My Testimony
My name is Rich Arnold. I will be 81 years old this June. I am a retired teacher, school principal, counselor, and special education director having started two Christian schools in Minnesota. I lived the first twenty-nine years of my life without any contact with the reality of the spiritual dimension. My parents hardly attended church nor were they interested in anything involving the Bible, God, or spiritual things. They were good and upright people without God in their lives. Essentially, I was raised without any influence of the spiritual upon my life. I lived a secular life all through elementary, middle high school, college, and the first three years as a teacher in public schools.
It was not until I was working on my master’s degree at the University of North Dakota that my life started to deteriorate quickly and I found myself smoking “weed” and running around with a bunch of atheists on the university campus and doing other things that a lost soul would do without Christ and a biblical foundation. After receiving my degree, I accepted a public school principal position in a small school district in northern Minnesota. The first day I moved into the community, I found myself walking by a large Lutheran Church and felt that I should go inside and ask for help. The secretary indicated that the pastor was at the golf course playing golf with his two sons. I asked her where the golf course was located. After giving me directions, I went to the golf course and saw a man and two boys coming off the 18th green. I went up to the man and asked if he was Pastor Lindgren. He acknowledged he was Pastor Lindgren and asked if I could talk with him. We drove back to the church, and he met with me for about an hour, listening to my life story, my take on life, and how I was reaching a point of nothingness and experiencing no purpose in life. He did a lot of listening and when I finally quit talking his only comment was that I needed Jesus!
So, he shared with me the four spiritual laws (1 - Acknowledge your sinner, 2 - Confess your sins, 3 - Ask for forgiveness, and 4 - Accept and receive Jesus Christ into your heart). This was all Greek to me, but something was telling me that this was the truth he was sharing with me. I told him that I would think about this and come back in a week. During the week, Pastor Lindgren would call me and ask how I was doing and even invited me to his home for dinner. He was a true shepherd tending to a lost soul that would eventually come into the kingdom of God. This man had a shepherd’s heart and was genuinely concerned about my spiritual welfare. He and his wife extended themselves to me and the Lord used them to usher me into a salvation experience.
One week later, on a Friday night, I told Pastor Lindgren that since I had tried a lot of the negative things that life had to offer, I might as well try to see if there really was a God who could rescue me from the mess my life was in.
So, I knelt down with Pastor Lindgren and prayed the sinner’s prayer. Nothing happened in terms of bells or whistles. But I truly did mean what I prayed because I was at the “bottom of life.” If God was in this, then for sure I needed Him to come and do something in my life to set me free from the inner turmoil, distress, and thoughts of suicide.
The next morning (Saturday), I got up, put on my running shoes, and left my apartment to start running in the brisk, cool, and clear air of northern Minnesota. As I was running, I said to myself while I looked into the clear blue sky, “My, I have never seen a blue sky like this before.” As I ran a little further, I noticed how green the grass was. Again, I said to myself, “My, I have never seen green grass like this.” The further I ran, I began to feel light as a feather as if a ton of bricks were taken off my back. As soon as I got back to my apartment, I called Pastor Lindgren and told him what I was experiencing. I said, “Pastor, what is happening to me?” He said, “Rich you have been “born again,” I responded, “Is that what they call it.” He said, “That is what the Bible calls it.”
From that moment on life looked different and felt different. During my one-year tenure in this little community as a principal of K-12 country schools, Pastor Lindgren and Pastor Carlson, the other Lutheran Pastor, took me under their wing and discipled me as a shepherd tends his sheep. It was truly God’s provision for me that through these loving pastors and their families His grace and truth took hold of my inner man and the transformation began. A week later, Pastor Lindgren said, “Rich, I need to tell you that the Lord has something else for you.” I said, “What is it.” He said, “I want you to read the Book of Acts and notice the Baptism in the Holy Spirit with evidence of speaking in tongues.” By this time, He had given me a Bible and I was familiarizing myself with the different books in the Bible. I thought, well if this is also for me, I want this too. I want everything God has for me!
So, two weeks later, Pastor Lindgen and a lady prayed for me again and I received the second experience with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Water baptism via immersion followed. Those two experiences were more than forty years ago. Since then, I have been an educator in public schools until I had a great affliction in my life a few years ago. The day after the affliction, I picked up my Bible and for some reason turned to Numbers 11:1 which reads,
Now the people became like those who complain of adversity in the hearing of the Lord; and when the Lord heard it, His anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. I heard the Lord say to me, “This affliction that has come into your life is of my hand, and I do not want to hear you complain about it. I want you to begin to seriously seek me by being in My Word and in prayer. Two weeks after the Lord spoke this word, I woke one night from a dream where I heard the audible voice of the Lord say to me, “I have come to consume all of your heart. I have come to consume all of your heart. I have come to consume all of your heart.”
A week later, I awoke from a second dream from the Lord and recalled seeing in my dream a flashing neon sign that read, O.B.E.D.I.E.N.C.E.
After these two dreams, I began spending hours in His word and deep and intensive prayer and worship of Him. As I read, pondered, and digested His word, He would say to me: “Now go to your computer and begin to transcribe what I am giving to you.”
I would start keyboarding His revelations which would come like water coming out of a facet. I would write and write and write and still am writing as He imparts His word behind His word to my spirit, heart, and mind. The more I would seek Him, the flow of His thoughts would increase and become diverse in terms of oracle writing, prophetic poetry, dreams, short nuggets of revelations, prophetic utterances, words of knowledge, etc. He has literally poured into me over 30,000 thousand pages of revelation and it continues to this day. I write several hours a day and have been doing this for the last few years.
I ask Him, “Lord what do you want me to do with all of this? All that you have given me is yours and it is not mine. I am only the scribe and voice of your messages.” He says to me, “I want you to go and testify of Me to everyone you meet. I will open the doors and shut the doors where I want you to go and proclaim the Words, I have imparted to you. Remain faithful and cherish the small things I will bring to you for My Will for you is in the small things – the things which others think are insignificant.
I submit to you two prophetic words the Lord first spoke to me 15 years ago. I believe they will encourage you and those who love Him with all their hearts. These prophetic words are instructive, directional, encouraging, exhorting, and healing. They are to me, and I hope they are to you.
“Your Life is in My Hands!” I hear the Lord say to me, Son, do not think I do not love you when you experience the things which cause you to question me. For the things I have chosen for you to walk through are to clean you up, polish you, and get you ready to meet My Son who is soon to come. I will not let you go down a path of walking away from me for I have invested too much in you at this point in time to be My servant. As long as you keep listening and responding to My hand of grace and favor, I will continue to see you through these dark and gloomy times which man has brought and is bringing upon the earth. You do not have to fear or be concerned of the things happening to you for they are all of My hand for I know what you need and how to bring the right amount of mixture of grace and discipline to you. I am your Father who loves you immensely and want you to know that your years of serving Me are not over yet. There is much more I have for you to do for many are crying out to hear and see those who walk in the gospel light and speak Truth. You have much to tell and proclaim for the things you say and write are from My revelations to your mind and heart. All that I give you is not just going to be tucked away in some dark corner but will reach all those I have appointed to hear the words I give you.
You have been chosen and raised up at this time and at this late hour to be My servant to serve. What your eyes see, what your heart desires, and what you think and do will determine your usefulness to Me. Be careful and walk in My Light for I say to you….Narrow is the road to walk on and narrow is the gate to go through. But wide is the road and wide is the gate and many walk this road by neglecting Me and My commandments. Your life is in My hands and as long as you walk this narrow road of righteousness and go through the narrow gate of mercy and favor, you will reach the destination I have plotted for you before you were even born. Keep on learning through the many ways I am teaching you for all your preparations are for teaching, warning, exhorting, and encouraging others to also walk the narrow road and enter the kingdom through the narrow gate as well as getting you ready to stand before My Son who will speak to you at that appointed time.
All that we are called to do, is to prepare us to meet God’s Son – the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us not forget this!