[Steel]

I was saved when I was 17 years old. But I pretty much immediately went out into the world and lived a very worldly life until the Lord brought me into the church life (which for me is simply consistent fellowship with other born again believers in Chris Jesus) when I was 34.

Prior to being saved, I had two very definite dreams about the Lord between maybe 13 to 15... Dreams I can remember today as though I had them last night.

Within the first month of coming into the church life (not the local church, church life, the church life according to my definition above) I was taken to a women's Christian conference by my sister-in-law and brother, who were both saved some twenty years earlier and were very passionate towards the Lord. There were some 300+ women at this conference, and just three men — the speakers husband, my brother, and myself. After the woman speaker had finished her presentation she came down into the crowd and started speaking with and praying for those who were there. She was at the front of the hotel ballroom when she abruptly stopped what she was doing and then called out asking if there was a pastor in the room. She then looked to the back of the ballroom and there was suddenly a parting of bodies all the way back to where I was standing with my brother. I looked back at him and he was looking at me. At the same time the woman speaker had started walking very purposefully up an aisle towards us, saying all sorts of things regarding God having a message for this pastor/priest/person of God... And by this time I was like "It's not me, I just came into this thing a few weeks ago, I don't know anything" and only trying to find a way out of there." But the doors right behind me were locked, and so I turned towards this woman wondering what was going on. She proceeded to prophesy over me for maybe a minute or little more, and the things she said had the entire room absolutely quiet. After she finished she went back to speaking and praying with others, but you could sense that things were over. I was just standing there at the back and people were just looking at me in a strange way. Even the woman who had prophesied over me, afterwards when she was sitting down, kept looking at me with this strange look.

That was some twenty years ago, and over this time, little by little, the Lord has gained me in certain ways that I've come to realize were necessary for Him to bring me into the reality of what was prophesied over me.

And having experience with LSM's ministry, and with the local church has been an intricate part of this needed experience.

When I first came into the church life (my definition of it) I was given a New King James bible as a gift, and I read it every day for hours. And I kept a journal of my thoughts... My insights to what I believed the Lord was revealing to me as I read and considered scripture.

I used to sit at my dining table with all sorts of reference books, reading scripture and journaling my thoughts. Then one day the Lord led my wife and I into a local church meeting hall. No one had invited us. And we had no idea what it was all about. The sign outside read "The Meeting Hall of the Chruch in Miami" and we had wondered if it was some offshoot branch of the Jehovah Witness religion. But we were curious (or so we thought) and one evening on the way home from the supermarket saw cars in the parking lot and decided to stop and find out what the place was. When I approached the front door I could hear people inside and so I knocked and opened the door. There were a group of men sitting in a kind of rectangle shape, facing each other, saying "Amen... Amen... Lord Jesus... Amen...".

Which was really weird for me because I had just come through a whole experience that included seeing the awful division that exists within Christianity, and in response, developing a project called OneAmen that had as its goal the bringing together of all believers into the oneness of God... In and through the Amen of God, Christ Jesus.

And here I was... Totally out of the blue... Being confronted with a group of believers all saying as one... "Amen, Lord Jesus".

I stopped me in my tracks... A brother got up and came to me and I asked him what was going on. He told me they were believers just having a prayer meeting. I asked him... And these were my words... "Is this some sort of cult or something?" and he just smiled and answered "No... We're just people who believe in the Lord Jesus."

And just so that you are clear... I asked that question because a pastor had told me that the Jehovah Witness religion was a cult, and thinking this had something to do with them, I asked.

See, I come from the Caribbean, and the word "cult" isn't quite what it is here in the US. So when I asked my question I was doing so in an innocent manner, having no idea of any the history of the local church to the word "cult".

Anyway, I asked the brother if my wife and I could come in and he said it would be better if we came back to a televised bible study they had on Thursdays. And I said we would.

We were the first people at the door on Thursday evening. For some reason we were just very excited. We had no idea regarding any background to this local church, we were just inwardly excited to see what it was all about.

And so when someone came and opened the doors we went inside and sat down to look at this televised bible study. Some people said hello, but other than that no one said anything else to us.

The speaker was Ed Marks, and he was speaking on Psalms 68... And what a wonderful speaking it was.

Word by word the brother opened up the scripture.

I remember turning to my wife and saying, "This guy is doing what I do, but doing it so much better."

And so that was our introduction to the LSM ministry.

And since that time, it has been the foundation of our relationship with the local church.

I have no interest in the politics or religiousity that is within the business of the ministry and gets forced on the local churches. All that I know is that, for me, the ministry itself is true.

Are there some shortcomings in the ministry... Absolutely.

But then I long before learned to eat the hay and leave the sticks.

And even more importanly... I take everything before the Lord (or at least try my best to).

For me, and my wife... And I speak only for me and my wife... This ministry has been some of the most helpful we have ever received.

In this I have no doubt.

And I share it without hesitation.

But I also know... And know this because of the ministry and my own experience... I also know that the ministry is just ink on paper... And because you read it, and even hold to it in a natural way... This does not mean that the reality it reveals is received, abided in, and lived out by the person reading/holding to it.

It's one thing to be hearers... Quite another to be doers of what we've heard.

This comment is far longer than I had intented to write, so I'll end with this...

As I started to read the LSM ministry I realized that things that I was reading about were aligned to what I had been writing in my journal based on my own scripture study.

And even more strange was that I actually came across some sentences that were almost word for word what I had written.

Brothers and sisters... I'm nobody special.

I strugge every day to just put one foot in front of the other.

I suffer as most in a normal human life.

I have very little confidence in myself...

Except for when I begin to speak to others about the Lord. At that time I know that I know that I know that if I am turned to my spirit, where the Lord dwells one with me, and me one with the Lord... And I open my mouth according to his leading... Rivers of living water flow out of me.

I love the Lord... So desperately.

I have nothing else.

He is my everything.

And it is by His hand... Not my hand... That I have come to this.

And it is His hand that led my wife and I into the local church and the LSM ministry.

And I can't... And won't... Deny that.

Now is the way of the local church "right"... Is the ministry "right"...

I have no thought regarding the "rightness" of things.

All I pursue is His life.

And in and through my experiences with the local church and teh LSM ministry... I can say with a pure heart... I have received and grown in His life.

And this growth in life is the reality of what He declared in Matthew 16:18...

"And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it."

And this is all I care about... Because it is what He cares about.

Will we remain in the local church?

Absolutely.

But it might not be the aspect of the local church that refers to itself as the Recovery.

If the Lord leads that way.