Old Dog V
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Bob’s Testimony
I have asked Bob Neumann to share some of his personal testimony again with the list.
(Meri Burlingame editor of Apostle/Prophet web site)
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Yours truly was born 2/20/52 in Streator, IL. first of 8 children. My family was Roman Catholic and i was raised in “THE CHURCH” which included catholic elementary school. I was the only one in my graduating class to have a desire to read the bible…. new testament only….mostly the gospels…especially JOHN’s. At age 8 became an alter boy…overly faithful and committed. And for some strange reason i wanted to please GOD…to serve HIM alone. And it came as no surprise to my classmates and the joy of my parents when at age 13 i declared i wanted to be a priest. I wanted to serve GOD and to help people. You ever read the prayer of St Francis of Assisi…LORD MAKE ME AN INSTRUMENT OF YOUR PEACE…. so at age 14 i went off to Seminary/Conventional Franciscan….i really wanted to be a Maryknoll and go to Africa/s America/Asia to care ‘for the least’ of HIS FLOCK… ABBA’s hand was on me because no one knew that that order had decided to be involved in secular matters mixing Marxism and humanism….in 1965-6 i would have been in the middle of the beginning…. in Seminary we were ‘cloistered’ …silence, ritual prayers, everything coordinated by bells telling us where and when to go. And all went well for 8-10 months and something went real bad real fast. It began when i shared with my prefect (a priest that was one part councilor, one part role model, and one part fascist dictator) my desire to go to the mission fields to serve….and he laughed…and laughed ….and laughed. Then he explained that that was only where the stupid wound up…the fools who didn’t ‘get it’. And he began to explain the dynamics of religion and how it is the same ”game”… getting all you can out of the system by being ‘in’ the system and playing it for all you can…all it is worth… and according to him…and many others…that it didn’t matter who you where… Franciscan, or diocesan, Jesuit or Trappist …. catholic, orthodox, protestant were all the same….and i have found over the next 30+ years there was much truth in all he said….
So i took a clear look at what i was in and at age 17 i wanted nothing to do with GOD for i mistook “religion” for GOD for i knew of HIM only…. so college began and ended abruptly….and i joined the work force. But i was always looking for TRUTH. And as i started getting the full brunt of the real world i wanted more because my spirit and my future had ‘died’…. and of course there were those who picked up on the ”vibes” i was sending out…. remember the flower power era? Well the same things the Franciscans saw ‘others’ saw too. And many were glad to help… i studied Akido and ZEN because it required the discipline that Franciscan Catholicism was built on. I ‘knew’ i needed it but never new why. And i began to study areas we now call new age….and got off it when the opportunity to ”work” my way through nursing school was grabbed upon. And for the next three years i worked/studied during the week and partied the weekend. 1974 i graduated, passed my boards and when i was not working i partied and played golf…self discipline and a challenge to do better each time out. Just realized i never mentioned sports and a violent desire for competition…well too late now…. in 1975 i moved to Miami for great weather, good money, and a promise of booze, babes, and blues….and something messed it all up big time….i fell in love with my wife and decided to ‘become respectable’. we married on 1/10/76….got our first mortgage that november and changed jobs for big money….from $5.15 an hour to $6.08 +25% shift differential ….funny how i can remember it sis…
For the next 3+ years i was good and faithful….and Mila wanted a baby….and we couldn’t so we went from expert to expert. I had a whole in my life too…an empty spirit and i started looking seriously for TRUTH….and found something that was ‘real’…. and Mila was pregnant…shouldn’t have happened…but did. Probably the roughest year we faced till…but that is getting ahead…. Jennifer came and Mila was happy….it took her a year to get back to speed….but i was happy….now things are getting a little foggy in my memory because i wanted to fill that hole and found truth and reality and power. For the next 11-12 years i slowly wadded into the pit not knowing what it really was….and power came with ‘the voices’….
I had dreams and visions….i had visual imagery and out of body experiences…. and i wanted more….but there was a cost….suddenly i was ‘told’ to go beyond Zen to the real power of the mind…Hindu mysticism and channeling…..and i balked and refused…and then i was in hell….and stayed there for i have no idea…. and i never missed a day of work….never missed a paycheck….never cheated on my wife….never hurt my daughter …… but i was dying inside…3-4 months of complete insomnia because the voices could not be fought in my sleep…. so i changed….my wife suddenly was talking about a divorce, my daughter would not stay in the same room with me. And i was within a week of being fired and i knew it when i decided to get out…the voices/Voice said i had lost everything and had nothing left….so i got out my 357 and at 2-4 am…who knows… i loaded it and something strange happened….
A month or so earlier Mila was given a Little White book by some ‘strange old ladies’….
It was a Gideon’s Nurses New Testament and Psalms…. i threw it in the garbage….
As i loaded the gun i reached into ‘the drawer’….the one we throw everything into and my hand came out with that book and it was opened to a page….
The first thing my eyes saw was ….
1Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.
2 Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.
3 If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?
4 But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.
5 I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.
6 My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.
7 Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.
8 And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
And i believed it to the center of my being….and then i asked what i had done wrong and i looked again into that book and saw the other page….
1 Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
2 It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.
3 Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.
5 Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
And there was my answer…the LORD builds….and i surrendered completely.
I must have read most to the psalms of assent….and fell asleep for the first time in only ABBA knows….. when exactly all this happened i can not say….because the battles to put thing right in my life were long and hard….but ABBA was merciful.… I began to study and to do what the ‘red letters’ said…..i was too naive and unchurched to know any difference. I began to pray and meditate. I began a bible study out of liberty university….did great until the teachings on the MOST HOLY SPIRIT…..found i was in great error according to their doctrine. …the MOST HOLY SPIRIT said i would get over it and i heard ABBA laugh. So i walked out into the wilderness and learned at HIS FEET.
Funny how when ABBA said i needed to be sharpened the first time i did not understand…..he sent me to a ‘Pentecostal’ church where i ‘labored’ for 7 years and got nothing but a distaste for religion….amazing that when i first went there most of the ‘people’ made a lot of assumptions…..i had been ‘saved’, ‘spirit filled’, ‘anointed’ a long time….not really but outside of ‘saved’ i was not sure i understood their dialect of ‘Christianize’. But a little praying grandma kept inviting me to here care group meeting….
And one sunday that little voice said go…..so when she came to ask i said what do you want me to bring….she said just yourself….and i found myself in a three hour get together with the intercessors of that church…. now i talked to GOD and assumed everybody did….and it took minimal time to know i was dead wrong…..years later Grandma Dolores informed me that she was told to get me to her care group. ABBA just did not tell me about it….like i said i like HIS laugh…. now these were old warriors right down the line and the young ones were learning from them….and then i sat down…the lone male….and they were easy with me…the first week. Abby always knew when i was hearing, Dolores always knew i had a word, Marsha always knew when i had a song….Hope always knew when i was ready to be let loose in prayer. They also knew when it was time to leave….
But they are still on the wall. It seems they were given a bigger picture because i was not ready…but ABBA knows best….. the crux of the matter was that when i did things i did not completely understand they could explain the GIFTS without intimidation. I scared the daylights out of the pastor every time we got within reach. I did not know anything about being prophetic, i just spoke what i ‘heard’ in my spirit. The intercessors, like you sis knew it was ABBA…. so did pastor but was afraid to hear what he needed to hear….can’t blame him now…i still pray for him…. and then there were the things they had never seen before…..that which went beyond a gift….they said i had ‘mantles’ and i said fine….they had peace and i had questions they had no answers to….and they said to WAIT>>>TRUST>>>OBEY….. not any easier now than then….
One last point….once in intercession while doing their usual binding and casting down something happened….i began to speak in tongues as they say and ‘took’ off…
I had never done it with the group….i thought it was just a ‘vision’ thing….you know…
But one lady ‘saw me stand up wearing ‘full armor’….another saw angels with drawn swords charging off to battle….many heard thundering in the sanctuary below the prayer room. To say it was a very quite place when i stopped and dropped my forehead to the ground. How long it was quiet i don’t know but when i reared back up on my knees i knew something was wrong….14 people with 14 sets of emotions…a couple were pale and shaking….Hope had a smile three feet long and nodding her head as she waged her finger at me. Dolores laughed and Abby cried….the others i did not really notice…. and in the depths of my being i heard the CAPTAIN say…YES, IT WAS REAL…. and i learned that the SECOND HEAVEN….THE VALLEY OF VISION is as real, if not more real than the natural.
I hope you understand….if not i’ll get over it…. it seems every step in my life ABBA was there and got me through…. the first WORDS i heard were IT”S ALL RIGHT, EVERYTHING’S GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT….
Peace
SHEMUEL
[Site Curator’s note: There are articles listed in Old Dog I that also share Bob’s testimony.]
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