CONVINCED

by Tony Alamo

"Holding fast the faithful Word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to CONVINCE the gainsayers" (Titus 1:9). We who are saved are not only to exhort those who oppose God and their own souls, we are to convince those who are opposing themselves because of their opposition to God, to turn to God, then do what He says.1 Again, we must continue to allow God in us to lead our bodies, guide our bodies, and direct our bodies to every good work,2 with both a life and a speech that convinces everyone around us that we truly have God in us.3

It is unfortunate that the false prophets have convinced the world of a false doctrine, a doctrine that is not at all the Father, Christ, or the Holy Spirit, a doctrine totally contrary to the Bible. Isaiah said, "Who hath believed our [true] report? and to whom is the arm [the power, the truth] of the Lord revealed?" (Isa. 53:1). I’m afraid not many today.

Let me tell you how I became convinced enough by the real God and His truth, the only truth in the entire universe, to permanently stop doing the evil things I once did in the world, to lay down one of the most brilliant careers in show business, and to not merchandise a Beatles album I once owned, which is said to be worth now between one and two hundred million dollars, in order to serve the Lord. I say my former Beatles album because I donated my Beatles album to the church with the stipulation that they are never to release it in any form. I gladly did not merchandise many other valuable, secular master recordings that I personally owned. I was also happy to reject the management of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and many other recording artists in order to prove to the world that I’m convinced God is the kind of God He says He is from the beginning of the Old Testament throughout the New Testament.4 I laid my career, my master tapes, and management of many recording artists down as though they were dung in an attempt to convince the people of this world that they must lay down the sinful lives they are living, bite the bullet, and serve the Lord as He demands He must be served if they want to be in Heaven with Him, rather than in Hell with Satan for eternity.5

My career and former life literally ended with one brief, supernatural encounter with God Himself. When the dreadful fear of the Lord came upon me, I was convinced from that day forth to serve Him until the day I die.6 Until the dread of God came upon me, nothing could have convinced me to stop from continuing my former life and ways. When the Spirit of the Lord descended upon me, I was shocked and in awe. It was very painful to know through the awareness God gave me by His presence surrounding me that He knew all about me, and had been present every moment of my life.7 The knowledge of this was given to me in my spirit by His very presence. It is beyond human intelligence, understanding, or imagination. This convinced me that He knew all about me and everyone else from before the beginning of time.8 This time when His presence surrounded me, it immediately made me see how He is incredibly aware of every grain of dust, every blade of grass, every leaf, every pine needle, every piece of straw, and every atom that makes up all these seemingly trivial things.9 I became aware that He knew every pore in every body, every fiber of every garment, every inch of every carpet, every inch of carpet padding, and every atom of everything, even dirt and rock. I became aware that God is everywhere and that He knows everything.10 I became aware that He knew the outcome of the future and the outcome of every person’s life, as well as the outcome of Heaven and earth and everything else in them.11 Hallelujah for God is so mighty!12 Praise the Lord.

God is acquainted with every drop of our blood, all our thoughts, all our intentions, and even the marrow of our bones.13 His presence, His mighty Spirit, made me know all these things before I ever read the Bible. It is written, "The Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do" (Heb. 4:12-13).

The instant consciousness of all this and much more was exceedingly fearful to me, as well as very embarrassing, because with His presence not only did I become aware of the fear of the Lord, His majesty, His intelligence, and His personality—that He threatens, terrorizes, and causes people to fear Him—but I also became very aware of His extreme holiness.14 I felt as naked as Adam after he and Eve had transgressed God’s law and their holy garments of Christ’s righteousness had been removed from them.15 With God’s presence also came the knowledge that I was a sinner. He doesn’t tolerate sin, but wants to remove it from every sinner.16 Then the redeemed sinners are to walk with Him in them, sinning no more.17

All at once His Spirit began talking to me through my entire body, telling me "I am the Lord thy God. Stand up and tell these people in this room about the Lord Jesus Christ and that He is coming back to earth again, or thou shalt surely die." I began trying, with my human mind, to rationalize what God was commanding me to do. I thought maybe I was going crazy. I wondered why would God have me talk about God and Jesus in the middle of a business meeting in an attorney’s office with all my friends present? I reasoned that this was not the time or the place to do such a thing. Then the Lord again said to me, "Doubt not. I am the Lord thy God. Stand up and tell these people about the Lord Jesus Christ and that He is coming back to earth again or thou shalt surely die."

At the beginning of this supernatural experience, the hearing in my ears was turned off. I was hearing all these words of God through every other part of my body. I could not hear any human sounds in the office or any noise from the busy Beverly Hills street. My very ignorant human brain decided, "I’ve got to get out of here." I tried to get up from my chair, but I couldn’t move.

The Spirit of God upon me felt like a heat lamp from above, but there were not even light bulbs above my head, only a stucco-type ceiling. I pushed real hard on the chair and the Lord let me stand up. I said, "I’ve got to get out of here." I stood up and my spirit started rapidly going in and out of my body, to and fro, back and forth. The Lord was saying, "Now thou knowest that I am the Lord thy God. Tell these people and convince them that I am the Lord thy God, that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back to earth again, or thou shalt surely die, and these people in the room will die as well, and you will all go to Hell."

This caused me to panic. I told the Lord in my spirit, because I knew He knew all my thoughts, "Don’t kill me. I’ll tell them."18 He then stopped pulling my spirit, my soul out of me. Then I immediately began to argue with God. I said, "Lord, I’ll tell them tomorrow, but don’t make me tell them now. I’ll call them on the phone. I’ll send them wires, cables, or visit each one, or tell them somewhere, but not now in this office. They’ll think I’m crazy."

Then the Lord began pulling the spirit in and out of me again. I told the Lord, "I’ll tell them now. Please don’t kill me and send my soul to Hell!" The soul went back into my body. I was thinking to myself, "My God, I’m going to have to tell these people now and I have no choice."

I told them, "All right, you guys know that I never believed in God or Jesus. God is telling me to tell you that Jesus Christ is coming back to earth again." I said it as rationally as I possibly could. He started pulling the breath in and out of me again. I said, "What’s the matter, God? I told them." Then the Lord immediately brought to memory all of the different things I had marketed. He reminded me of how much zeal and fervor I had when I sold these things. One was, "Add more life to your years and more years to your life. Join the American Health Studio and Silhouette Figure Form!" Another was, "Hi there, this is Earl McDaniel with the most fantastic record offer of all time. For the first time, twenty smash hits on one big album for only $3.69!" There was also a singer I was promoting at that time, "The world’s next phenomenon!" The Lord stated, "You pushed all these worthless things with every fiber of your being, with every ounce of zeal that you know you have. Now that you know that I exist, you’re just going to casually tell these people, ‘You guys know that I never believed in God or Jesus, but God is telling me to tell you that Jesus Christ is coming back to earth again. Okay?’" I told Him, "O my God, I am so ashamed. I will tell them. I never thought of people as being anything anyway. Who are they that I should be ashamed of You, Jesus, You, Almighty God? I will tell them and try to convey to them the things you are telling me with even more zeal than I used in promoting health studios, records, and show business people."

I didn’t know the Bible at all. I didn’t know how to convince them, but I felt if I didn’t convince them that they, with the rug under them, would be swallowed into Hell, and I would follow them. I knew that I had to convince these people that God was talking to me and that Jesus was coming back to earth again. This happened in September of 1964.

I remembered having seen a small portion of a film about evangelists and hearing the word "repent." That’s all I remembered, so I yelled the word out to them, "Repent! or you’re going to Hell. Get down on your knees and repent!" I said it loudly and with far more zeal than I have ever used in marketing anything.

Soon the Lord told me, "That’s enough." Then the hearing in my ears started coming back and I left the room with the singer’s entourage of seventeen people who were part of the campaign I was doing for this unknown singer, Bobby Jameson, whose real name was Robert Parker James. James was from Tucson, Arizona. I was totally convinced by this time as I never had been before, that God was everything that He said He was in the Bible, and nothing less.19

I began searching throughout the country to see if any churches were preaching that truth. I was exceedingly surprised to see how unlike Christ all the people in churches were.20 They seemingly didn’t have any of the fear and dread of God that I had in me.21 I saw they were void of wisdom, which is the fear of the Lord.22 Most of them seemed wanton, very worldly, slaphappy, and unrealistic. I would never have served God if His fear and dread were not upon me. I wondered why they even bothered going to church? They were filled with more lust than most unsaved people that I knew. They turned me completely off, but the fear of God was instilled in me. I certainly would never get turned off from Him.

About a year later, I was saved through another supernatural experience. God showed me again the torments of Hell and the beauty of Heaven.23 Before these visions occurred, I foolishly thought I was a big shot. God showed me how utterly insignificant I was unless I became united to Him by His Spirit, and His life living in my spirit and began allowing Him to do His work in and by my body.24 When I again began hearing the voices of those being tormented in Hell, I begged and pleaded with God to not allow my soul to go to Hell. "Please God, don’t let me be there with them! I’ll do anything You say! I’ll do everything You say! Just don’t send me to Hell!"

I heard many voices in Hell crying, "Oh no, it’s true! I’m in Hell. It really exists!" Some of them were sobbing, "Oh no, it’s me! I’m in Hell’s fires and I know I’m never going to get out of here." There were hundreds of millions of them. The voices were frustrated and filled with misery. I begged God to please not let me go to Hell. I screamed, "Oh God, I’ll do whatever You want me to do. I’ll do whatever you want me to do all the time. Just whatever you do, don’t send me to Hell! My God save me! Don’t let me go to that awful place!" I was screaming this way to God for an unknown period of time, maybe an hour or more.

Suddenly I felt a calm come over me. It was more peaceful than anything I’ve ever felt before. I felt as though I was in Heaven, and I knew if I opened my eyes and looked up, I’d see the Lord Himself. I wanted to look up, but I couldn’t because of the tremendous amount of sins on my soul. I could feel how holy He was.25

An evil voice came to me, saying "You’re just imagining all this. Open your eyes and you will see." I was on a hardwood floor. When I opened my eyes I saw that I was on a very plush, thick carpet with beautiful, shiny colors that I had never seen before. I immediately realized that the evil voice which had spoken to me had actually made me doubt the things God was doing to me. I began immediately to fear that God would be offended for my doubting the supernatural things that were happening to me. I quickly shut my eyes. I began telling God, "Please forgive me," and telling Him how sorry I was for doubting Him. The moaning, weeping, gnashing, and cries from Hell came back. All the peace that appeared had vanished, and I again began pleading with God and begging Him not to send my soul to Hell.

Then I saw a starburst of millions of stars in the sky spreading outward in every direction and leaving the image of the cross behind. All of a sudden, I felt God’s warm, peaceful, beautiful Holy Spirit pouring into my human spirit, flooding and filling it up to the brim. It was the most wonderful feeling I ever felt in my life. I felt every sin that I’d ever committed being totally washed away by His sinless blood.26 It was like a huge boulder being cut loose from my back. I was more happy than I’d ever felt in my life, and full of a joy that I’d never felt before.27 I knew from then on I could hold my head up high, look the world in its eyes, and tell everyone, "God is right and you are wrong.28 God lives and He is merciful to all those who fear Him and keep His commandments."29

I was a new person.30 I wasn’t at all the same. I was really saved. Miles of streams of God’s Holy Spirit, His life, poured into me. I was truly born again of the Spirit, born with God’s immortal life living in me. Rivers of tears came pouring out of my eyes. At first I thought I was bleeding to death through my eyes because I had not cried for years. So much water was coming out of my eyes that I actually became fearful because it was unnatural. It wasn’t blood, it was real tears of joy. A great thankfulness poured from my heart up to God because He had saved wretched me. Nothing in the world meant anything to me but the Lord. How wonderful and holy He is.31 What a God He is that He would be mindful of a bitter, hardened person like myself. And what tact He used on me. He was so firm, yet loving and gentle, using just the perfect amount of patience ever since His first visitation with me in that office where He told me I must not just talk, but must convince the people there of the things He had told me to tell them. If those people had been convinced, they would have been serving the Lord with me these past thirty-five years. Many of the unconvinced ones are dead now and are in Hell. There wasn’t anything that He did that was too much or too little. Everything He did towards my salvation was perfect.32

Oh my God, I love You so much! There could never be a better God than You. You are such a delight to me. I know You’ll never leave or forsake me because I’ll never leave or forsake You.33 I love You, Father God, Lord, and Savior, and I want the entire world to know it. I love Your moral law and I thank and praise You for living in me and giving me the strength to keep it.34 I feel so sorry for all the people in the world that don’t know You, Father, by Your presence living and working within them. Lord, save their souls. I pray this testimony of mine that You gave me will make them love You as much as I love You.

I know now that if God would do all this for me, as evil as I was, He would do this for everyone who would let Him. Otherwise, He would not have commanded His disciples to be witnesses unto Him "both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). What were the disciples to witness to the uttermost part of the earth? Their very presence with God in them, making them God-men and women, sons of God, human-Deity, was a witness to the fact that Christ with the Father by the Holy Spirit was still alive and working on earth in them. This was very evident by the miracles the Godhead did through them.35 The Words of God, preached by them to others were in reality the Spirit of God within them dispensing Himself, His immortal life, into all those that would receive it.

Jesus, who is the Word of God,36 proves this by saying, "No man can come to Me [be saved], except the Father [who is Spirit37 ] which hath sent Me draw him [by the Holy Spirit in humans]: and I will [by the Holy Spirit] raise him up at the last day" (John 6:44). The Apostle Paul verifies this statement by stating, "I laboured more abundantly than they all [all other apostles]: yet not I, but the grace [the life] of God which was with me [within his spirit]" (I Cor. 15:10). Jesus again proves this statement in Matthew 10:20 where He says, "For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." The same verse reads this way in the original Hellenic Greek spoken by the Jews: "For it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you." And in Mark 13:11 (KJV), we see "it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Spirit." When you’re saved, regenerated, the witness of God living His life in you, speaking through you, and working in other ways through you will be obvious to others. God’s life in you will be a witness to others in the world. They will see that He exists in you.

Our actions are more than words. Too many people exhort or preach the gospel, but they don’t do what Jesus states to do. Many don’t know His commandments so they obviously can’t do what they don’t know He says to do. Others know what He says, but they won’t do what He says to do. Hence, they are not convincing anyone in the world that Christ lives in them by the Spirit with the Father. What good is it to exhort people with only a human concept of what the Bible says? It must be Christ with the Father by the Spirit talking from within our body through our body’s mouth in order for a soul to be convinced they must repent of their sins and be converted from a perverted and unfruitful human spirit to a spirit filled from bottom to top with God’s immortal, life-giving Spirit. Only then will they let the Lord begin His work in them.

Before I was convinced to convert, then to go to work for God fully, I was always very tense, very nervous, and very afraid of dying.38 All these fears immediately left me when I became convinced to drop the world and serve God just like all the other disciples did when Jesus said, "Come and follow Me."39 There is something so convincing about the true, compelling, persuasive voice of God that the prophets, the apostles, and millions of others, including myself, instantly dropped whatever we were doing in order to become one with the life of God, allowing Him to convince others in, through, and by our human bodies so that we too, as Christ, might serve with Him in His ministry.

After I became convinced to spend my life convincing others as all convinced God-people do, the Lord put Susie and I together within a matter of hours.40 He lived and worked in us, winning millions of souls by our allowing Him to use our bodies.41

God does not want anyone’s soul to go to Hell.42 God wants you and I to be convinced of the truths in this literature and to possess His life, so He in us can convince others to possess His life as well.43 After we are saved, He wants us to learn and have faith in the whole Bible, His Word.44 Then He wants His life to grow up in us from a babe "unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13).45 His life must increase as our life decreases.46 We are to die daily as His life increases in us daily.47 He wants us to be totally convinced that we can convince others to actually get saved, and then, with convincing knowledge, serve the Lord.48

I am fully convinced and fully persuaded that Christ "is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" (Eph. 3:20).

Hopefully I’ve convinced you to be born again of the Spirit, born of God, with the life of God always in you and with you until the end of time.49 If so, say this prayer, then let His life grow up in you and let Him do His work in you, "the work of the Lord." Let Him start doing His work by inviting Him into His temple, your body, by saying this prayer:

Prayer

My Lord and my God, have mercy upon my soul, a sinner. 1 I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God. 2 I believe that He died on the cross and shed His precious blood for the forgiveness of all my sins. 3 I believe that God raised Jesus from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit 4 and that He sits on the right hand of God at this moment, hearing my confession of sin and this prayer. 5 I open up the door of my heart and I invite You into my heart, Lord Jesus. 6 Wash all of my filthy sins away in the precious blood that You shed in my place on the cross at Calvary. 7 You will not turn me away, Lord Jesus, You will forgive my sins and save my soul. I know because Your Word, the Bible says so. 8 Your Word says that You will turn no one away, and that includes me. 9 Therefore, I know that You have heard me, and I know that You have answered me, and I know that I am saved. 10 And I thank You, Lord Jesus, for saving my soul, and I will show my thankfulness by doing as You command and sin no more. 11

You've just completed the first step in a series of five steps which are necessary to receive salvation. Your second step is to deny yourself and take up the cross daily for the purpose of mortifying yourself, that is, for putting to death your own will, your soulful self, and the world with all of its lusts. All these must be baptized into the death of Christ.

Step three is your resurrection from the satanic life of Adam unto the sinless life of Christ. Step four is your ascension into a position of authority to reign for God on earth, and the fifth step is to reign for God on earth to the end for the purpose of bringing about the kingdom of Heaven on earth. You must learn the Word of God, then submit yourself and do what the Word says, so that the Church and the world may see evidence of your submission to God's Word, His order, and His authority in and by you.

Praise the Lord. May God reward you abundantly.
Pastor Tony Alamo

Our church receives much mail with thousands of requests for Bibles and literature. Much of our literature is printed in Hebrew, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Romanian, Polish, Czech, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Albanian, Serbian, Telugu, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, and Arabic. Pastor Alamo’s ninety-one page book, The Messiah, is currently available in Hebrew, English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Portuguese, German, French, Italian, Korean, Greek, Arabic, Japanese, and Telugu. Distributors for Alamo literature are on the increase every day throughout the world.