Rev. Steward Murphy

I was born a sinner.  I do not recall the occasion, but my mother never indicated that I was a bad baby.  However, I accept Christ’s word (Ps.51:5) that I was born a sinner.  As I grew, there was no lack of my proving Him correct.
              
According to man, I was better than most, but wickeder than some.  But my judgement will not be upon man’s fickled scale of justice; I will be judged before the throne of God, and the question will be ‘what relationship have I with Jesus’?
              
The good news of Jesus Christ was first presented to me by my best friend.  One evening, we were laying on the beach, while ‘dropping acid’ and smoking marijuana.  On a latter occasion, after I had accepted Christ, I admonished my friend for his ‘bad’ witness.
              
I have been walking with Christ since 1975. I believed historically in the person of Jesus.  I believed in ‘one god’.  I prayed to God and asked if Jesus is god, for him to make that a clear reality to me.  I presumed, correctly as it turned out, that this request would not be beyond His means as ‘god’.  He did so quite sufficiently.
              
Just a few years after my yielding to God, I realized that I no longer clearly knew when He was speaking (non-audible) to me.  This lack of clarity was demonstrated through the conversations of other Christians and our leaders. I was not alone.  Should I…..buy this car, date this person, take this job?  We applied natural reasoning to these questions because we did not hear.  Our decisions, without the Spirit, were carnal.
              
As I turned my thoughts into prayer, I remembered how I knew His voice clearly when the Holy Spirit was drawing me to Him; before I was saved.  There was no doubt then; it was God.  How did I (we) lose that clarity?  He answered me.
              
I was taught by my Christian culture to occupy my life with church attendance and a great worship team and multimedia presentations, Christian music and concerts, big name teachers and the newest Christian books, doctrinal foci like The Last Days and Anti-Christ and Rapture, divine healing and tongues and gifts of the Spirit. Christians reasoned that you knew where Christ was by the things that could be discerned by our ‘physical’ eyes and ears; numbers, volume, and presentation.  I do not wish here to disparage the true things of God, for He gives us many gifts and His gifts are always good.
              
His gifts were not to be a substitute for Him.  But like the Israelites in the desert, carnal man likes to worship what he can see.  I repented.  As Matthew 6:33 says, I sought first Jesus (the kingdom of God) and His righteousness, and all these things He has added to me.
              
I have led many toward my Lord, but my main calling remains, by heart and by His use, the maturing of Christ’s sheep; and we as leaders remain sheep before God.
              
​His humbled servant…..Steward E Murphy, Rev.