Restoration Faith Centre

I am come that they might have life, and that they might

have it more abundantly. John 10:10 KVJ

 

Abbey

 

When I was 24 years old I had an encounter with Jesus Christ that totally changed my life and my eternal destiny forever.  I had come home to NZ after having travelled for quite a few years. I was not intending on staying very long, only to recuperate from a snowboard accident. I certainly had no intention of seeking God, nor did I think I needed to have a good look at my life. In fact, God was the farthest thing from my mind.  

 

Like so many others out there today, I just wanted to have fun, do my own thing and not have anyone tell me what to do, basically just living totally for myself. I travelled all over the world, was a heavy drinker and drug user and lived a pretty reckless life. There were many times looking back now that I know I should have died, whether it be through overdosing on drugs, being wasted while driving or simply ending up in some scary situations with some very dodgy people. However, I came out of every one of those situations alive which I now know is all thanks to Jesus.  

Whilst travelling, I had started to get involved with New Age and a mix of other eastern religions in a bid to find something more that I knew must have been out there. I needed something to meet the spiritual need I felt I was lacking in my life and these belief systems seemed more appealing to me. I felt that at the end of the day they would still allow me to do whatever I wanted - morally. At no point was Christianity ever an option for me.

 

To this day I am still amazed at how Jesus won my heart and got a hold of my life. He totally got a hold of me when I least expected it and I am so thankful that even though I wasn't looking for Him - He was most definitely looking for me. He knew exactly where I was at in my life, He knew what I needed to hear to get me to stop and listen, and He had all the answers.

 

When I was 19 years old I had had an abortion and to be honest was never really able to deal with the consequences of what I had done. I think deep down I knew it was a real life I was destroying, yet my own selfishness and fear wouldn’t allow me to make the right choice of keeping the baby. Of course Jesus knew all about , and in what I like to call a divine set-up, I was given a video to watch about a man that had been taken to Heaven. Jesus totally used this to stop me in my tracks and get me to really think about my life. 

 

In the video the man talked about the babies and children in Heaven that were waiting for their mummies and daddies to make it, asking Jesus, "…will they be coming, we want them to make it". He talked about anyone that had ever lost a child through miscarriage, accidents or tragedy and of course through abortions, which are so common in our world today. I heard these words for the first time - Jesus never loses babies. He is the author of life and those little ones are with Him now and will be forever. I had never heard anyone talk about Jesus the way this man did. He sounded so amazing, so full of love and hope and forgiveness, so powerful and more captivating than anyone I had ever known. I caught a glimpse of someone so beautiful and so precious that it hardly seemed possible. As much as I may have wished I could not discard what I had was hearing as religious extremism, I knew with my whole being what I was hearing was true. I then realised that if what I was hearing was true, it had serious implications for my life.   

 

I sat there watching the video and I felt like time stood still. The conviction of God came all over me and at that moment the reality of what I had done hit me so hard and I knew I had to ask Jesus to forgive me for what I had done. I knew I didn't want to spend eternity without Jesus or my child. I cried for a long long time while I thought over what I had heard and it started me looking at my whole life. I realised that I had been running from Jesus since being a little girl and that the love and protection I so desperately chased after all my life, through promiscuity, drugs and living a crazy life, were all just ways of me trying to find a way to meet the need Jesus was always meant to meet. What I really needed was Jesus all along. I knew at that moment that I was a sinner, I had sinned against God and I knew that if anything were to happen to me and I should die that I would end up straight in hell. I knew my sin had consequences and seriousness of my life and eternal destiny hit me hard.  There was no doubt in my mind, I just knew it to be the absolute truth which then meant I had some decisions to make.  

 

So basically I had been minding my own business and Jesus totally interrupted my life to let me know just how real He was and that He knew all about me. I seriously thought things through over the next 24 hour period, one minute ready to commit my life to Him, then the next trying in some way to pretend I hadn't heard what I had or experienced what I had.

 

But I couldn't get away from what I knew in my heart to be true. Finally I surrendered my life to Jesus, I didn't want to resist Him anymore and I asked Jesus to forgive me of all my sin, to take over my life and help me now live for Him. Before I made the decision I felt like I was taking the biggest risk with my future, giving up everything I knew. I thought my friends and family would think I was crazy, that my boyfriend wouldn't be able to accept it, but the moment I prayed to Jesus and His Holy Spirit came into my heart, the peace and the relief were indescribable. I felt like the biggest invisible weight I hadn't even realised I had been carrying had been lifted off of me. I actually felt like I had come home. I felt so safe and protected and I felt ALIVE. Like every part of me was switched on for the first time and all of a sudden it didn't matter what everyone else was going to think of my decision, all that mattered was that Jesus had come into my life.

 

Right from the word go I knew it would mean a total life style change and that I would have to walk away from a lot of my past. Honestly, there were times this was so hard to do but the whole way it was Jesus on the inside of me helping me to do whatever needed to be done. I found very quickly that I no longer had the desire to do the things I used to do and He was the one who gave me that strength. He delivered me instantly from the drug addictions I had been so trapped in and step by step helped me with every other area of my life. There are so many areas I could have written about as I was a pretty screwed up young women but I just thank Jesus that He has been able to untangle the mess that I was and put me back together again - the way He always created me to be.  

 

I love my life now, I love Jesus with all my heart, and He is so real that He makes everything we see around us seem like a colourless dream. To whomever may end up reading this testimony - don't ever run away from Jesus, He is too wonderful for words and you need Him more than you will ever know, more than anything or anyone else in this world.

 

Jesus said Himself that getting a revelation of the truth will set you free and that if you truly love people you will tell them the truth. So I tell you, one day you will have to stand before Him and give an account of your life. The only thing that will guarantee you spend eternity in Heaven is if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, having acknowledged your sin which separated you from Him – your Creator, accepted His ultimate sacrifice which was His death on the cross for your sin and then believe He was resurrected to a new life. Jesus is the only way to God and to eternal life. You need to know that the only people who are in Hell are those who have rejected Jesus. That can be hard to hear, but it doesn’t make it any less the truth.

 

 John 3.16 - For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son (Jesus), so that whoever believes in Him (Jesus), should not perish but have eternal life.