The following is an edited version of a paper I authored for my Spiritual Formation class at Nazarene Bible College. 
 


 

Timothy E. Davis

MPP1551: Spiritual Formation  

Dr. Peter E. Gantz

February 11, 2010

  When I was 10 years old, I attended a Church summer camp in Orangeburg, SC.  Several of my friends were there also.   I don’t remember the whole thing, but when they asked if I would go to Heaven if I died, I told them I didn’t know.  Then they made a big deal about removing me from the class (like I had done something wrong) separating me from my friends and taking me to another room.  I was so scared I would have told them anything, even that I shot JFK.  I understand their intentions were good, but that is not the way to treat a ten year old at Vacation Bible School

  I do not think my accepting Christ was valid or that my confession that I am a sinner was legitimate I think it is a textbook example of how not to run a Vacation Bible School.  As a ten year old, it scared me so bad that we had to have our neighbor, who was a Deacon there, get and return my Bible.  I was too scared to go back inside that building.

A few years later, I joined a Baptist Youth group at Northside Baptist Church in Orangeburg, South Carolina.  I came to feel really comfortable around them and the adults who volunteered to be Youth Group leaders.   For years I heard “Christ is the only way to Salvation, accept no substitutes” preached from the Pulpit and reinforced in Youth Group activities.    Seeds were being planted in my mind and deep into my soul.

 I walked the aisle at 14 years old to accept Jesus Christ!   It was a hot, sticky August night at White Oak Conference Center. I had been trying to ignore the feelings in my heart. I tried to silence the Holy Spirit, but he showed me the shameful things I had done. Although I had just taken a shower, I saw I was covered in filthy, stinking sin. I raced down the aisle, the minute the Preacher opened the altar. Jesus Christ moved into my heart that day, and life has never been the same since!   I was baptized about two months later.

 After leaving for college, I had a hot and cold relationship with the King.  There were times we walked together and times of me becoming indifferent about God.  There were great personal tragedies, and a few bad personal failures. There were times I could feel the call to ministry, very distant, and times I felt so distant from God that there might as well been a brick wall between us, I carried a tremendous amount of anger for the Father, far too much to walk in his presence.   

 I felt the Lord’s call then, but did not answer.    I asked Jehovah to enlarge my territory, and, shortly after that, two of my articles were bought for publication in a Christian Newspaper, so Jehovah enlarged it in a literal sense, increasing the circulation of the articles about Jesus.

 My wife and I found a solid Christian church that still teaches the truth. We began to tithe faithfully. That started the Holy Spirit moving in our lives. Because I had moved closer to the Lord, an amazing thing began to happen. I felt the call to the ministry, the same one I had ignored in High School. I am a Christian author.  I was writing articles for our small church bulletin when God kept me up all night one night to write some articles about Him and His Kingdom. During that night, something amazing occurred. I received an anointing for his work. He blessed my small ministry, writing articles for our small church bulletin    

With his guidance, I founded a Christian website. . I felt the Lord’s call then, but did not answer.    I asked Jehovah to enlarge my territory, and, shortly after that, two of my articles were bought for publication in a Christian Newspaper, so Jehovah enlarged it in a literal sense, increasing the circulation of the articles about Jesus.

We collect used and we give away free emergency cell phones.  The priority work, though, is teaching others about Jesus Christ.  Although I just run a small site, for example, we had fifty hits from China before access must have been shut off by the government.  We have had hits from other restricted countries, such as Pakistan.  People are quite literally risking torture and execution to learn about Jesus Christ.  God has used the site to reach people like those in China and Pakistan...  My ears once again heard his call; my soul once again felt his pull, and my hand felt his hand, guiding me to serve him even more. He was clearly and unmistakably calling me to the Gospel Ministry.

 The Church Board at my Pentecostal Holiness church gave me an endorsement, and I began Ministry School held one weekend a month at Upper SC District Headquarters. After earning my Local Church Ministers License, I kept waiting to be used. Some assignment to teach or preach or whatever God had called me to do.  My wife and I did visit the shut-ins, or elderly homebound people.  I enjoyed that.  In fact, even many months after God led us to another church, Barbara called.  Barbara needed a ride to the eye doctors.  My wife Jamie could not take her for some reason that day, so I told her I would be glad to take her to her appointment.  I took her that day, not knowing it would be the last time I would see her in this world. About two weeks later, Barbara left us to join her Savior.  Barbara had always enjoyed my articles, so I read one at her service, and I know she would have loved it.
 

The fact that there are evil forces that fight against the forces of God is clear through the study of The Word.  People, even some Christians, may roll their eyes at this statement, but it is scripturally sound.  That those who oppose the work of Satan can find themselves fighting these unseen forces Paul talks about is scripturally correct.  The first Ministry Class I went to, I arrived 15 minutes late, despite having door to door directions and the sun out late into the evening. This could have been poor planning, I thought. .  The second time, there was a storm and tornado warnings in the area.  But despite having door to door directions, leaving home early, and having my wife track me with Google earth, I arrived at my dorm more than an hour after classes ended. Could have been the weather, right?

 The next time we came from some friends in Atlanta to the Ministry School.  Again, using satellite software the 3 hour drive turned into an eight hour drive, and started off with me getting so dizzy I had to pull off and let my wife drive.  We went through the worst of Atlanta, because there was nowhere for me to stop, while I was so dizzy I was having trouble seeing. 
 

Later, through odd circumstances and unexplained directions mistakes, we got to the dorm just before classes started. My wife felt the opposition and she did most of the driving, and we still were just able to get there with computer printed directions.  That night, and every night I spent in that dorm, Satan was pelting me in my mind with every single evil, mean, rude, and disgusting thing I had ever done.   I cried out to the Father,  and most of that stopped.  It was the same each time.  As I tried to study in the dorms, spiritual warfare was hot all around me.  Even the very last time I came up for class. The same thing happened with me initially getting lost going to a place I had been to three times already.

 I still managed to complete my training and earn my IPHC Local Minister’s License, but there was opposition almost anywhere I looked.  Satan put things into my mind to try to tell me I was too filthy to serve God.  I persevered, but he is still trying, every chance he gets, to bother me.  Just this morning I called out for help from Jesus, to shut down evil thoughts in my soul you will not be opposed by Satan and his forces of Darkness, is when you are walking in the same direction as them.

 I am now more certain than ever about where I am going...  I have been called to become a full-fledged Pastor.  God wants me to use my talents for teaching and writing even more than I am now.  God willing I should be licensed soon.   After that, I would like to become a  non-paid Staff Pastor at the Pentecostal Holiness church we attend.    

I have learned so much from Reverend Richard Coleman, my former Pastor at Shepherd Church of the Nazarene, where God called us for a few years. Now He has returned us to where we started, Irmo Family Worship Center.  I have been inspired and fed from the Word by Reverend Paul Howell at IFWC.   I love Irmo Family Worship Center, and I would like to work there, in a non-paid capacity, when I finish the classes required for Licensing and Ordination.    And what I do after that is up to God.  For my deepest, fondest dream is to serve Him well, and to walk in the grace He bestows each day.

I ask everyone to pray for me to be led by God, following His timing, not mine. Patience is not my strong point, and I must mature in that area.  Please pray that  God's Will would be done in my life, and that I could clearly hear His voice.  Thank You.