I was saved at age 5 at Temple Heights Christian Academy in Tampa, Florida. This was one of the first fully functional Christian Schools in the United States and the first one in the state of Florida.
My parents were pioneers in Christian education and by the time I was 12, I had been to 3 different states. They started 2 schools near the Canadian border, 4 around Boston, and 37 in North Florida. This allowed me to attend 10 different churches and Christian Schools by the sixth grade, when I started public schools in Jacksonville, FL.
I remember the morning of November 27, 1968, well. The church was having revival services with Brother Lester Roloff and I questions my Kindergarten teacher. It was a Wednesday morning around 10:30 and while my test went out to the playground to play, I stayed behind. Mrs. Stone knew that this unusual so she started talking to me and was able to lead me to Christ.
Four months later I started to have dreams and visions of my life and what the Lord wanted me to do. I have preached or given my testimony in 26 states and 4 countries. I have been to great cities with Boston, NYC, Chicago, Orlando, and Philadelphia being some of my favorites.
I have been ran out of town once. I was in Boston and after 3 weeks of youth revivals, I decided to travel to Salem, Massachusetts, and see some of the buildings I learned about in High School.
I never made it. I stopped for gas in a town called, Peabody and went in to pay. The cashier looked straight at me and said, "We don't want you here." I looked around the store thinking she was talking to someone else. She said, "No, I am talking to you. I know who you are, what you have been doing for the last month or so, and where you are headed, and we don't want you here!"
I wasn't going to minister in Salem so I headed to Lincoln, Virginia, the town of my next revival. I learned on the news that night that the Salem witch festival was planned for that weekend.
I have preached to 2 people, because that is all that showed up, and to a crowd estimated at around 22,000 in Costa Rica. I have been in small-town football stadiums as well as the oldest American auditorium in Asbury Park, New Jersey. I have lived a very blessed life.
A blessed life doesn't always mean money. I never received an offering, but I have been blessed beyond measure!
I have been a Minister of Music 3 times, a Youth Pastor twice, an Assistant Pastor twice, a Children's Director once, overseer at a homeless shelter and in Christian boy's clubs three times. I have had dreams and visions on a regular basis since I was 5 years old. I keep a record of each one. Many of them have been fulfilled, but I know that God is still using me. I look forward to the rest of the dreams and visions to unfold.
Almost a decade ago God moved me to a small city called Douglas Georgia. I came here thinking that I could pick up where I left off. I visited a dozen churches and met the Pastors. Three thought I was crazy when they asked me what the Lord was saying about their ministry. The three have all closed their doors permanently.
I have helped a few in direction, and have had the pleasure of speaking at two of them. I have been soaking in the presence of the Lord at a great church named Covenant. The Pastors are full of love and the many guest speakers are Internationally known Giants in the faith.
I haven't just been sitting around. The Lord has used me almost everywhere I go. Lives are still being touched and changed for eternity.
Something big is in the process. The Lord is moving me into a new season. In the next few months I will be making an impact in ways that He has been preparing me for.
Are my best years behind me? NO!!! I haven't begun to live me best life... but that is for another blog.
The mission had closed due to reduced funding after nine eleven and Pastors in the Lagrange, Georgia area started asking me not only to do youth revivals but church-wide revivals.
I remember one revival well. While waiting to preach one night, people started to come to the altar without an altar call. This at first seemed great, but then the Holy Spirit had me notice a woman who no one was approaching. There were several ministers up front, but none went near her. I asked the Holy Spirit why no one was approaching her. "I saved her for you." I wanted to know why I, and what He wanted me to do. "I need you to cast out some devils." I reminded Him of the sons of Sceva and how the demons attacked them. "They didn't know me. You do. I will show you what to do. I am the one who will send them running." The next 3-1/2 hours were intense, to say the least. When it was all over the Lord had cast 48 demons out of her including 3 strongmen.
That summer I traveled up and down the Eastern coast of America. I started in Atlanta preaching youth revivals in 5 churches in the area. I then preached in Fort Walton Beach, Fl, several towns in the panhandle, Tampa, FL, Naples, FL, 9 churches in Jacksonville, and then traveled to Evansville, TN, and up to Wintersville, Maine, crossing through North Carolina and Virginia twice, 117 youth revivals in 18 months!
Two years later, in 2005, I moved to South Georgia, about an hour from Savannah. I was taking on a new role as Assistant Pastor of a church with around 65 members.
I was asked to preach 6 or 7 times a month as well as lead music. I would also preach a revival twice a year. I noticed that when I talked with a visiting couple before one of the services they would not look me in the eye. I went on and took my seat, preparing for the service. I don't remember what my text was that night, but when I began to read the Word of God the woman stood up and said, "I hate you and what you are preaching!” I stopped my preaching and walked back to the couple. Both of their eyes were rolled to the back of their heads, where you could only see the whites of their eyes.
They both began cursing and spitting at me saying how the area churches just wanted money and would not help them with their bills.
This did not answer how the enemy had moved in, so I asked the Holy Spirit. He revealed to me that this couple in their 60's had never been married, even though they had been living together for 37 years.
When a Pastor had preached in the past about marriage they both became bitter. I confronted the spirit of bitterness and they both began to belittle members of this congregation. So I bound all the demons brought in by bitterness and cast them out.
I then invited them to accept the Lord, and they did. They also said that they knew that marriage was the right thing to do and asked the Senior Pastor to marry them. I opened the altar for others to accept Christ.
This is when the Pastor's daughter in law, a woman in her 40's named Angie, dropped to the floor and began slithering like a snake! I did not know if there might be others needing deliverance so I said, " in the mighty name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth I bind and cast out every demon in this place. Two people got up and ran out the side door. Angie, the Pastor's daughter in law kept on slithering on the floor.
She began hissing at me telling me that she couldn't be cast out because she was an invited guest of Angie. I knew that I could wear out a demon by binding them and speaking to the host, in this case, Angie. So I commanded the demons to be quite and asked Angie to speak to me.
Angie had been told that she was worthless. After hearing this over and over again as a teenager, she asked, "someone, anyone help me." It seems that a demon overheard this cry and took the opportunity to move in.
Angie was set free that day. Over the next 4 years, many were delivered and healed, including another daughter who had bone cancer.
The Lord called me to help start up a new congregation in the next town, again as the Assistant Pastor. I taught on Wednesday nights and was asked to help start 16 other churches in the area.
Some met in mobile homes, some in old warehouses and one was a Spanish-speaking church where I would tag-team preach. They also had a desire to be on TV in Savannah, GA so I set them up with a video camera and computer system.
I often found myself involved in up to 7 services each Sunday and 5 other services throughout the week. I loved every minute of it! The Lord was getting ready to move me again, but... that is for the next blog.
If I wasn't busy enough. Needing to earn some extra money to buy Christmas presents for my family, I took a part-time job at a fast-food restaurant. 2 other Christians were working there, Jennifer who sanitized the restaurant after it closed, and Herbert, a guy who ran the front counter.
The manager overheard a conversation where Jennifer invited Herbert and me to an in-home Bible study group.
Chris D, our manager, was also ahead witch in the area. He was over 12 covens. He preceded to tell us how weak Christians were and how his master was greater than ours. He also said that he knew that Herbert listened to music like Metallica, Def Lepperd, and other bands like them and how Herbert was more loyal to worshipping his master than the God he claimed to worship.
Herbert never let it be known that he was a Christian again.
I accepted the invitation to the Bible study and was looking forward to the next meeting. All was well at the beginning. There were about 10 couples that attended. We studied the Old Testament Prophets, took prayer requests, and began to pray for the requests when Jennifer started to stand up in the recliner. This seemed odd enough, but then her feet rose above the chair and she made the universal "pray" hand gesture. So we all said, "In the name of Jesus, let her go!" She then in a thud, flipping the recliner over. Jennifer then rejoined us in prayer, and we all went home.
The next day, Chris asked Jennifer and me if we enjoyed his little visit. Jennifer and I looked at each other and didn't say a word. He then told us, including Herbert, that we talked faith, but didn't truly believe that our master would come through. As he was talking, he stuck his arm in a fryer that read 400° saying, "this is what real power looks like." From that point on we prayed for Chris' salvation during the meetings.
One day as I was traveling down the interstate, going 70 mph, alone in my car, Chris materialized in my passenger seat. I couldn't slam on the brakes and pull over fast enough! I had never heard of astral projection before, and this is the only time I witnessed it.
Over the next few months, I was confronted by several witches, but we kept praying for Chris. I came into work one afternoon and Chris was in his office weeping. The Lord had gotten a hold of him, and Chris gave his life to him.
At this point in the ministry, I was not ordained, even though I had been ministering for 11 years. A ministry 20 miles away asked me to come on board and wanted to ordain me, and I gladly accepted.
The ministry had taken a civil war jail and converted it to a mission with individual rooms, 2 locker rooms, a kitchen and a chapel.
I was volunteered as the area Evangelist. I held a weekly Bible study for those that came to the mission. We also went to the streets of Atlanta, Columbus, Georgia and the local Warm Springs, Georgia. We would make 100 sack lunches and would hand them out each Saturday.
The kid gatherings in the parks, the revivals, the Crusades, and now the mission continued for another 4 years. But the Lord was just getting started with me... but that is for the next blog.
I couldn't get enough of God's Word. I began to read it for hours at a time after work each day. 2 years had passed since that Life-Changing accident.
I was now 25 years old. I had moved out of my apartment of several years and back into my mother's house. The ministry I was called to was in full force, along with still working at Duracell.
The ministry did not look like many other ministries. I was out at one of the city parks each afternoon. This is where I would have Children's church 6 days a week. I also was doing youth revivals 4 nights a week.
I started with nothing but a basketball that I had put six Bible verses on. The kids would come out and when they would shoot the ball they would say whatever verse was on the side facing them.
Then as the group got used to me, I added a daily Bible lesson using flannel graphs, puppets, and gospel magic. I would end each youth revival with a gospel magic show.
Kids and teens were getting saved! One Saturday morning an older brother came to pick up his younger brother. I thought nothing about the black and white head wrap until the Holy Spirit told me to stop teaching and to begin speaking salvation verses.
What I was about to find out was that the older brother was the leader of the gang called the Crips and a rival gang was headed down the hill from the other end of the park.
I don't know what they heard or saw, but when they got to the edge of the basketball court, one of them made a motion and they all turned around and left.
Each fall 3 other ministers and myself would hold a Gospel Crusade in the largest baseball field that the city had. Over the next 7 years, over 16,000 young people gave their lives to the Lord.
The ministry was about to change again... but that is for the next blog.
I remember that weekend well. I was the Music Director at a fairly large church outside of Atlanta, Georgia.
After the morning service, I walked next door to the house of my friend. We ate lunch, sang Gospel songs, and had great fellowship. I then went home to my apartment.
After the evening service, I again went home to my apartment, but this time I was awakened in the middle of the night by the wife of someone I looked up to.
I could hear the fear in her voice as she said, "They have taken him away." I soon learned that this Great Man of God was arrested for unspeakable acts against people who I loved.
What had gone wrong? He was the former Pastor at the church where I was now ministering.
That Wednesday I turned in my resignation. My trust was in man. For Pastors that I had looked up to failed. I saw no way I could be a minister. They asked me to stay on for another month, which I did.
After that last Sunday at the church, I drove to the truck stop next door and did something I told myself that I would never do again. I bought some drugs. I then drove to my apartment and attempted to drown out my sorrow.
I had gone through Teen Challenge 3 years earlier. How could I go back to this? Even though this was a one-time drug binge, I knew that I was STILL an addict.
I began smoking and drinking again. Mostly on Sunday instead of going to church.
I didn't know it, but I was trying to run from my calling. I ran for 14 months. I ran until the morning of January 27, 1986.
This was the day before the space shuttle Challenger blew up. There was an ice storm in the Atlanta area. I was determined to go to work.
I thought I had it made. I had a great job as a Senior Draftsman at Duracell battery company making over 4 times the minimum wage, a nice apartment, and a nice sportscar.
All was fine. I was almost at work, waiting for the light to turn green when a car coming through the intersection began to spin on the ice. It hit my passenger side bumper spinning me sideways. Then another car trying to avoid both of us hit my back bumper. This had me facing backward in my lane. A third vehicle was approaching fast and hit me head-on. All while my foot never left my brake pedal.
The impact of the last vehicle was so hard that my left knee hit the fuse box and sent it up through the middle of the dash. My steering wheel snapped off. My seat snapped and sent me flying upside down into the back seat. After the Paramedics got me out with the jaws of life, one of them asked if I wanted to go to the hospital. There wasn't a mark on me! Not knowing that whiplash would kick in I said, "no".
The wrecker gave me a ride home and the first conversation with God that I can remember started.
God: "Are you tired of running son?"
Me: "Yes Sir." (I often call Him Lord, Papa, or Sir)
God: "I have not changed my mind, so you might as well accept what I have called you to do."
Me: "I'm not sure if I know you."
God: "Read what I have spoken to others that I have called. Then you will."
I sat on the floor in front of my couch stunned at what seemed audible, but I wasn't sure if it was.
Then I decided to get up and get something to eat, but I could not get up, whiplash had started to set in. So I rolled to the refrigerator, but I couldn't bump the shelves hard enough to cause anything to fall off.
So I got the idea to call someone, but my phone was on the wall, charging, and I couldn't get it no matter how much I tried. In the process, I knocked my Bible off the table, so I started in Matthew and after finishing the New Testament, I began at the beginning and read through the entire Bible. Before I knew it, the sun was coming up with the next day.
I accepted the calling again, but this time I gave EVERYTHING to the Lord. My life was about to change... but that is for the next blog.
