The Words of the Edwards Family |
Testimony To Father's Family
Jesse Edwards
February 20, 2007
Peace TV
She is a hard act to follow. But I've been following her for almost 40 years. She'll tell you she's only 30, but I've known her for 40 years. It's been almost 10 years, just under, that God introduced me to your family. I've started many works, founded many works, pioneered many churches, and I have always been the black sheep of Pentecostals.
If there were any walls to jump through, "Use Jesse." If there were any experiments, God would always experiment on me. So that's why I'm so weird. Some of you are a little weird too. Birds of a feather, right?
But I would tell you the hardest thing that God has ever had me do in my life…is to be a part of Father's family. Sometimes to fulfill the will of God, it takes everything. I've found out that God does not want a part of us. He doesn't want our leftovers.
He wants all of us. And when I began to work with Father, everything I had in my life, everything...I'm the oldest of 9 children. My brother, the youngest, was my assistant, my shadow, and as soon as I began to walk with Father, he walked the other way. One by one, from my daughter to my sons, my church family. Every friend that I've ever known in Pentecost thinks I lost it. And I did.
It's strange working for God because in order to have, you have to lose. In order to receive, you have to give up. In order to live, you have to die! And I've never found from Genesis through Revelation, a man of God that God called that God didn't take him through the test because He can't use just anybody. You've got to be willing to go the test.
When God brought me to this movement, I said, "I have no idea what I could do for You." God filled me with the Holy Ghost when I was 12 years old. And I said these words, I didn't know what I was saying, "I said I'll go wherever you want me to go, and I will say whatever you want me to say."
I never thought He would send me to Rev. Moon. Then when I heard the message…you know I've been taught so many different things. Taught about… I was full of racism and anti-religion, and if you weren't Pentecostal, you were lost. And I said, "God, what can I do?"
Many people asked me, "What are you doing with Rev. Moon?" And if you've heard my speeches in the early, early years when I came, the only thing I could say is, "God is here. I don't know what, where, how, but God is in this thing." And I thought that the Family Church was very dead spiritually. I'm not talking about the Principle, I'm not talking about Father, but as far as the moving of the Holy Spirit.
I was in Korea my first time, and 5 o'clock in the morning we went upstairs to our prayer meeting where there was a Muslim, a Jew, an Indian, a monk, a Sik; all these different religious leaders, and they began to pray. I didn't even understand the words that they were saying, but in that room filled the kind of glory of God. And the Lord said, "Jesse, you're going to bring the Holy Spirit." Not that it wasn't already here, but to let it operate.
The spirit can be among us but not operating. That's the scripture of "Many are called but few are chosen." Bishop Stallings says, "Many are cold, but few are frozen." I never thought I would make friends with a Catholic priest, especially a black one. But he and I will testify to the whole world and we both came out of the same womb.
And I wouldn't be any closer to a man than if we did come from the same mother. Bishop, I love you like my natural brother. And that is because of Father that has brought us together. This kind of miracle doesn't come by knowledge, education, not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of God.
This week, in these last 12 days, I have seen the Holy Ghost manifest itself through Hyun Jin Nim. But all these 12 days, I began to think about everything I lost, everything that I had to give up or was taken away, and Jesus reminded me this week that when the Spirit of God moves in your life, it's worth the cost, it's worth the cost.
I had lost everything but my wife. And one evening I came home from a meeting and she said, "You need to make a choice of Rev. Moon or me. Cause if you're gonna stay with him, I'm not gonna stay with you." And I said, "God, You didn't call me here to lose my precious wife."
I told her that night, we were speaking in New Ark, New Jersey, I don't know if you remember Brother Berry, we spoke that night in New Ark, New Jersey, and I told my wife, "I will go and preach that night, but you close out and you tell everybody that it's goodbye for both of us."
But the Holy Spirit began to move that night. After God spoke to my heart and her heart, she got to a microphone and she said, "I came to tell you good bye. I came to tell you that we were finished. But God spoke to me and it's only the beginning, just the beginning."
To get my wife up at 3:30 in the morning for Hoon Dok Hae takes a move from God, a mighty move of God. And this morning she was waking me up to make sure that we were on time. That's a move of God. I know the Holy Ghost is real and moving within our midst. And she usually gives me every reason why we shouldn't be here. But Hyun Jin Nim, she has lifted you so high this week. She has spoke so highly of you. And to see in the service last night, I'm closing with this.
To see my Pentecostal brethren, who have shun me for being in this movement, who have rejected me for being in this movement, last night there were 4 or 5 of them shouting in the Holy Ghost from the message that was being preached here tonight, this week. That's a miracle of God! That's a miracle!
And Rev. Jenkins, we haven't had many white Pentecostal preachers join this movement, but they're watching me. And now, their watching these key leaders, and you're gonna see something happen this week, something happen to my spirit. And I want to thank Dr. Hyun Jin Nim for his message this week because I have been doing this by the call of God.
I've been obedient to God's Spirit. Now, there's a difference in doing something out of obedience and doing it out of love. These last 12 days I took ownership of the Kingdom of God, Cheon Il Guk, here on Earth. You got to own this THING! It's got to be a part of you! You've got to own it. It's got to be yours! You live it. You breathe it. You walk it. You talk it. It becomes your life!
Hyun Jin Nim, thank you so much.