“My experience on the night of Friday, March 10, 2017, marks a profound spiritual turning point in my life. As I sat under the evangelistic tent and listened to the sermon preached by renowned Seventh Day Adventist minister, Pastor Henry Peters, an unshakeable, irresistible sense of conviction gripped my heart.
The Holy Spirit nudged my spirit and challenged me to embrace the teachings of God’s word in its entirety – “to obey,” the supreme principles of the Old Testament as well as the noble concepts of the New. I was awakened to the truth that indeed our sovereign God is immutable, unwavering and unchanging. Age to age, He is still the same; He had never changed, and of course He never will.
And with regard to God’s sacred Sabbath, which He had established at the end of His beautiful creation and instructed His people to observe, He still requires us to continue to remember it, to uphold it, and to keep it holy even as He had commanded. It was this indelible truth that formed the basis of my heart-felt conviction. Mine was a persuasion that I could not overcome, knowing that I was summoned by His arresting Holy Spirit, simply “to obey”.
I had been serving the Lord since I was a child, being saved at the age of 13 and raised by Godly parents whom I give the Lord great gratitude for. As members of the familiar Church of God of Prophecy, ours was a respected family of the community, back in a day when the preaching of the gospel was rife and vibrant in our humble Anguillian society. Eventually, in 2007 the Lord called me to leave the familiar and to be the shepherd of a thriving flock. It was my delight and honor to have been obedient to Him then, and to work on that phase of kingdom building.
The members of the church I had led and fed displayed great loyalty, high regard and unquestionable respect for me, and I demonstrated great loyalty, devotion and love for them. Notwithstanding, I realized upon that noteworthy night that the Lord was calling me, like He had done before, to once again make a departure from the familiar. If I was “to obey” the voice of God and embrace His word in its fullness, then I would have to suffer the painful sacrifice of breaking ties with my congregation. My heart became burdened with a sad realization. I knew that while some would understand my conviction, others would be somewhat resistant.
One can imagine that obviously this was not to be an easy decision. It would turn out be a solemn sacrifice on my part. But in order to please the Lord it was an urgent and requisite decision that was required to be made without hesitation. And in contemplating the impact of that sacrificial decision, I came to realize that indeed “to obey” is better than sacrifice.
Today, I am satisfied with the rewarding contentment of knowing that I have been willing and obedient to heed the still small voice of the nudging Holy Spirit. I realize that though I have always been a respectable icon of love and leadership among the people of my community, yet my life is not my own, and when God calls me and shifts me into a new realm in His kingdom’s work, I have “to obey”. I must be His compliant, obedient child.
By this medium, I would wish to publicly express my thanks: Firstly, to the members of Kingdom Vision Apostolic Church whom I have faithfully pastored for ten years. Indeed, I have enjoyed their love and confidence over those years, and of course I still do. I have appreciated their faithfulness and their loyalty, and I am grateful to them for appreciating mine. Then, to the local public at large, I would wish to say thanks for the trust you have placed in me first as a Christian and as a devout Pentecostal pastor. And though my station in life has changed to some degree, my faithfulness and candor is still the same. I trust that by explaining my cause in this testimonial, I have been able to appease your curiosity and enlighten your understanding.
I am convinced that for the rest of my life God will use me to productively advance the movement of developing His church for His honor and glory, and for the return of Christ His son. Whatever my lot might be, it is my humble desire above all else just “to obey” Him.
In these end times, may we all seek to embrace God’s Word in its entirety and enfold it close to our hearts, for He has set His precious Word above His name. May we conform to the fullness of His word, therefore, “line upon line; precept upon precept”, even as He had initially commanded us so “to obey”. May God bless you, and may He bless all His people everywhere, who seek to be obedient to His voice.”