ApostolicsConnected.com

By Becky Murphy

I was not raised in church.   We went a few times a year, and if you had asked me, I would have told you I was Catholic.   I was eleven when my great-grandmother passed away and we stopped going to church altogether.  

Before I met Jesus

When I was fifteen, we moved to Ohio and my parents decided we would start going to church.   We would attend for a service or two, and then not go again for a few months, never becoming consistent.   The churches we would go to were not very “alive”, and I would find myself having a hard time even staying awake through the service.

It was around this time that I started hanging out with the wrong crowd, and started getting into some trouble.   I won’t go into all the details, but it was during this time that I began spending my Friday evenings attending a 12-step program.   It was there that I met the young lady who originally introduced me to the Lord.   She told me that her family had started going to a new church, and that I “just had to check it out!”   I went with her the following Sunday morning and really felt Jesus for the first time in my life.   I attended with her for the next couple of weeks, and then we eventually lost contact and I fell back to my former habits.

Life Fast Forward

Fast forward ten year into the future, I was now married and was looking for a school to enroll my daughter for kindergarten.   I wasn’t specifically looking for a Christian school when we enrolled her in New Life Academy, for I was not a regular church attendee at this time, and really didn’t want to be.   I thought I was too busy.    Dovie Thompson and Jennifer Palmer would invite me to church almost weekly.   I always said no, or maybe another time, but they were persistent.  

At Home in His Presence

The first service I attended was a Wednesday night service in October.  That night, I felt Jesus the same way I had felt Him ten years before, and this time I knew I had to turn my life over to Him.   The next week I was baptized in Jesus’ name and was starting a Bible study with Jenn, and began learning about the Holy Ghost.   Although I did not embrace it right away, it was not long before I greatly wanted to receive the Baptism of the Holy Ghost.

On Wednesday, November 29, 2006, the John and Sherri Hemus family was here on missionary deputation.   Brother Hemus was preaching and at one point asked who in the sanctuary had not received the baptism of the Holy Ghost.   I was the only one who raised my hand, and he told me that I would be filled with the Holy Ghost that night.   During the altar call, Jenn Palmer and Phylicia Cek prayed with me, and Brother Hemus came over to pray with me as well.   Within a few minutes of praising God, I was filled with the Holy Ghost.   My life has not been the same since that night.   Over and over I’ve thanked Him for pulling me out of the hole that I was in.   A few weeks ago, I found out that the church where I originally felt the love of Jesus was New Life Church, when they were in Willoughby.   It’s amazing to me how God works.   I have no doubt that me choosing New Life Academy was part of His plan to bring me back to Him.  I can’t wait to see the future that He has planned for me.