A Big Change Came In My Life
In January or February l985, I was over at my mother's house visiting my mother's cousin, who was in town. We had been talking about the Lord, and I remember exactly where we were standing getting ready to go upstairs, and out of my mouth came, "Francis Lee, I have such a hunger and thirst for the Lord." She said, "Did you know in Matthew 5:6 it says those that hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled?" My answer was, "No, I did not know that." Six months later (August l985) God started filling me and has been ever since. And I am getting ready to share with you how He did!
Prior to coming to Water of Life, JR and I were attending Church on the Rock in Rockwall, Texas. (Larry Lea was the pastor). We had been going there for 4-5 years, but in my heart there was a void and I knew something was wrong. I thought it was with me--surely it could not be with that church because it was one of the largest charismatic churches in the metroplex, and a large church had to be of God. How wrong I was!! But I was not being fed and that is why there was the hunger and thirst in my soul. God ordained that conversation that night at my mother's house because He had a plan for my life that was ordained from the foundation of the world. And that plan was going to change my life from walking in the flesh to walking in the Spirit. And it was a BIG change, to say the least!
There was a person I had met at Church on the Rock (through our mothers) named Terre Brown. She and her husband, Steve, had started going to Water of Life Church a month before we came here. After they started going there, she called me and told me about the church and about Doyle Davidson. I forgot her exact words, but she told me that Doyle was not anything like Larry Lea--Doyle was a very sober person. What I saw was that he was not an actor, but that he was indeed a sober man who had God in him. In I Corinthians 12:28 it says God has set in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets... What I had been in all those years was nothing but religious gatherings, and in August l985 God set me in the body of Christ!
The first Sunday morning we came here, Doyle was reading something out of the Bible and I remember thinking to myself, "I know I have read that many times, but I have never seen that before like I do right now." I mean God opened my eyes that day and started taking the 'blinders' off my eyes so I could see the Word of God just as it is written. II Corinthians 4:3-4 says, "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds (thoughts of the heart) of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." I was 'spiritually' blinded because I did not believe the gospel. Matter of fact, I had not even heard what the gospel was until I came to Water of Life Church.
I told JR shortly after that, that I was not going back to Church on the Rock, and his reply was, "Well, I don't know about that." But I knew I was not, and if that was rebellion, then so be it. (That is how I felt.) But it just happened to be God in my heart. And God changed JR's.
One night during a prayer meeting, not long after we had come to this ministry, I received the baptism in the Holy Spirit with evidence of speaking in other tongues. I had wanted to receive the Holy Spirit for a long time, but religious spirits had so seduced my faith that I never could. That night no one laid hands on me or prayed for me to receive the Holy Spirit, I just started speaking in other tongues--and have been ever since. For years I knew inside of me that if I could ever speak in other tongues, that I would spend hours praying in it, and God is my witness-I need no others- that I have. It does not impress me how long you have had the baptism in the Holy Spirit, what impresses me is do you pray in it and mix faith when you pray, and overcome? I will say that I have been amazed, at times, how many hours it has taken in prayer to overcome one little thing. Quite frankly, it has taken hours and hours of praying to overcome so that I could obtain the things given to me by the Spirit (and that is the only way it comes when God gives it to you). It has been a fight and a war in the Spirit because the powers and rulers of darkness resist the things of the Spirit--also the doubt and unbelief in my own soul. But I am grateful to God that I do overcome, because that is what this walk is about--overcoming the world. I John 5:4 says the victory that overcomes the world is our faith. Praise God.
Shortly after receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit, God started leading me down 'righteous paths' that did not seem too righteous. It did not matter what He would tell me to do, everyone around me would get mad. I was headed for a fight in the Spirit that I did not know existed. (And I will say right here, that there was a big fight in my own soul that I had to overcome because the flesh and the spirit lust against one another). But these 'righteous paths' were to restore my soul and lead me to overcome all the spirits that had me bound, and that wanted to bind me. God started putting a sword between me and mother and two sisters and then it came in my own house. And the war was on. Matthew 10 and Luke 12 talk about this. Even people at Water of Life came against me and resisted me in the Spirit. Matthew 5 says, "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you".
I thank God that I could find in the Bible what was going on in my life! Everything God has spoken to me or led me to do, He always confirmed it in His Word. But he totally separated me unto Him, so that I could obey Him and not care what man thinks. If you care what people think, you will never obey the Father and you are not a servant of Jesus (Galatians 1:10). What I want is God's honor and His only. He says He is a rewarder to those that diligently seek Him, and I am reminding Him of that right now.
Well, I think I will close for now, but I will be back with more to share on what this gospel has done and continues to do in my life.
