Even if there were a thousand people in a room with Pastor Jim Ayer, you wouldn’t be able to miss him. He towered over most people by at least a head and always wore a black hat with a wide brim. I recognised him as the friendly host of a programme on Adventist World Radio, for which he travelled to the most unusual places on Earth. But I knew nothing about his life story. That is, until I had the chance to interview him.
I have seen you at various international conventions and conferences in recent years. You are easy to spot, just as you are now.
Because of the hat I wear!
Yes, and not only that. You always have a smile on your face, and you’re always telling a story or saying something cheerful. Is there a reason why you chose these clothes?
Yes. I travel to many countries around the world and have never considered a suit to be appropriate attire for those places. We visited Maasai settlements in Tanzania and India, among many other places, and I didn’t see anyone wearing a suit and tie.
Is this the first hat you used for filming?
No, it’s probably the third one. In India, I wore a different hat, but it got soaked in the monsoon rains. The hat started shrinking because of the water, so I had to keep pushing it down onto my head. Then I replaced it with a high-quality Australian one.
Please tell us about your starting point in life.
I grew up in a very loving family. My parents were good people who loved me very much. They didn’t practise any religion. They probably believed in God and His existence, but we never went to church or prayed at home. Later, however, they started sending me to church, and when I was young, I attended churches of various denominations. For a while, I attended a Baptist church, and then I think I went to a Methodist church. But when I started high school, I decided that I didn’t want to go anymore. The only time I went to church was when I had the opportunity to be accompanied by a pretty girl.
I always got good grades and was always considered a very diligent student. Later, during high school, I also worked almost full-time at a Pepsi-Cola bottling company. As the company also distributed beer and wine, I had access to various types, which I started drinking a lot of, secretly, during work.
I think that was illegal for someone your age.
That’s right. I began to enjoy alcoholic beverages, and by the time I was in my final year of high school, I was probably already an alcoholic. I was always going to parties, yet I still got good grades. I wasn’t studying; I just managed to get good grades.
You had a sharp mind.
Yes, but I was starting to destroy it with alcohol and the other harmful substances I was taking. Then someone offered me some marijuana. I liked it.
In the United States, certain drugs are being legalised, and some people claim that they are harmless and do not affect the person using them. However, this is a lie because drug use changes you completely. I had reached the point where I didn’t want to do anything else in life but get high. I didn’t want to work anymore, even though I had once been very ambitious. I had wanted to become a vet. But after I started using drugs, I didn’t want to do anything but take drugs.
One day, I was in a room smaller than this studio and lit a marijuana cigarette. Suddenly, the room transformed into a large hall and I found myself standing on a high balcony, looking down at God and the Devil. I didn’t need to be told who they were; somehow, I knew they were talking about me. All the arguments I had ever used to convince people to take drugs—and I did that all the time—were being used by the Devil to convince God that I should belong to him. Then God spoke, but I could not hear His words; yet they silenced the Devil. The Devil came up with another argument, and God spoke again, silencing the Devil once more. This exchange continued for a while. Then, suddenly, I was back in my room, completely sober. The effects of the drugs had completely worn off.
I wondered, “What just happened?” I had boasted that no drug could make me hallucinate. My friends had experienced terrible hallucinations after taking drugs, but I had never had that reaction to any drug. As I sat there wondering what had happened, a voice said to me, “Jim, you have very little time to make a decision.”
About what?!
Every time I took drugs, that voice said the same thing: “Jim, you have little time left to make a decision. ” After a while, I couldn’t do any drugs anymore because this situation had completely taken away…
…your joy in taking drugs.
Yes. I told myself, “I have to quit drugs.” And so I did. After that, I asked myself, “What am I going to do now?” I finally called my parents, whom I hadn’t seen in a long time as I didn’t want to be around them anymore. I asked them, “Can I come home and stay with you?” They loved me, so they said, “Yes, come home!” They desperately wanted me to get back to normal.
But for eight months, I acted strangely. I would fall asleep crying because the situation I was going through was terrible and I couldn’t find the strength to overcome it alone. I firmly believe that the devil was at work in my life at that time, urging me on. “Keep taking drugs, it’s OK.”
But during that period, you stopped doing drugs…
Yes, and I didn’t drink either. But one day, I said to myself, “I’m going to the bar. Alcohol is accepted in society, isn’t it?” While I was having a drink, a man entered the bar. Because you recognise people like yourself, I thought, “This guy is on drugs.”
He said, “I need someone to drive me to the next town.” I said, “I’ll take you.” The man got into my car, and as we set off, he lit a cannabis cigarette. Before he could say anything, I snatched the cigarette from his mouth and started smoking it. This time, I didn’t hear the voice. It had been almost two years since I last heard it.
I was in a romantic relationship with a beautiful young woman, but I convinced her to start taking drugs. We got married and had a child. Once, when I was in Sacramento, California, at a party with friends, I got so high that my wife had to drive us home. After we arrived home, the voice I hadn’t heard in a long time suddenly said to me, “Jim, tonight is your last chance to make a decision.”
It was as if I were at the crossroads of eternity. I didn’t know exactly what I was facing, but I knew it would affect my life forever. I took all the drugs, went to the kitchen and told my wife, “Honey, I have to throw away all the drugs.” At that moment, my wife was high too. I went to the bathroom and flushed all the drugs down the toilet. I felt as if a huge weight I had never been aware of had been lifted from me.
Suddenly, I was overwhelmed by a wonderful feeling of joy and became so emotional that I started crying while leaning on the white porcelain toilet. When I turned around, I saw Janine standing by the door, also crying, because God had worked on her heart too. I asked her, “Would you like to pray together?” I simply said, “Lord, I’m sorry it took me so long to make a decision.” That was the starting point of a completely different life.
How did you come to understand that God wanted to give you a new life?
I’m not sure if I can answer that; no one has ever asked me before. The only thing I can tell you is that God truly exists. He helped me to see that very clearly, beyond any shadow of a doubt. I could feel His presence very strongly in my life at that moment. I know that for some people, the idea of God’s presence is unimaginable. But then I realised that God really does exist, that He wants to have a personal relationship with me, and that He loves me. I felt the need to give Him my heart. That’s all I can say.
It was beyond rational information. It was the influence of the Holy Spirit.
Yes. Later, I had periods in my relationship with God when I strayed from Him. I now believe that God works on each person’s heart so that, if we open our hearts and minds, we realise that there is Someone above us who speaks to us and urges us, “This is the way, come to Me!”
What did you do after that?
My wife and I said to each other, “Now we are Christians, maybe we should go to church.” And we went for a while, but the pastor talked about the same things every week, and I started studying the Bible because I felt the need for something more substantial. After about six months, we went to another church and I continued studying the Bible. We went to several churches, but sometimes the sermons were not in accordance with biblical teachings. We went to a church where they said that sinners would burn in hell forever. I asked, “Where does it say that in the Bible? Please show me.” The gathering ended abruptly, and everyone went home without answering my question. Next time, I approached the pastor and said, “Everyone in the church says that sinners will burn in hell forever. Please tell me where it says that in the Bible.” He replied, “Jim, God showed me in a vision who will burn in hell forever and who will be saved for eternity. But I think you need to find another church to attend.”
His answer was to suggest that I go to another church! I was beginning to feel very discouraged. Then one day, I had a dental emergency and I knew of a dentist who was known to be extremely faithful. I called him and asked, “Can I come to you for a filling?” When I arrived at his office and sat in the dentist’s chair, I said, “Doctor, everyone in town thinks you’re a religious fanatic. What are your beliefs?” He began to talk to me about his faith while he worked.
He talked to me for 45 minutes, and everything he said was consistent with what I had read in the Bible. All my questions were answered. I asked him, “What church do you go to?” “The Adventist church.” I thought to myself, “I’ve heard about these fanatical Adventists, and I don’t want anything to do with them.” I think the dentist saw the look on my face because I couldn’t hide it very well. He said, “If you want, come to church one day. Services are held on Saturdays.” My wife and I had just had a discussion about which day the Bible says we should keep holy.
Really?! Without knowing of any church that observes that day.
That’s right. But my wife said, “You just have to look at the calendar and you’ll see which day God says is the seventh.” I kept thinking about this, and then my dentist invited me to his church on a Saturday. After a few weeks, I finally decided to go. Well, on the day I went to the Adventist church, the first topic they discussed was the Sabbath. I was feeling a little arrogant and told myself, “I’ve spotted mistakes in other churches’ pastors, and I’ll spot them here too.” I started taking notes.
After that, I went to the library with my sermon notes and began to do some research. I read all the materials I could find, looking for mistakes. The following Sabbath, I returned to church, took more notes, but still found no errors in the pastor’s sermon. Since then, I have always attended the Adventist church because nothing that the pastor there has said has contradicted the Bible. If the Lord shows me that another church is the true one, then I will go to that church.
But what impact did this have on your personal and family life?
It was very interesting. I gave up everything and went to study to become a pastor.
However, during my college years, I didn’t read the Bible or pray as much. I didn’t talk to God as a friend. I read the books required for my theology courses, of course, but I didn’t develop a personal relationship with God, which is what He truly desires for us.
During that time, a friend said to me, “I want to start a real estate agency. Will you join me?” The business was so successful that my name appeared in the top 400 in North America. After just a few years, I owned several houses and plots of land. My wife ran another business, and I hosted a radio show and lobbied on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
What topics did you cover?
It was a talk show, so we mainly discussed politics and related issues. By human standards, it was very successful. One day, while I was at church wearing a suit and having done everything a good Christian should, a voice I hadn’t heard in years told me, “Jim, the Lord is going to pour out His Spirit on many people around you, but you won’t realise it and you won’t be part of it.” This was a real turning point in my life and my wife’s life.
But what caused this change? Was it an emotional response? Or a new way of understanding scripture? Tell us more about this. Do you think everyone who needs an experience with God will hear a voice, as you did?
Probably not. However, God will try to reach the hearts of all those who need such an experience in various ways. Very few people will probably have an experience similar to mine, but God reveals Himself to everyone in different ways, through events and situations in their lives.
What was your response to the message you received from God?
I told a friend of mine, who is an orthopaedic surgeon, about my experience, and he said, “I had something similar.” The Lord had not spoken to him directly, but the message was the same. We wondered what we should do about it. We decided to meet on Friday evenings to study the Bible together. The study guide included a covenant in which you committed to spending around 45 minutes a day praying and studying scripture. Everyone else in the group signed the covenant, but I didn’t because I thought, “I don’t have that much time.”
At the end of the meeting, we watched a video in which the preacher seemed to be speaking directly to me, saying: “You have gathered so many things in front of your door that even if God knocks, you will never be able to get to the door to open it.” I started crying again. As everyone was getting ready to leave, I looked at the covenant that I hadn’t signed and finally signed it. It was similar to when I cried leaning on the toilet bowl because I felt a weight lift off my shoulders.
God wants to help us get rid of the burdens we carry and give us freedom. He wants us to have a personal relationship with Him. He wants to be our best friend—that is the relationship the God of the universe wants with us. I know many people find this difficult to understand, but He wants to be our best friend. God gave His only Son so that we could have a relationship with Him.
I want people to realise that God exists and loves us. I would never want to go back to a time when I didn’t believe in Him.
