A New Creation
Stories
Sharing Visions
Divine Revelations, Angels, And Holy Coincidences
I cannot remember a time when God wasn't the source of all that I am. I can recall the day I made my "official" commitment to the relationship my soul craved to have with the Almighty. It was an awesome April evening in 1983, in Orlando, Florida, at a Billy Graham Crusade. I remember leaving my seat to go up to the giant stage with hundreds of others, all of us with one collective thought: to give our lives over to Christ. I also remember feeling God in everyone and everything in that stadium. When we have such wonderful spiritual epiphanies, we don't ever want to lose those moments.
Well, as I grew older, my relationship with the Father was a contented one. I had successes and failures like every other Christian. That was where my problem was. I felt like "every other Christian." The proverbial Fourth of July fireworks were not going off in my godly world. Where were my miracles? Where was that sense of being able to conquer the whole universe just because I was a child of God? I truly felt like God was too busy to hear my prayers, let alone feel my need for some spectacular event to bring me closer to him.
I sat on my bed one evening, feeling somewhat despondent and even a little abandoned, while flipping through television channels. Nothing was ever going to pull me out of this blue funk I was in. "God, where are you?" I thought. As I jumped from one channel to the next, I got my answer: there, on one of the Christian channels, was a Billy Graham Crusade. But not just any Billy Graham crusade -- it was the one being held at the Tangerine Bowl in 1983, in Orlando, Florida. And there, among all of the hundreds of people going to the stage to give up their earthly lives for more promising, fulfilling spiritual ones, was a brown-haired girl named Debi Lyerly.
God did hear my prayers and he felt my needs deeper than I ever could have. He had brought me back to the place I had forgotten years ago. And at that moment, I could feel God in everything. As I watched myself being saved some twenty years ago, I realized that our most important accomplishments and greatest joys are also God's most important accomplishments and greatest joys. He, too, feels our happiness. And just as we struggle through our doubts and heartaches, our Heavenly Father suffers as well. I know now, as I have always truly known, that God never leaves us. He would never desert us. But, mostly, he never ever stops listening to us or loving us.
Jim Schlosser
It was back in 1986, as I recall, that I felt the power of God as I was enshrouded in what seemed to be glory all around me. A Catholic priest, whom I considered to be a good friend, had given me an audio tape to listen to.
The tape contained the personal testimony of Father John Bertolucci, the man who was apparently instrumental in starting the charismatic movement within the Roman Catholic Church. Naturally, I was very curious, having been a practicing Catholic myself for over 47 years before finding the truth about Christ through a home Bible study. I had been born again and was hungry for God's word. I was also glad to hear that this charismatic movement was gaining great ground within the fertile hearts of so many Catholics.
As I listened to his testimony, I began to feel a powerful presence within myself. On the tape, he was relating his experience at a home Bible study where another priest laid his hands on Father Bertolucci's head and prayed for him. At that point he was overcome by what he believed was the power of God, and he felt a spiritual cleansing which he had never before in his life received.
It was at exactly that same point in the tape when I felt the same thing. I was mesmerized! I felt unable to move, and I felt so peaceful as I fell to my knees and sobbed and laughed. All that I was able to utter was, "Jesus, I love you." Over and over again I continued to sob, laugh, and praise my savior, the result being that I felt so spiritually cleansed and at peace with God myself that it took me most of that night to settle back and realize what had happened.
From that day on, I have had a continuing love for God's word and certainly an ever-increasing love for Jesus.
Joy L. Kilby
In the early 1970s, soon after the birth of our son, my husband and I began to argue over even the smallest things. Ours was not the happy-ever-after marriage I had read about in fairy tales. My heart felt empty and full of longing. We tried marriage counseling with the pastor of our church, and he said one thing that made a lot of sense to me: With God, nothing is impossible. I understood that Jesus and the written word bring truth and life to those who seek, and I began seeking. However, my husband and I were divorced not long after that, and my son and I left the church.
Now I was divorced, a single mother, and churchless! I felt totally confused, but not yet broken. Not long after my divorce, I began to date a man I met in a bar. A year later, we got married. My son was now seven years old. I desperately wanted a father figure for him, since his own father had moved to Texas and had little contact with him.
I started a new life with a new husband. His mother was even religious, and I counted that as a positive. We could talk scripture, and I was happy with that, but as time went on, I felt that something was going wrong. I hadn't known that he was an alcoholic, although we met in a bar and I should have taken the clues. I didn't know how sick he was and how under bondage to alcohol. We were married for a total of sixteen years. Drinking made him sarcastic, and he began to abuse both my son and me verbally. We had two sons together, and he gave all of his attention to them, just to hurt me, telling them that I was sick and that they didn't have to listen to me.
Five years into the marriage, I began to cry out to God, "I don't understand. Please help me!" I didn't understand my life or its direction. Later that year, I went to a rummage sale. When Grandma was alive, she used to say, "It would be Heaven to die at a rummage." Well, as I was standing, looking at some books, I heard a voice behind me. It was a man's voice, gentle and authoritative. I turned around, but there was no one there. The voice seemed to come from within me, yet behind me, and then I realized that it was a spirit talking to me. He said, "You are being deceived." I could hardly stand up. My knees became weak. I gripped the table to keep from falling.
"Oh, my Lord!" I answered. "I've never really known you as Lord!" I was beginning to understand. The darkness was beginning to fade. The Day Star had risen in my heart. I personally committed myself into the Lord's hands, to teach me, step by step. Jesus, Lord, Master, Savior -- all at a rummage sale. Was this a coincidence, or God's perfect timing?
Well, as I grew older, my relationship with the Father was a contented one. I had successes and failures like every other Christian. That was where my problem was. I felt like "every other Christian." The proverbial Fourth of July fireworks were not going off in my godly world. Where were my miracles? Where was that sense of being able to conquer the whole universe just because I was a child of God? I truly felt like God was too busy to hear my prayers, let alone feel my need for some spectacular event to bring me closer to him.
I sat on my bed one evening, feeling somewhat despondent and even a little abandoned, while flipping through television channels. Nothing was ever going to pull me out of this blue funk I was in. "God, where are you?" I thought. As I jumped from one channel to the next, I got my answer: there, on one of the Christian channels, was a Billy Graham Crusade. But not just any Billy Graham crusade -- it was the one being held at the Tangerine Bowl in 1983, in Orlando, Florida. And there, among all of the hundreds of people going to the stage to give up their earthly lives for more promising, fulfilling spiritual ones, was a brown-haired girl named Debi Lyerly.
God did hear my prayers and he felt my needs deeper than I ever could have. He had brought me back to the place I had forgotten years ago. And at that moment, I could feel God in everything. As I watched myself being saved some twenty years ago, I realized that our most important accomplishments and greatest joys are also God's most important accomplishments and greatest joys. He, too, feels our happiness. And just as we struggle through our doubts and heartaches, our Heavenly Father suffers as well. I know now, as I have always truly known, that God never leaves us. He would never desert us. But, mostly, he never ever stops listening to us or loving us.
Jim Schlosser
It was back in 1986, as I recall, that I felt the power of God as I was enshrouded in what seemed to be glory all around me. A Catholic priest, whom I considered to be a good friend, had given me an audio tape to listen to.
The tape contained the personal testimony of Father John Bertolucci, the man who was apparently instrumental in starting the charismatic movement within the Roman Catholic Church. Naturally, I was very curious, having been a practicing Catholic myself for over 47 years before finding the truth about Christ through a home Bible study. I had been born again and was hungry for God's word. I was also glad to hear that this charismatic movement was gaining great ground within the fertile hearts of so many Catholics.
As I listened to his testimony, I began to feel a powerful presence within myself. On the tape, he was relating his experience at a home Bible study where another priest laid his hands on Father Bertolucci's head and prayed for him. At that point he was overcome by what he believed was the power of God, and he felt a spiritual cleansing which he had never before in his life received.
It was at exactly that same point in the tape when I felt the same thing. I was mesmerized! I felt unable to move, and I felt so peaceful as I fell to my knees and sobbed and laughed. All that I was able to utter was, "Jesus, I love you." Over and over again I continued to sob, laugh, and praise my savior, the result being that I felt so spiritually cleansed and at peace with God myself that it took me most of that night to settle back and realize what had happened.
From that day on, I have had a continuing love for God's word and certainly an ever-increasing love for Jesus.
Joy L. Kilby
In the early 1970s, soon after the birth of our son, my husband and I began to argue over even the smallest things. Ours was not the happy-ever-after marriage I had read about in fairy tales. My heart felt empty and full of longing. We tried marriage counseling with the pastor of our church, and he said one thing that made a lot of sense to me: With God, nothing is impossible. I understood that Jesus and the written word bring truth and life to those who seek, and I began seeking. However, my husband and I were divorced not long after that, and my son and I left the church.
Now I was divorced, a single mother, and churchless! I felt totally confused, but not yet broken. Not long after my divorce, I began to date a man I met in a bar. A year later, we got married. My son was now seven years old. I desperately wanted a father figure for him, since his own father had moved to Texas and had little contact with him.
I started a new life with a new husband. His mother was even religious, and I counted that as a positive. We could talk scripture, and I was happy with that, but as time went on, I felt that something was going wrong. I hadn't known that he was an alcoholic, although we met in a bar and I should have taken the clues. I didn't know how sick he was and how under bondage to alcohol. We were married for a total of sixteen years. Drinking made him sarcastic, and he began to abuse both my son and me verbally. We had two sons together, and he gave all of his attention to them, just to hurt me, telling them that I was sick and that they didn't have to listen to me.
Five years into the marriage, I began to cry out to God, "I don't understand. Please help me!" I didn't understand my life or its direction. Later that year, I went to a rummage sale. When Grandma was alive, she used to say, "It would be Heaven to die at a rummage." Well, as I was standing, looking at some books, I heard a voice behind me. It was a man's voice, gentle and authoritative. I turned around, but there was no one there. The voice seemed to come from within me, yet behind me, and then I realized that it was a spirit talking to me. He said, "You are being deceived." I could hardly stand up. My knees became weak. I gripped the table to keep from falling.
"Oh, my Lord!" I answered. "I've never really known you as Lord!" I was beginning to understand. The darkness was beginning to fade. The Day Star had risen in my heart. I personally committed myself into the Lord's hands, to teach me, step by step. Jesus, Lord, Master, Savior -- all at a rummage sale. Was this a coincidence, or God's perfect timing?
