Pastor Jon Leavelle
At the age of twenty-one, I was an atheist. Little did I know that God was about to rock my world.
My story began when I started working side by side with a born-again Christian. When he began to share his belief in the God of the Bible with me, I decided this was something I would approach objectively. I knew nothing about the Bible and was determined that if it was real I would find out or if the Bible wasn't real, I would find that out. Either way the issue would be settled once and for all.
After about seven months of questioning and wondering about this, I woke up one morning and the undeniable presence of God was in my bedroom. If you happen to be an atheist as I was, an experience like this can blow your whole deal. From that day forward, I could not pretend that there was no God even though I wanted to. That was in August 1977.
Now I realized I had to act on this knowledge and take the next step. I knew that I had to receive Jesus Christ into my heart and confess Him as my Lord and Savior. I was led in a simple prayer by the same co-worker who had been witnessing to me. As we prayed, I had a vision of a ball of light coming out of the sky and going into my heart. Just like that my life was changed forever. One of my first thoughts was, "What did I get myself into?" Afterwards, I tried to resume my life as if it was just business as usual, but try as I might I could not continue living the same sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll lifestyle. Believe me; I tried!
My goal initially was to make it into heaven by the skin of my teeth. As young as I was, I thought maybe I should put the whole God thing off until I was forty something years old. The problem was I couldn't do the same things I did before receiving Christ and still enjoy them. Little by little I began to shed the old lifestyle. The first thing to fall off was the foul mouth I had prior to receiving Christ into my heart.
Some months later I prayed to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking with other tongues. Now I was on course for God and determined to live for Him. As much as possible, I began spending my time reading the Bible, memorizing scripture, going to church services and listening to teaching tapes.
About two years later, I began to sense the call of God to teach and preach the Word of God. The Lord directed me to attend Rhema Bible Training Center in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. After graduation, I came back to my home state of California. Having served in the ministry of the Word for many years, I founded Living Faith Christian Church in the fall of 1993.
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"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might." Ephesians 6:10
