Testimony of Nona E

This is a little bit about what God has done for me:

The Lord blessed me with godly parents that loved the Lord and served Him to the best of their ability. Because of my parents, I knew a lot about God and would go to church with them as I was growing up. My parents attended separate churches, therefore, sometimes I would go to church with my Dad, but mostly would go to church with my Mom. The Lord also blessed me with a large family of 6 sisters and 2 brothers.

When I was 12 years old, I gave my heart to Jesus and was baptized in water, to represent my new life in Him (Romans 10:9-11 NLT). At that time, I didn’t realize the importance of reading my Bible every day, although my parents tried to teach me. Also, I did not yet understand the importance of praying throughout each day, nor did I have the understanding of true worship and being filled with the Holy Spirit and being led by Him. The result of these things was an open door for the enemy to lead me astray, which resulted in me being enticed and drawn away from God, by everything the world had to offer. 

Although I was not living for the Lord for several years of my life, He never gave up on me. He knew my heart and knew that I loved Him, but was trapped in a sinful lifestyle. The Holy Spirit pursued me until I couldn’t resist Him anymore. He is very much a gentleman, because He waited for me to be so hungry for God’s presence in my life, that I turned away from what the world had to offer and started pursuing Him. 

Things that used to appeal to me, like drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, smoking cigarettes and promiscuous sex, (even while married) no longer sounded or looked exciting. The music that I listened to even changed completely. Instead of listening to alternative rock and all other hard rock music on the radio, I started listening to contemporary Christian music daily, especially in the car. The music that I listened to in the car was vital to my soul, because whatever I was listening to would cause me to drive to certain places. 

For example, if I was listening to hard rock music, I would be tempted to stop at a bar for a drink or go to someone’s house to have an affair. I was searching to fill the empty void in my soul, where God was missing. He never left me, though. I was just running from Him, afraid of His judgment for my sinful lifestyle. Eventually, listening to the Christian music daily, I started driving to my Dad’s house or one of my sister’s, that had been praying for me. After a suicide attempt of cutting myself, I knew that I had to give my life completely to Jesus. There would be no more pretending that I was okay or pretending that I was a Christian. 

It was in 1999 (when I was 30 years old), that I rededicated my life to the Lord. I started going to church with my Dad. My Mom had already gone home to be with the Lord in 1990. I loved going to church with my Dad! We would talk on the phone for hours about the Bible. I had so many questions for him that I knew he could help me with, because he had been an evangelist for 40 years so far. The Word made me very hungry to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 3:11 NLT) John the Baptist referred to this experience as being baptized with fire. It sounds scary and exciting at the same time. 

The Word also taught me that anyone who desired the gift of being baptized in the Holy Spirit could pray for it and God would pour this gift on them. I started praying for this gift for at least a year, maybe longer, and then finally in Nov. 2003, Jesus baptized me in His Spirit, with the evidence of speaking in tongues. (Acts 19:5-6 Amp.) This event happened at my Dad’s church and he was so happy, he started crying. I will never forget that moment. My life has never been the same since.

God started using me to share Jesus with my coworkers. He also led me to write a letter to all of my friends from my worldly lifestyle, to let them know that God changed my life and I would not be hanging out with them anymore or going to their parties. God blessed me with new, Christian friends and coworkers. All of the addictions that I struggled with, God supernaturally took them away. It took a little more time to let go of the cigarettes, but it did happen. It seems to me that He delivered me of all this destructive behavior within these 3 years, between 1999 and 2003. 

He gave me a boldness to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to lay hands on people to pray for them and anoint them with oil, as the Word teaches. (James 5:14-15 Amp.) So far, many have been saved, healed and delivered from bondages and evil spirits that would cause them even to try to take their own lives or the lives of their unborn children. Praise God for His mighty power that is working in us to reach out to the hurting and wounded and lonely people that don’t yet know how much God loves them and wants them to be free! 

I had already started doing volunteer work for the Crisis Pregnancy Center Central, here in downtown Houston, TX. One of the requirements for me to begin as a peer counselor was to go through their post abortion recovery group: “Beauty for Ashes”, because of the abortion I had when I was 15 years old. The Lord did a miraculous healing in my heart through this weekly Bible study and support group. Layers of old hurts, abuses and memories were healed by His touch. I was so touched by this ministry that I wanted to give back to the Lord by reaching out to others, so after I served as a counselor at the pregnancy center for 3 years, I became a small group facilitator for “Beauty for Ashes Ministries International”. 

As a leader, walking through this healing process with others, a deeper healing came to my own heart. The Bible refers to this as the “healing balm of Gilead” (Jeremiah 8:22 & 46:11 Amp.) Within these 2 years of working with “Beauty for Ashes Ministries International”, the Lord led me to be introduced to an awesome woman of God, who would soon become my best friend. I always seemed to have a lot of best friends in my life, but the Lord showed me in His Word that this was a covenant friendship, like Jonathan and David (I Samuel 20 Amp.) between me, my friend and our Lord. A cord of three cannot be easily broken (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10,12). 

The Lord gave me an open door in September 2005 to escape a very abusive marriage, which I had endured physical, verbal, sexual and emotional wounds for 18 years. I gladly took this way of escape within the same week that He had been speaking to me about getting out. He had wanted me to get out of this dangerous environment on several occasions through the years, but I was too afraid that my husband would kill me or my family or his self (as he had threatened many times), and at other times, I was just believing that God would save him and restore our marriage, even after failed attempts of marriage counseling.