My testimony, how it started
In my journey as a believer I have always had a hunger for Spiritual knowledge. It was imparted to me during an encounter I had with the Lord while standing on a sidewalk in Van Nuys Ca in 1987. I was 26 years old and a top ranked professional kickboxer.
(you can see my martial arts history on my training website; www.mongoosefightsystem.com I was standing outside across the street from the then world famous Benny "The Jet" Urquidez martial arts academy. Pictured right after it was closed. The Lord just revealed Himself to me in what I call the "out of the clear blue sky experience" I was standing there just daydreaming about my empty life when I began to feel a presence shining down from above the horizon. It was like the heavens were opened and billows of divine love poured over me as the father made His presence known. I was overwhelmed as I wept and wept right there on the sidewalk. As His presence was revealed it came with a deep sense of purpose and destiny but of which I new little about. I had never read the bible or even really heard what the Gospel was about. But this encounter changed everything and now I knew God was real. I just had no grid or theology to explain what had happened or what I should do about it. I remember as a youth that I had a handful of people talk about God to me. One was an admitted homosexual. He explained Gods intense love that he experienced and that he knew homosexuality was wrong and he was wrestling with it. Another time I had a run in with some emotional Christians who wanted me to join them in their strange excitement. I did not share in their enthusiasm but acted like I was saved just to get them off my back. Perhaps if someone had given me a bible and explained the Gospel to me more clearly, I would have responded to it as being the truth that it is.
When I was a 6 or 7 years old, I went to the 1st Congregational Church in Los Angeles as a grade school student and remember vaguely something about believing in God.
A few months after the sidewalk encounter I was at a rustic outdoor camp and I heard some church bells ringing. I knew that was where people worship God and wanted to attend. I told a young guy who was there I wanted to go with them and he asked me if I knew about Jesus. I said I didn't but that I was willing to learn.
He gave me a new testament and I started at the beginning in Matthew. When I got to Matthew 5:3 the sermon on the mount, "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven..." I was delighted in the graceful words of Christ. I thought really? Is that what you think of the poor, the meek, merciful, mournful etc? This was the first description in the Gospel of the kind of qualities that the people who would inherit the Kingdom of God had.
They will see the kingdom of God, inherit the earth, be called the children of God. I thought wow; no wonder all the fuss over this Jesus character, look what he said! I was astonished! I wish someone had shown me or explained this to me before! I believe if someone had shown me the way as a younger person I would have had a much better start at life while growing up.
Fast forward to around 2006. Part of my identity and calling was revealed to me by a prophetess (Lola Rondue) when she told me that I was a watchman. I didn’t really understand what that meant. I had been a believer since 1987 living a relatively isolated lifestyle silently pacing the walls of the church for the previous 19 years just observing and processing all that I was seeing and experiencing.
I had attended a number of different churches and denominations over the years and had really just been a curious observer often wanting to be more involved in ministry but just not really being able to find my ministry nitch. I had a sense that there was something bigger the Lord had for me that was down the road at some future time. I was not content with just trying to fit in with what everyone else was doing, all though I did like engaging people in spiritual conversation / evangelism and seeing people get saved. I was really drawn to prophecy and prophetic revelation even though I didn’t seem to have the kinds of prophetic gifts that I had observed many others had. I really felt I had a calling to serve but was not able to define my purpose clearly. (I have since learned that this was part of the deliberate design of God concerning my personality and the redemptive gift of Mercy)
Recently I realized that several months before the sidewalk incident, something was started in London England 6 months or so earlier. We were sightseeing in London and went into Saint Paul's cathedral. I did what people do when they visit there. The picture on the left is a pedestal full of sand for placing prayer candles. I didn't really know who God was but I did an act of faith and lit a candle. Apparently God honored it because He introduced Himself to me several months later on the sidewalk... The picture below right is from around that time with a championship belt at the Jet Center. https://www.facebook.com/groups/bennysjetcenter/