Freed From Condemnation, Having Confidence In His Love
I want to praise the Lord for His great love toward me, for His divine guidance in my life, and for bringing me in contact with your ministry through your messages as well as your books, Unmerited Favor and Destined To Reign. Your teachings have transformed my thinking and restored me to a beautiful, loving relationship with my Abba Father.
I was born in a Christian family and grew up in the church. I knew about God but didn’t really know Him. From the age of eight, I started going up for altar calls and not understanding why God didn’t love me well enough to miraculously touch my life and stop me from sinning. The many laws to uphold were so daunting and impossible to keep. I just kept sinning and making mistakes.
After the years of a tumultuous relationship with God, I gave up. I believed that my heart had been hardened on purpose by God and concluded that I wasn’t among those chosen to make it to heaven. Since I could not make God love me, I searched for love in all the wrong places—boys, men, parties, pornography—it was a long road that I hated.
In the process, I fell out with my religious family who felt that I was a black sheep that the devil was using to bring them shame. I knew that they loved me but they did not know how to reach me and so they nagged and condemned me even more.
I graduated but could not find a job. All my relationships did not last longer than a few months and I struggled with bouts of self-pity, low self-esteem and depression.
I was fearful of my future and my ability to find a good husband because of the sordid past. As a result, I got even more desperate and made even more mistakes. This cycle continued till September 2012 when I’d reached my lowest point. My conscience was dead and I was sure God could not reach me even if He tried. I felt lost and broken, and was very sure that I would die single and alone.
Just then, a very good friend gave me some messages to listen to. Among them were your messages, Boast Of The Lord’s Love For You, Not Your Love For Him, The Covenant Of Grace And The Kindness Of God, Good Things Happen To People Who Believe God Loves Them. I decided to listen to them although I strongly doubted that I would find the answers I needed there. But I was hooked! I laughed, I cried and I screamed because the messages reached me deep down within and touched my heart immensely.
The message that God loved me, no matter where I had been or what I had done, sank in for the first time in 27 years! Through the messages, I learned about my righteousness in Christ Jesus, about being saved by His grace, about His finished work on the cross that has placed me far above principalities and powers, and about how there was no imputation of sins for me because all my sins have been judged in Jesus! I am righteous! I am holy! I am free!
The more I listened, the more I was liberated from the years of wrong teaching and I broke free from condemnation. I also read Unmerited Favor and Destined To Reign and understood how I get not what I deserved, but what Jesus deserves, how the slate has been wiped clean, and how God’s presence gives me success. The more I read, the more I claimed it all and rested in Jesus’ finished work.
As I became transformed inwardly, so did my life transform outwardly over the past seven months. I look younger, cleaner and have even lost a lot of weight. I’ve got a job doing what I love. My very good friend, whom I have loved for more than 11 years, but felt I didn’t deserve him, has proposed to me. He is all excited about all that is happening to me, as he has been praying for me for years and trying to get me to read some of your books or listen to your messages. We are planning our wedding this year. My relationship with my family has been transformed too. I see the respect returning to their eyes as God shows up for me every day. Even my mum has started reading your books and listening to your messages on Daystar every evening.
For the first time in my life, I am confident of His love for me, of my salvation and of a wonderful future. I really want to thank you for revealing Christ to me in His Word. Your ministry has blessed me, my fiancé and thousands of people across the globe. May the Lord continually bless you for speaking His Word unashamedly! Please don’t stop!
Nigeria