The best thing that has happened in my life

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By Lars Hyldgård Jensen, Denmark

Freedom in His presence
The best thing, that has happened to me, is that God met me with His presence and freedom. It was completely life changing for me - to go from a theoretical faith to a personal experience with the Holy Spirit. This has had consequences in every aspect of my life!

I already understood the theory that Jesus died for our sin, so that we can be forgiven when we sincerely turn to Him.
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But the actual reality, that we read about in the Bible, I never imagined that I would be able to experience. That is, that God sets us free, and wants to lead us and use us…

Here is a bit of my story:

I struggled with fear in high school, and several times, I skipped school because of the fear of having to speak in front of others. The fear of losing control of my speech and breathing and fear of being ridiculed. I struggled with great performance anxiety – and generally feared what other people thought of me.

When I joined the military after high school, I was afraid to tell anyone that I came in a Christian Bible study group. The group invited me to a meeting in Markuskirken (the name of a Danish state Church) in Aalborg, where the priest invited different free church Christians to come to his state church. When I came to the meeting and heard the Norwegian evangelist, Aril Edvardsen, speak, I experienced something totally different – the presence of God!

I received a book called “Kampen mod Goliat” (English: The battle against Goliath), which described Aril Edvardsen's personal struggles against all that fear, that hinder so many people in living out the possibilities that God has in fact prepared for us. The book vividly describes how, again and again, with the help of God, he has overcome fear. I ate every word – and it produced faith in me.

Something completely new started to happen on the inside of me – and for 14 days in a row, two new thoughts kept showing up in my mind, that I had never thought before. The one thought was: “Maybe I have completely limited what God can do in my life!?” And the other thought was: “Lars, for every area of your life that you surrender to Jesus, you will be a thousand times happier, than if you keep it to yourself…”

After this, one night I experienced waking up three times in a very special way, where I heard a physically audible voice repeating the sentence: “God receives a new generation.”

I normally sleep like a rock, but here I woke up immediately, like turning on a light switch. I then fell asleep again, just like turning off that same light switch. This happened at both 1 o’clock, 2 o’clock, and 3 o’clock in the night, and each time with the same message.

The next morning, I felt how everything had changed in me – I had been marked for life. I had had an experience that I thought was impossible. After this, every night, I was completely absorbed with the Bible instead of watching television. And for the next two months, every day experienced the wonderful and liberating presence of God. Tears would stream down my face as I read the Bible, listened to Christian music, or secretly bowed my knees to God.

In this time, I really got to see firsthand how God can be experienced, like an embrace of love that liberates. I read that Jesus set people free from sickness and evil powers – and one night, suddenly, I said: “Fear, let go of me, in Jesus’ mighty name!” And it worked! From the moment I had commanded over the fear in Jesus’ name, suddenly, I was able to do all those things that I couldn’t do before! For the first time since childhood, I could just be myself and stand up in gatherings and speak without the least bit of fear – in a fully relaxed and natural way. I had really gotten a breakthrough, and suddenly, there was nothing more attractive to me than to ask God to begin to show me the wonderful plans He had for my life.

Through 22 years, I’ve now had a continual “wellspring of gratitude” to God on the inside, thankful for His freedom from things that bind, from lies and limitations.
Jesus said: “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32).

There can be things that hinder the truth from breaking through, but when it does break through, the Word and the Spirit of God will set us free.
Even though I had grown up in the faith, I had no idea that God is in fact able to interactively work in our lives, and God will open the door for the most exciting and meaningful opportunities, when we give Him full control. The combination of His freeing presence, the living Word of the Bible and what I could see in people who had a strong walk with God, gave me the faith and trust to wholeheartedly surrender all areas of my life to Jesus!

It is the best thing, that has happened in my life.

Through 22 years, I’ve now had a continual “wellspring of gratitude” to God on the inside, thankful for His freedom from things that bind, from lies and limitations.

Jesus said: “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32).

I’ve experienced this! There can be things that hinder the truth from breaking through, but when it finally does break through, the Word and the Spirit of God will set us free.

Even though I had grown up in the faith, I had no idea that God is in fact able to interactively work in our lives, and God will open the door for the most exciting and meaningful opportunities, when we give Him full control. The combination of His freeing presence, the living Word of the Bible and what I could see in people who had a strong walk with God, gave me the faith and trust to wholeheartedly surrender all areas of my life to Jesus!
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It is the best thing, that has happened in my life..

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