Disciple of Christ

The speaker begins by expressing their admiration for heaven and the goodness of God. They thank their listeners for their support and encourage them to continue sharing their thoughts and prayer requests. They then introduce a devotional exercise called the 50-State Prayer Project and share a poem called "I Am a Disciple." The speaker emphasizes the power of God and the importance of staying strong in faith despite challenges. They then share a testimony from a former atheist who had an encounter with Satan and found salvation in Jesus. The speaker concludes by encouraging listeners to share the podcast and to remember the power of God's love. How beautiful heaven must be. Sweet home of the happy and free. Fair haven of rest for the weary. How beautiful heaven must be. To testimonies of the goodness of God. Thank you for being with us today on Testimony of the Goodness of God. We do appreciate all the emails and messages we have received, the great comments, and they share some ideas with us that we may use in the future. Keep those comments coming, and if you have a prayer request, don't forget to add those in the mix. We'll certainly pray for you on and off the air, and hopefully God will meet the needs that you or your loved one may have. In today's episode, we have a wonderful testimony that we'll get to here in just a few moments. But first, I want to remind you of our email address, tgoodnessofgod at gmail.com, tgoodnessofgod at gmail.com, and join us on Facebook at Testimony of the Goodness of God. Just put that in your search bar, and you should be able to find us, like us, and share the post. We update it regularly, usually every day or every other day, and we just enjoy the comments and the stuff we're getting back on the devotionals that we list in Episode 1 of this podcast. So again, we appreciate everyone being with us, and we look forward to many, many more to come. We have a wonderful devotional today for you. First, let me give credit where credit is due, a real good friend of ours in church, Sister Deb. I'm not going to give her last name. I haven't asked permission to do that. But Sister Deb gave us something earlier this year, 50-State Prayer Project. If we will, then he will. It's a wonderful, wonderful devotional exercise where you read 31 days of Proverbs. There's 31 books in Proverbs, so start on the month where the month has 31 days and read each proverb, get you all geared up for the next phase of it, which is 50 days of prayer where you go through all the Psalms in 50 days, and then you use intercession and prayer. It's just a wonderful, wonderful devotional and a way to stay in the Scripture and just to get your prayer warrior hat out and just continue the prayer that helps all the other ones out there, as we all know. But inside that there was a poem that there is no exact known name of the writer. Facing Death, this was penned by an African minister who was martyred in the 1800s. It's been modified somewhat in other areas. This is the original text that I have. It's called I Am a Disciple. It's also called The Creed of the Fellowship of the Unashamed, and it just talks about the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. And I also use it in my Sunday School King class. We all got up in front of the church and trying to build a little confidence in them, first to understand that they are disciples, and secondly, to get them comfortable speaking in front of others. And they did a wonderful, wonderful job of reading this to the church. I look at it and read it at least once a week, sometimes more than once a day. It really touches my heart when I need that little push, that little extra, that little, you know what I mean, that comes just from the Holy Spirit deep down inside of our hearts, just to keep us going when the devil himself has been whispering in our ear all day, trying to kill, steal, and destroy us. But anyway, so I'm going to read that for you as your devotional for the day, and I'd appreciate any input. If you would like a copy of it, let us know. We'll certainly send you a PDF file that has a copy of this. And I'll also send a link for the If We Will, Then He Will devotional prayer, 50 days of prayer. So without any further waiting, here is I Am a Disciple. The die has been cast. I stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I will not look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, praises, or popularity. I don't have to be right, first, tops, recognized, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, love by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power. My pace is set, my gate is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few, my guide is reliable, and my mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, and pander at the pool of popularity, nor meander in the maze of mediocrity. I will not give up, back up, let up, or shut up until I have prayed up, preached up, stored up, and stayed up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I must go till he returns, give until I drop, preach until all know, and work until he stops me. And when he comes to get his own, he will have no trouble recognizing me. My colors are flying high, they are clear for all to see. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. Oh, hallelujah, hallelujah, what a wonderful, wonderful writing. All right, friends, now it's time for our testimony of the day. And I'm going to give credit to TikTok producer, at Faith Testimonies. This testimony comes from a gentleman who was a self-proclaimed atheist, did not believe in God, and ended up going to a church when he was invited and to another youth meeting or youth gathering. And this is where it was revealed to him who is actually doing the whispering in his ear, the talking to him, telling him all the negative things that Satan wants us to hear. It's a wonderful testimony by the atheist. His name isn't given, but you'll hear in the testimony his request that this video be shared. And while we're not doing video, we're doing audio only, I do request that you share the podcast to as many people as you want. And if we can just get one soul to come to Christ, or maybe a rededication or a renewal of the Spirit of the Lord in someone's life, that would just be wonderful. So share this, friends, if you can. Obviously, give us your comments and your suggestions. And we appreciate all that. So without any further hesitation or commentary, here is the testimony of the day. I was an atheist who had an encounter with Satan. And I need every single one of you who are watching this right now, I need you to share this video with as many people as you possibly can, because I believe some of you are about to have a divine encounter. At 17 years of age, I was an atheist. I despised Christians and Christianity. I'd been in jail more than once, and I didn't want anything to do with the church. A friend of mine had invited me to a church service. I didn't want to go, but there was a special choir that was going to be there. And as a lover of all different kinds of music, I said, I'll go, but I'm going to sit in the back row. And somehow we winded up on the second row. And it was a Pentecostal church. I'd never been in a Pentecostal church. People started talking in some unusual language and then praying for people, and they would fall on the ground. And I was looking for the first exit. If they didn't have one, I was going to create one. And all of a sudden the preacher looked at me. He pointed his finger and said, You, I am laying hands on you now as a prophet of God to make you an example of what I can do with a young man sold out to me. And he laid hands on me, and as far as I was concerned, he pushed me down. I didn't feel anything. In fact, all I felt was confusion, frustration, and fury. I was angry at my friend for inviting me to this church. But I'm telling you this because I believe many of you have loved ones who you've tried to witness to, you've tried to invite them to church, and maybe they haven't responded the way you'd like them to. Don't look at the outward response. Because though I was angry and I was frustrated on the outside, something was happening on the inside. Over the next few days, I struggled. I didn't realize I was struggling, but doubt began to cloud my mind. I began to think these thoughts. God is not real. You don't believe in any of that. Don't ever walk through the doors of that church again. Well, there was some kind of party, a youth party, that I was invited to. I thought, well, that'll be safe. There were going to be girls there. There was going to be free food. Why not? So I showed up on a Sunday night to a youth event. And during that youth event, everybody was playing. They were talking. They were having a good time. Music is blaring, foosball, pizza. But I was depressed. When I walked through the doors of the building, there was this dark cloud that seemed to hang over my head. I could barely lift my head up, just the doubt tormenting me. You don't believe in this. Get out of this church. You don't belong here. So I went and sat over in the corner. And as I sat there with these thoughts bombarding my mind, all of a sudden, it was as if I was sucked into a tunnel. I don't know if you've ever been underwater before. You know what it's like, how you can hear the sounds outside when you're underwater, but they're muffled. All of a sudden, all the sounds around me, the music, the teenagers talking, everything that was happening just seemed to be muffled. And all I could hear was this grotesque, distinct voice. It was saying the same things my thoughts were saying. You don't believe in any of this. Get out of here. And I recognized immediately, even as an atheist, that it was a voice of Satan. Chills ran down my spine. Even now talking about it, I can feel the hairs on my arms standing up because it was a horrible sound. And I realized in that moment that all the thoughts I thought I was having, all of the decisions I thought I was making based on those thoughts were inspired by demonic entities. It was as if God, like the Wizard of Oz, pulled the curtain away and allowed me to see who was really doing the talking. And if someone has shared this video with you, and maybe you've been having thoughts of doubt concerning God, let me encourage you right now, those thoughts aren't coming from you. Those thoughts are coming from the enemy. And that voice, loud, as loud as my voice is to you right now, saying, Get out of here. You don't believe in any of this. And God showed me in that instant not only that it was the voice of the devil because it doesn't take much to realize that. If the devil's real, God is real. And God showed me how weak his voice was, that he was holding on for dear life, and he was only holding on to my life through deception. And God has exposed his deception. I didn't know how to pray. I wasn't raised in church. So I said, Satan, you can't have me anymore. Jesus, I'm all yours. And in that moment, the voice left. The torment left. The cloud lifted. And I felt this nagging feeling. I didn't know anything about the Bible. I didn't know the Bible says what the heart man believes, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. But I felt compelled to tell everybody what had just happened to me. So I made them turn off the music. I made everyone stop playing, stop eating. And through sobs and through tears, I shared with them the encounter, the experience I just had. And the moment I testified, weights I didn't even know were binding me were lifted. Bondages I didn't know that I had were broken. And I was instantly and totally set free. Listen to me. I don't know whether you're listening to this for a loved one or you're the loved one someone has shared this with. Satan's power is weak. His deception is deep. But it's being exposed right now. In a moment, I'm going to pray for you to have an encounter. But you need to give your life over to Jesus. You may not know much about God. You don't need to. All you need to be able to say is this. Satan, you can't have me anymore. And Jesus, I'm all yours. What a wonderful testimony, friends. I hope you enjoyed that. I know I certainly did when I heard it the first time. And I just felt compelled to include it on this podcast. It just shows you how Satan is always, always seeking to destroy us, seeking to lie to us. Every word that he speaks, everything that he gives you is deception and lies. Just remember that. And remember the truth, the light, the way is through our Savior, Jesus Christ. So hallelujah, hallelujah. We hope this helps just one person, if it may. We hope it helps a lot of people. But if it just grabs that one sheep that's wandered away from the flock, bring them home, they'll be rejoicing in heaven. Thank you, friends, for joining us today. And we look forward to having you back on our next episode of Testimonies of the Goodness of God. If you've enjoyed the content today or any of our other podcasts, please drop us a line, tgoodnessofgod at gmail.com, or join and like our Facebook page, Testimony of the Goodness of God, and we'll try to have a conversation with you or at least return your message as soon as we can. If you have a testimony, by all means let us know. We would love to do an interview with you, a live interview, but let your testimony be a light to the world. That's the point of this entire podcast, friends, is to spread the message of Jesus Christ and his saving grace on us and the testimony of those wonderful, wonderful salvations. Thank you again for joining us. Stay blessed. Have a wonderful day in Christ. And remember, love one another.