LIVE DISCUSSION: Testimony of Venessa Martin (Part 4/4)

A single Bible detail can expose a bigger problem: are we chasing spiritual excitement, or are we actually being taught by God through Scripture? We sit down with Sister Vanessa for a raw, thoughtful Christian testimony that traces her path from a Pentecostal and charismatic background into a Word-centered faith anchored in the sovereignty of God. Along the way, we talk about what it feels like to outgrow experience-based religion, why some churches leave people spiritually hungry, and how real growth shows up as a deeper knowledge of the God of the Bible.

We also go straight at the topics many people tiptoe around: speaking in tongues, being “slain in the Spirit,” and the pressure to perform what everyone else expects. Vanessa shares how she thinks about those experiences now, what she believes was real, and what she believes was distraction. That leads to a bigger theme we keep circling back to: Christians are not meant to be entertained. We are meant to pray, study, and learn to sit at Christ’s feet, because storms will come and only truth holds.

Then we ask the blunt question every listener should be able to answer: what must I do to be saved? The conversation stays practical, biblical, and personal, with a clear focus on faith, prayer, and God speaking through His Word. If you care about Bible study, spiritual discernment, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and finding real church community, this one will stick with you.

Subscribe for more conversations like this, share it with a friend who needs clarity, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What part of Vanessa’s story hit closest to home for you?

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:01

I love reading it. And I and I the other day you said something about putting our put ourselves in the place when they where they were. I do that a lot. Right. I do that like when I'm reading the old testament, I think, man, they lived in tents. And then then it says they built houses, you know, and and how they did this and that. They weren't no different than we are. Right. It was just a different time.

SPEAKER_07 0:21

Yep.

SPEAKER_06 0:22

You know, and it it's like, I do wonder, like, you know, we take showers. They couldn't take showers. And I wonder sometimes how long. This is funny. I wonder how long did they wait to take a bath, you know? Because it doesn't say, you know, or how did they go to the bathroom? What did you know? I ask myself that all the time.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

I don't want to be no, I don't want to be nowhere near being inside your brain, Bobby, when you read the scriptures.

SPEAKER_05 0:57

Hey Bobby, don't feel bad. You know what I just learned? I learned when how to gird up your loins. Like I didn't know what that involved. And so I just learned gird up your loins and what the process was.

SPEAKER_06 1:12

So it's it's different. It's different. But yeah, I have a curious mind. I do. I have a and that's why I want to know so much.

SPEAKER_02 1:23

That's that's that's that's that's great. Because I mean, I I I I wish that every every Christian had that, and uh, and I'm sure most people do, but to increase that curiosity and to really get into the word of God, because uh it you know it's just such a when people get it, they just but they they just get it. And I think I wish everybody um had that. Um brother Pat, go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 1:50

Uh I hope you guys don't mind if we get a little geeky. If we get a little geeky with it for a second. So you mentioned your background, uh coming from sort of a Pentecostal, sort of charismatic um background, which is very different from what we do here, right? And um yeah, you know, very emotional-based, very, you know, experience-based type of background that you come from. Was it difficult to start learning about the sovereignty of God when you come from a background of it's all about our experience and viewing things through our own eyes and through our own emotions? And you know, was that was that a diff seems radical, the change, you know. Um, was that was that difficult for you? That transition?

SPEAKER_06 2:42

No, no, and I'll tell you why. Because God started showing me stuff, you know, I had learned from man about all the sorry, I don't want to use that word, all the stuff that I had learned. And it was like all these men don't have any idea what they're talking about because when I started reading the word with God in me, like he should have been, you know, all along, when I started reading it, it was like my mind just clicked. You know, it was like God's showing me this, God's showing me this, this, this, this. He shows me everything and what it means. That's why I said, you know, it wasn't really hard for me to come out of that because I mean, I think about the friends that I have that are like that. I have this one girlfriend, her name is Sherry, and um all you know, we went to church together and she was raised in church. Her mom and dad both were preachers, and you know, but they're dispensationalists. And if I try to tell her what I feel, because she has a woman preacher, and I told us to Sherry, I don't believe in that. And she goes, Well, I didn't for a long time, and now I don't care because it's just preaching the word. And I said, Well, whatever, float your boat, you know. But I would love to show her some of the stuff so she could turn over a new leaf. But I mean, I know that she loves God, she prays all the time, she cries out to him. I mean, I've seen her do it, so I know, you know, that she loves the Lord, but she's wrong in what she believes. And I'm I don't know if that will make her stay out of heaven or not. But it bothers me. Right. That makes sense, Pat?

SPEAKER_04 4:31

It does. Can can I can I sort of uh ask you another question if you don't mind? Take this a little further. Would you mind telling me uh your perspective on obviously when you're in your um religious background, in your Pentecostal background, um you don't know what you don't know, right? So at the time, you're trying your best to learn things in a different way, right? Um, can you explain the difference between um learning about God from a sort of that Pentecostal background and the difference contrasting that with God speaking to you through his word?

SPEAKER_06 5:14

Well, good one. Let's see if I can figure this out a way to say it then.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

It was a good one.

Why Some Churches Do Not Feed

SPEAKER_06 5:19

Um I was being taught, I believed it all. You know, I mean I believed everything that I was getting taught because it was like, you know, get saved, you can go to heaven, you know, you uh you you know, just make sure you do your morals, make sure, you know, it was just stuff like that. But when God started speaking to me, it was completely different. It was like that back I knew that that background was bad. I knew it. Because God showed that to me. He says, well, it was like don't listen to what everybody else says, listen to me. You know, that was pretty much it. And so I s it was an easy switch just for the fact that I knew that he was in me and I've always known him, and he wouldn't lie to me, and I knew that. So it was like you know, I mean it was a difference in the people and how they are because we believe different than a lot of people do, and I'm just grateful for this group because I was still I told John Brother Jonathan this the other day, and if this makes any sense to you, Pat. I was in church and I was going to church for about five months with this church that's here in in this town. And the people just seemed really nice, you know, and we'd have Bible study and stuff, and I'm thinking, you guys just don't really know stuff. And but I never said anything. And then the pastor, he would get up there, and they were on a time limit. It was like you stay there an hour and a half, and that's pretty much it for everything. And um, I never liked that because God moves longer than that sometimes. And anyway, the preacher was up there preaching, and first of all, I asked him, I said, Do you ever preach on hell? And he goes, Yeah, if I get if I get the urge to, and I'm thinking, you haven't done it for since I've been here. You know, but he also did this. This is what I this is when I stopped going to church. And I wrote him a note, and I just said, I love everybody, I just feel like I have to leave. But this is why. He was up there preaching, and he was calling Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendago. And I'm thinking, What? And I thought he made a mistake at first, but he kept saying it. I'm thinking it's not Abindago, it's a bendigo. There's a great big difference, so you don't really know the word of God. That's how I felt. And so I didn't go back to that church, and I haven't been, I haven't found a church since then. It's been over a year. And I've gone to like five or seven different churches, and they just I don't I don't get fed. Jonathan feeds me. I don't get fed any other way.

SPEAKER_04 8:12

Can I can I ask one more question? I don't want to dominate the conversation. Can I ask one follower? Sure, sure. With that if you had to analyze your growth, um, you said that you're if there's one thing we could pray for you, it would be that you just want to know him. You just want to know his word, you want to know the God of the Bible. So if you could you crank contrast the growth that you experienced in your religious background versus the growth that you have experienced through learning the word of God?

SPEAKER_06 8:52

Yeah, because back then I didn't really know how to um ask for myself or for somebody else. But see, but I always did know that God always knows what we need before we even ask. So we really don't even need to ask for ourselves. But um the difference was that when my growth is because when I started learning, when God started teaching me what who he really is, you know, because I really didn't know him. I knew that he was God, you know, but I didn't really know who he was. I mean, I don't know if that makes any sense. I can't.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Oh, it does. It makes well sense. Well sense, it does. You speaking truth, sister. Come on, bring it, bring it.

SPEAKER_06 9:41

We need so when I so I, you know, when he when I started learning from him, I had a completely different outlook. And I'll I get all them uh light bulb moments, I call them, that God would show me stuff. And so the difference in belief and how they believed was completely different than what God was showing me. You know, and he was showing me that who he was as far as you know, Jesus Christ is who he is, and he died for all of us that are his. God showed me that. And it was like, you know, they didn't say that in the secular churches that I went to. He you know, they they didn't teach me that, you know. And so that was the difference for me, Pat, because my light bulbs moments kept going off.

SPEAKER_04 10:39

Sister, um, you know, one thing that uh Jesus told a story about there there was a man who built his house upon the sand, and and another man who built his house upon the rock. Um, you know, and that's meant to teach us that, you know, if we build on these experiences and these things that aren't the the sure truths of God, they're washed away when the storms of life come and when the trials and the temptations of this world come. Do you feel that that God has used his word in teaching you that it has helped uh equip you as a Christian, that you're better equipped to withstand the temptations of the devil to uh deal with the storms of life?

SPEAKER_06 11:25

Yes, that's a positive yes. He's taught me so much, right? And I know that no matter what, I don't worry about anything. Nothing. I said my daughter had cancer, she had breast cancer. And a couple it was back in 2020. And um I prayed and I said, God, please don't let her have to have because I worked in the cancer ward at Michig at University of Michigan. And um, I said, please don't let her have to have any kind of chemo or radiation or anything. And um this is why my faith is so strong. And I knew that that was gonna happen. I knew it, and she didn't have to. She she had to have her breast remade, but she never had to have chemo or radiation. And then my daughter-in-law, which doesn't like me very much, um, she's an atheist too. And um, anyways, yeah, she had cancer too at the same time, breast cancer, but she had to have everything done. She had to have radio chemo and radiation, and she was so sick, and I was just so thankful to God that my prayer that he heard my prayers and he answered them because I knew he was gonna answer them. You know, it's like I already know that you're gonna answer my prayer, and she didn't have to have anything, and I was I praised him so much, oh Sister Lisa.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

So, a question for you, Sister Vanessa, um, coming out of the Pentecostal um faith, uh were you ever in a position where you felt pressured to uh be slain in the spirit or or pray in tongues in the service? And I ask this to you because I I don't know anybody who's actually come, I don't know anybody personally, so I'm I really like to bounce this question off you and see what you think about it. But I saw a video not too long ago of a girl, and I don't know if she was new to the Pentecostal faith or what, but the the preacher came over and he went and he pushed her and she stood there and he pushed her again and she was like, dude, what are you doing? She had no like she had no idea that she's supposed to fly back and you know, and she she looked like she was always gonna like she was gonna throw fists with this dude for a minute because she she she was like, What in the world is going on? Why do you keep pushing me? And she wouldn't go down, and it was hysterical to me because I thought, you know, right there, you know, and um, so what what was your what was your experience of it with tongues or be it being fallen over?

SPEAKER_06 14:13

They were false.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

But were you pressured to do it? And if you if so, did you just fake it and go along or did you no?

SPEAKER_06 14:22

I the only time I ever had that kind of experience is when I was praying. We were all on um the land that we had bought for the church, and I was praying, and all of a sudden, man, I started speaking in another language, and I didn't have any idea what it was. And um really then all of a sudden, then all of a sudden, God gave me nobody else knew what it was. So God gave me the interpretation, and I don't I couldn't even tell you today what it was. And so that's the only experience I've ever had like that, ever. I mean, I a lot of them, a lot of the church that I was in, but they were all fault. Because when you're gibbering, like okay, like Kenny Copeland, he's whatever. You know, that's not real. And the only reason I think that God did that that day was because everybody else, they always pray like Kenny Copeland is, you know, that kind of bleed me, whatever. And I never did that because it wasn't God, you know, and I did believe in that stuff though at one time, and um but that's the only time I've ever done that my whole entire life. I you know, and I was in, but because I didn't wasn't I didn't feel forced.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

So here's a question Do you think because at one time you um believed in that, that suddenly something came upon you? Do you what I'm saying is, do you think that um I mean, how do you say it without do you think it was something that your mind created versus looking back?

SPEAKER_06 16:06

No, do you you believe it was from God that that I don't know if it was from God or if it was from Satan? I mean, nowadays at the time I didn't know, and because today I would think it was from Satan. All right, so you know, I don't feel yeah, I I never was high on tongues ever. And like I said, that's the only time I ever did that, but um, yeah, a lot of people in that church, you know. I mean, I've danced in the spirit, believe me, that's a good thing. Um, because you got the spirit all over you, and you're just like, you know, you're just praising God, you know. But I call it dancing, but you're just praising God. But um, but other than that, no. But our church used to get wild, man. They'd they'd fall out, they'd yeah, they did stupid stuff. Yeah, I'm sorry, but that's how I feel. They did stuff that I don't think was of God nowadays. I really don't.

What Must I Do To Be Saved

SPEAKER_02 17:05

You're totally right. It wasn't of God then, it's not of God now. And you know, these things are they're they're designed to get people distracted from true worship and from all the things that you said you talked to that you've done. Like I love how you emphasize so much the word of God. That's that is a big, big um problem in today's Christianity. They don't want to do the work. Christians today generally, the people that call themselves Christians don't want to do the work. They want to be entertained, they don't want to study the word of God, they don't want to be engaged in prayer, they don't want to be sitting around the table having conversations like this. Everything bores them. Everything spiritual bores them. And it and it and it and it makes no sense to me because to me, when you when you when you have been seized, when your heart has been seized by God, by Christ, by the Holy Spirit, when you've been enveloped into Hit into His into Him, all you desire is Him. Come on, come on. So come on. Yeah, so so I don't I I don't understand Christians that don't love to sit at His feet and learn of Him. I don't get I don't understand it. I now I could say that before I was a Christian, I could say I understood I understood it. But after being becoming a Christian and knowing the salvation of the Lord and what He's done for us, I don't understand it for somebody who says they're Christian. You know? But here comes your hardest, here comes the hardest question for you tonight. Oh, great. Here comes the hardest question for you tonight. And it's the last one. It's the last one.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

I am an unbeliever. I'm playing the unbeliever. It's gonna be the toughest question.

SPEAKER_06 19:03

Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_02 19:05

And the question is, what must I do to be saved?

SPEAKER_06 19:12

Okay, so first of all, you have to believe. You have to you have to have the faith. And there's no way to get the faith in case God gives it to you. So first thing you gotta do is pray. You know, I don't know if God hears a lot of times God doesn't hear a sinner, though. But if they're praying for him, I think he hears them. But I would tell them, first of all, you gotta pray. And then the Holy Spirit has to light upon you somehow, some way, he has to show himself. And once he shows himself, then you start digging in the word and God will speak to you. And if and if you have any problems, give me a call, and I will help you as much as I can.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

I love you, sister. You're all there.

SPEAKER_06 20:02

That's what I tell people. I mean, I talked to I'm like at the at the gym, I've you know, I've been talking to these people, and I I asked this one guy, I said, I said, Do you know who Jesus is in the gospel? And he goes, Yes, I do. And I said, So you believe in him strong? Yes, I do. And I'm thinking, I don't think you do. Because he didn't act like he did. You know, it was like he didn't want he was trying to avoid me. You know what I'm saying? So it's like, but I tell people that all the time. I I tell everybody about God healing me because I think it's one of the best miracles that I've ever received in my entire life. And it's a great miracle besides being saved. To me, being saved is a miracle in itself. It is, and but but to teach people, because people don't understand that if they're not saved, they don't understand that that's a miracle. But you know, I tell everybody I meet, grocery store and everything, that God healed me. You know, because they need to know that God still does that stuff, right? Whether people think he does it or not, because he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. You know, he ain't gonna change, he will do for you what you need, right? No matter what it is. Is that good enough, Jonathan?

SPEAKER_02 21:12

That's that's perfect, sister. That's that's perfect, sister. Brother Rod, you had you had another another question for Sister Vanessa, didn't you?

SPEAKER_03 21:20

I apologize. I had hit the button. I was just wanting to comment about the tongues thing, but uh uh brother Nathan had responded. Because I just was wondering it, you know, it it seems so trendy, and then even the church that I mentioned to you guys before, you know, it just was different because and it made me want to find out about it. That's kind of everything with this walk. I'm trying to discover everything and not really understand God because I'm not trying to bring him to my level of understanding and no regard. But I just want to make sense out of it because I'm like, well, hold on. I want to learn that or something, because it's like after every walk, Jesus Christ has come down. I don't even want to say it because I don't even know it. But it's like, and then, oh, look at Brother Ron, welcome to the church. You know, and I'm like, hold on, am I missing something? Should I be doing that? You know, but that's all you guys answered it for me. So I just was confused.

SPEAKER_06 22:06

It's just babblings, Rodney. It's just babblings. That's all it is.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

So, sister, Sister Vanessa, so we'll we'll we'll wrap it up. I don't want to take all your time tonight, but I but I wanted to let you now say whatever you want to say, not just to us, but to anybody who's listening. Anything you want to say. What do you want to say to be the cherry on top of your testimony tonight? Which I'm so grateful and thankful that you take this time to share with us about you and your Christian, your Christian life. So this is this is we're going to close with you telling us what you feel is on your heart to tell us all. Believers and unbelievers.

SPEAKER_06 22:53

Well, I love everybody that's here. And I if the unbelievers are in here, and if they're not, if they're online or whatever, they need to learn who Jesus is. They really do. And because we all need him, no matter what. And this family for me is one of the best things that's ever happened to me. I mean, like I said, I live by myself and God teaches me everything, but it's also nice to be with you guys so we can all um say what we feel and know that each other loves each other, no matter what. It's just such a great family. I mean, there is there's no place else. I've tired everything, and there's no place else. Like, you know, I used to listen to um uh Paul Washer and Vody Bacham all the time on YouTube because I knew that they were telling the truth, you know, because God had shown me things and I just love them, you know, and when I'd make a comment in the in the you know, on the comments and on YouTube, people say he's um what's brain dead? Sorry. Um he's uh what's the what's the pastor's name that we follow? Or not pastor, but he was uh he wrote books. MacArthur? No. Bodie Walker? No, not the person. Not person, the scope of the that's what they were saying. They were saying he's a Calvinist, he's a Calvinist. Every time I make a you don't you shouldn't believe him because he's a Calvinist. And I said, he's not a Calvinist, he w knows the truth. You know, so I want everybody that's my sister there now and not watching to know what the truth is because you can't follow people that don't tell the truth because you're never gonna get there. The truth will set you free. And Jesus says that I am the way, the truth, and the life, and there's no other way to go. If you want to go to heaven and be with the Lord, now let's see, I don't even care about golden streets or none of that stuff. All I want to do is be with Jesus, I could care about less about the rest of it. And I just feel like if people want to see Jesus' face, then they need to give up and go to where they need to go to in the Lord and pray so that he can show you who he is. That's how I feel.

SPEAKER_02 25:50

Amen, sister. Amen, sister. With that, we will wrap it up, and um I'll ask uh Pat if you don't mind, um close us out in prayer. And Mariah, is the choir around? I gotta make sure the choir is here. She might still be away. Is the choir around?

SPEAKER_07 26:33

Good night, little children. Good night, baby.

SPEAKER_02 26:45

I think that's good for you, because Vanessa, I know you like the kids too, and I love those kids. They they make my day. Um but brother Pat, if you would, man, close us out in prayer.

SPEAKER_04 26:59

Absolutely. If we could just join together, our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your many gifts and this wonderful night that you've given us, Lord, and this wonderful sister, Lord. Truly every single soul that you save is a miracle greater than the parting of the Red Sea. Lord, we thank you for this precious sister, Lord, and we thank you for the things that you've done in her life and her testimony that has blessed us so deeply, Lord, today, Lord. We thank you for this gift of each other, this special bond that we have in the family of God, Lord. And we pray that you protect us, continue to grow your family, Lord, and that we be used to bless this world and bring other brothers and sisters to this beautiful family, Lord. We pray that you teach us the true meaning of love, Lord. Fill us with charity. Let us be walking representatives of you in this life, God. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_06 28:07

Amen.

SPEAKER_02 28:11

Let me say something before we close and wrap it up tonight. Um, and that is that I have had the the the greatest pleasure of knowing all of you, and um and and and and being tolerated by you all.

SPEAKER_06 28:34

Stop it.

SPEAKER_02 28:35

And sister Vanessa, you know, you can hear she's just a special person, just a special, special lady. And um and you're dear to me, sister. And let me tell you one thing. You will never ever, as long as I am alive, have to worry about having family again. You understand what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_06 29:03

Yes, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 29:04

You hear me?

SPEAKER_06 29:05

I said you, but I meant thank you.

SPEAKER_02 29:07

And I and I know here, and I know everyone here feels the same way, and I know you're out there by yourself and whatever. And because of that, I am hoping that everyone here who's a regular will never let you feel isolated again. I hope that everybody here will bug you until they get to call you and talk to you, whatever, and you know, and open yourself up to that. But I want, you know, but I think that everybody here, we've been together long enough, all of us, to be able to reach out to one another and just call and say, hi, how are you doing? Is there anything I can pray for you about? This is what this relationship that we have as a body is supposed to be about. And so, and I'm telling you, sister, that you know, you have to beat me off to keep me from being able to uh get in contact with you and just talk to you. Because I our conversations that we've been having are they're good ones. I love them, and I hope that everybody gets to benefit from that the way I have. Um because you are a good soul and a solid sister in Christ. And and and this and your your testimony is is special. Uh, not that everyone, everyone else's isn't, is yours is just special in a different way. And because you hear a lot of testimonies that I've heard in my years as a Christian, where so many people talk about how how they they they spend an hour glorifying their sin, and they give you two minutes about the Lord Jesus Christ, and yours has been nothing but the Lord Jesus Christ, what he taught you, the word of God. And this is and this is and see, when I think of a testimony, and every Christian listening should understand this our own testimonies are testimonies about Christ. Let's go. Every testimony is a testimony of Christ, not how bad of a sinner you were or how gross of a sinner you were or whatever. That may be a part of it, but let that be the part of this of your talk that shows what Christ led you to overcome. The issue is glorifying the Lord. Glorifying the Lord. That is what it's all about. What did Christ do to and for me and how he brought me to this place? And that's what it's all about. And that's what our testimony should always be about. And our testimony is always being refined. Why? Because we are always being refined, just like we saw, we see Job through this series that we're going through. So I want to say that. I just want to tell my sister Vanessa, you you got a family. You got a family.

SPEAKER_01 32:11

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 32:12

I know that. You you know that. And you know, and we we are probably a bunch of misfits, but that's okay, because that's what Christians are. Misfits.

SPEAKER_06 32:21

God misfits.

SPEAKER_02 32:26

You want to you want any last word before we go?

SPEAKER_06 32:30

No, I just want to say I love everybody. And I'm just so thankful that I could tell you, all of you, that what I what Christ has done for me.

SPEAKER_02 32:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 32:44

Because he has.

Final Blessing And Goodbye

SPEAKER_02 32:45

Amen, sister. Amen. Well, God bless you and everybody. Have a great night, sister. Thank you so much for taking the time to give us your testimony. I hope I didn't take too long with it, you know, but I wanted to give you uh all the time in the world to spill it out. And I hope that this encourages many other people, like it did Meg, apparently, to be willing and ready to give their testimony whenever the time is right for you all. But with that being said, be provoked, be persuaded, and may God bless you all. Have a great night. And sister, I'm putting this up tomorrow, so you'll see it.

SPEAKER_06 33:20

Okay. I need to how bad I sound because of this accent. I have. Love you guys. God bless everyone.

SPEAKER_02 33:35

All right.