9/25/24 2:55a.m.
A letter to my pastor from 1991 to 2006 in Plano, Texas. Gerald Brooks of Grace Church Plano, it was sent to him by US Mail.
Gerald:
I write today to thank you for the many years of spiritual formation that happened in me during my years at Grace. You are an important link in the chain of grace that has been my life.
I also write today to be faithful to what we are told in the Book of Revelation, that we are saved by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.
This is my personal testimony to you, written with great respect for you.
When we attended Grace in the 1990’s I felt like you, your wife, and your kids lived in a different world than we did. You and your family were so faithful to the call of Jesus on your lives that the blessings surrounding you were obvious to me.
My wife and I were not nearly so holy, and the struggle of our marriage got worse when TJ got sick. As you may be aware, we divorced in 2012.
While we were not great at being spouses, we were pretty good parents. That was greatly aided by the Growing Kids God’s Way program.
And we were pretty good educators. my first wife still works at Legacy Christian Academy all these years later, and after I left Legacy, I was one of the founders of Coram Deo Academy, which continues to thrive also today.
After the divorce, I ended up living in our second home, in Idaho Springs, Colorado. By the providence of God, I became a leader in an amazing independent church, The Sanctuary in Denver, led by my now good friend Peter Hiett. The message there is somewhat distinctive within Christianity, it is that God loves all people, all the time, and that there is no “hell” of eternal conscious torment that God assigns to any. Those who live in such a hell have, and continue, to choose it, and God will allow those who choose such to remain there indefinitely until they choose Him.
For about 5 years, this message, also the message of my friend Wm. Paul Young, author of the book and movie, The Shack, dominated my spiritual life.
Then, on January 26, 2017 in a three minute experience that ended at precisely 2:00 p.m., I was truly born again, by receiving the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost. It was the exact experience that Jesus’ apostles and other true followers had in the upper room about 2000 years ago. I felt the fire of God move through every cell of my body and was completely transformed.
My previous Holy Spirit experiences had largely been in your church, and they were real, but temporary. I remember you teaching that we needed to “be being filled with the Holy Spirit” as, at least at that time, your understanding was that being filled was an experience that is temporary, and that is true for disciples of Jesus, who have committed to follow him and been baptized in water.
But after the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost as I received it that day in 2017, I have had the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. I wake up every day with my thoughts on Jesus and helping to build HIs Kingdom, work all day towards that goal, and go to bed still constantly praying for that. While I am still a disciple of Jesus, this experience transforms us, one at a time, into true saints.
This experience is in fulfillment of John 14:20, which reads, “On that day, you will know that I live in the Father, and the Father lives in me, and that I live in you, and that you live in me.”
On that day, I emptied my vessel and that allowed Jesus to come in and take over my life. I emptied it by offering my spiritual life to Peter Hiett, who has a large following, so that he could reach his large audience with those parts of the true Gospel that I knew at the time and Peter had not yet learned.
I did so by writing him an email offering to give up my spirit and its knowledge to him, and the moment I hit the Send button, the room I was in got very dark and cold, and I wondered what I had just done. But as I left that room and went into my kitchen, the fire of God came upon me and changed my life forever.
Then I heard Jesus speak to me. He said, “no greater love can a man have than to give up his life for a friend”. And as I sat down to open my Bible, I saw that I was reading and understanding it with new eyes and with a new mind, of Christ.
I was like one of the Elders of Revelation. I had laid down my crown of free will at HIs feet and He responded by putting a new crown on me, the crown of doing His will. I was given no less than the mind and heart of Christ.
I did not know at the time exactly what had happened to me. I knew I had been completely transformed. I was surely a wholly new creation. I had no knowledge of the term “baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost”.
So I went to the internet looking for people with similar testimonies of complete transformation. And I found a book of them and bought many copies to hand out to others, it is called They Found the Secret, by Raymond Edman, a mid-century President of Wheaton College. The people whose biographies are in that book are well known names like John Bunyan, Dwight L. Moody, and Oswald Chambers.
And I found a few contemporary Christian leaders who have a testimony of the baptism of fire. The most prominent one that comes to mind is Todd White.
But about 50% of the people I found with testimonies of the baptism of fire were not even “Christians” to my way of thinking then. Instead, they were members of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter-day Saints. I noted that, but did not pursue those leads because every evangelical knows that Mormons are not Christians. Even the writers on South Park know that, as they made an episode mocking Mormons while also having cartoon L. Ron Hubbard proclaim, in a welcome to hell scenario, that it was Mormons, it’s the Mormons who are not here in hell because that is the right religion.
For several years I had been listening to a lot of music from Bethel Church, so I journeyed to Redding, California to see if Truth could be found there. And I found Truth there, in the sense that I discovered that the Truth was now in me, and that Jesus goes with me everywhere I go.
Prior to the baptism of fire I thought I was living a life of signs, wonders, and miracles, but since I am living a life of 100 times as many signs, wonders, and miracles. Several people that the Spirit has directed me to pray for and with have been cured of terminal illness.
All of this may have you questioning my mental health, which was an issue at the time I attended Grace. I now have a full understanding of “bipolar” and with that understanding, am fully cured, and can offer the cure to others, if they are open to being cured with their hearts set on Jesus.
Bipolar is a symptom of seeking Truth. When you follow Jesus, He blesses you beyond what you may yet be capable of believing, and that leads to manic episodes. When you stop believing because you are overwhelmed by His grace, mercy, and love, that causes depressive episodes. The cure is to comprehend, often after a lifetime of struggles, that Jesus is NOT too good to be true, He is indeed the Truth and you can follow HIm with your entire heart, mind, and soul and He will provide your every need and, eventually, your every dream will come true.
While I am grateful that modern medicine helped me survive my season of unbelief, I take no medications for anything now, and haven’t taken psychiatric medications in many years, and have had no more episodes as I did many years ago.
I am not the first in my family to receive the baptism of fire. TJ surely received it at a very young age, as his faith is the purest that I have ever known. Perhaps you remember the story you retold at his funeral, that when he earned his very first pay, $10, I suggested that he tithe on it to the church, and he insisted that he give it all.
Now I understand the purpose of TJ’s death, as there is no way to understand the heart of our Father better than to watch your beloved son suffer and die. TJ knew this implicitly, and he offered his life for me, as he followed Jesus, even to death.
My current wife also watched her beloved son suffer and die. She is the most courageous woman I know. In High School she attended LDS Seminary as most kids around here do. In that class the students made decisions for life as to what they would do when confronted with the most difficult choices imaginable. She covenanted, with Jesus, that she would not abort any pregnancy. Her third pregnancy was diagnosed with spina bifida in utero and she was told he might only live hours or days, and encouraged to abort.
Joshua ended up living 25 years, and was a blessing to all who had the privilege to know him. He served faithfully in Church and was a service missionary for our Church and a volunteer leader of a youth group of disabled kids. He passed about a year after his father had passed and left his mother for me to marry about five years later.
My wife has also mothered six other children and she now has seven grandchildren who call me Grandpa.
My surviving son is living with his mother and her second husband, a firefighter, in Corinth, Texas. He is still unmarried and has no children yet.
Speaking of Corinth, Paul wrote letters to the Corinthians. In his first letter he said that God chooses the despised things to do his will (verse 28). The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is just such a despised thing. In fact, the most despised Jesus following church in the world. By this, and much other evidence, I know, without doubt, that it is Jesus’ true Church.
And that brings me to the crucial point of this testimony. Of those who are given much, much is expected. You and I have both been given much. I have laid down my life to take up His life, in His true Church. I am inviting you to do the same.
Have you ever investigated the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter-day Saints? Have you ever sincerely read the Book of Mormon?
I have a good friend, David Alexander, who pastored several churches as he tried to follow Jesus for 47 years after committing his life to Christ at the age of 21. He finally gave up and then was led, by God, to take a close look at my Church. And he found everything he had always longed for, a Church with the true authority of God, “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone”.
David now has a very popular Youtube channel, proclaiming the restored Gospel to all who will open their hearts and listen, many have been baptized under proper authority after hearing David’s testimony. You can find him on Youtube by searching David Alexander LDS.
You impressed me during my time at Grace as being financially astute. I have long lived with financial insecurity, no matter how much money I had at any time. I have finally been cured of my financial insecurity by understanding, as my Church teaches, that our source of everything, including health and finances is in Jesus Christ.
I have been given revelation that Jesus provides for me as I daily do His will rather than my own. In April of this year, Tesla stock was ridiculously undervalued. Jesus told me to invest all I have left in that stock. And it has about doubled since then. And I understand, due to the ongoing nature of Tesla’s innovations, that the stock will at least 10X in the next five years, which will give me more than what I need to supply all my needs as I live tax free, borrowing against its ever increasing value.
I could have and should have done this long ago, as Jesus prompted me to invest previously in Google and Facebook before their great growth years. I did invest, but timidly, and had not yet the understanding to borrow against rather than sell out in order to meet my expenses. But just as I follow Jesus on the way into any investment, I know that I must do His will to remain close enough to Him to hear Him when it is time to get out of specific investments, so I work for Him daily.
This is the truly abundant life that Jesus is offering you now. Stop building your kingdom and seek first to build His Kingdom.
It’s a rough time for independent churches, as we have witnessed the fall of Robert Morris, Tony Evans, and many others. While neither of them are close friends of mine, they are both close friends of close friends, and I pray for their restoration into Jesus’ true Church.
These falls, even as the original fall of Adam and Eve, are with God’s purpose. We are here to learn His Way, to love Him by loving all of His children all around us, which is the true Way to love ourselves.
I don’t want to see you fall. I instead pray for your surrender.
As the leader of an independent church, when such churches are falling, you can instead be a leader in bringing yourself, your family, and all those who follow you into the greatest of Truths, who is Jesus Christ, and who has anointed and appointed One Church, with One Baptism to usher in His Kingdom.
Early in this letter I mentioned that I had a holy envy of the life I saw you, your wife, and your family living. I hope you will investigate my Church and develop a holy envy for the lives we live. Within a half a mile of my home here in Orem, Utah there are about 80 families, many quite large, who are living lives wholly devoted to Jesus. We gather on Sundays to worship together in our assigned Ward at a single assigned time. Such a group of saints will surround you as you truly surrender all to Jesus.
You have been a good and faithful servant, serving Jesus in the way you were taught. Now, come to Zion, and live in His presence with His people.
If you are willing to respond, please email me.
I pray all of God’s greatest blessing upon you and your family even if you are not yet ready to truly surrender all to Him. He is Love and Love is patient.
You have contributions to make to our Church, which is truly the Kingdom of God on Earth today. You can not only bring your family into the Kingdom, but thousands of others as well. Your ministry will be more fruitful than ever, and I can promise you that in no less than the name of Jesus Christ.
In Christ, I am,
Treyeshua Tomeny
ttomeny@gmail.com
214-228-6519
9/25/24