About John
When I was young my mum told me “If you are a good boy you’ll go to Heaven and if you are a bad boy you will go to Hell”. So I decided at an early age to be good.
This was fine until my teenage years when not drinking or smoking or stealing made you a ‘goody-goody’ and unpopular. I did not want to be labelled as a ‘geek’; I desired friends. I decided to try and act ‘cool’ so that people would like me, but I was pretending to be someone I was not.
I’d always wondered if I’d be good enough to go to Heaven and just before my 18th birthday I had an open vision where I saw the Lord on His throne.
I saw a huge room with marble pillars and semi-circle staircase leading up to a throne. I was kneeling at the bottom of the stairs looking up at the Lord. I did not see his face – it’s hard to describe – I knew he wasn’t headless! I knew it was the Lord.
He said “John, you didn’t go to church did you?”
I thought “Oh no!!” This was the question I had been dreading – you cannot lie to God. He knows your thoughts so I said to Him “I’m sorry Lord. I wanted to but people would have laughed at me”
At that moment I had a revelation – I knew that God loved me and had been seeking a relationship with me all my life and it was my fault that I didn’t have a relationship with Him. I knew he had to be a fair judge and he couldn’t look left and right and say “No one’s looking” and let me in.
And with sadness, he pointed to a door marked “Hell” and the vision finished.
I started shaking. I thought that only weirdo’s had visions – I wasn’t a weirdo so I wondered what was going on!
Within a few days we had a chance to go to church to mark the opening of the school year at Highbury College, where I was in my 2nd year of training to be a chef. To my surprise I actually enjoyed it. It then took me at least a month and a half to go to a church near my home.
I went to an Anglican Church in Gosport, Hampshire. The service was very boring, but I went because this was the only church building I knew and I thought I was pleasing God.
During this time I had saved enough money to buy myself a solid gold crucifix because that is what I thought Christians did! I went to buy this with my twin brother Gary, to the jewellers. Gary asked me “Which one do you want?” and I replied “I don’t know….the one with eh….um…. that bloke on it!!!” Gary was in stitches laughing saying “Do you mean Jesus!!” I was very embarrassed that I had forgotten his name!
I was getting into arguments at college over my new ‘faith’ – people would ask me why there was so much hatred in the world if there is a God etc. I would answer “I don’t know but I know Jesus loves me!”
There was a chef at college called Ted Burnett who a born-again Christian – everybody loved him, even the ‘cool dudes’. He invited me to his house for dinner, followed by a Christian concert. I could stay at his house overnight and then we would come back to college the next day.
He was my chef-idol! So of course I said yes!!!
After the concert we sat down with a bible tract called “Knowing God Personally” and he asked me if I knew much about Jesus. I said no although I knew he died hundreds of years ago. I knew about Adam and Eve or Noah. He started to tell me all about Jesus and how he had taken away all of my sins. I didn’t really understand the concept of sin but when he got to the end and said “Do you want to ask Jesus into your heart as Lord and Saviour?” I leapt for joy on the inside as I knew this was the right decision to make and that this would make God happy.
I prayed the prayer of salvation. I went upstairs to bed and prayed it again – just to make sure!
I started to change on the inside – I was reading my bible twice a day and learning a lot. The first question I had for the vicar at my church was “It says in the Word ‘repent and be baptised’. Now I have repented, surely I need to get baptised.” He told me this was unnecessary because I was baptised when I was a baby at my Christening. I pointed out that in bible there was an order to things ‘repent and then be baptised’. I asked him how I could have repented at such an early age. He told me that my God parents had done it for me!! I replied “you can’t have someone else repent of your sins for you.” This was just not making sense to me.
The next challenge I found was when I asked him about the passage that said “Do not call any one Father, for you have only one father in Heaven” I asked the vicar “How come I have to call you Father Steven*”. He couldn’t answer that and neither could the Bishop!!!! You just can’t argue with scripture!
I left the Anglican Church and went to a Baptist Church. It was here that I fulfilled my desire to get baptised along with my friend Nick Goodwin.
I read in the Word that at His Baptism, Jesus also received the Holy Spirit and I decided that as Jesus was my example I wanted to receive the same way. I was baptised in water and in the Holy Spirit on December 18th 1989.
In April 1991 I joined a Christian Theatre group and performed all over Europe in different languages for nearly 2 years.
I met my sweetheart, Abi and 2 years later we were married.
We had a tough marriage for the first 8 ½ years. I was so selfish, but Abi began to radically change as she listed to the teachings of a man named Andrew Wommack. It’s a long story, but let’s just say I also began to hear the teaching and we decided to go to Charis Bible College of
Colorado, where we studied the word and it radically changed our lives. Today we are pursuing God and walking out all that he has for us.
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