Hey, Everybody! I was thinking about something early this morning that turned my thoughts toward you. I’d just been going over my memory verses and started reflecting on the whole journey of faith. The ups and downs, the twists and turns. The pain and then sometimes the dullness that scared me twice as much as the pain. Then something would happen and revival would come and back in the saddle I’d go again. His Word would jump back off the page at me and I’d feel fully alive and wonder why I’d doubted. I rewound even further back to the years that I hoped so much that this God I’d been told about was real. I needed Him so badly. I found my heart believing and I deliberately placed my faith in Him. Then I thought about a specific season through which I went from hoping He was real to knowing He was real. Don’t get me wrong. I am still challenged to faith in many other matters and always will be, because “faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen” and “without faith it is impossible to please God.” (Hebrews 11:1,6) But I seldom sit around and wonder if God exists and still speaks and still acts. Like you, I still see as in a mirror darkly and I wonder why some things happen the way they do and how it will all work out and what some things in Scripture really mean. But “I know the One I have believed in.” (2 Timothy 1:12)
We have so many new believers and even a sizable population of seekers in this community. Praise God, we do! We need to question our effectiveness the moment we don’t. So many of them would probably like to ask us how we “know” this God is real. So I ask those of you today to whom this applies to share a season in which you became convinced to the marrow of your bones that this is FOR REAL.
Think it through and be deliberate in your testimony. Please limit your story to one meaty paragraph so that we can read as many as possible. I can hardly wait. Let’s testify, girlfriends.
Oh there are SO MANY! I will share about when I was so depressed working full time, knowing God had told me to stay home with my child. I got in such a pit because of not following His call for me. I am a teacher, so unlike other jobs you are “locked in” so to speak for that school year. That year was the toughest year, being out of the will of God. I prayed so hard for Him to provide a way and show me how to do this and make it to the end of the year then re-evaluate about the next year. But, how was I to give up an amazing job, at an amazing school, do something totally contradictory to what “appeared” best to all the world, and not know how we would make it financially?! Well, with GOD of course!
From a devotion on my desk calendar one day specifically stating about being in a job that made you miserable even if it “seemed” to be perfect to the world all the way to me listening to “A Quick Word with Beth” and her saying that same day God may be calling you to simplify, and as an example she used going from a full-time to part-time job or no job at all!!!! I was so convinced CLEARLY what He had told me. My husband was not so convinced! But he had prayed (after he had worked the budget a million different ways) that if I were to really quit and stay at home that God would show him how we could get past the one bill that put us over the budget and unable to do it (we had cut down to just the necessities and were bare as we could get). He asked for my student loan to somehow be taken care of…well guess what came in the mail saying my loan had been RELIEVED…yep that’s right within just weeks of his prayer! Because I had worked in a low-income school for 6 years (that was the exact amount needed and notice I could not have quit one day sooner or I would not have had the 6 years) I was eligible for a certain amount the state would allow toward my loan…how about the fact the exact amount they allowed was the exact amount we needed to pay it off! YEp that’s right..DEBT PAID IN FULL. God is REAL and HE has worked in my life in so many ways, but this is just one way God showed Himself oh so REAL and my husband was knocked off his feet! HE had to say yes to me staying at home with my child!
Glory to God ! Awesome story.
I love that story, Amanda. I taught full-time for a few years after our first child was born. I struggled with that every day. God opened up a part-time teaching position in another school when I was pregnant with our second child (yes, I interviewed pregnant). What a blessing that has been!
Thank you so much!
Bless you sisters! JoLynn, thanks for sharing! That is awesome! After staying at home for 3 years now with my two children, this year God opened a part-time job for me as well…and you know that just doesn’t happen in education! Praise Him!
THAT is awesome!
I am in the same position you were in…working full time while my sweet baby girl is being cared for by someone else. She is turning 1 in a few days and I feel like I’ve missed so much. My heart is broken and I am miserable. I cry to God daily for my circumstances to change. In the financial situation that my husband and I are in, we just cant see a way around it at the moment..although he is in the process of pursuing a new career path, but reading your story gives me hope that God is listening and possibly working things out behind the sceens at this very moment. He has made His presence known so many times in my life, but right now, it is just so hard to wait and trust while my heart is breaking. Thanks again for you story.
God is real to me. My dad died on November 12, 2010…18 years to the day that my brother died. God is real to me because out of those deaths has come life. New life in family relationships, new life in my relationshp with Christ, new life in my own heart. It did not come quickly, but the promise of God is that death is not the end of the story. He has promised life. Christ died so the death will not have the final word. Not the death of a person, or a dream or a relationship. He is real. I have life.
God has used your words to speak to me. I live so paralyzed in fear of death of the ones I love that I end up missing out on life. Thank you so much for your testimony.
Have you ever listened to Beth Moore’s Esther Session #4… If ____, then ____. You will be blessed by this session. It helped me get through my little sisters death from brain cancer.
Have been thinking about this for days now.
My memory doesn’t serve me well for many huge “That had to be God” moments. But I’ve come to find that most often God isn’t in the fire, in the earthquake, in the hurricane, but in the still, small voice. I keep thinking of a period of time three years back when my husband and I had just come through a horrific time in our marriage, my family was estranged from me, and we moved from the city to rural MN. It was so quiet and still. Looking out my kitchen window there wasn’t a living thing in sight – just a vast expanse of fields and trees, and nothingness. My loneliness threatened to swallow me up whole. I was NOT actively seeking God. I was very confused and angry at him, and my heart was just in shreds. But when I look for a time to relate about how I know God is real, I keep getting the image of me standing and looking forlornly out that window, not sure how I would make it through another day alone there, my soul gasping for breath. He was there with me. I didn’t want to talk to him, but he was still there. Sometimes the best friends don’t say anything – they just sit with you and let you be. It seems to me that He orchestrated that move, to give me the space from people that I needed, and to give my husband and I the cocoon of distance that we needed to focus on each other again. It was in that little house, with all that stillness, that we were solidified as a family, as a couple, and we really took on our personality. Only God could have brought me through that time stronger instead of weaker. And he just stood there with me, listened to my anger and my hurt, and didn’t try to talk me out of it. There is something so powerful and healing in that still, small voice. But sometimes it’s hindsight that tells us that He was there, rather than huge revelations.
amen <3
beautiful testimony of God’s providence for us all!
One morning I headed out to work and realized in a minute I had turned the wrong way and was having to take the long way. It frustrated me that I was going to be a little late until I rounded a corner and there before my eyes was the most beautiful sunrise I had ever seen. Immediately God said, ” I brought you this way this morning so you could see the beautiful view from here.” He went on to minister to my soul by telling me that my whole life was like that. He had brought me through every single situation….. low self esteem, depression, traumatic marriage experience, that he rescued……. He brought me down those paths, not by accident, but because He wanted me to see the view from there, the view of Him!!! I’ve seen Him faithful, merciful, gracious, kind, long suffering, healing, all powerful and much more. Every day, more and more I KNOW He is for real and I can not imagine life without Him. I love Him so.
I would love to hear about how he rescued your marriage. I’m going through my own “traumatic” experience and can use the encouragement.
The first time I remember God feeling totally real to me was when I was 13 or 14. Someone very close to me had called me irresponsible among other things when I had truly been doing my best. I was washing the dishes and crying when I felt very real arms wrap around me and a still voice say “I love you and I am proud of you.” It still gives me goosebumps 20 years later. It was a real encounter with God at a tender age, I really believe that changed the course of my life.
I was in a very dark place, literally just after ‘a season of seduction’ (as i learnt from doing ‘When Godly people do ungodly things’ a few months later), and when I faced reality again I found myself questioning if this was all real or if it had just been a nice idea that I ate up in my gullible teenage years… Whilst trying to navigate my way back to God through a barrage of lies, I searched for some kind of proof that I should not give up, that He IS real, and that it was not too late for, that I had not “ruined my calling”… The evening after a day of much wrestling, I was at my Esther bible study around lesson 4 or 5 I think, and the lesson wrap up at the end was Isaiah 45:3 “I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name.” …that I AM the Lord… in that moment I knew that God was real. And the He sees, and that He hears, and that everything I had once been so convinved of, really IS true.
it’s in the quiet places. the times when i am stripped of me. the tears come and I feel His presence and He is there. and then sometimes he kisses me with a beautiful sky out my window…or a perfect word from His Word…or laughter outside my door reminding me to be thankful…or a song to lift me up…or a shift in my pity toward gratefulness and i know that it is not me that could have done that…
God became real to me while I was reading the book Get out of the Pit. I ask God to show me him, because I never really felt him before. Just at that moment a warm feeling came over me.
My God is real for I can feel it in my soul.
Not in my feelings, not in someone’s actions or my own.
Not what anyone else says.
Only God, could and would carry me during so much pain, sickness, divorce, and death and love me until I was strong in him.
Never ending praise to God my Father, & Jesus the savior of my soul.
amen!!!
My “season” was about 19 years ago. My good friend’s baby daughter was born with several heart and blood vessel birth defects and was facing risky open heart corrective surgery. I was sitting at my kitchen table, alone, praying and crying over this poor baby and what she and her parents faced (I had a baby girl then too), when I felt a warm embrace across my shoulders and I was flooded with God’s perfect peace. My tears of fear and pain turned to tears of joy and awe. I felt God’s reality in my marrow.
Fast forward 19 years and this baby girl for whom I prayed is now a lovely 20 year old young lady.
I, too, experienced God when my daughter was born 12 wks early at 2 lbs. 13 oz. It was a roller coaster of emotions for the 6 wks she was in the NICU but I DID NOT WORRY. I felt that peace all over me that surpasses all understanding. I knew Jesus was in that place with me and I knew she would be OK, and now 7 years later she is standing over my shoulder with her hot breath on my cheek trying to make sense of what I’m typing! Praise Him, he is Everything!
I have had many times that I am aware that God is real when He answers prayers, put the right person on my path or lets me open my Bible at just the right place when I am crying out for guidance. BUT it is the ‘in my face, WOW’ moments that convince me that He is a loving God. Just recently I was so stressed by my husband and his harshness towards our adult children that I had made myself physically ill with a migraine. We were drive through the bush and I was pleading with the LORD for an answer to my situation when we came around a corner on the track. There, parked on the side of the road was an old van. Across the side of the van was written “stressless”. I then realised that when I gave a problem to the Him I had to regard it as being dealt with and stop taking it back and worrying myself into being a stressed out, frantic mother (with a headache) who was not reflecting the glory of the LORD. I am a slow learner but a willing one.
For me, my journey began when I took your “Believing God” study. I too knew all about God in my head, but what was really missing was knowing God in my heart.Your statement during that study that “You may not have all the answers in life, but you KNOW who your God is.” was a powerful motivator to wanting to know God more. That statement has transformed my life as I went on a search to find out what it meant to know and believe God. God has done the miraculous in my heart as He has been faithful to reveal Himself to me. My life has taken on more meaning and purpose as each day I believe Him more and my heart yearns to share with other women who they are as His daughters and how they can believe Him for their lives. His is forever faithful!
In 2006, as a sophomore in college, I attended the Passion conference in Nashville, TN. I left Lexington, KY as a social work major at UK who knew she wanted to work with the Deaf community not really knowing what to expect God to do at Passion, but had heard incredible stories and was just flat out excited! The entire four days of the conference were full of opportunities to be obedient to God’s calling on my life in seemingly small ways. I just remember being nervous, but trusting that if I stepped out on faith in what God wanted me to do that it would be honored and glorifying to Him. Looking back, those seemingly small tests of my obedience were preparing me for a much bigger step in obedience. After returning from Passion on a Thursday (and it is truly incredible – go if you have ever get the chance whether as a student or volunteer!) I was sitting on the couch at work on a Friday (I was nanny) and for the first time felt like I was hearing God loud and clear saying to me “I don’t want social work for you anymore; I want something else”. My mind was all over the place! Something else? What else? So, I picked up the laptop sitting there and pulled up trusty ol’ Google and searched ‘sign language in Kentucky’. Eastern Kentucky University’s interpreter training program popped up. I clicked it, found a phone number, called and found out what I would need to do to transfer from UK to EKU and started the process with only a week to finish it all before classes started for the Spring 2006 semester.
A little background info – I knew I wanted to work with the Deaf community since right after high school in 2004 and hadn’t been able to get into ASL (American Sign Language) classes at UK because they fill up so fast so I was tutoring with two ladies who were both fluent. I was tutored from late August to just before Christmas of 2005 as well as being involved in any Deaf event I could. That’s all the “training” I had when I found out I had one week to pass tests for ASL 1, 2, and 3 to be ready for ASL 4 with my peers, be accepted to EKU, and register for classes. By the grace of God – it all happened! I started at EKU in the Spring of 2006 and at this point still didn’t know if I would be accepted to the Interpreter training program (ITP), but was trusting that the Lord had gotten me to this point and would work it out, which is exactly what He did! I interviewed in March along with 29 other hopefuls (most of whom had been at this whole sign language thing a lot longer than I had) and two weeks later found out I had been accepted to fill one of 20 spots! It was crazy to look back over the previous 8 months and see how much had changed and how NONE of it could point back to me. It could only go to the glory of Christ! In the following two years I completed a degree, graduated in 2008, started a job with the company I interned with, and have been working with them since ’08. I became nationally certified only a year out of my program, which is another testimony to God’s provision. And NOW, I am headed to Fort Worth, TX in a week to interpret at the Passion conference! It will be my 3rd time interpreting at Passion (getting plugged in with Passion is WHOLE ‘nother God story!). Things have come so full circle and I can only praise the God I serve for that. He allowed Passion to be a catalyst for the path my life would take and now I get to be part of providing access to that same experience for the Deaf community. It’s incredible. Humbling that God would use me. God is absolutely real in my life. Countless stories to share that would prove that fact.
Thanks for the opportunity to share my story. I love getting to tell it!
I began to know that God was real when He began speaking to me through His word. It was when God and I began to have honest to goodness conversations that I knew this thing was FOR REAL. I would say in my darkest moments “God I am afraid!” That same day during my devotional time He would say back ” Do not be afraid for I am always with you.” I would say ” I don’t know where to go or what decision to make” and then that day at church the pastor would preach on Isaiah 30:21. I would say ” God I am so lonely and scared” only to have a friend call me to tell me God put me on her heart. To this day this has been our relationship. I speak to Him from the depths of my heart and He answers me, and saves me time and time again.
In June, 2008 in Swaziland, Africa I was holding a young orphan girl in my arms, weeping and praying for her and God was there and He was more real to me in that moment then ever before. Knowing where I had been in my life and what God had brought me through, and how He had given me His heart for orphans in a part of the world I had never heard of before and how He had orchestrated the trip to that very spot in Africa…yes, it was a ‘God you are REAL!’ moment 🙂
Forgive me for this very meaty paragraph. I really did try to shorten it…
I was raised in church since I was 9 yrs old and heard many testimonies of people delivered from financial ruin, cancer, and so on. No matter how much I would hear a testimony and nod my head in approval, way down deep inside I doubted all of it. Over many years, this mindset continued to fester deep inside my belief system. Whenever I’d hear or read that “a check just showed up out of nowhere” I’d roll my eyes. Oh, puh-leez. So sick of that. No check ever showed up at my door. At that time, I would do my devotional in the parking lot where I worked since I would get there about 40 min early. My devotional that day was all about how God is real and then it gave testimony after testimony of how people had asked God to show himself in their lives and the exercise for the study was to do the same. Seriously? So much of me wanted to close the book and never pick it up again but I thought, ok, what do I have to lose? Nothing’s gonna happen, but ok, let’s see if God’s really there. So I prayed and told Him that if He’s real, an owl would come and land on the wall in front of the car. I waited and waited (I had 15 min) and no owl. Was I ticked! Furious, fuming mad. Hurt and crushed I went in to work. I convinced myself not to think about it – that it was such a stupid idea and I knew better than to be foolish like that. But even through all this emotion, there was a calming sense to try again. So the next morning, I opened the book, but this time read the exercise more carefully. We were to be very specific on what we wanted from God. We couldn’t ask Him to show His existence because that was everywhere. It had to be something specific and personal. And once you knew what to ask for you were to ask Him for a sign. So, I sat there and thought to myself, what do I want from you God? Money? Success? I kept reading the devotion over and over…don’t ask Him to prove His existence… Then it came to me. God, I want to know that you know that I exist. Do you really see and care about this speck of a life lost in a world of billions of people? And for my sign…I don’t know. The whole owl thing didn’t go so well, so you pick it. Whatever. It’s gonna have to be big though. A huge sign. Nothing subtle or I’ll miss it. In fact, if you can sign it then I’ll know it’s you and I won’t have one doubt in my mind. I finished my prayer request feeling foolish but resolved to not be hurt even if I never got a sign. I walked into the usual chaos of work which was in the office of a middle school. As I approached my desk I could see that someone had left the newspaper on it so I picked up the paper to move it somewhere else and felt my head being tilted to draw my attention to the front page of the paper. On the cover was a larger than usual picture of a billboard and on the billboard was a short sentence signed by God. I remember thinking, yeah, I’ve seen those “God billboards” around town – that’s neat that they’re doing a story on them. Then in my mind I heard…Huge sign..signed by God. Oh my gosh, hello! This is the sign!! Ha ha! A huge sign! And you even signed it! I picked up the paper and just stared at it and tears came streaming down my face. I looked around me and wanted to tell everyone what I just saw and that it was a sign from God but they didn’t have any idea of what was going on. I sat in my chair and said under my breath, “You do know I’m here.” He replied, “Yes I do”. Wow. That was the moment that He became real to me. I call it my Billboard Moment and I remember it often in my walk with the Lord. He is real. He sees me and knows I’m here. I love that!
I absolutely love your story! What a gift to know that HE thinks of our little non-sense things. And that HE knows how significant they are to us! Thanks for sharing this. Love it!
As a little girl, I always knew that Jesus was real. I grew up in a loving home. I knew my parents loved me and so it was easy to accept that God loved me. I lived the typical southern life, going to church, camps and youth group. My relationship with the Lord was very genuine and precious. In college, I served in ministry and later went on staff with Young Life.
At the age of 25, I married what I thought to be a kindhearted, God fearing man. Within weeks of getting married, my world slowly turned upside down. The only way I can explain what happened was that my husband had cracks in his foundation. When the pressure of marriage started to bear down-the foundation blew and he reverted back to how he had been treated growing up. It was ugly. and sad. and confusing. and heart wrenching. and cruel. Looking back, I call this season my five years of capitivity. I thought I had ruined my life. I thought somehow I had gotten out of God’s will and was now going to have to live out the rest of my life benched in a horrible marriage and as a shell of a woman. At the end of the five years, I was empty, lost and felt so alone.
The Father had been very kind to me during this season-I remember being in a prayer group and crying out silently “I’m drowning, God I’m drowing. I have no idea what to do but I’m drowning.” In my mind I saw this image of a yacht. I was on the top deck sitting next to Jesus and we both had drinks in our hands. We were sitting and chatting. In the water below was my husband of the time. He was gnashing about, flailing and struggling to stay afloat. Yet he was surrounded by life rings. He just wouldn’t take one. I felt the Lord speak to me and say “You are fine. You can jump in there and try to resuce him but daughter, he will drown you too. You are fine. You are not drowning.” I was amazed at God’s graciousness during this season of my life. I was a wreck. I was not living a life that glorified him. I was too broken. And yet, he saw me through Jesus and saw a totally different story. Well, after almost five years of trying everything I could to make my marriage work, I felt the Lord release me.
That was three years ago. My rescue was dramatic. In the blink of an eye I went from living in captivity to living in a literal paradise. The past three years have been such a time of healing, redemption and restoration. I was so grateful to be rescued that I imagined I would spend the rest of my time cleaning floors in basement for the Lord. He has such a bigger plan for us!!! He has fully restored my life. Not a moment of that time was wasted. He was working things out in me that I had no idea existed. Everything I went through in that season transformed me for this season of life. How do i know that God is real? Because he loved me when I had nothing to offer.
Sweetie,I am so glad you got out of the abusive relationship, I know it too well. You are worthy and never forget that. God has a very special plan for you greater than you can imagine. Hold on to Him, He will never hurt you. He will love you and bless you. These men who put on this image of being such wonderful Christian men until you marry them is for me one of the most painful things I have gone through, but God never left me nor you,I praise God you got released from that man. God has something so special waiting for you, Get excited…
God Bless
Pam
After my second-yes-second divorce, I found myself really reflecting on who I was and what I was doing wrong. I hated being alone. I wanted a husband who would accept me for who I was, no matter what and preferably one who didn’t choose drugs and alcohol over me. Through the process I renewed my relationship with Christ. That’s when God revealed to me HE was my husband and no other person on earth could possibly love me more than the One who created me. He loves me unconditionally-NO MATTER WHAT! I have found that man who loves me unconditionally, but only in HIS timing, when HE thought I was ready for the relationship HE had designed just for me. Only when I put HIM first, did my dreams come true.
1. The way He was & still is faithful to reveal His glory to my soul after my daughters passing in a car accident. So many signs & blessings He gave to me as a gift to bring healing. From His embrace & His words given to me through Beth at her conference in Albq. NM to an over abundance of grace gifts months following. No explanation other than God! I know He is real because He has brought healing to a broken mothers heart that could only come from One greater than myself.
2. Year following I sought to minister to a grieving mother who tried to take her own life due to the loss of her own son. Her loss happened several years before mine. Driving down the freeway I asked God what the difference was in her and me? Why she was having a much longer & harder time of healing. My Spirit heard.. you know & have received the truth….she has not. I tried to recall where the scriptures were that had to do with being sanctified by truth & He sent forth His word to heal them & deliver them from destruction. I couldn’t recall where, but kept thinking on these two truths. Early next morning not knowing if I was asleep & dreaming or awake, I heard clearly… John 17:17 & Ps 107: 20. That is all I heard repeated several times out loud. As I got up I cont. to repeat these over & over so that I wouldn’t forget what I just heard. I ran got my Bible with my heart pounding….all along thinking oh this can’t be real…no way! Indeed it was…Exactly! The very same two verses I had been thinking on the day before driving down the freeway. I know that God spoke these to me as a sign because I didn’t have a clue where they were in the Bible. He has sent for His word & healed me & delivered me from my destruction and is continuing to sanctify me through His word. Praise God!! I KNOW HE IS REAL!!
My real moment with God came when He spoke to me one day after church. I was a little upset with God that day because I had been trying to get pregnant and a fellow church attender had come to church with her fourth baby. I was pouty and just a little miffed at God. I was a good person and I tried to obey His Word. Why couldn’t I get pregnant again? When I came home from church I felt like God told me to go for a walk without my walkman. I obeyed and He spoke into my heart. He told me He had a gift for me and I was pregnant with another child. He told me some other things but for the sake of space I will tell you that I immediately RAN home and told my husband. I then went and purchased an early pregnancy test and what God had spoken in my heart was TRUE. I have had my gift for eleven years now and God also gave me one more. God is real and the Love of my life and by the way the Medical World had told me I would not be able to have any more children after my first child…….God is never wrong!
There have been many moments, but one sticks out in my mind. My dad was in failing health and was in assisted living nearby. I had a new prayer journal and had written prayers for him in the journal around 9 PM, askiing all good things for my dad–relief of pain, renewed strength, good balance, etc. It was a work night but, for some reason (God knew), I was up late, reading my Bible. God knew I woulnd’t be going to work the next day. The phone rang around 11:45 PM and I knew, walking to the phone, that it was Dad’s assisted living, saying Dad fell or something else had happened, as my dad was a night owl. Without realizing it, I walked to the phone, with my Bible in my hand. It was Dad’s assisted living, saying they had just found Dad in his apartment, and he had passed away. God answered my prayers for good things for my dad, just in a different way than I had planned. And…it was within 2 1/2- 3 hours of my prayers for Dad in the prayer journal. I’m so glad I was awake and reading my Bible when that phone call came. God is very real in so many ways.And, God is good…all the time.
Thanks for this post Beth, and all the comments are so touching. My greatest prayer is that my loved ones would also KNOW that they know that they know. I pray daily that HE would be REAL to them. I haven’t come across your “believing God” study, but am pleased that it was mentioned here as I will now look out for it, and hopefully go through it with my family.
<3
My husband was 30 years old and went to the ER for chest pain. I am a hospital pharmacist and was at work at the time. When I initially came into the ER and saw the medications being given to my husband, I immediately became visibly upset. Did they think he was having a heart attack at such a young age? The nurse caring for him took me aside and told me to calm down because my actions would further cause my hubby anxiety. Alone in a small room in the ER, I prayed for God’s help. Immediately a calming presence came over me and God let me know that He was in control of the situation. In the days that followed my husband spent three days in CCU, had a heart catheterization and was diagnosed with pericarditis (an inflammation of the lining of the heart). Friends and family members commented about how calm and peaceful I was regarding the circumstances. HA! Only with a powerful and mighty God!
For me it happened when I lost my baby (17weeks gestation)
i had a very vivid dream the night before I was to be
admitted into the hospital to deliver her. I was in a church with windows of light and a baby was crawling down away from. I got up and went to get her and there was Jesus~ white robe and all. He said, “this is not your baby, your baby is with me.”
That was the most beautiful gift I could have gotten from God. There were still many sad days ahead but I have always kept that dream in my heart and believe it to be a testimony to the “real”ness of a loving compassionate GOD!
I was about 14 and was at church camp when I met the most wonderful boy. We got together and I was “in love”. The problem was he lived far away from me. So when camp was over, little did I know but the relationship was over. I was heartbroken. I reached out to God for comfort and it was then that he became my God and not just my parent’s God.
In a way, I’m still in this season. After graduating from college in May 2009, I found myself moving to a small town in Mississippi to teach Kindergarten. My first year was all-consuming. I allowed teaching my students take over my mind, my heart, and all of my time. This year, I started the year with a better frame of mind, ready to let my job only encompass SOME of my time and allow the Holy Spirit fill me up while at work and after work… to give me opportunities to serve others and minister. In January of this year, I led a group of middle school & high school aged girls in a Disciple Now weekend (discipleship training for youth), and immediately, I knew these were “my girls,” a very real opportunity to follow the will of God. Today, my life has more purpose than it did a year ago. A year ago, I would have said, “my purpose is to teach.” Today, my purpose is to reflect God and bring light into the world… at school, at church, and with “my girls.”
I have had a number of times when God showed Himself to be “so real” to me.
It all began when I first chose to “try out” the idea of studying the Bible, God’s Holy Word, back in late September 2002 via Miss Beth’s “Believing God” Bible study online, [very reluctantly, mind you, as I did not know “how” to read the Bible at that point in time]. First off, during the first 20 minutes of Miss Beth’s online video session of “Believing God” [BG], I immediately felt drawn towards His Word, and I knew somehow that His Love could possibly be “real”… I felt it through the words that I now know was the Holy Spirit working through Miss Beth… Then, she asked us to be “on the look out” for “GodSTOPs”, which she explained to mean “Savoring The Observable Presence of God in our lives.” From that moment on, I began to see the world “with a different mind-set”. I noticed how naturally occuring events were really the creation of God. I began to see the trees, flowers, and simple things as being so intricately “God-made” moments for me to see. Then, exactly 14 days after I began her “Believing God” Bible study, God chose to make the timing “perfect” for what I consider to be a “true miracle” sent from God alone. After listening to her beautifully written music for at least 17 years, God allowed me to meet Amy Grant, face to face, on October 10th, 2002. I had been praying for that moment to happen for at least 15 years, as her music had/has always “touched my heart” and had been/is very encouraging to me. But, even though she was a Christian singer/songwriter, it was basically an impossibility to come close enough to see her in such a way. However, God allowed it to happen, for me, and a couple dozen others late that night after a concert at a small venue debuting her “hymns and faith” cd while I lived in NW Houston.
However, once again, meeting her actually helped me to “feel” God’s Love more deeply … And, I realized that I “needed” to learn more about Him, even though I had grown up going to church each Sunday. So, after completing “Believing God”, I read that Miss Beth was going to have another Bible study, live in downtown Houston the following January, I knew that I just “had to go to it”, as I had somehow become “hooked on God’s Word”. And, throughout her “Beloved Disciple” Bible study, I felt His presence in my life, giving me words [Scripture verses] that appeared to be spoken “specifically for me” through our dear Miss Beth throughout that study.
However, I felt Him most powerfully in my life when I began to “see Him” answering my specific prayers during that time. I had always prayed for one of my students, who spent every other weekend with his biological father several hours away from Houston. So, when that dear 10 year old boy showed me pictures from the day that the Space Shuttle Columbia burst into flames and crashed over northern Texas, I knew that God had truly answered my prayers. You see, this boy told me that this very large piece of metal from the wreckage came within 1 to 2 feet of hitting him, around 8 a.m.on February 1, 2003, while he was playing football in his father’s yard. So, although it was a very sad time for all of us who lived in the Houston area, God showed me that He had been “the One” who had protected my student from what could have been a very dangerous situation.
Then, within 2 months, I began to see what most people would “see” as little things in my life that dis-pleased God in my past and present life at the time; and this disturbed me deeply. However, as I was reading in my next Bible study [“Breaking Free”, by Miss Beth; of which I was doing between Miss Beth on cassette tapes, God, and myself], I came to a certain passage of Scripture that literally “rocked the world”, as I knew it. It comes from John 11:43 NKJV. It stated, “Lazarus, come forth !” However, what Miss Beth had written beneath it in the student book from the Bible study, was the part that “rocked my world”. She had written something like this: Could you possibly be among those who are Spiritually dead? And, within a bit more than 24 hours later, I sat in front of some very wise Christian ladies from Miss Beth’s church, having realized that I was not at all sure what those words actually meant to me, personally speaking. And, within a half hour, I found myself asking Jesus to come into my heart and take over my life, before these precious women. And, once I “articulated what I wanted from Him” [as the lady guiding me asked me to do], I literally believe that I could “feel” the Holy Spirit come into my heart . . . And, for several moments afterwards, I was completely speechless and “in awe” of what had just happened to me. And, from what I soon learned, that was the moment of my “sweet salvation in Christ Jesus”. And, in exactly 19 days and a couple of hours from now, I will be celebrating the 8th year of truly knowing that I am “God’s child”. A “child” who knows that her sins were forgiven upon Jesus’ sacrifice for me on the cross of Calvary, some 2000+ years ago, due to my faith and God’s mighty and awesome grace. Hallelujah !
In Christ’s Magnificent Love,
Jennifer O.
Janesville, Wisconsin
During the agonizing wait to bring home our 3 and 2 year old boys from Russia, I was held captive each night watching a DVD my neice had made from pictures of our first trip when we first met the loves of my life. (Russia requires two visits, 1 to meet your children, then you wait for a court date). I memorized every picture and every note of the music she had carefully chosen in this gift that meant so much to this mother who was a world away from the children who were already mine in my heart.
On our second trip to bring our boys home I already knew that I was smack dab in the middle of God’s plan. My heart has never beat so in sync with His. However, my flesh whispered to God one more time… This is it Lord, please show me that they are ours… that we are in the right place. As we stepped into the elevator in the Hotel Ukraine in Moscow, the very music playing overhead was the music my neice had so carefully chosen in her gift to us. Tears streamed down my face as I knew that God was right there with us … always is… and always will be.
Looking back, I see my life as a vehicle with two side mirrors. In one side mirror, all I saw was myself- my problems and my fear. I wore a hidden sackcloth of shame, that nobody could see except me. Hidden under my shame, I thought God could not see me either, so I did not draw near. The other side mirror is my mirror of trouble, deep life-changing moments that were not survivable without a strong God by my side. These were times when God made Himself visible to me, as a family member lay in intensive care undiagnosed, or a two-year old child was on death’s bed with leukemia in her blood, later to be placed in remission by her Heavenly Father. In one side mirror, I saw God. In the other side mirror, I saw myself. Through womens bible study (especially Beth Moore) I was able to realign my vision and look at the narrow path. I saw where God was leading me, how He was speaking to me, how much he loved me, and how still does, even with my shame. I heard His voice in the words of scripture, and knew my father saw me as His Daughter, beloved. He saw the child Jesus freed.
A few years ago, my husband was diagnosed with colon cancer at the age of 40. We were stunned with the diagnosis because he was so young, and we had 4 small kids at that time (ages 8, 6, 3 and 1). He had surgery to have part of his colon removed and then started chemotheraphy shortly thereafter. The daily routine of taking care of kids on top of the chemo just made us feel like we were drowning. We had to take just one day at a time and focus on nothing but getting through that day. I had been praying all this time for 3 specific things but I felt like my prayers were bouncing off the ceiling and that God was just not hearing me. One night at church, a local ministry was doing the program for our Fellowship Supper and afterwards they offered to pray for those who wanted prayer. I felt like I needed prayer so I went forward. Someone I had never met before came over to pray with me. This person told me that God wanted me to know that He had heard my prayers and preceded to tell me the 3 things I had been praying for. I had not shared these with anyone so I about fell over when she said this. I just burst into tears and felt that God had confirmed to me yet again that He Is Real!!!
I have had many God moments in my life. This incident was His way of lifting the burden of feeling like I was the only one in my family that was bringing in money to pay the bills, my husband is wonderful and works so hard at every thing he does, life was hard. I was in nursing school and working on the weekends, one daughter about to graduate from high school,and one in first grade and my husband , who is a carpenter, had just started back to work after a long winter with little work. We have our house and his truck paid for but still trying to make my car payments was difficult. Well, we were about 3 months behind on the car payments and about to let it go back. In fact I thought it would be picked up at my job any day, we just couldn’t come up with the amount they wanted. Then on one of my days off and kids out of school for snow and ice, someone slide off into our yard and crashed into my daughter’s pickup truck that wasn’t working. Now this truck was worth about 900 dollars and we figured we wouldn’t receive anything for it, and I had just let the insurance go. The woman who hit it wasn’t hurt but the impact crushed her car up pretty bad. We had lived in this house for 4 years which is on a very busy highway and never had any one run off the highway into our road. There were 2 significant things that I praise God for in this situation, the first one was that if the truck wasn’t parked exactly where it was, that car would have hit our house and caused some serious damage, and the second thing was that the driver’s insurance paid us 3400 dollars for the pickup that wasn’t worth near that much. I know that our Lord had His hand in this situation and took care of everyone. He always takes care of His children!
I KNOW God is real because of the peace he brings in the midst of the storm. I am the mother of two beautiful daughters. A little over 5 years ago at age 2 1/2 my youngest was diagnosed with autism. In that moment I felt all my hopes and dream for her die. I was told that there was no chance for her to improve and more likely she would deteriorate. Never one to give up because I have hope in The LORD I began researching and reading everything I could get my hands on. What I found served to knock us down more. There has been horror beyond imagining for a mother in watching my beloved daughter struggle through what comes so easily to other children and in seeing her sister long for a playmate who often seems compelety out of reach. But against all odds and through God’s grace alone my baby has progressed beyond the doctor’s dire predictions. She is brilliant and capable and loving. And her big sister is my hero. And through it all when things look to be at their worst, God steps in and showers His mercy on us and we remember that this too is part of His plan. And we remember how blessed and lucky we are to have autism as a part of our lives. Truly we wouldn’t have it any other way and THAT is living proof that God works in the most mysterious and miraculous ways!
I grew up in a choatic dysfunctional family. When I was older, I repeated the cyle of abuse. The day I woke up to this realiziation, I was 3 children in and felt no way out. When the light of God’s love came shining through, and His redempation made my weakness His strength, he allowed me a way out so my children no longer had to repeat the cycle. His power to redeem us from our sin and save us is now evident in the lives of my children, one who is involved in music ministry, another who is serving in missions to orphans in Nariobi and my youngest whom God has also gifted in encouragement and reaching her generation for Christ. I am thrilled to see that God can take a very wicked evil past in my life and make me new from the inside out and completely bless our family so we no longer focus on ourselves but reaching out to others with the life changing power of the cross.
My sister ran away from home at 16 and we hadn’t been able to find her. I didn’t necessarily want her to come back to my emotionally abusive alcoholic step-father, but I prayed that she would at least call and let me know she was OK. That same night she was picked up for vagrancy in Florida and later sent home safe. God had been with them all the way as they hitchhiked to Florida, putting them in the path of good people, who took care of them.
I married the man who had everything this world could offer including looks, career, money, intelligence, you name it. The only thing he didn’t have and didn’t want any part of was Jesus. As I prayed for this man I loved so much daily for over 13 years, even I wondered at times how he would ever see his need for a Savior. And then one day it happened. He told me he had accepted Christ into his life and wanted me to not worry anymore. What we didn’t know is a few months later, at the age of 48, he died suddenly and unexpectedly. The resulting anguish of my soul would have been so far beyond anything I could bear except that God very deliberately and demonstratively met me daily and carried me through that time. It was one thing after another and even these eight years later, I know, that I know, that I know, He is real! God bless each one of you as you seek Him. He, without a doubt, will be found! Your sister, Stephanie
My husband got laid off….it was the week before our “vacation” so we stayed home instead saving the money for living expenses. That same week our area was hit by a “100 year flood”. Fortunately all that flooded was our crawl space and our yard but in the weeks to come my car broke down, my washer broke, our water heater started leaking and I even ran over the neighbors cat coming home from getting repairs! My Dh and I were arguing, I had a 2 year old that I was potty training and even though I know things could be much worse this was a breaking point for me. I had lived my life with little to no worries regarding our daily needs or finances and for the first time in my life I couldn’t afford even a birthday cake for my son. A couple of bucks had NEVER been a concern but I was literally counting change.
I had been a Christian for years but I soon came to realize my realtionship with God was not what it should be, in fact I had no relationship with God. This humbling time in my life brought me to my knees asking for forgiveness and from that day forward my life has been different. I was living for the world, not for God. He had to bring me to my knees so I could see that. When money and accomodations were taken from me I had nothing but emptiness because I chose to material things for my happiness. At my lowest of lows during this time I knelt and lowered my head to the ground begging God to give me peace and to help me through this time.
I knew He heard me because in that moment I felt PEACE. it washed over me like nothing I could explain in words. I just knew He was with me. Thank you Lord God, I love Him so much. I didn’t deserve a second of that peace.
That he is our deliverer and redeemer means he is the only real thing in this world. Everything else is just a facade to test our desires. Only he can keep me steady on my feet when times are tough. And, that he has forgiven me and has even requested to come sup with me is all I need to know that he is the one true God, the one true thing.
Hi siesta, I have been a verbally/emotionally abused wife for approx.12 years. NO, signs prior to marriage. Thought he was as awesome, kind, loving christian man. There are so many of us in the Church who are abused 1 out of 4, so very sad. I feel stongly that God is wanting me to speak out on this, there is so little said about the subject, but so much in Gods Word against it. I don’t understand why there is not much help for us. It is so hard to prove, due to how wonderful these men are in public, most of us just give up trying to get help or anyone to understand it. Please pray for the ones who live in a world of bondage which no one sees or hears except begind the four walls of our homes. It is so painful.
Pam, I am praying for you.
Pam, my heart resonates with what you have said. As a verbally and emotionally battered wife who listened to God’s prompting when he told me to write a prayer request on our pew card week after week, I have connected with other women in our church and in our community who are also abused. I have also connected with women who are healthy. There is hope and there is healing (maybe or maybe not for your marriage but there is for you). I am praying that God gives you wisdom and trusted friends who will walk with you in this heart wrenching journey.
First when I realized I could turn to the word and always find something that would rock my world- both good and those things that called me to fix my mistakes. But especially when the word guides me through rough waters. Second when I learned that even the strongest believers have faith journeys that waiver. I realized that just like everything else faith isn’t perfect. And that doesn’t make you any less of a believer. This was the most empowering lesson of my faith journey thus far.
I grew up with parents who had no business being parents. You name the sin they reveled in it. All the while taking part in church. What a confusin world for a child.
what God has shown me, esp in the past 2 weeks…is that He set me apart. He shelterd me from the storms. I have weathered more than most will in an entire life, however, God has shown me that he protected me from that lifestyle and has never left me. I haven’t figured out why. But I know that HE set me apart from the pit I could have so easily dwelled in and never known the difference. PRAISE GOD!
One recent example: I live in Denver and over the past Christmas season there was an atheist group that put up billboards around town proclaiming God and Christmas were not real. On my drive home from work one day one of these billboards stared me straight in the face. I found myself so angry. As soon as I looked away, however, I realized I was driving straight towards the most amazing sunset over the Rocky Mountains I had ever seen! All the proof needed in the world to refute that billboard was shining brightly full of blues, pinks, purples and oranges. There is no doubt in my mind!
Jennifer, when I visit Colorado I am always in awe of the majesty of God that surrounds me…and sometimes I wonder if those who live there take this awesomeness for granted. Thanks for answering that for me! A wonderful story you’ve shared!
Many years ago, I was en route to a college class. Each morning, I crossed Sundance, the dam over Melvern Lake. At that time I was asking the Lord to teach me about the Holy Spirit. Sometimes, He is so intimate and close and other times seemingly distant. “Please explain that to me Lord.” No sooner had I asked the question than I looked up and saw a pristine, pencil-thin jet stream going straight into the middle of the rising sun beautifully presenting itself over the shimmering lake.
As I drove on, the once-crisp jet stream began to dissipate into the atmosphere. The Lord spoke to my heart: “This is like the Holy Spirit, always lovingly present, but sometimes speaking definite messages to my heart.”
The wonder of our Lord! Of course, I have shared this story with my children who in turn shared it with our grandchildren. A few months ago, as our daughter-in-heart was driving our 5-year-old grandson to school, he pointed to the sky sporting a jet stream and said, “Look mom, God’s here!’
A few years ago, I attended a Beth Moore conference with thousands of women. Over lunch time, many were sitting on the curbs of the street in front of our meeting place. I glanced up and for just an instant in a completely clear blue sky, a short jet stream appeared and quickly disappeared. I smiled and my eyes teared! Among these thousands of God-seeking women, my Lord was speaking to me personally. I smiled again as I wondered just how He was making His loving, hovering Presence known personally to each one? How do I know God’s Real? Let me count the ways! Loving Him and all of you…
Dear Joy, I had to respond to this posting of yours. 22 years ago my 3 year old daughter and I were driving home from an evening at church. It was in winter and the Oklahoma skies were very dark. As we rounded the corner to our house Megan pointed up to the sky. The crescent moon was turned perfectly upward. She exclaimed in a very knowing way “Look Mommy, It’s Jesus’ smile”. So taken by her observation I said “Why yes it is Baby”. Needless to say I have never looked at that moon in the same way. Such is the Kingdom of Heaven. Praise God for the glimpses He gives us through a child’s eyes.
After 2 1/2 decades of marriage I found out that my husband was unfaithful. Before I found out about his infidelity, God was preparing me for what was to come. My Father God has been faithful to walk with me and even carry me when I cannot put one foot in front of the other. My husband’s unfaithfulness is actually sex addiction (which is pernicious). I do not know whether or not our marriage will survive. However, I do know that my God is good (he is faithful and present and he tenderly wrapping me in his loving care). I know that God is growing me and using me in ways that I did not think were possible (even though I grew up in the church and my husband and I are actively involved in our church). I wish I had known my Savior in this way when our children were growing up (may God redeem the years of the locust in my family). I am so grateful that God has given me eyes to see, ears to hear and a mouth to testify of his unfailing love!
my God is Really Real moment came on the darkest night of my life.
I had personally shredded my own world. I had destroyed my marriage, my freindships, my job was gone, my family was fed up with me and even the man I had left everything for (yes it was sinful) had just called me to say he wasn’t going to come rescue me afterall.
I curled up in a ball and shook. All night.
There was no one left to call, no one left with any sympathy and I was forced to confront that I had done this. I had sinned. I had messed up everything.
I didn’t have a coherent prayer. I just asked God over and over and over to help me. please God, please help.
at the time all I meant was for Him to help me get through the night without flying apart. I honestly felt like I was going to explode with the stress of the mess I had created.
Well somewhere just before dawn as I prayed those words “help me, God, please help me” became more focused on “please God, wash away my sins” I was already a christian, but that was the night I really needed saving.
I once heard Beth ask how can you know that you know that you know that you know that you are saved? “in the dark of the night when no one else is around IS HE YOUR FAHTER?”
I stopped the cd in my car that day and recalled the longest, darkest night of my life and realized….oh Yes Beth, He is my Father. He is Just and Righteous and I had hurt Him immensely, but He is My Father. and as incredible as it seems, He loves me.
i know i am late in adding to this discussion, but i still wanted to participate if that’s okay 🙂 a couple months ago, i found myself asking God, could all of this really be real? i was reading revelation, i think. anyway, i had a few days of this. just wondering what it was like. could it really be? i am a christian, it just seems so crazy to me sometimes. anyway, after a few days of this, in my quiet time i believe the Lord spoke this concept to my heart. the sun in the sky, my dogs, a human being, everything we see in nature everyday – every one of these things is incredible. we would never believe it if we didn’t see it every day for ourselves. and yet, we take it all for granted and we see it as commonplace. it isn’t. He created it. and a living breathing human being, a tree, a mountain lion, is no less incredible than an angel or the other creatures the Bible speaks of in Revelation and elsewhere. He is real siestas. Creation testifies to this. it is only a matter of time until we know fully as we are fully known! 1 Cor 13:12
This was last Monday. A fellow SSMT friend I met last January in Houston requested prayer for someone through Facebook. I don’t know the family but felt strongly moved to pray. I lack a strong prayer life (working on that) but ended up praying intensely. I felt the Spirit moving me strongly toward praising Him FOR the family. It was like “Praise Me, Praise Me”. Truly, this is the first time I have ever felt that strong of a pull to praise God by hearing the Spirit “tell” me to. Turns out my friend, in Arkansas (I am in California), was being told the exact same thing by the Holy Spirit. To me it was an odd directive (maybe it is Biblical to praise in someone’s place…I do not know). My prayer shifted to praying against the enemy for this family, to confession. While I did pray for the request my friend brought to Facebook there was little asking FOR things just praising, confession, and against the power of darkness that I felt was trying to toy with this family’s emotions. In this middle of this prayer – OUT OF NO WHERE – I smelled CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES – like they were fresh out of the oven. No windows open. My oven hasn’t baked them in months (and it wasn’t on). I turned my head to the left, the right….nothing. Just right in front of my nose. I am CONVINCED it was the Holy Spirit telling me – I am HERE. Brings tears to my eyes. My friend told me she’d had a similar experience (different fragrance, though). I think it was sort of a 2 Corinthians 2:14 experience: “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.”
I don’t know if I will ever “smell” God again but it encouraged me to praise more – focus my prayers on God more and less on what I want. It’s a beautiful thing.
I grew up in church but never really had a solid relationship with Jesus, it was just a passive one I would talk to him occasionaly when convienent and on youth trips when we had prayer groups. I ran away from God shortly after hearing him say to me one time that I was going to marry a missionary. Well I did not think that sounded like a good idea so that just was not going to happen…I ran for 8 years and just “played” the good church girl while outside of church I was drinking, smoking and yes sad to say sleeping with boys…when I had finally had enough and my boyfriend of 3 years broke it off I was devastated. I had poured my life into him, gave myself to him and was wearing his engagement ring. I found myself doing the only thing I knew to do and that was to get on my knees and cry out to God, it had been so long since I had even talked to him I did not know if he would even respond but he did. I went through a class at my church and God rocked me to the core during the class as we were sitting in the quiet just resting in his presence and worshipping I was sitting down with my eyes closed when two people I knew started to wash my feet, at this time I was just asking Jesus to reveal himself to me, I so wanted to know that he was with me I immediately felt goose bumps all over me and I saw a picture of Jesus washing my feet and felt his love all over me, my friend later told me that as he was washing my feet he felt like God had taken over his hands the presence was so strong…To this day 9 years later I love the Lord so much even though I still doubt his faithfullness at times I know that he is with me….O and yes I did actually end up marrying a missionary man!! He is no longer in missions full time but has been traveling the world since he was 6 months old 🙂
I don’t remember exactly how old I was but I do remember that I asked Jesus into my heart omewhere around age 13 or 14, I think. Anyway, fast forward to Thursday, July 20, 2006.
It was a truly wonderful thing – the most wonderful experience that I can EVER remember. I finished my Bible study a little early that night so I went in my room and I just imagined myself climbing up in my Father’s lap (now I KNOW I’m a big lady, but when I approach my Father I am as a child). Anyway, I just said a little prayer, “Father, I want to forget about ALL the junk of today and all that’s on my mind. I just want to sit in Your lap and listen to whatever You might want to say to me. I’m just gonna rest my head on Your shoulder and listen.” And before long, the most amazing thing happened – it was like He was telling me, “I love you”. And I was just listening to see what else He wanted to tell me – and a few minutes later, I felt it again – “I love you” and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I know you love me’ and I kept listening. Again – “I LOVE YOU” a little louder this time. But, not louder as in “You’re not listening”, more like, “You’re listening but you aren’t HEARING – you don’t get it – I LOVE YOU – no matter what – I LOVE YOU – YOU ARE MY CHILD.”
Well, needless to say, I had started crying – tears of joy I guess you’d call it – just a soft cry, then as I started feeling His love more and more I was just weeping. I couldn’t help it – I couldn’t stop weeping in the realization of His love. But the tears began to subside a bit and I was like “Okay, Lord, I know you love me – I get it – really I do – now, I’m just gonna rest my head on Your shoulder a little longer and see if You want to tell me anything else.” And I just rested on His shoulder for a minute or two and then – I kid you not, I am SERIOUS – I heard Him say “I love you”. But it was softer this time and it was as if He gave a little chuckle as soon as He said it and then I let out a chuckle. And that was it…for the next few minutes I just laughed harder and harder and I know He was laughing with me! I just couldn’t quit laughing. Then, finally the laughter subsided and I just rested my head on His shoulder a little longer and just enjoyed a few quiet moments with Him.
Then, I had to get up so I could start working on the church bulletin for the next Sunday. Because of my experience that night, I was going to put the words to the song “Jesus Loves Me” in the bulletin but the Lord had a different idea – I started typing “Jesus loves me, this I KNOW” but then the Lord gave me these words:
Jesus loves me
This I KNOW
Not just because
The Bible told me so
Jesus loves me
I now UNDERSTAND
Because HE told me
As He held my hand
Jesus loves me
No matter what
It’s not Him
But ME that forgot
It’s been almost five years with ups and downs along the way, but I KNOW that July 20, 2006 is when He began moving me in a totally new direction and moving me out of my comfort zone. He has been very patient with me and let me argue with Him about some things, but He always shows me that His way is the best – no matter how much it scares me!
Sorry if this was a little long – I was going to try to shorten it but I feel that if it helps even ONE person then it was worth it to leave it as it is. I actually DID shorten it a little – but it makes me think maybe I should share the entire testimony on my blog. We shall see…..
I knew God was real at a very early age. I was already saved but I was sick in bed at a family gathering and my throat was so sore it was almost swollen shut. My Aunt Jeannie came in and laid hands on my throat and prayed for Gods healing. With in minutes the swelling went down. I was touched by the hand of God. How can you doubt after that?
1991 – For several years, family and friends had been encouraging me to go back to school and out of the dead-end job that I had at a sewing factory in a small town in Oklahoma. My mentor, Loreen was particulary focused. “Gwen, you are very bright. GO BACK TO SCHOOL! I explained to her that in order this to happen, I would need:
1) Money coming in to make up for my paycheck;
2) Sufficient time off;
3) Tuition paid;
4) Books paid;
In the summer of 1991, the factory shut down and JTPA (Job Training Programs of America) came in. For the next 14 months while I went to business school to get my legal secretary/legal assistant certification, I received:
1) Unemployment;
2) Paid Tuition
3) Paid Books;
4) Mileage to and from school;
5) A per diem for lunch.
My check list was completely by God and them some! That is just one of the many evidences for me that God is REAL!