Richard Neufeld

I praise God for this marvelous salvation. My mother in her weakness had sometimes told me about Jesus, but it did not register. By 1931, I was a teenager drifting deep into sin. I am thankful God sent faithful people all the way from the Apostolic Faith Church in Portland, Oregon, to tell us folks in Saskatchewan, Canada, about the Gospel. If they had kept the joy of salvation to themselves, I would never have been saved.

They shared the Gospel with my mother and she got saved. She became so happy, and gave our home over to be used as a church. The Apostolic Faith people held special meetings in our home, and God began to talk to me. He began to convict my soul.

These people said Jesus could save young men and women, and set them free. I saw some of the other young people get saved and it appealed to my heart. Until then, I had not known that boys and girls could be saved and experience a real change in their heart.

There was a price to pay to receive it, though. The Lord really convicted me and showed me the cost of being a Christian. I would have to give up drinking, dancing, and card playing. I tried to bargain with God. I told him I would quit stealing, lying, and cursing, but there was one thing I could not give up: tobacco. I did not believe God could deliver me from that.

I became miserable with conviction. About a month after the meetings in our home started, my mother asked me to attend Sunday school. I went with a burden; my heart was so heavy. They told me God could roll that burden away. I can remember just sitting on a bench in the back and raising my hand for prayer. The workers came and took my hand and began to lead me to the altar. I was shaking like a leaf. I couldn’t take another step. I dropped to my knees in the middle of the aisle and made a complete surrender. I told God, “Take everything,” and something wonderful happened. I was saved right there in the aisle. All at once, the burden lifted. The peace of Heaven flooded my soul. The fear and condemnation were gone. I felt so free.

It was no struggle to quit smoking and drinking. When God saved me, the desire for those things was gone. A few days later, I was with some relatives who were smoking, and it sickened me; I slipped out of the house to be away from it.

When I was first told about sanctification, I did not know if I wanted to seek it. I had never heard of it, and I was afraid of false doctrine. Then a Brother said to me, “I think you are sanctified; you live as if you are.” For a few weeks I thought maybe I was, and I claimed it. However, I was not satisfied, because I could not point back to a definite time when it happened, and I wanted to be sure.

In 1934, I had gone back to Canada, and was seeking earnestly for the experience of sanctification. I was a beggar when I prayed. I begged and begged the Lord to sanctify me. Then one morning, a Sister said to me, “Why don’t you just look up and believe and praise God for it?” I thanked the Lord for the sanctifying power which I desired. When I did that, waves of glory began to fill my soul. The more I praised God, the more it came. The Lord had sanctified me. Later that night I was joyfully singing, “Oh! Precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.” The Blood of Jesus had washed me whiter than snow.

The next day, the Lord seemed to test my sanctification. Back on the farm, the old cow hit my pail and upset the milk. There was nothing but love in my heart. I put my hand on the cow and said, “Thank you, Jesus.” I am sure the cow wondered what had happened to me.

In 1942, I was seeking God for the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and had been making deep consecrations for some time. The leader of our branch church in Calgary, Alberta, came to me and said, “Brother, you are a hindrance to the work because you have been seeking for quite some time without receiving.” I got serious before God, and it wasn’t long before I received that wonderful experience. The Lord spoke through me in a language that I had never used before. Paul Plesko was there and heard me. I was speaking in his language, Czechoslovakian, and he understood.

It has been wonderful serving God through the years. I still have joy in this Gospel and I recommend it to the whole world.