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Month: April 2017

#100 Merciful and Gracious

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 Artwork by Lily Murphy

My grandparents raised me until I was six years old. They were very godly people. We went to church regularly and they taught me great values. When I was six years old my mom got married and I went to live with her and my stepdad, who adopted me. My stepdad and I fought a lot, mostly because I was disrespectful. When I was 16 we got into a fight and he threw me out of the house. I ran the streets and began using drugs. 

By age 17, I was trafficking drugs and had my first felony by age 18. I went to jail but my parents bonded me out in two days. In the next couple of years, I started cocaine. By age 20, I had six counts of felony receiving stolen property. I went to prison and started reading the Bible. I was interested but not committed. After I got out of prison, I violated my parole with alcohol and cocaine and spent six more months in prison. This happened four times with the same result…each time I went back to prison. So between 2000–2004, my life was spent in and out of prison. While I was out of prison, I went to college and completed courses. Finally, I successfully completed parole and graduated college with a degree in social work and a 3.36 GPA. 

Instead of using my social work degree, I bought three nightclubs with the money I inherited when my mom died. One was a rave club. The clubs produced a massive amount of money. I went into drug dealing, selling Ecstasy in the rave club. I was flying in and out of Miami and Vegas to get drugs. I bought restaurants and opened a real estate company. But then things started crashing down around me. My best friend overdosed. My business partner committed suicide. Then a soldier got a drug in one of my nightclubs that killed him, and girl at one of my clubs got a drug that caused her to go into a coma. The police arrested a dealer in Miami and eventually that led the police to me. I was sentenced to 12 years in a federal prison. But even when I went to federal prison, I was still thinking about how I could develop my drug business to be even bigger and better when I got out.

While in prison, I got into an argument with a guard, which got me thrown into the “hole”—basically prison within prison. There on my bunk was a small Gideon New Testament Bible. I started reading it, and by Matthew 16 I started crying. I said, “I am checking out of this. If you’re real, God, show me.” Now the hole is very loud, with prisoners making all kinds noise, but within minutes after saying this, everything went quiet. Everything stood still. A warm sensation wrapped me up and held me. It literally felt like someone holding me. In my head I heard, “You’re forgiven.” 

 Then I said, “Yes Lord, but what about this…?”

“You are forgiven.”

And again I asked, “But what about this…?”

“You are forgiven.”

Back and forth this went on until I finally believed I was forgiven. Then I sat and cried. I still felt that warmth, like I was being held. Then from my toes to the top of my head, the presence just swept through my body. It was like I had just taken my first breath. The hair on my arms stood up. Everything in the prison cell was beautiful. Even the stainless-steel toilet was gleaming. I felt such joy. From that moment on everything in my life changed. I started reading my Bible again and soon a young man was brought to share the hole with me. We became great friends; we prayed together and became brothers in Christ. Later, when we were both out of the hole, he invited me to a Bible study and I started to go. I told the prison chaplain about my story and my experience with God, and he began discipling me into the faith.

I prayed, “Lord, I want to know the truth. Show me what is true and what is not.” The Lord sent people and books to show me the truth. God sent me books on theology and apologetics, defense of the Christian faith. And God opened my eyes to truth through the scriptures. I hungered so much for God’s Word and spent six hours each day studying the Bible and memorizing verses.

I began to see how God was blessing me after I got out of the hole. Usually when you go to the hole, all your personal possessions are destroyed or thrown away. When I got out of the hole, all of my possessions were returned to me in perfect shape. Everything was stacked neatly in a bag. Even my underwear was folded. One of the prison officers said to me later, “How did you like that bag? Be blessed!” This just does NOT HAPPEN IN PRISON! Then I had a court date about the altercation with the guard that landed me in the hole and they forgave it and cleaned it off my record. I got the best job you could get in prison. I started serving in the prison church, ushering and preaching from time to time. I was moved to a prison in Virginia, then to Kentucky, my home state. Here I was discipled by a wonderful prison chaplain, a committed, godly man.

At the end of my prison sentence, the prison chaplain told me he felt God calling him to help me. Three days before I was released from prison, the chaplain told me to call a men’s ministry and recovery program. I interviewed there and connected with the director. I spent the next six years working there, preaching, teaching, cooking, counseling, volunteer coordinating, and renovating their building. Because I had a social work degree, I was eligible to become a certified alcohol and drug counselor. A counselor I had met when I was released was the counselor for the resident drug abuse program and agreed to be my supervisor for this certification process. After I became a certified counselor, I created my own ministry for outpatient substance abuse treatment. This ministry has expanded and I now have my own building. In 2016, I went back to graduate school to become a licensed professional clinical counselor in mental health. I will graduate in July 2018 with a Masters in Counseling and Human Development after which I will be able to expand my ministry into mental health counseling as well as substance abuse counseling. I am also now working for Job Corp, an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor and Department of Agriculture. In this role I work with 16-24 year olds to provide counseling and substance abuse prevention and intervention. 

My life bears witness to a God that is MERCIFUL and GRACIOUS. He gave me life. He gave me a chance to turn it all around. I should have been in prison for life. I damaged and destroyed thousands of lives. It still amazes me…moves me to tears. I am FORGIVEN. Because of God’s love that is beyond all comprehension and Christ’s sacrifice, I am FORGIVEN. Pure. Blameless. My slate is clean. 

“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.”

Matthew 18:12–13

A Million God Stories is a Christ-centered ministry which offers a platform for Christians from all streams of Christian faith to give praise for how God has worked in their lives. Christ heals in infinitely creative ways and we acknowledge that His way of helping may differ from person to person.

#99 Returning to God

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 Photo by Erin E. Photography

This story is about how God healed my husband, brought good from illness, and brought together two of His children.

In 2010, Chris found a spot—which was melanoma—on his shoulder. It was removed. In 2013, the melanoma spot came back and was again removed. In 2014, he had a scan and the doctor found Stage 4 melanoma widespread throughout his body. The cancer was in his lymph nodes and a golf-ball-sized melanoma was found in his lungs. He was given only a few months to live.

It was discovered that Chris had the BRAF gene. This gene makes it more difficult for his cells to repair the damage of the sun, which led to his melanoma. Of all the specialists Chris could have gone to for care, God led us to just the right one. At the time of his diagnosis, there was an oncologist and researcher at Vanderbilt University who worked with the exact gene that Chris had and even had helped to develop the medication for this genetic problem. Vanderbilt was within easy driving distance from our home (and since this time, the oncologist/researcher has moved to a university much further away from us).

Chris was able to get an appointment with this oncologist/researcher and everything worked out just right for Chris to receive the experimental immunotherapy for the BRAF gene that was causing his problems. Even with the experimental therapy, there was a 92 percent chance that Chris would not live past a year, but it has been two years and still all the cancer is gone with no reoccurrence. The oncologist couldn’t believe it and told us that it is very rare to have complete elimination of the cancer with no reoccurrence. It is amazing. 

We are so thankful to God for Chris’s healing and continued health. We also praise God for how he used Chris’s illness for good. Chris was my first boyfriend when I was 12 years old. We remained friends but walked down different roads. Even though Chris grew up in the church, he went through a rebellious period, a time when there was no openness in his heart. The breakthrough for Chris came in 2013 when the melanoma spot was found again on his shoulder. It was at that time that he began to seek the Lord. He also moved back to his hometown in 2013. I had never left our hometown, and when he returned, I saw the change in him and that he was more open to spiritual conversation. God brought us together and we got married.

We are so thankful for what the Lord has done for us…for healing Chris, for Chris’s transformation spiritually, and for bringing us together. Throughout this experience, God has given us both physical and spiritual strength. There has been so much growth and a new perspective on life. We go to Vanderbilt every four weeks for a checkup and scan. Regardless of the future, we are confident—now more than ever before—of God’s greatness. And we are so thankful to our great God who heals us and brings good out of difficult times.

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:14

A Million God Stories is a Christ-centered ministry which offers a platform for Christians from all streams of Christian faith to give praise for how God has worked in their lives. Christ heals in infinitely creative ways and we acknowledge that His way of helping may differ from person to person.

#98 Four Hours Alone with God

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 Photo by Laura Wilkerson Photography

I was 23 years old and I had “known” God my whole life but I hadn’t really committed or surrendered my life to Him. I went on a prayer retreat with 20 guys at Land Between the Lakes. My pastor told us to go out for four hours and pray by ourselves. I was thinking to myself, “What am I going to do for four hours? How am I going to pray for that long?” For the first hour I was just trying to get into prayer and trying to get the distractions of the world out of my head. I was still thinking about what I needed to do at home and all the things I could be doing. I was trying to break away from the world, but I was just in my head. I spent the second hour just feeling a little conflicted. I was both embarrassed and convicted that I had been thinking about myself and my life only for the past hour. I hadn’t been thinking about anyone else; I was just thinking about me. Then, in the third hour, I walked to the water and began to pray. During this time, God moved in a powerful way and gave me a Bible verse, 1 Peter 5:7 “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” When I thought about this verse, I realized that anxiety had been killing me.

This verse resonated with me so much because there are no other verses in the Bible that directly say, “He cares for you.” I remember saying it out loud over and over. I was walking around the lake yelling that verse—shouting it! After saying it several times, the verse changed to something much more personal. I could hear in my spirit God saying to me, “Matthew, cast your anxiety on me because I care for you right now, because I love you right now.” I began to really understand all these different attributes of God—that He loved me and cared about me.

I began to walk around the lake taking in the beauty of everything. I was looking at the lake and suddenly realized that there were so many waves in the water. There was no wind and no reason that the water should’ve been so rough and restless. As I watched the waves, I thought to myself, “That restless water is like my spirit.” I saw that there was a rock by the water that never got covered by the waves coming in and out. It should’ve been covered, but somehow it was the only rock that wasn’t getting wet or getting swept away. Finally, a wave came and water covered the rock. At that moment, I knew I needed to be baptized. I wanted to be covered in water just like that rock, so I ran to my pastor and told him I wanted to get baptized.

 

The other guys on the trip gathered around me and prayed for me and I felt the overwhelming presence to bow down before the Lord and pray. After we prayed, we ate lunch and all went down to the shoreline and I was baptized at the lake. It was the perfect moment.

A few hours later we had dinner by the lake where I was baptized. I felt such a peace in that time, and there are two events that happened then that I will always cherish. One man said to me, “It was great having those six guys praying over you.” When he said that, the only thing on my mind was that I had felt seven hands when they were praying over me. I had six guys huddled around me and I could feel everyone’s hands on me, but ten to fifteen seconds into the prayer, a hand came from nowhere on my back—a hand that was so powerful and strong. It was warm and firm, yet soft and tender at the same time. And the placement of the hand was right in the center of my back. I honestly believe that extra hand I felt was the hand of God.

The second thing that happened that I will cherish forever is looking out at the lake and seeing that the once restless lake full of choppy waves was now the stillest, most peaceful lake I have ever seen. I felt like the stillness of the lake reflected my renewed and peaceful spirit after being baptized. I kept thinking, “God, I love you.” From that moment, I have been dedicating every day of my life to Him.

A Million God Stories is a Christ-centered ministry which offers a platform for Christians from all streams of Christian faith to give praise for how God has worked in their lives. Christ heals in infinitely creative ways and we acknowledge that His way of helping may differ from person to person.

#97 Never too Old

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Photo by Erin E. Photography

I grew up in the ’60s and ’70s, raised by Christian parents and regularly attending church. I accepted the faith of my parents and was baptized in middle school. As an adult, I needed to know more. I needed to make my faith my own. I wanted to learn as much as possible about God, Jesus, and the Bible. I had many questions..

Over the years, I’m sure I wore out many pastors with my questions. I read lots of books on Christianity and apologetics and read the Bible nearly every night for over three decades. Over and over I prayed for wisdom and understanding—and for someone to help me deeply study the Bible.

I was diligently seeking God and God sent someone to help me.  I had a new job working at a nursing home.  One of the residents, an older gentleman, was often in his wheelchair sitting in the hallways reading his Bible. From time to time I would stop to talk with him about the Bible. He was articulate and intelligent and his blue eyes sparkled when he talked about the Scriptures.  I can’t remember whose idea it was, but he started a Bible study. I was the only one who came. Every Wednesday evening at the nursing home, I was his only student. He was disappointed that it was just me, but said that I wanted to learn so badly he just had to teach me.

Each session, I sat across from him in his room with the rolling hospital dinner tray table between us, and his well worn New Jerusalem Bible laid open for the teaching, and my NIV Student Bible, taped together on the binding, right beside it. Covering nearly all the white space in his Bible were his own personal notes, as neat as if typewritten and nearly as small. I had never seen anything like it. Each week he prepared a lesson plan of what we were to cover, with Scripture verses  on small slips of white paper, handwritten in the same tiny script as in his Bible.

I found out that he attended seminary in the 1940s and 1950s and taught literature at a university, including a study of Psalms—my favorite book of the Bible. What unfolded in the next year during our Bible study was remarkable. He taught me historical perspective and context, drawing Bible maps and timelines. He explained the Hebrew and Greek meaning of biblical words and why that mattered. He related passages in the New Testament back to passages in the Old Testament, revealing new insights. He explained unsettling discrepancies. He used the Socratic method to teach me, asking me many, many questions.

At times it was exhausting, but he forced me to think more deeply than I ever had about the Holy Scriptures. He even had me write a  paper based on my answer to the question Jesus asked of  His disciples in John 1:38: “What are you seeking?” We completed a study of Mark and then John, but as we began Psalms, he was too sick to continue. Instead he asked me to read to him from the Psalms. I read to him Psalms of God’s love, goodness, and forgiveness, and of praise for God’s creation. When I finished, he could barely talk but his brief points were clear: Notice God. Thank God. Love God.

My friend is gone now but I will always remember the lessons God revealed to me through him—profound lessons and simple ones. I had asked God to send someone to help me learn and understand, someone to help me deeply study the Bible and God responded with an unexpected but incredible answer!  I am so grateful for what God taught me through my friend. God loves us. God sees us and knows what we need, when we need it and how we need it delivered. Praise God for his personal way with each of us!

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God and he will give it to you. James 1:5

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13

#96 God’s Strength in the Ocean

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 Photo by Chelsea Jo Photography

Several years ago I had a massive heart attack while I was on vacation in Mexico. I nearly died before they could get me back to the United States for treatment. Because of the delay in my care, there was much damage to my heart.  

My wife and I hadn’t been on a vacation for years since that trip to Mexico. Just recently we decided to go on a cruise to the Caribbean. I was anxious about the trip because of what happened last time in Mexico. A friend prayed for me before we went—specifically that God would show me in the first part of the trip that He was with us. My friend prayed that God would make it known to me that He was there with me and that God would show me in a way that was very clear to me. 

We left for our cruise and our first stop was in the British Virgin Islands. We got off the cruise ship and went to a small island, Baths. We walked to the beach and put our stuff down on the sand. I turned around and saw two people swimming pretty far out in the ocean. I told my wife that I was going to go out to where the people were and for her to stay in the shallow end. I got in the water and started leisurely swimming out toward the two people in the ocean. As I got closer, I noticed the fear in the woman’s eyes and I could see the man was up against the woman. 

I swam closer and heard her yell, “Help! Help!” 

I said, “Is he sick?” 

The woman said, “No, we are drowning!” 

The man was almost underwater and she had her hand twisted in his shirt, trying to hold him up.

I told her to hang on to him. I got her by the wrist and took off swimming toward the beach, pulling both of them. As we got close to the shore, another man came into the ocean to help pull us in. Once we were back on shore, the man was recovering; I was recovering myself, as I was exhausted from the swim.

The woman asked me where I was from. I told her I was from Kentucky. She couldn’t believe it. She said, “You aren’t even from around the ocean?! We live in Daytona Beach and we are in the ocean all the time, but we have never been in that kind of trouble before.” 

There is no way that I could have pulled that man and woman from that far out in the ocean on my own. My heart is not strong because much of my heart muscle was destroyed in my previous heart attack. I also have a pacemaker and defibrillator. God sent me out there and God pulled us right back in, saving those two people. I believe this is how God answered my friend’s prayer. God showed us that He was with us. There was no doubt about that. The rest of our vacation was wonderful. 

This is just one of many stories I could share about God’s faithfulness and goodness to us. I have seen the Lord work in wonderful ways in my life and the life of my family. 

Let all that I am praise the Lord;

may I never forget the good things he does for me. 

Psalm 103:2

A Million God Stories is a Christ-centered ministry which offers a platform for Christians from all streams of Christian faith to give praise for how God has worked in their lives. Christ heals in infinitely creative ways and we acknowledge that His way of helping may differ from person to person.

#95 Abundant Grace

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Photo by Ashley Brown, Shining Light Photography

I grew up in a white-collar home with two loving parents, but we weren’t what you would call a “Christian” family. We began attending church when I was a pre-teen, but it was just a Sunday thing—nothing more. I was a good student and a well-behaved kid, so everyone was surprised when I eloped with my older boyfriend at age 16. It was rocky from the start—as any teenage marriage would be. He wasn’t faithful, and over the two-year period we were married, he left many times. By the age of 19, I was a single mom, working two jobs to make ends meet and staring at a stack of unpaid bills. 

One night, I went to a club with some friends to hear a local band. This particular club had girls dancing from 5–9 p.m., before the band came on. One of them struck up a conversation and, by the end of the night, she had convinced me to come back and audition for a job. I worked in the “adult entertainment” industry in two different clubs for a couple of years. There was nothing glamorous or positive about it. I felt degraded, abused and alone; and had to get high to even face getting on stage.

After two years of what felt like hell on earth, I applied for a grant to go to beauty school. I was one of the lucky ones—it’s very hard to get out of the industry once you’ve stepped into it. I worked my way through school and the day I graduated, I left the clubs for good. I worked in a local salon for several years, then married and attended UK. Later work experience included advertising, public relations, community development, and outreach at a local church. A true hodge-podge of jobs, but now it’s amazing to look back and see how God used all those different work experiences to prepare me for what I’m doing now.

In 2000, I had a conversation with my daughter and a friend about reaching out to women in the “adult entertainment” clubs. We brainstormed with my son, who was a bouncer in one of the clubs, for ideas on what would be the best way to help the ladies. He wasn’t a Christian, but he truly appreciated the “good things” he saw our church doing—mission work and outreach to special needs families. He said, “Bring food. Nobody eats well here—they always eat fast food.” None of us knew how to cook, so we asked our friends and soon we had a team of women providing food, and a few good friends with a heart to go into the clubs with us.

Weekly visits to the clubs allow us to develop true relationships. We are very respectful to everyone—providing love, food, and other resources, without judgment, to all of our new friends. When people ask us, “Why are you bringing food to us?” we let them know that God loves us and we love them, and just want to help. Women respond because they know we care. 

In 2011, we felt God calling us to do more, so we began praying, and we prayed for a solid year. January 1, 2012, one of the women we’d served in the clubs was murdered. She’d moved from the clubs to online escorting and street prostitution. The phone call about her death solidified our next step. We met with the police to see how we could best help women working on the street. Before the day was over, the police had already referred a woman to us who needed help. 

Since that time, the ministry has continued to evolve. 

We still deliver to the clubs every week and have developed strong relationships with our friends there—allowing us to help them with community resources and other appropriate assistance.  

The street ministry has grown to include a drop-in center downtown. Women from several churches have transformed a former crack house into a beautiful refuge for at-risk women who receive delicious food, clothing, toiletries, referrals to social service and community resources, and life skills classes. We are often blessed to celebrate birthdays, baby showers, and other special events. Most of the women we serve are homeless, so they often take advantage of our living room to rest throughout the day. And when a woman is ready to make significant life change, we assist with referrals to detox and recovery programs. 

All of the women we work with—whether in the clubs or on the street—have experienced trauma of some kind: childhood sexual abuse, rape, physical abuse, trafficking. We’ve seen God at work—miracles of change in women’s lives. We see women getting sober, reuniting with families, and becoming stable and productive. Four weeks ago, one of the first women we met in the clubs in 2000 was baptized—we’d been praying for her for 17 years! 

When I think about my own story and the nature of God, the one word that comes to mind is GRACE. Because I experienced God’s grace the way I did—so undeservedly, so abundantly—it’s pretty easy to extend grace to others. God took every mistake, every wrong turn I made, and used it for good! 

The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17

A Million God Stories is a Christ-centered ministry which offers a platform for Christians from all streams of Christian faith to give praise for how God has worked in their lives. Christ heals in infinitely creative ways and we acknowledge that His way of helping may differ from person to person.

#94 Unstoppable Power of Prayer

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 Photo by Ashley Brown, Shining Light Photography

My testimony is from a time when I was 16 years old and I’d had my driver’s license for about two months. It was December 26, 2007 and I was going to pick up the girl I was dating at the time for a Christmas dinner at my house. The drive should have only been about 15–20 minutes, but after 30 minutes my mom called to see if we were headed back yet. She couldn’t reach me so she called my girlfriend, who told her that I had not gotten there yet. 

They immediately knew something was wrong, so my brother instructed my girlfriend and her grandfather to go looking on a route he knew I would not have taken, and he went the way he knew I would have taken. Sure enough, about five miles up the road, my brother came upon my mom’s car upside down in a pasture field, with me being loaded into a helicopter in a corn field on the opposite side of the road. My wallet and phone were lost in the wreck, so at that point I was a John Doe—my brother had to tell them who I was. They did not expect me to even make it to the hospital alive. 

I was told later how the accident happened. I went off the road on the right side, just before a sharp turn to the left. I overcorrected the car, went across the road, and hit a culvert that ran underneath the road in that turn. The car was actually going backwards as it hit the ditch and I was ejected nearly 100 feet out the back window. 

From this point on is where God shows Himself in this story. I lived in a small town where cops were virtually nonexistent. Not that they weren’t around, but we never saw a cop on the road. Well, it just so happened that a police officer was traveling down the road just moments after my accident. He immediately radioed in for a helicopter, knowing that an ambulance would not be adequate. The local rescue teams were rushed out to try to maintain stability until the copter arrived. Once I was in the helicopter, they put me in a medically-induced coma that was only meant to last a couple days, at the longest, and my brother led the officer to our house to break the news to Mom. 

I was flown to Deaconess Hospital in Evansville, Indiana, where I spent two weeks in ICU. I had fractured a vertebra, fractured my pelvis, broke some ribs, broke my collarbone, and had a severe TBI (traumatic brain injury). Most importantly, though, I was still alive. The night of the accident, when I was flown to the hospital, I believe word traveled so fast in that town that some of my friends and family may have beaten me to that hospital. My friends, family, and church family filled that hospital floor to the point where no one else could even think about coming in. They were all lifting me up in prayer, and that is the reason why I am still here today and can tell you this story. I was put on prayer chains all across this nation and even in other countries. 

From ICU at Deaconess, I was moved to a rehab hospital in Evansville. At this point, however, I was still in a coma, which I stayed in for three more weeks at Healthsouth. When I finally started to regain consciousness, I began therapy to “re-learn” everything again from eating and talking to bathing and walking. Therapy lasted about six to seven months in total, and I am more than thankful for the recovery God has given me. I have learned that so many people that have gone through what I went through are left unable to talk, walk, eat, or function independently. I would like to think that the average person who meets me today would never even be able to guess what I went through. 

I do not remember how the wreck happened or even leaving the house or what happened the seven hours before I left the house that day. I do know that God was with me and He wrapped His arms around me that entire time, and that prayer is a powerful machine that can move mountains. I hope my testimony allows everyone who reads it to see the power in prayer and the unstoppable force of our Almighty God when we call upon His name. I hope this story gives you hope and perseverance in whatever you are going through today so that you are able to come out a stronger person more reliant on God. 

A couple verses I would like to share with you that really kept my family and me strong throughout this whole time are Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go,” and Jeremiah 29:11 “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”

A Million God Stories is a Christ-centered ministry which offers a platform for Christians from all streams of Christian faith to give praise for how God has worked in their lives. Christ heals in infinitely creative ways and we acknowledge that His way of helping may differ from person to person.

#93 Simple Confirmation

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 Photo by Lucas Wiman

There was a time in college when I prayed that if God was really personal and active in the world, that He would speak to me. I did this every day for two weeks. Every time I prayed, it felt like He said, “I love you.” I wasn’t impressed or convinced it was God. I thought I was making up those thoughts on my own. 

One day, after about two weeks of this happening every day, a man stopped me on my way to class. I don’t even remember his name; we didn’t really know each other. He asked if he could pray for me. I said sure. He put his hand on my shoulder and said, “God, I thank you that you speak to Austin, even if it’s something as simple and profound as to tell him You love him.” 

He walked away without confirmation that his prayer was profound. He probably thought what he prayed was as generic and unimportant as what I thought I was hearing over the past couple weeks. But, as he walked away, I stood with my mouth open, completely astonished. 

That experience created a snowball effect in my life of allowing God to speak. It eliminated a lot of doubt in my heart and mind.

A Million God Stories is a Christ-centered ministry which offers a platform for Christians from all streams of Christian faith to give praise for how God has worked in their lives. Christ heals in infinitely creative ways and we acknowledge that His way of helping may differ from person to person.

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