My Grace Journey…

My Grace Journey …

By Apostle Felix

10  But God’s amazing grace has made me who I am! And his grace to me was not fruitless. In fact, I worked harder than all the rest, yet not in my own strength but God’s, for his empowering grace is poured out upon me.
11  So this is what we all have taught you, and whether it was through me or someone else, you have now believed the gospel. 

1 Corinthians 15: 10, 11

My story is one that is engrossed in the grace of God. I believe you too have a similar testimony. We have all been saved by the grace of God, not by our own works. This truth is so liberating. The grace of God found me and made who I am today. I have a story tell about my grace journey. I got saved in February 1994. My life took a drastic turn and have never looked back since. In my grace journey, I will give an account of incidences that led to shaping my doctrinal persuasion in Christ. I realized that God had began to reveal Himself to me since He saved and He continues to do so.

The Holy Spirit…

8  But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. 

Acts 1: 8

One of the practices I did not appreciate in the church services was the speaking in tongues. I misunderstood in the scripture from first Corinthians 14: 2 that says, ‘When someone speaks in tongues, no one understands a word he says, because he’s not speaking to people, but to God—he is speaking intimate mysteries in the Spirit.’ So then, I was strongly infuriated with believers that were praying in tongues in church service. And I believed that the speaking of tongues was not for every christian. It is a gift given to some. That belief made me to become very resistant to the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Despite my praying long hours, I did not believe in speaking in tongues as being the initial evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

It took about eight months or so, before I got baptized in the Holy Spirit. It was after a read a small booklet on the Holy Spirit by A.W. Tozer. The booklet helped me to see the necessity of the baptism in the Holy Spirit in my life. I began to pursue the baptism in the Holy Spirit with so much passion, and got baptized in December of 1994. The experience changed my life radically, and the fire for the Lord and His kingdom was evident. I immediately developed unquenchable passion for souls and mission work. My experience my sound ridiculous and unreal to someone, but that’s fine. It is not about my personal experience, but the reality of the Holy Spirit. He is not some form of power, but He is the Person. From the day I got baptized in Him, He became so real to me. I would talk to Him for hours upon hours. My prayer life shifted from just a commitment to a relationship. For some reason, He filled in the Spirit that I spoke in tongues for a week. This is not a  doctrine at all. You don’t need to speak in tongues for a week for you  to know that you are now filled. I don’t know why God allowed that with me.

The Gifts…

4  It is the same Holy Spirit who continues to distribute many different varieties of gifts.
5  The Lord Yahweh is one, and he is the one who apportions to believers different varieties of ministries. 

1 Corinthians 12: 4, 5

After the baptism in the Holy Spirit, I dived deeper in God. I rarely interacted with people. My life was solely dedicated to fellowship with God. God began to move in my life so powerfully that winning souls and casting out devils became the order of the day. And then God began to use me in the prophetic ministry. The gift was very strong and evident in my life that people started referring to me as a prophet. I did not understand all that was happening in my life. I was not even impressed by it all. I thank God that none of those experiences got to my head. For me, it was a normal life for a every believer. In the same year I got saved, I prayed for my uncle, who had died to come back to life. He sneezed three times and was back to life. Even that did not surprise me and impressed by it. I thought every believer does that. I never went about testifying about it until I mentioned it as a by way to my pastor. My pastor was shocked to hear that I had raised my uncle who had died and got totally healed from the sickness that almost killed him. Child of God, raising the dead and healing the sick is the work of grace, and not the work of man. Just go ahead and pray for the sick. I just believed that when i prayed the dead will come back to life.

However, God intervened and brought some order to my life and ministry. People were coming to me so I could tell them what God was saying. I was very young in the Lord I did not see anything wrong with it. In 1995, a sister in Christ, after church service came to ask what God was saying. As usual, I wanted to start downloading when God stopped me in my tracks, and said, ‘You are not Moses.’ Immediately, I understood what God meant. Instead of telling her what God was saying, I told her what God had to me that was I was not Moses. I encouraged her to go and hear God for herself. From that time I understood that my calling is not to go around giving people prophetic words at will. People can hear God for themselves. My ministry is to confirm what the Lord had impressed on their hearts. I also understood that my ministry is not originated from mount Sinai, but mount Zion. It is the ministry produces life, and not death. The prophetic ministry tailored after Moses produces death. The New Testament prophetic ministry is the Spirit of Christ, which is the Spirit of prophecy.

15  “The LORD your God will raise up a prophet like me for you from among your relatives. You must listen to him. 

Deuteronomy 18: 15

10  And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. 

Revelation 19: 10

…to be continued