Tonight we had an amazing service. From start to finish the Lord was there. To give you a little summary…the band played “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power” and the Holy Ghost moved in. From there the song service continued in like manner. The testimonies began to echo the channel of the goodness of the Lord. Soon a young lady stood to her feet and said “We can say this phrase the proper way; but she liked to say AIN’T GOD GOOD, better!!!!!” We began to sing the song
Well ain’t God good…To Give us so many blessings…undeserving is what we are!!! We ought to thank Him…Love and praise Him…a little more today and a whole lot more tomorrow!!!!
From then the Holy Ghost began to move in a mighty way as people began to express the GOODNESS of the Lord!!! I’m telling you with each and every testimony my spiritual bucket got fuller…and fuller…and FULLER till I thought I was just going to POP!!!
I didn’t feel to add my testimony to the service; but as I lay in bed tonight (going back and forth between praying for some of my friends who are in desperate need tonight and hearing that song ringing over and over in my head) I kept thinking Lord you’ve been so good to me. So many things, and then the Lord brought back one time that was a significant turning point in my life. So…I had to get up and write it down. You see…these are things I NEVER want to forget.
When I was 15 years old…some of you know this; but some of you may not. When I was 15 my mother was killed in a car accident. As if the Lord bringing me through the grief of that wasn’t enough…there is a little more to this story. At this time in my life I was very much into school activities. I was in a #1 nationally ranked marching band, a part of an exclusive music academy, winning awards left and right for my flute; and to top it all off I had a boyfriend in school who respected my moral standards and had declared his desire to marry me. I was going to church; but not IN church. Once again I was 15.
One normal June day my mother asked if I wanted to go with her to work. I went to bed that night with the intention of getting up and going with her the next day. Now whether my alarm didn’t go off or not, for some reason I did not get up. As I finally made my way out of bed my mother was just about to walk out the door. I don’t remember much about that day; but we did argue and I begged her to wait for me. She was already late so she did not. Later that evening a state trooper came to our door and informed us that my mother had been in a car accident earlier that day. I was supposed to be in that car. The gravity of this fact didn’t hit me till a few years later when I was able to process this. The Lord…for whatever reason saw fit to spare me. Yes I lost my mother, and yes I may never understand why; but in that one instant my life changed.
After that day the Lord slowly began to cut my ties with the world that I had become so wrapped up in.
My boyfriend who had been in Mexico for his senior trip had come home 2 days after this and the first words out of his mouth were “I hope this doesn’t affect our relationship”. Comforting huh!!!! I was so in love…and so stupid!!!! I assured him that it wouldn’t; but in the back of my mind the Lord was already beginning to cut that tie.
After the funeral I left my mother’s grave…got on the church bus…and ended up in Dallas, TX for a tent youth meeting. In that meeting I went down front for prayer. From the moment the ministry began to pray for me I don’t remember what happened. I came to…lying on the ground…surrounded by the people of God…covered in dirt…speaking in tongues!!!!!! I have never had an experience like that ever again; but it is one I will NEVER forget!!!! Something had been changed. The Lord had come on the scene and I was never to be the same again!!!!!!!
When I got home from that meeting you know who was waiting for me. When he showed up at my door I felt this coldness toward him. I don’t know any other way to describe it. As we talked somehow we got on the subject of church and how many services we have. I know it was the Lord. He responded to something I said by saying “I don’t mind if you go to church on Sunday; but I really don’t think you need to go any more than that.” I felt that last string that had tied him to my heart pop with a loud…solid SNAP. I told him “Well, I AM going to go whenever I want and it’s more important to me to do what the Lord wants me to do than to be with you.” There were more words exchanged and he finally got angry and stormed out. When we got to the front door of my house he turned around and asked “so you really feel like GOD is asking you to break up with me”. I said “yes I do” and I shut the door. I tell you that it was the Lord that did that for me. He knew more than I did what would lie ahead if I had stayed with him. I never cried. I never even gave him a second thought. The Lord took him completely out of my heart and set my feet on the path that HE wanted for me.
By the time I graduated I had little or no contact with the people that were considered my closest school friends. I didn’t go where they went, and do the things they did anymore. I was no longer in band and really spent all my time trying to pass my classes and get out of there!! I was a different person. My one and only good friend that stayed my good friend through all this come to find out a couple years after high school had married the local drug dealer and had several children. I would also find out around the same time that my so called “faithful” boyfriend and my so called “good school friends”, would drop me off at home (from a night of going out to eat and a movie) and go get slap drunk and high on all kinds of stuff for the rest of the night. I was shocked because never once did I even see any of them smoke a cigarette or anything around me. The LORD kept me covered. He kept evil away even when I didn’t even know to be worried.
So YES…
AIN’T GOD GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
