I received Jesus as a young child and grew up knowing him and seeing his power performed in my life daily. I had a relationship built through the years to trust in him, and was raised knowing he is with me in all things. As a young girl, I spent a lot of time around my family and some of my friends around the ministry. A lot of us were around the same age, and our parents ministered and fellowshipped together, so us kids did. I had some really close friends at school, but we just did things every once in a while. They were my friends, and I cared about them, but I just enjoyed being around people that were endeavoring to obey God more.
About the time I entered high school during my freshman year, God really began to separate me from a lot of my friends. He was establishing more of a relationship with him. I had been raised to trust God, and believe this gospel, but this was different. When everyone else went on their own way, the Spirit of God began to draw me into a closer relationship with him. It was not always easy to lay down the things that I wanted to do, and do what the Lord was requiring of me.
I was in the band and took dance outside school. My friends at school all joined the drill team. They wanted me to do so as well, but I knew it was not God for me to do that. I needed to stay in band and obey what God had for my life. That was one separation. They had different classes, and I didn't get to see them much. I made new friends, but my close group of friends began to go on with their lives without me. We still saw each other in the halls, and they were always glad to see me, but we just didn't get to do things like we once did. I have over the past few years recently seen one or two, and now to this day I only converse with one on occasion every couple months or so.
I graduated high school, and we moved to a home in Allen. A lot of my friends went on to college, and I moved away after they had left. I lost touch with everyone, which was ok with me. I just knew I was moving on in my life with the Lord, and I had to leave all those people behind. I fellowshipped a lot with my parents. We spent a lot of time praying together, and I was growing in strength and knowing more about his power working in my life. There was more of a revelation of the gospel being established in my heart. I spent a lot of hours in my room reading the psalms and the new testament aloud and praying. I was pressing forward into the kingdom and overcoming a lot in my heart. There was a lot of good things that were overcome at that time. My heart was changing and being established in faith toward God.
Through the years, God even separated me at times from friends at church. This was the hard one. Will you obey me Candace, or do you want to go with the flow? The Lord doesn't want any of us to be bound to one another. He is interested in each individual and their obedience. Each one of us have to trust God on our own. We have to press in to the things of the Kingdom of God and fight to keep our focus on the gospel and overcoming. I can not do it for you, and you can not do it for me. All of us are required to believe the gospel.
The Father and the Lord Jesus are the only ones who are there for you always. You can trust them with everything and know that they won't leave you neither will he forsake you. You can have a friend who you have known all your life and you think is believing God with you and walking in the Spirit with you, and one day they get offended and walk away. I have seen it happen, and it was hard, but I walked through it and overcame. It says, "Can two walk together unless they agree?" The answer is no. That is why when my friends don't believe God or they walk away from this gospel, then we don't agree. You can't walk together. It hasn't always been easy, but thank God for his mercy on my life to help me overcome.
My heart has come to the place where I want to be with people who want to fellowship around the things of the Spirit of God. That is what my life is about, obeying God. (Sometimes that obedience is being led somewhere by His Spirit to share the gospel with someone that has never heard it). That is what this testimony is about, being separated unto God and obeying what he wants in our lives. Over the past few years, there has been intense warfare, and I have spent a lot of time fellowshipping with my parents and my sisters. We pray together, and worship and praise God together. We overcome all the time. I thank God for it. You have to believe the gospel, trust in, rely on, and adhere to it. Once you have a relationship with the Father through Jesus, that is all you need to make it, and then he establishes relationships with others that will profit you, and they will be in the Spirit, not just the flesh.
Email:
terrym@terrymai.com
Whatever You Need It says in Matthew 6:33, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." When you believe the gospel, how that Jesus died, was buried, and rose again the third day and trust in it seeking that power of God everything you need will be provided for you. Seeking the kingdom (the power) of God, it provides all you need. You don't do what most do, and seek a man or woman, a house, a job, a car, or whatever else. You fill in the blank. You have to seek his kingdom and that power will perform what you need for that day. I know growing up if I needed something I would just believe and set my heart on the gospel, and God would supply whatever was needed, whether it be healing, something I needed to buy, or something to work in my life. If you believe God he will give you what He wants you to have. He will lead you where he wants you to go. He makes his desires your desires.
When I was about 16, it came time for most kids to get a car. Well my parents didn't get me one right away, and I humbled myself to drive my mom’s car. She let me take it to school some and drive it where I needed to go. Around December of my senior year, I was 17, and we were having dinner one night with some people and I shared how I know God will have a car for me when it's his will. I had humbled myself to say to God, I will have whatever you want me to have, but I just need something with four wheels that can get me where I need to go. I didn't set my heart on a car, I just kept believing God, praying, reading my psalms and, trusting him.
The next morning my mom woke me up and said do you want to go get you a car? I was like, "Really?" She said, yes we are going to get you a car, let's go. My Dad and I went to the car dealership we believed was right, and when we pulled up, there sat my car. It was a white Grand Prix GT..... loved that car!! It was fun. God gave me something more than I expected. I was so thankful.
Several years later in 2004, I was with some friends and we had gone to Sonic to get a snack and some drinks. I had turned the car off to take the order, and when I started it up again I noticed it didn’t sound right. I put the car in reverse and began to back out, and it sounded and felt as though something was dragging below. It wasn’t a good sound, nor did it feel right. I kept driving towards their house which was about a mile or so away. As we drove it chugged slower and slower, but I made to the front of the house. When I put it in park there was steam or smoke coming from under the front hood. I wasn’t sure what might happen so I turned the car off. We went inside and their dad came out to look at it. I tried to start the car again and the engine was dead. I thank God he had me in a place where I could get help and I wasn’t some place stranded on the highway alone. He always has me in a place where someone I know can help me. That’s what seeking the kingdom will profit you. Whenever my car would have engine trouble, I would be at home, in front of the church, at a friend’s house, or at my parent’s house to get a jump-start. Or if my tire had something in it, I was some place to get help and not alone for a blow out to happen. Never has that happened and I thank God for that. When you trust in him and believe he will lead you and be with you in all things. The next day I got that car towed and realized it was time to get another one. We went to the dealership I believed was right, and when I walked on the lot, there I saw the one. It was a black Grand Prix GTP. I knew it was right, but I went ahead and took a test drive. When I got in it, I knew for sure, this is the one! It has been a true blessing and I thank God for it.
A couple years ago, I knew it was right to get my own place. I kept hearing in my spirit the name of a place to live, but I wasn’t sure it was right or not. I wanted to look several other places as well, because my heart wanted to. I went to the other places and they just weren’t right. Nothing would fit my furniture comfortably. It wasn’t God. The first place I knew was right, so I went back and they told me what they had. Well they only had a second floor in the size I needed, but it was above a model, which meant no one would ever live below me. It was right on the back of a building, facing a beautiful creek which my balcony overlooked and was very peaceful and quiet. I said I will take it. It has really been a blessing and God has put things in it to make it more than I ever expected. It is really nice and I am truly grateful for it.
These are just few examples of what God has done in my life. There are many more, more than you can ever write down, but I believed it was right to share a couple with you. God will lead you to whatever you need. You just have to seek his kingdom and don’t fret about everything. Trust in his power that raised Jesus from the dead and it will work in your life as it has mine, and he will provide all you need and more than you can ask or think. God bless!
Email:
terrym@terrymai.com
We Wrestle Not With Flesh & Blood Ephesians 6:12, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." This is something that God has worked out in my heart, and has given me more of a revelation of over the years. We don’t wrestle with people and it’s hard to look past a person sometimes to realize it is spirits in them that are resisting us, and not the person. People with tongues set on fire from hell will come against you because of what is in you, which is the Lord Jesus. The devil will use people to get you to doubt or feel rejected or just pester you.
I know as a child I had people say wicked things to me, or do wicked things to me and it hurt, especially because of where it came from sometimes. It really did. I told my parents and they encouraged me, this is nothing but the devil, just bless them and we will overcome. I did just that and either the person would change, God moved them out of my life, or it just didn’t affect me anymore. I got stronger not to let what they said hurt me.
I encourage you young people to not let people in school or wherever you are at bother you. I know they say things that hurt, but you can’t let them. The devil knows when we are bothered by things, that is why he tries to get to us. Kids and teenagers can be mean, they torment others because of their own insecurities and if you are trusting God and believing God it can be even worse because the devil hates God and doesn’t want anyone to obey him. He will try to make you feel like things are impossible, but they aren’t with God. The devil is wicked and he will use anything or anyone to make you want to give up.
As you grow older you deal with the same thing, you can’t let people affect you. I know it’s easier said sometimes than done, but if you are trusting God he will be with you to overcome it. You deal with it every where. I worked with people that would lie about me to get something for their benefit. I would just bless them and trust God in every situation and God would move on my behalf. He will for someone that believes and obeys him. I have been around people that will make fun of me because they can’t handle what’s in me. God has really made my confidence in him grow, and that has made me more confident about myself now because I do. I am a very happy person and people will try to bring me down, because of what is in their hearts. I don’t let them bother me. Sometimes because of who the devil is using to torment me, it catches me off guard, and it might take me a little longer to overcome it, but I do. You might not always understand, but you will overcome if you just believe and pray. The devil wants to divide everyone, and you can’t let him.
In dealing with this, I know some people will try and use something to suffice the hurt or get through whatever they are dealing with. Nothing can satisfy or fill that void more than God. Jesus was all alone and the Father (the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) was the only thing he had to trust in, and even when he was separated for a time from the Father, he trusted that God would deliver him out. You have to trust him too, to deliver you from whatever you are in. You must believe God, pray, read your psalms, cry out to God believing in faith, and he will be there to answer. God will satisfy that longing for whatever you need, and you just have to believe the gospel, and that power that raised Jesus from the dead will work in your life as it has mine.
Email: terrym@terrymai.com