This testimony was sent to Evangelist Judith Emenike.
My Dear Mentors in Christ,
Here is my testimony.
When I was nine years old, the Lord stopped me on
the way home from school and told me I would serve
Him. I knew there was a God but I did not really know
much about Him, yet, I agreed and went my way.
Unfortunately, my family did not really know what to
do with this calling, so, I stuffed it into the back
of my mind and went about my life.
As time passed, I always knew I was set apart by
God and I accepted Him as Saviour at age 12. Once
again, I did not receive instruction on what
Christianity truly involves, and I ended up adding
other gods to my life. In North America, it is all
too common for even Christians to keep or add gods to
their faith. I added perfectionism, Ballet and
competitive Highland dance, physical fitness, money
to the list of things I worshipped. How do I define
this? Anything that had me spending more time with it
than God, and anything which I called my passion, was
a god. Naturally, my life became a struggle, after
all you cannot serve both God and mammon!
Soon my body began suffering the effects of over
training: poor self image, bad knees, bad ankles, bad
back, slight eating disorder. Then the finances
dwindled. God will not give His superabundant
blessings to those who hold other things so dear.
Soon the stress of life caused me to become sick. I
suffered with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for 7 years
and it became Systemic Lupus. Within 1 year of being
diagnosed with Lupus, I was dying. In my mind, I
blamed God and wondered what happened to the service
and calling He had told me I was to do. I still did
not recognize what went wrong in my life.
On June 30, 2000, a good friend, Cathy K., told me
about a healing crusade in the town of Nanaimo, B.C.
She told me she was taking me. I was not terribly
interested because I did not believe in healing,
after all none of the prayers I had made worked!
Logically, according to my disease, if I went to
this meeting (a 90 minute drive from home), I would
be bedridden for a month because I could not take
such excitement, but something pushed me to go. I now
understand that it was the Holy Spirit taking away my
fear and objections.
Actually, my husband and 13 year old son went,
too. At the meeting, the special speakers were not
there, and the church pastor, Dan McLean, led the
meeting. My preconceptions and poor attitude had me
stop my ears and I did not receive anything from the
mesage. When Pastor Dan called all those who were
sick, up to the front, I went up extremely
reluctantly. He prayed for me and I knew nothing
changed because my heart would not accept it. BUT our
son whispered to my husband, "Dad, mom's being
healed. I'm getting my mom back!"
I returned to my seat as hardened as ever when my
husband, Paul, told me what our son Matthew had said.
I sat in horror. I was not healed! Matthew sat and
received the message and believed the Lord had done
what He said He would do. I had mocked and argued.
This could not be! I would not be the one to destroy
our son's faith. I then determined to return to the
meetings until I truly was healed.
The next evening, I went back to Nanaimo with my
friend, Cathy. My family stayed home. As Reverend
Judith Emenike preached, my heart was now receptive.
In fact, I could scarcely believe it, but every word
out of her mouth was meant directly for me!!
I had never listened to a woman preacher before,
my training was that they were "bad", but
here was the most powerful speaker I had ever heard
speaking directly into my life, AND SHE WAS A WOMAN.
As I sat through this service, God completely healed
me. No one prayed, there was no heat or tingling, God
simply removed all the sickness and disease. I could
barely contain myself. God did it. I wanted to dance
and shout. Regrettably, my church training told me I
was not to do such a thing, so I sat in my chair
silently. Towards the end of Reverend Judith's
sermon, she mentioned that God was healing people in
their seats and if they wanted to get up and jump
around, they should. I was shocked, but still did not
get up. My reaction bothers me to this day. I will
never stop joyful praise to my Lord again.
I finally got home at 2:00am, and promptly woke my
husband. He seemed rather incredulous, but listened
as I explained that I now know my body is the Temple
of the Holy Spirit, and it is not to be defiled by
impurity. God does not want His children sick, infirm
or afflicted, He is our Creator, He wants us healthy,
whole and well. Just a earthly fathers want to bless
their children, the Lord wants to do so even more,
plus He has the resources to do so!!
Once I was healed, my family, began to look into
this "new" message and theology. I am
thrilled to say my husband's Plantar Fasciitis has been
healed; my mother has been healed of an enlarged
heart, vertigo and a bad knee; our son has been
healed of ADD; and our best friend has been healed of
stage two Lymphoma. We serve a great, awesome and
loving God.
I still had a problem. How could this be? I have
been healed, Spirit-filled, and Pastors' Dan and
Susan began a church in our home town. I was even
being fed spiritually. But, I still had some gods in
my life.
The effects of 33 years of intense dance and
fitness training, of 40 years of perfectionism,
countless years of worrying about money, 40 years of
incomplete theology, needed to be removed. I was
excited about God but had not released these areas to
Him. I also refused to truly speak out and tell
people what He had done for me. I was shutting my
Lord out when it came to obeying the call to proclaim
the gospel.
If you ever wonder whether you are to preach the
gospel, no one is exempt from this call. We may not
all be speaking in front of crowds of 10,000, but we
are all to proclaim the Good News to everyone He puts
in our lives.
I am happy to say that by December 2, 2003, I have
released dancing to the Lord. I no longer demand
perfection of myself, it is God who is my all in all.
Money no longer rules my life. My Father owns the
cattle on a thousand hills, He provides for me. My
mouth is now open to proclaim who the Lord is and
what He has done - to anyone! /p>
My life is the Lord's, and I submit every part to
Him. There is no more fulfilling, exciting or blessed
way to live. Praise the Lord!
Gayleen R.
We received this letter in December 2003 and it is
reproduced exactly as written.
WOMEN NEED TO EXPERIENCE THE POWER OF GOD RESTING IN
THEM, WAITING TO BE RELEASED FOR MIGHTY WORKS OF JESUS
CHRIST
We want to say thanks to all those who are praying for
us.
And in all we thank our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ
and the Holy Spirit for doing such mighty work through
us.
Have you been healed in one of our meetings? Please
let us know! Write us.
