I was born into a military family (Air Force). My parents, at the time of my upbringing, were atheists. I was told, at a very young age, that ‘when you die, you die, there’s nothing afterwards’. I tried to picture ‘nothingness’, but soon I concluded (perhaps through a revelation?) that there is no such thing as ‘nothingness’. As I pondered what nothingness was, I saw something like molecules moving in perpetual motion! I was about 4 or 5 at the time. So, I decided that my mother was mistaken when she made this remark.
Before coming to the faith, the Lord
gave me a dream in 1974:
I had a dream when I lived in Miami
Beach. I dreamt that I was with a horde
of people being herded forward by something dark and foreboding behind us. There were dark clouds over us. We couldn’t see this thing because we were
jammed tightly together and could only walk forward and could only turn our
heads to the right or left. Anyone
that’s visited Broadway’s Imperial Theatre would understand how close we
were…like sardines. Anyway, I was in the
front section of the crowd. We came to
the banks of a very choppy body of water.
We looked to the person to the left and right of us, wondering what to
do next. Then I looked up and saw Jesus
standing on top of a high rock, with a halo of light around Him, holding His
arms out toward us. I said, ‘Look! There’s Jesus! And I very excitedly jumped into the choppy
water and swam toward Him. Then the
others started jumping in too and swimming toward Him. When I reached Him, I suddenly found myself
in a classroom with girls younger than I in it.
I was teaching them about Jesus.
Another person, a male from Delmar, appeared in the dream in a classroom
of young boys and he was teaching them the same. The love of the Lord was so heavy and thick
and amazing; the like of which I had never experienced. I was so happy and so were all of the
others. This dream happened in either
1974 or 1975, which was before I became a follower of Christ in 1976.
When my mother died, at the age of 46, I questioned the
purpose of life. So much unhappiness,
and then you die??? I started having
panic attacks. I watched a Billy Graham
Crusade one night and asked the Lord into my heart. That is when everything changed. I could not stop smiling! I had peace and joy! I realized that God and the Bible were
real! I had a spiritual rebirth, I was
born-again, with the Spirit abiding in me!
I did not attend a church service until I was in my
mid-twenties, after I asked the Lord into my life. I would like to pay tribute to my beloved
Grandmother, Ruth Hastings, whose prayers, I am certain, helped to bring me
into the Kingdom of Adonai.
When I first started reading the Bible, the devil, HaSatan
was angry and he whispered accusing thoughts into my mind while I was reading
scriptures. He would whisper: “See what
kind of God you serve; He kills women and children.” He would accuse Adonai! I didn’t know that there was a devil, HaSatan. I thought these were my own thoughts. I would pray and beg Adonai to forgive me for
thinking such things. When I found out
about that liar, the devil, HaSatan, and his deceptive tactics, I learned to
resist him. Soon I was released to study
the Bible without torment.
After a few years attending a Methodist congregation, I
started attending a ‘full gospel’ type congregation and gleaned all I could
from there. It was there that I met and
married my beloved husband, Mark. But
the congregation did not appreciate it when I made the discovery that the ‘law
of Moses’ is still in effect. So
eventually we parted ways. You cannot
walk together unless you are in agreement.
I must confess, my progress in keeping the commandments of
Adonai was slow. Initially, we started
celebrating Passover in the 1980s, and did so yearly. It is my favorite set apart time. But the other moedim we came to observe
later. I didn’t start observing the
Sabbath until around 1997. It has been a
lonely journey because the majority of believers in Yeshua do not recognize
that we are expected to keep the commandments.
I am a simple human being, who has discovered
the wonderful salvation my heavenly Father has provided through His Son’s
sacrifice upon the execution stake. His
Son is Yeshua, the Messiah. By my faith
in His sacrifice and saving blood, I have received forgiveness for my
sins. If I confess my sins, when I fall
into sin, for none are perfect, Adonai is faithful to forgive me. Understand, if I sin deliberately, there will
be a price to pay.
The Lord has given me many
revelations through His appointed times (see Leviticus 23). He also gives me revelations when I study His
word. I love to read His word aloud for
nothing better can come from my lips.
I am sharing my story so others may
know that the Lord, Adonai, is real. He
loves us and wants us to have abundant life through the revelation of His Great
Salvation, even His Son, Yeshua. He wants
us to walk in HIS ways, to love justice and mercy, and to walk in humbleness
with Him. The reward is eternal life,
filled with love, peace, joy, wholeness, light and fellowship.
Just like the rest of us, I have been
through many trials, of health, finances, family, etc. My heavenly Father has sustained me through
them all. He can do this for every human
being, if they would allow Him. It is
His desire to give us abundant life.
I am simply blessed!
