"One Man's Journey From Hatred to Love"

Recently I had the privledge to listen to this man's extraordinary story! Please don't miss this story- it will be one of the most amazing you will ever read! His link is on my list of "Christian websites"! Do you want a glimpse of heaven? Read on...

Ambulance:

One night while diving for lobster on the small island of Mauritius I was stung on my forearm by 5 Box-Jellyfish. A sting from a Box-jellyfish often proves to be fatal- as exemplified in Australia where 70 people are known to have died from their stings. Many books quote this particular type of jellyfish to be among the most venemous in the world.

By the time an ambulance arrived my body was totally paralyzed and necrosis had begun to set into my bone marrow. On route to the hospital I began to see my life flash before me. At this point of my life I was an atheist- but I knew I was nearly dead and I didn't know if there was life after death or whether there was just nothing. As I lay there dying, I saw my mother in a vision praying for me, encouraging me to cry out to God from my heart and He would hear me and forgive me (my mother was the only Christian in the family). I didn't know what to pray and cried out that if God was real, could He help me to pray. Immediately God showed me the Lord's Prayer, and for the first time in my life I prayed from my heart and gave my life to the Lord.

Death And Hell

The ambulance stopped and they placed me in a wheel chair and raced me into the hospital. The nurse took my blood pressure twice but could not find a pulse as my veins had collapsed. The doctors tried to save my life by injecting anti-toxins and dextrose into my body, but seemingely to no avail. Within a few minutes I seemed to slip away (apparently life ceased from my body for a period of approx. 15 minutes).

During this time I found myself in a very dark place, not realising where I was. So I tried to find a light switch, thinking I was still in the hospital- but as I reached out into the dark I couldn't hear anything. Reaching to touch my face I found my hand go straight through it. It seemed so bizzare, as I knew I was standing there but couldn't touch any part of my physical body.

As I stood there I began to sense that this wasn't just a physical darkness but that there was something else there. I could feel a cold erie feeling as though something or someone was loonking at me- a spiritual darkness. From the darkness I began to hear men's voices screaming at me to "shut up"- "that I deserved to be there"- "that I was in Hell". I couldn't believe it, but as I stood there a radiant beam of light shone through the darkness and immediately began to lift me upward. I found myself being translated up into an incredibly brilliant beam of pure white light- it seemed to be emanating from a circular opening far above me (I felt like a speck of dust being drawn up into a beam of sunlight).

The Journey:

I entered this opening to find myself inside a long narrow passageway or tunnel- at the far end of the tunnel I could see the source of light- it was so radiant that it looked to be the centre of the universe. As I continued to look towards this light it seemed to draw me towards the source of this light. I watched as a wave of light broke off the source and moved up the tunnel towards me- as it passed through me I could feel a wave of warmth and comfort flood my soul... it was incredible. This light wasn't just physical, but was giving off a living emotion...Halfway down another wave of light- this time it gave off pure peace- followed by another wave- of pure joy. Coming out of the end of this tunnel I found myself standing in the presence of awesome light and power- it seemed as though even the constellations in the universe must find their energy source from this focal point.

As I stood there I wondered to myself if this was just an energy source in the universe or if perhaps there could be someone standing in the midst of this light! A voice immediately responded to my thought and said "Ian, do you wish to return?" Return, I thought! Where am I? As I looked over my shoulder I could see the tunnel going back into darkness.

The Light

I thought- darkness- hospital bed- am I out of my body? Is this real? Am I standing here? Or am I having some bizzare dream? Am I in my body or out of my body? As I looked back towards the light, it was still there... I responded "I don't know where I am, but if I am out of my physical body I wish to return." The voice responded, "If you wish to return, you must  see in a new light." "New light", I thought, "I'm seeing the light. Are you the true light?" Words appeared in front of me "God is light and in Him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5)". I had never read a Bible before in my life so I didn't know this was straight out of scriptures.

God is light, I thought- that is pure light- I see no darkness here, I have come from the darkness- I see no evil, no shadows- this is pure light- am I standing in the presence of God? He knows my name and I didn't tell Him, only God could do that- He knows what I am thinking before I even speak, only God could do that. Then He must be able to see everything I have done wrong in my life, no, I don't want God to see that. I felt totally exposed and wanted to move away from the light and go back into the darkness where I belonged. I thought someone had made a mistake and brought the wrong person up. As I drew back towards the darkness a wave of light swept through me- I felt pure love flow over me. Love I thought, how could God love me? I've taken His name in vain, I've slept around- I'm not a good man. But no matter what I said, his waves of unconditional love continued to flow over me. I found myself weeping uncontrollably in His presence. It was amazing that He had totally forgiven me and accepted me as I was.

The waves of love ceased and I wondered if I could possible step into the light and see what God looked like- I was so close. I asked if I could step in?... I heard no response but thought if God loved me so much, He wouldn't mind. As I stepped into the light, I found myself disappear into it as it was so radiant- it had the intensity of laser light, yet you could look directly at it. The light seemed to absorb me into it- the centre seemed to be very bright so I aimed for it- I could feel a healing presence coming off this light that was healing my broken heart...it was touching me deep inside my heart of hearts where no one gets to see, so beautiful.

God

Suddenly it opened up in the centre and standing in front of me was the most awesome sight- I could see a man standing in front of me, but he was not like anyone I'd ever seen before in my life. His garments where shimmering white in colour- garments of light- I could see His bare feet and His hands were outstretched towards me as if to welcome me. I knew I was looking upon God...as I looked toward His face the intensity of the light seemed to increase 7- fold- you couldn't make out the form of his face as light was so bright- such purity, such holiness, such beauty. I asked God if I could step closer. I felt I could, I wanted to see His face.

Moving closer, waves of more love began to flow towards me, and I felt very safe. Standing, now feet away, from the Lord I tried to see His face- but I didn't know that no man can see the face of God and live. And so, as I moved my face into the radiance that surrounded His face, He moved- and all His glory moved with him. Directly behind Him it opened out into a brand new world- green pastures, a crystal clear stream, rolling green hills to my right, mountains in the distance, blue skies above, to my left fields interspersed with trees and flowers. As I looked at the grass in front of me I could see the same light that was on the presence of God was radiating throughout this entire creation- totally untouched by man- perfect creation. And in my heart I knew I belonged here, that God had created me to live here- I knew I was home.

Return?

I was just about to enter in and explore, when God stepped back in front of me, and asked me this question, "Now that you have seen- do you wish to step in or do you wish to return?" I thought, "I don't want to return. I wish to step in. I have no one to go back for and no one has ever loved me, all they've ever done is manipulate me and try to control me. I have no one to go back for, I wish to step in." But God didn't move, so I looked back to say "goodbye cruel world", and standing behind me in a vision in front of the tunnel was my mother. And as soon as I saw her I knew that there was one person in my life that had shown me love, and that was my mother, and that she had prayed for me everyday and tried to show me that this was the way. In my mind I thought, "if I am dead and I did choose to step into heaven, what would my mother think? Would she know I made it or would she think I went to hell- because she knew I had no faith?" I realised that it could break her heart and that she would have no reason to believe that God had heard my prayer in the ambulance and forgiven my sins. I thought, "how can I do that to my my, it would be so selfish"... and decided I wished to return.

God then spoke to me and said, "If you wish to return- you must see things in a new light." I understand that to mean that I must see through his eyes of love, peace, joy, forgiveness, from his Heavenly perspective, not my temporary earthly perspective. Looking back towards the tunnel again I now could see a vision of all my family and thousands and thousands of other people. I asked God who all these people were, and He told me that if I didn't return then many of these people would not get the chance to hear about Him.

I told God that I didn't know most of them and I didn't love them, but that I loved my mother and wished to return for her. God spoke to me and told me that He loved those people and wanted them all to come to know Him. I asked God how could I possibly return back down the tunnel and back into my hospital bed. He spoke and said "Son, tilt your head, now feel the liquid drain from your eye. Now open your eye and see." And I was immediately back in my physical body.

Back To Earth

As I opened my eye, I was lying back on a hospital bed with my right leg elevated, cupped in the hands of the young Indian doctor who had been trying to save my life. He had a scalpel or some sharp instrument in his hand and he was prodding the base of my foot like a dead piece of meat. He wasn't aware that I was looking at him. I thought, "what's that man doing with my foot, what is he doing with that knife!!!" At the same time something seemed to spook the doctor and he quickly turned around to see my right eye open, looking at him. Terror struck his face and I got the distinct impression he had just seen a dead man looking at him. My eye wasn't moving much and I could see the doctor thinking to himself that perhaps he had hit a nerve in my foot and caused the corpse to twitch, and that he had the evil eye looking at him or something. As for me, I was trying to grapple with what I had just seen...Did I just see God, has he just given my life back? As I lay there I heard the voice of God say "Son, I have just given your life back." I said if that is true God, could you help me to tilt my head to the left and look out of the other eye, as I was getting sick of looking at the doctor's terrified face.

Srength came back into my neck and I opened my left eyes to see a whole bunch of nurses and orderlies standing in the doorway looking at me as if the dead had risen. As my eye locked onto theirs they began to jump backwards out of the doorway. From what I can ascertain I had been dead for a period of 15 minutes. I prayed to God that night and asked him to heal me and enable me to walk out of the hospital. That night God completely healed me and enabled me to walk out of the hospital the next day.

I asked God what I had become, as I found my entire life was changing for good. God told me I was a re-born Christian and that he wanted me to read His Bible. I had never read a Bible and had never heard about being born-again. Over the next 6 weeks I read the entire Bible. I have never been the same, and believe that I saw our Lord Jesus Christ in His glorified form (Rev. 1:13-18).

Hey Everyone,

My name is Linley Hayes and I am a regular attender of FEAST (youth service of dural baptist church). Growing up in a Christian household, God has always been a part of my life. Sometimes he wasn't a big part, but a part none-the-less.

I remember having a convocation with dad about the whole Christian thing when I was nine. After the talk, I made a decision to give my life to Christ.

I started coming to Church when I was 11, because of a friend at school. I then joined youth group. High school wasn't very nice to me. In year 8, I tried to end my own life and take an overdose of sleeping pills. Fortunately my family got me to hospital in time.

I guess I got lost in life for a few years and didn't know where God was in my life.

When I left school in 1999, I started to go back to church to a sunday night service. I then joined a bible study run by a close friend named Bruce. It helped me find the meaning of being a Christian again, and they were there to help me if I got lost again.

In may 2003 my dad, who was also my best friend, was told he had cancer. This shocked our family and friends. Once again, my bible study was there to help where they could. In january 2004 dad passed away. That broke my heart and the rest of my families.

That was the hardest time of my life. Even though I have still thought about ending my own life, I know that my friends, family and Christ have and will always be there for me!

Linley, you are a champion! Praise be to God for your story of salvation!

You will love this testimony!...

"When I was younger, I got interested in church through my neighbour, who took me along every Sunday, and even though my parents were (and still are) atheists, they allowed me to get baptised. I went to St George's church for over 4 years, then a series of events happened which eventuated in me turning away from God, apart from the fact that the church I attended every Sunday was basically lifeless and repeated what it did the week before, week after week.

My mother got a severe case of breast cancer, which I then found out I had a family history of, so somewhere in the future I could also experience it. That dragged me away a lot as I thought if there was a God why would he give my mother cancer, along with a grandfather that verbally abused my mum and accused her of stealing the day before her treatment. In school I was learning about Greek Gods and I began to question the presence of God further. And after hearing all the stories of healing and walking on water, I gave up on God altogether.

For the next 4-5 years I criticised and bad-mouthed anyone who tried to convince me there was a God and that he did love me. I even had a fight with my best friend because she believed in Him.

I got my job and met my mate Tom, who had just come back from a horrific accident spending 8 months in hospital doing physical therapy. He had lived his whole life for drugs and the high you get. I won't explain his whole story but during the 8 months, he received prayer and read through the Bible and developed this burning passion for Jesus. When he found out I didn't believe in Jesus, he started evangelising to me every shift we had together.

Slowly, I became interested in why he had such a passion resulting in many debates. In the end he won out and invited me along to his youth group (one80 youth church). The first time I ever went there I came into contact with the Holy Spirit and began to shake, went hot and cold and almost cried. I went back week after week meeting more people and attending church (Graces Community Baptist Church). The presence of the Spirit of God became stronger in me. There's been times when I have just collapsed on the floor in tears and shaking uncontrollably for half an hour at least, and literally seeing people healed in front of me.

I found you could only get that feeling at church through prayer. I was amazed by it because I am not a person to just break down and cry my eyes out because someone is saying a few words to God for me. I can safely say now that I am Christian, and am becoming more passionate everyday despite what my parents believe and what others think.

This story may be long and not very amazing but I think it is, coming from a person who enveloped their life into hating Christians to confessing Jesus as their Lord and Saviour!

I've never come into contact with such pure truth and love and all it takes is faith, hope, and love :)

luv emma xxx :)

AWESOME!!!

Well, what can I say about this girl??? This girl is so awesome! Since the start of my site, she's been there for me- helping, encouraging, and discussing things with me and other people!

I just want to say a huge thank you for your help, and I know God has a plan for you- he's going to take you somewhere that you can't even dream of, that you can't even imagine!

Here's her lovely testimony:

When I was 8, me and my dad were going roller blading at my cousin's place. There was this big hill- I knew my dad couldn't get over it, I should have said something. I know that now. He smashed his knee and got this dangerous disease called "guillian-barae" and couldn't smile for a year. He was nearly in a wheelchair.

I pretty much gave up on God then because I couldn't see why he would do that. But then I got into my friends youth group. Earlier this year I went to youth alive in QLD and it was good. This fella called Mike Guiguliemuci (that's a mouthful), yeh he spoke to us all about his suicidal friend. He asked everyone who had given up on God to come out the front. I went out and everyone was crying. I felt something that is so hard to describe- it was God.

I've been asking God lately for a sign, just something to reassure myself that he's there. I was at a church camp, and it was saturday night. I fell on my knees and started crying. I went to bed and turned on my MP3 player, and one of my favourite Christian songs came on. Then I felt the feeling again- it was so cold that night but I was boiling- like tingling. Then my bed shook for a second. I knew it couldn't me shaking the bed because I was on the top bunk of a 70 Kg bed, so that was weird....hey, not it wasn't weird...it was God.

Just saying peoples- all it takes is loving God. He'll show you one way or the other he's there. Keep praying!

A special testimony from a special person:

About 2 years ago my friends Jono and Josh invited me to her youth group! I went with my other friend who is a girl so I would feel more comfortable. My girlfriend only came once and then her dad wouldn't let her go again so the next time I went by myself.

The youth leader Scott asked me if I wanted to commit myself to God-I said yes thinking I was ready for him to be in my life. We sat down and he prayed for me. He had one hand on my shoulder and I closed my eyes as he prayed. Half way through I felt a hand on my shoulder and it gave me a bit of a fright so I opened my eyes to see who it was- thinking it was one of my friends trying to be funny.

But when I opened my eyes there was no hand, but I could still feel it there. I then started to really freak it out! I was so scared that I didn't want to go back, I started to think I was some crazy person. And at that time I was dealing with bullying at school and was very depressed about it all. I even thought about committing suicide. So I just thought that all my hurt was just catching up with me.

Only about 2 weeks ago  I started thinking about God again. And then I saw this site on my blog and started thinking about God even more. I went on the meant4more site and wrote into them, and they have helped me to answer some questions I had. And I have decided to go to youth next friday and church on sunday!

And now I feel like God is really there and he really loves me. Now I know that his hand on my shoulder was his way of showing me he was there, and he supports me. And now I know it is ok that I was scared because God is so powerful it can be scary sometimes. I know that God loves everybody the same but somehow I feel like God has a special plan for me and that gives me more confidence and makes me want to be a better person.

I hope that my experience will help others and to tell them that if something like this happens to them they don't have to run away but they can turn to him and ask him for help and ask him the questions you need answered!

Luv Britt.

BRILLIANT!!!

A young girl named Anthea left this testimony on my site a few days ago and I would love to share it with you:

"I just thought I'd tell you my story about God...

Well, I've never really believed in the Lord much, I've always thought there was something there but never bothered to explore it. But I began to notice that a lot of my friends are Christians, and that things weren't just a coincidence. I started going to the youth group at my friend's church and really liked it (that's where I got my first Bible!!!). Then, later that year we had our R.E. day at school, and when I got home that day I just started reading the Bible. It was so amazing, everything in there is just so true and pure...

A few months after that I started dating my boyfriend, who is a strong Christian and an absolute angel. I started reading my Bible more regularly and it made me notice that God has always been there for me, and his way of coming into my life was by surrounding me with those who have worshipped him all their lives. Although I don't go to church (my family isn't Christian), I feel so happy that I have what I have- a family, friends, opportunities, and eternal love from the Lord above.

My story may not seem so gobsmackingly amazing, but to me it is, and if it inspires just one person to re-evaluate their life, and notice God, then I'm happy.

Love Anthea"

Absolutely awesome! If you have a testimony, post it up...You may not think it's crash-hot but whenever someone commits their life to Jesus- it always is!

Abandoned by his teenage mother on the streets of Zimbawe at the age of 4 with his younger brother and sister, as a teenager Steven Lungu became the leader of a notorious criminal gang, the 'black shadows' and later a guerrilla fighter. One day, instad of throwing bombs at a Christian gathering, as he had been ordered, he stayed and listened. Since that life- changing moment Steven has travelled the world speaking at schools, colleges, and churches, sharing how God powerfully turned his life around:

I was born in Zimbawe and speak ten languages, but find english the most difficult to speak in the world! When I as very young my mum dumped me and my brother and sistr in the streets. She said to hold my baby sister while she went to the toilet, but she didn't come back. We waited and waited but she as gone. The police came to find out why were crying then took my brother and I to an orphanage and my sister to a hospital. It was the last time I saw them until 49 years later in 2000, when we met again. I found out we had three more brothers and sisters! My parents had reconciled and had more children, but then dumped these children too.

The orphanage I was placd in was very cruel, so I ran away and lived on the streets from a very young age. At the age of ten I met other street orphans and began smoking and drinking, which led to harder drugs. By 16 I was involved in the political struggle in Zimbawe and at 20 I was a very violent young man, carrying knives, guns and even bombs. I once killed a man with my very own hands, just because he made me angry.

However inside I was hurting from rejection. My life consisted of scavenging in bins for food to survive and I antd to commit suicide. One day in uttr desperation I called out to God that if He was there, why did He allow me to be born into that family and live on the street?

One day I planned to bomb a gospel tent. I had embraced Marxist theology and as  Communist, had been told that Jesus was a 'white man's God' brought to Africa to brainwash black people. So I became very angry when I heard people talk about Jesus or saw them with a Bible.

At the Gospel tent, I decided to go in for 2 minutes to listen so i could see the bautiful girls there before bombing the place. Then a beautiful girl from South Africa came onto the stage and started sharing her tsimony about how Jesus came into her life. My heart bgan to bat quickly as she spoke about Romans 6:23 and 2 Corinthians 8:9.

Aftrwards the preacher came and spoke. He looked at us then started crying and said "God is telling me that some people are going to die tonight". He kept preaching while we prepared our bombs. Finally I pickekd up my bombs and guns and knives, walked up the front and knelt at his feet crying.

Meanwhile, another gang came and bombed the tent, killing my two friends who were still at the back. I was the only one left of my gang. I asked the preacher if God could save a person like me and that night I received Jesus. The desire to smoke, to kill and to hurt people left me.

I received my first Bible from a police officer, When I became a Christian I went and confessed to the police all the things I had done, so I could put things right. They were amazed, and let me go. God was starting to work in my life. While I couldn't read the Bible, I loved flipping through the pages and would pray that God would open my eyes to His Word.

A white missionary from Britain took me in and taught me about the Bible and helped me in political studies for 15 years, It wasn't until 1998 when I was preaching that I finally found my mother. A woman was crying and said "The way you tell your story, I must be your mother". She came forward and gave her life to Christ and I prayed for her.

I found out that my mother was forced into marriage at 13 years old to a 50 year old man. She gave birth to me when she was only 14 years old. I then found my father and forgave him, and took him into my home. He died at the age of 104 and went to be with Jesus.

I am now 62 and married with five children and three grandchildren. I have also adopted eight children without parents. My children have all gorwn up and live in America, Africa and Britain. I now have the wonderful opportunity of preaching to prime ministers, presidents and cabinet ministers, and travellling around the world telling people about Jesus.

What an awesome story! God can use anyone! It doesn't matter what you've done or where you've been, God can change your life completely- all things are possible with him. Jesus came to seek and to save what was lost!