From Trinitarian to Truth
My Testimony of Coming to Truth
I surrendered my life to Christ through repentance on May 21, 2001, in a little town by the name of Putney, Ga. I was 15 years old and came from a broken home. I spent several months on probation that year due to federal charges of breaking and entering and destruction of federal property. One night, while waiting for my dad to pick me up for his weekend visit, my best friend placed a shotgun to my head. This was a very scary experience. That night, my dad took me to a Pentecostal church, and I experienced things that I had never seen before. Although I did not surrender my life that night, I left that place very curious and excited. The following week my life was full of opportunities that could have ruined my future, but the Lord kept me. Not many days after, my dad returned to take me for his weekend visit. On this occasion, we visited his home church, where the same evangelist was preaching who had preached during my visit to the Pentecostal church several days prior. That night, conviction filled my life, and I repented at the altar and experienced a life-changing move of God. Not many days following that service, I received the gift of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking with other tongues. The following January, I answered the call to ministry and began preaching at the age of 16. I married the love of my life at 18, and we soon had our first child. Eighteen months later, my wife and I would experience the birth of our daughter. By this time, we were ministering in churches all over the world. For the next 10 years, we would evangelize and do mission work full-time except for one year of pioneer pastoring.
During the latter years of my evangelistic career, I began to experience frustration. I felt like something was missing. I began to seek God for the thing that was missing in my life. While attending a minister’s meeting in Mississippi, I came into a deep experience with God that put me on the path of accepting something that I didn’t fully understand. The man of God preached from the pulpit that day, “If I will preach truth in the pulpit, men will be made free in the pew!” I immediately melted in my seat, and I began that day to tell the Lord that I would accept whatever truth I was missing, no matter what it cost me.
Shortly following this experience, I began to pastor the church that is now The Church of Valdosta. In January of 2015, the Lord led us into a deeper study of the book of Acts. As we journeyed through the first chapter, we studied things that we already believed. As we continued, we reached Acts 2:38, and we endeavored to teach on what the scripture meant. It was through that study that the Lord showed me in His word the truth of baptism in Jesus’ name for the remission of sins. I was immediately baptized in Jesus’ name by my pastor in the presence of two other ministers. This truth was embraced by our entire church. From that meeting, our entire church core was rebaptized in the name of Jesus. From there, through study and the guidance of my pastor, the Lord revealed to me His Oneness. We are now excited to have a strong Apostolic church in the city of Valdosta that stands on Apostolic truth. We have seen countless ministers and lay people receive this truth through the ministry of TCOV over the last 10 years.
There is still a hunger for truth in this generation, and the Lord is still revealing this truth. I can not understand why I ever could see the Word of God any other way. I wrestled with why it took so long for me to see this truth. The Lord, through His patience, chose to lead me gradually into this great truth. We have truly been made free.
Pastor Smith
