Sixty Years in the Way and Out of the Way
Natalia | Женственность • Духовность • Вдохновение
This week’s blog departs from my usual format. After a Facebook post asking for blog ideas, several people requested more personal topics. So today, I want to share part of my spiritual journey in hopes of encouraging others in their walk with God.
Personal Testimony
My family moved from the country setting near Lake Overholser in Warr Acres, Oklahoma, to Britton, a suburb of Oklahoma City. At fourteen, the Holy Spirit burdened me with deep conviction over the sins I’d committed and my failure to act on the call of God for my life. Every time we went anywhere, we passed the church of the Nazarene, six blocks from our house.
We’d been in our new home only two weeks when I could bear the guilt no more. I decided to attend that church on Sunday. I dressed in my best blue jeans and shirt, polished my shoes, and walked to church.
I was greeted by many people, and the church youth who made me feel at home. In the sanctuary, beautiful ceiling lamps hung, making the worship area feel warm and inviting. White oak pews graced the interior. Everything about the front of the sanctuary seemed to invite people to seek God. On the left sat a large pipe organ and on the right a baby grand piano. In front of the platform stood an oak altar for seekers who wanted to talk to God.
The singing was vivacious and lovely. Conviction overwhelmed me so strongly that while I stood singing, I gripped the pew in front of me until my knuckles turned white. On the second song, the second verse, I could stand it no longer and bolted to the altar. No one came to pray with me. The service continued on. I wept before God, asking him to forgive me of my sins, and promised to follow His call on my life to become a preacher.
Yielding to the call of God is the way to peace.
In The Way
Gabriel Cuba | Christian Visuals & AI
When I got home from church that day, the L-rd started me reading the Bible. I read it every night, but that wasn’t enough. The Holy Spirit told me to start carrying my Bible to school on top of my books as a witness to other students and to read it in my spare time. He taught me to pray. I prayed every night and on my way to school every morning. My rapid spiritual growth attracted the attention of my peers, giving me many opportunities to share Christ. https://isow.org/blog/beginning-your-walk-with-god/
After school, unless mom needed me to do something around the house, I often went on long walks to talk with God. On Saturdays, I sometimes walked for miles just talking with the Lord.
One time, he challenged me to step out on faith and blindly follow his leading. My spiritual life wasn’t ready for that step. I struggled at the fork in the road five miles from home. I weighed what it would mean to leave Mom and my brothers, what would happen to me, and where I might end up. I finally turned around and went home. Looking back, I believe God was testing me, and the path I chose proved to be part of His plan all along.
Sometimes the path you choose is God’s first choice.
Later, I learned to journal my experiences, prayers, and impressions. By the time I graduated from seminary and took my first church, journaling had become a habit, though not as consistent as I wanted it to be.
In my third pastorate after Seminary, I was tired of an inconsistent spiritual life. At our district Assembly evening worship service, our General Superintendent gave an altar call, and I went forward, surrendering my untamed will to the Lord. The Holy Spirit swept over me in a way I had never experienced before, bringing my desires, dreams, and future under His control. On Sunday, revival broke out in my church, and many were filled with the Holy Spirit. https://ddcc.church/the-benefits-of-the-spirit-filled-life-2/
Ephesians 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
I walked with God nightly and learned how to abide in His presence. Those times were written in my journal as I learned the beauty of intimacy with Jesus.
Becoming Spirit-filled gives you power and direction for life.
Here is a recap of what I learned.
- Bible reading taught me about God.
- I learned early that I needed to be intentional about my witness
- I learned how to pray to deepen my relationship with my heavenly Father
- Journaling helped me remember what the Lord was teaching me
- Letting the Holy Spirit take control of my will brought a new dynamic in my relationship with God.
- Learning to abide in His presence as I studied the teachings of Jesus deepened my spiritual life.
Out of the Way
1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
Not long after I gave my heart to Jesus, I had finished my Bible reading and spent some time talking to God. My experience was new, fresh, exciting. I’d developed new friends and loved church. Then it felt as though satan himself whispered, “You know, Ron, you’re going to have to live this way for the rest of your life.” I knew what he meant. I would never return to my past. The thought hit me hard. Memories of my old life and old friends flooded back, and for a few moments, my resolve wavered. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t3BMZrdrFA&t=67s
After a few moments, I turned to satan and said with gritted teeth and clenched fist, “Living this way is not a burden, it’s a privilege, and I will live for Jesus the rest of my life. Now, get out and don’t come back.” He left—for the moment.
Mark 4:15 And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.
Satan didn’t hound me. He tried luring me away with temptations. He sent people into my life who tried to get me to compromise my walk with God, my morals, and my ethics. The grace of God and His mercy gave me a way to escape. He taught me ethics in hunting, relationships, and integrity in business. Those were not foundational in my upbringing because of the unscrupulous adults in my life.
The battles with pride and arrogance continued. Naturally, my spiritual life suffered from an inconsistent walk with God. Often, I lived by a double standard. That’s satan’s way. Left unchecked, such a life will lead to a lapse and eventually falling away from God. That’s when I surrendered to the Holy Spirit.
I learned about prayer retreats, and before I became Spirit-filled, my first one was a disaster. After that altar experience and the new infilling of the Holy Spirit, prayer retreats became a yearly adventure. During each week-long retreat, I fasted as I prayed. On one of those retreats, God gave me a vision warning me of satan’s trap he’d set for me. I woke up and prayed until I knew in my heart that that future trap was covered, and I would not fall. When it came to pass, God helped me to come out victorious.
Satan doesn’t often attack you head-on but subtly with seemingly harmless compromises.
Satan’s Ten Strategies for Destruction
- He whispers half-truths and doubts to weaken your faith.
- He studies your weaknesses and exploits them.
- He tests your ethics through compromise and temptation.
- He feeds pride and arrogance.
- He tries to make your prayer life and Bible reading inconsistent.
- He constantly reminds you of past sins and failures.
- He whispers lies like, “You’re not worthy,” or “God could never forgive that.”
- He challenges your confidence in God’s Word.
- He attacks your thoughts, dreams, and peace of mind.
- He uses hardship, discouragement, and trials to wear you down.
https://bibletalk.tv/satans-tactics
Strategies for Growth
#growing #growth #life #sucesso ✨️ The House of Aaradhya ✨️
Ephesians 1:13In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
God taught me, through his word and my mentors at church as a teenager, how to grow as a Christian. In college, books were a part of my education. I read constantly for class and to enrich my spiritual life. Books by E.M. Bounds, Peter Wagner, and other spiritual writers challenged me to deepen my prayer life.
Here are some strategies God taught me that helped grow my spiritual life.
- Read and study God’s word using whatever means He gives you, references, commentaries, or good books on the passages you are studying.
- Develop a vibrant prayer life. Read the classics, Rees Howells, Intercessor, EM Bounds, and others.
- Learn the art of abiding with God. Start with the Sermon on the Mount. Let the Holy Spirit guide you in the meaning and how to apply it to your life.
- Memorize the Word. I’m not good at memory work. I lose it almost immediately after I learn a verse. In my younger years, I practiced memorizing, but slowly my mind would retain what I placed there.
- Fellowship with believers. That’s where you grow in faith and learn sound doctrine
- Go on a prayer retreat and saturate yourself with God and His word
- Seek out godly mentors. Most of mine have passed on to heaven. I look forward to a great reunion when I get there.
https://www.ibelieve.com/christian-living/10-things-every-believer-must-do-to-grow-spiritually.html
Christian growth doesn’t happen in a vacuum—it happens in communion with the saints.
Walking in Faith
2 Corinthians 5:7(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
Walking in faith has been a lifelong pursuit. I’m constantly looking for ways to expand my faith and trust in God. God is faithful and brings the Word, people, books, and sermons to me when I need them most. Look for people who have great faith and copy their model.
- Great faith comes from the Word of God
- Giants in faith can teach you how to apply God’s word, increasing your faith
- Exercise the faith you have
- Learn how the early church viewed faith and copy their teachings
https://ministry127.com/walk-by-faith-choosing-faith-on-a-daily-basis
Walking with God in my Senior Years
My walk with God today is far different from when I started this journey. Today, I love listening to the Bible every day. Here’s my practice. I share it because it works for me. If it helps you, then I am blessed. I listen to 10 chapters daily, helping me to complete the entire Bible several times a year. Added to that is a chapter from Proverbs and five Psalms daily, helping me to complete both in a month.
I’m currently walking through Kenneth Copeland’s outlines on faith, praying over each listed verse. Recently, the Holy Spirit impressed me to begin transcribing my old prayer journals into my computer files. That has enriched my journey as I see where I was in faith years ago.
As I’ve grown older, I’ve battled with sleep deprivation. The Holy Spirit told me to get up when I couldn’t go to sleep for an hour and read God’s word. I would read two or three chapters and go back to bed. Surprisingly, I would go right to sleep. Now, I read at least two chapters, plus the comments and articles, in my Jewish study Bible every night before I go to bed.
I trust this will help you in your journey with God. If you have questions or comments, feel free to let me know.
Stay Connected
Thank you for taking the time to read about my spiritual journey. Your walk with Christ will not look exactly like mine, nor should it. God leads each believer differently. Yet the principles of prayer, Scripture, obedience, fellowship, and surrender remain timeless foundations for spiritual growth.
“We were called to shine in the darkness; we do that by walking closely with Jesus.”
A believer who walks faithfully with God becomes a light in a world filled with confusion and despair.
My prayer is that we, the church, remain faithful to God’s Word—hiding it deeply within our hearts and living it out before a world searching for truth.
God is still in the life-changing business—one person at a time.
“A believer who walks closely with God builds vibrant relationships that glow in a dark world.”
My prayer is that we, the church, will remain faithful to God’s Word—hiding it deep within our hearts and living it out before the world we serve.
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In His Service,
Ron
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