The Church in Spokane
TestimoniesSatisfied at LastI received the Lord when I was 15 years old and at a Young Life meeting where I heard that God loved me and died for me. I felt God was speaking directly to me and I prayed to receive the Lord. Not being raised in a Christian home, I didn’t understand what happened to me, what salvation meant. It wasn’t until after leaving high school, I felt to pursue God and find out what being a Christian was. I knew I needed to meet with Christians, but who? and where? For the next three and one-half years I searched for the meaning of my Christian life. Being a voracious reader, I read numerous spiritual books. Eventually, I quit reading them and told God, “I just read about others’ experiences, but none of them tell me how I can experience You.” There was no open door for me to enter into the experience of Christ like they had. Time after time I ended up disappointed with where I was meeting and left. I remember crying out to God “How do I experience You? Where do I find ones that really love You? All I have learned is to memorize verses, do good works, study theology, speak in tongues…there has to be something more than this! Where are You?” I asked a friend “What should I read to go on with the Lord?” She suggested reading books by Watchman Nee. So I bought every book that I could find. I recognized that there was definitely something different about these books. They talked about how I could experience Christ in my life and something more, that God had an eternal purpose. These books were an open door to bring me into the experience of living Christ. I was happy, but I still felt something was missing. At this point, I had made a decision not to go to any more “churches”. All they had done was disappoint me. I decided, “It’s just You and me, Lord.” I transferred to a Christian college my senior year thinking that I would find great fellowship there. After one week, I was disappointed again. Didn’t anyone want to talk about Christ? Then I got a job on campus with a Christian sister meeting with the local church in Spokane. I found out that she read Watchman Nee’s books too. I was excited. She told me about her meetings and eventually I went. I was impressed by these people. They liked to talk about the Lord all the time. They loved to say they loved Jesus! And they had so many books by Watchman Nee and Witness Lee on how to live Christ, love Christ, pursue Christ, and to see God’s eternal purpose and how it was accomplished through the practical church life. I felt like someone who had been starving for a long time and had been brought to a feast! I was so excited and kept going to the meetings getting richly fed each time; but always, lurking at the back of my mind was the thought “This will run out like all the others. It won’t last.” I have been meeting with the local church in Spokane and reading this ministry for 26 years now, and can testify that this ministry, along with the practical church life, has brought me only into a deeper, richer, more intimate fellowship with Christ. It hasn’t run out, in fact, it’s gotten better! I love Christ and I love the church more today than I did 26 years ago. It is by this wonderful ministry and by meeting on the proper ground of oneness that I have been brought into the reality of how to experience Christ in my daily life, how Christ’s life can grow to maturity in me, how I can be practically built into the Body of Christ, receive a supply of Christ from all the members, and become prepared to be part of His Bride waiting for His return. This ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, and the normal practical church life has brought me to love, cherish, and experience Christ in a way I never would have thought possible. I am so thankful for both. Merry Dantos |