How I Came to Know Jesus

I'd like to share with you the testimony of my oldest son Christopher, who is now nineteen years old (as of 2024). Although I am his biographer, it's his true story of how he came to know the Lord, based on the journal I have kept for all my children since they were born. I hope you enjoy it.

Christopher's Testimony

Three years old

There were various points during my early childhood when I prayed to give my heart to Jesus, beginning when I was only two and a half. Only nine days after that, while I was on the phone talking to my aunt, she asked, "Who's this?"  I said, "I'm Christopher, and I love Jesus."  That was the first time I had ever said that on my own, and that was how I began publicly identifying myself with Christ. On another occasion, when I was three years old, I once again publicly identified myself with God. At a playground, I saw a little 4-year old boy, and ran over to him happily saying, "Do you know God?"

During those tender years when I was just a little child, God continued to reveal Himself to me in various ways through nature, through His Word, and through my parents. For example, I once looked up at the stars in the dark evening sky and said, "Wow! God is in heaven!"

As a result of God revealing Himself to me, I began to desire a relationship with Him. One occasion in particular that stands out to me was on Christmas, when I was three and a half. My father was washing and dressing me and I told him I wanted to pray to give my heart to Jesus. So I did that, as he led me in that prayer, and then he prayed for me to be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

About four months later I told my father that when I grow up, I want to be a man who tells other people about Jesus. A couple of months later, I was preaching to my baby brother in his crib, who was only four months old, saying, "Now Joseph, you need to obey Jesus. You disobey the devil."

On another occasion later on February 4, 2010, when I was almost five years old, my father explained to me at the dinner table about how God is bigger than the sky, bigger than the sun, moon, and stars. But He makes Himself small enough to live inside our hearts.  We also talked about how we don't deserve heaven and we all deserve hell.  But Jesus loved us so much he took our punishment. And because of that, now when we get to heaven, He will give us a big welcome.  That was another one of those times when I invited Jesus into my heart and I committed my life to the Lord. 

About a week after that, my mother was praying for me and my baby brother at bedtime like she usually did, saying "Lord, I pray that they would come to know you as soon as possible."  When I heard her pray that, I said, "But Mommy, I already know the Lord!"

My parents began to see some fruit in my life after that, so once Jesus came into my heart, it definitely made a difference in me. I began praying for relatives to come to know Jesus and being thankful. For example, I said, "Daddy, I appreciate having you as my Daddy."  That was something I had never done before.

One evening I wanted to pray for all my uncles, that they would come to know the Lord. As I was doing so with my mother, I came to pray for my uncle Jeff, and instead of praying for him, I said, "He already knows Jesus."  The Lord must have revealed that to me, because my family and I were living in Eastern Europe as missionaries in Hungary (we lived there for four and a half years) and I didn't really have any contact with my uncle Jeff, who was back in the United States. But it was true that he did know the Lord already.

Six years old

When I was six years old I enjoyed reading Bible stories like the one about Noah and the ark. My favorite one of all though was the story of David and Goliath. By the time I was six and a half, I had read the entire gospel of John. About that time, my father prayed with me one day that I would receive all of the healing that Jesus Christ had for me, so that whenever I would lay hands on the sick they would recover, and that healing and miracles would happen. The videos of miracles and healing that I watched that day really increased my faith.

Soon after that, my family and I watched a video about a girl who went to hell and back, and another girl who saw Jesus. Afterwards we all repented as a family and asked the Lord to forgive our sins.  We asked the Lord to fill us with the Holy Spirit and he did.  I spoke in other  languages at that time, when I received the baptism with the Spirit.

A couple months later, I prayed, “Lord please give me a dream of You!” I then had a dream in which I saw a picture right in front of my eyes. In the picture, I saw the back of myself in a room, facing away and looking at Jesus, who was standing before me, facing me and looking at me.  Jesus did not look like a person, but like a round, bright white light. Behind Jesus in the room were four people, who were rather short. They all had black hair and squinted, oriental eyes like Chinese people.  Two of them were wearing conical, Chinese coolie, straw hats like the rice farmers wear, which are pointed at the top.  Behind the people was a stone staircase without a railing, which ascended to the right, and at the top it turned.  It was a still picture, like a photograph. Even though it was many years ago, I still remember that dream.

Right after that I received the baptism with holy fire when my father prayed for me. John the Baptist said that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire (Mt 3:11; Lk 3:16), and that's exactly what He did for me. It was a tangible experience where I could feel the fire of God on my back, and my hands became hot. Soon afterwards, I began to pray more deeply and fervently than I had ever prayed before. I prayed, "Lord, help us to love you with a whole heart, not half a heart!"

Soon after that, I had a dream from the Lord, in which I was together with my whole family outdoors in a field at nighttime in the dark, discussing the Lord’s glory cloud, like the one that appeared in the temple. Suddenly I looked up, and two white lights flashed in the sky about 10 or 12 feet above us.  They flashed simultaneously like a camera flash.  In the center of one white light, I saw a small, round, blue light.  In the center of the other white flash, I saw a small, round, pink light.  These smaller orbs remained in the sky above us after the white flashes, and there were other such orbs of different colors as well.  They went upward with a sound like a mighty, rushing wind and descended downward toward us.  As they descended, I felt something like a weight of glory coming down on me, upon my head and upper body.  This weight was so great that it caused me to bend backwards at the waist.  That’s where my dream ended. In the morning, I remembered the dream from the Lord clearly and shared it with my family.

I continued to experience God in many ways, and He made Himself very real to me, including through dreams, visions, and encounters with Jesus and his angels. One time at age six, when we had our usual midnight family prayer meeting, I prayed that we would all be baptized afresh in the Holy Spirit. Soon after I prayed that, I felt a gentle wind blowing on my right ear, then on my right hand, and then on the back of my neck.  There were no windows open in the house or fans blowing. It was definitely the Holy Spirit.

Also at age six, during my morning quiet time, I asked the Lord to show me what He wanted me to do.  The Lord first told me, “Obey your parents.”  Then I said, “What else do you want me to do, Lord?”  And the Lord replied, “Preach.”

When I was nine years old, at bedtime I asked my father if it would be ok if I started getting up 30 minutes earlier in the morning, so that I could spend more time in prayer each day.

When I was ten years old, during a Sunday service in our home, two of my older sisters separately received essentially the same prophetic words from the Lord for me about God's mighty calling on my life to preach and teach the truth of His Word.  Afterward my father laid hands on me and prayed for me that I would indeed be a mighty man of God and preach righteousness and love truth. He released the anointing so that I could do so, and as he prayed for me, I sensed the presence of God.

Fourteen years old

As a young teenager, I prayed for the Lord to show me my purpose in life, and I sensed that He said, "street preaching" and "evangelism". Then I seemed to see people coming together from two directions, pairing up in pairs of two and going out together two-by-two. Afterward the chapter I read that day was Mark one, which tells of John and Jesus preaching to multitudes. As I prayed further about it a few days later, I sensed "serving others" was part of my purpose.

I trust the Lord will use my story to encourage you, especially if you already know the Lord. Continue to seek Him and pursue Him. Go deeper in Him than you have before. Ask for the baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire. Believe His promises and receive it. Give yourself totally over to Him to be His servant. Love Him with your whole heart, not half a heart! Ask Him to use you for the purpose for which He created you, and then let Him do it. Doing His will is the most fulfilling way to live your life, but also the most rewarding in eternity.

If you consider yourself a Christian, or if you have been in church all your life, or if you have been raised in a Christian family, let me just say this. None of that will save you. Jesus said you must be born again (Jn 3:7). He said, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." (Joh 3:3, NIV). Many people have been in church all their lives, but they have never been born again. So don't let that happen to you.

God is real, and so is Jesus. Heaven is real, and so is hell. We all deserve hell, because we've all sinned. But by the grace and mercy of God, He has made a way for us to be with Him in heaven for eternity.

If you don't know Jesus yet in a personal way, then I want to say a few words to you. Jesus loves you with an everlasting love, and He died on the cross for you. He took your place and bore your punishment, so you don't have to go to hell, if you repent and believe in Him. He rose from the dead three days after He died and He is alive. 

Eighteen years old

He has a plan for your life that is far greater than anything you've ever experienced. He can set you free from every addiction, break every chain of bondage, fulfill your deepest needs, and love you like nobody else ever could. He'll be your closest friend. I challenge you to repent of your sins and believe in Him right now to save your soul. Ask Him to forgive you for all your sins and come and live inside your heart. Ask Him to be your Lord and Savior, as you commit your life to the Lord. Then be baptized in water and live your life for Him, not for yourself. Then when you get to heaven after you die, He will give you a big welcome, and an eternal reward.

I hope to see you one day up in heaven and rejoice with you there. What a time we will have praising God around His throne with the multitudes of saints and angels. Please don't miss it for anything!

Attribution notice: Scripture quotation taken from The Holy Bible NIV, copyright Zondervan, used by permission. 

Author's Note: If you enjoyed this post, you may also like to read The Truth Set Me Free, Saved at a Tender Young Age, Given a New Heart and Sweet Peace, My Overflowing Joy in Knowing Jesus, and Lifted Out of a Slimy Pit, which are the testimonies of myself and four of my other children. Also see the Home page of this blog for more testimonies. You are invited to view my collection of blogs at Writing for the Master.

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus.  Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15).  He preached that we must repent and believe.

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"

_________________________________________________

Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.

Delivered from Bondage and New Age Deception

I would like to share with you the testimony of one of the Kenyan students in our discipleship training school called Doulos Training School. She recently came back to the Lord following nine years of backsliding in sin after she initially came to the Lord in 2002. Here is the testimony in her own words:

The Testimony of Mwendwa
Born in the early 80s, my childhood was traumatic -- riddled with chaos, sadness, torment, and despair occasioned by living with an abusive alcoholic father. My father committed suicide when I was 17, while my own first suicide attempt was at the age of 15. I struggled with severe clinical depression, low self-esteem, rejection, self-hate, OCD, social anxiety, fear, suicidal attempts and ideations, and sexual bondage from my early teen years to my late twenties. 

I first got born again at age 20 alone at home, in 2002 after an abortion which left me guilty and filled with torment. I backslid two years later however without a foundation of the truth of God and always feeling not good enough and rejected even in church. I got pregnant at age 22. At age 29 after years of severe sexual sin, depression and constant suicidal ideations, I cried out to God in repentance in my bedroom as I could not go on any longer as I had been and he set free instantly from all my sin. I got active in a local church in worship team and teaching Sunday school, and also had my own ministry to the poor slum women and feeding street boys.

Sadly, five years in 2014 later following a series of bad experiences with cults and false churches with false teachings, and being dismissed from the church I served as a leader in for questioning some of the things being done, I was tired and disillusioned and kissed formal religion goodbye opting to follow Jesus away from organized Christianity. However, isolated, wounded, and alone I found myself an easy prey to the devil. I got sexually manipulated by an apostle who took advantage of my vulnerable state, and this filled me with deep self-condemnation and I stopped reading the bible and praying, and eventually found myself back to the sins of my past worse than before, effectively opening the door to Satan's deceptions.

I began accepting and embracing new-age spiritual beliefs which seemed to offer me some semblance of a relationship with God since I no longer identified as a Christian. Over the next 9 years, these new age beliefs had taken deep hold of me and I became a 'spiritual' teacher in the metaphysical, law of attraction, and new thought community. I published 3 books and had clients and a growing following on social media. My new beliefs were a mixture of Gnosticism, Hinduism, Buddhism, eastern philosophy, and mystical Christianity. I had embraced beliefs such as non-dualism, reincarnation, Christ-consciousness, and oneness, and believed all paths led to God. I thought I had found the ultimate truth but was deeply deceived.

As a ‘spiritual’ teacher I had also gradually developed a drinking problem and by 2022 was a full-blown alcoholic unable to save myself despite years of trying everything I could. My spiritual beliefs could not save me. I knew only Jesus could help me, and I cried out to him for help over and over. Finally at my lowest point when I felt I would surely die and gave up on all self-help, the Lord Jesus set me free instantly and miraculously in rehab. In rehab I began to study the teachings of Jesus in the bible daily, desiring the truth. The spiritual deception took longer to be free from because I still believed I was on the right path. However, Jesus was slowly opening my blinded eyes.

By April 2023 the word of God and the grace of the Lord Jesus had done their work and opened my eyes it seemed almost overnight to see how greatly deceived I had been. Through a convicting work only the Holy Spirit can perform, I was shown the depth of my deception for those 9 years and how I had turned to other gods. It felt like I had woken up from a deep sleep. I truly was the prodigal son. I had wasted all I had in prodigal living. Jesus said that the prodigal son "came to himself", and said, "I will arise and go to my father." Jesus opened my eyes, set me free from years of sin and deception, and revived my first love for him which had been lost. (Revelations 2:4)

Through godly sorrow and repentance, I knew I had to leave my old life behind completely. It was clear I could not maintain my old life and a walk with Jesus. In obedience, I left it all behind to follow Jesus (Luke 5:11). This included pulling down my books from Amazon, my old social media accounts, and all my articles on my website. I also made a public confession to my followers on social media and to my clients making it clear I could no longer teach what I had been.

It was not easy and there were many consequences to this change-financially, socially, and emotionally. Sin and rebellion always have consequences. But Jesus promised to be with me always if I obeyed him and he has.

Jesus has changed my life. I now truly understand the Grace of God. The old self-righteousness and works-based Christian life that always led to condemnation, frustration, and backsliding was been exposed. I finally realized that I cannot please God through my own efforts, and my efforts cannot save me. It is all by the Grace of God, and only by looking to Jesus Christ am I sustained. My salvation is the work of God. It is he and he alone who opened my eyes when I was greatly deceived, it was all him and none of me. I am grateful for his mercy, long-suffering, and kindness. He did not allow me to die and perish in my pitiful state. I was dead and now am alive again, was blind but now I see. All my life I felt not good enough and had adopted a performance mindset even with my relationship with Jesus, but now for the first time I feel truly accepted in the beloved without the need to DO things to be loved by the Father, but instead overflowing with good works as a response to his love, and not to gain his love.

END OF MWENDWA'S TESTIMONY

Closing Words

I trust that this testimony has blessed you by the power of the Holy Spirit. If you have been in a similar situation to hers, I strongly encourage you to repent and ask the Lord to forgive you and set you free, trusting Him to do so in a very powerful way.

Author's Note: If you enjoyed this post, you may also like to read The Truth Set Me Free, My Overflowing Joy in Knowing Jesus, and Lifted Out of a Slimy Pit, which are the testimonies of myself and two of my other children. Also see the Home page of this blog for more testimonies. You are invited to view my collection of blogs at Writing for the Master.

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus.  Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15).  He preached that we must repent and believe. 

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"

________________________________________________

Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.