New Age Testimony

by Lynda Allison Doty

My soul’s longing for spiritual things led me through many years of searching for the thing that would heal the emptiness, that would fill the void that I have since come to realize only God can fill.

When God created us, He placed a void within us that only He can fill. The sooner we come to understand that, and accept it, the fewer will be our wasted years, and the sooner we will be received into the Kingdom, rejoicing!

Getting my masters and being accepted into a doctoral program clear across the country, my children and I set out for California. There I continued my search and finally drifted into the New Age movement. I was inducted into the New Age by a friend and colleague, Lorain (name changed), who trained me to be a channeler. As I channeled, Lorain was always present to monitor and record the session.

After a year as a channeler, God’s hand somehow brought me to the end of myself. We had all relocated to the Mt. Shasta area in northern California, and I was deeply involved in channeling the instructions for building a new age Center—a training center to train future new age leaders. The goal we were working for was a “New World Order.” The New Age is composed of many different networks and levels. That’s why it’s so difficult sometimes to define this movement—what’s “new age” and what is not? Loraine and I communicated with the “Ascended Masters”—entities that had supposedly achieved perfection and had gone on to the “other side.” From there, they rule and control the affairs of men. We were told many of the things that would come to pass in this world, and I can see their fulfillment in almost every daily newspaper.

These entities ruled our lives, from what we ate to where we lived and our daily routines. We could do nothing without their approval, and they could be very hard taskmasters. On the plus side—we were made to feel special, enlightened, and a part of the inner circle of those controlling world events. I have since come to understand that these entities are actually demons—and I have also come to know the One who is in control of all events!
I look back over those days and cannot believe how utterly blind and stupid I was. Those who are seduced into the New Age are people, like me, who are hungering for something spiritual…longing to make the world a better place…yearning to contribute to the good of others. That is the only thing I can say to explain my involvement.

However, somewhere along the line, Jesus Christ stepped in to intervene. He had hovered on the sidelines of my life since my early days of Sunday school. It was then that I had fallen in love with this wonderful Jesus—the One who received little children such as I—lonely little children who could find no real place in life.
“Behold I stand at the door and knock,” He seemed to say to me over and over throughout the years. “If you hear my voice, will you open the door? I will come in to you, and will sup with you, and you with me.” It pains me that I waited so long to answer the door! All the wasted years I spent running from church to church and person to person—activity to activity, university degree to university degree. My wheels were constantly spinning with activity to try to fill that awful void deep inside of me—that void that only He can fill!

How many of our days are consumed with running from Him! Even as Christians, we spend fruitless hours wandering around the mall …shopping, running up bills ….renovating the house …eating and drinking …visiting …pursuing one fancy after another. When will we stop the chase and surrender to the One who waits so patiently for us? When will we cease the flight and settle down long enough to hear what He has to tell us? When will we discover the delights of sweet communion with the Lover of our souls?

Lorain and I were invited to an interview on a radio show in northern California. Sometime during that half-hour, the subject of Jesus Christ came up. I stated that yes, I believed in Jesus Christ. The moderator blinked, looked me straight in the eye and asked, “Are you saying, then, that you consider yourself a Christian?”
I also blinked, because I had not even thought of it. I suppose somewhere in the back of my mind, I had always considered myself a “Christian” because I had gone to church as a child. I believed in Jesus. For years, I could be found at our local church anytime something was going on—choir practice, Baptist Training Union, prayer meetings—always into the Word of God. After a brief silence, I answered the moderator, “Yes, I do.”
Lorain gasped. The moderator chuckled. “How is it,” he asked, “that you can reconcile what you are doing at Mt. Shasta with being a Christian? To me, they seem opposed to each other.”
At this point Lorain broke into the conversation. “She doesn’t really mean what you think she does,” my friend said. “She is not a Christian. And as for believing in Jesus Christ, she knows He is just a myth.”

“Is that true?”

I felt my face flush and wished the floor would open up and swallow me. Up to this point, this had been a very successful interview. Tremendous confusion flooded over me. Lorain and I had never discussed Jesus, but, on some level, I think I would have guessed how she felt—how all of the people I worked with felt. They believed in “the god within.” To go to the side of Jesus would alienate them all from me. I knew instinctively I would lose my place and my position. These were the only friends I had.

Yet, visions of Jesus and the little girl I was flowed into my mind—the One who did not reject me…the One who welcomed me…the One who admonished the grown-ups to “suffer the little children to come unto me.” Memories of talking with Jesus in the backyard garden…memories of His comfort when a beloved pet died…walks with Him in the nearby woods…memories of the love He had given me when others were cold and too busy.

And now it appeared I was being asked to deny this wonderful Jesus. Something in me rose up and I experienced a sudden and fierce loyalty. “That is not true!” I said, looking at them both. “Jesus Christ is real, He is not a myth, and I will never say otherwise.”

After that day, the pressure was on from all levels to deny Jesus Christ. I could not. The hard taskmasters became even harder. The ordeal that followed is another whole story in itself and does not belong here. Suffice it to say that I am grateful with my whole heart that I did not deny my Lord! I am so thankful for His patience and longsuffering and understanding! I am so thankful that He cared too much to leave me in the miry clay I had sunk myself into! Oh thank God for God!

The day that I had feared came rapidly and I found myself alone in the midst of enemies who once were “friends.” I had lost everything. I would spend the nights in rest areas along I-5, crying out to God in the back of my little station wagon. I spent hour after hour in the all-night coffee shops writing in my journal, pouring out my heart. What was happening was that, I was repenting. I spent a whole week repenting, although I did not know the word for it. Finally, I felt cleansed and the awful heaviness began to lift.

The following Saturday brought in a beautiful spring day of sunshine and gentle breezes. Lighthearted and joyful, I loaded my children in the car and we took off for Willow Creek to spend the day in the wilderness. Upon our arrival, the kids took off for the creek. After warning them to be careful, I took a seat on a nearby tree trunk. Giant trees hovered all around. We were indeed lost in the heart of the wilderness. The forest was quiet and peaceful and every now and then I’d hear giggles drifting up from the creek. I was so satisfied, so content. So clean!

I lifted my eyes to the sky and spotted limbs above me, swaying gently in the breeze. The foliage shivered slightly to let the sun shine through. A breeze caressed my cheek and the love of Jesus overwhelmed me. I expressed to Him this new feeling of cleanliness—the love for Him rekindled after so many sin-drenched years. And as I sat there loving Him, and Him loving me…I raised my hands and began to speak in another language. God, in His mercy and pity, had filled me with the Holy Ghost.

I had never heard of lifting hands to worship, but I became lost in the Spirit and praised Him louder and louder. The kids came running to see what was wrong. They told me later that they saw me sitting there in the middle of the forest, my arms raised, and speaking in another language. Thinking I was in some kind of trance, they tried to reach me to shake me out of it. As they got to within about five feet, they encountered an invisible shield—a wall of some kind they could not see but that would not allow them to come any nearer. Although it frightened them somewhat, the sweet Presence of Jesus Christ the living God was there filling the forest. His presence can still the raging sea and calm our harshest fears. Jesus Christ, right on time!

For a week after that, I went everywhere telling others how wonderful I felt. I loved everybody and everything! (Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth) For the first time ever, I loved life! Over and over I would try to explain, “I’m drunk with it!” No one could understand, and were thinking I had gone off the deep end for sure. They had no time for what they considered nonsense. Besides that, I had become a traitor to be disposed of, and an embarrassment to everybody involved.

This is perhaps an unusual way of receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost. I know we can receive Him anywhere, any time. It does not have to be in a church building. It can be on our bedroom floor, in the car, or on a tree stump in the middle of the wilderness. God’s arm is not shortened that it cannot save. No one is out of the reach of God, anywhere, anytime. The mother with the daughter you have not seen in over ten years—you don’t know where she is or what she is doing—but God does! And she is not out of the reach of prayer. Prayer can reach into the deepest depths of anywhere. Keep praying, mother!

I received the Holy Ghost without knowing that there was any such thing. I believe that God had to do it that way with me in order to extricate me from the deep pit of sin I was in. I had to have the power to lead me out of the awful wilderness of delusion and sin. John 14:26 tells me, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

The kids and I bought a Bible, and they would read while I drove. We began to have an appetite for the Word of God. We began to read about the baptism of the Holy Ghost and I felt a strong desire well up in me for this gift! Not knowing I had already received it, I began to seek it. God led me to the place where I could hear Truth taught. God led me to the place where I would hear about burial in water in the saving Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. And God led all three us—lonely, ignorant pilgrims—into the fullness of His Glory.

What a day it was to see my children baptized and filled with the Holy Ghost! What a joy, what a privilege! The years of alcoholism and a bitter marriage brought untold sorrow upon my children. Many were the nights I wept into the pillow for the pain I caused in their lives…the neglect, the emotional hurt. But this one thing I can say: With the help of the Lord, I led my children into Truth. If I never gave them any other gift, this one is the most priceless of all. God be praised!

Jesus is God, we can put our trust in Him!

Excerpt from Sister Doty's book, WALKING IN TRUST.

God bless you,
Your friend,
Lynda Allison Doty
www.apostolic.net/awomansplace
www.upci.org/hm/evangelists

Home