C.J. Daniel's "supernatural conversion experience" / 3rd Step
PART 1 of 3 sections
My “supernatural conversion experience” or 3rd Step happened in July 1985 on a Thursday in Houston, Tx. Before I talk about the actual “experience”, I want to share a little prior history with you to put this “event” in its proper context.
First of all, in terms of my spiritual condition at the time of the “experience”, I had gone to “church”most
of my life as a kid. From age 0 to about 12, my family went to a Church of Christ in Houston. At that church, I gleaned that God was angry and was looking to fry my backside with lightning bolts if I messed up. I am not saying that is what that church taught, but that was my takeaway. From 13 thru 26 yrs of age, I went to an Episcopal church in Houston. There I came to
understand that God was a “big warm fuzzie”. He was “up there in Heaven”doing His thing, and I was down here on earth doing my own thing. My mom had begun struggling with alcoholism, and I wasn't seeing God doing much about the hurt and pain that was causing the family. Thus, I wasn't so interested in Him. I had “mental assent” that there was a God, and his Son was Jesus
Christ. Though I believed “in God”, He was not a part of my everyday life. If you had asked me if I was a Christian at that time, I would have said “yes”.
Moving forward in time to a few months prior to my supernatural conversion, many events had transpired which had brought me to the “end of myself”. In the span of 4 months, from April to July of that year, my whole life unwound. I owned 3 bars (Boardwalk Beach Clubs) with other partners, and the core of our business was college kids. In 1985, the drinking age changed from 18yrs old to 21yrs old in Texas – that change, severely hurt our business. Real estate properties that I owned were plunging in value, going below the mortgages on the properties, and banks were calling in my loans. A medical forms printing company that I owned, lost 80% of our business in less than a month when our largest client walked away because of some dubious practices on their purchasing agent’s part. Also during this time, my wonderful, beautiful girlfriend dumped me for a new college beau! By the time July came, I was a “hurtin’puppy.” I can remember briefly (30 seconds) considering the solution to my problems was suicide; but then, I said “No”to myself, and figured out on my own that what was wrong with my life had something to do with God, but I did not know what it was!
A few days later after the above revelation, I was walking on the sidewalks of downtown Houston when I
bumped into “Scott”. He was an old acquaintance who had become “very religious” and weird over the previous 3 or 4
years. He asked me how I was doing. Instead of giving the traditional answer of “fine”, I told him that things weren’t so good. He suggested that we get together and talk about things over dinner, whereupon I said sure let’s do that; but really, I had no desire, nor intention of calling him at all.
It was a Thursday after the 4thof July, 1985, at about 6:00 pm, when the phone rang (pre-caller ID). I answered the phone, and it was Scott. He asked me what I was doing, to which I replied nothing. He then, suddenly, asks me to go to dinner
with him in 30 minutes. I did not want to go, but I could not think of an excuse to get out of the offer since I had already told him I wasn’t doing anything. I was stuck! Thus began the first step of the journey to a new life.
We met at a Chili’s restaurant that was at Westpark and Potomac Dr. or thereabouts. We were directed to a booth near the front of the restaurant. We ordered quickly. The subject of conversation traversed topics ranging from what mutual friends were doing to what was going on in Scott’s life. I was chewing a bite of a Muy Mucho Hamburger when “THE Question” was asked, the question that would forever change my life. The question was like a lightning bolt flashing out of a clear blue sky – totally unexpected, totally out of context in regards to our conversation. It was a question that was so unlikely to be asked in regards to where we were – in a restaurant, crowded with people.
PART 2 of 3 sections
So what was the question? Try this one on receiving in the middle of a bite of your hamburger . .
“So Chris, where are you with JESUS?” and behind that question were Scott’s two piercing eyes looking into my soul!
Scott, caught me in mid-bite, and in mid-fright. I finished the bite, controlled myself, and calmly responded to the “new topic” (religion), which I just as soon not talk about.
“Well,” I began, “Jesus is the Son of God. He died for my sins. Through his resurrection I have eternal life.”
I KNEW this to be the right answer, so I felt quite comfortable that the question was now answered and the topic finished.
As I think about it though, the response was more automatic, than one of which much thought was ever given to.
It was a response that I knew well. The Church of Christ had rammed it down my throat in my youth, and the Episcopalian church confirmed this response and sugar coated it for me in my teens. Also, in a manner of tradition, I was baptized and confirmed so I “knew everything” about Jesus as a result (or so I thought)!
Scott, heard my answer, but did not seem to be accepting of my response. Again, he asked, “Chris, but WHERE are you with Jesus?”
Well, I was a bit offended because I knew that I had given the right response to the question the first time.
“Scott,” I replied in an agitated manner, “I already told you! Jesus is My Savior. He died so that my sins would be forgiven.
He is the Son of God!” As I finished, I again knew that I had given the right answer.
Scott, unabashedly asked again, “I understand what you said Chris, but where are you with Jesus Christ?”
When Scott asked me this for the 3rd time, I was feeling uncomfortable. He was probing/tresspassing in
an area of my life – my understanding of God – which was extremely limited. He was stirring up the neat, tidy box in my life known as God and religion. I started feeling very anxious and at this point thought he was asking me a trick question to which I did not have nor know the answer to.
As an Adult Child of an Alcoholic, I did not like the feeling of not having the answer; I did not like the feeling of not being in
control! Finally, I responded with great indignation, “Scott, what are you driving at? I don’t understand what you are asking me.
I already told you I believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God!”
“Chris, let me ask you another question before we go on; how did you get into the bar business?” as Scott asked this of me, I felt relieved as now I was talking about something I actually really did know something about.
“Well, some acquaintances and I saw a niche in the bar business that was going unfilled; and so we got together and pooled some resources together and started a bar to fill that niche – creating our bar The Boardwalk Beach Club. It was a place where preppies could go in Houston. As you know, we were quite successful,” I said with a bit of pride!
“Well, did you pray about it before you went into the bar business?” asked Scott.
I almost laughed in Scott’s face and then said, “Of course not, why would I want to do that?”
Then Scott, not fazed at all by my apparent ridicule, said,“So would it be fair to say that you made the decision to go into the bar business; that you chose with YOUR will for YOUR life to go into the bar business?”
Being very prideful in the moment, thinking about the initial success of the bar, I said quickly, “Well of course it was My Will for My Life!”
Scott then asked, “so what happened next?”
“Well, my partners and I opened two other bars, both of which did very well in the beginning.”
Scott, then questioned, “Did you pray about those decisions, opening up those other bars?”
Again, I thought the question an odd one, but I responded, “No, I did not!”
“So you chose with Your Will for Your life to open the other bars?” Scott inquired.
Being in the moment and thinking about the success of the bars, I again responded quickly and rather prideful, “Yes, it was
My Will for My Life to open the other bars . . .”
Then Scott asked, “What happened then?”
I responded, “I used some income and other monies I had to buy real estate; and also started my own real estate
company – Daniel-Jaffe Properties!”
Scott, asked me again, “Well, did you pray about opening your real estate business and buying your real estate
properties?”
By this time, I am hooked into this conversation . . . not understanding it really, and definitely not ever having traveled down this conversational road before! We continued going thru the journey of reviewing the different business chapters and decisions that I had made. Scott asking me “what happened next?”; me replying; Scott then asking if I prayed about it; me
responding “no I did not pray about it” each time, and then Scott asking and confirming if it had been “my will”
for“my life” each time to make that decision in question. We continued down this track until finally I was in “the present
day” which was a mess – as mentioned above – bars underperforming, real estate crashing, printing company debacle, and loss of THE GIRL! Scott asked me one more time, “So what happened then?”
I then replied, “I went broke!”
Scott, then said to me, “Chris, you admitted that you were choosing ‘your will’ for ‘your life’ with each of the decisions you made that we talked about!
I responded, “Yes, I did!”
“Each of those decisions that you made, were you using your BEST Thinking?”
That question kind of caught me off guard for a moment, and I thought about it, and then I said, “Yes, at the time I would say that I was using my “BEST Thinking” in each of those decisions!”
What Scott said next was like someone throwing a harpoon at my belly and it going right through me. It absolutely gutted me when he said, “So Chris, your BEST Thinking led to you going broke!”
OUCH, my pride just got fried! Wow! My mind was reeling . . . my BEST Thinking led to me going broke!
What was I to do? All I knew to do was to live out of my head, to do things based on logic and my own
understanding of things. What else was there? How else do you live life?
Scott then summarized all that I had done when he said,“So Chris, wouldn’t you say that you have been living CHRIS’ will for CHRIS’ life? You made all of these decisions in your life of your own free will! God was NOT involved in your decision making for any of these decisions, was he?”
I then responded, “No, I guess not. So what else can I do, how do you do life?"
"Well instead of you Chris runing your life, you discover God's will for Chris' life, and follow His directions." Scott answered. As Scott said this, it began to click that what he said was true. He went on and said, “Chris you obviously believe
in God, right?”
“Yes”, I replied.
“And, you believe that God is all-knowing, all powerful, and always present?”
“Yes,” I answered.
“And that God, He is perfect in all ways and does not make mistakes?”
“Yes,” I answered.
“Well then, doesn’t it make sense that God made every living human being; and that every human being is known to God. You know, in the Bible it says God knows every sparrow that falls from the sky, and every hair on your head.”
“Okay,” I replied, having already believed what he was saying to me.
“Then if God made you individually and knows you individually, doesn’t it make sense that God has a plan for your life – that you alone were made for. A plan that is unique to you. In other words, God’s plan for Chris Daniel?”
“Yeah, that makes sense . . .” I then remembered seeing a bumper sticker that said ‘God don’t make no
junk.’
PART 3 of 3 sections
Supernatural part is next . . . . . . . . . . . .
Still at the Chili’s restaurant, the preparation for what God was getting ready to do in my life required some agreement
from me!
Scott continued,” If God made you, and thus He has a specific plan for your life, don’t you think that God’s plan would give you the most absolute and perfect sense of satisfaction, contentment, and purpose for your life as well as provide you with the greatest level of peace, joy, and love if you chose to follow His plan for your life?
“Yeah, that makes sense – so HOW do I do that?” I asked. In my mind, I was still thinking about how my “best thinking”
led to me going broke, and so I didn’t want to do that again – go broke! I was open to anything . . . I knew the answer had something to do with God, and so maybe this was it! I needed to tap into God’s thinking somehow. With all of the current disasters in my life, I needed a “rescuer”, and maybe this ‘God plan deal’ was it!
“It is easy, you make Jesus Christ, the Son of God, . . . you make Him LORD of your life!” answered Scott confidently.
When I heard that, I was a bit thrown off . . . In all my years growing up in the churches I went to, I had never heard that
before,“making Jesus Christ LORD of your life.” I heard of making Him “your savior”, but not “making Him Lord of your life.”
“So . . . Scott, what does that mean, to make Jesus Christ LORD of my life?” I asked, having a sense that I was about to discover the secret of what was missing in my life!
“Well, Chris, it means that you give your entire life –all your hopes, dreams, wants, desires, your family, your pets,
everything to Jesus. You turn your life over to Him! Here is another way to think about it. You are driving down the highway of life and you are in the driver’s seat of your car! When you invite Jesus to be Lord of your life, what you are doing is pulling off to the side of the road of life. You get out of the car; you then invite and let Jesus get into the driver seat of your car. You close the door, and then you walk around to the passenger side of the car, open the door and get in and sit in the passenger seat of your car and then close that door. Then you just sit back and enjoy the ride – allowing Jesus to make all the decisions about where
and how to drive the car!”
As Scott was going thru the car analogy of making Jesus LORD of my life, I knew that this is what I HAD to do . . . and wanted to DO! After 26 ½ years of driving the car of my life, my best thinking led to me getting stuck in the ditch of
life! I did not want to end up in another ditch again!
When he finished explaining, Scott then asked me, “Would you like to accept Jesus Christ into your life as LORD and Master of your life?”
After just a few seconds of using my “best thinking”, I responded, “Yes, I do! So what do I have to do?”
Scott, then said, “We need to pray and make it happen . . . I will lead you in a prayer in which you ask Jesus to come into your life as your Lord and Saviour!”
What followed next, to the natural eye, was like an obtuse scripted comedy by Woody Allen . . .
Scott suggested that we pray in the parking lot of Chili’s after we finished our meal. The only places I had ever prayed before was either in church or before meals at home in my youth, so this sounded a bit far out to me. Scott was insistent though, that if I wanted to invite Jesus into my heart as my LORD and Savior, I needed to do it quickly.
We finished dinner, went outside, and got inside his Jeep. As soon as we sat down in his jeep, my mind became barraged with a whole host of distracting thoughts (fiery darts). In my head, I was hearing all these thoughts that today would be called homophobic thoughts . . . “You, know what is going to happen? Scott is going to grab your hands and pray with you, and somebody is going to see this and think you are a queer!” These thoughts began racing in my mind while Scott was explaining to me the prayer he was going to lead me in.
Then suddenly, Scott stops, and says, “Chris, I tell you what . . . . let’s go down to my Mother’s house. It is not far away, and we can have more privacy there.”
“Okay,” I quickly responded, liking the idea of privacy versus praying in a public parking lot.
We drove down the street a few blocks to a duplex where his mom lived. Upon arrival, Scott jumped
out of his vehicle and walked towards the small back yard. I followed. As I was going towards the gate of the backyard, Scott was already coming back out with two outdoor lawn chairs in his hands.
“It is such a nice night; let’s pray under the stars,” declared Scott. He then led me down to the end of the driveway with the two chairs in his hands. Scott walked all the way back down the driveway to within 10 feet of the main road (Potomac) that his mom’s house was on. He then set up both chairs such that they were facing each other, with only a few feet between them.
Before we sat down, the barrage of homophobic thoughts came roaring back into my mind . . . “What is he doing? I
can’t believe we are going to pray here . . . this is a busy street . . . I bet we are going to hold hands! Oh, no!!! One of my friends is going to drive by and see me holding hands with this guy in prayer and think that I am gay!”
In my moment of getting ready to “meet the Lord” as Scott put it, the above were the holy thoughts running through my
head! We sat down, whereupon Scott began to explain what we were going to do. He said that he was going to say a prayer that he wanted me to repeat. This prayer would be one in which I would invite Jesus again to come into my heart as my Savior, but also to turn my life over to Jesus and declare Him also LORD of my life! By my declaration and confession of faith in Jesus as my Savior and Lord, this would allow Jesus to get into and take over driving the vehicle of my life!
What was circulating in my head, came to pass! After giving me the directions, Scott then grabbed my hands tightly and began to pray, then he led me in prayer in which (repeating after Scott) I invited Jesus Christ to come live in my heart and be the LORD of my life! After finishing this prayer, my mind jumped alive with more thoughts of “I have to get out of here now . . . several cars went by while we were praying . . . I know a lot of people in Houston . . . and Oh, I hope nobody saw me
holding hands with this guy . . . they will think I am gay!”
I jumped up as quickly as I could from the sagging interwoven strap seat of the lawn chair, and said, “Scott, thank you
very much. I have to go now!” The buzzing inside of me, the anxiety, the racing thoughts going on in my head were more than I could bear and I wanted to leave now! Enough with being polite! I did what I needed to do “to make Jesus Lord of my life” so now let’s get back to something normal. I could not leave though on my own as I had left my car back at the restaurant and needed Scott to give me a ride back to get it.
“No, wait a minute. . . I want to pray for you now,”Scott said as he laid his hand on my shoulder.
“What do you mean pray for me now, you just prayed?” I protested.
“Well, I want to pray that God would physically manifest Himself to you in such a way that you would know that He is real,” Scott answered.
I felt like arguing with him and denying his desire to pray for me, but I thought I would waste more time arguing about it .
. . it would be quicker just to let Scott pray for me, so I said, “Okay, Scott, but be quick about it! I really need to get back to my
car.”
We both sat back down in the chairs, and then Scott grabbed my wrists with his hands and began to pray (As you can see, I had very POOR boundaries back then). Scott’s prayer was one of asking God to pour out His spirit upon me in such a way that I would know that this was a special night – a night in which my life would be forever changed.
While Scott was praying, I was wishing that this whole experience would come to a quick end. I was listening to his prayer and looking at my watch and watching the cars go by. Every car that went by, just stirred up more of the homophobic thoughts of “ somebody is going to see me holding hands with this guy and think I am gay!” As one can see, “my focus” was very much on the Holiness of the Lord Jesus --- NOT!!!!!
After what seemed like 15 minutes of prayer, I was more than ready to leave. Only my politeness of not wanting to offend a man praying for me, kept me in that chair. Then suddenly, another first occurred in my life. Scott, began to make
these strange sounds – it was a babbling of nonsensical syllables the like of which I had never heard before.
This was my introduction to the concept of “speaking in tongues”. I was now looking for the ejector seat button in an old James Bond movie . . . I wanted to eject right out of this situation. I wanted “Scotty” from Star Trek to “beam me up.”
As Scott continued to pray in tongues, I grew increasingly more anxious and more uncomfortable
as I sat in my saggy seat lawn chair with Scott’s hands locked onto both of my wrists. I was looking around
thinking about how I could POLITELY end this session. I was not thinking about God or Scott’s prayer. All that I could think about was getting away.
Then, suddenly, it happened . . .
I felt something twitch the top of my hair (this is back when I had hair on my head). I immediately thought
someone was behind the short hedge bushes that were to my right, and that they had thrown something at me. I
looked in that direction expecting to see a few kids spying on us. There were none. I felt myself go to a “heightened alert” mode as I put my head back down in prayer. Then, I felt it again! It was as if a bird had flown over my head and pulled at my hair.
I looked up and quickly around – seeing nothing, except the passing of cars. The homophobic thoughts started up again . . .“Chris, you know one of your friends is going to drive by and see you and Scott holding hands in these lawn chairs . . . they are going to think you are GAY!”
I was now squirming in my chair like butter squirming in a hot frying pan. Finally, I had reached my point of tolerance . . . I was no longer going to worry about being polite about ending this session, but then . . . in the midst of my anxiety, my squirming, my twitching, my homophobic fears/fiery darts, my embarrassment, God touched me in a tangible way!
It began with like a thick blanket of “warmth” that slowly descended upon me. This warmth had the temperature differential you would feel by putting your arm halfway in a Jacuzzi hot tub on a cold night. The extreme difference of temperature between that part of your arm that is in the warm water and that part of your arm that is in the cold night air – that is what this warmth felt like on mild July evening in Houston, Texas. When it first touched me, I remember saying to myself “What is this?” All of a sudden my whole being became "still". I was no longer having the homophobic thoughts, I no longer felt the anxiety, I no longer felt any concern about passing cars . . . My whole being was focused on what was happening. Immediately it was somehow transmitted to me that this was the Holy Spirit of God. I did not have the head-knowledge though to know this, but I knew I was being touched by God.
As this "warmth" came down further, now surrounding my head and beginning to engulf my neck and the top of my chest area, I experienced this eruption of overwhelming emotions inside of me like a fireworks finale going off in the sky of pure love, pure peace, and pure joy like I had never known before. I began to weep and weep tears of sorrow all the while being overwhelmed by these waves of love, peace, and joy! Like dropping a rock in a bucket of water, and the splash makes
concentric circles of waves that ripple out from the splash to hit the side of the bucket, and then ripple back to the center of the bucket, and then ripple back out to the side of the bucket again, this love, peace, and joy was rippling back and forth thru my extremities - gentle waves of emotions moving through my arms, and legs, and then back to my chest area, and then recycle thru it all again.
Scott, meantime, is still praying in tongues, oblivious to what is going on with me. I remember at some point thinking,“Scott, keep praying!”
This “blanket of warmth” continued to engulf me. Slowly descending until it had reached the lower portion of my torso, my bowels. At that point, it was like this geyser about 5 inches thick turned on inside of me, from my loins area, and surged upward thru my chest, filling me up with this deep abiding peace, joy, and love! It was like this thick warm
substance was now flowing in me and through me. In the Scriptures it does say out of our bowels will flow rivers of living waters . . . although I did not know that scripture at the time of this occurrence.
As this geyser was now surging ithrough me, the tears of sorrow that I had been crying changed. I now started
laughing and crying at the same time, and was now weeping tears of joy. This “warmth” kept descending until it
engulfed all of the lower parts of me (legs, feet, shoes). This “warmth” penetrated my entire being . . . it was like every cell of
my body was being changed. This “warmth”/God’s spirit then began to engulf Scott. When I finally thought to look at
Scott, he had finished praying and was also overwhelmed by the “presence of God’s Spirit”. He too was caught up in the same laughter of joy that I was in.
To anyone who might have driven up on us, we would have looked like two college kids who had had too much “vino” as we were laughing uncontrollably. As we tried to stand up, we both fell down like drunken sailors. Scott finally did get up and stumbled over to his mother’s front door. I slowly began crawling over to the door on my hands and feet, still caught up in this “divine laughter”. Scott knocked on the door, and a moment later it opened. His mom saw me on the ground laughing uncontrollably. What should have been a strange sight, was normal to Scott’s mom, as she was a charismatic Christian and this phenomenon I was experiencing was normal to her! She stepped back and clapped her hands and said, “Praise God! God got Chris!”
Somehow Scott and I managed to stumble into his mom’s house where upon I fell into the pillows of the nearest couch.
Scott’s mom told me later that I laid on that couch just praising God for his “goodness, mercy, and love” for the next 30 minutes with my arms extended in the air to Him. I don’t remember how or when I got back to my car at the Chili’s restaurant, and I don’t remember how or when I got home . . . but I must have made it because here I am 27+ years later telling you about the reality, the power and the love of GOD that is available to you to transform your life into that which you were truly
made to be! God answered Scott’s prayer that my life be transformed that night! That night the“old me” died, and a “new
me” came forth! What a wild supernatural journey it has been ever since!
And that was my supernatural conversion experience . . . a.k.a. my 3rd Step of turning my life over to the God of my understanding . . . Jehovah Adonai whose son is Jesus Christ who directs my life by the Holy Spirit of God!
For you who don't know yet, it is possible and vital to have a "connection/relationship" with the God of the Universe! Get one now . . . this is what has been missing in your life . . . this is what you have been made for . . . this connection will make you complete!
God bless you! CJD
My “supernatural conversion experience” or 3rd Step happened in July 1985 on a Thursday in Houston, Tx. Before I talk about the actual “experience”, I want to share a little prior history with you to put this “event” in its proper context.
First of all, in terms of my spiritual condition at the time of the “experience”, I had gone to “church”most
of my life as a kid. From age 0 to about 12, my family went to a Church of Christ in Houston. At that church, I gleaned that God was angry and was looking to fry my backside with lightning bolts if I messed up. I am not saying that is what that church taught, but that was my takeaway. From 13 thru 26 yrs of age, I went to an Episcopal church in Houston. There I came to
understand that God was a “big warm fuzzie”. He was “up there in Heaven”doing His thing, and I was down here on earth doing my own thing. My mom had begun struggling with alcoholism, and I wasn't seeing God doing much about the hurt and pain that was causing the family. Thus, I wasn't so interested in Him. I had “mental assent” that there was a God, and his Son was Jesus
Christ. Though I believed “in God”, He was not a part of my everyday life. If you had asked me if I was a Christian at that time, I would have said “yes”.
Moving forward in time to a few months prior to my supernatural conversion, many events had transpired which had brought me to the “end of myself”. In the span of 4 months, from April to July of that year, my whole life unwound. I owned 3 bars (Boardwalk Beach Clubs) with other partners, and the core of our business was college kids. In 1985, the drinking age changed from 18yrs old to 21yrs old in Texas – that change, severely hurt our business. Real estate properties that I owned were plunging in value, going below the mortgages on the properties, and banks were calling in my loans. A medical forms printing company that I owned, lost 80% of our business in less than a month when our largest client walked away because of some dubious practices on their purchasing agent’s part. Also during this time, my wonderful, beautiful girlfriend dumped me for a new college beau! By the time July came, I was a “hurtin’puppy.” I can remember briefly (30 seconds) considering the solution to my problems was suicide; but then, I said “No”to myself, and figured out on my own that what was wrong with my life had something to do with God, but I did not know what it was!
A few days later after the above revelation, I was walking on the sidewalks of downtown Houston when I
bumped into “Scott”. He was an old acquaintance who had become “very religious” and weird over the previous 3 or 4
years. He asked me how I was doing. Instead of giving the traditional answer of “fine”, I told him that things weren’t so good. He suggested that we get together and talk about things over dinner, whereupon I said sure let’s do that; but really, I had no desire, nor intention of calling him at all.
It was a Thursday after the 4thof July, 1985, at about 6:00 pm, when the phone rang (pre-caller ID). I answered the phone, and it was Scott. He asked me what I was doing, to which I replied nothing. He then, suddenly, asks me to go to dinner
with him in 30 minutes. I did not want to go, but I could not think of an excuse to get out of the offer since I had already told him I wasn’t doing anything. I was stuck! Thus began the first step of the journey to a new life.
We met at a Chili’s restaurant that was at Westpark and Potomac Dr. or thereabouts. We were directed to a booth near the front of the restaurant. We ordered quickly. The subject of conversation traversed topics ranging from what mutual friends were doing to what was going on in Scott’s life. I was chewing a bite of a Muy Mucho Hamburger when “THE Question” was asked, the question that would forever change my life. The question was like a lightning bolt flashing out of a clear blue sky – totally unexpected, totally out of context in regards to our conversation. It was a question that was so unlikely to be asked in regards to where we were – in a restaurant, crowded with people.
PART 2 of 3 sections
So what was the question? Try this one on receiving in the middle of a bite of your hamburger . .
“So Chris, where are you with JESUS?” and behind that question were Scott’s two piercing eyes looking into my soul!
Scott, caught me in mid-bite, and in mid-fright. I finished the bite, controlled myself, and calmly responded to the “new topic” (religion), which I just as soon not talk about.
“Well,” I began, “Jesus is the Son of God. He died for my sins. Through his resurrection I have eternal life.”
I KNEW this to be the right answer, so I felt quite comfortable that the question was now answered and the topic finished.
As I think about it though, the response was more automatic, than one of which much thought was ever given to.
It was a response that I knew well. The Church of Christ had rammed it down my throat in my youth, and the Episcopalian church confirmed this response and sugar coated it for me in my teens. Also, in a manner of tradition, I was baptized and confirmed so I “knew everything” about Jesus as a result (or so I thought)!
Scott, heard my answer, but did not seem to be accepting of my response. Again, he asked, “Chris, but WHERE are you with Jesus?”
Well, I was a bit offended because I knew that I had given the right response to the question the first time.
“Scott,” I replied in an agitated manner, “I already told you! Jesus is My Savior. He died so that my sins would be forgiven.
He is the Son of God!” As I finished, I again knew that I had given the right answer.
Scott, unabashedly asked again, “I understand what you said Chris, but where are you with Jesus Christ?”
When Scott asked me this for the 3rd time, I was feeling uncomfortable. He was probing/tresspassing in
an area of my life – my understanding of God – which was extremely limited. He was stirring up the neat, tidy box in my life known as God and religion. I started feeling very anxious and at this point thought he was asking me a trick question to which I did not have nor know the answer to.
As an Adult Child of an Alcoholic, I did not like the feeling of not having the answer; I did not like the feeling of not being in
control! Finally, I responded with great indignation, “Scott, what are you driving at? I don’t understand what you are asking me.
I already told you I believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God!”
“Chris, let me ask you another question before we go on; how did you get into the bar business?” as Scott asked this of me, I felt relieved as now I was talking about something I actually really did know something about.
“Well, some acquaintances and I saw a niche in the bar business that was going unfilled; and so we got together and pooled some resources together and started a bar to fill that niche – creating our bar The Boardwalk Beach Club. It was a place where preppies could go in Houston. As you know, we were quite successful,” I said with a bit of pride!
“Well, did you pray about it before you went into the bar business?” asked Scott.
I almost laughed in Scott’s face and then said, “Of course not, why would I want to do that?”
Then Scott, not fazed at all by my apparent ridicule, said,“So would it be fair to say that you made the decision to go into the bar business; that you chose with YOUR will for YOUR life to go into the bar business?”
Being very prideful in the moment, thinking about the initial success of the bar, I said quickly, “Well of course it was My Will for My Life!”
Scott then asked, “so what happened next?”
“Well, my partners and I opened two other bars, both of which did very well in the beginning.”
Scott, then questioned, “Did you pray about those decisions, opening up those other bars?”
Again, I thought the question an odd one, but I responded, “No, I did not!”
“So you chose with Your Will for Your life to open the other bars?” Scott inquired.
Being in the moment and thinking about the success of the bars, I again responded quickly and rather prideful, “Yes, it was
My Will for My Life to open the other bars . . .”
Then Scott asked, “What happened then?”
I responded, “I used some income and other monies I had to buy real estate; and also started my own real estate
company – Daniel-Jaffe Properties!”
Scott, asked me again, “Well, did you pray about opening your real estate business and buying your real estate
properties?”
By this time, I am hooked into this conversation . . . not understanding it really, and definitely not ever having traveled down this conversational road before! We continued going thru the journey of reviewing the different business chapters and decisions that I had made. Scott asking me “what happened next?”; me replying; Scott then asking if I prayed about it; me
responding “no I did not pray about it” each time, and then Scott asking and confirming if it had been “my will”
for“my life” each time to make that decision in question. We continued down this track until finally I was in “the present
day” which was a mess – as mentioned above – bars underperforming, real estate crashing, printing company debacle, and loss of THE GIRL! Scott asked me one more time, “So what happened then?”
I then replied, “I went broke!”
Scott, then said to me, “Chris, you admitted that you were choosing ‘your will’ for ‘your life’ with each of the decisions you made that we talked about!
I responded, “Yes, I did!”
“Each of those decisions that you made, were you using your BEST Thinking?”
That question kind of caught me off guard for a moment, and I thought about it, and then I said, “Yes, at the time I would say that I was using my “BEST Thinking” in each of those decisions!”
What Scott said next was like someone throwing a harpoon at my belly and it going right through me. It absolutely gutted me when he said, “So Chris, your BEST Thinking led to you going broke!”
OUCH, my pride just got fried! Wow! My mind was reeling . . . my BEST Thinking led to me going broke!
What was I to do? All I knew to do was to live out of my head, to do things based on logic and my own
understanding of things. What else was there? How else do you live life?
Scott then summarized all that I had done when he said,“So Chris, wouldn’t you say that you have been living CHRIS’ will for CHRIS’ life? You made all of these decisions in your life of your own free will! God was NOT involved in your decision making for any of these decisions, was he?”
I then responded, “No, I guess not. So what else can I do, how do you do life?"
"Well instead of you Chris runing your life, you discover God's will for Chris' life, and follow His directions." Scott answered. As Scott said this, it began to click that what he said was true. He went on and said, “Chris you obviously believe
in God, right?”
“Yes”, I replied.
“And, you believe that God is all-knowing, all powerful, and always present?”
“Yes,” I answered.
“And that God, He is perfect in all ways and does not make mistakes?”
“Yes,” I answered.
“Well then, doesn’t it make sense that God made every living human being; and that every human being is known to God. You know, in the Bible it says God knows every sparrow that falls from the sky, and every hair on your head.”
“Okay,” I replied, having already believed what he was saying to me.
“Then if God made you individually and knows you individually, doesn’t it make sense that God has a plan for your life – that you alone were made for. A plan that is unique to you. In other words, God’s plan for Chris Daniel?”
“Yeah, that makes sense . . .” I then remembered seeing a bumper sticker that said ‘God don’t make no
junk.’
PART 3 of 3 sections
Supernatural part is next . . . . . . . . . . . .
Still at the Chili’s restaurant, the preparation for what God was getting ready to do in my life required some agreement
from me!
Scott continued,” If God made you, and thus He has a specific plan for your life, don’t you think that God’s plan would give you the most absolute and perfect sense of satisfaction, contentment, and purpose for your life as well as provide you with the greatest level of peace, joy, and love if you chose to follow His plan for your life?
“Yeah, that makes sense – so HOW do I do that?” I asked. In my mind, I was still thinking about how my “best thinking”
led to me going broke, and so I didn’t want to do that again – go broke! I was open to anything . . . I knew the answer had something to do with God, and so maybe this was it! I needed to tap into God’s thinking somehow. With all of the current disasters in my life, I needed a “rescuer”, and maybe this ‘God plan deal’ was it!
“It is easy, you make Jesus Christ, the Son of God, . . . you make Him LORD of your life!” answered Scott confidently.
When I heard that, I was a bit thrown off . . . In all my years growing up in the churches I went to, I had never heard that
before,“making Jesus Christ LORD of your life.” I heard of making Him “your savior”, but not “making Him Lord of your life.”
“So . . . Scott, what does that mean, to make Jesus Christ LORD of my life?” I asked, having a sense that I was about to discover the secret of what was missing in my life!
“Well, Chris, it means that you give your entire life –all your hopes, dreams, wants, desires, your family, your pets,
everything to Jesus. You turn your life over to Him! Here is another way to think about it. You are driving down the highway of life and you are in the driver’s seat of your car! When you invite Jesus to be Lord of your life, what you are doing is pulling off to the side of the road of life. You get out of the car; you then invite and let Jesus get into the driver seat of your car. You close the door, and then you walk around to the passenger side of the car, open the door and get in and sit in the passenger seat of your car and then close that door. Then you just sit back and enjoy the ride – allowing Jesus to make all the decisions about where
and how to drive the car!”
As Scott was going thru the car analogy of making Jesus LORD of my life, I knew that this is what I HAD to do . . . and wanted to DO! After 26 ½ years of driving the car of my life, my best thinking led to me getting stuck in the ditch of
life! I did not want to end up in another ditch again!
When he finished explaining, Scott then asked me, “Would you like to accept Jesus Christ into your life as LORD and Master of your life?”
After just a few seconds of using my “best thinking”, I responded, “Yes, I do! So what do I have to do?”
Scott, then said, “We need to pray and make it happen . . . I will lead you in a prayer in which you ask Jesus to come into your life as your Lord and Saviour!”
What followed next, to the natural eye, was like an obtuse scripted comedy by Woody Allen . . .
Scott suggested that we pray in the parking lot of Chili’s after we finished our meal. The only places I had ever prayed before was either in church or before meals at home in my youth, so this sounded a bit far out to me. Scott was insistent though, that if I wanted to invite Jesus into my heart as my LORD and Savior, I needed to do it quickly.
We finished dinner, went outside, and got inside his Jeep. As soon as we sat down in his jeep, my mind became barraged with a whole host of distracting thoughts (fiery darts). In my head, I was hearing all these thoughts that today would be called homophobic thoughts . . . “You, know what is going to happen? Scott is going to grab your hands and pray with you, and somebody is going to see this and think you are a queer!” These thoughts began racing in my mind while Scott was explaining to me the prayer he was going to lead me in.
Then suddenly, Scott stops, and says, “Chris, I tell you what . . . . let’s go down to my Mother’s house. It is not far away, and we can have more privacy there.”
“Okay,” I quickly responded, liking the idea of privacy versus praying in a public parking lot.
We drove down the street a few blocks to a duplex where his mom lived. Upon arrival, Scott jumped
out of his vehicle and walked towards the small back yard. I followed. As I was going towards the gate of the backyard, Scott was already coming back out with two outdoor lawn chairs in his hands.
“It is such a nice night; let’s pray under the stars,” declared Scott. He then led me down to the end of the driveway with the two chairs in his hands. Scott walked all the way back down the driveway to within 10 feet of the main road (Potomac) that his mom’s house was on. He then set up both chairs such that they were facing each other, with only a few feet between them.
Before we sat down, the barrage of homophobic thoughts came roaring back into my mind . . . “What is he doing? I
can’t believe we are going to pray here . . . this is a busy street . . . I bet we are going to hold hands! Oh, no!!! One of my friends is going to drive by and see me holding hands with this guy in prayer and think that I am gay!”
In my moment of getting ready to “meet the Lord” as Scott put it, the above were the holy thoughts running through my
head! We sat down, whereupon Scott began to explain what we were going to do. He said that he was going to say a prayer that he wanted me to repeat. This prayer would be one in which I would invite Jesus again to come into my heart as my Savior, but also to turn my life over to Jesus and declare Him also LORD of my life! By my declaration and confession of faith in Jesus as my Savior and Lord, this would allow Jesus to get into and take over driving the vehicle of my life!
What was circulating in my head, came to pass! After giving me the directions, Scott then grabbed my hands tightly and began to pray, then he led me in prayer in which (repeating after Scott) I invited Jesus Christ to come live in my heart and be the LORD of my life! After finishing this prayer, my mind jumped alive with more thoughts of “I have to get out of here now . . . several cars went by while we were praying . . . I know a lot of people in Houston . . . and Oh, I hope nobody saw me
holding hands with this guy . . . they will think I am gay!”
I jumped up as quickly as I could from the sagging interwoven strap seat of the lawn chair, and said, “Scott, thank you
very much. I have to go now!” The buzzing inside of me, the anxiety, the racing thoughts going on in my head were more than I could bear and I wanted to leave now! Enough with being polite! I did what I needed to do “to make Jesus Lord of my life” so now let’s get back to something normal. I could not leave though on my own as I had left my car back at the restaurant and needed Scott to give me a ride back to get it.
“No, wait a minute. . . I want to pray for you now,”Scott said as he laid his hand on my shoulder.
“What do you mean pray for me now, you just prayed?” I protested.
“Well, I want to pray that God would physically manifest Himself to you in such a way that you would know that He is real,” Scott answered.
I felt like arguing with him and denying his desire to pray for me, but I thought I would waste more time arguing about it .
. . it would be quicker just to let Scott pray for me, so I said, “Okay, Scott, but be quick about it! I really need to get back to my
car.”
We both sat back down in the chairs, and then Scott grabbed my wrists with his hands and began to pray (As you can see, I had very POOR boundaries back then). Scott’s prayer was one of asking God to pour out His spirit upon me in such a way that I would know that this was a special night – a night in which my life would be forever changed.
While Scott was praying, I was wishing that this whole experience would come to a quick end. I was listening to his prayer and looking at my watch and watching the cars go by. Every car that went by, just stirred up more of the homophobic thoughts of “ somebody is going to see me holding hands with this guy and think I am gay!” As one can see, “my focus” was very much on the Holiness of the Lord Jesus --- NOT!!!!!
After what seemed like 15 minutes of prayer, I was more than ready to leave. Only my politeness of not wanting to offend a man praying for me, kept me in that chair. Then suddenly, another first occurred in my life. Scott, began to make
these strange sounds – it was a babbling of nonsensical syllables the like of which I had never heard before.
This was my introduction to the concept of “speaking in tongues”. I was now looking for the ejector seat button in an old James Bond movie . . . I wanted to eject right out of this situation. I wanted “Scotty” from Star Trek to “beam me up.”
As Scott continued to pray in tongues, I grew increasingly more anxious and more uncomfortable
as I sat in my saggy seat lawn chair with Scott’s hands locked onto both of my wrists. I was looking around
thinking about how I could POLITELY end this session. I was not thinking about God or Scott’s prayer. All that I could think about was getting away.
Then, suddenly, it happened . . .
I felt something twitch the top of my hair (this is back when I had hair on my head). I immediately thought
someone was behind the short hedge bushes that were to my right, and that they had thrown something at me. I
looked in that direction expecting to see a few kids spying on us. There were none. I felt myself go to a “heightened alert” mode as I put my head back down in prayer. Then, I felt it again! It was as if a bird had flown over my head and pulled at my hair.
I looked up and quickly around – seeing nothing, except the passing of cars. The homophobic thoughts started up again . . .“Chris, you know one of your friends is going to drive by and see you and Scott holding hands in these lawn chairs . . . they are going to think you are GAY!”
I was now squirming in my chair like butter squirming in a hot frying pan. Finally, I had reached my point of tolerance . . . I was no longer going to worry about being polite about ending this session, but then . . . in the midst of my anxiety, my squirming, my twitching, my homophobic fears/fiery darts, my embarrassment, God touched me in a tangible way!
It began with like a thick blanket of “warmth” that slowly descended upon me. This warmth had the temperature differential you would feel by putting your arm halfway in a Jacuzzi hot tub on a cold night. The extreme difference of temperature between that part of your arm that is in the warm water and that part of your arm that is in the cold night air – that is what this warmth felt like on mild July evening in Houston, Texas. When it first touched me, I remember saying to myself “What is this?” All of a sudden my whole being became "still". I was no longer having the homophobic thoughts, I no longer felt the anxiety, I no longer felt any concern about passing cars . . . My whole being was focused on what was happening. Immediately it was somehow transmitted to me that this was the Holy Spirit of God. I did not have the head-knowledge though to know this, but I knew I was being touched by God.
As this "warmth" came down further, now surrounding my head and beginning to engulf my neck and the top of my chest area, I experienced this eruption of overwhelming emotions inside of me like a fireworks finale going off in the sky of pure love, pure peace, and pure joy like I had never known before. I began to weep and weep tears of sorrow all the while being overwhelmed by these waves of love, peace, and joy! Like dropping a rock in a bucket of water, and the splash makes
concentric circles of waves that ripple out from the splash to hit the side of the bucket, and then ripple back to the center of the bucket, and then ripple back out to the side of the bucket again, this love, peace, and joy was rippling back and forth thru my extremities - gentle waves of emotions moving through my arms, and legs, and then back to my chest area, and then recycle thru it all again.
Scott, meantime, is still praying in tongues, oblivious to what is going on with me. I remember at some point thinking,“Scott, keep praying!”
This “blanket of warmth” continued to engulf me. Slowly descending until it had reached the lower portion of my torso, my bowels. At that point, it was like this geyser about 5 inches thick turned on inside of me, from my loins area, and surged upward thru my chest, filling me up with this deep abiding peace, joy, and love! It was like this thick warm
substance was now flowing in me and through me. In the Scriptures it does say out of our bowels will flow rivers of living waters . . . although I did not know that scripture at the time of this occurrence.
As this geyser was now surging ithrough me, the tears of sorrow that I had been crying changed. I now started
laughing and crying at the same time, and was now weeping tears of joy. This “warmth” kept descending until it
engulfed all of the lower parts of me (legs, feet, shoes). This “warmth” penetrated my entire being . . . it was like every cell of
my body was being changed. This “warmth”/God’s spirit then began to engulf Scott. When I finally thought to look at
Scott, he had finished praying and was also overwhelmed by the “presence of God’s Spirit”. He too was caught up in the same laughter of joy that I was in.
To anyone who might have driven up on us, we would have looked like two college kids who had had too much “vino” as we were laughing uncontrollably. As we tried to stand up, we both fell down like drunken sailors. Scott finally did get up and stumbled over to his mother’s front door. I slowly began crawling over to the door on my hands and feet, still caught up in this “divine laughter”. Scott knocked on the door, and a moment later it opened. His mom saw me on the ground laughing uncontrollably. What should have been a strange sight, was normal to Scott’s mom, as she was a charismatic Christian and this phenomenon I was experiencing was normal to her! She stepped back and clapped her hands and said, “Praise God! God got Chris!”
Somehow Scott and I managed to stumble into his mom’s house where upon I fell into the pillows of the nearest couch.
Scott’s mom told me later that I laid on that couch just praising God for his “goodness, mercy, and love” for the next 30 minutes with my arms extended in the air to Him. I don’t remember how or when I got back to my car at the Chili’s restaurant, and I don’t remember how or when I got home . . . but I must have made it because here I am 27+ years later telling you about the reality, the power and the love of GOD that is available to you to transform your life into that which you were truly
made to be! God answered Scott’s prayer that my life be transformed that night! That night the“old me” died, and a “new
me” came forth! What a wild supernatural journey it has been ever since!
And that was my supernatural conversion experience . . . a.k.a. my 3rd Step of turning my life over to the God of my understanding . . . Jehovah Adonai whose son is Jesus Christ who directs my life by the Holy Spirit of God!
For you who don't know yet, it is possible and vital to have a "connection/relationship" with the God of the Universe! Get one now . . . this is what has been missing in your life . . . this is what you have been made for . . . this connection will make you complete!
God bless you! CJD
