My Journey to Finding Jesus

You are in for a rare treat. I’m going to share what my life was like before meeting Jesus, the day of my salvation, and how my life has been transformed ever since. I share in detail my journey to finding Jesus and how my life was transformed.

Before Jesus

I grew up in North Dakota with my parents and two brothers. We attended Catholic Church every Sunday and went to Catholic schools. Since I had such a problem with fear and lack of confidence, I typically was too afraid to ask questions. This led to struggling in school and developing healthy friendships.

When I was young, I don’t remember anyone telling me that Jesus loved me. I rarely heard, “I love you.” The only time I looked at the Bible was looking at the big, picture Bible on our end table in the living room. One day I opened it up and saw a picture of the devil. It scared me so much that I didn’t look at the Bible till I was in my late 20s.

Things changed when I went to college. For some reason, I felt the freedom to ask questions, a lot of them. In my first quarter, I finished with a 1.49 GPA and I studied a lot. After that, I set a goal to finish college with a 3.0 GPA.

One of the greatest lessons I learned was that I was an auditory learner. When I began to read my notes and books out loud, my grades turned into A’s and B’s. Guess what happened? I finished with a 3.0 GPA when I graduated majoring in Physical Education, minoring in Coaching, Drivers Education, and Health.

On My Own

One week before my first teaching job in North Dakota, I had an interview with the Superintendent and High School Principal. I received a call the next evening and my life would never be the same. This was the first time I was not going to be living at home with my family.

For three years, I taught and coached in a small town of 1,200 people. But I had a desire to live where I could golf all year round. Why? Because golf was my idol. My next teaching position was in Kansas and my dream was coming true or so I thought.

After teaching there for three years, I quit and started to be a motivational speaker for coaches and athletes in the mental game. I was seeking the Secret to Success or was I?

Finding Jesus

One Sunday morning, I turned on the radio and heard a pastor preaching the Gospel. It was the very first time I had ever heard the Good News of Jesus Christ. Over the next two months, I would listen to the pastor’s messages and be encouraged.

I wanted to go to that Church but was afraid to go. Finally, I found out what time service started on Sunday morning and made a deal with God. Have you ever made a deal with Him before? What I heard during the services seemed strange and I didn’t understand what it was.

They were praying in a heavenly language, aka praying in the Spirit. I told God I would go as long as no one spoke in other tongues. Well, He kept His part of the deal and no one prayed in the Spirit that service. What stretched me the most was the length of the service.

I was used to a 55-minute Mass service at the Catholic Church. This Charismatic Church service started at 9:30 AM and finished around Noon. Besides that, their worship was completely different from what I was used to. I loved it.

After going to services on Sunday mornings and evenings, and Wednesday evening service, I finally began to understand what it was like to follow Jesus. During one Sunday evening service in December, I had so many questions. Afterward, I turned around and asked my friend Keith question after question.

Best Decision of My Life

I didn’t realize that God was setting me up in finding Jesus. Keith told me that the Lord told him during the service that I was going to be saved that night. As we walked out to the parking lot, he was the only one who ever personally asked me if I wanted to give my life to the Lord.

I remember that night like it was yesterday. I was ready. My questions were answered. I was going to make the Best Decision of my life. If you think about it, we all have just ONE Best Decision of our lives. This was my moment. When I prayed I felt something change on the inside of me. Do you know what happened?

I went from darkness to light. I was unrighteous and now Jesus made me righteous. God adopted me as His beloved son because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross. All my sins were wiped away and my sin nature was removed once and for all. Finding Jesus is THE BEST decision you will ever make.

Hearing God’s Voice

After that evening, I prayed every night for one month to be baptized by the Holy Spirit and pray in the tongues. I was given a Bible and began to read it out loud. Holy Spirit was my teacher and gave me great revelations of the Scriptures.

I attended Keith’s Exhortation Classes on Monday evenings and learned so much. One day, he gave me a tape of him teaching about the gifts of the Spirit. When I was driving to work one morning I listened to Keith’s tape. He was praying for a woman to be baptized by Holy Spirit. As I was listening to his prayer, I got baptized and began to speak in tongues.

It took years for me to recognize God’s voice accurately. A couple of years after I got saved I moved to Minnesota. I call that my “Wilderness Experience.” You can learn a lot during that time. After attending a few Churches over the years, I stopped going. But I was watching Christian television and was learning a lot.

Steps of Faith

I discovered there was a Bible College in Colorado the Lord was calling me to. However, I was working with a ministry at the time getting room and board plus $50 a week. There was no way for me to figure out how I was going to get to Colorado since I didn’t have a car, computer, or cell phone.

It was going to take a step of faith and trusting the Lord. When He whispered these five words, my life’s trajectory changed. He said, “Go and I’ll provide.” Sounds simple, doesn’t it? My part was to go and His was to provide. With little support from others, I took this step of faith not looking back.

When I arrived at the Minneapolis airport, I had 2 bags of luggage, a one-way plane ticket, and less than $100 in my bank account. How would you have felt if you were me? When I landed in Colorado I got see mountains for the first time and felt such peace.

I had a place to stay for a few days before classes started. Let’s just say I was on my face a lot praying. When I arrived at school, I asked if anyone had sponsored me. Found out no one did, but was encouraged to register anyway. As I was filling out paperwork, a student came up to me and asked if my name was Jeffrey Hardwick. I said, “Yes.” He handed me a check for $1,560 to pay for my books, fees, and first semester. I started to cry. The Lord did provide but I had to GO!

Discovering My Calling

After that first day of classes, it took over five years before I discovered my calling. The Lord gives us gifts to share with others. I knew I had the gift to teach, but then realized He also blessed me with the gifts of prophecy, words of knowledge, and words of wisdom.

Over the past decade, I’ve been able to share these gifts worldwide. One day, the Lord gave me a Craigslist ad assignment. He wanted me to post an ad and ask if anyone wanted a prophetic word from the Lord. During that one-week assignment, eight people responded and were all blessed by their prophecies.

I did not know at the time, that one assignment was the Genesis of A Transforming Word Ministries. We have had the opportunity to bless many with teachings on how to hear God’s voice, encounter His presence, and encouraging prophetic words.

We are all created and called by God. He has blessed you with gifts, talents, experiences, and desires. Just as I shared my testimony of finding Jesus with you today, the Lord is leading you to do the same.

Ask Him to help you write out your testimony as well as record it on video. If you study the book of Acts, they went around sharing their testimonies as witnesses. As a child of God, it is your privilege and honor to boast in the Lord as you share your personal story of finding Jesus with others. They will listen, you simply need to tell them your story. You won’t know how it will change lives until you do.

Categorised in: Sharing Your Testimony

This post was written by admin