My
Testimony
My name is Ernest John Watson, I live in South
Africa. This is my testimony of my coming to know the Creator of the heavens
and the earth.
I did not grow up in a Christian home, although
my parents, parents were Christians. No one in my family talked to me about
religion or about the Heavenly Father during my childhood years. The first I ever
heard about the Heavenly Father was at age 8, in primary school, our first
class every morning was a Bible class then known as Religious instruction. The
story of the creation was taught from the Old Testament (Genesis) up to Kings
and prophets of Israel (end of Old Testament) by a teacher whose name I cannot
recall, but can remember that she evidently loved talking about Heavenly Father.
She taught us how to pray and said we should pray before we go to bed. From that year onwards I always prayed at
night before going to bed. I cannot remember what I prayed about but I prayed
to Heavenly Father. During this time I did not know anything about the Messiah
as I did not attend a Sunday school.
We moved to a farm in a mountainous area
when I was 10 or 11 years old, about 5km from our house was a river running
through a wild bushy area, further along was a waterfall which was ±20 to 25m
high. One weekend two friends and I decided to take a hike to the waterfall for
a swim. After our swim at the bottom of the waterfall we decided to climb to
the top of the waterfall on the one side and go back down on the other side of
the waterfall. Once we got to the top, we decided to go down as close as
possible to the waterfall. My two friends climbed down first with me following
closely behind. About ¼
of the way down we got to a rock which was ± half a
meter high and it was a bit tricky to get down. My two friends went first,
climbing down backwards and succeeded. When my turn came, I tried to go the
same way, but when putting one leg down I could not find a foot hold at the
bottom of the rock this made me hesitate and I couldn’t go further. I climbed
back and decided to go front first, so I could see where to place my foot at
the bottom of the rock. Once on the rock I leaned forward to look for a place
to put one of my feet down, at that moment I felt like I was losing my balance
and falling forward over the rock edge. I fought anxiously to regain my balance
it was hopeless! In that moment I felt I was losing complete control and going
forward! All of a sudden I felt like I was pushed back against the rock and I
slid down to the bottom of the rock. Realizing I made it safely, I started to
cry softly, I was so shaken knowing I very nearly fell. I could not understand
in that moment where I got the strength to push myself back against the rock,
which prevented me from falling forward. This incident has always stayed in my
mind and I strongly believe “Someone” pushed me back!
I spent my high school days in boarding school. I spent many
weekends “staying in” the boarding school. I did not know about a church nor
did I attend any church, until I was in boarding school where it was the rule for
kids not going home over the weekend to attend a church on a Sunday morning.
We went to a different Christian church
every Sunday. We would attend the main service as a group and go back to the
boarding school straight after the service; we never attended any Sunday
school.
Looking back at that experience, I had no
clue what it was about! All I knew was that this was where you worshiped God. I
never read or owned a Bible during my school going days. All I knew was that
Heavenly Father was the Creator and He made us and the earth. I still prayed
most nights before going to bed.
The next stage in my life was the army;
here I was issued my first Bible. It was a small red New Testament Bible which
included Psalms and Proverbs from the Gideon’s. I read through it many times but I understood
very little of what it said! Once I heard a person read from Psalms 23 and
decided to look it up in the Bible. It became my favorite Psalm, in fact still
is my favorite verse in the whole Bible!
I started working at an age of ±20 years
old. I decided to go to church…. but I did not know where to go. I asked my mom
if she ever went to church before and if so which one she went to. She told me
that my granny went to the Church of England, so I looked up the church in our
town and went to it one Sunday. I remember walking into this church and many people
were dressed up in robes and funny shaped hats. Nobody spoke to me so I sat
down and listened. It was the weirdest experience I ever had! I didn’t
understand anything of what the guy in front was saying so I never went there
again! That was the end of me going to
church…until I met my first wife at age of ±22.
My first wife (later ex) grew up in a
Christian home and her parents attended church regularly. We did not attend
church during our courtship, only after we were married. My (ex) wife and I
were fully water baptized in the Christian church when I was about 23/24 years
old. I had no idea what it was about…. nobody told me why we got baptized and
what it really meant, or maybe I just was not ready to understand? I always
thought it was something we had to do as newlyweds. What I did not know at that
time was how my life would change.
After a few months of attending church my
life changed and most of my time was dedicated to Heavenly Father. I still did
not read scripture but the way I lived my daily life was according to a
Christian way. I did not know it at that time, but looking back now at this
period of my life, I realize the Spirit (Holy Spirit) was given to me and I was
called by Heavenly Father.
During this period my (ex) wife became
pregnant…shortly after finding this out, I was called to the army to do a
“camp” for 3 months. In the army I listened to Christian music, prayed and
tried to be a good Christian person. Because of this choice, I had no friends in
this army period, I was ignored, no one talked to me, and even so-called fellow
Christians ignored me. It was a lonely time for me but thinking back, I enjoyed
it. In my last month of army, I received an emergency call to go home as there
was a problem with my (ex) wife. When I got home, the bad news was that she had
a miscarriage. Sadly, I lost my faith and my calling and to this day I’m not
really sure why I walked away from Father (God). From here on my life turned
completely in the opposite direction. A
very sad period concerning my walk with the Creator.
Between the ages of 25 and 44 I seldom attended any church, if I did it was
very few and far between…. in this period I still had not much clue what Messiah
(Jesus) meant or had done for us.
My walk with Heavenly Father was lukewarm,
at times cold; faith became back seat….the last of the last! In fact, looking
back it seemed acceptable to me at that time. Work and my sport were more
important and all my time was taken up by these, in these I succeeded very well!
Sadly I got divorced after 9.5 years of marriage with two children born from
that marriage, I was ±33 years old. After my divorce, my life was about doing
what I wanted to; I had no conscience regarding my actions. My actions were
against Fathers will and word and I should have been punished for my
lawlessness.
The next 10 years were lonely; my life
consisted of study, work and sport. This was the dark and empty period of my
life. I climbed the corporate ladder regarding my work and succeeded in my
sport. My faith was an up and down game. I joined a church close by to my home
and attended only a few times. One Sunday in church I heard someone stand up
and say that Father spoke to him last night and then another stood up and said
the same thing. I thought to myself, why does Father not speak to me? I asked
the same question later that afternoon “Father, why do You speak to some people
and not to me?” That night when I went to bed, I was woken up around about 2
o’clock in the morning and heard my name being called out. I sat up in my bed
and listened and heard nothing. I thought I was hearing things and got up to
look out of the window but saw nothing. I thought I had dreamt. I only realized
a few days later that it could only have been Heavenly Father calling out my
name. Did Father answer my question, I believe He did. You would think I would
change my attitude and lifestyle but I did not! I carried on with my lukewarm/cold
life. One time at the same church, they were looking for people to join their
cricket team to play against other church teams and I joined. The first few
games we lost badly as very few of the team players had ever played cricket, so
they went out and looked for people outside of the church who were good cricket
players to join them. Once these real cricket players joined our team (did not
join the church) we started winning games. At one time we played another church
and a decision was made by the other church which was not in our favor and the
reaction from the real cricket players in our team was not good. Shouting and
swearing broke out between the two teams. I was shocked at this and left the
team and the church!
I then met my second wife to be when visiting a doctor for a routine
check-up, she was a nurse at the doctor’s rooms where I went as I was
experiencing bouts of chest pain, and she had to do a stress ECG test on me. I
asked her out to coffee. We started to
see each other on a regular basis and a relationship began. But after a few
months of going out we separated. In this period I studied and became very
successful in my work position but did not attend church. My time and efforts
were given to work, until cycling came along.
Cycling became my god! I trained every day and every weekend
traveled the country, participating in races. I lived for cycling! All my spare
time and most of my money were spent on cycling. In between was work, so it was
work and cycling. Cycling was my idol, I worshipped it. This is sickening but
true. At one time I had the flu virus and it came a week before an important
race. I was so angry about this but still went and did the race. I did not
complete the race as my body was still ill. I was an angry person. I remember
at one time during the week, I wanted to go on a training ride but it was
raining that day which prevented me from going to train, this made me very
angry! The next day I went out and bought myself a cycling rain coat. Rain was
not going to prevent me from training! I got flu one year and this set me back
for a few weeks. When I felt better I cycled again but a few days later would feel
sick again, this went on for a while. I became sick regularly and no matter
what I did would not heal completely, I even went from doctor to doctor to find
out what the problem was but all the doctors had a different diagnosis.
I met up again with my second wife to be after 5 years and married her
a year and half later. I was 45 years old. My wife grew up in the church as her
parents were actively involved. Everything around her life was about the
church, she was part of her dad’s church choir, local preacher, worship leader
(piano & guitar) and she knew the Messiah Jesus. Slowly but surely I came
back to my faith.
It was here that I really began to understand
about Messiah (Jesus) for the first time (deep in my forties). I learnt through
my wife about Messiah (Jesus) and what He had accomplished here on earth for
us. I understood that all you had to do to receive salvation is just to believe
in Jesus, that He died for your sins and by His grace we will receive
salvation. Salvation was by grace only. I received grace. At this point I was
still cycling but slowly but surely it faded away. I actually realized that
cycling was my idol and repented from this. From here cycling became only a
fitness hobby. Something which I was struggling with was the thing about
salvation? I wondered about this, was this all it took to receive salvation, just
confess Him and my life could carry on like it was before. I talked about this
to my wife on many occasions… that it cannot be all we have to do to receive
salvation!
Here is where my life changed!!!!
I learnt to sing in a choir for the Easter and Christmas period and
played the bass guitar in the church worship team (My wife was the leader).
After 2 years I became a society steward at the church and thought I was doing
everything right in our Heavenly Fathers eyes. Funny enough with all this
happening I always felt something was not right, For example people where
entering the church making noises, jokes and rented out some of the church buildings
on the church property for business. My wife told me the church is also a
business, which I could not understand. I started to get angry with my wife
after band practice as people treated the place of worship as a casual place,
they told dirty jokes which most found acceptable, and I did not. Despite all
this happening, I knew that I was worshipping the true Creator and Son of the
heavens and earth.
Personally, my faith grew as I could openly pray to our
Father, although I was shaking like a leaf and making many mistakes while
praying in front of so many people as the duty of a society steward. Although I
was back worshipping Heavenly Father, our life style was still typical a
Christian way “saved by grace” and no matter what you do, right or wrong, you
are always saved! We became actively involved in many Christian activities:
choir singing at different churches, Kairos inside + outside (prison ministry),
to name a few.
July 2011, I was at home one night and did
not feel well as my wife and I had an argument. I went to my room to read the
Bible, I cannot recall the verse but this verse hit me like a ton of bricks and
I started to cry like a baby. At that moment I asked Messiah Jesus to please
change me and my life to be more like Him. After that day I could feel the
changes I went through (small changes), but that was only the beginning. I asked my wife a few months later if she
noticed the changes in me. The answer
was “Not really,” but I knew something was happening!
On new year’s day 2012 (Sunday) we were in church and again I
reminded Messiah that what I requested 6 months before, that I was very serious
about this and asked him again to change me.
That evening my wife and I normally watched
the Sunday evening movie, but the movie that was showing we had already seen before.
My wife was given some DVD’s from a friend a few weeks before, so we decided to
watch some of them. The DVD was about the traditions and history of the church.
What happened next was a shock to both of us. What happened that night will
always stay fresh in my mind. I cannot explain in words the feeling I went
through that night but it was a total shock!
My wife and I found out that night that
most of the things we were taught and doing in church were mostly man made
traditions. The things we were doing in church were mostly not found in
scripture. That night I did not sleep… I
watched all the DVD’s and found out that I have been deceived by many other
things, - Christmas, Easter, the crucifixion days of Messiah, the Father’s name
and so on! I could not work the next day, my mind was revving like a V8 motor.
My wife and I discussed this for a few days and then I decided to
leave the church immediately. Wrote my resignation letter explaining my reasons
for leaving and handed it to the pastor.
The pastor told me that he would come and
see use to discuss my reasons for resigning, which I am still waiting to this
day to happen. My wife resigned a month later.
I knew I was called by the Heavenly Father and I responded with arms
wide open. I can tell you many wonderful spiritual things happened to me in the
first 3 months which changed my life from normal to upside down, sideways and
every other way! I no longer wanted to be part of this world. I started to
study the Bible at every moment I had time to do it. No-one was going to
deceive me anymore! I was actually very angry, angry at people and systems
lying to us!
Heavenly Father told me that if I want to
know Him, I need to study Him. For the next 3 months the Spirit woke me up at 3
o’clock every morning to study scripture. I remember the first morning getting
up at 3 and sitting in front of the Bible at the table not knowing where to
start. He showed me and I started reading from the book of Numbers. Why Numbers?
I’m not sure, but Father knew this is where I need to start and I did. For the next
3 months, every morning between 3 and 4, I would get up and read. Some mornings
I struggled to get up but His Spirit convicted me (kicked me out of bed– ha ha)
to get up.
Amazingly I learnt Father’s Name and heard
the Hebrew Name for the Messiah. Revelation and restoring is in progress! In
this period I was re-baptized in the Hebrew Name of Messiah.
For my wife it was too fast a change and
she started to turn back which I could not understand at that time but for me
there was no turning back! Father called me!
I remember one evening asking Father if I
was doing the right thing. That night I woke up, experiencing Father’s voice
which I cannot explain in words but He answered me personally and I knew that
there was no turning back for me.
My wife’s family started to question me and
stated that I was going overboard with this new religion. Sadly my wife not
only turned back but decided to leave me as she said I was a different person
who she could not live with and accused me of Bible bashing her and she had
huge amount of pressure from her parents. My wife divorced me within 6 months
of my break through… which hurt me tremendously! I was alone again but this
time it was a different loneliness, this time there was a light in my life. I
had received Our Heavenly Father’s spirit while everything around me was
falling apart!
I read and studied the Bible from front to
back every day of my life for the next 1 year and 4 months. I learnt Father and Messiahs ways and learned
to know Them by reading scripture every day. The next year and few months were
work and study of scripture! It took me a 1 year and 4 months to study the
entire Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation.
I cleaned my house of all worldly items,
DVD’s, music, computer games, TV, photos and many others things. I tried to live
a set-apart life from that day onwards. I could never have done this on my own…
without the Spirit of the Almighty.
The
proof of Messiah’s Spirit given to me is described in the few wonderful moments
noted below:
1)
At the beginning, when I ask
Heavenly Father to change me; He told me that if I wanted to change I first
needed to know Him. For the next 3 months I was woken up at 3 in
the morning by the Spirit to study the scripture (no alarm and most morning at
3 o’ clock sharp – my wife as witness). The first book I was given to study was
“Numbers”.
2)
On a few occasions I had to
attend client meetings at work which were not going to be very pleasant
discussions where I had to make very important work decisions. Every time I asked
Father to guide me through these meetings. After the meetings, I was amazed as
to how all discussions were not unpleasant and fell in my favor.
3)
I got a call one morning from my
daughter’s horse instructor, telling me that my daughter fell off the horse and
that she had to call the ambulance due to the seriousness of the fall. I was about
one and a half hours away from home and during my drive to the hospital, asked
Heavenly Father that the injuries to my daughter would not be serious. After my
praying I felt very calm and on my arrival at the hospital the news we received
after x-rays and testing is that nothing major was wrong with her…just a few
cuts and bruises.
These are just a few amazing miracles;
Father has given me during this time, many other wonderful witnesses of His
greatness and love that I can tell!
In the next few years I started to write
small biblical verse messages to my now ex-wife via WhatsApp. Later on I added
my children and then much later close family and friends. Scripture reading and study was a daily
function and a big part of my life. I could and can never wait to read
scripture when I got/get home from work. In this period I met wonderful people
(local and abroad through internet) that knew the truth which Father has
brought across my path.
Another miracle happened… my ex-wife (2nd
wife) also heard and obeyed Almighty and turned back. We got back together and
re-married. A huge miracle! (Neither of us remarried during our separation.)
In July 2014, I had a dream, and believe Father’s Spirit was telling
me to get my trailer which was parked in my garage ready and packed with
food/water. That was it, I was just told in the dream to get my trailer that
was standing in my garage ready and packed. I shared my dream with my wife the
next day and told her that I believe Father Yahuah is warning me of something, not
sure what but the warning seemed serious.
Then a few nights later I had another dream but this time it was
visually only and this was a very desolate dream full of destruction…the dream
felt so real.
I dreamt
that I was crawling up a steep mountain edge with fire, lighting and smoke all
around me (very dark around me). The going up the mountain was very slow
because of the edge I was on; if I made one wrong move I would fall down into
whatever was below. I dreamt that there where people behind me but I could not
see them but I know they were with me. I felt that I was leading them up the
mountain. The next minute I was in an underground type tunnel/bunker going
through empty rooms which were much damaged. This time people were in front of
me. I could not see them nor did not know who they were. At one stage we were
entering a room and a woman popped up behind me. She was young with black hair
which was tied tightly on top of her head. She acted weird and did not look
like a real human. As we went through the door she disappeared. I had a feeling
that she was not a good person. The next minute, we were going through another
door to another room and this time I had a long sharp object in my hand. The
next minute the same woman I saw earlier appeared behind me and this time
without hesitation I stuck the sharp object in her chest. She smiled at me and
turned around and disappeared.
I believe the two dreams were related to each other and Father was
telling me to get ready for something or Father was just testing my obedience.
Although the message was constantly playing
in my mind every day, I did nothing about it for a few months.
Then at the end of November 2014, I had a heavy feeling within me to
get my trailer ready. I believe the Set-apart Spirit was reminding me to
prepare myself.
Funny thing is I felt that the trailer I
already had was too small to pack whatever I needed to pack, so I started to
look for a bigger trailer. By doing research on the internet and making notes
of the different trailers available and the specifications of each one. I
contacted the different suppliers of these trailers which were much bigger than
the one I had. After being shocked at the prices of these bigger trailers I
left everything and never carried on looking to buy one.
In January 2015, Yahuah’s Spirit again convicted me to prepare my
trailer. This time I visited each supplier and looked at each trailer. They
were very expensive and knew I could not afford to buy one. One of the
suppliers was offering me a second hand one but it was still beyond my budget.
That evening after coming back from a
supplier I reminded my wife that Yahuah told me only to get my trailer ready
that was in my garage and not to get another one, so maybe Father is telling me
something. I asked Father if I was not obeying Him or hearing His voice correctly
by looking for something bigger.
A few weeks later (still in January), I was
speaking to my next door neighbor about the trailer I wanted to buy. He then
told me that he bought one a year ago and it was standing in his backyard under
an outside roof. He invited me over to come and look at his trailer, which I
did. The trailer was the same one that I saw at one of the suppliers that could
give me at a second hand price. He told me then that he was planning to sell it
at the end of August 2015 after he comes back from his holiday break. He was
planning to replace it with a caravan. The replacement would only happen in
August 2015 and we were in January. I told him that I would buy it from him
when August came around.
That same night I prayed and asked Father Yahuah how much time I
have to get my trailer ready and packed. Early the next morning I got up to go
to work and while I was pulling my car out of the garage to travel to work, my
neighbor next door came to the fence between our two properties and told me
that he has decided to sell the trailer right now and not wait till August. The
minute he told me this, I knew Father was telling me that the time to be ready
was now!
To cut a very long story short, I bought the trailer from my
neighbor and the trailer is now standing in my garage ready and packed. (At a much
reduced price and far cheaper than the supplier was willing to offer me!)
I realize now going into mid-2016 that
Father’s time is not the same as our time and I understand that I have to be ready
every day because Yahuah has His own time. I cannot offer Father anything but
my obedience.
Our mom passed away this year (2016) and I
was asked by my sisters to talk on their behalf at her funeral. I prepared a
message for this regarding the Word of Messiah; I knew I would possibly not be
very popular with some of the people attending the funeral. During the funeral
process, I was sitting in the church and listening to the pastor speaking,
waiting on my turn to talk. During this time I started getting a pain in my middle
back and I started doubting whether to share the message I had prepared. As I
was sitting there the pain was so bad, I was struggling to sit still. I prayed
and asked Father if He wanted me to speak His message and if it was His will that
He would make this happen. When my turn came to go up and talk, I still had the
pain in my back. I started off by sharing the messages my three sisters’ had
given me regarding our mother, while I was talking I still felt the pain. When
I started talking about Father’s word I felt the pain ease up and disappear
completely, and the words of His message just flowed out of my mouth.
Much later, I realized that Father showed
me through my talk at my mother’s funeral that I was ready to take His word to
a wider field. At that time, I was still writing short Scripture messages to
family and friends. This is how my blog came into being and His word is now taken
to whomever will hear. Bless Yahuah.
We follow Him now in spirit and in truth.
We have received true grace and I pray every day asking Him if I am worthy of
receiving His salvation.
When I look back to the beginning of my
life walk, up till now, I notice the following;
1)
Father instructs parents to
teach their children the Torah – My parents did not teach me and this is seen
in my early to mid-life the lack of the Torah.
2)
Teachers (Pastor/Priest) should
teach from scripture – I would have had a better understanding of my baptism,
the receiving of His Spirit of Yahuah (Holy Spirit) and what Messiah really did
for us all.
3)
If I read and studied the
scripture at an early age – I would have understood Father’s ways and my path
may have been different.
4)
Religion and all the different
church doctrines I have witnessed – caused me not to have a full relationship
with Elohim.
5)
The purpose and real meaning of
church – caused me to lack in the true worship of Elohim and not to reverently
fear Yahuah.
6)
Worldly success (flesh) – I
have a huge question mark about my work and sport successes in my rebellious
period… I gained worldly possessions, work & sport achievements and
accolades! Why? Would Father have
given this to me, when I was rebelling against Him? I’m still struggling to
answer this…. or maybe I do know the answer!
7)
Blessings and curses written in
Torah – if I understood blessings and curses which Father has put in place
since the beginning of time, I would know that blessings are given automatically
to anyone living in Father’s will and
curses are automatically given to anyone who steps off the righteous path.
8)
I did exactly what the
Israelites did in the Old Testament; Israel was lead out of Egypt, so was I
lead throughout my youth. Israel stood at Mt Sinai and promised to follow
Heavenly Father, so did I when I was baptized in water and received the Spirit.
It did not take long for Israel to turn
away from Father and go after idols and commit adultery, so did I when turning
away from my calling. Father sent prophets to Israel to warn them, I was also
warned by Father’s Spirit and people. Israel was punished for their sins, I too
received punishment! A remnant of Israel repented and turning back to Father, I
repented and turned back to be part of the called out remnant. History always
repeats itself.
All glory goes to our Creator, He has given
me true grace, I know His Name, I call on His Name, I worship Him by calling on
His Name and I tell people about His Name. He is YAHUah the Almighty Creator
and His Son is YAHUsha our Messiah.
I pray Father Yahuah will keep me always
humble. Know that it is ALL about Him! I pray that He will guide me to be His
servant always. I ask this in the wonderful Name of our Messiah Yahusha.
Psalm 23.
YHVH is my shepherd; I do not lack.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still
waters.
He turns back my being; He leads me in paths of righteousness For
His Name’s sake.
When I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no
evil. For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You spread before me a table in the face of my enemies; You have
anointed my head with oil; My cup runs over.
Only goodness and kindness follow me All
the days of my life; And I shall dwell in the House of YHVH, To the length of
days!
Praise Yah, He is my Shepherd!
