The Lord spoke to Elisabeth after communion on October 4 2007 saying (relevant sections only):

". . . I have a surprise now for you Niko. How many times have you seen yourself on a plane heading for Hong Kong? (Niko says, “Oh my gosh, lots.”) But MY son it wasn’t always Hong Kong. I send you now to write the brother that you shall meet in Taiwan. . . . For he knows he is to be part of this ministry and his testimony will be posted as proof that you have reached Taiwan for ME. . . . And I went all the way to Taiwan by MY SPIRIT to touch his heart. . . .”

So here it is; worth the wait I hope.

I was born in Liverpool, the elder of two brothers, in 1958. My dad and most of his nine brothers had served in the war, which made me part of an intriguing family. As one of the youngest, my dad was not as old as some of my cousins, one of whom died as a spitfire pilot. One other was an Olympic skater. My dad got by on less than the basics growing up and always let me know how good I had it, reminding me often of how he’d spend hours collecting bottle caps from the street to raise the 2½d (old UK currency) for a cinema ticket—not to mention how with 16 in the house they’d slept several to a bed, sideways with feet sticking out. But even now, consumerism was a blip on the radar, and I was easily enough content. It was a great time to be the one in short pants (except in 1963).

In school, there was strict discipline, and the one-hour assemblies gave the days a great start and reflected the Christian values in the system. Some teachers were really good story tellers, and could keep us riveted no end with the book of Daniel.

In this environment I was able to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit, and especially at times like Harvest Festival. I remember a morning break at age six: I was looking at the nature and experienced a moment of special awareness when I knew inside that there just has to be a creator.

My parents were not church-goers, despite there being several churches in the area. These would compete on Sunday mornings to see whose bells were loudest, and made me feel I was missing something.

As that decade wore on, it became evident that society was in the midst of significant change. The counterculture was gaining momentum, and established values were against the ropes—and Vietnam was adding fuel to the fire. My friends and I heard of plans to send even us to that conflict if the Conservatives gained power. The growing discontent was starting to reflect in the music.

Near the time I entered Junior High, in 1969, the Gideons came in to give out New Testament Bibles . . . they surely knew what was going down in the education system to come when they did. I was taking time to settle, because it was quite different from my former school, as well as my first experience in a mixed class . . . and just as all the kids were getting smitten by a steamy new genre of pop songs, which for me had a freaky vibration. So, as an outlet, I set my sights on proving myself in sports, going on to represent the city in the 400 meters, and the school as football center-forward.

By year two, the entire school system’s Judeo-Christian bedrock was being pulled and replaced by secularism. I couldn’t get my head around why they wanted to do this, because I knew how much good was in the old system. I don’t think it could have come at a worse time either, as there was also a steep rise in teen gang culture taking place—which I couldn’t entirely avoid getting drawn into, since I wasn’t one for sitting home at night. The more trouble I saw, though, the more I heard a little voice telling me to look through my drawers for that Gideons Bible; which I eventually did, and started leafing through the front. I got to the part where it mentions the founder’s commitment to daily scripture reading, and that little voice whispered that I should be doing the same. So I made that commitment . . . but unfortunately I decided to read the entire Bible starting at Genesis, a chapter a night. I’m not implying the Old Testament is of any less value than the New; it’s just that I should have focused on the saving grace of Jesus from the start, which might have seen me saved much earlier. Instead, I tied myself up for 929 days, and in the end did not quite make it to the Gospels.

Not long after beginning, however, something extraordinary happened: I had finished a chapter one evening, when I decided to open the Gideons Bible. Near the front, I came to 1 Thessalonians 4: 16-17 . . . and as soon as I read it my consciousness rose from my crown to a place of indescribable peace. I was there about ten seconds, before coming back as fast as I’d left. The feel of that place in contrast with my normal state left me bewildered, but I sensed the Lord was revealing two things to me: Heaven is real, and Jesus will be returning soon. This, however, was only the beginning, for as if to reinforce the message it happened the following year and then again the next, and each time at 1 Thessalonians 4: 16-17. By this point I’d little doubt something big was imminent, and sensed that little voice calling to remain open to whatever it was. With this in mind, I entered technical college.

Junior High had been anything but plain sailing. I’d drifted from the fringes of teen gang life to heavy metal rock concerts. At one I attended at Liverpool University, the moment the band struck up, so did the whole audience—with marijuana, I think. ‘What’s that smell?’ I thought. Amazingly though, I breezed through that period still thinking drugs were what the doctor scribbled notes for, and never touched a cigarette. I do confess, though, that I was going into pubs three or four years under-age with my mates for a pint or three of Tetley’s (no, not tea). Having the sideburns, I bought the rounds, always prepared for ‘Are you 18?’ I suppose the accuser was standing there with his jotter every time.

On arrival at College I knew nobody, so I checked out the active clubs and found there was a Christian Union. I still didn’t know the importance of getting saved, but I wanted the Lord in my life and to experience fellowship with believers . . . and, as no one knew me, I had this new sense of freedom. So, hoping to get things off to a good start, I rounded up several new acquaintances and hauled them along with me. At the office, though, I was told the union had been disbanded for lack of members. I think we all have moments we sense are crossroads, and for me this was one. ‘What now’, I thought. I felt it was the perfect time to meet Jesus, but had already decided to avoid the traditional churches. I’d attended services for family-related events, but had disliked the formality. For me, school assembly had been better.

It was now 1974, and a dramatic decline in traditional church attendance had left a void that was being filled by a phenomenon that seemed to have been dropped in by Mr. Stork (think Dumbo)—cults. Some of the bizarre ones were making themselves seen on the streets downtown, leaving passers-by scratching their heads at what the Fab Four had brought home. Meanwhile in college, I was pondering what I really wanted in life, and questioning whether there was really anything to my earlier experiences.

Then, several weeks into that first semester, I was home listening to the Weekly Top-20 when I decided to stroll to the high street for shoes. I was leaving the shop when a clean-cut fellow with an armful of magazines called One Way approached me. ‘Can’t be one of those cults’, I thought, so I buys me one and reads it. I’d never heard of the Moonies before. But I was impressed by what I read and wanted to know more, so (not having a phone at home) I traipsed back to find one on high street to make an appointment with these people the following day.

After initially taking the right bus in the wrong direction, I arrived an hour late, excited at the prospect of meeting these people who really knew Jesus. They seemed excited too, and not just on account of meeting me . . . and I was curious to know why. After introductions, out came a guitar for a round of heart-felt song, followed by an invitation to dinner—an experience in itself. The leader first prayed, whilst everyone responded as if the Lord Himself was talking to them personally. ‘This is something’, I thought, as I peeked to see what I was missing. Once everyone was seated, plates were passed around while everyone joined in a Korean song and placed something on each plate as it arrived. I’d never experienced such togetherness. I don’t remember what we discussed, but later I was invited into the back for a lecture on their theology, which they decided to present over two nights due to time constraints. What I heard seemed to make a lot of sense in explaining why the world is the way it is. I was hooked.

My parents were becoming upset. They sensed something had changed in me . . . and it had. For three days I had a feeling of walking on the clouds. ‘This is what the Lord has been leading me to’, I thought. It seemed a confirmation of my experiences, and from that moment I wanted to abandon college to help build the Kingdom on earth. ‘Judgment Day is in 1981’, they assuredly proclaimed. My parents, however, were having nothing to do with it, thinking I’d lost my marbles. So I just went out to help them sell their magazines of a weekend . . . no mean feat for a 16-year old. The first time though, after slogging away all day and pouring my heart out to people, I was back in Sunshine (the van) counting the change in my weighty shoulder bag. ‘How much did you make then?’ asks the leader. ‘16 Pounds’, says I. ‘Not very good is it’, he retorts. I’d never felt so insulted, and would have walked right then had I not been so far from home.

Nevertheless, I stuck it out, visiting them once or twice a week for fellowship and singsong. Then came November, and a weekend workshop down south, which I agreed to attend. There were quite a few guests there, and all very friendly like a big family. Lectures finished late Sunday afternoon with ‘the conclusion’. This was not explicitly stated, but those in the know just couldn’t contain it . . . “Reverend Moon is—t h e M e s s i a h”, they whispered.

Being naïve and ignorant of many critical passages of scripture, like many there, I bought this. After all, they seemed to have evidence to back up the claim, including an ambiguous Bible verse. But I think what swayed me most was the atmosphere; we are most susceptible when we have high expectations. Remember though, these were not times when you could surf the net to research what you needed to know in a hurry. Gathering reliable information was difficult and time consuming. And the whole phenomenon was still new.

I’m going to make a long story short now, and then tie things together later: I left college to save the world, spent three years going around the UK, and another two in North America and Europe. But having been in a traffic accident in England, I decided to work at a company and keep loose ties with the group. I ended up coming to Taiwan, where I’ve now been for 27-years, and have a wife, two daughters, and a son. So there’s been a language to learn, customs to adjust to, and semi-tropical weather to acclimatize to.

As the years passed, I found myself increasingly discontent with my religious affiliation, and decided it was time to re-evaluate things. By nature we tend to be loyal regarding our cherished beliefs, but this is a mistake because there are millions of intelligent people holding to hundreds of diverse doctrines. We need to be willing to cast off deadweight as we mature and gain experience, and then move on. Being inside a belief system is like being in a vortex, and you cannot escape unless you plant one foot firmly outside while you objectively reassess your situation. So onto the internet I went, ready to look at any criticism and make a fresh judgment—and within an hour my whole belief system was in shreds. That was the first day of Chinese New Year so I had a week free to continue my research, and off I went like a house on fire to understand the extent of my wrong turn. By week’s end I knew it was serious, and so filled a floppy with what I’d found and set off to visit the local church-center leader and his wife, where for two hours I made my case. They were not receptive, so I returned the following week with my wife, and made clear the association was over. I then spent a year scouring the internet for further information, and wrote a 20-point summary of my findings.

The Lord Himself warned several times (Matt 24: 4-5 & 23-26; Mark 13: 5-6 & 21-23, and Luke 21: 8) against end-time deceivers that would come in His name. Unfortunately, we have strayed so far from sound doctrine that we get fooled anyway. To deny the divinity of Jesus, or simply serve their own ends, dubious Christian organizations and cults twist the Trinity doctrine of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit when they should be teaching that Jesus is the only Son of God, and when He returns, it will be Him—in person. Every member of a cult thinks they are part of the only true way and all others are cults, when in fact they’re all in the same boat. When Constantine established Catholicism to hold together his empire, true believers had to flee to the hills. The reformation then grew out of traditions that had veered sharply from scripture and lead to hundreds of denominations with no framework to bind them together (read Law). So, cults, coming on top of all this, only add to the confusion and lead people further into the dark. Things are now a distant cry from James 1:27!

The unleashing of the cult phenomenon on the West quickened the decline of its Christian traditions, and seems to be helping pave the way for an ominous one world religion. A major component of the ecumenical interfaith drive in this direction is the fallacy of Universalism, which says there are many roads to Heaven and you can choose whichever you like (think Oprah), because we’ll all be inside those pearly gates sooner or later anyway. This is totally at odds with what Jesus taught; He said that few find the way to Heaven, and that the only way is through Him (Matt 7:14).

The Lord seems to be taking an active interest as I write. I just took a break and heard Him say:

“He, Almighty God YAHUVEH/YAHUAH, is balanced in His love and His wrath. The prevailing trend I(Steve) just wrote of is a direct result of not reading the book He has given (the entire 1611 KJV), that reveals all we need to know about Him (see Hosea 4:6), and whoever chooses to believe contrary does so at their own peril.”

(I know I am supposed to write this.)

The world is inundated with specious religious teachings, which makes it vital to evaluate all things against scripture rather than rely on emotions as a guide. I have ample proof of this in my own life: my three early spiritual experiences were genuine, whereas the three-day experience was emotion that led me astray.

Returning to where I was: I was now in a fix and unsure where to turn, so I searched the newspaper for local English-speaking churches, and found one with an email contact address. I went to see John that weekend and explained the situation saying I wanted to receive Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. I visited him again on other occasions, and was introduced to a pastor friend of his, who urged me to attend his church right away. I declined, however, saying I wanted time away from all organized religion so I could think things through for myself. So back to the internet I went.

I found an online ministry and began supporting its work, but later had doubts about certain things and moved on. I then found another, which was trying to persuade that reincarnation was once taught in the Bible. This led me to research the subject, and before long I was going off track into Eastern religious thought. I was reading the Bible at home on and off, but didn’t feel much anointing, although I now know why: I was reading the wrong Bible. It was a modern version with alterations and deletions in the most important places.

It was around this time that The Passion of the Christ was released, which greatly affected me as I hadn’t realized the degree to which our Lord had suffered on our behalf—and Mel Gibson really brought it home. Yet I was still relying on my own wisdom in looking for truth, and looking back can see I was a bit mixed up. Then things started happening: I broke my tailbone, fractured my foot, tore knee ligaments, and got asthma . . . all within a matter of months. A wake up call? (Luckily, the asthma didn’t last long.)

I bumbled along for a while bleating over my afflictions, and then decided to cut back on the religious side and focus on a career I was hoping enter: writing. So I spent £300 on a non-refundable writer’s course and off I went. From the start, the course required me to research widely into different writing styles, most of which could be done online, and this lead me to the alternative media where I began seeing history from a different perspective and understanding the real forces behind events. And I saw correlations with Bible prophesy. This lead me back to Christian sites, where I saw the work of Gale Riplinger, who travels around speaking on how the modern Bibles, coming from the Majority Texts, are so different from the 1611 KJV, which is based on the Minority Texts. One verse in most modern Bibles is so outrageous that I emailed the NIV website asking them for clarification (as if any was needed): 1 Corinthians 1:21 in the KJV says: ‘By the foolishness of preaching’, whereas the NIV and many other modern Bibles say ‘Through the foolishness of the word we preach’ . . . a serious blasphemy. Needless to say, I never received a reply.

After weeks of reading Christian material I was now back on track and sensing my need to be baptized. So I finally visited the pastor that John (who left shortly after I met him) had introduced, joined his church, and three months later his seaside baptism. The day after this I felt great peace and the embrace of the Holy Spirit, which was similar to that of my mother when, as a kid racing my bike on gravel roads, I’d hobble home with the skin off my knees.

Despite attending that church I continued my own research, determined to get as close as possible to a full understanding of truth. It was then that I found the Almightywind ministry and the prophesies of Rev. Elisabeth Elijah. What I read made a great deal of sense, (but this time with the benefit of 34-years experience behind me) for Christianity has certainly gone to great lengths to distance itself from its Hebrew roots, even though Paul, in Romans 11:24, admonishes early gentiles concerning their need to graft into the true vine—which means obeying the true Sabbath and Holy Days established by God for His people.

It was that time again. So I printed one of the Sabbath prophesies and went to see my pastor, who was uncomfortable with the issue and implored me not to go back to the internet. However, two weeks later I brought it up again, and it was not a happy ending. I had a good relationship with him and the congregation, but with no way to reconcile some fundamental issues I knew I had to move on.

A few months later I returned to where I was baptized. The Bible teaches baptism through the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; but when a minister says these words he is actually using titles. Names are names, and titles are titles, so I repeated the process in the Name of YAHUVEH, YAHUSHUA HA MASHIACH, and IMMAYAH, which are the Sacred Names as revealed by the Almightywind ministry.

Before reaching the second module I abandoned my writer’s course because I realized how close we are to the events of the Book of Revelation. I am now making up for a great deal of lost time, and hope my testimony will benefit each one of you that reads it. (Now Almighty YAHUVEH can once again say HE has never had a prophesy go unfulfilled.)

Since my association with this ministry I’ve had a few significant dreams; one of which relates to my three experiences:

I was in a large, run-down warehouse, and there was excitement in the air with people running everywhere. One grabbed my arm and said ‘Go upstairs quick’, which I did . . . and entered a room where there was a bright angel standing—light radiating from his face. I spontaneously knelt on one knee, and the angel put his hand on my head—which seemed some kind of blessing or impartation of knowledge. I then went to the window . . . I knew YAHUSHUA HA MASHIACH/JESUS was only moments away.

(So there may be something to the experiences after all!)

July 15, 2008