Apostle Gregory Austin Ministries

Delivered

Walking In Your Becoming
by
Apostle Gregory Austin Ministries

In The Beginning

Starting at the tender age of 14 years old, boys begin to search for themselves and their identity often pulling away from their family and/or family values. Apostle Austin gives his testimony by telling an authentic, transparent story of what life is like trying to love God, live right after the loss of his praying grandmother and experiencing warfare with external forces. He reveals the struggles of peer pressure, street influences and poor choices. He provides the harsh reality and inevitable consequences of what it is like behind the walls of detention, jail and prison. He even shares the highs and lows of drugs and the need to know God in order to survive. Apostle literally takes you by the hand and guides you through the process of understanding what it means to be delivered. This book takes you on a journey from trial to triumph.

Apostle Gregory Austin

Apostle Gregory Austin is the Senior Pastor and Founder of Good Samaritan Life Changing Ministries, Inc. He ministers to a non-denominational, multi-cultural church that has been recognized throughout Duval County and the Jacksonville Beaches communities. In 1976, Gregory Austin married the love of his life, Dorothy Ford Austin who now serves at his side as Pastor; they have one daughter, two grandchildren, and many godchildren. To further build the Kingdom of God, he prays that those whom he has encountered will forever be transformed by the gift of life through Jesus Christ as he proclaims the good news. Apostle Austin’s life is a story of transition, which shows evidence of power of the true and living God.

MY CHILDHOOD & ADOLESCENT YEARS - DETENTION

Years ago as a child, I have fond memories of God communicating many times, but I had no understanding of who or what it was. There was a power that would come over me and cause me to stop playing with my friends, and go in the house and sit in my mother’s rocking chair and sing. I would always sing, “Yield not to temptation” by Al Green (1987), the words of the song are…

“Yield not to temptation, for yielding is sin
Each victory will help you or some others to win
Fight manfully onward, dark passions subdue
Look ever to Jesus and He'll carry you through Just ask the Savior to help you
To comfort, strengthen and keep you
He is willing to aid you
And He will carry you through”

In hindsight, this song was possibly God preparing me for what I was about to go through. During my childhood, I suffered with many sicknesses. As an infant, just nine months old, I fell off the porch and begin to have seizures. I was then stricken with rheumatic fever at the age of eight years old. It appeared that I would not survive, but God intervened and saved me life. My grandmother brought the saints to her house to pray for me and in 30 minutes I was healed - GLORY TO GOD!

PART II: MY ADULT YEARS - CONFINEMENT

I am now 18 years old. I am officially an adult and I continue to spiral down, I was heading towards the devil’s destruction. The fellows and I decided to steal a car so we took one of my neighbor’s cars. Stealing the car was my attempt to run away from home possibly never seeing my mother, father or family again. It appeared that we had gotten away clean until we reached Jessup, Georgia. From Jessup I was sent to Savannah, Georgia where I spent 2-3 weeks in the city jail and from there I was sent to Brunswick, Georgia where I was sentenced to 3 years in the Tallahassee Federal Penitentiary for interstate transportation of a stolen motor vehicle. I served 1.5 years incarcerated and the next 1.5 years on probation.

PART III: MY ADULT YEARS - DRUGS

Throughout my life I had never tried drugs neither had I ever seen them on the outside. I did have one experience of sniffing glue while in prison, but I did not like it. So when I got out of confinement drugs was not on my mind. Nevertheless, here again the devil was trying to set me up. A friend of mine asked me to take him to town - I did not know that he was going to buy drugs. Upon his return to the car, he lit up a joint and asked me if I wanted to some. I had never been apart of this type of conversation so I refused, but he kept on insisting until I eventually agreed to it to stop him from asking. Unfortunately, this was the point of no return. Once I started, I liked it. Sadly, this one joint grew to bigger things. Just like the stealing, it started small then it grew worse. I got wilder, untamable and uncontrollable—smoking marijuana became my life, I loved it and I did not even think of quitting. After a while the marijuana high was not enough, it was not satisfying me; consequently, the addiction heightened. I went to bigger things such as pills, Christmas trees, yellow jackets, speed, hashies, morphine and even cocaine. I shot up once and did not like it, it seemed to go straight to my head and I did not like that feeling. So I took LSD and orange sunshine, which were two small pills (smaller than an aspirin), that could get six or more people stone high.

PART IV: MY DELIVERANCE · SANCTIFICATION·SALVATION ·HOLINESS

God raised me up to go back to work at the City Parks Department of Jacksonville.I worked there for a while then one day while driving a tractor cutting grass (it had been raining, the area was filled with water and I was driving way too fast), I attempted to make a right turn and the tractor started to slide. Instead of turning, the tractor was headed for a fence and I thought that if I stayed on the tractor I might be cut up. Then I had another idea, which was to go through the fence and jump off, but my feet slipped in the grass and I went directly under the back wheel. Instead of going through the fence, I got hung up in the fence and the wheels were constantly turning while grinding into my ankle and the muscles of my leg. I began to cry for help, “somebody help me, please, somebody help me, but nobody came.”

PART V: MY CALLING

October 5, 1978, God called me to minister the gospel. I never asked my pastor if I could preach and I never hounded my pastor about ordination. I also did not ask to be a pastor; I was appointed. After being called, I went to pick my Bishop’s children up for school and on this particular morning the children did not come out, but he did. He got into the car and asked me if I thought I would like to try pastoring? I replied, “Yes, if that’s what the Lord is saying”, and he instructed me on what to do. I was pastoring before I was ordained and when the time came for ordination, my Bishop called me forward. I firmly believe that you do not have to make yourself; God will make the way for you. I trusted in the God in my Pastor and my leader, he birthed me out as a pastor. One night I had a dream. My leader was crossing a stream of water and upon his crossing he turned around to get my hand but there was a spot on his robe; God took

______________ A very important key to growing spiritually is being submitted to the leaders God assigns to your life. ______________ my eyes off of the spot to behold the man.

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