Personal Testimony
How JESUS Changed My Life!
Personal Testimony of John J. Withington
April of 1995 I was 24 year old, working as a professional barber in Perry Heights, Ohio U.S.A. I grew up in Akron, Ohio with my mother Barbara and my older brother Steve. I loved my job, as a barber, it was one thing that I was good at. I liked making people feel good about themselves with the right haircut. I had it going on, I was making good money. I had a nice car and friends. What else would I need? I was living up life enjoying each moment, spending money on clothes and on myself. Then I started drinking, and doing drugs. After a while nothing made me happy, and I started getting depressed. I was tired of my life, and I felt I had no reason to live anymore. I was not happy with my life and I felt nobody loved me. I felt alone, alone, alone. One day I was planning to kill myself with a gun in my small apartment. I was washing dishes, and I spoke out into the air, “God, I don’t know I my life means anything to you or not, but I’m going to kill myself. Not that I want to but because I have no choice, but unless you tell me two things!” “(No.1), Why was I born, and (No.2) what’s my purpose in life?” The Word of God says: (Jer 29:13, Jer 29:14 you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the LORD) I never searched for the Lord with all my heart before as if my life depended on it until at this moment. I felt like my whole life was like a big puzzle and I had all the pieces of my life together, except ONE piece was missing in the middle was missing. It was like a hole in my soul that was starving. I tried to fill that whole inside me with many things, clothes, cars, money, girls. Also I was addicted to drugs and alcohol. Those things covered up that whole for a short moment, but they never last. And again I was empty inside.
As I stood at the end of my life planning to put an end to it, suddenly I heard a voice inside me, it said “Go get your Bible”. I said back to that voice, “I don’t have a Bible”. And again that same voice said “Go get your Bible”. I said back to that voice, “I don’t have a Bible.” So final I thought let me just look as see. I looked everywhere, I couldn’t find any Bible. Then I look down at the bottom of an old bookshelf that was in my living room. And a small voice said open that draw on the bottom. I thought it was one piece and it didn’t open, but I pulled on it, and what you know my small Bible was in there. I put it in there when I was about ten years old and have forgotten all about it. A pastor by the name Mike Sheriff who was working for the Salvation Army gave it to me long ago as a gift.
So I sat down in my chair with my Bible, and again that same voice said to me; “Open to the book of John”. I didn’t know where the book of John was, so it took some time for me to find it. After opening to the book of John, again that same voice said to me; “Begin to read”. So I began to read John 1:1 on wards… When I got to the 12, 13 verse God spoke to me: John 1:12-13 “ But all who have received Him, to them that is, to those who trust in His name--He has given the privilege of becoming children of God; who were begotten as such not by human descent, nor through an impulse of their own nature, nor through the will of a human father, but from God.”
Suddenly, the first time in my life I realized, yes my mom and dad had a small part of me being born. But it was God’s plan for me to be born not man. I am born of God. I use to think maybe I was not planned to be born, maybe I’m just an accident that ended up in this world, and now have to survive on my own. But No! I am born of God! The suddenly all the small spiritual seeds planted in my spirit growing up all came out, and I came to know the Lord Jesus in a powerful meaningful way. I began to say out loud, “I chose Jesus, I chose Jesus, I chose Jesus! As I was saying this my hand swiped across the page, and I looked down on the pages, and out popped, John 15:16 “ You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.” I said out loud, No! I have chosen you! And I looked down, and God said No, I have chosen you! And again I said out loud, No! I have chosen you! And I looked down, and God said No, I have chosen you! Finally I said ok you have chosen me.
That night alone in my apartment I was going to kill myself, I was instantly delivered from everything (Drugs, Alcohol, Pornography, Sexual Abuse, Personal Identity Crisis, Emotional and Past Bondages). I was set free by the Power & Truth of God’s Word. God touch my heart. And from that day, my life has never been the same. After all that the Lord Jesus has done for me, the only thing I have for Him is my life. And I have dedicated my life for God’s service throughout the rest of my life. God's gift to me was my life, and my gift back to God is using my life to serve Him for His Glory!"
If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him."
(William Carey - former missionary to India )