Personal testimony
of Rev. Dr. D. M. Hoffmann

This is a special article on the personal testimony of Rev. Dr. D. M. Hoffmann -- how she came to know the true God of the universe personally...

The Man from Nazareth -- a personal testimony
by Rev. Dr. D. M. Hoffmann, B.Th., M.Th., Ph.D., Ord./IAOGI, (CNC).
copyright 1986 by Diane M. Hoffmann

Until 1981, I did not know God. I had heard of Him in church when I was a child but all that had faded away throughout the following years. I remember telling some friends that I actually believed there was no God.

Because of economic difficulties, in 1978 my husband and I closed down a business, which we had successfully operated for seven years. Broke, panicked and embarrassed, we left Toronto to go West.

There, Harold's brother introduced us to the "born-again" fact of life (John 3:3), but when we returned to Toronto, after ten homesick months, we never gave religion further thoughts.

Unbeknown to us, God was working in our lives. Some friends and relatives were praying for our salvation.

It was not until about eighteen months later, while I was attempting to form a new business in Quebec for a group of people, that the Lord began to condense His work on my life.

One day, an associate of mine invited me to a business luncheon. I went and was captivated by what I heard. Business people were talking about God and a personal relationship with a man from Nazareth.

Because I was a business person, I related to this group and started to listen seriously. During one of those regular luncheons, God spoke to me, directly, through a guest speaker who talked on Bible Prophecy.

I had read earlier on (and I know now it was not by chance), a book written by Hal Lindsey "The Late Great Planet Earth". The book had opened my eyes to a subject I found most fascinating, being interested in history. It had raised many questions which I had been asking myself (God?) about.

As I listened to Dr. Lewis who was visiting from Israel during those intense twenty minutes, God answered every single question I had had lingering in my head that week. Only God could possibly have known what was inside my mind. I knew then that God was real. But I did not know yet the man from Nazareth.

The folllowing week, I was returning from an exhaustive two-day trip in Montreal. The plane taxied smoothly toward take-off position and I leaned back on my headrest. By the time we had reached the twenty thousand feet altitude, the thoughts of God had re-entered my mind and halted suddently at a point where I

came to a total awareness that God was indeed real. It dawned on me that my trip had gone too perfectly to leave God out of it.

I had accomplished more than I could have expected: some of the achievements having come without any efforts on my part. I said "Thank you God".

At that moment, I felt the Spirit of God enter my very soul and just fill every inch of space. I was so excited, it is beyond earthly description. I felt God's presence. I wanted to shout, dance, run up and down the aisle of the 737 -- but with some two hundred people on board? I hardly could contain the joy within me during the next hour back to Toronto International.

My husband, Harold, picked me up at the airport and after having given him "my first testimony" over dinner, we got home late that evening. As I prepared for bed, still thinking about the exciting experience I became very pensive. The name "Jesus Christ" came to my mind and I saw before me an unreeling of His suffering, and the cross.

I felt the anguish of Calvary and started to weep. I wept uncontrollably as I was gently led to remember my sins, the biggest one being not having known Jesus all these thirty four years -- the Way, the Truth and the Life -- the man from Nazareth.

The following morning, I had an early meeting at eight with my accountant. After having given my testimony for the "second" time, in the middle of the meeting, I noticed that a terrible pain which I had suffered constantly from an ulcerative colitis condition for over 12 years was not there.

I got up, walked around, moved about and realized that I had also been totally healed of this severe problem that had plagued me for so long. I have been healed ever since. From that glorious moment of salvation, I have been growing in the Lord -- struggling at times in my human weaknesses to be worthy to be called a true Christian which is a follower of Jesus Christ.

If you want to receive Jesus as your Saviour, simply ask Him. Don't go by "feelings" or "highs": not everyone gets an emotional reaction as in this story. Go by the promise of God in His book that "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Romans 10:9).

Pray this prayer: Lord Jesus, I acknowledge that I am a sinner but I accept you now as my Saviour and ask you to come into my heart and be Lord of my life./dmh

End of this article on "The Man from Nazareth".

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