy Spirit here, or the Holy Spirit isn't here, something like that. So, I was singing along with the worship songs, and the Holy Spirit came over me, at home, and I began to sob uncontrollably while I was singing, still trying to get the words out. First, it felt like a sense of shame for the life I had lived, and then a sense of the love of the Father, who saved us by His grace, or favor, for no other reason than He loved us. God was reminding me that the Holy Spirit is inside us, believers, and, therefore, He is wherever we are. I mean, of course I knew that, but the Holy Spirit was reminding me. Perhaps, God told me not to go to church today, so I could be reminded of that, or perhaps He spared me the embarrassment of breaking down and sobbing uncontrollably in front of the church congregation. Praise God. Thank you, Jesus. Stop what you are doing. Raise your hands in the air. Give all glory, honor, praise and thanksgiving to God, Most High, the great I Am, and watch Him come right down where you are standing, and ". . . fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you will abound in hope and overflow with confidence in His promises." Romans 15:13 Romans 8:9 - But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Hallelujah. Praise God. Thank you, Jesus. Amen. "BAPTISM" AUDIO BLOGDOWNLOAD GOD Proverbs 4 20 "My son, pay attention to my words and be willing to learn; Open your ears to my sayings. 21 Do not let them escape from your sight; Keep them in the center of your heart. 22 For they are life to those who find them, And healing and health to all their flesh." ***UPDATED FEBRUARY 7, 2022 see below***
Father God, thank you for loving us and not forsaking us. Thank you for Your Word and Your gifts, talents, miracles, signs and wonders. Thank you for these Testimonies for You with which you have blessed me, and that prove to me, and hopefully those who read them, that Your Word is alive, and that you truly have not forsaken us. Thank you for giving us ears to hear and eyes to see. Amen. Now, if you are like I was until recently, you probably do not know that there are two types of baptisms: Baptism in Water, and Baptism in the Holy Spirit and fire. ***UPDATE FEBRUARY 7, 2022: Sunday after church, God turned on another light for me. Baptism in the Holy Spirit, and Baptism in fire, are two separate baptisms. In other words, they do not come together, at the same time, or at least not necessarily. If you think about it, fire is passion. When you hear prophets, pastors, or ordinary people, speak with a passion for God, a fire for God, then you know that they have received Baptism in Fire. I still do not understand the differences completely, but I have a general idea about Baptism in Water and Baptism in the Holy Spirit, based on my firsthand experience with, first, water at 13 years old Thank you, Jesus, and recently, in the last few months, with Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Click here to read my Testimony about being baptized in water at 13 years old. So, what is Baptism in the Holy Spirit? How do you know if you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit? (courtesy of lwaog.net/) The baptism of believers in the Holy Spirit is witnessed by the initial physical sign of speaking with other tongues as the Spirit of God gives them utterance: Acts 2:4; Acts 10:44-46; Acts 19:1-6. The speaking in tongues that occurs from Baptism in the Holy Spirit is, in essence, the same as the gift of tongues in 1 Corinthians, but is different in purpose and use: 1 Corinthians 12:4-10; 1 Corinthians 12:28 End quote. "And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams." Acts 2:17 The differences I see between speaking in tongues in Acts and 1 Corinthians, without having studied the subject other than reading the Scripture, is that in Acts, it says, "in the last days," everyone will be given these gifts, including speaking in tongues, to bring as many people as possible back to God, by showing His miracles, signs and wonders through them. 1 Corinthians 12, on the other hand, is referring to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, including speaking in tongues, being bestowed on people whom "God has set in the church," church leaders, and is not specifically designated for "the last days." This week, while working on our church website, and reading about Baptism in the Holy Spirit, I realized that, yet again, God was at work in my life. God is Great - All the Time! Now, I started learning about the Pentecostal denomination only a couple of years ago, during the lockdowns, by watching Pentecostal prophets giving prophecies and sermons. Occasionally, one will speak in tongues briefly in a prayer, or sometimes someone else will interpret what they are saying. Then, recently, I heard someone speak about praying in tongues. It was a very powerful sermon. He said praying or speaking in tongues is a language only God understands, and it causes Satan to flee from you. Hallelujah! Amen. So, I tried. I started praying in tongues. All glory to God in the Highest. How to: Pray to God out loud as you normally would, in private. Pray for the Holy Spirit to fill you, and then open your mouth and let another language, or 'tongue,' come out. What does this have to do with my Testimony to God's Power? Well, I noticed over the last few months, and the content of my blogs show it as well, that I am being drawn more into the service of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Literally, I have received a download, if you will, of "an overflowing fullness of the Spirit, a deepened reverence for, and intensified consecration and dedication to, God's work; and, a more active love for Christ, for His Word and for the lost," as described below in the experiences associated with Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Baptism In The Holy Spirit (courtesy of lwaog.net) All believers are entitled to, and should, ardently expect and earnestly seek the promise of the Father regarding Baptism in the Holy Spirit and fire, according to the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, as was the normal experience of believers in the early Christian Church. With Baptism in the Holy Spirit comes the enduement of power for life and service, the bestowment of the gifts, and their uses in the work of the ministry: Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4; Acts 1:8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31 The benefits and experiences associated with Baptism in the Holy Spirit are completely distinct from, and after, the experience of the new birth, or Baptism in Water. Acts 8:12-17; Acts 10:44-46; Acts 11:14-16; Acts 15:7-9 With Baptism in the Holy Spirit come such experiences as:
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Melanie Garcia
Born again and redeemed by the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
“But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:” 1 Peter 1:19 Archives
May 2024
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