My Testimony

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 (2^nd 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!