Difference between Anabaptists and Evangelicals
Mysteries of the Kingdom of God
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The Writings of Ulrich Stadler
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Learning to be a disciple of Jesus
Don Murphy
Don was born in 1937 in Minnesota into a Roman Catholic family of 12 children,
attended Catholic grade school, three years at the Northwest School of
Agriculture of the University of Minnesota, and four years in the US Air Force
as an intelligence analyst in Japan. Upon discharge Don taught English in
Tokyo, Japan, where he married a secretary at the school, a wonderful Japanese
woman named Michiko Koyama, whose father and grandfather were Christian
ministers. They raised five children and also cared for about two dozen foster
children after their own children were grown. Don has attended five colleges
(mostly night school), five technical schools (a couple weeks to six months) and
has studied seven languages, and once had a bit of proficiency in three
(English, Japanese and Spanish).
Don worked two years as a police officer in Grand Forks, ND, after
returning from Japan with his bride, and then as a electronics technician and
later as a field engineer (electronics) for the Bendix Field Engineering
Corporation on the NASA space program in Minnesota, Ecuador, Maryland, and in
Antigua W.I. where he was the telemetry engineer for the first moon landing. He
was a computer software engineer for Bendix in Maryland and Florida and for
Boeing Computer Services in Seattle. He worked overseas in three different
countries for over eight years.
Born Again!
During this time Don was a good Irish Catholic but not really a
Christian. In 1974 his wife Michiko was born again. She tried to lead Don to
the Lord but he thought that since he was a Catholic, he didn’t need that sort
of thing. However the Lord had other plans, He wanted to help Don come out of
the kingdom of the world, which is ruled by Satan, and into the kingdom of God,
which is ruled by Jesus Christ.
The Lord caused Don to be born again while in a hospital in Seattle
with an injured back in 1975 at the age of 38 when a charismatic Catholic
co-worker, Ray Moshofsky, helped Don to open his heart to allow the Lord Jesus
to come in. Everything became new to Don and he was continually blessed by the
sense of the love of God and the beauty of His creation. It was a wonderful
experience. Don and Michi began attending the local charismatic Catholic
meetings and a weekly Bible study where Don began reading the Bible for the
first time. He was amazed at the lifestyle taught by the Lord Jesus Christ and
lived by the early church and wondered why we were not living as taught by
Jesus.
Baptized in the Holy Spirit!
The Catholic charismatic group held a Life in the Spirit seminar in the
fall of 1975 where Don received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. He was open to
that teaching but it did not impact him until a couple weeks later when, during
the prayer time at a lunch time Bible study at Boeing, he unexpectedly received
a supernatural experience along with the Gift of Praying in Tongues as described
in Acts 1:8, 2:4, 10:46, 19:6, and I Cor 14:2, 4, 14. As they were praying
quietly Don suddenly felt that he had water in his stomach and that it was
coming up within him; it felt like he was choking. Then it changed into a
wonderful feeling and these words came to him: “Out of your innermost being will
flow rivers of living waters.” (John 7:38) He then began to pray in an unknown
language, exactly as described in the Bible. This wonderful prayer language has
been a tremendous blessing to him ever since.
With this Baptism in the Holy Spirit Don come to have such experiences
as an overflowing fullness of the Spirit (John 7:37-39, Acts 4:8), a deepened
reverence for God (Acts 2:43, Hebrews 12:28), an intensified consecration to God
and dedication to His work, (Acts 2:42), a broader advantage in prayer (Rom
8:26, I Cor 14:2, 4), and a more active love for Christ, for His Word and for
the lost (Mark 16:20).
Miraculous Healing!
The Lord God healed Don’s injured back in 1977 when an Assembly of God
minister prayed for him at a World MAP Bible camp meeting. Don had suffered
quite a bit of serious back pain for those two years but since then it has been
strong and healthy, thanks be to God. The doctor was considering an operation
to fuse Don’s spine when the Lord God miraculously and instantly healed him when
that minister laid hands on him and prayed for him.
Don was freed from the bondage of the Roman Catholic church in 1978
while in an Assembly of God meeting, praising God in song with up-lifted hands.
A heavy weight was suddenly lifted off of his shoulders and he knew immediately
that it was the Roman Catholic bondage which he was so used to that he did not
realize it was there.
Don then joined a large Pentecostal church, Faith Tabernacle in Kent,
WA, which had six pastors, and he eventually became one of the directors. He
also attended and organized daily lunch time Bible studies where he worked at
Boeing in Seattle.
In 1979 Don spent two weeks as a 'missionary' for the Full Gospel
Businessmen's Fellowship (FGBMFI) in Honduras, speaking in different churches
each night and witnessing many miracles of healings.
Don and his family began hosting a weekly meeting in their home in 1979
and had 25-40 people present on Friday nights for prayer, worship, Bible study
and fellowship.
One day in 1982 again while in an assembly praising God in song with
up-lifted hands, Don heard the Lord speak to him, telling him to become a ‘full
time Christian’. He was a bit shocked as he thought that he was doing pretty
good, being a church leader and all. This led him to begin studying the
lifestyle of the early church and learned that they were baptized in the Holy
Spirit pacifists who lived in community with all things in common. Since they
were taught by the apostles who were taught by the Lord Jesus and by his Holy
Spirit, Don realized that this was the lifestyle of a ‘full time Christian’.
Brotherly community is the highest command of love.
"Rejoice in the Lord always" (Phil 4:4)
(This page was last updated on 01/09/08).