Norman Willis, Corporate Servant Bio
It has been over ten years since the Creator saved me on June 6, 1999, by a miracle that was so powerful; I knew instantly that I would be giving the rest of my life to Him. Serving Him has oftentimes been difficult and challenging, but it has been the best choice I have ever made. I have not regretted it for a moment.
I was born in 1963, in the greater Seattle area. My earliest memory of religious things is that of praying when I was about seven years old. I remember being on my knees by my bedside praying that no matter what it took, YHWH would make me more like His Son (whom at that time I called “Jesus”). I kept on praying until I could not kneel any longer.
When I was saved twenty-nine years later, I felt I had wasted so much time since that first prayer; I wanted to make up for lost time. If there was an extra vow that a man could take, I wanted to take it. Three years after I was saved, I took both a Nazirite and a celibate vow. Although I had not come to a proper understanding of what these were, I now understand that these two vows are essentially related, and that they are vows to work for His kingdom full time.
As a child we went to the local Methodist church on Sundays. For some reason it seemed like the children in the Methodist church were meaner than the children outside of the church. My parents got divorced when I was nine, and I began to ask myself what good Christianity was if the children were all mean and if it did not keep my parents together. At that age I did not understand that even if Yeshua’s (Jesus’) followers do not always do the right thing, it is not a reflection on Him, so I stopped going to church.
More than anything else, however, it was through being taught evolution by teachers whom I trusted in my government school, that my faith in Scripture was undermined, causing me to fall away from the Father. Despite this, I still wanted to make a sacrifice with my life that would help others. Since my parents raised me to be patriotic, it was only natural for me to turn to military service.
Throughout subsequent years as a young man serving my country in the US Army light airborne infantry brigade, it was during my first assignment in the Republic of Panama that I began to understand that something was dreadfully wrong with the world and that there really were spiritual powers of darkness in control of governments. Life took on an intense seriousness as I came to realize that somehow the government was manipulating the mainstream news media, and was intentionally concealing the real story from the public under the guise of drug running. It led me to a real crisis point in my life, where I began searching for answers. Having been indoctrinated since childhood to believe in evolution, I did not believe Scripture could be correct, so I looked elsewhere.
It was at that point that my company commander taught me about eastern mysticism and divination. My initial skepticism and doubt was soon dispelled when, after consulting the oracles (mainly Tarot and the I Ching) many times in succession, I received uncanny results. The turn to embracing divination was one of the darkest periods of my life.
While in the army I studied classical eastern spiritual texts in my search for truth and even studied under a spiritual tutor, a Korean Zen Buddhist monk. However, when an opportunity to become his head disciple was presented to me, I had already begun to seriously doubt my Zen master’s ethics. He compared himself to “Jesus,” but even then I could see that while “Jesus” had laid down his life to serve others, My Zen master’s ethics were all about being served. The Buddhists talk a good game about transcending the “self,” but my experience was that in the end, their focus is really only on themselves (and having everyone worship them as demigods).
Having left the army, I sought answers in psychology. To my excitement I was accepted to begin a four year doctorate at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, which required me to relocate. However, as the program drew closer, I began drawing closer to Scripture. I now see that YHWH, through His faithfulness, was drawing me nearer to Him, because I was seeking spiritual truth.
It soon became impossible for me to pursue the doctorate, once I realized that the school was intentionally screening against Judeo-Christian belief rather than considering all the scientific evidence fairly and impartially. I could not spend four years in a school that closed its eyes to the truth.
In the midst of those dark days of frustration, I made what was probably one of the most difficult yet most important decisions ever—to seek the Spirit directly. When spiritual matters became my life’s priority, it was then that YHWH really began to bless me. YHWH’s call upon my life came soon after.
Because I did not yet understand the need to obey the government appointed over us, I got involved in a protest against government infringements on the second amendment. One night, after throwing a “block party” to help bring people together, I became badly intoxicated. In that intoxicated state, I underwent what is technically termed a “post-traumatic stress break.” Basically it is an episode where the mind is overwhelmed by fear, and it leads one to do things one should not. Having “run from” my experiences in Panama for ten years, I called a 911 operator and basically “exploded into the phone.” All of the hurt, anger, and fear came rushing out in a mish-mash of emotions, pain, and anger.
Although my recall of this incident is limited, the call was recorded. I am told I made threats against those who were taking away people’s civil liberties, and the freedoms that veterans had given their lives for. Under the influence of the toxins I was in a completely illogical frame of mind, and I told the 911 operator that I had guns and that “no one had better try to take them away from me.”
Since I was challenging the county sheriff’s authority to take away the people’s rights under the constitution, the sheriff sent a SWAT team to my house, believing I could be a potential “terrorist threat.” When the deputies arrived I surrendered myself into their custody (and agreed to all of their terms), but I was nonetheless thrown to the ground and held by five officers while a sixth beat me repeatedly in the back of the head.
Believing that I was going to die, and that I had just seconds to live, I called out to “God” for help. Suddenly a gold colored energy filled my head as if my entire skull became filled with flowing molten gold colored energy. Although I had been in panic the moment before, it was so beautiful that the thought I was going to die no longer mattered to me.
As I lay there face down, waiting to die, when the next blow came, it was as if the golden energy funneled itself out of the back of my head and into the officer’s hand. The last blow did not hurt at all, and at that moment the officer’s hand broke.
It was clear that it was the Hebrew Creator, Yahweh (sometimes called “Jehovah”), who had saved me. After being broken in spirit (so I could be filled with His Spirit), I began praying daily that YHWH would show me what He wanted me to do and that He would cause me to do it. I knew I had to put everything I had ever been taught aside, including the faith I had learned as a child, and read from Scripture alone, to seek its truth.
Having proven to myself from the Old Testament (Tanach) that the Messiah had already come, and that He was Yeshua, my next concern was to know which version of the faith He had originally delivered to His disciples.
Although I did briefly return to the church I was raised in, once I witnessed the pastor openly contradicting the Messiah in his sermons, using one verse to explain away another, I could not stay there. Having left my old church, I went to an Episcopalian cathedral with a powerful preacher. I delighted in his sermons and it was there that the Spirit fell upon me after taking communion, and I felt the indwelling rush. The preacher retired some months later, however, and the steering committee replaced him with a homosexual man. In his introductory sermon he talked about how he hated the parable of the wedding feast, and informed the congregation that it did not apply to our lives today. He finished by impressing upon us all the importance of raising the millions of dollars it would take to finish remodeling the cathedral. Although he was humorous, I was aghast.
TimaTheus Bet 4.3-5
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;
4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
The people seemed relieved when the pastor told them the Scriptures did not apply to them. They left happy. It was like they wanted to be told that just so long as they made a good show, they did not have to keep His Word. That seemed to be what “church” was to them.
Where were the real believers? I had to find them. The Word said that fellowship was important, and I needed to find other dedicated people with whom I could learn and grow. Not knowing where else to go, I thought perhaps I could find them in rural America.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 13:45-46
45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls,
46 who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”
I moved to an area in eastern Washington that I knew from my childhood—a place in the American heartland. It was a place where people left the fruit and money box unattended at roadside fruit stands. People weighed out their purchase, made change, and all was held on the honor system. If the unadulterated truth was to be found anywhere in America, I felt surely it would be here, in that rural part of the heartland where the Bible was still very much a part of everyday life.
Praying for direction, I moved to a small rural town that was to be my new home. The Seventh Day Adventists left a flyer in my mailbox that asked, “When was the Sabbath changed to Sunday? Where do the prophecies say that the day of weekly worship would ever be changed?” I could not answer that, so I went to study with them. The Sabbath seemed correct, but they kept other holidays the Bible did not advocate, such as Christmas, and Easter. Doing some research, I realized the Bible said the days of worship were not to be changed. It also said not to keep Asherah or Ishtar, which I learned were different variations of the same name (Easter).
Melachim Aleph (1st Kings) 18:19
19 “Now therefore, send and gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel, the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets of Asherah (Easter), who eat at Jezebel's table."
Thinking they would be interested, I showed it to the people at church. They humored me for a while, but eventually the church elders began to suggest that if I wanted to stay there, I should stop asking so many questions. I wanted to know how they could they see that the Sabbath was never changed, but they missed the fact that Christmas and Easter were not commanded. It was like the blinders had only come part of the way off.
My neighbors, as it turned out, were Messianic Jews—Jews who believed Yeshua was the Messiah. They kept the Old Testament, as well as the New. Instead of Sunday, Christmas and Easter, they only kept the days that Scripture commanded. They asked, “If Yahweh does not tell us to do it, then why should we do it? How would that honor Him?” I could not answer those questions, so I began to study with them. We met in their house on the Sabbath and throughout the week, talking about His Word.
Over time, and by word of mouth, I met other believers and seekers. I met still more seekers on the Internet, and many of them had the same sorts of questions as I did. As I began studying the questions, I wrote down the results of my studies. I began sending them out via email, and made a website on which to post them. Whenever someone thought they had found a mistake in my studies, I would go back and study some more, and correct any mistakes I found.
Some of the questions were very big. You can read about all of these questions on the Nazarene Israel website. Please test everything you find, and hold fast only to that which you find to be good. Let His Spirit alone be your guide.
1 Thessalonians 5:20-21
21 Test all things; hold fast what is good.
Yahweh has brought us a long way in ten years. As imperfect as we all are, I do not believe that our journey is anywhere near done. Rather, I believe we have only just begun. However, I pray you will join us on this journey as we return to our ancient homeland in Israel, and are reunited with our brothers and sisters in Judah.
May Yahweh bless you and your house.
Norman B. Willis
In the Ephraimite Dispersion,
Estimated 6011 (2011 CE).