L M Provost - How God Showed Up in My Life: My Testimony

Copyright 2021 L M Provost

All rights reserved.

This is my own work and in my own words. Although, I can't acknowledge the major role God played in this book enough.

This book may not be copied or reproduced in its entirety. Parts may be quoted with attribution for educational purposes without express permission.

*I don't use specific names in this book to protect their privacy*

This book is not meant to be a theological teaching, but I've referenced a couple of parables from the bible, since they were appropriate and supported points I was making.

This is my personal testimony (as the title says) and what I've learned since truly leaning into being a Christian. I thought I was before, but I was also into the New Age. I was so deceived, but I'll get into that shortly

My purpose in sharing my testimony by writing this book is to encourage those who think they have to be perfect to follow Christ or that they've sinned too much to be forgiven. Take heart, most of us haven't.

God showed up in my life, even before I knew it was Him that was working to make certain things happen and guiding me.

When we think of or are told about God, we're told about his anger, power and major displays of power and miracles through Himself and his son Jesus Christ.

While I believe these are true and were and are justified, we should also recognize His love for us and the more subtle ways he shows up for us every day.

First, we'll start by talking about how God invited me to focus on Him again and where I was at. I wasn't raised in a home where we went to Church or read the bible. We always believed in God, but in a more loose way, where we were raised to be kind and generally have good morals.

When God got my attention, I was really into New Age practices - horoscopes, tarot cards, angel cards crystals, etc. It was really casual at first, reading horoscopes here and there. Then a deck of tarot cards that somebody gifted me.

I also have this memory of a lot of my female relatives and I using a Ouji board when I was about 8 or 9. They weren't generally into witchcraft (as far as I know).

It was considered entertainment as far as they were concerned. The occult was popular in the 90's.

I'm not saying this to justify anything, just to explain that it, or other things like it, weren't a regular occurance in my childhood household. We didn't know how serious it was. In other words, we were ignorant.

For a long time, this was the extent of it. Then I noticed ads for wiccan spells when I was reading these horoscopes online. They seemed harmless enough, so I asked them to cast one for me. Oh how deceived I was!

Then I bought some crystals because not

only are they beautiful, they're advertised as solutions for so many problems! It became an addiction to buy them and believe they would make my life better, like finding love and having more money. Of course, they didn't work. The only one making money was who I was buying them from!

In 2017, I became very addicted to angel cards. The ones Doreen Virtue created. I didn't think they really did any harm, but I could've spent that time and money more wisely and didn't understand the spiritual consequences at the time.

I was also heavily addicted to watching tarot card readings and videos about twin flames on YouTube for a few months.

In 2019, I started seeing videos being recommended to me about testimonies of people going from New Age to Jesus.

I watched some of them and realised that this was a sign I needed to move away from the New Age, but didn't start reading the bible or watching Christian YouTube videos right away.

I started by throwing all my crystals, angel cards and other New Age stuff out and deleting and unsubscribing to all those YouTube videos and channels. I also threw out certain DVDs I used to watch and started watching more Christian YouTube content.

Then around May of 2020, I purchased a digital copy of the KJV version of the bible and read it everyday. This isn't to brag or say what a "good" Christian I am. It's to acknowledge the power of God to change hearts and lives.

The timing of this is also really interesting and another clue that it really was God guiding me because I found out later that it was around Pentecost. Some of you might know what this is already, but if you don't, this is a date on the Jewish calendar that celebrates the day on which the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples of Jesus Christ and they went out to spread the gospel. How appropriate that I would start reading the Word of God around that date!

Of course, some of it was obvious, like the crystals and other New Age paraphernalia.

And deleting any channels that had those subjects on them that I was subscribed to and websites I had bookmarked that I read horoscopes on. Some were a little less obvious, like movies I watched and TV shows. Even clothes I wore.

So, how did I know? I know if you're new to this, you might roll your eyes at this, but I felt convicted by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit convicts, not condemns. What's the difference? Conviction is about lovingly pointing out what needs to be corrected. Condemnation is saying you've messed up too badly to be forgiven. This is a lie, so you'll be too scared to ask for forgiveness and repent. Repentance means walking away from willful sin.

If you're in doubt, just imagine that God was going to show up any second.

Would you feel comfortable in what type of clothing you're wearing? Or embarrassed? To be honest, I'm still working on this.

I know it's not easy to replace a whole wardrobe, so just start with gathering up as much of your wardrobe as you can to donate or throw out. Then just replace these items over time. I love thrifting. Not only do these clothes get a second life, it's also a lot more affordable.

What about what you have in your home? I don't mean fancy or expensive items. Some seemingly innocuous items can become an idol.

I got rid of my video games and I don't have a TV in my room because they were becoming an idol to me, sucking up a lot of my time and not helping me sleep. This isn't to brag, this is just another example of God changing me in a personal way.

We should also ask, does this distract me from seeking God? Am I making it an idol?

Outside of making sure the correct YouTube videos show up, God does speak

to me. Not in a way where I hear a voice. It's more of a prompting that I can feel. How do I know it's the Holy Spirit prompting me? It's clear. No doubt or confusion. You'll feel at peace with it. There will also be confirmations that you're doing the right thing.

An example of this in my own life is the timing of certain things. Sometimes when I'm thinking about buying an item I need or my household needs, I'll be looking at the flyers at just the right time to see that item on sale!

Another way is that someone I know might bring up a subject that I was thinking about and confirm or correct my decision. Or I'll be thinking about a particular topic and a video will pop up about it on Youtube and will confirm or correct something I'm doing.

Of course, I'm careful about the channels I watch and use my discernment with this.

There was also an evening when I was younger and still drank sometimes, when a friend of my sister was pressuring me to go out. Normally, I wouldn't say no or feel pressured to go out, but something was different this time. I just wanted to relax and felt really strongly that I shouldn't force myself to go out. It would be a bad idea.