Spiritual event and encounters of James Christian Petzold 1972-74.
This testimony shows that the promises in the Holy Bible hold true and apply to us today.
Born again
I had accepted that Jesus was the Son of God from my early childhood [1]. I had scripture lessons at school and recited the Lords prayer during school assemblies throughout that time and never doubted the stories of the New Testament [2]. From 1969-1972, I read the Bible every night in search of something, sometimes even through an alcoholic haze when the words were literally swimming in front of my eyes. However, an interest in the supernatural and desire for power led me to get involved in the occult.
Due to a combination of circumstances, I found myself in a position where I had to renounce all evil [3] in front of two witnesses [4] and vow to follow Christ [5]. This took place early in November 1972.
Prayer
Three weeks after this event, I did as the Bible teaches and humbled myself as a little child [6] on my knees in private [7] one evening and surrendered my life to Jesus [8]. I confessed to Him that I could not find any good thing in me [9]. There was nothing in my life that could recommend me to Him in any way and there was much that made me His enemy rather than His friend [10]. I fully acknowledged that I was a thorough sinner and asked Him to forgive me for all the things I had done wrong in my life [11]. I had no doubt that He was the Son of God [12] and had come into the world [13], which he had created [14], was miraculously conceived by God's Holy Spirit in the womb of a young virgin called Mary [15], had lived as a man on the earth16 and was brutalised [17] and executed on a cross on my behalf [18] and rose from the dead [19]. I understood that God cannot tolerate sin [20], so the only means for me to justify my existence to Him was for a man who had never sinned to die and be cut off from God on my behalf [21]. I believed that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was that man [22] and that He had come as promised through the numerous Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament over the previous thousand or so years [23]. I handed over my life to Him in total submission and I asked Him to change me and be my Lord and saviour forever [24]. I also made two requests.
God's response
Immediately after my prayer, I felt the powerful presence of someone who was of timeless age [25], who in fact, lived outside time itself [26], who was full of profound wisdom [27] and who was exceedingly powerful and had great authority [28]. I sensed His presence standing about three or four feet in front of me. Although I could not see Him with my eyes, the sense of His presence was very powerful. Although I did not know Him [29], it was obvious that He knew me [30]. I could sense His gaze searching right through my soul as if it were as clear glass to Him and I realised that He knew and understood me and my motives to an immense depth, far more than I could ever understand them myself [31]. He understood where my motives came from, to a depth far greater than I could ever fathom. He showed me that He knew me before I was born and, even before He had created the world [32]. Words fail me to describe this experience, it was extremely powerful, frightening and wonderful all at the same time. As well as revealing Himself to me in this way [33], He totally forgave me for all the wicked things I had ever done [34], He filled my inner being with light [35] - where previously all I could sense was darkness and gloom [36], He gave me eternal life [37], I knew for the first time that I had an eternal existence which stretched from before the world came into being and would continue into infinity, He took away my fear of death [38] which had always plagued me from my early childhood. This fear has never returned since. He opened my understanding of the scriptures [39], so when I looked at the New Testament which was lying open in front of me at the time, every word appeared to be addressed to me personally. This had never happened to me before. Even the print seemed clearer. He heard two my requests and granted the first one straightaway.
I then openly declared myself to be Christian to all who new me [40].
After this, my life was completely changed and I experienced much answered prayer [41], including one which was without any doubt a supernatural event, a genuine, astounding miracle [42].
Baptised in the Holy Spirit
In January/February 1973, I got down on my knees and asked Jesus for the gift of tongues [43]. I gave Him three reasons why I wanted this gift.
As soon as I had finished asking, I distinctly heard the whispering of what sounded like a crowd of hundreds of voices speaking all at once [44] from about thirty yards behind and to the right of me. (My room was on the first floor of the house and they seemed to come from some point at the same level of my room but from outside in the garden. It was as if there were no walls to the house to impede the sound.) Filled with astonishment and a feeling of excited expectancy, I waited with my eyes closed as the voices came nearer and grew louder. Within about five seconds, I was completely surrounded by the voices. I felt that I was in the middle of a small crowd of beings all whispering loudly at the same time. I opened my mouth to speak and immediately found that I was speaking fluently in a language which was completely unknown to me [45].
I was able to start and stop speaking in this new language at will, just like deciding whether to get up and walk or sit down. This ability has never left me since and I use it in prayer on a regular basis [46]. (There is power in the gift of tongues. Within the context of private prayer, we are submitting to the Holy Spirit in trust by praying for things which we human beings are not able to comprehend because they are mysteries beyond our experience and from another dimension. However, we feel the benefit in our spirits and this translates to revelation and power in our lives.)
Baptised in water
In the autumn of that year, I was baptised by immersion in water as the Bible teaches [47].
Jesus appears to me
One night in March 1974, I was telling my wife of my concern that I had not really shown that I had surrendered everything in my life to God [48]. I was really anxious that God required me literally to give up everything, including my marriage, and become a tramp so that there was nothing left in my life that I was holding back from Him. My wife said to me that this was not what God meant by being fully surrendered to Him, and then she drifted off to sleep. I was fully awake and still casting about in mind what more God wanted me to do.
A few minutes later, I was suddenly confronted by a holy presence, awesomely powerful and searingly pure (like a sort of spiritual bleach), words are inadequate to describe the experience [49]. A person dressed in white was standing at the end of our bed. This person stood about six feet tall and was clothed in a white garment which shone like lightning. I could see His face and beard but could not make out His features clearly because of the brilliance of the light. I could just about make out His eyes and the tip of His nose. Although the light was so bright, I was not blinded and could still look at Him without having to squint [50]. In contrast to Him, I could see clearly what a disgusting and selfish creature I really was [51]. I wondered how I could hide from this Holy Being, how I could disappear or somehow simply cease to exist in order to get away - there was nothing in me that I could find that could tolerate the holiness of His presence. As I was wrestling with these thoughts and the sense of profound consternation, I began to experience complete forgiveness for my filthy, selfish nature [52]. Whereas previously, I had been thoroughly forgiven for all the selfish and unclean things I had done in my life, this time, I was forgiven and accepted as a person. I was now given the right to exist, not because of anything I had done but simply because He wanted me to exist. It was entirely His decision and not because of anything I had done. I felt completely free of any constraints [53]. I then felt His perfect selfless love enveloping me in powerful waves of increasing power and intensity [54]. I could see that He was looking directly at me and because His nature is completely selfless [55], His whole attention and concern was focussed entirely on me and me alone. The power of His love increased so much that I felt as though I would be absorbed into Him and consumed out of existence. I then began to feel anxious and a little alarmed at the intensity of His love - I was not used to unconditional love, and certainly not with this power. I was not even used to ordinary love, it had taken some time for me to learn to tell my wife how much I loved her and I was completely out of my depth here. I started to pull away from His love. He gently drew away and gradually withdrew from the room.
It is not possible to express the enormity of this experience in words. I really felt as though I was going to be completely taken out of this world into Him. Experiencing Jesus like this, I found that He is much greater, more full of complete selfless love, purity and power than the descriptions of Him in the New Testament, simply because our language and means of communication are inadequate to describe Him. It is no wonder that the writers of the New Testament had to invent a new word for God's love.
My heavenly Father
A few days later, God again unexpectedly revealed Himself in me as my true Heavenly Father. I was His son and nobody else's [56]. My natural father was there as a temporary surrogate whose purpose was to care for my needs. I do not wish to belittle his role in my life or imply that I am ungrateful for his input [57] but simply to put his role in perspective. My true father is my Heavenly Father, as is the case for all those who are born again and have become a new creation [58].
GOD IS FAITHFUL AND TRUE
Biblical references (taken from the New King James Bible©, Nelson)
1) Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.
2) Romans 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
3) 2 Corinthians 4:2 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame
4) Deuteronomy 19:15 …by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established.
5) Mark 8:38 Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me
6) Matthew 18:3 Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
Mark 10:15 Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it
7) Matthew 6:6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who
is in the secret
place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly
8) James 4:7 Therefore submit to God.
9) Mark 10:18 No one
is good but One,
that is, God
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart
is deceitful above all
things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
10) Matthew 12:30 He who is not with Me is against Me
11) 1 John 1:19 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness
12) Matthew 1:23 "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us."
Exodus 3:4 God said to Moses, "
I AM WHO
I AM." And He said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, '
I AM has sent me to you.'"
John 8:24 for if you do not believe that
I AM (He), you will die in your sins
John 8:58 Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was,
I AM." (See also
http://endtimepilgrim.org/70wks6.htm - irrefutable proof that Jesus was the coming Messiah)
13) Micah 5:2 But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting (see also Matthew 2:6)
14) John 1:3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made
15) Genesis 3:15 I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel Isaiah 7:14 Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel (LXX and Matthew 1:23)
16) Psalm 39 (40) LXX :7 Sacrifice and offering You did not will; But a body You prepared for Me (see also Hebrews 10:5)
17) Isaiah 53:5 by His stripes we are healed
18) 2Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
19) E.g. Matthew 28:1 Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb Matthew 28:9 And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, "Rejoice!" So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him.. Matthew 28:16-17 Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. Mark 16:9-12 Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons. She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe. After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country. Luke 24:33-35 So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, "The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!" And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread. John 20:18 Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken these things to her. John 20:26 And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace to you!" 1Corinthians 15:5-8 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.
20) Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death,
21) 2Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
22) 1Corinthians 15:3 that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures
23) Luke 24:27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, Jesus expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. (see also Genesis 3:15, 12:3, 18:18, 49:10, Deuteronomy 18:15-19, Psalm 2:7, 16:10,11, 22:7, 16, 17, 18, 34:20, 35:11, 19 69:4, 41:9, 68:18, 69:21, 72:10,11, 118:22, 23, Isaiah 28:16, Psalm 132:11, Jeremiah 23:5, 6, 33:15, 16 Isaiah 7:14, 9:1-7, 35:5-6, 50:6, 52:13 - 53:12, 55:3-4, Jeremiah 31:31-34, Isaiah 59:16, 61:1-3, Daniel 9:25-26, Micah 5:2, Zechariah 9:9, 11:12, 13, 13:7, Malachi 3:1 (and many more places in the texts, types and acrostics etc.))
24) 2Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
25) Daniel 7:9 Ancient of Days
26) Deuteronomy 33:27 The eternal God is your refuge, And underneath are the everlasting arms;
27) Job 9:4 God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. 1Timothy Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honour and glory forever and ever. Jude 1:25 God our Saviour, Who alone is wise
28) Job 36:22 God is exalted by His power Jeremiah 32:17 'Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm.
29) Isaiah 45:5 I am the LORD, and there is no other; There is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me 1 John 3:1 it (the world) did not know Him
30) Psalm 139:1-6 O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me Jeremiah 17:10 I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind
31) Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you
32) Hebrews 1:10 (see Psalm 102:26-27) You, LORD, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands
33) Hebrews 8:11 (see Jeremiah 31:31-34) None of them shall teach his neighbour, and none his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them
34) Ephesians 1:7, Colossians 1:14 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins
35) John 12:46 I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. Colossians 1:13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love
36) Ephesians 5:8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord 1Peter 2:9 proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light
37) John 3:15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life John 10:27-28 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord
38) Hebrews 2:14-15 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage
39) Luke 24:45 He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.
40) Matthew 10:32 Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. Luke 12:8 Also I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God
41) John 14:14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it John 16:23 And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you
42) 1Corinthians 12:10 …to another the working of miracles…
43) Acts 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. 1Corinthians 14:18 I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all
44) Ezekiel 43:2 His voice was like the sound of many waters Revelation 1:15 His voice as the sound of many waters Revelation 19:6 And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters
45) 1Corinthians 14:2 For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries
46) 1Corinthians 14:18 I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all;
47) Mark 1:9-10 It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan, And immediately, coming up from the water; Mark 16:16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned; Acts 2:38 Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins;
48) Mark 10:21 Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, "One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me."
49) Isaiah 6:5 So I said: " Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts."
50) Acts 9:3 As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. 4 Then he fell to the ground Acts 9:17 "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road…"
51) Luke 5:8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!"
52) Ephesians 1:6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
53) John 8:36 Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
54) 1 John 4:16 God is love
55) Luke 23:34 Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do."
56) Romans 8:15 you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father."
57) Exodus 20:12 Honour your father and your mother
58) James 1:18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
