Testimony of Brother Lonnie Jenkins (Part 2)

August 20, 2003

Book of Luke, chapter 9. And then I want to talk to you a little while, and then I want to get back into my testimony. Which just based on as thoughts keep coming, I doubt that I’ll finish it even tonight, but we’ll see. Luke 9, verse 4 and 5, “And whatsoever house you enter into, there abide, and (there) depart. And whosoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.” May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of the Word. You may be seated.  When I read that Scripture there, I can’t help but think of the various cities around the United States, that I know of, that no church has prospered there in the Message because of what happened with their attitude or the ministerial attitude toward the prophet of God. And, literally, the dust was shaken off of his feet. And places like Waterloo, Iowa, and places like that, never have a prospering Message church, never, because of the way they treated a prophet. So we’re not just nothing. God is calling people to account for the way they treat the Bride of Christ and the Message we carry. Amen. [Brother Lonnie speaks for a few minutes about the Alushta trip in Crimea-Ukraine and a few other events that were coming up—Ed.] Continuing on with my testimony. 

Let me find my place here where I think I left off last time. I think I had brought you up through the place where I had visited the Assembly of God church and I had, what I’ll call, a “Pillar of Fire” experience, which I thought was the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And I think I left off right about there. It was a dynamic experience but at that time, I was still smoking a pipe. And when I got this experience with the Pillar of Fire, I was still smoking a pipe. And so, it wasn’t what I thought it might have been. And so, after this Holy Ghost experience… It was real; it was genuine; it was God. And it blessed me greatly and was a turning point, but it wasn’t the baptism of the Holy Ghost.  Now, those of you that know the Message can know why it wasn’t the baptism of the Holy Ghost - ‘cause I wasn’t predestinated to that Jesus. You’re predestinated to the
Jesus of your day. And only that Message can quicken your soul. So when I meet people within the framework of the Message that say they were fully born again in a Baptist church, I think, “You don’t know the Message” (you know), because you have to meet the Jesus of your day to bring you to full birth. Well, it’s predestination. God has to have a people to meet the Word of the hour. And then their reward in meeting the Word of the hour is a quickening of the seed within them. That’s what the new birth is, is the quickening of that predestinated seed within you. So that’s why I wasn’t born again. I thought, like I said, at the time because the Pentecostal people were telling me, “You got the Holy Ghost,” I thought I had. But then later I was telling the people around me, I said, “If I got the Holy Ghost, I’m disappointed in the Holy Ghost,” because I didn’t get the change that I wanted. I didn’t get the empowerment that I wanted (God bless you.), that I wanted. 

(Brother Russ, good to see you.) So not too long after that, I was back at that same Assembly of God church, and I was listening to a Methodist minister preach. And he made the statement, “Anything that stands between you and God must come out of your life.” And as he said that, I was suddenly aware, I was looking through my own eyes. In fact, I can remember I could kind of see my own cheekbones. And so, I was looking out of my eyes, but now it was something different than that man. And I saw, because he was at a distance, there was a little Jesus; not because he was miniature but because he was further away. But somehow I knew in my heart it was Jesus. And yet, when I saw him, I saw my hand come up like this, with a cigarette in it, and an exhale of smoke come out of my mouth, and Jesus completely disappeared in the smoke. It all happened in just a moment.  But he said, “Anything that stands between you and God get it out of your life.” And nobody had ever preached to me about smoking, or cigarettes was wrong. And so suddenly, what? My smoking is standing between me and God? Well, of course, you know if you listen to Brother Branham’s Message, that’s serious. He said, “I would rather see my wife dead drunk and passed out on the floor than with a cigarette in her hand.” So it must really be serious. He said, “Based on what the Angel of the Lord tells me, I would rather see…” And so it must be very serious defilement of this body. But, nevertheless, it convicted me. And so I went to the preacher afterward, shared with my testimony; he shared his testimony with me. And so then when I went home that night, I went into prayer. And I said, “Lord, I have quit smoking three times and gone back to smoking three times, so I know that in my willpower I can’t quit. Lord, You’re going to have to help me. But now that I know You want me to, I want to in a more way.” And He didn’t just deliver me. Sometimes those things happen. He didn’t just deliver me, but He put a desire in my heart that I didn’t want to go this way. So every time the desire for a cigarette would come, and only a person who’s been smoking knows what that’s all about, every time the desire would come, I’d pray. And I called them “prayer aspirins,” because it was like having a headache and taking an aspirin. If you wait just a little while, the headache’s gone. But if you take it and expect instant results, doesn’t work that way. And that was the same way this desire for a cigarette was. If I took my “prayer aspirin” and just gave it just a moment, then the desire was gone.  And I can remember one night sitting in my apartment that I was sharing with a Brother, the fellow that I told you about before, my kids called him Uncle Charlie. His name was Charlie, and they called him Uncle Charlie. And I was working on a model boat, sailboat, about, oh, constitution about this big and about this high. And I was working and this urge came on for a cigarette. And I thought, “No, I’m not going to do it.” And I kept working, “I’m not going to do it.” And I was fighting with my willpower. And Uncle Charlie smoked. So I walked over into his bedroom, grabbed one of his pack of cigarettes and I lit up. And then I came back and I sat down. And just as I sat down, Something said, “But you didn’t even pray.” I thought, “Oh, Lord, forgive me.” And I snuffed it out and I took my “prayer aspirin,” and that was the last of it. That was the last of it. I never had anything… But it took about two weeks of my “prayer aspirins” to get over it and then gone. And it was a wonderful deliverance. Then you start getting rid of that funny feeling in your chest and in your lungs; and you quit coughing up that tobacco taste. Oh, it’s wonderful to be free from that stuff, I’ll tell you. Yeah.

I was still in fellowship with this Lutheran pastor that I told you about, which for those of you that know him was Brother Milton Linhart. He now passed away just a few months ago. And he told me one day, he said, “Brother Lonnie, I do see a change in your life.” And so, he said, “I would like to start holding Sunday night meetings in my church.” And he said, “I won’t wear my robe, and we won’t use any Lutheran liturgy. We’re going to just keep it free in the Spirit.” He said, “I’ll minister what I can study out of the Word about the baptism of the Holy Ghost.” And he said, “You just give testimony.” And I said, “All right.” So we started doing that in his Lutheran church. And then one of the ladies that worked for me in my department; I was still in San Jose, California, now. And one of the ladies that worked for me, her name is Johnson. And some of you may know part of the Johnson family. Paul Johnson has been here to minister for us, and he has an older brother. Excuse me. It wasn’t Paul; Paul is the older brother. Noel Johnson came and ministered for us, some of you may remember him. And Lyle is the youngest brother; he’s out West. And the mom and daddy was Ren and Doris. Doris is passed away; Ren, I think, is still alive. Anyway, she worked for me at that time, and she said, “I see a change in your life.” She said, “I know you’re drawing to God.” Said, “My husband and I are looking for a closer walk.” She said, “Can you come over to dinner tomorrow night and share what’s happening in your life, because we need something and I think maybe you’ve got it?”  So I went over to her and I shared with her what I was finding, what I was looking for and about this little prayer group thing that we had at the Lutheran church. I said, “I am not Lutheran.” And I said, “Actually, the pastor’s not much of a Lutheran anymore, but we’re meeting in a Lutheran church.” And so they quit their Congregational church because they had just heard their preacher say, “The virgin birth: that’s nonsense. (You know.) You can’t have virgin births.” (You know.) And so she said, “That’s it. We’ve got to find another place.”  So we started meeting on Saturday nights, and we would pray for the Sunday morning service and the Sunday evening, kind of like Charismatic meeting. And God met us in some pretty tremendous ways. We were just babies in the Lord. We had no idea what to expect or what was happening. And we were touching shoulders with Pentecost and the Charismatic, so we were aware of tongues and interpretation of tongues, and these kind of things. 

And I can remember many nights as we were praying, and you could look up towards the ceiling; it had a cathedral ceiling, like this. And the whole top of the church was just milky, just milky white, just up there. And I remember one night somebody took a picture of the people at the altar. And behind the altar was a desk, and on the desk was a Bible and the Bible was laying open. And when the picture came out, there were just rays of light coming out of the Bible. And so we took that to mean, “the Word is it,” not something else; the Word is it, and coming out of that.  And so, we had a lot of tongues and interpretation of tongues. And then at that time, like I told you before, I was having, I call them visions because I saw pictures and I was awake. And it was like a dream only I was awake. And so, we were having all these experiences. And the little group kind of started growing, various people came in. And because of these events, my faith was really growing. I was kind of beginning to believe God for anything.  And I remember I went over and I picked up my boys. Remember now, I’m separated; our family’s separated, now. And I went over and picked up my boys, and we went to a drive-in theater. And I remember as we were sitting there, the fog just settled right down. And we couldn’t see anything except the beam flickering going to the screen, but we couldn’t see the screen. And I remember I said to the Lord, I said, “Lord, please, I don’t get many evenings with my kids, can’t you lift the fog and let me finish the evening with the kids?” Do you remember that, Paul? You may not. No. He was very little. And the fog just went just like that, and we watched the rest of the movie. And we drove out, and as soon as we drove out the gate, we were instantly in fog. It only lifted right inside the drive-in theater. And I thought, “Praise God.” So I remember I testified to my boys, “See? See what prayer can do? See what God can do?” You know, ‘cause I was trying to keep encouraging them, also.  There is no turmoil like the turmoil of a split family. And especially initially, because everything is bleeding, everything is hurting all the way from your personal pride because you’ve flunked, somehow, to the despair over a split family. Everything was in turmoil. So, consequently, when I would pick up the kids, almost always there was great weeping and crying, “Daddy, don’t leave us, don’t leave us,” you know. And sometimes saying, “We want to be with you, but we want to be with Mommy, and we want to be with you.” And it was just ripping me to shreds, and so I really began to ponder in my mind, “Is it better off for me to be here or somewhere else, ‘cause they seem to be so ripped up every time we get together.” And, of course my ex, she wanted me completely out of her life, as any woman does in that kind of a situation. But there’s no such thing as a “clean divorce” when you’ve got kids involved, no such thing. It just doesn’t happen. In the meantime, I attended many Charismatic home meetings and Charismatic groups. And I remember one time I attended a Charismatic meeting in a school gymnasium. And the people were giving testimonies about the Holy Ghost, of what happened in their life. And then they asked a Catholic priest to come up. And I didn’t know what to think, because even the Church of Christ that I had been raised in taught that the Bible says, “the Catholic Church is not right.” And suddenly here in this new Charismatic atmosphere that I’m in, they’ve got a Catholic priest going to speak to us and my mind was kind of spinning. But so many things were coming at me that I didn’t know, I thought, “Well, maybe I just misunderstand. Maybe they’re changing. Maybe this Charismatic move that I’m in is changing the church also.” So I kind of took a neutral position, and I was listening to the man.  And suddenly somebody stood up, I remember kind of over here a little bit. And I never did see the man, but he had a booming, strong voice and began to shout out, “Don’t you people know what kind of system this man represents? It’s an antichrist system. It stands against the Word of God. And all that you believe in, he stands against.” 

And I remember the Catholic priest was just standing there, going on. And I felt so sorry for him. And I didn’t know whether to think that man was right or not right. And so, I went aware obvious of one thing - the congregation that was there was against the man who spoke out. That was obvious. But I didn’t know quite what to think. But I did feel sorry for the priest standing up there and this man booming out. But I didn’t know what to think.  And as I watched that, I remember, for the first time it began to cross my mind, “I wonder how I’ll ever know when I’ve absolutely got Truth?” Because I was already in a place where I was meeting so many people that studied the Bible but each had their own opinion. And yet, all claiming the Bible to be an absolute. And I would think, “Who am I to think that I can dig out any more Truth than they can. They’re sincere; they’re looking to God; they’re studying the same Bible I am. Who do I think I am, I can get it better than they can?” And so I was always puzzling in the back of my mind, “How can I know? How can I know?”  One of the Brothers in a Charismatic movement there, he was an Assembly of God layman. But he was very, very active in the Charismatic move, trying to encourage people out of the Baptist and wherever they would come from to gather to these home meetings and learn about the baptism of the Holy and gifts of the Spirit. And he was really, really a fine man. And he had a right motive and objective, as far as he understood everything. And we were living now in San Jose, California. And Brother Branham had been there speaking at the fairgrounds, out there, sometime. I don’t remember the date now. But, anyway, he had been there and recorded Brother Branham while he was there on a sermon. And one night he said, “Brother Lonnie, you seem to appreciate the supernatural of God. You’ll enjoy this.” And he gave me that tape.  And I can remember Brother Branham was preaching along… And I’ve never been able to find the tape. And I’ve often wondered if that man got a tape that… Because I’ve listened to all the San Jose tapes, but what I heard, I can’t find. But, anyway, Brother Branham was preaching along and all of a sudden he just paused, and he said, “The Spirit of the Lord’s on me, let’s pray.” And he prayed and then he broke into discernment. And I remember I started crying, just crying uncontrollably, that, “Oh, that God can use a man like this.” But on the other side of me was “I wonder how he does it? I’d like to do it too,” cause I wanted to be spiritual too. And so there was a double-sided thing. But the main thing was, I wondered, “What makes this guy different? I’ve never heard anybody like this. I’ve never seen this done, heard this done like this before.” But on the other side was “I wonder how he does it?” because I wanted something for me too. 

I went to a Charismatic meeting one night and there was there… This meeting was primarily centered in this particular home, because the lady that was there, she was known to have a gift of prophecy and sometimes saw visions. And I remember in the evening there, she told me… It was my first time I’d ever been there. And she said, “I see, Lonnie, that you’re going to serve God.” And she said, “I see a large wagon wheel.” And she said, “You’re standing in the hub with a briefcase in your hand.” And she said, “You go out this spoke and you come back to the hub. And then you go out that spoke and you come back to the hub.” She said, “You’re going to have a traveling ministry.” And I had quit the Air Force because I didn’t want to travel. And I thought, “Oh, no.”  In all of this, other than those times when we were in the real blessing of God, I felt I was barely living, because I felt so torn and shredded inside of what was going on in my life. I thought about suicide. Why? Because I wanted some escape to get away from this thing. I never attempted anything, but it crossed my mind, “I can’t take this hurt, this pain. It’s just ripping me to shreds.” My only consolation was is that somebody would remind me once in awhile, “God won’t put on you anymore than you can bear.” And I thought, “Well, I think I can’t bear it, but apparently He thinks I can.” So it was little bit, not much, but a little bit of consolation. In attempting to fill my void that was taking place at that time, without a wife in my life and my kids taken away from me, I went out and spent some more money. And you can guess what it was on from my testimony the other night. And that was what it was. [Brother Lonnie and congregation laugh—Ed.] I was trying to fill my void, you know. I was just so hollow. So I ran out and bought that, and it was a “jump seat-type.” That’s the jump seat down at the bottom there, so that I could carry my kids in it too. And, of course, I think most of them remember that. And we used to have great fun going out in that one. But it didn’t fill the void, only just for a few days, and then, but it didn’t fill the void. But I thought it would help. One night as we were in prayer at the church, I had one of those vision things. And I saw the church we were in; it was called Saint Timothy’s Lutheran Church. Now remember, I was never a Lutheran but we were meeting there. And I saw the building of Saint Timothy’s Lutheran Church, just like I’m looking at a dollhouse, ‘cause I was up high. And it was like a little dollhouse, but it was definitely Saint Timothy’s Lutheran Church. And a hand reached down and lifted the lid off of the dollhouse and people were in there, all kind of in one group milling around and things were going on. And suddenly something like a great big meat cleaver came down, whack, right in the middle, and people were standing on both sides of the meat cleaver looking up at it, like, “What’s going on here?” And then it picked up and came down again, and one side was a smaller group and the other side was a bigger group. Came up and picked down again, and only one man was left standing on one side and all the rest of the church was on the other side. And then it picked up, and as it picked up, everybody was looking at him because he was the only one that was on the other side. And he looked around and started running out the door. And everybody was saying, “Don’t run, don’t run. We can forgive you. Don’t run.” And I remember he ran out across the parking lot and then the vision finished.  So I told Brother Linhart what I’d seen. I said, “It looks to me like there’s a split coming in the church, and there’s going to be three phases to it.” And I said, “When it all boils down, it’s going to be one man that’s the cause.” So right after that then, Brother Linhart was asked that… The deacons and trustees wanted a meeting, and they wanted him to come and sit in on the meeting. So he asked me, I was neither a deacon nor a trustee, but he asked me if I’d come in and sit in with him.  And as we sat down, one man began to testify. He said, “I am a Lutheran, and I am absolutely embarrassed at what’s going on in this church.” And he said, “People ask me, ‘Do you belong to that crazy Lutheran church over there that’s got those funny meetings on Sunday night?’” And he said, “I am so embarrassed. I am a Lutheran.” And he said, “These things that are going on, they’re not right.” And I remember he was sitting right beside me. And I opened my Bible and I moved over, kind of turned over, I said, “But, Brother, what we’re talking about is right here.” And before I could even finish, he turned his back on me. And the church constitution was laying in the middle of the table, and he said, “That’s what I’m standing on.” [Brother Lonnie knocks a few times on the pulpit—Ed.] And I thought, “How can a man stand on a church constitution instead of the Word of God.” So, anyway, we had the meeting. And then they reported our meeting to the church authorities. And so, we had a call then, I say, “we” because again Brother Linhart invited me to go with him. There was a Lutheran association called “Lutheran Ministerial Association of the Greater Santa Clara Valley of California.” And that was all down, just below San Francisco and all around San Jose, Santa Clara, and all that. All the Lutheran ministers had their association. He asked me to go with him.  And they were very polite and nice. And they said, you know, “What is this we’re hearing about Divine healing and gifts of the Spirit in your church?” So we went through the Scriptures. And they said, “Yeah, yeah, it’s Scripture, but it’s not Lutheran.” And I said, “Doesn’t the Lutheran church stand on the whole Bible?” They said, “Yeah, we do, but we have our emphasis.” And he said, “What you’re emphasizing is more Pentecostal.” And he said, “We’re not Pentecostal; we’re Lutheran.”  So we went into the fact that, he said, “What about this Divine healing thing?” And so we went through the Scriptures. “It’s a promise of God.” And one of the ministers spoke up, he said, “You know,” he said, “I appreciate that, but,” he said, “what if I preach Divine healing in my church, and then I pray for the people and they don’t get well?” Said, “What, what am I going to tell them?” I said, “The responsibility is not yours. Your responsibility is ‘preach the Word.’ The responsibility is God’s on the other part.” He said, “No, I can’t do that.” He said, “If they don’t get healed, I wouldn’t know what to say.” And I walked out again saying, “What is this? Here’s that one group’s going to stand on the church constitution, and the other one, ‘Well, we’re Lutherans.’” And I thought, “I don’t understand what’s going on here. I thought Christians believed the Bible.” I couldn’t understand. 

So then not long after that, there was again a meeting called by the church board, and they want to now have a meeting including the whole church. And they want to talk about “what’s going on in this Lutheran church.” So Brother Linhart says, “Okay, you want to have that meeting; we’ll do it.”  So our little prayer group got together, and the question was, Brother Linhart says, “I don’t mind having the meeting. God’s in control of all things. But what I am to do? How am I to act? Am I to defend myself with the Scriptures? What am I to do?” So we went into prayer. And all of a sudden out of my mouth came, “Exodus 14:14 is your answer.” And he said, “What’s that?” I said, “I haven’t the slightest idea.” [Congregation laughs—Ed.] And so we turned to Exodus 14:14. (Let me see if I’ve got it written out here. Oh yeah.) So I really stuck my neck out. So as we were opening the Bible, I was thinking, “Oh my. I hope we find something decent here. Because I really felt anointed to say it, but then when it came to the showdown, I wondered, “Was that me or somebody else?” But, anyway, Exodus 14:14, says, “The LORD shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”  And so, they called that meeting, and they asked Brother Linhart to come sit up front. And the first man stood up and he said, “We are Lutherans. We stand for what Martin Luther taught, and this man has brought thus and thus and thus into the church.” And another one stood up and he had some little penny-ante accusation. Another one stood up and he had some penny-ante accusation. Pretty soon they said, “Brother Linhart, what do you got to say?” And he said, “I have nothing.” He said, “This is your meeting; you called it, go ahead.”  And so another man, then, stood up in the back, said, “Can I say speak?” And, “Yeah, go right ahead.” He said, “I haven’t attended church here very much like I should have. But,” he said, “years ago, Brother Linhart came to my house, talked to us, encouraged us to get our family back into church.” And he said, “I saw nothing in that man but godliness,” and he said, “his encouragement to draw us close to Christ.” And he said, “The fact that I haven’t been here is my fault, not his.” He said, he’s encouraged. And he said, “All these things you say about him that ‘he’s not right,’” he said, “I just want to take the other side and say, ‘I believe he is right.’” And when that man said that, then about three more jumped up and said, “Me too, that’s the same way I feel.” And the whole thing began to switch around. And then pretty soon they began to say, “Who started this thing anyway?” And finally they all ended up pointing to one man, and he jumped up and ran out, just like the vision showed. 

Okay, that would have been early 1963. Now, in August of 1963… He continued on, by the way, as pastor after that. In fact, it was stronger after that because the majority had then, now, moved to stand with him. So, actually, the whole thing became stronger at that point. And then in August, Sears offered me another promotion, which would take me from California to Chicago. And I had been in terrible turmoil, like I told you, about the kids, because it seemed like every time we got together, there was so much crying and weeping when they had to go, separate again. Seriously, I really didn’t know whether it was best to be there or best to be away. ‘Course, I know those things now, but as a young man then, I didn’t know what was that. So I was kind of thinking it might be better if I just was a little further away.  And about that time Sears offered me this job, on staff position, in Chicago. I would have my secretary in my office in Chicago. And my responsibility was all the Infants’ Wear Departments in what Sears called the Eastern Territory, which was the New England states: New York, Maryland, into Washington DC (but not Virginia), New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. And Sears, at that time, had divided their company into five territories because they were the largest chain store in America, other than A&P Groceries. And they were fearful of a monopoly suit, and so they were already in position to break into five divisions if they had to. Everything was geared up for it. So I finally took the position, and they shipped me back to Chicago.  Just before leaving California, I had with somebody (I forget who now), I had played golf just three or four, five times, and I kind of enjoyed it. So when I got back to Chicago, I rented an apartment on Marine Drive that looked right down on Lincoln Park Golf Course, ‘cause I said, “I’m going to play golf.” I never played one time the whole time I was there. But, anyway, I moved there for that purpose; I was going to be close to the golf course and play golf.  And so, I shopped around a lot in Chicago till, to find a church I could be happy with. I had first attended, again, a Lutheran church, because a Charismatic Lutheran pastor I had met in California had moved to become an associate pastor in this bigger Lutheran church in Chicago. So I went there some because I knew him, but I also knew it was not my home church. So I was shopping around trying to find a church. And then, while I was shopping around, the people in that Lutheran church, they seemed to feel I had a little more depth on some things than some of them did, so they asked me to have a little Bible studies with them, which I did.  And then, I finally found a congregation I felt at home with. And they were meeting in a former wrestling arena called Marigold Arena, and it was only a couple miles from my apartment house there on Marine Drive. So it was very close for me and I liked that. The pastor’s name was Gregory. But the initiator and power behind the whole thing was a man named Hank Carlson, who was the president of the Full Gospel Business Men in Chicago. And if you listen close to Brother Branham, he talks about Hank Carlson quite often.  And I started attending there, and I also, then, got active in the Full Gospel Business Men because of the contact with him. And, of course, through this, I met many of the people who Brother Branham talked about: Brother Velmer Gardner, Brother Oral Roberts, Brother David duPlessis (Mr. Pentecost), and many others. And Mattsson-Bose, whenever he’d come back from Tanzania and show films of what was going on over there. He would always come here because that was the place where they gathered. And when Brother Branham talked about showing that film where the mother tiger or leopard, whatever, was dragging this skin and the little cub was attacking it, and you can find this, Brother Branham talking about watching that film. Well, I saw that same film that Mattsson-Bose was showing there. So now, this is now late 1963 or early ’64 (I can’t place it exactly), so Brother Branham is still alive. He never came back to that church while I was there, but his name was mentioned often and testimonies about him was mentioned often. But on one, to my knowledge, had any revelation who he was. If so, I never heard it or never heard anybody share it. And, so again, when I’d hear these testimonies, there came that question, “Why is this man so different? What makes him so different?” But I couldn’t figure it out. And nobody there had any answers either, because I would ask them every once in awhile; nobody knew.  But during this time of associating in this circle, I saw all kinds of anointed men, powerful men, powerful delivery, supernatural, casting out devils, and some of them weren’t living right at all. And I thought, “Lord, I don’t understand this. I don’t understand this.” 

Of course, “Anointed Ones at the Endtime” clears that up, but I hadn’t heard that then so I didn’t understand that. And, of course, we were fearful to say anything against an anointed man. And then they had that saying, “God will not put His Holy Spirit on an unclean vessel.” And I thought, “Well, he may be not unclean, but he’s sure not living right,” you know. And so, I was puzzling, puzzling again. So there was the question, “How can you ever know Truth?” and “How come these people that are so anointed can live so wrong?”  There was one really pretty girl in the church there that I found out most of the visiting ministers were visiting her as they came through Chicago, and she was a single woman. And I thought, “What is this? What is this?” And yet, she was in church regular. And one guy brought her up one time, I remember, up front to have the devils cast out of her. But she had a real sweet nature and nobody would believe she had a devil, ‘cause she was so sweet. And I thought, “What is this, you know? What is this?” But she was seducing preachers right and left. All these things coming, you’re getting into this thing and you’re learning things and becoming confused at the same time, because you can’t quite figure out all of these things.  A group of us used to rent buildings in a park there in Chicago, and we would invite the students from Moody Bible Institute to come over, and then we would have a preacher preach to them about the Holy Ghost and gifts of the Spirit. I didn’t minister. And I recall, after one meeting, we were all in prayer for the students to receive the Holy Ghost and I was moving among them, encourage them, and praying for them, and quoting Scriptures to them. And I remember I knelt with this one guy to pray for him. And he knelt down beside me, and he kept one leg kind of stiff out behind him as we knelt down. And I was looking down at the leg and he saw me looking at it. And he said, “Aw, just an old football injury.” He said, “I can’t bend that knee.” He said, “It’s no problem.” So we went ahead and prayed. And so, I prayed for him for the Holy Ghost, and then I said, “Lord, while you’re at it, heal this man’s knee and make it completely mobile.” And so then I went on around praying for other people. And after the prayer session was over, they brought this man up. And he was jumping on the platform, and jumping, “I’ve been healed. I’ve been healed.” And he gave a testimony about how his knee was bad and now he’s healed. And I’m sitting there thinking, “Tell them who prayed for you. Tell them who prayed for you.” [Brother Lonnie and congregation laughs—Ed.] With that attitude an anointing lifted from me that didn’t come back for months. God will not share His glory with anyone, and God was teaching me lessons, teaching me. So once I recognized what I’d done, and it took a while, I repented and then back came a Presence again.  I used to visit old folk’s home there in Chicago to try and just share the knowledge of salvation with them. And you go in, if you’ve ever been in some of these old, old, old folk’s home, it’s very discouraging. And, usually, there’s a certain smell in the place from all the incontinent people. And so, it’s not pleasant going into these places. And I walked up to one old man’s bed, and he was laying there, kind of gray color. He looked like he didn’t have too much life in him, and he was sober-faced. And so, I began to talk to him about, “Was he ready for the next life? Because, you know, you’re an old man; you’re in a place like this, and you know, you can’t live forever.” And when I said, “You can’t live forever,” he sprung up and said, “I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.” And he just went frantic. And I, “Oh, my goodness. What have I done, you know?” And I kind of eased out. I didn’t know what to do. But he just went frantic; “I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.” Because I was in that circle with Brother Hank Carlson, the president of the Full Gospel Business Men, I used to go to the Full Gospel Business meetings all around, from Aurora, and then Chicago, and all the little places, all around. So I was in contact with all these things and all these people, and seeing all this good and bad mix. And I remember I was there when the Full Gospel Business Men said that, they felt that the ministers had dropped the ball. And they were going to go over to England, and they were going to testify and start a revival in England by their testimonies. Well, I had listened to dozens of their testimonies and they were all the same: “Before I served the Lord, I had one ambulance. Now I’ve been with the Lord two years and I’ve got twelve ambulances.” Everything was prosperity, prosperity, prosperity. And that’s all I remember hearing the testimonies about, was “God’s prospered me. God’s prospered me.” And I thought, “You’re not going convert a nation with a testimony like that.” But, nevertheless, I was surprised then that when I got into Brother Branham’s Message, here’s Brother Branham rebuking the Full Gospel Business Men for getting in the pulpit. He said, “The preachers have enough trouble keeping it straight, much less you laymen getting in the pulpit,” you know. And I thought, “Amen. That’s right.” 

But, again, there again, I was thinking, “Now, what’s going on here? Have the ministers failed? Can the laymen take the job?” And then Brother Branham straightened it out.  During all of this, my steadfast hope was still that I might get back with my wife and my family. So that was a keeping power for me. I didn’t have the keeping power of the Message nor the instruction of the Message. But it was a keeping power for me from the normal male inclinations, male/female inclinations, that a man would have to do anything, because I kept wanting to get back with my wife, and kept hoping for reconciliation. And I went out with a couple single ladies in Chicago, in my mind just for female companionship, nothing more. But I soon found I couldn’t do that, because once we had done that a few times, I could see they got marriage in their eyes. And I felt it was very unfair of me to let a woman’s feelings get involved when I wasn’t planning on going any further than just friendship. So I cut off the idea of ever having women as close friends. Can you understand what I’m saying? I just cut it off, ‘cause I found it just didn’t work; so I stopped doing that. So the hope of reconciliation kept me clean until the keeping power of the Message came into my life. And there’s just no way I can thank God enough for that. 

Then in Chicago with those experiences, I can remember now the next major event. I was sitting in my apartment on Marine Drive in 1965, July 1965. And I can remember I was listening to Bill Pierce and Night Sounds. I can remember just as clear as a bell. And then suddenly, as I was sitting there, every sense in me shut off. I had no see, no hear, no feel, no nothing. And whoever I am, inside, I was suspended in the midst of nothingness, but yet, it wasn’t frightening. Hard combination, isn’t it? But this me, whoever I am; if my thoughts are 50 watts, this is 500,000 watts speaking directly to me with a clarity that I had never experienced before. And it said to me, “You’re to return to California for the work that I’ve called you to do. You will minister my Word.”  Years later, I told Brother Pearry this experience, Brother Pearry Green this experience. And he said, “Brother Lonnie, I’d recommend that you don’t tell that testimony. ‘Cause,” he said, “it sounds too much like Brother Branham’s call, and people are going to think you’re copying.” So, consequently, I’ve told it very few times. But it’s part of my testimony so I’m including it now. But it does sound that way, so I thought it was good wisdom on his part. So I never mentioned it very much. And then, now, in our circle, I’ve told you this part before, but in our circle, we were raised up under this thing of “let everything be confirmed out of the mouth of two or three witnesses.” So since God had spoken to me, the first thing was “I need to find confirmation out of the mouth of two or three witnesses.” So there was a man and a wife in the church whom I’d drawn close to, in that Lutheran church, because they were involved in most of these little Bible studies that I continued to do in the Lutheran church. And so, I went over to them. And he was home, but his wife was out with a Lutheran minister who’d been kicked out of the Lutheran church for preaching the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and they were looking for a house to make as a retreat in Chicago.  And so I told him, I said, “I just had an experience with God.” And I said, “I just thought, maybe, we could go into prayer and just see if God would speak something to kind of clarify what I believe He spoke to me. I just would like a witness.” He said, “No problem. I understand.” Said, “My wife should be back any minute.” So she came in with this Lutheran minister whom I had never met before. And we introduced each other and had a little time of small talk. And so, then I told them, I said, “I had something happen in prayer.” And I said, “I was hoping we could pray and see if God would confirm or add to what happened.” And I said, “I don’t want to tell you what it is. I don’t want to go into it at all, because I want it to be completely God if He’s going to say anything.” And they said, “Yep. We understand.”  So we all knelt down, with our knees on the floor and our hands on sofas and chairs in the room. And we prayed about fifteen minutes; nothing happened. We didn’t break through, nothing. It was just dead, dead, dead. And so, I kind of gave up and so did everybody else at about the same time. And I can remember I just raised up, turned around, and was just sitting down in the chair when that ex-Lutheran minister was almost in exactly the same position, and his eyes met mine. And he said, “What are you doing in Chicago? God wants you in California.” And then the woman says, “And be at rest, Brother Lonnie, God will open every door.” I thought, “There’s my answer. Praise God.” So I went home a happy man. I felt, “Boy, this is it.” So I went to my boss in the company the next day. And I told him, I said, “I’ve got to go back to California.” And he said, “Yeah,” he said, “you’ve done a good job for us.” He said, “That’s fine.” He said, “Let me talk to the big boss. We’ll see what we can arrange, and we’ll get you back to California.” Because God hadn’t told me, “Just go,” or “Quit Sears and go,” or “Get transferred.” That part wasn’t in my instructions, so I didn’t know what to do. And so I said, “But I need to go back to California.” And his first question was, said, “Are you going to become a preacher?” I said, “What makes you think that?” He said, “I’ve always thought you’d become a preacher.” I said, “Why would you think that?” He said, “Because you’re always talking about the Lord.” I said, “I don’t do that.” And he said, “Oh, yes, you do.” I had no idea, no idea. So he says, “I’ll tell the big boss, and we’ll work out something.” Now, remember now, my instructions were “return,” but no further instructions. Should I leave Sears? Should I transfer back? Should I go on my own? I wait and I wait because part of the confirmation was “God will open every door.” 

And so I, finally now, that was July; now we’re all the way into October. And I get a letter from that Charismatic group back in San Jose, and they say, “God is telling us, ‘You’re supposed to be out here.’ Why are you in Chicago?” I thought, “Oh, my.” So, I went back to my, no, excuse me, that wasn’t yet. Another fellow and I, who was also a staff man like I was, and he was over the Midwestern territories of the United States. And I had the Eastern territory. And we were going downstairs in the Sears building to have lunch in the cafeteria. And I can remember this very clear, also. I grabbed my tray. I set my knife, fork, and spoon on the tray and grabbed a spoon. And he was right beside me, and he’d just grabbed his tray and set it up. And suddenly Something spoke inside of me, and said, “Go outside. I want to speak to you.” And I knew what Voice it was. So I put my tray back and my silverware back, and he looked at me like, “What are you doing?” And I said, “Got to take care of something.”  And I went out and I sat down in my car in the parking lot. And this I can remember clearly, also. It was going toward winter and there was just little tiny flakes of snow falling, little tiny ones, and the wind was blowing. And I can remember they’d hit the parking lot and just kind of skip along; they weren’t even sticking. And it was just tiny little bit. And I sat down in the car, and I just said, “Lord, what is it? Why all this delay?” And the Voice kind of spoke back, all inside now, nothing to my ears, kind of spoke back inside, and said, “When I called Peter, he dropped his fishing net. When I called Matthew, he closed up his tax booth. When I called this one, he did this. When I called that one, he did that. But you’re still sitting here.” I said, “But, Lord, I thought you said ‘You’d open every door.’” He said, “I didn’t say that, that woman did.” So there was God and flesh, bang, bang. And I took them both as God, see.  So I went then to my boss again, and I said, “Hey, it’s all the way into October now and I talked to you in July. What’s happened?” He said, “Oh! I completely forgot!” He said, “I am so sorry. I totally, totally, forgot.” I don’t know how a man can forget that. But he said, “I totally forgot.” And he said, “I’ll go talk to the big boss.” And I said, “Well, if you don’t mind, can I go directly to him? ‘Cause,” I said, “I’m getting very anxious.” He said, “No, that’s fine.” He said, “I’ll call him and tell him you want to talk to him.” So I went up. And the big boss was known to be a man with a temper, and he smoked cigars. And so, I went up. And he said, “Come in. Sit down.” It was a darkened room and it had a little desk lamp, on the light. The rest of the room was kind of dark, but his face was kind of illuminated off the refection, off of the desk, almost like a movie scene. And I sat down on the other side of the desk, and I told him, I said, “It’s really on my heart, I want to get back to California.” And he said, “My,” he said, “you’ve really done a great job for us.” 

This is October, November; can’t remember which. And he says, “Give me till January,” he said, “I’ll not only get you back to California, I’ll get you a promotion.” He said, “You’ve done a good job for us.” And I said, “I’m sorry. I can’t wait till January.” And I just saw the red coming up in his face, and that cigar began to “humph” in his mouth, you know. And he says, “Okay. Find your own job.” And I said, “I’m sorry.” But I said, “I’ve been waiting for a long time. And,” I said, “some things got messed up, and I’m really anxious.” And he said, “Well, we’ll fly you out,” and he said, “you can shop the stores and see what you can find.”  So I flew into Los Angeles, which was headquarters for the West Coast. And I asked around where were there some openings? And the only opening at that moment was over a, division manager of a boy’s department up in Mountain View, which was only about 30 or 40 minutes from my original group that I had started with. And that was the only thing open. And I said, “I’ll take it.” It cut my wages exactly in half. So I took it and I went up there.  And I know in my mind, before I had gone out there looking for a job, in my mind, what I was thinking because of what God had said to me, “I’m going to go out. I’ll get myself a position either in Buena Park or in San Diego, because both of those have Bible schools nearby. And because God’s calling me, I’ve got to go to Bible school and learn how to preach. So therefore, I’ll go work at Sears, pay my way through Bible school,” that was my mind.  So I go out to California and I take this job. We can pinpoint the date of when I went back because I remember as I was driving through St. Louis, they had a huge crane and they were setting the center section of the arch in place the day that I went through. I remember as I drove by, the thing was just being settled down into place. So whatever day that was, that was when I was on my way home, sometime in December ’65.  Now I get back to this original group, and they’ve grown to about 30 people. Brother Linhart’s still the pastor in this church. And there’s a family called the “Dugals.” His daddy was Keith, momma was JoAnn, and their daughter was Laurie, they called her. Her name was Laura Snow, now, and maybe some of you’ve seen a CD that she’s put out, a singing CD. I saw it up in Canada just while I was up there. And then, Mike Yarborough and his wife were part of our group, and some of you know the Yarborough’s. And Jill, I can’t remember what her name is now, she’s the piano player in Ron Peterson’s church. And then, there was the Johnson family. Some of you know David Buckley. He was part of our group out there, also. And then, the Hokensen family; they were part of our group. 

Also, Ray Erickson’s brother, Quintin, who lives in Israel, is married to the Hokensen’s daughter. Many other names that you’d recognize, because that group kind of filtered all over and is mixed now. So in early 1966, I received a letter from a friend in Chicago with a newspaper clipping, just a little note attached that said, “Brother Branham has gone home to be with the Lord.” And I had this haunting feeling, “I’ve missed something. I’ve missed something.” And I didn’t know what it was or what was happening, and so I just had to dismiss it. But once more that question came, “He may be gone, but why was his ministry so different?” But, of course, it was only a thought; there was no answer. So now I was back as a division manager again in “boys’ wear.” And my boss, after about a month and a half, the store manager called me up, and he said, “We’ve got another opening. We can move you to another store, start you back up the ladder again.” He said, “You know too much to remain in a position like this.” So he said, “Why don’t you go and interview for that job.” I said, “Hey, appreciate that. Thank you.” And so, I went over and I interviewed for the job. Sears pays part basic pay and then you get another amount of pay for the financial volume in your department. So this was a much bigger department. My base pay would raise and my volume would raise. So I went over, took the interview, came back to the store. And as soon as I walked into my department, the gal in my department said, “Store manager wants to see you.” I went up. He said, “The other manager’s already called back.” He said, “You’ve got the job.” And I said, “Hey, great!”  So I went home that night and I had that, one more time, of everything blanking out. And God said, “I didn’t tell you to take that job. In fact, I want you to turn in your resignation, effective Easter Sunday 1966.” Now that’s God’s grace, because I was in a clothing department and they’re rushed going into Easter, and we were a little ways in front of Easter. It would have left them in a bind had I just quit. So I think that’s just God’s grace. So stay through that rush season and then turn in your thing. So now I got to go back to that same store manager and say, “Thank you for the position, but I not only can’t take it, I’m leaving the Company.” And it was a little embarrassing, to say the least, but, nevertheless, I had a great feeling because God was definitely directing me. So I went over to Brother Linhart’s to share with him what had just transpired in my life. And I said, “Boy, I’ve got some good news to share with you.” He said, “I do too.” He said, “Let me share mine first.” I said, “Okay, go for it.” He said, “I got a letter, telegram,” he says, “from Lutheran headquarters.” And he said, “It was very short: ‘We demand either a change in program or a change in pastor.’” So he said, “I wired right back and said, ‘Take a change in pastor.’” He said, “I’ve found something real that I do not want to leave.” And so he said, “I’ll resign.” And he said, “I turned in my resignation, effective Easter Sunday.” [Congregation laughs—Ed.] I said, “Hey, that’s something! I turned in my resignation, effective Easter Sunday.” I don’t remember who said it first, but we agreed, “Let’s work together until… see what God’s going to do.” And I said, “Amen. Let’s do that.” So he left the parsonage and rented a house that had a living room/dining room all as one big long room, so that it would seat quite a few people. Because when he left, almost all the Sunday school teachers, and many, and some of the deacons were part of our little Charismatic group. They were virtually the backbone of the church. So when he left, it just stripped the church. And so about 30 or 40 people left at the same time.  And right about that same time, I received a letter from Oral Robert’s University, saying, that, “We’d like for you to attend (and they named the kind of conference) attend this conference.” Said, “You’ll have to pay your way here, but we’ll take care of room and board once you get here.” Well, of course, I had all my antennas up at that time trying to think, “Okay, God, what do You want from me next? What do You want from me next?” So I thought, “Well, here’s an invitation to Oral Robert’s University. I’ll take it and let’s just see what develops.” 

So I went back to Oral Robert’s University. And we were listening to all these meetings. And it turned out about two or three people from Chicago showed up at the same meeting. And they were saying, “What’s up, Brother Lonnie? What’s going on?” So I told them what was going on in my life. And they began to go all over the place, saying, “Hey, this is Brother Lonnie. He was a big executive in Sears.” I was not, but, nevertheless, that’s what they said. “He was a big executive in Sears.” Said, “He gave it all up to serve the Lord.” “Hey, Brother, come preach for us.” “Hey, Brother, come preach for us.” And I got invitations all over the place. And I thought, “Hey, that’s wonderful.”  Then as we were sitting one night, gathering for a meeting, over the loud speaker they asked if Lonnie Jenkins would please come to the back entry. And I thought, “My goodness, out of all this crowd, why me?” So I walked back to the backdoor, and they said, “Could you come with me, please?” And we walked into an office, and they said, “Do you remember the name Gregory?” And I said, “Yeah, sure. He was pastor of the church I attended in California.” He said, “Well, he’s on the board at Oral Robert’s University.” And he said, “He heard that you had left Sears, and you got a good business background. We’re wondering if you’d be interested in being the business manager for Oral Robert’s University?” I said, “Ah, God’s called me, that’s true, but I don’t think to be a business manager for Oral Robert’s University.” So I said, “No.” They said, “Well, that’s why you’re here.” ‘Cause they said, “He told us, ‘Get him here,’ because he said, ‘If he wants to be, he’ll be a good man for you.’” And I said, “No. Thanks. Appreciate it, but no thanks.” So then, we started holding meetings in Brother Linhart’s house. And the gifts were operating quite strong in our little group there. (I’ll close in just a moment for tonight.) And as we were there one evening and the gifts were operating, I remember one of the prophecies came forth and said, “I’m going to give you a place to meet. You’ll neither buy it nor rent it.” And we thought, “Wow! What is this?” And so we just set it aside. Now it’s May of 1966, and I am taking my first service as a full-time minister. And I have no idea what I preached. And so I ministered to the people. But there were two couples, ‘cause most of these Charismatic people, I knew all of them, but there were two couples that were there that I did not know. So when I finished ministering my little message, I wanted to make it a point to get acquainted with these people. It was a family called the Mayfield’s. And it was mom and dad, and then their son and his wife. And so, I’ll give you the story, conversation, and that’ll be a good place to close.  I said, “What brings you here?” And he said, “Well,” he said, “all of our church moved to Arizona, and so we’re, just been looking for fellowship, for groups that want to go on and serve the Lord. And you guys seem to be hungry, so we thought we’d come.” And I said, “Hey, that’s great.” I said, “What on earth would cause a man, a church, to move from California to Arizona?” He said, “You ever heard of a man named William Branham?” And I said, “Yep.” He said, “Well, we believe he’s a prophet of God.” And when he said that, all the pieces of “Why was he so different? What made him the way he was?” all went “click.” And I said, “Ah! I can believe that.” And they were shocked. They said, “You can?” “Yeah.” I said, “I’ve heard enough about him, but I never heard the term “prophet” attached to his name.” I said, “By the way, since he was a prophet, I’m sure He taught the Word.” And so I said, “Did he baptize in any particular way?” ‘Cause God was dealing with me in the Scriptures about water baptism. And he said, “Oh, yeah,” he said, “he sure did - In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” And God had been trying to show me “In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”  And here was my thinking, I thought, “Man, if it were left up to me, I’d be baptizing people in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, but all these churches baptize in the Name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. I guess you have to go to seminary to understand these things.” That was what my thinking was. And so, when he said, “Yes, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ,” I rejoiced, ‘cause I knew it was God that was trying to teach me. And that was such a big blessing for me.  And I said, “But you still haven’t answered the question, “Why is the whole church moving to Arizona?” And he said, “Well, Brother Branham said, ‘As a result of an earthquake, California’s going to sink. And if you’ve got any loved ones, get them out of here.’” And so, when he said that, all the rest of the group was listening in to our conversation. And when he said that, there was a ripple of “Amen, hallelujah, across the people.” And he said, “Wow!” He said, “That’s an unusual reaction for the ‘California’s going to sink.’” I said, “No.” I said, “We’ve had two dreams and one prophecy that California was going to sink, but we didn’t know what to do.” And I said, “Now you’ve given us the answer; ‘Get out!’” A simple answer, but we didn’t think of it. [Brother Lonnie and congregation laugh—Ed.]  And so, he said, “Hey, that’s great.” 

And so, he came back the very next meeting. And by the way, his church was the church of Brother Doug McHughes, out in Arizona. And all the rest of the church had moved except him; he couldn’t sell his house. And so, he said, “By the way,” he said, “I called my pastor.” And he said, “We’ve vacated the church.” And he said, “Until it sells, it’s yours. Use it.” He said, “Help yourself.” Well, there it was, “You’ll neither buy nor rent, but I’ll give you a church.” See? And so we started meeting in his church. And all of a sudden more people came, just boom. And so, when we started meeting there in the church… Well, I’ll stop there and then we’ll pick it up and continue on from there. Amen. It just goes on and on and on, God’s goodness. Amen. [A Brother comments to Brother Lonnie. He replies, “That’s you, but maybe not some of the others”—Ed.] Let’s pray. [“Yeah. No.”]  Lord Jesus, we love You so much. And God, when you rehearse these things, it just reminds, you know, how much You were in a person’s life. And I know very well that You deal with all Your children. And so I’m sure that many of them are rehearsing in their own minds similar incidences where Your grace, Lord, carried them through this or through that. And so, although it’s my testimony, I’m sure it’s reminders to many, many people. And God, it’s Your grace and Your mercy that started it, and praise God, You said You’d finish it. So, Lord, with a testimony, anything in Glory about it, it’s for Your glory. And the mistakes, they’re all mine, Lord. But I’d appreciate it, put all the mistakes under the Blood.  Lord, we love You. Our lives are committed to You. And we’ll gather again and hear Brother Jason this weekend, and then next Wednesday I’ll continue on with the testimony. We love You, Lord. In Jesus’ Name. Amen. [Brother Lonnie and congregation sing—Ed]

SOURCE: http://believersfellowship.co.uk/bro_lonnie_pt2.htm