MY TESTIMONY

My name is Des Walter, born in 1930 and raised by Christian parents in a Godly environment. On looking back now I feel my early life was more religious than Spiritual, but I am grateful for the Christian influence in which I grew up. At age 10 I responded to the call for salvation and accepted Christ and a little later was baptized in water. This resulted in a desire to study the Bible and I became involved in Open Air Evangelism, and after marriage, my wife and I entered missionary service for a number of years, upon returning I was offered Pastoral ministry which continued until 1975. Through all those years I was questioning some of the Traditional doctrines of the Church in my heart. I read every book I could lay my hands on looking for answers, but one day I was stopped in my tracks, not by some Bible Teacher or theological book, but by A STILL SMALL VOICE within me. For the first time in my life I HEARD THE VOICE OF GOD, and my whole life changed.

I would not trade what I have in God today for anything this world could give me. I feel so privileged to know HIM whom to know is life eternal, when all around me there are good people and yes Christian people, who strive to be something and attain some position of authority over others, but never touch the REALITY which is in God. I have discovered ETERNAL LIFE is not simply a life that never ends which is what most Christians believe, but is a QUALITY OF LIFE that very few have even understood. Paul describes the true quest when he said, "That I might know HIM and the POWER of his resurrection…." This was the search I began in 1975, TO KNOW CHRIST and the power of his resurrection. As time went by I found this desire in my heart devoured me. It mattered not what I was doing in the natural world, in my Spirit the searching continued. I found that the complete answer did not come to me in a moment but was like some very distant object drawing ever closer so that its detail became clearer and clearer. Each time I looked I discerned something new, and it so greatly encouraged me that I would renew my quest with greater vigor. But often as I would share something of my discovery with others whom I respected in the Lord, I was put down. This puzzled me as to why they could not see what I was seeing, and caused me to slow my search feeling I had to be "off the track," because no one seemed to understand what I was seeing.

But, somewhat secretly I pressed on because there was something I could not explain WITHIN me, that calmed my fears and seemed to encourage me to continue. Over time the "PICTURE" or that which I was beholding slowly began to take on sufficient form to lift my spirit in spite of being rejected by the religious world and cast off as a heretic. But the Christ I was seeing who is the very IMAGE OF GOD, so captivated my heart that the taunts and rejection no longer affected me.

I WAS IN LOVE…. yet this was not a sensual love which could be expressed in some physical way, but a love that desires above everything else to posses the object of that love by drawing it unto myself, as if I had the power to become ONE WITH IT. At the same time I was deeply impressed to SURRENDER MYSELF to Christ the object of my LOVE, and over time there has been a merging of those two aspects of my love. The process is not yet complete for there is still a longing within to experience more of HIM which means I do not yet posses all that he is in terms of experience. But now I press on with a greater desire to totally consummate my love for I know that in such a consummation the "FRUIT" WILL COME FORTH which is the desire of all ages. Actually I am not speaking about some other "being" coming forth as in the natural, but one of the wonders of my search is to discover that the product of that LOVE UNION with the CHRIST is none other than the REAL ME AS CREATED BY THE HAND OF GOD. In this short testimony I have covered over 20 years of my life, but if it had been 50 years it still would have been worth it.

An interesting change took place in my life without any conscious effort on my part, and that was an ability to LOVE which had always been a difficult area of my life. You see, L-O-V-E is not something you can manufacture. The truth is, the only love we have in our lives is the LOVE WE RECEIVE. As a baby the child begins to receive love from their parents, and this is so important to them. A doctor friend of mine who was in charge of a clinic in Malaysia told me they often had small children brought in with malnutrition. He said the routine was to put them on a drip containing all the nutrients the body needs to enable them to recover quickly. However in some cases despite supplying everything the child’s body needed they died. When I asked him why that was, he said, "Because there was NO LOVE IN THEIR LIFE." This interested me so much that I asked what is the connection between LIFE and LOVE, and this is what he said, "When there is absolutely no love in a child’s life, the body rejects food and cannot assimilate it, so they die!"

On looking back in my own life, I could see where my problem came from. My parents provided everything we needed such as a lovely home and good food and clothes, but my Father found it very difficult to express love to us children. So without being conscious of such a lack I entered adult life seeking to do the right thing and respecting others and their property, but I found it difficult to LOVE. I began marriage with a great sense of my need to be loved which was uppermost in my mind. But such a need to be loved is a good prescription for divorce. You see, LOVE IS GIVING and not GETTING. Once you want something from someone you have lost the basis for LOVE. This is the root cause of most of our marital problems today.

So if our parents were not capable of supplying the kind of love we needed, how in the world can we ever be a loving person? The Bible declares in a very clear statement that GOD IS LOVE and that he is our heavenly FATHER. So regardless of our parents failure, God has enough LOVE to satisfy the whole world so that all mankind would love one another. Don’t sit in a corner crying over your "bad" childhood, blaming your parents for your inability to love, because you have a heavenly FATHER who says, "I have all the LOVE you need, just let me LOVE YOU and I will fill you to overflowing so that not only will YOU will be satisfied in love, but you will have plenty to share with others."

Have you ever wondered why so few people seem to discover that GOD IS LOVE and actually experience it? The reason is, that for centuries Christians have been telling the world that if they do not repent and get "saved" God will burn them forever in the flames of hell. It is very difficult to LOVE someone who would ever think of such grotesque torture, let alone carry it out. Beloved I want you to know My heavenly Father has never hurt anyone, for ALL mankind are the OFFSPRING OF GOD! Let me repeat it again for emphasis, G-O-D IS L-O-V-E. It does not say he is loving, but that his intrinsic nature IS LOVE. I don’t know about you, but since I have discovered that GOD IS LOVE, I could not even consider what many Christians were saying God was responsible for. Such as a tragic accident or someone who is dying with cancer or a drug over dose, or any other situation which would bring grief and suffering to a family. These things are a contradiction to me for I know GOD IS LOVE. Either this is the TRUTH or the Bible is lying, for both cannot be true, so there had to be another answer to these sad and sorry situations that plague the lives of people today. To try and understand these things we must go back to Genesis 2 and discover the basis of all this mess. God said to Adam that he could eat of the fruit of all the trees in the garden BUT not to touch the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, because the very day you eat that fruit you will DIE. Adam disobeyed God and touched that tree and immediately his perception of himself, God, and the world he lived in, changed. He saw himself as being NAKED or unholy in God’s sight, so that he hid from God. But God found him and asked, "WHO TOLD YOU that you are naked." The obvious answer is that GOD did not tell him he was naked!! It was his own carnal mind which told him he was naked and also convinced him that God had driven him out of the garden for his sin.

It is interesting that everybody today has believed exactly the same things as ADAM and so we have all lived in this world of GOOD AND EVIL, or cause and effect, believing it to be GOD’S WORLD, and that he is responsible for everything that happens. We believe this because we believe GOD is SOVEREIGN in this world. However the day Adam sinned, he stepped OUT of GOD’S WORLD in the Garden into another world which HE (Adam) created with his mind. This present world that we see around us is the world of GOOD and EVIL, or CAUSE and EFFECT.

Because MAN is essentially a SPIRITUAL BEING, he has to have a "GOD" that is sovereign in this present world of GOOD and EVIL. However because this "WORLD" of Good and Evil exists only in the carnal minds of mankind we have to "create" a GOD and we do this through the IMAGINATION. Lacking reality, the "God of this world" receives his power and authority from US, just as the idols do in heathendom. So we program this "GOD" to function out of the TREE of the knowledge of good and evil. If we do GOOD then GOD will love us and bless us and prosper our way, BUT if we do evil then judgment will follow in some form, could be sickness or an accident or some other negative experience.

We base this understanding on Galatians 6 and the verse that says, "As a man soweth so shall he reap." This is "CAUSE AND EFFECT" and is the mechanism by which the God of this World functions. It means that if we do good then good will return to us and we will be blessed, but if we do evil then evil will follow us and we will have a very rough time, which will be God’s will for he is sovereign. For many years I believed this was the spiritual LAW OF the TRUE GOD,. But now I know this is NOT TRUE because the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ does not function out of the TREE of the knowledge of GOOD AND EVIL nor does he have anything to do with it. GOD functions out of HIMSELF and GOD IS LOVE so how can he be governed by CAUSE and EFFECT.

The fact is that the LAW which governs most peoples lives has nothing to do with GOD, but is actually KARMIC LAW which is the universal law that governs the function of GOOD and EVIL or CAUSE AND EFFECT. I am using the term "Karma" although it is associated with Hinduism and Buddhism but it is the only accurate term to describe this active principle of GOOD AND EVIL that governs the life of an individual. Let me define it for you from the encyclopedia Britannica.

"According to the doctrine of karma, good conduct brings a pleasant and happy result and creates a tendency toward similar good acts, while bad conduct brings an evil result and creates a tendency toward repeated evil actions. This furnishes the basic context for the moral life of every individual." The other associations of this word "Karma" with "Re-incarnation" and other Eastern Philosophy have nothing to do with what we are speaking about. Karmic Law has to do with CAUSE and EFFECT and this is the way in which I am using this term.

So if we put our trust in, and worship the GOD OF GOOD and EVIL or CAUSE and EFFECT which Paul calls the GOD OF THIS WORLD, then of course God meets out EVIL as well as GOOD which we receive from HIS HAND OF "LOVE", because it is the arbitrary judgment of God. For years I thought I was just being honest with God when I said that I deserved all the bad things that affected my life. Today in most Pentecostal Churches if you get sick they will tell you that you must have sinned and you need to repent. This is KARMIC LAW, the law of cause and effect which beloved has nothing to do with God.

Once we embrace the concept of GOOD and EVIL we invoke the Karmic law and come under its power which is the Law of sin and death. This means our life is controlled by CAUSE and EFFECT and not by God. Thus the evil in my life raises the expectancy of impending doom in one form or another, and conversely when I do good, I believe that I will be blessed. This law does not operate in the Spiritual realm, only in the physical realm. The tragedy is that Christians believe our God functions out of this concept of GOOD and EVIL, when the truth is that he has nothing to do with it at all. They believe the serpents lie, that you will not die by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, BUT YOU WILL BE AS GODS. So Christians are of the opinion, that if they shun the evil and do good they are becoming like God!! If we are honest we will discover that Christians generally speaking, are not exempt from evil at all but endure the same calamities as "non" Christians. They get sick and have cancer which kills them, and have accidents and marriage problems the same as everyone else. Is this what the Bible calls ETERNAL LIFE, or have we been deceived? Let him who has "EARS TO HEAR", listen to the voice of the Spirit!

This dilemma was not simply a theological argument in my life, but it became a matter of urgency that I find the answer. I believed GOD IS LOVE and is all powerful so why did he make Christians suffer. I began to see that I had to re-evaluate the very loose term "CHRISTIAN." Paul says we are NOT UNDER LAW but UNDER GRACE. Then what is the difference? LAW involves a system of things we must do, and things we must not do with a penalty applied to those who transgress. I perceived that Christians were totally sold out to L-A-W and myself also. They could not have a glass of wine, or watch TV. or buy a ticket in a raffle or go to dances or a picture theater, or play sport on Sunday etc. To do any of those things at that time in my life would have invited the awesome judgment of God on my life.

The LAW has no ability to excuse or wave the consequences of our actions it is inflexible. GRACE is the expression of the divine favor, which enables us to respond in life in accordance with HIS character and nature thus lifting us into a higher place where the law of cause and effect cannot touch our lives. GRACE is the governing principle which functions in Father’s House or the Kingdom of God. Where GRACE is in operation there can be no L-A-W except LOVE. Now GRACE is not a system of "do what you like" and God will not punish you because he loves you! O NO! GRACE predisposes us to SONSHIP with the Spirit within crying ABBA….FATHER. Where as my life was once governed by the LAW of do’s and don’ts, now all I desire is to PLEASE MY FATHER, and that now controls my life. Thus Paul; declares that we are SAVED BY GRACE. Speaking to Titus he says that the GRACE of God that brings salvation to all men hath appeared, which indicates that CHRIST is God’s grace manifested. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world THROUGH HIM MIGHT BE SAVED. That is G-R-A-C-E.

In Rom 11:2-6 Elisha seeks to justify his hiding in a cave, by recounting Israel’s apostasy and using it as the reason he sought to preserve his own life as a prophet. Then we come to the question Paul asks, "What is God’s answer to the prophet? God says, "I have reserved unto me 7000 who have not bowed the knee unto Baal." Then Paul goes on to explain that God is acting in exactly the same way today and he calls it G-R-A-C-E. Why did not the 7000 bow the knee to Baal?? Because God put his GRACE upon them, so they acted differently to the rest of the people. They were not better or more holy or better Christians, the only difference was GOD PUT HIS GRACE UPON THEM. God’s GRACE allows us to see the IMAGE OF GOD IN CHRIST which is not visible to our natural eyes, and to be conformed to it. This lifts us above the level of functioning as those who are blind and so come under the power of GRACE and not the LAW of Sin and Death.

Did those 7000 deserve God’s grace?? NO, this is simply God’s favor, and is based upon the fact that GOD IS LOVE and does not desire the death of ONE SINNER. Noah built an ARK which is a symbol of God’s GRACE, for it separated his family from the rest of the world and also from the CORRUPTION IN IT. Now Peter tells us in the second Epistle 1:3-4 That in GRACE God has given to us all the things that are necessary for LIFE and GODLINESS through the KNOWLEDGE OF HIM that has called us unto glory and virtue, and has given unto us great and precious promises that by these we might be partakers of the DIVINE NATURE (and listen to this) HAVING ESCAPED THE CORRUPTION THAT IS IN THE WORLD THROUGH LUST. Just think about it!!!!

So God has provided all mankind with his GRACE which is manifest in CHRIST, even though very few seem to have taken him up on the offer. How many Christians do you know who have ESCAPED THE CORRUPTION that is in this world??? Most suffer just as much as the "non" Christian. Beloved we do have the choice to live under LAW or under GRACE. We can join Noah in the ARK and rise above the tide of evil and wickedness, being untouched by the "flood" that is carrying away so many around us in this world. YET it cannot touch us because we are divinely preserved under GOD'S GRACE. BUT the precious promises are available to ALL and not to a select few, so that ALL may live.

Finally, Jesus tells us in Matt 5:39 that we are not to RESIST EVIL!!! WHY is that??? Because if we resist evil we give it recognition and authority. BUT evil has no reality in that it only exists in this material world and has no reality in the realm of Spirit. Therefore if we resist it we declare it to be real and so we must fight it. Jesus made this as plain as it ever could be. He says if someone smites you on the right cheek turn to him the other cheek. If a robber wants your coat give him your shirt also and ask him if he would like your TV. also and help him carry it out to his car!!!!! Does that make any sense to you?? BUT this is the master speaking so we better listen to him. NOW…. Why did he say these things, are we to submit to anything evil decides to do to us? Here beloved is the greatest truth I know. If we will embrace the great and precious promises given to us and throw ourselves on God’s G-R-A-C-E he will lift us up ABOVE this world of Good and Evil into the REAL WORLD which is FATHER’S HOUSE, where there is no lack of any kind even though our feet do not leave the earth. In those HEAVENLY PLACES the robber cannot touch us nor the "angel of death", nor disease or cancer or car accidents or tragedy etc etc. NOTHING OF THIS PRESENT EVIL WORLD CAN TOUCH US IF WE ARE SITTING TOGETHER IN HEAVENLY -PLACE IN CHRIST, FOR IT IS ABSOLUTELY OUT OF BOUNDS TO EVERYTHING THAT IS NOT GOD.

So if we live under grace the THIEF will walk right past your house, but he will never know why he did, and the rapist will never target a woman living under grace, even though he did not make a conscious choice to do so. Everyone else may catch whatever disease is going round but not the one living under GRACE because GOD HAS LIFTED THEM INTO THE REALM OF SPIRIT WHICH IS ABSOLUTELY OUT OF BOUNDS TO EVERYTHING THAT IS NOT GOD. This beloved is the G-O-S-P-E-L the good news of our salvation.

You may ask why did it take so many years to discover the TRUTH? The answer is that the tide of humanity is being carried along so strongly by the current on the river of GOOD and EVIL, which is sponsored by the traditional teachings of the Church, that for anyone to think of changing direction is life threatening. But I am going to stand on the bank on the far side which is the LAND OF PROMISE as let my life be a testimony to the REALITY of what it means to be IN CHRIST. Salvation is not simply going to heaven when you die, but is a glorious release from the bondage and tyranny inflicted by a fictitious GOD OF THIS WORLD. If you do not believe me then ask the Prodigal Son why he decided to, "ARISE AND GO TO MY FATHER’S HOUSE."

 May the Spirit give you understanding of these things.  

DES WALTER

  BACK