I am not sure how old I was but when I was little, someone gave my older brother a book of bible stories. One day I started reading it. I loved the stories from the Old Testament because it was mostly about battles and the good guys won.
The New Testament was never so enjoyable because the hero went and got himself killed. As a youngster, I had a simplistic view of story books and always wanted the hero to win.
One day I was reading the story of Samuel as a child in the tabernacle, the part where the Lord called him 3 times. As I did so, I was suddenly aware that I was not alone. The room was filled with the intense presence of love. I got down on my knees and simply asked, "God, please don't forget me." I also wanted what Samuel had.
Having had the same experience countless times over the 50 years since that time, I know that it was the Holy Spirit who invaded my bedroom.
I know now that my life began at that time, however being a typical child, I got on with my life and told nobody because there was nobody to tell. May parents were not church goers and I had no idea of what it all meant.
Of course, God never forgets.
When I was 11, my parents took us to church for the first time. It was a typical Anglican church and I do not recall ever hearing the gospel there. In fact the only thing I recall on that subject is the vicar explaining why the death of Jesus was more important than any other death.
He explained that it was significant because the death of Jesus was done by crucifixion, which was the most cruel form of execution that man had ever invented!
At that point I rejected everything further the man spoke. Being a boy I had read enough war stories to know that the Nazis tortured their prisoners with the intention of keeping them alive for weeks of suffering, rather than dying after a few hours like Jesus did.
The cross was still hidden from me.
Somewhere about the age of 15, I was gathered with a group of other kids at a bus stop near the church. I was always an outsider and was on the edge of the group when I heard someone ask a question.
"OK then, who goes to heaven and who goes to hell."
I have no idea what had led up to that question, but everyone suddenly turned around and looked at one person, Tony, who was the altar boy and a little older than the rest. Tony, being nearer the vicar, who was nearer God, he would know!
"That's easy", he said, "good people go to heaven, and bad people go to hell."
As I had turned around to watch the exchange, something happened to me. It was as if a blanket of truth descended from above, and I heard these words deep within me.
"He is wrong, because everybody is bad, I am bad, but God has made the way."
Additionally as I had rotated my head, my eyes had panned over the church building and these words came on me, "and I don't live in that building, I live in your heart!"
The voice of God embedded itself deep in side me. That was my second encounter with the Holy Spirit. I just accepted it and again told nobody.
In these words, I heard the most basic spiritual truth that can be told.
We don't get to heaven on our own merit, but on the work of God. ie. God is salvation. =Yeshua. Jesus
That God makes his dwelling place in the hearts of men. ie. God with us. =Emmanuel.
I had still never heard the gospel preached as such. At the age of 15 we moved house and stopped going to church. I started work and these things faded.
Up till my mid 20s I became obsessed with rock climbing and mountaineering. My mates who were teachers had 5 weeks off each summer and disappeared to the Alps for the season's climbing. For two years, in order to join them I had had to hand my notice in from my engineering job, and then try and find another job when I got back to the UK. This was not always easy so I decided to become a teacher also, just for the holidays!
At the teacher training college, I kept getting knobbled by the "God squad" trying to convert all the newcomers. I always enjoyed a good argument, but was more interested in the bar than in Christianity, and certainly not after hearing the nonsense preached at the Anglican church. Also I was quite content that I did not need salvation because I knew deep within myself that God dwelt within me. Yes I was deeply arrogant.
Nevertheless, after a while, I realised that the God they were talking about was the one I already knew. I had never met that before.
Their approach was different to what I had ever heard, but I was sufficiently convinced to go through their process and "become a Christian".
I was shortly baptised in the Holy Spirit, baptised in water, speaking in tongues etc.
A lot has happened since then.