“And they have conquered him by the blood of theLamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” Revelation 12:11
Jesus calls us to share the things He has done in our lives, how He has changed us, and the miracles He performed. Hearing the testimonies of fellow students and followers of Christ not only encourages believers but is prophetic over their lives and spurs them on in their love for God. Two students, seniors Joy Bardin and Aden Mosley, shared their stories with me. They were humble and vulnerable enough to express their testimonies to you, the student body. They want you to hear the great things the Lord has recently done for them and how it has changed them.
Where I was before:
Senior Joy Bardin:
“Because I was raised in a Christian home I believed in God and that Jesus died for us, but I didn’t have a full personal understanding of God. I saw faith, love and hope in the way my parents acted, which helped me to keep the faith.”
“My friend group in my early highschool years kind of brought me down. It made me feel like, ‘Oh, maybe I don’t believe or like this as much as I thought...I was kind of going off what everyone else was doing.”
“I just thought people misunderstood me and would judge me if I told people about it [my music interests]. So I only told people I was very close to... and not with people at my school that weren’t exactly like me.”
“I still liked them...I still admired everybody. But I thought because they didn’t understand me, they didn’t like me. So I thought, ‘Why should I be friends or be open with them?’” “So for a while I was just shy. I didn’t talk to anyone because I didn’t think I could.”
“The only people I bonded with were the ones that were nice to me. And I didn’t realize I was doing this until I read this one scripture. It sort of touched my heart at first but I didn’t know why... Jesus said how even mockers or even the pagans love people who love them, talk and greet people who love them [Matthew 5:46-47]. But we’re called to be different. I thought that meant I’m just supposed to love everybody but I don’t have to say hi. I loved everybody...but really I wasn’t doing it.”
Senior Aden Mosley:
“I grew up in a very good Christian home. The Lord blessed me with good parents. There was never a moment in my life when I didn’t believe everything I was told in church. When I was six I actually put faith into and became alive as a believer...I was at church on a random Wednesday...I just felt the Holy Spirit pressing on my heart, ‘give me you,’ so I was like, ‘God I give you my everything; I give you my life.’” “In middle school...I just started to act non- Christlike, I cut aside living for Him...I still had faith but I definitely wasn’t living like it or bearing fruit at all.”
“Early in high school...I got in trouble at school a lot...I just had a horrible heart, I did not care about the authority over me, had a horrible attitude, foul mouth, and was completely abandoning the gospel and Jesus as my Lord.”
How God Changed Me
Bardin:
“For three years I was content with being quiet because I had my thoughts and kept to myself. A couple weeks ago, everything changed.”
“For about two weeks, I was struggling with sleeping. Some nights it felt like my spirit was keeping me up...since I couldn’t go to sleep, I just read my Bible. It was a really precious time, but I thought that I could do it every night. I was ignoring how tired I was, but I was getting really excited about it because God was revealing certain truths to me. It was really eye opening. I was trying to explain what I was learning from God to my parents, but I didn’t realize I had to use words they could understand... That really discouraged me. But eventually, my mom helped me learn that I need to have a balance of spiritual and physical [life]. I’ve learned I have to be able to use my words to express what I’m learning.”
Mosley:
“The summer before junior year, I was at First Baptist Woodstock on a Wednesday night. I’d been struggling with an addiction for years of my life and I just ran to the back [of the room] to the pastor, he prayed over me and since that day I haven’t gone back at all.”
“It’s been very powerful, like the James 5 way of confess your sins to one another and pray for them, and you’ll be healed [James 5:16]. To see that Bible verse lived out in my own life was just so powerful.”
“Throughout the rest of junior year, it was this slow transition of killing all my flesh and growing in the spirit. In so many ways I was still so immature and stupid, but I was growing in so many ways, too.”
“The biggest change in my life has been these past few months since camp at Restoration Church. The Lord just absolutely wrecked me. In so many ways I was still carrying things of my flesh and immature sins of my past. I was delivered from the addiction, but I was feeding
it in other ways.”
“The enemy did not want me to be [at camp] at all. I was letting the lies of the enemy talk to me without rebuking them.”
“The Lord was just tired of putting up with me and my terrible attitude and He just broke me...I could not stand anymore and just hit my knees, sobbing and in awe of who God is...I experienced His presence like never before, just praying and praising his name.”
“It was a new revelation of how great He is, and I was in awe and broken at how awesome He is and how little I am compared to Him.”
“I was filled with the Spirit like I never had before, in a new way. It felt like I was in front of the throne room of God, I was scared to look up because I felt if I looked up I would see the Almighty God on a throne in front of me. It was the healthy fear of the Lord that we’re supposed to have...I felt like He was right above me. It was so powerful.”
Who I Am Now
Bardin:
“God had shown me that I love communicating...I just didn’t realize I needed the confidence to do it.”
“God has shown me to find my own [singing and speaking] voice.”
“That’s how God’s really changed my life, and it’s been easy for me to figure out how to communicate [with others].”
“It wasn’t even me [talking to someone about God], it’s the Holy Spirit talking through me. My soul is connected to His, and He gives me strength to get through the day.”
Mosley:
“After camp, I just had a whole new fire for the Lord...truly fire from heaven burned my heart at camp and it ain’t going out...it was amazing.”
“In so many ways I’ve matured, but bragging on the Lord and what He’s done in me...it’s just been amazing to see the work the Lord had done in me... so many things He’s revealed to me about my past. He’s woken me up to how bad I actually was and how much I really needed Him.”
“The Lord’s wrecked me, and now I’m on fire for him.”
“I’ve known that the Lord was calling me to ministry but most of my life I’ve hated the idea... the enemy was feeding and keeping me down for a lot of my life, and then later I began to finally receive God’s calling on my life to ministry.”
“When I get a grasp of how great He actually is, I realize how little I am and so He’s all I live for. By seeing how great and amazing He is, He becomes like my whole life to magnify him. He becomes my goal in life to make Him great."
“I know that I’m not good enough and never will be but the Holy Spirit through me is more than enough to accomplish what the Lord calls me to, and where He calls, He will provide.”
What I want to tell you
Bardin:
“Jesus was his own kind of cool.”
“You don’t have to change yourself when you come to God. He reveals to you what you are like. He reveals your personality and He sees that as a jumping point to use you for His glory.”
Mosley:
“Wake up and see God for who he really is.”
“He’s not just this far away guy we’ve learned about our whole lives, we think it’s just the religion thing we do, but no, He truly is the God of the universe and He loves you.”