Testimony of Efren Abdon
Growing up in the Phillipines, I had a most colorful childhood. My mom sent me to school at the very early age of four because she simply could not handle my colorful lifestyle. You see, I always saw myself as an aspiring artist. I loved to draw colorful sketches on the walls and on every other place I could find. I guess I was the first graffiti artist in my time. Living with my younger siblings and spending most of my time pestering them, helped to hasten my school years.
There was never a moment in class when I stayed still or quiet. I don't think the problem of attention deficiency was never diagnosed or heard of back then. When an eraser started flying from the hand of a pro-pitcher teacher, it definitely had my name on it, and would hit me straight smack in my (bulls) eye. It was in those moments that I truly realized just how colorful my world was.
In class when you heard a girl screaming, they were either scared or angry, and someone definitely made them so. Guess who the culprit was? Dennis the menace was very real and very much alive back then, me. As a student, I was never capable of passing any grade from first to fourth grades, but all my miserable teachers agreed that they just had to pass me. Did they have a choice? It gave me so much enjoyment to terrorize the whole class that I literally became the Bin Laden of my school. However, I paid the price. I had reached fifth grade and never learned how to read. Then one day, my fifth grade teacher brought me back to first grade to learn how to read. Oh, la, la, that was the most embarrassing time of my life. Guess what? I learned to read in the record time of a few weeks, simply to get myself out of that situation. I was a child whom parents forbad their children to be with for obvious reasons. In short, I was a child only a mother could love; and not even his own siblings could do so.
For sixth grade, my mom enrolled me in a Jesuit Catholic boy's school. There I become aware of the fact that there is God. I learned about the life of saints like St. Francis of Asissi and St. Anthony de Padua. I was taught to memorize prayers (this was a problem for me). Still, I was not satisfied because there was no prayer to Jesus at this point, something began to burn within me, something I could not understand, and I did not know what it was. Then one day, as I habitually do everyday, I went to the chapel and knelt down and dedicated my life to God and promised to serve Him for the rest of my life as a priest. Well, the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak.
For the next 20 years, although I had dedicated my life, I was still wayward. I became the life of the party, everywhere I went. I was living a sinful life. I cannot go into details as the Lord forbad me to mention it since it is too graphic and unedifying. My brother Carlo received Christ first, then after a year of prayer for my salvation, I came to him and told him about my plan of entering the priesthood. Of all things, he told me to ask God if it was His will. Deep inside me, I questioned, will God respond to such prayer? Will He speak to me? But, I did ask and He did respond. While I was playing golf one day, I asked the Lord a silly question (or so I thought), but lo and behold, He responded in an audible voice. The answer to my question was as perfect as it could be, because of His manifestation, for I realized it was God who spoke.
One day, my brother Carlo brought me to his meeting but I was not happy because I was hungry for more. Then I began to seek the Lord on my own. I read about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and asked God to empower me. For 30 minutes sweating, I waited for the manifestation of the baptism of the Holy Spirit with my tongue dangling. I was waiting for the Spirit of God to take hold of it and shake it until I spoke in the evidence of the baptism, Tongues. But, nothing happened. Well, I said to myself, why don't I invent my own Tongue or language. I started speaking in Tongues, but because of my thought of inventing it, I doubted that it was Tongues I was speaking. I thought I invented it.Three months later, I was in a prayer meeting and I told God this would be the last time I prayed in tongues unless He showed me that it was real. And all of a sudden, while I was praying in the spirit aloud, I heard an old lady in front of me praying in exactly the same tongues. That instantly erased my doubt.
Within six months of my baptism, I was organizing prayer groups and sharing the power of God. Then one day, a participant asked me to lead him to receive Christ so that he could be born again. To his surprise, I didn't understand what he was asking. I did not know what born again meant. I learnt this later.
For another six months I was preaching both the power and the salvation of God. Here, I saw the power of God without limit, both healing the sick and saving souls.
A year later, as I finished my midnight prayer one night, a cock started to crow. Out of curiosity, I started to count. one, two, until I felt like he was choking. He crowed twelve times. Then I asked, "Lord, are you speaking to me"? If this is a chapter in the bible(12) then there must be a verse?. Right then, another cock crowed twice. So I thought it must be verse 2. Now I thought to myself, "What book can this be from in the bible, since there are 66 books"? Then I felt in my spirit, God asking, "When do you hear a cock crow"? I answered, "First thing in the morning". Then He asked, "What is the first book in the bible"? "Genesis", I answered. So it was, the book of Genesis chapter 12, verse 2.."Get thee out of the country.I bless you that you will be a blessing to others".
Three years later, again after my midnight prayer, the Lord showed me a vision of the earth full of flags, all unclear but for one - the flag of the USA with a spotlight on it. Nine months later, I came to USA. This land became my wilderness and at the same time, a land of promise, just like a double-edged blade. God has called me, but it is a Call with that comes with a very high price. My Call is first to be an evangelist, then a seer (prophet), and now as an apostle of God to reach, teach, and disciple others thru this ministry, TORAH which literally means >> pointing the WAY.
If God can use a man like me, He can use anybody who is willing, and He will do the enabling.
