“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Prov. 22:6
In this message I will be sharing some of my testimony. Our testimonies should always point to the cross, Jesus and His salvation. Rev. 12:11 They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
As I was driving to get some milk for my kid’s cereal, I was thinking about my children and how great they are. Thinking, how much I thank God for allowing me to be their father. That although they are ultimately His, He has found me and my wife worthy enough to be a large part in their upbringing and teaching on how to live this life. Seeing their smile brightens my day, just as hearing them go at it with each other can make the day tense, nonetheless it is still a blessing.
Let me share some of my testimony with you.
On a trip to New York City my mother, sister and I went to visit my aunt, Esther, who was very sick with cancer. My other aunt, Zoraida, that lived in the apartment below Aunt Esther had a son around my age and my mother asked me to go down to see if I wanted to play with him. Here I am thinking that he might have a Nintendo (in 1990 it was just a Nintendo). I was disappointed since I was expecting to play some Nintendo but since we didn’t I just ended up sitting at the dinning room table doing nothing. On top of the dinning room table there was a book. On the cover of this book there was a shinning sword and a dark curving sword striking each other and thousands of people under them, kind of in a valley. I was intrigued by the image since I was drawn to dark things that had to do with the devil and demons since I was seeing horror movies for as long as I could remember. My aunt Zoraida came and sat next to me, moving her chair close to me.
She asked, “What are you doing there?”
I replied, “just looking at the cover of the book.”
She asked, “Do you like it?” and I said “yes”.
She then said, “Do you know what this cover stands for?”
Myself, trying to be smart said, “Well good versus evil.”
She said, “That is correct. But God is the one that is good and He is fighting for those souls, and for yours, Josen,” she continued, “there is such a place as hell and there is such a place as heaven. Were do you want to go? God loves you and wants you to be with Him and not go to hell.” John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
She pointed to the cast-iron radiator, “I received the Lord right here in this kitchen next to the radiator and you can receive Him in your heart right here as well. Do you want to do this?”
I was already crying without realizing it. She prayed with me right there at that small dining room table and I received Christ into my heart. I was 11 years old and it was February 28th 1990. I haven’t looked back since.
I came out of that house skipping and happy with dry tears on my cheeks, but with a smile that I had no idea were it was coming from. JESUS HAD TAKEN HIS PLACE IN MY HEART! AMEN!
We returned to our home in Puerto Rico, and now I was saved! UH OH! This means that I didn’t have a good scope of what being a Christian really meant. So I continued cursing like I always did, kept on doing things that kids do.
On March 11th 1990 my mother gave me my birthday present to go to a church. We were going to go to a service that we were invited to by my stepfather’s cousin Janet. When we arrived it was a ranch that was falling apart with at least 200 members raising up their hands and eyes closed. Yet it looked right, I guessed. As the service was ending and the pastor made a call to receive Jesus at the altar. My mom responded to the altar call and reconciled her life with the Lord.
It was amazing!
When the service was about to end they announced that those wanting to be baptized, should join the class that was starting the following week. I said to my mom that I had to be baptized. She said for me to ask and just like that, in the middle of the announcements, I walked up to the altar and called the pastor that was already about to start dismissing the service in Prayer.
He bent over to me since the altar was pretty high (or maybe I was just too small), and I said, “I need to be baptized because I want to obey. He looked at me and turned me around to face the church and said this. “We do not normally baptize children but the Lord has placed in this boys heart to be baptized and we will baptize him.”
That service was amazing.
Just under 2 weeks after being saved, my mom came back to the Lord’s feet and I was in line to be baptized in the waters. That evening my mom was pumped, she was in the joy of the Lord and we ended up going to the evening service that she was invited too at a different church the same day.
The service had already started and there were two, a man and a woman, that were prophets. They were healing people, calling them by name and telling them things that they could not have known. The people that they would call out would start crying and started worshiping God. Once I figured out what they were doing something came over me. I saw them healing people, I mean they were really getting healed.
I started thinking of my grandmother that was sick with cancer, blind and with no legs in the hospital. I looked to my left and saw my mother crying. I asked my mother if it was OK for me to go and ask them if they could pray for my grandmother to see if God could heal her. I felt it in my heart, that as soon as my mother told me that it was okay, I said excuse me to the person that was to my right and started walking down the center of the church.
Now the service was just about to finish and they were praying for the last people that had gone up to the altar call. Since I was small I kind of just went ahead of 2 people that were left and called the prophet to ask her a question.
“How can I help you,” she said.
I responded, “Well I see how you are healing these people here and I believe that if you pray for my grandma in New York City that God just might heal her.”Matthew 8:8 But the centurion replied, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.
She said, “Yes.” So, two sisters of the church stood one on the right of me and the other on the left. They started praying, they started shaking and all I did was close my eyes and pray that God would heal my grandma. The prophet was praying to the Lord saying that if it was in the Lord’s will to heal my grandmother to heal even from this distance. I was crying and praying and she almost finished her prayer when she stopped.
She asked, “Who is the mother of this child?” As the sisters turned me around I saw my mother standing crying and crying.
The prophet said the following; “the Lord has great things for this child. He has given him to you to protect and raise for Him. Yet, it is in your hands if he is to be for a blessing or for distruction!”
As I remember these words that were said to my mother, I can only believe that those words are not just for me but also for every child that was born. Parents, it is in your hands to raise your children in the ways of the Lord. Christ is faithful to fulfill His word and keep them. Even though right now you may see your child in the worst situation possible God is faithful. Your timing is not God’s timing. He is not a man that He should lie! He will fulfill His word, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Prov. 22:6
