Testimony

In the beginning

It was a spring evening in my apartment, I was lonely and not my normal self. I looked up to heaven and said “ I’ll do anything, and anything”. Then, I bowed down to my knees and said in my heart “Lord, I will serve you!!” I don’t know where this came from, all of a sudden I had been given a desire to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. The next day I began reading the bible and hungering even more after the Word of Truth. As time went on, I consistently came home from work hurrying to read the bible. I attended my mother’s bible study class (which I shouldn’t have been under a woman), filled with joy wanting to tell everyone about my new change for Christ Jesus. I spoke in class on God’s truth in His Word and just wanted to talk about Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ had saved me! How? I do not know, the glory belongs to Him!

I began to hear Him?

I was praying at the altar, and the Lord Jesus spoke to my mind for the first time ever, “Look up, this is your wife!” I looked up and there stood Shannon (the most attractive black woman in Anne Arundel County, Maryland). I couldn’t believe it, not because of her beauty, but because I knew what Shannon was involved in. Her lifestyle was of sin, and I had trouble seeing how God was going to do this one. But He did, Jesus Christ saved my wife and we were married two years later. We’ve been married almost four years and that road has not been easy because of what this blog entry deals with.

I had heard the Lord Jesus Christ for the first time in my mind, and I began to be intrigued by His Voice. I was hearing God and became excited. I received some rejection from some people who thought I was completely nuts. “The devil spoke to you”. “An angel told you that, God don’t speak like that”. Very discouraged, I kept strong in the faith by searching the scriptures to see is what was said was true.

Something else began to happen, my flesh began to like the attention hearing from God was bringing. My wife’s family thought that I had the gift of prophecy, and would long to hear me stop them and individually tell them what the Lord Jesus was saying (no where in scripture does a prophet do psychic readings). This got to be so attractive to me. I loved it because I felt I had something, something that other people did not have. I would think, “Jesus Christ speaks to me “. I developed a religious piety about myself, like I was greater than other Christian. In fact, the voice of myself, began to speak more and more to those thoughts. I said that I would be a great prophet like Jeremiah, even named myself with the name, Jeremiah. I wrote that I would control the weather and people would want my writings (I began writing what I believe Jesus was telling me) to be scripture. Sound crazy, it gets even better. I used the words “thus saith the Lord Jesus Christ, and even from the bible quoted “Jesus Christ is come in the flesh”, to make myself believe that what I was hearing was the Spirit of God. Yet none these things were from Jesus Christ the Lord. I had heard Him? No I had heard myself, and pride was beginning to take form.


My time as Jeremiah, the prophet

As I walked further down this wrong lane, I began taking my eyes off of the blessed Word of God. Now don’t get me wrong, I still desired the Word, because His Word brings joy to a believer’s life. But I was into this prophet/God speaking thing. This is what felt good to my flesh. Let me say clearly this, there are no self proclaimed prophets/prophetess running around today. The True Prophet is Him who dwells within the believer, the Lord Jesus Christ. The true prophet proclaims the Word of God, the bible, not what they have imagined in there heart. The bible is enough. You don’t need what you believe God said to you to get you through because God’s Word is all you need to get you through. Check this out:

For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. (1 Peter 1:24-25)

We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. (2 Peter 1:19-21)

But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. (2 Timothy 3:14-17)

I left these scriptures so you may exegetically go through them down, and you’ll see the Bible alone is all you need. Sola Scriptura! The Scripture Alone! Trying to figure out what God is saying to you by a voice you think you’ve heard will only lead to more confusion. Trust me, I know.

It was a Friday night, and some youth from the church (my former church St. Mark UMC) headed with Shannon and I to a friend of Shannon’s church. This church was filled with youth. We attended because Shannon and I were invited to speak. Well, I thought “what a perfect opportunity to display my so called prophetic gift”. Let me tell you, I really believed that Christ had given me this gift and I was God’s prophet. My wife finished speaking and I walked around to each person and began to speak to them what Christ was supposedly saying. Let me tell you, the looks on their faces were amazing. It felt so good to see people cry and nod in agreement from the things I was saying. Oh yes, the tears and nods just furthered my pride. One young teen heard me say he would be on fire for God, he laughed and I told him not to because God is not playing. (This teen came up to me and tried to explain why he laughed. Later I found out that he got heavily involved with drugs and Christ delivered him and he returned telling people his testimony) Things were sounding great until I began to use things I had heard about some of the people I knew. I finally got to prophelie to a Christian couple; I will call them B&T.

B&T had been dating for awhile. While on a business trip, I heard the voice say to me that “T was not the one for B”. “B&T had separate paths to walk for God.” This grieved me because these were two awesome Christians. When I told them my prophecy, I got dead silence. I could see the anger on their faces. I quickly left from them and went on prophelying. After this event there was an big uproar in that church. So much confusion between the people, I wanted to run and hide. Some things came to pass that I said (really?), and other things did not happen at all. I began to question the validity of the things I was doing. Is the Lord Jesus Christ the author of confusion? (1 Corinthians 14:33) I searched the scriptures to see if God’s prophets made any mistake. I found no such thing. Also, B&T became very disturbed by my lie but instead treated me in love even until the day I sought them for forgiveness 3 years later (that’s true Christian love my friends).

You would think with all the confusion and lies, that would stop me right? It didn’t because I focused in prophecies I felt I got right. And that is the key to flesh, when we imagine things in our own minds, that imagination needs to feed off of any flesh it can. So we tell ourselves anything we possibly can. Listen to the scriptures:

Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart. (Jeremiah 14:14)

How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart; (Jeremiah 23:26)

If you really study Jeremiah 23, you will get the full context of what the Lord is saying about false prophets. The key to my going on is what I underlined: the deception of my heart. See, I may think my heart has some good in it, but I am a depraved, and totally debauched man. Hear this Word from God:

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. (Romans 3:10-11)

My own heart told me things are from God, my own heart deceived me and told me I am a prophet from God. My own heart told me and not the sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures.

The Questions from my wife

I praise God for the wife He has given me. Now let me say this, only a Godly woman would follow a nut like me, especially a nut following his own heart. I would daily display my so called prophetic gift before my wife. “God is telling me this honey and God is telling me that!” I’m sure that it created a friction because I came off like I was so in tune with the Lord Jesus Christ, and she wasn’t. I think it was actually the other way around. She would tell people of my supposed gift but she knew that something was not right. Daily she would hit me with questions, wanting to know what Jesus was saying. Although it became easy for her not to consult the scriptures on her own, but consult her prophet right? Right and that’s just what she did, but the false words still troubled her heart. (Let me say, repenting from false prophecy is not going to make your life a bed of roses. It brings pain to people, your lying words destroy the lives of other people. Some of those destroyed lives may struggle in believing anything that you say. Still repent and follow the Lord Jesus Christ of the bible) Here are some of the false things that my wife followed me after that led us down a road of greed and covetousness. She questioned me on these things:

-God told me that after my father-in-law was saved, I would receive $50,000. – never happened
-God told me then some time later, I’d receive a $1,000,000. – never happened
-God told me I would get promoted – never happened
-God told me my first child would be a girl – was a boy
-God told me I have my first son on August 5th – he was born on August 1st.
-God told me my second child would be girl – my second child is a boy
-God told me to sell my house – my house stayed on the market a whole year and did not sell
-God told me two Christians would by our house – no one bought the house
-God told me my wife will do daycare out of the home – my wife is a stay at home mother, praise God!!!!
-God told me to buy a BMW – brought us into financial difficulty
-God told me a giver would come and bless us with money – no giver came, went in debt-God told me to stay go to a church and support financially a pastor that was sleeping with members and dealing drugs – left the church and pastor still does the same things.

And there are more things God supposedly told me, that never came to pass. In fact, I became angry with God when these things did not come to fruition. The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the LORD. (Proverbs 19:3) I tried many times to make light of why the Lord would send me through this. Why go through all these lies? Here the Lord spoke in the scriptures:

Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. (Proverbs 30:6)

I had to be found a liar because I was adding to God’s Word. I had to see that God was reproving me by this. God allows false prophets and prophecies, to reprove us and to see if we love Him. Don’t think so, His Word again:

If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. (Deuteronomy 13:1-4)

And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. (Hebrews 12:5-11)

O how great the Lord Jesus Christ is. His blessed Word is awesome and O what a wonderful text of scripture. Now, when the prophecies above did not come to pass, my wife questioned me hard about whether I heard from God. See she knew, the Lord Jesus don’t make no mistakes and tells no lies:

God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? (Numbers 23:19)

Things were not coming to pass; I was getting angry because the money God supposedly had promised was not coming in. I was spending money, hoping the check would come in the mail. Shannon saw my hunger for money, and my coveting of things in how I acted with my BMW. Then she said some words to me one day that I will never forget. “I was drawn to you when you had a hunger for Christ, a hunger for His Word, what happened to you?”


The Reformation

Then the Lord Jesus Christ, spoke to my mind the scripture “Return to your first love!” I searched the scriptures and found this. Again, let’s let God talk:

Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. (Revelation 2:1-5)

I made my way back to the scriptures. I read Ephesians also to get what the first love was they had. I changed who I listened too as well. If men were not teaching bible, I wasn’t listening. I began listening to Grace to You, Stand Up Ministry and surfed Pulpit Pimps. Sound doctrine started hitting my ears and I checked things out from scripture. The Word of God brought me to repent from every lie I told. One thing which was hard for me was letting go of the beliefs that come along with following after your own heart. I once believed in woman pastors/bishops, tithing to receive that check in the mail, modern day apostles/prophets, and tongues. Boy could I speak in some tongues! Ha ha, I used to sing and speak blabber all in the shower, and claimed to give my own interpretation of them. LOL, what silliness this was. I heard John E Coleman one day, got disgusted with his teaching and turned him off. I really didn’t like what the biblical teachers were saying because the bible exposed my beliefs to be wrong. Yes, I didn’t like that. I’d hear J. Vernon McGee in his country voice reading the bible and avoided him at first. With the Holy Spirit leading, the Word began to take flight in me. I started to investigate what the biblical teachers were teaching. No deception, no gimmicks, just straight bible. I began learning exegesis and biblical interpretation, but all of it was bible. Oh what a joy, this was my first love. God’s Word and His will became clear.

Now, I didn’t give you everything. I still know many people in the charismatic movement. I have watched unsaved people think their prophets to only to turn back to world! I still today struggle with my life because the wonder comes, did God tell me to get married? See, repenting from the lies doesn’t make reality go away. There is a joy in Christ though, the true prophecy lies within the scriptures. God’s Word endures forever.

But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. (1 Peter 1:25)

Amen and Amen to that. If you’re trapped, Jesus Christ the Lord can deliver you. He can save you from the lies of your own heart. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6).

When I see someone prophelie, I laugh inside myself. I somewhat understand where they are coming from. Jesus Christ of the scriptures will only deliver someone from this lie. Again, because I study the scriptures more, doesn’t clear me from going through anything. When you lead a woman the wrong way for a long time, it causes deep pain. Trust is broken and the question comes, “Is this the real way!” Praise God though, because Jesus Christ will do His will according to His Word. There’s no room for complaining, just do what the bible says to do my friends.

Look to the bible always. Does God speak to men’s minds? Yes, He does, and these men of God will never, ever, ever be wrong in what is spoken. What these men speak will come from the scripture. For example, a biblical pastor may have to teach from a text God has spoken to his mind to teach expository from. Guaranteed, the Word is going to get all up in people’s kool aid. Repentance or rejection from the people either will take place. God will receive the glory and not man. Look at what happened in the scriptures below. This is what the man of God does.

And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had walked: The same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked. And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker. Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people. Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. And with these sayings scarce restrained they the people, that they had not done sacrifice unto them. (Acts 14:8-18)

Now you know, that there is hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. Come out from the mess and live for the Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ alone

Karsten Miller