Matthew 6:6
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
I’m going to do a sermon no-no today and give my personal testimony. I know it’s not the normal thing for a preacher to do, but God has been so good to me I can’t keep it to myself. I debated not doing it, but in my preparation I came across a terrific testimony book, and that was all the confirmation I needed. It’s no secret one of my favorite personalities of all time is the incomparable author, poet, actor and teacher, Maya Angelou. She wrote a book titled, Wouldn’t Take Nothing For My Journey Now. It has been called a remarkable spiritual classic, and this morning I’m borrowing that title as our subject.
Here’s my testimony. Because of Christ, I have literally had the best life ever. I seriously mean it. You may have more money, a bigger house, fame, acclaim or attention, but I dare say, no one can brag that they’ve had a better life. My life in Christ has been tremendous. Let me give you a few of the highlights (I’ll be name dropping too).
As a child, I was in church all the time. I grew up in church. My dad was pastor and had revivals and high holy services all the time. Healing was routine. The outpouring of the Holy Ghost was a regular occurrence. You couldn’t help but be influenced by the pull of the Spirit to do what ever you could do. By the time I was a teenager my cousin and I managed and operated a Christian night club at our storefront church on 4th Avenue in East Orange/Newark. We had choirs and groups from all over the area attend our events. From there I went to Rutgers University, joined the Liberated Gospel Choir and recorded the choir’s only album in their 50 year history. What a great time we had touring, singing and praising the Lord. After graduating, with the help of friends, we started promoting concerts and producing recordings. We had all the popular groups (at the time) like the Winans, Commissioned, Richard Smallwood, BeBe and CeCe, Milton Brunson, Timothy Wright and many others. That lead to the formation of our group Leviticus. That ministry recorded and toured all over the country. And then we started doing conferences.
My claim to fame has to be Students of the Word. This conference was legendary if I have to say so myself. We had Bishop T.D. Jakes, Bishop Noel Jones, Bishop Jackie McCullough, Pastor Howard Tillman and a host of anointed men and women of God. The singing was superb. The musicians outstanding. The Spirit of God was never higher. During that time my wife and I opened our own Christian bookstore. She created Virtuous Woman a perfume for Christian women. I could go on and on, but I pray you got the point. Church has been my life.
But after all those outstanding worship services, something happened in 2019 that tops them all. Some of you may remember a fast we went on to start the year. During the first day I had an encounter with the Lord that blew my mind. Many don’t believe it, and I’m okay with that. But my testimony is that I was literally in the presence of the Holy Ghost. I’m not talking about in prayer or worship. I’m saying I perceived His presence in a way I ever knew was even possible. It was the exact expression of what Jesus referred to in Matthew 6:6 as the secret closet. I can’t explain the encounter any better than that. All I can say is that it trumps any experience I ever had before.
Then came March 2020. Church services stopped. Conventions, convocations, councils, concerts, meetings, everything stopped. No more Bishops. No more choirs. But guess what? I still had my secret closet experience. I still had Jesus. And he has become more and more precious to me everyday. I never had that initial experience again, nor do I need to. I now know he’s with me always. Really with me. Not just when I’m in church.
Dear Children of God, I pray we all come back. I pray the virus ends and everything goes back to normal. But no matter what, I will never give up my secret closet experience. Nothing else comes close. No expression or experience can compare. I sincerely beg you to join me. There’s nothing like being in the presence of the Lord. I ‘Wouldn’t Take Nothing For My Journey Now’
God Bless
