I was a pretty bad person back in the day. You might not know by looking at me now, but up until 3 years old I didn’t know Jesus and I don’t want to think back to that dark time in my life…
Okay, so my first sins that I remember were lying about leaving the tricycle out (I got my mouth washed out with soap for that one) & lying about spilling the chocolate milk on the carpet to my aunt. I didn’t want to lose her favor – as if that would do it… 😉
Sorry to disappoint, but I don’t have a crazy story.. I grew up in a Christian family, asked the Lord into my life at 3, got filled with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues at 6 years old and have lived for him ever since. I’m 25 and I’ve stayed away from smoking, drinking, sexing & drugging – and so far it hasn’t hurt me. 😉 I’m thankful for my godly upbringing, though it didn’t give me the desired dramatic testimony you almost wish you had when you’re on a mission trip and it’s your turn to tell people how Jesus turned your life around. 🙁
Somehow I missed out on a lot of drama in life and came to know God as friend and Father in my life early on. He’s directly answered prayers I’ve prayed or thoughts I didn’t realize He was listening to. Like even when I prayed specifically for a certain kind of white tweed tie-up shoes, jeans, white leggings etc.. & God brought them right to me! & Wow! Just now as I’m writing this I was just given a crock pot & fancy cheese planer/slicer that I’ve really been wanting for a while! What on earth!?! God likes to show me that He’s thinking about me in little ways He knows I’ll appreciate! I forget that I’m a gifts person. 🙂
Looking back, I recently realized that I started reading the Bible for myself in my youth and I really think that the word of God getting into my soil early on helped spare me from unwanted regrets. My parents gave me an NIV Adventure Bible and pastors at our church encouraged us to read 10 chapters of the New Testament a day to read it in a month. I also followed year long Bible plans over the years and grew up in Charismatic spirit-filled churches 3x a week.
My parents, though unexpectedly imperfect, really lived the life of Christ to their best ability in front of me and showed me what it looks like to be passionate about the Lord. Huh, writing this is making me realize how much I have a lot to be thankful for.. I also worked with my dad a lot when I was young doing carpet cleaning and I think that helped too. He was always witnessing to customers (& making me miss out on McDonald’s breakfast! But I will overlook that for this blog.) 😉 Also, my mom grew up on the mission field in Spain for 16 years and she is super wise. Her friendship has been such a resource. I hope to be as good of an example to my kids one day as my parents have been for me.
Personal Healing Testimony: My dad, sister Haley & I all got a disease called malaria in Africa when I was 3 years old while we were there for 9 months on a mission trip. Usually malaria stays in your system, causes you to be weak, tired, sore joints, discolors you and often people die from it. My aunt who was with us prayed in the name of Jesus when we got back to California and we were all miraculously healed! Later at 17 years old I was also healed from an irregular period cycle that had stopped for 9 months for no apparent reason. A prophetess came to my dad’s old church and I went up for prayer. She told me I had cycle problems and that God was healing me without me even saying a word about it! It was amazing! & Right after that, well.. I got healed! That’s a weird story, but it happened.
Later when we lived with a coupe in the LA area, the maid for their house couldn’t come into work – I found out it was because she had a non-stop period for 3 months and it was almost debilitating at times. Being that God had healed me of period problems, I had faith for it. I had just been fasting for 6 days for God to do the supernatural in my life, so Haley and I prayed for her and then prayed in tongues over her and when we saw her the next week – she said the bleeding stopped after we prayed for her! Honestly, I was scared to ask her how she was in case nothing happened. I checked in the next week and she was still healed! It’s really interesting how God chooses to work. God has definitely showed his power to me in many undeniable in addition to these over the years. & He will show you too if you ask Him. 🙂
My Year with the Lord: At 23, right after I had started spending time with the Lord every morning, God asked me to give Him a year. I didn’t know if it was God, and I really didn’t want it to be Him at the time. It was almost like God had whispered it in my ear, and it kept coming back to me though. I did it and committed to not date that year and so many new things were birthed in my life. God carved out so much time for learning and growth – as boring as that sounds – but it was exciting for me! He also opened a door for my sister & I to live (& eat!) for free in LA and I got to spend so much time inhaling educational information and focusing on my relationship with God! It was definitely a special time the Lord set apart for me and I’m thankful the Lord asked me to do it. I haven’t clearly heard from the Lord many times in my life, but that was one of the times I did. I’m almost 26 now and I’m still walking out things I learned in that year – so if the Lord asks you to do something you’re not sure you want to do – know that He’s got your best interest in mind!
We all have a testimony, and so far this is mine. However we met, have gotten to know or have come back to the Lord is part of our unique story we get to share with others. The point of this post isn’t to tell you about my pretty clean record, but to encourage you that you don’t have to have an “I did everything bad” testimony to lead people to Jesus. The Lord leads me to people that need Him regularly. I ask Him to send me people who are ready to hear the gospel and He does. If you do have regrets and have come back to Jesus, use your testimony. You are new in Him. The Bible says those who are forgiven much love much, which is a pretty beautiful thing, but I think anyone would tell you not to go out looking for trouble.. Jesus didn’t have a “saved-from-sin” testimony and he was the most powerful witness of God ever. He didn’t have to go get a tattoo to relate to sinners either. Okay, rant over. 😉 I think the power and anointing of God in our lives is the best tool we have to draw others to Christ and we cultivate that by spending time with Him and by being in the word regularly. If you don’t have much love or passion for God right now, ask Him to give it to you, and then force yourself to spend time alone with Him until you want to be with Him. It shouldn’t take long to warm up. 🙂
Look out for one of my next posts: “How To Witness”
🙂 Camille
