Home » Angels, Demons, Miracles and the like... » First Hand Witnesses of Christ » My personal witness of Jesus Christ (I share this for the Glory of God )
 My personal witness of Jesus Christ [message #552] |
Tue, 26 June 2012 14:32  |
kenh
Messages: 62
Registered: June 2012
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Chapter 9
And My Poor Name He Named
Today has been the greatest by far of any day in my entire life. This is September 15, 1978. I have been a member of the Lord's true church for exactly five years and one day, having been baptized on September 14, 1973. But the mere fact that I have just passed my fifth anniversary as a member of the church isn't why I must consider this to be the greatest day of my entire young life. It is because of what has taken place today which makes this the greatest day. Let me recall for you, the reader, in perfect detail just what has happened.
I am the companion of the current Reykjavik, Iceland branch president, Elder David Knechtel. He is my senior companion and enjoys very much serving the Lord as the branch president here. There is only one Icelandic member of the small branch of twenty-five members who holds the Melchizedek Priesthood. He is Thorstein Jonsson and he is a fisherman who is gone out to sea quite often. So with these particular circumstances, the full time elders have had to serve in branch leadership positions as well as home teachers to carry on the work of the Lord here in this part of the Lord's vineyard. This is typical of recently opened missions. We didn't have the Book of Mormon in the Icelandic language yet to give to investigators. It was being translated at this time.
Elder Knechtel and I share this three bedroom apartment with two other missionaries, Elder Christianson and his companion, Elder Erdmann, as well as the often absent fisherman, Thorstein. On this day, Elders Kristjanson and Erdmann, had left early to go and do some proselyting, leaving Elder Knechtel and myself alone in the apartment. I was feeling very frustrated because of all of the branch work that seemed to fill my companion's time as of late.
I had been on my mission for four and some half months now and I have been trying to pass off the last concepts of the E discussion. I also began to feel like I could converse much better now in Icelandic than I had before. The language was coming along slowly, but now I was, as the saying goes, chomping at the bit, anxious and rip roaring and ready to get going out there. "To teach and preach as the missionaries do." But here I remained, seeing my companion sitting at the dining room table diligently going over some branch paperwork. And I feeling as frustrated as I could be.
I decided to retire to Thorstein's bedroom to plead with the Lord for some understanding to all of this. I sat down at this small desk which faced the wall just to the right of the door as you entered into the room. With my elbows resting on the desktop and my face covered with my hands, I began to plead with my Heavenly Father with all my soul for some understanding concerning this tremendous frustration, which I felt would consume my soul. I explained to God that I wanted so much to go and bear the most powerful testimony of the divinity of His work. I had tried, really tried, to prepare with all my heart and soul for this work, this mission, of which I was now serving. And as always, this was His work, not mine, for I desired only to do His will as I served Him.
I was at this moment fervently praying and pleading with all my might to receive a reassurance of just where I stood with the Lord, when the following revelation took place.
I felt my entire being begin to tingle and burn all over with such force and power that I became completely filled with it. Then to my left I noticed that the room began to fill with this bright and glorious light. It was brighter than any light earth could possibly produce and this light continued to increase in brightness, until it became almost blinding in intensity.
I arose from my chair and I turned away from this heavenly light. I knew then that I was not alone anymore. I said aloud, "No! Not me! I don't deserve a heavenly manifestation!" Then I heard the softest and the sweetest of voices. I call it, the piercing whisper, for that is exactly what it did. It seemed to pierce me to the very center of my soul!
This personage simply said, "Kenneth." I felt like my heart was about to burst within my bosom, for the power of the Holy Ghost surged throughout my body as it had never done before. My entire being burned and tingled all over, which caused my very frame to quake and tremble. I turned with tears streaming down my cheeks and I fell to the ground at the feet of this heavenly messenger. He wore a most glorious white flowing robe with a bright gold belt around his waist. His feet were an inch or so above the floor of that little bedroom. I had not looked upon His face, so I believed this personage to be an angel of the Lord, sent by God to comfort me. Then I saw the nail prints in His feet. This was not an angel of the Lord. This was the Lord Himself!
With my head bowed to the ground at the feet of this glorious Being, I saw Him take a step back. Then he spoke to me again and said,"Arise." I stood upon my feet before Him, even the Savior, Jesus Christ! He extended His hands before me and I felt the prints of the nails in His palms and wrists. He then placed His hands upon my shoulders and He looked right through me with the most piercing, loving eyes one could ever imagine. They seemed to sparkle as with a powerful flame! His hair was pure white as white as the robe He wore. He smiled as He began to speak to me in that same wonderfully soft, yet powerful, piercing whisper . . . And my poor name He named.
"Kenneth, I love you! I died for you! Now, go and serve me with all your might!" Then He embraced me! He pulled me very close and wrapped His loving, powerful arms around me and I felt like I was about to melt away into nothingness! So overwhelming and marvelous beyond this one young man's ability to express are those feelings of indescribable joy and bliss! Flowing from his being was this incomprehensible, overwhelming love that permeated every particle of my soul! I was home...redeemed from the fall like the Brother of Jared and in the arms of my Savior, my God, my Redeemer. He then stood me back from Himself and again He had His hands upon my shoulders.
He smiled and then repeated those same words to me, "Kenneth, I love you! I died for you! Now, go and serve me with all your might!" He embraced me again, as He had done before. Those same overwhelming, powerful feelings once again filled my whole soul! He then stood me back from Himself once more, and with His left hand, He gestured to the door of the room which was behind me to my right. I turned and walked to the door. I took the doorknob in my right hand and I looked back toward this bright, glorious, heavenly light and there He stood in all His majesty! He again spoke those wonderful words of comfort and counsel, "Kenneth, I love you! I died for you! Now, go and serve me with all your might!"
I then turn my face again toward the door. I turned the doorknob and I began to open the door. I stopped and I turned my head back once more, and when I had done so, I saw that the room was like it had been before He had made His appearance.
I managed, as weakened and overwhelmed by this experience as I was then, to stagger over to the same chair which was at the desk and I collapsed unto it. I put my elbows back on the desk and my hands over my face as they had been before this revelation had taken place. But this time, my hands were wet with tears of joy! There I sat totally consumed by the magnitude of this heavenly visitation. I trembled and wept being filled with the power of the Holy Ghost.
I eventually received enough strength to stand up and go into the bedroom which was next to this one. It happened to be the bedroom of my companion and mine, and I quickly found my missionary journal and a writing pen. I immediately returned to Thorstein's room and set down at the same desk. I then proceeded to put to paper these words which you are now reading.
I will finish relating this experience with my testimony. I know now, nothing doubting whatsoever, that the First Spirit Child of Our Heavenly Father, even the mighty Jehovah Himself, is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Israel, the very Creator of heaven and earth, worlds without number. For it is He of whom testified every true prophet since the world began and of whom all of the holy scriptures and the Holy Ghost, bear witness that He is the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh, the Perfect and Sinless Sacrifice. This Jesus of Nazareth is the very Savior and Redeemer of the world. Yes, Jesus Christ does live! I know it with every particle of my soul! I bear to you my solemn testimony that He is the Christ, the Holy One of Israel! He is our Advocate and Mediator with the Father, pleading our case before Him. I testify to you as surely as I live that this is the Father's work which we have been so privileged to help move along. For God, the Eternal Father and His Son, Jesus Christ deserves all of the praise and the glory forevermore! I humbly bear to you, the reader, this testimony, and I do so, in the sacred and holy name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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