Greetings friends,
I grew up in a "Christian" home grew up in the "church" going there my whole life. I even accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior when I was three years old sitting on my mothers lap. I remember this because we had gotten in an accident. I was always have been a very spiritual intone individual even at a very young age. But my life was far from normal. I grew up in a Christian home as I said, but my family's lives were very far from God.
I grew up with my father serving in the Army as a Lt.Colonel. He was a very quiet man yet at the same time he was also very controlling and manipulative. I can recount several times he beat my older brothers, and abused me verbally not to mention mentally as well. My mother at one and the same time tried to make up for all of this of course by being both the mother and the father. Which of course did not work, which in turn lead to further tension in the home. I can remember so many times when I wished all the fighting would end, all the yelling would stop between everyone.
My parents and my older brothers tried to hide everything from me so that I wouldn't be exposed to it. How I regret that to this day. The hypocrisy and double standard in my family's home was such that it was really bad. Spiritual tension was a reality that I lived with growing up.
I was sent to "church" to be good a good little boy. But I wasn't a good little boy. I was an anger kid with a temper to back it up. I would get in fights to take out my anger on other kids. So many times I was in the principal's office. In fact my parents had to send me to a private school because I was such a bad kid. I would smash kid's noses and the like. But my anger wasn't focused, it wasn't healthy. I was labeled "ADHD" and "BIOPOLAR" because I couldn't control my anger. But then what happened in my life I will never forget. One night me and my dad were fighting which was no big deal, and after that I went up to my mom and told her I cannot handle this anymore with my dad. I have been delivered and completely healed from the satanic lie of Adhd and bipolar, because of the shed blood of Yeshua.
Within the next few weeks my parents were separated. I of course was hanging out with the wrong crowd, yet I was still a leader at the church I was going to as well as at school. I was living a double life just like my parents. Then the truth smacked me in the face like a hammer. God had put several people into my life at this time who were really godly men. They helped me to see without them even telling me the reality of Christ is a present reality a reality that I have to live not compromise as I was.
I was on a mission's trip when this happened when God just broke through my distorted view of Himself and just broke me.
It was a long and hard road back to restoration. There was a problem of course. At this time I was addicted to pornography. I got in so deep man I was making nine hundred dollars worth of phone calls a month not to mention the internet and so on. This went on for years till one day I just couldn't hack it anymore and said enough is enough.
Then the year after that mission's trip which was my freshmen year in high school I went on the same mission's trip.
There God once again spoke to me and took me to another level in Him. But this time it was much more personal. When I was six years old I remember God speaking to me so clearly its words were like fire in my bones I kid you not. God told me that I would be a vehicle to bring the Body back to Unity and order, that families would be restored and lives would be changed. Little did I know till my freshmen year in high school what that would mean. God has to take me literally through the fires of hell to show me what this meant as I will explain later.
Then another year went by and my life was in shambles yet still. I was still involved in leadership. At this point I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt what I was supposed to do but I was stubborn as heck. After all, I'm part Irish. Norwegian, Scottish and Wales so naturally I'm going to be stubborn as heck. I went on that same mission's trip again, and it was my junior year now in high school. God spoke to me so clearly there that I got on my knees and started weeping clearly yet I was still stubborn after all I wanted to be a professional golfer and nothing would stop me from that. But God was still at work in me.
Then it happened my Junior year. I was on my knees in my room. I had to move out of my house because my mother was treating me so poorly. I was living with my middle brother just outside of Seattle, Washington. And God spoke to me so clearly as light is day.
He told me I had to forgive my parents and that He was going to bless me beyond anything that I had ever seen. And the next day I walked down the road with my father and I forgave him for all the emotional abuse that he had done to me and my family. I didn't have to do this but the Lord told me something else. That summer at camp the Lord a few months before that had told me that because of this act that I had done He was going to move like never before at the youth group camp.
The camp was jam packed. Our youth group had almost four hundred kids at this camp. We were all around pasture participating in a rodeo. The rodeo was almost over when all of the sudden one of the freshmen riding a horse (which was part of the rodeo) at the last lap the horse fell down and died for no apparent reason at all because the horse was in top flight condition. But at that moment I knew what God was up to because He spoke to me. Everyone literally was weeping it didn't matter who you were. God moved there I mean you couldn't hardly breathe the Presence of the Holy Spirit was so strong. There was weeping, repentance all over the place. It was truly glorious. But as I looked around I said, "Lord is that what you meant earlier this year?" And then I walked outside and sat on a chair and then the Holy Spirit came upon me so strongly I bowed my head and started weeping uncontrollably. I could see nothing but pure white light as if the Presence of the Holy Spirit was just right there upon me. And my eyes couldn't open either. But I came out of it and say that a bunch of my friends were around me to hug me and love me. They will never know what that meant to me.
So my senior year in high school came around. I had a strong feeling because of what the Lord was doing that I was going to enter into the Pastoral ministry. My plans were to go to a bible college yet my heart was still set on golf. How silly I am! Yet God was still working on me. The Lord then put me in a position of great responsibility. I moved back home to my hometown in Washington. But this came with a great price. I had to live with a bunch of friends during the summer months because my own mother wouldn't accept me back into her home. But God had a plan. Then after I had lived with quite a lot of my friends they suggested that I move into a shelter so I had a stable place to live. So I moved to a homeless shelter in downtown Seattle. I lived there for two months with all sorts of drug dealers and what not. Yet at the same time the Lord has placed me as the senior class leader for my class. I was singly responsible for putting all the leaders in my senior class youth group in place. I actually got to pick who was on the senior class leadership team and call the meetings and what not. It was really cool! But I wanted to be closer to my friends not having to wake up at in the morning to travel across Lake Washington to go to school just to be close to my friends. And then the Lord two months after living in a shelter provided me with my own place to live closer to all my friends. It was so awesome it was mind blowing.
Then I graduated from high school after going to three different high schools. At this time I knew that I had no choice. I couldn't go to golf school, I had to go to where the Lord wanted me to go. So I prayed about it my whole senior year, and the Lord lead me to a small community college up near the Canadian border. I walked on campus the first day went into the computer lab and said to the Lord, "Lord your going to provide me with some Christian friends." Little did I know the guy sitting behind me was the President of Campus Crusade for Christ on campus. So what happened after that was that God actually put me in the position he was in after the first meeting of campus crusade for Christ. It was amazing I tell you. Then I started meeting with the campus pastor, and he turned over the reigns of all the school ministry over to me to oversee. I meet with him every week to talk about plans for ministry and what was going on. It was amazing to be able to serve Him that way.
Before I left for college I started an internet ministry called Servantsofgrace. It was to be a ministry where God's Word would be preached without compromise without a doubt just His Word, and His love would be shown to the nations of the world. I started it with little in mind, but God has greater plans for it. As I started to see people's brokenness as a College Pastor God showed me that this was not just in my area of service for Him but all around the world. The people I was ministering to are the same people on the net that are hurting as well. And then I started getting more and more involved in my ministry. Then the Lord made it very clear that I was to get serious about serving Him. Now Servantsofgrace is not just online but offline on several continents and multiple countries all around the world.
God has taught me so much about what it means to be a Servantsofgrace. It has been such a hard journey with a lot more bumps along the way. All along my passion for Him has grown as my knowledge of Him has increased. God has done a wonder in my life, and He hasn't even begun. God has done such amazing things in my life. He has such great plans for you reading this. If He can take my callous heart, and change it for His glory then He can take your heart and change it as well.
On August 12, 2003 I enlisted in the United States Army to go into the Chaplain Core to minister to the soldiers of the United States Army. I managed to get discharged May 21st from the Army after being at Ft.Jackson for three months from March 2nd to May 21st,2004. This was very hard and hurt me a lot. It hurt me to the point where I questioned why God? Why even let me go through this? It hurt a lot because I had wanted to carry on my families history of military excellence, my father being a retired Lt.Colonel, my grandfather a retired Staff sergeant under General Eisenhower, and my uncle a retired Chief Petty Officer who worked in Washington D.C. before he retired. I wanted to continue this tradition by going to Iraq and serving my country.
This however would not happen as my drill sergeant said because he saw something else in me. He told me that I was very intelligent and that I should not be in the military due to some of the emotional problems I had in the past. They did not feel I would do well in that setting. I am here now even as I write this I feel no regret about the decisions I've made in my life. I feel no regret over the things that have happened to me, my parents or anything in my life.
In fact I praise God for allowing me to go through these things, because they have given me a greater understanding of what grace is all about. Grace is all about living, about being, about developing about knowing God so well that we will come away from being around Him, from reading His Word not unchanged, but changed. This is what I've learned throughout my life my story of my journey with Christ. It has been paved with many harrowing roads, and thorns, but I rejoice and am glad in who He has created me to be, His Child, and He will forever be the lover of my soul.
In 2005 the Lord took me through the abuse of my nephew by his babysitter, almost having my condo complex being burnt down, and countless other things. Through it all God showed me His faithfulness and my pursuit for His presence got even stronger. Through that God has shown me that it is not about the things I do for Him, but growing in passion in pursuing Him in such a way so as to draw others into His presence through the ministry He has given to me. It is not by might nor by power, but by His Spirit working through His children that we can come into contact with His presence, as God operates through the broken things of our lives so as to reach others through our own broken experiences so that others can experience His healing power.
If He can take me and heal me of a chronic addiction to porn, and depression He can heal you. He wants to heal you but you have to first come to Him. Won't you come into His arms today? He has such great plans and purposes for your life. He wants to take you higher, and deeper into His eternal plan and purpose for your life. Present your life to Him, and watch as He takes the broken pieces of your heart, and transforms them into a testimony for His glory.
When I write a sermon or teaching from the Word it is because the Lord has touched my life in such a deep way that nothing else in my life makes sense other than what He has shown me through the studies of His Word, and what His Spirit has shown me through those studies. When I preach about the Cross, it is not because I have to speak on it, rather it is, because the Cross of Christ has changed my life. It is at the foot of the Cross everyday, that I lay my life down; presenting my life afresh to the Master who gave up His life, so that I, a sinner might be saved by His grace. Surely it is not by my power or intellect that I can/or do anything, but it is Him working this this broken vessel to achieve His purposes in this last day hour to His people, and creation by calling them back to the foot of the Cross where they can experience afresh His mercy, forgiveness and grace. I invite you today to come to the foot of the Cross, and give your life to Jesus. He longs to heal you of your brokenness and pain. Won't you allow Him to come into your heart, and heal you of your brokenness today, even right now? He stands at the door of your heart and knocks, and only asks will you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that He died on the Cross, rose again from the grave and ascended to the Right hand of the Father.
by Pastor David Jenkins at SERVANTS OF GRACE
I grew up in a "Christian" home grew up in the "church" going there my whole life. I even accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior when I was three years old sitting on my mothers lap. I remember this because we had gotten in an accident. I was always have been a very spiritual intone individual even at a very young age. But my life was far from normal. I grew up in a Christian home as I said, but my family's lives were very far from God.
I grew up with my father serving in the Army as a Lt.Colonel. He was a very quiet man yet at the same time he was also very controlling and manipulative. I can recount several times he beat my older brothers, and abused me verbally not to mention mentally as well. My mother at one and the same time tried to make up for all of this of course by being both the mother and the father. Which of course did not work, which in turn lead to further tension in the home. I can remember so many times when I wished all the fighting would end, all the yelling would stop between everyone.
My parents and my older brothers tried to hide everything from me so that I wouldn't be exposed to it. How I regret that to this day. The hypocrisy and double standard in my family's home was such that it was really bad. Spiritual tension was a reality that I lived with growing up.
I was sent to "church" to be good a good little boy. But I wasn't a good little boy. I was an anger kid with a temper to back it up. I would get in fights to take out my anger on other kids. So many times I was in the principal's office. In fact my parents had to send me to a private school because I was such a bad kid. I would smash kid's noses and the like. But my anger wasn't focused, it wasn't healthy. I was labeled "ADHD" and "BIOPOLAR" because I couldn't control my anger. But then what happened in my life I will never forget. One night me and my dad were fighting which was no big deal, and after that I went up to my mom and told her I cannot handle this anymore with my dad. I have been delivered and completely healed from the satanic lie of Adhd and bipolar, because of the shed blood of Yeshua.
Within the next few weeks my parents were separated. I of course was hanging out with the wrong crowd, yet I was still a leader at the church I was going to as well as at school. I was living a double life just like my parents. Then the truth smacked me in the face like a hammer. God had put several people into my life at this time who were really godly men. They helped me to see without them even telling me the reality of Christ is a present reality a reality that I have to live not compromise as I was.
I was on a mission's trip when this happened when God just broke through my distorted view of Himself and just broke me.
It was a long and hard road back to restoration. There was a problem of course. At this time I was addicted to pornography. I got in so deep man I was making nine hundred dollars worth of phone calls a month not to mention the internet and so on. This went on for years till one day I just couldn't hack it anymore and said enough is enough.
Then the year after that mission's trip which was my freshmen year in high school I went on the same mission's trip.
There God once again spoke to me and took me to another level in Him. But this time it was much more personal. When I was six years old I remember God speaking to me so clearly its words were like fire in my bones I kid you not. God told me that I would be a vehicle to bring the Body back to Unity and order, that families would be restored and lives would be changed. Little did I know till my freshmen year in high school what that would mean. God has to take me literally through the fires of hell to show me what this meant as I will explain later.
Then another year went by and my life was in shambles yet still. I was still involved in leadership. At this point I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt what I was supposed to do but I was stubborn as heck. After all, I'm part Irish. Norwegian, Scottish and Wales so naturally I'm going to be stubborn as heck. I went on that same mission's trip again, and it was my junior year now in high school. God spoke to me so clearly there that I got on my knees and started weeping clearly yet I was still stubborn after all I wanted to be a professional golfer and nothing would stop me from that. But God was still at work in me.
Then it happened my Junior year. I was on my knees in my room. I had to move out of my house because my mother was treating me so poorly. I was living with my middle brother just outside of Seattle, Washington. And God spoke to me so clearly as light is day.
He told me I had to forgive my parents and that He was going to bless me beyond anything that I had ever seen. And the next day I walked down the road with my father and I forgave him for all the emotional abuse that he had done to me and my family. I didn't have to do this but the Lord told me something else. That summer at camp the Lord a few months before that had told me that because of this act that I had done He was going to move like never before at the youth group camp.
The camp was jam packed. Our youth group had almost four hundred kids at this camp. We were all around pasture participating in a rodeo. The rodeo was almost over when all of the sudden one of the freshmen riding a horse (which was part of the rodeo) at the last lap the horse fell down and died for no apparent reason at all because the horse was in top flight condition. But at that moment I knew what God was up to because He spoke to me. Everyone literally was weeping it didn't matter who you were. God moved there I mean you couldn't hardly breathe the Presence of the Holy Spirit was so strong. There was weeping, repentance all over the place. It was truly glorious. But as I looked around I said, "Lord is that what you meant earlier this year?" And then I walked outside and sat on a chair and then the Holy Spirit came upon me so strongly I bowed my head and started weeping uncontrollably. I could see nothing but pure white light as if the Presence of the Holy Spirit was just right there upon me. And my eyes couldn't open either. But I came out of it and say that a bunch of my friends were around me to hug me and love me. They will never know what that meant to me.
So my senior year in high school came around. I had a strong feeling because of what the Lord was doing that I was going to enter into the Pastoral ministry. My plans were to go to a bible college yet my heart was still set on golf. How silly I am! Yet God was still working on me. The Lord then put me in a position of great responsibility. I moved back home to my hometown in Washington. But this came with a great price. I had to live with a bunch of friends during the summer months because my own mother wouldn't accept me back into her home. But God had a plan. Then after I had lived with quite a lot of my friends they suggested that I move into a shelter so I had a stable place to live. So I moved to a homeless shelter in downtown Seattle. I lived there for two months with all sorts of drug dealers and what not. Yet at the same time the Lord has placed me as the senior class leader for my class. I was singly responsible for putting all the leaders in my senior class youth group in place. I actually got to pick who was on the senior class leadership team and call the meetings and what not. It was really cool! But I wanted to be closer to my friends not having to wake up at in the morning to travel across Lake Washington to go to school just to be close to my friends. And then the Lord two months after living in a shelter provided me with my own place to live closer to all my friends. It was so awesome it was mind blowing.
Then I graduated from high school after going to three different high schools. At this time I knew that I had no choice. I couldn't go to golf school, I had to go to where the Lord wanted me to go. So I prayed about it my whole senior year, and the Lord lead me to a small community college up near the Canadian border. I walked on campus the first day went into the computer lab and said to the Lord, "Lord your going to provide me with some Christian friends." Little did I know the guy sitting behind me was the President of Campus Crusade for Christ on campus. So what happened after that was that God actually put me in the position he was in after the first meeting of campus crusade for Christ. It was amazing I tell you. Then I started meeting with the campus pastor, and he turned over the reigns of all the school ministry over to me to oversee. I meet with him every week to talk about plans for ministry and what was going on. It was amazing to be able to serve Him that way.
Before I left for college I started an internet ministry called Servantsofgrace. It was to be a ministry where God's Word would be preached without compromise without a doubt just His Word, and His love would be shown to the nations of the world. I started it with little in mind, but God has greater plans for it. As I started to see people's brokenness as a College Pastor God showed me that this was not just in my area of service for Him but all around the world. The people I was ministering to are the same people on the net that are hurting as well. And then I started getting more and more involved in my ministry. Then the Lord made it very clear that I was to get serious about serving Him. Now Servantsofgrace is not just online but offline on several continents and multiple countries all around the world.
God has taught me so much about what it means to be a Servantsofgrace. It has been such a hard journey with a lot more bumps along the way. All along my passion for Him has grown as my knowledge of Him has increased. God has done a wonder in my life, and He hasn't even begun. God has done such amazing things in my life. He has such great plans for you reading this. If He can take my callous heart, and change it for His glory then He can take your heart and change it as well.
On August 12, 2003 I enlisted in the United States Army to go into the Chaplain Core to minister to the soldiers of the United States Army. I managed to get discharged May 21st from the Army after being at Ft.Jackson for three months from March 2nd to May 21st,2004. This was very hard and hurt me a lot. It hurt me to the point where I questioned why God? Why even let me go through this? It hurt a lot because I had wanted to carry on my families history of military excellence, my father being a retired Lt.Colonel, my grandfather a retired Staff sergeant under General Eisenhower, and my uncle a retired Chief Petty Officer who worked in Washington D.C. before he retired. I wanted to continue this tradition by going to Iraq and serving my country.
This however would not happen as my drill sergeant said because he saw something else in me. He told me that I was very intelligent and that I should not be in the military due to some of the emotional problems I had in the past. They did not feel I would do well in that setting. I am here now even as I write this I feel no regret about the decisions I've made in my life. I feel no regret over the things that have happened to me, my parents or anything in my life.
In fact I praise God for allowing me to go through these things, because they have given me a greater understanding of what grace is all about. Grace is all about living, about being, about developing about knowing God so well that we will come away from being around Him, from reading His Word not unchanged, but changed. This is what I've learned throughout my life my story of my journey with Christ. It has been paved with many harrowing roads, and thorns, but I rejoice and am glad in who He has created me to be, His Child, and He will forever be the lover of my soul.
In 2005 the Lord took me through the abuse of my nephew by his babysitter, almost having my condo complex being burnt down, and countless other things. Through it all God showed me His faithfulness and my pursuit for His presence got even stronger. Through that God has shown me that it is not about the things I do for Him, but growing in passion in pursuing Him in such a way so as to draw others into His presence through the ministry He has given to me. It is not by might nor by power, but by His Spirit working through His children that we can come into contact with His presence, as God operates through the broken things of our lives so as to reach others through our own broken experiences so that others can experience His healing power.
If He can take me and heal me of a chronic addiction to porn, and depression He can heal you. He wants to heal you but you have to first come to Him. Won't you come into His arms today? He has such great plans and purposes for your life. He wants to take you higher, and deeper into His eternal plan and purpose for your life. Present your life to Him, and watch as He takes the broken pieces of your heart, and transforms them into a testimony for His glory.
When I write a sermon or teaching from the Word it is because the Lord has touched my life in such a deep way that nothing else in my life makes sense other than what He has shown me through the studies of His Word, and what His Spirit has shown me through those studies. When I preach about the Cross, it is not because I have to speak on it, rather it is, because the Cross of Christ has changed my life. It is at the foot of the Cross everyday, that I lay my life down; presenting my life afresh to the Master who gave up His life, so that I, a sinner might be saved by His grace. Surely it is not by my power or intellect that I can/or do anything, but it is Him working this this broken vessel to achieve His purposes in this last day hour to His people, and creation by calling them back to the foot of the Cross where they can experience afresh His mercy, forgiveness and grace. I invite you today to come to the foot of the Cross, and give your life to Jesus. He longs to heal you of your brokenness and pain. Won't you allow Him to come into your heart, and heal you of your brokenness today, even right now? He stands at the door of your heart and knocks, and only asks will you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that He died on the Cross, rose again from the grave and ascended to the Right hand of the Father.
by Pastor David Jenkins at SERVANTS OF GRACE
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