King James Bible
King James Version (KJV)
Testimony: Sinner To Hopeful Saint
Randall Stadstad's testimony "Sinner To Hopeful Saint" on 12/24/2014, 2:50pm...
My Testimony of
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
By: Randall Stadstad
(All scriptures quoted are from the King James Version of the Bible)
Hi everyone! I’m going to shortly summarize my life until now just to get an understanding of where I come from and the trials/tribulations I faced up until now. My name is Randall Stadstad. I was born and raised in a small farm community of Plentywood, Montana, USA. As a youth, I was close to my family who were all Christians. My life was far better by comparison of legal trouble, playing sports, doing well in school, etc... Around 13 years old I started to drink, smoke cigarettes, do drugs, etc... In those years I lived a life of constant struggle, I was a terrible drug/alcohol addict, thief, liar, cheater, blasphemer, etc... To sum it up, I was living a terrible life of sin.
Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Psalms 58:3 - The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
Ephesians 2:1-3 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
Proverbs 8:36 "But he who sins against me injures himself; All those who hate me love death."
John 3:36 "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
I was constantly in trouble with the law. I was on probation for most of my teenage years, but that didn’t stop me from doing everything I was doing. I eventually got sent to a youth program called Alternative Youth Adventures in Boulder, MT. After my stay there I cleaned up a little bit as far as committing crimes goes, but I was still using. Only by the grace of God I was able to graduate high school. After high school, I started working odd jobs just go have money to be able to party basically and pay the small bills I had. This continued on for many years. Thankfully the Lord has incredible patience.
Psalms 86:15 But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, Slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth.
I eventually met the wonderful woman of my life, Gayle, and moved to Billings, MT. Around this time I started a career in carpentry and bounced back and forth between construction jobs. During my twenties I regretfully blasphemed the name of God and Jesus Christ. I believed in a higher power because clearly something had to create this beautiful world and universe we have, but was insistent it wasn’t a God in heaven who told me I couldn’t do this and couldn’t do that. To heighten my point of my hatred/disobedience towards God, I regretfully laughed at the movie, Passion of the Christ when He was crucified, as bad as that sounds, it happened. During these years I continued to get into more legal trouble as well as using pretty hard, thus leading to depression and pent up anger, which only fueled the fire. It got to the point to where I was unhappy all the time and it led to major problems at home. During this time, we had the blessing of our son, Rylan. Although I was now a parent, it didn’t stop me from my vices. Because of my instability and unhappiness, Gayle and I separated for a short time and during this time I continued to use heavily. I moved back to Plentywood and during this time, I had an overwhelming sensation that something was terribly wrong in this world. I started to research matters like the Illuminati, corrupt governments, banking systems, and all things pertaining to evil in the world. It made me cold, bitter, more depressed, and angry. During this time, my woman and I got back together and I moved back to Billings. There was a period of three weeks straight where I would stay up until give or take 7:00 in the morning researching. One day in April of 2014, I was researching and I thought to myself deeply, “There has to be something that tells us how to live a good moral life.” At that exact moment, I felt as if God had smacked me in the face and I had an instant revelation, the Bible! All these years I had blasphemed the name and ways of the Lord and it made me feel beyond remorseful, like I was the scum of the earth. All I could do was drop to my knees literally where I was sitting and cried with all my heart to God telling Him I was so sorry and begging Him for forgiveness. I instantly felt a massive wave of love and understanding come over me and at this point I truly accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ IS the answer to eternal life and salvation.
John 14:6 - Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Psalms 138:3 In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.
John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
So now, I'm a carpenter and on August 15, 2014, I was working in the heights of Billings, MT right off of Wicks Lane on a roof all day in the hot sun. All day I had been praising the Lord in my heart and mind, looking up to the clouds, listening to music on Pandora. I saw clouds with slight rain coming all day long so I literally was telling the rain in my mind to head another direction. It seemed to be working so I kept doing it throughout the day. Out of nowhere the music I was listening to turned into a voice of conversation with me personally, it was the musician’s voice still, but I KNEW it was someone else’s voice, I can’t explain it. My thoughts were correlating to all of the songs that were playing and “It” was telling me stories and all kinds of stuff through the music. At this point in my day I'm dead tired and on the verge of heat stroke, very thirsty, wanting to quit, but I kept hearing this voice in my spirit tell me, "Trust me" so I keep going and going and going. At this point, I feel as if I’m in a trance of some sort. I don’t know if it was the heat stress or what. I can’t remember what made me think of it, but I remembered a bible verse I read about Jesus healing us, so I asked God in my heart to heal me of my pain and sickness. A few seconds later, the only way I can describe what I felt was a warm, thumping feeling in my left wrist, almost as if somebody was tapping it gently, but it was warm. Years prior I had twisted that wrist to the point of probably torn ligaments and/or tendons. I don’t know for sure, I never went to the doctor for it, but it has hurt pretty badly since and I haven’t had once ounce of pain since this incident. Anyway, I got the roof tore off finally, had my first row of ice and water shield on and was going to put the underlayment on and I forgot my felt on the ground. I had like maybe a half hour left of work to do so I’m trying to hurry before the rain started at all and for the most part clear skies to better illustrate how sudden this was. I looked to my ladder to climb down and out of nowhere a lightning cracked and thunder boomed intensely the second I looked at it. It was really weird because there was no clouds literally a minute before this happened and all of a sudden it was pitch black and started to rain. I felt as if He rebuked me, telling me to jump off the roof, so I closed my eyes and did! It was like a 15-20 ft. drop, but I was fine and grabbed the roll and ran to the bottom of the ladder. When I started to climb I felt it in my spirit, but no words, the voice “say”, "Take my hand, close your eyes, and trust me with all your heart". I didn’t hesitate. I closed my eyes carrying a roll on my shoulder climbing the ladder and I walk all the way to where I needed to be on the roof with my eyes closed the whole time. Then all of a sudden, BOOM, absolute black as I hit the roof!!!! To picture this I'm lying on my back. I think, but am not sure if I was going in and out of consciousness the whole time and I still have my headphones in and the voice is literally speaking to me through my music and I'll provide some evidence as to why. The song "Can't Stop" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers was playing loudly and if you read the lyrics to that song as if He was talking to you, anybody with any background in the bible will understand. All of a sudden I feel like I’m hyperventilating and can’t catch my breath. Each breath I took felt like a struggle. Then, the song “Would” by Alice in Chains plays. But the next thing I know I hear him say, "Trust me" again. Then a voice says," first the flood" and all of a sudden I feel like I'm drowning and I start to scream, but I can’t take a breath to yell. It was like I was submerged in a pool. He says, "Trust me" again. So I relax and just praise Him and ask for Jesus to help me and the drowning stopped and a super bright light filled my vision accompanied by heat and an overwhelming sense of love, but I could tell the water was still there. The water “vanished” and then the voice said," next, the hail." All of a sudden I'm being pelted and pelted by hail and severe wind that came from absolutely nowhere. I felt as if I was literally in a tornado and the breath was sucked completely out of my lungs. I start panicking again gasping for air, but couldn’t breathe, and once again, “trust me". Then again, the super bright light once I relaxed and was just with Him, but the hail was still there. I was scared and asked Him terrified if I was dying, He said yes. I was instantly freaking out and saying to Him, "Noooooo, what about my friends and family". The second I said that, I heard like a static charge in my right ear and all of sudden it felt as if a lightning bolt struck me, but I was not hurt by it or the flood or the hail, it more startled me. At this point, I opened my eyes and there is lightning cracking around me everywhere! All the strikes were within 40-50 ft. of me. I felt like I had a barrier around my whole body and nothing could hurt me. Next, I felt for a short while as if somebody was pulling on my feet and legs, like something was trying to drag me or pick me up. It was odd. At this point, I felt as if I literally wasn’t in my body, it was really weird. Time and space didn’t apply and everything was so vivid is the only way I can describe it. Then I hear words of the song “Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden as I'm staring down a long dim tunnel. There was no color mind you; it was grey and black only at this point. I don’t enter it because it didn’t look Godly or heavenly to me and another ‘”lightning bolt” strikes my right ear so I enter the tunnel and all of a sudden, the song "Stellar, by Incubus" starts playing and He speaks to me more. I had the sensation as if there was a battle going on for my soul the way the lyrics to the song were going. I don’t know if I was being tricked by Satan or if it was God or what. I have the feeling the small gentle voice telling me to trust Him was God and possibly Satan was the music. I’m not quite sure, but God knows. He kept saying trust me the whole time this happening. Next, extremely hot flames start to hit me from all angles and I could literally feel it burning me somehow. I had just screamed to Jesus to help me and again the bright light and peace. Now I'm starting to consciously hear sirens, and I'm thinking they're coming to get me so I was sad and started praying to the Lord to take care of my family and friends and He rebuked me with another “lightning bolt” and I felt as if He just wanted me to relax and understand. This was the end of it all and He finished by commanding me to scream His name at the top of my lungs and I shouted, “Jehovah!” At this point I basically accepted "my death" and told Him to take me home and a gentle tune starts playing with His voice telling me," This is your life, your new life, I'm proud of you, we have some work to do. Breathe in.” So I took a deep breath and felt “alive” again is the only way I can explain it. A voice kept saying, “We got another one” over and over as it faded to nothing. The way He said those words to me were far more epic and intricate and meaningful, I can’t remember them all, but the ones that stuck out big time for me was when He told me that I was special and to look for my sign tomorrow night, meaning 8/16/14 and we didn’t have much time left. After those words I could only see a clear beautiful blue sky, and then my actual vision came back as I came back to reality. I awoke soaking wet on the roof, terrified and confused about what had just happened. There were people scurrying around, debris everywhere and sirens going off, but they weren’t coming for me. People everywhere outside panicking, but nobody notices me on the roof except a young girl from next door who walked over, looked up at me and gave me a big smile, turned around and walked to her family. It gave me the chills!! I don’t have a scratch on me!!! I again literally jump off the roof and fly home immediately without even picking up my tools or mess or anything I was so scared.
Psalms 91:1-3 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. 3 Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
Psalms 121:7 The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
Here’s the super scary interesting thing about it all. Apparently, the second I passed out and hit the roof, a microburst “tornado” pummels the exact location in the Billings Heights where I was at completely out of the blue. Fences are ripped down, trees with 3 ft. bases broke in half, roofs tore off and a measly Randall lying unconscious in the hail being plummeted by a microburst, debris flying rampantly, is perfectly fine. I know that the Lord protected me the whole time. Pictures from the local news showed a bright light around the epicenter of the burst. KULR 8 AND Q2 NEWS has the pictures and you're free to look into it if you want.
Since this incident, I’ve noticed the Lord working his magic in amazing ways. A big one for me is I’ve been able to quit drinking/using, which has been a major stumbling block for me in the past, not to mention all kinds of other ways I’d rather not get into. He gives us inner peace, although we still face tribulation/trials, it’s not near as bad. My relationships are getting better, I’m becoming more grateful of my life, appreciating my family/friends, etc…
Galatians 2:20 - I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
2 Corinthians 5:17 - Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
I’m beyond grateful for the Lord stepping in and taking control! Although I have a long way to go and many things to work on, I can tell He is ever present and working on me daily. Praise the Lord! My interpretation of some things that happened may be wrong and some verses may better fit my story. With that said I’m completely open to comments and insights on this matter for I am still unsure of some things myself. Also, I’m open to ideas to better emphasize my testimony. Love you all! Shalom!!!