My Road to Freedom Worship Center – A True Testimony So, how does a Long Time Baptist end up at a Pentecostal Church? I received a Diploma from Tri-Cities Baptist Evangelism School in 2000, a school that no longer exist (Tri-Cities Baptist Church is still there, but they deleted the Evangelism School program sometime in the mid 2000’s) I thought that it was weird that they offered such an extensive seminary program for free…. Then I made an incredible discovery, it wasn’t free, there was a wealthy local business man in Kingsport named Nick Nave who secretly paid everyone’s tuition for them, he did this in secret and sought no attention for himself for it…That made a permanent and lasting impression on me that I have never-never forgot (I didn’t even learn that he had done that until about a year after I graduated). I only met Mr. Nave two times, he was a very short elderly man with snow white hair and a walking cane, and he wore a bow tie (apparently he owned a Chicken restaurant in Kingsport). One the first day of class in September 1999 he was there and gave all of the students a copy of a book called “My Upmost for His Highest” and then he showed up again at graduation in December of 2000. I never seen him again after that. I attended Christ Fellowship Church for about 8/or 9 years, ( In 2002, Pastor Gregg Depriest even loaned me out to Highlands Fellowship Church in Abingdon, VA. to teach a night class on a course called “Experiencing God”) When I married Tonya I didn’t really attend very much because Tonya didn’t like it there and I rarely went to Church with her because every time I turned around she was having a falling out with whatever Church she was attending and switching to a different Church, and since I view Church as being an extended family I didn’t agree with her switching Churches every few months, so I just didn’t go at all. When Tonya and I divorced, I started going to Christ Fellowship Church. In 2011 I really felt uncomfortable with some of the secular stuff going on at Christ Fellowship Church and decided to stop going to Church. I didn’t go to Church again for over the next three years. But during that time I still studied the word, Church History, and continued to have a very active prayer life. I even continued to minister to people and occasionally teach and preach whenever I got the chance. Then in February of 2013, it was coming a heavy snow. I was working in Bristol installing a fire alarm system at the 1012 Building on State Street with Stanley Churchill, my boss at Building Systems Technologies said that we could leave early due to the weather. Coming home on HWY-11W, it was covered with snow, there weren’t even any tire tracks in front of me. The road was so snowy that I was only going about 15 miles per hour. Then I noticed a little lonely yellow sign on the side of the highway in front of a Tractor Trailer scrap yard that said “Freedom Worship Center – Nathan Leonard, Pastor”. I must’ve driven past that sign thousands of times and never once even noticed that it was even there. Then as I as passing that sign on the snow covered highway, I felt the STRONG presence of the Holy Spirit in the cab of my work truck with me. And I heard two words in my soul “GO THERE”, and I knew it was a referring to the Freedom Worship Center sign I had just noticed (for the first time ever.) And I kept hearing it in my heart being repeated “Go There – Go There- Go There-Go There”. It was so strong that I was almost no longer noticing the treacherous snow covered highway anymore. In the days that followed, I didn’t obey…… I didn’t go. I convinced myself that possibly I just imagined it all and maybe it wasn’t real, and I didn’t go. So I kept on going on. And a few months passed, and I was laid off from Building Systems Technologies. And I started a new job,. In May of 2013, I once again found myself driving down HWY-11W and once again, I noticed the little sign that said “Freedom Worship Center”, and once again I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in the car with me, and once again God spoke to my heart “Go There” over and over. This time I obeyed (well almost), I actually went to a Sunday night service, pulled into the parking lot, parked my car. And was getting ready to go in and that’s when I noticed that it was a Pentecostal church. I stopped, and prayed “God, this is a Pentecostal Church, I know you didn’t call me here”. And I started the engine and left without ever getting out of my truck. And everything was fine. Then that night, as I was in bed, I felt an incredible conviction cover over me because I had disobeyed a direct order from God. The conviction was so strong that I was moved to tears, and I began to cry out, “Okay God, I’m sorry that I left without going in, I’ll go to the next service, I promise” That was in May of 2013 (almost 2 years ago). It’s only been recently that I have come to fully understand why God called me to the Freedom Worship Center, because in my absence of Church, I was in the process of trading my Faith in God in exchange for intellectual knowledge of God, and although both are extremely important, There needs to be a proper balance of the two, and in my absence from Church, I was getting my relationship with God out of balance. A relationship with God that is out of balance is like a car wheel that is out of balance, it still rolls, but it’s not working and functioning like it is supposed to. So Glad that God convicted me and brought me there. I love you God, you are always good to me and for me.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 00:22:34 +0000
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