My Testimony
 
Hi everyone,
Well, where do I begin.
 
I was born in Los Angeles, but was raised in Idaho; first in a small country community and then in a nearby city.  Looking back at my childhood, it was not what I would call a very happy one.  I was extremely sad and I felt such a loss for a really long time after I learned from my Mom, when I was either in the first or second grade, that the dad who I thought was my dad, was really my stepdad.  She told me she had divorced my real dad, regretfully someone I never had the opportunity to meet but always daydreamed and wished that someday I would.
 
I know I was loved by my Mom, who suffered from some sort of mental illness, but I never really felt it.  I don’t remember if she ever hugged or kissed me.  Sometimes I had these surreal feelings that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and I couldn’t wait to get away from there. I was very shy and didn’t have many friends and kept to myself.  My spare time was always spent reading something or other as I was a total bookworm and I considered myself to be an independent loner from the time I was 10 years old.
 
I wasn't brought up on an particular religion. I experienced them all, except Catholic, and I considered myself to be a Protestant. I went to summer Bible School, learned the names of the books forward and backward, accepted Jesus as my savior in front of my cousin and her friend... but I never really believed it… I just went along with the crowd who thought Jesus was God.  When I attended churches that preached gloom and doom and the end of the world was coming, I thought if this is what I have to look forward to, then forget it, I’m never attending church again.  When I’m out on my own, I'm going to have fun in my life and then when I'm on my death bed, I'll get back to God.  So it was basically, see you later.
 
I came back to my real home after I graduated high school and never left. So did I have all the fun I was hoping to do, well, yes and no.  Some things weren’t so much fun and when I found myself at the edge of a cliff, to my surprise there was someone there holding onto me… my Heavenly Father.
 
It turned out I wanted to know Him so much sooner than I had anticipated.  However, it took a few more years of self-pity and mental anguish before I started reading the Padgett messages.  And, of course, I was hooked on them right away.  But I must confess when I received the first jolt of Divine Love into my soul, I was scared to death.  I had no idea what was going on and it was a little frightening.  Then when I realized what was happening, I relaxed and let it flow into my soul and over the course of time I received more and more of it and for a longer duration of time.
 
Shortly, after learning of the good news of God’s Divine Love and praying for and receiving it, I was very excited and wanted to participate in spreading this good news in whatever way I could.  I became involved with the Church of the New Birth and took their minister’s study course and received an ordination certificate.  Thereafter, I have made several attempts at reaching out to other people, only to be disappointed when they didn’t share my same enthusiasm.  And after a while, I just tended to keep quiet about it and went about my life.
 
Depending on what was going on in my life, my soul was either open once in a while and I was receiving God’s Divine Love, or it was closed completely and I wasn’t praying at all. However, I believe the longest span of time that I have received a continual inflowing of God’s Divine Love was for six years and that was 13 years ago. This is when I made a commitment to God that I would follow Him and I would do everything I could to tell people about His Divine Love.
 
Once I received the Pentecostal Showers where I was awake the whole night just experiencing wave after wave after wave of God’s wonderful love into my soul – at least a good eight hour’s worth.  I’ll never forget that day because I had to go to work and I didn’t have a wink of sleep, yet I was able to function as if I had… and it’s the only day where I have ever felt total and complete bliss.  I was the happiest I had ever felt in my life and I loved everyone I came in contact with – even those who I hadn’t been very happy with the day before.
 
And it was also during this span of time when I began my soul transformation where I experienced some extremely painful expiations.  Then more of life’s curve balls were tossed my way and, once again, I wasn’t praying and my soul was virtually closed and I was basically miserable.  One day I decided to ask God to bring me my joy back, and lo and behold, He did.  I wish I could say I’m finished with expiations, as they’re certainly no fun… unfortunately I’m not there yet… but it’s my goal.
 
Several months ago, I once again re-committed myself to my Father and to the Cause and I’m happy to say that after all these years of ups and downs, I now have a personal relationship with Him and my soul is always open and I’m continually receiving His love.  This time around, I am allowing Him to lead me in my journey and He is blessing me beyond anything I could ever have imagined.  And I was recently blessed to have a visit from Jesus where he showered me with his wonderful love, which was very humbling, indeed.
 
Knowing that one day I will be a Divine Angel gives me so much joy and happiness and I’m so grateful that I am one of the fortunate ones who has accepted Jesus’ wonderful teachings through James Padgett’s exceptional mediumship.
 
Joan Warden

 


MY THESIS

 

I first learned of the Church of the New Birth through my sister, who had been a member for a short time.  At first I was doubtful of what she had told me about the church, until one day something clicked inside of me and I became a true believer of Jesus and his truths.

The church represented to me all that I was looking for in the way of faith and especially to a loving relationship with God.  Instead of preaching about a God who should be feared, this church told of a very loving God who loves each and everyone of his children be he good or sinful.  In contrast to the many churches who preach about Jesus’ second coming to earth and the end of the world, this church told how Jesus and his many celestial angels have been working ever since Jesus’ passing into the celestial heavens to influence men and spirit alike and to show them the true way to become at-one with God and enter into his Celestial Heavens and become a partaker of immortality.

Just upon learning of these few little facts about the church made me yearn for something more to my life that I did not have before.  I was really excited to be learning about a whole new way of life and excited to find out just what I had to do to reach that so-called unattainable goal, as other churches had preached.

The most important thing I learned in furtherance of my goal was that the ONLY way I could be with God and live with Him forever was that I had to pray with all sincerity and earnestness to the Father and receive into my soul his Divine Love, so that I could be like Him in his attributes and be able to be at-one with Him. 

And the most surprising thing I found was that by receiving the Divine Love into my soul and to become purified in my soul condition, was all that was necessary for me to be an inhabitant of the Celestial Heavens and be assured of immortality.  To me, nothing could be more easy or simple.  Upon becoming aware of these truths, it was like a door was suddenly opened to me and I accepted the path that was set out before me.

I learned many wonderful and beautiful truths that even a pseudo-intellectual would be amazed at.

I learned, contrary to what I had previously believed, that Jesus was born a man, just as every man is born, and that his birth was not very different from the ordinary man.  His mother Mary wasn't a virgin and she and Joseph were happily married. Jesus has told us that at the time of his birth, he was visited by wise men who had followed the stars leading to the Messiah, but that as far as any gold or riches, they really didn't leave too much of value.  Jesus tells us about his ministry and his eventual death on the cross.

And an important truth I discovered was that Jesus did not die on the cross to save men from their sins, as so many churches proclaim.  Jesus explains that he died on the cross because he would not deny his faith in God or his mission on earth.  And that mission was to show men the way to God and immortality by prayer to the Father for His Divine Love.

I discovered that there are two types of love. One is the natural love, which all men are born with, and the second is God's Divine Love, which men are not born with but must seek in earnest prayer to the Father to obtain.  A man or spirit may become purified in his natural love, but that still will not permit him an entrance into God's Celestial Kingdom.  To my wonderment, I learned of the spirit world and the Celestial Heavens.  Contrary to what I had previously believed, i.e., that there was only a Heaven or a Hell, I discovered that in fact there were many Heavens and many Hells. But the most important truth I learned was that a spirit did not have to go to either one or the other and abide there forever.  I found out that God has many laws, and one of them is the law of progression.  If an unfortunate soul did happen to go to one of the hells upon his entering the spirit world, he could, by prayer to the Father for forgiveness of his sins, progress into light and love and happiness.

I learned that there was not a “Devil” in Hell, as so many churches profess, but rather there are many "devils" or evil natures that lurk within each individual soul that must be conquered before a soul can progress into light and love.

Upon passing into the spirit world, Jesus tells us that each spirit is welcomed there by loving relatives and friends who help him become acquainted with his surroundings and who help to remove any fears that the spirit may have.  For a time, the spirit is happy and content with his new surroundings, until he is told that he must go to that certain place where only he can go that is in accordance with his soul condition at the time of his passing over. Depending upon his soul condition, the spirit may go either to a sphere of darkness or light.  If the spirit's soul condition is such that it is not purified, he has to go through his period of paying back the Law of Compensation to the last farthing.  Once the law has been satisfied, the spirit then progresses to the higher spheres of light and love.

The spirit world is composed of seven spheres, each sphere containing many levels through which souls progress.  The first sphere, or earth plane as it is called, is the sphere where most every spirit enters when he passes over into the spirit world.  It contains many levels, including the lower hells.

A spirit who has become purified in his natural love and is pursuing his intellectual abilities will progress into the second, fourth and sixth spheres.  It is in the sixth sphere where the spirit becomes truly purified and this sphere is as far as that spirit can progress.

However, a spirit who has become awakened to the truths of Jesus and is praying for God's Divine Love will progress into the third, fifth, and seventh spheres (passing through the second, fourth, and sixth spheres more swiftly).  When this spirit has become completely purified with God's Divine Love, it then enters into God's Celestial Heavens where Jesus is the Master.  And this spirit is then assured of immortality.

The most wonderful thing that I have learned, aside from discovering the way to reach the Father, was that a person need not wait until he has passed over into the spirit world to purify his soul condition and to receive the Divine Love, but that he can pray and receive it while on earth, and thus become more fitted into light and happiness when he passes over into the spirit world.  And what a wonderful truth that is. 

Jesus and his many spiritual helpers have been working day and night these many centuries to bring these glad tidings to earth influencing men to seek and find the true meaning of his mission.  But Jesus says that men, through their disinterest and contentment with their present false beliefs, will not share in these glad tidings, and hence, will be locked out at the gate at the time God will once again remove this privilege.

Joan Warden