Michael King:  

I came to Know Jesus Christ in my early teens at a Bible Baptist summer camp. Like many young people, I was very troubled and cynical. I remember at the last alter call that I was the only one who would not come forward to give my life to Jesus Christ. Part of me really wanted to believe, but out of pride I didn’t want to just do it because everyone else was. The minister eventually became tired of asking, “is there anyone else who would like to give their heart to Jesus” and closed the meeting. However, later that evening, when everything was quite in my cabin, I asked Jesus to forgive me of my sins and to come into my heart. I felt a great weight physically lift off of me and I knew that Jesus was real. For the next week, I literally felt His presence surround me. I had been so turned off to religion because I had seen the hypocrisy of those who professed to follow God, but this was real and personal. I attended a Baptist church for a while, but I found that I still hungered for more. When I heard that God wanted me to be filled with His Holy Spirit, I was eager to receive more of Jesus. A brother in the Lord offered to give me a Bible study on the subject. We prayed and asked God to fill me. I thought that speaking in other tongues would be difficult, but it was so easy, I doubted if the new language I spoke was real. On the way home, I stopped by fast food restaurant to have a bite to eat. As I sat eating french fries, my eyes fixed on a man sitting across the dining room. A voice said, “tell him about Me”. This was strange! I had never had this happen before! Again, the voice spoke, and this time it was as if two invisible hands gently, but firmly shoved me in the man’s direction. Still, I hesitated. The man stood up and started to leave. I told myself if I didn’t obey I would never know if what I was hearing was real. Catching up with him just as he was getting into his car I said, “this might sound strange, but God asked me to talk to you about Jesus.” With a surprised look, he replied that, “I have just been thinking about giving my heart to the Lord.” Wow! I was excited. This was real! I had been shown the verses that promised that we would receive power to be His witnesses when I was told about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and I had just experienced that awesome power! Later, when I was about twenty, I felt God saying to me that I needed to learn His Word. For the next five years I studied the Scriptures at a theological college. During that time I fell into the trap of believing that Knowledge of God would fulfill my hunger, but I found that Bible knowledge was not enough. It was a strange thing. The more I began to know about the scriptures the further away from God I felt. I studied the Greek and Hebrew and came to be very “knowledgeable” about all the things that I shouldn’t do in order to live a “Holy” life. All the principles and all the “balanced views” that I had been taught only served to condemn me for I could never seem to get everything just right and be worthy (in my mind) of God’s love. Fortunately, the church that I was attending at the time had a visitation of God’s Spirit...Expand for more