Your stories of God’s intervention
God redeemed my lack of education
Born in the early 1970s, I grew up in an era of people of my family’s social standing not being encouraged to strive for university. That was saved for the elite, those who were intelligent enough to pass the 11-plus exam and go to grammar school. Against the odds, my eldest stepsister, who was ten years older than me, did actually go to grammar school. One day I returned home from school to find her crying at the kitchen table in complete devastation. She hadn’t received the grades required from her O-level exams to be considered for university. If I had harboured any hope of going to university, it died in that moment. If my stepsister, the most intellectual of seven of us, couldn’t make it, there was no hope for any of us. The best that I could hope for was an office job or a job in retail.
As I didn’t really have a future to strive for, I didn’t try at school, getting into trouble instead with a gang of friends who were not the best influence. I left school in 1988, the first year of the new GCSE qualification system, with a grand total of two GCSEs, Grade B, in English Language and English Literature. As predicted, I fell into retail to begin with and then migrated to office work. Throughout my whole career, I really amounted to nothing that could be deemed a success! I did once achieve an office manager’s role but felt way out of my depth, not really believing that I was worthy of it, and very quickly resumed a secretarial role. And then I met Jesus. Having always loved to read and write, I moved from reading Jackie Collins and Jilly Cooper novels to Christian books and began studying the Bible. I gained confidence through researching, writing and delivering studies at home groups, and then, when COVID hit, I read the Bible from cover to cover.
I am now part of a core team at my local church who deliver a smaller, earlier church service as an alternative to the main family service. As well as getting involved in all the practical stuff that comes with church services, I am also now leading them and, best of all, preaching. I was recently reminded in a sermon that the disciples were unlearned people and yet they were powerful and dynamic speakers, spreading the gospel wherever they went. They were able to do this through the power of the Holy Spirit.
I have come to realise that through the power of the Holy Spirit helping me to read, understand and live by the word, I have finally found success. Success is not measured by what we have, but by what drives us within through the power of the Holy Spirit. I am so proud to be God’s vessel. I finally feel I am doing something of worth. It is a great privilege to be trusted with the responsibility of preaching and it is a great honour to be able to teach others God’s word. I thank the Lord from the bottom of my heart that in his kingdom, we all have a chance, regardless of social norms and missed opportunities, and we can all be the people that he created us to be.
Nina
Supernaturally healed
I live in South Africa, and each December we go on holiday to Hermanus, which is a little seaside town about two hours from Cape Town. I had previously had a urinary tract infection that had become quite severe. After a week, I’d had to go to hospital with pain in my kidneys, and was put on a drip. It was about two years after that incident that my family were in Hermanus for Christmas and I suddenly realised I had a severe bladder infection. I told my husband I needed to go to hospital straight away. I could see my urine had turned the colour of cola, or dark black tea. I knew from the previous time I would need to be treated with a drip and antibiotics. I thought that was all they would do.
I drove myself to the hospital, and when I got there they made me do a urine test. The nurse was horrified by the colour of my urine. She put me in a bed and told me to wait for the doctor. The doctor came and she made me do another urine test and it was the same. They did all the tests they could do there, but, as it was a small hospital, they didn’t have all the facilities that bigger hospitals have. I had to wait for about an hour for the results, and in that hour I listened to a ‘Focus on the Family’ podcast. It was speaking about how husbands and wives are united; we are made one when we get married. That is how God planned it so we can bear one another’s burdens, and help each other. While I listened to that podcast, I didn’t know my husband was praying for me, despite being busy with our four children at home. He prayed for healing for me.
The next time I saw the doctor, she looked very worried. She said: “I don’t want to tell you what I think you have, because it’s very severe, and I think we need to do more tests before we tell you, so we need to send you to Cape Town.” She then said she needed to take one more test, so off I went for another urine sample. This time, I could see immediately that the colour had completely changed. It looked totally normal. I gave it to her and she went off and tested it. She came back and said: “I don’t know how to explain this, but your urine is testing completely normal. You can go home!”
I went home, and haven’t been back to hospital since. I am so thankful that my husband prayed for me, because sometimes in the moment it’s hard for us to pray for ourselves. And I am also so grateful for the restored bladder and kidney function. God is so good.
Louise
God’s presence and healing
At the beginning of 2023, I became seriously ill with what was later diagnosed as chronic fatigue syndrome or ME. I had it so badly, I was cut off from the life I knew – everything, from the course I was studying, work and even going to church, came to an abrupt halt. Then last year I got to the point where I was too ill to leave the house without a wheelchair; three months after that I basically became bed bound. I deteriorated to the point where I couldn’t cope with light or sound, and wasn’t well enough to do anything to occupy or stimulate my mind. So, for months I sat in my room in silence, in the dark, doing nothing. I couldn’t eat sometimes so had to rely on liquid meals. I couldn’t shower and even the smallest bed bath would make me significantly more ill. I was at rock bottom. And God was there. He showed me his presence, his goodness and his voice to me in a whole new way. Despite everything I was going through, I could truly say he was good and he was with me in it. That’s not only what I knew; it was what I so tangibly experienced. And then, after a whole long time in that pit of illness, God set me free. I sit here today, typing this out on my phone as a completely well person. God miraculously healed me and set me free from everything that was holding me.
Darci
What’s your story?
Testimonies are an important way of encouraging each other in faith and we’d love to hear your personal experiences of God, whether that’s a miracle story or Jesus standing with you in the storm.
Email us: womanalive@premier.org.uk
Please include your first name with your correspondence – but do let us know if you want to share anonymously. Entries may be edited for length and clarity.
No comments yet