Faith Filled Family Magazine November 2016 | Page 14

into slavery because they wanted him gone. He could have quit
right there on believing in God
and his promise but he chose to
stand strong even through the
fire. Eventually he moved up and
then something else happened.
He ended up over time getting
accused of a rape that he didn’t
even commit. In fact he said
“NO” and ran away when the
advances came at him but that
didn’t stop the rape charge from
happening.
Even then he chose to still
serve God. I can’t imagine going
through all of that and standing
strong like he did but he did. This
story eventually ends on a good
note and he got the promise that
God gave him many years later.
You read stories like this all
through the bible. I only touched
on Joseph’s story in a small way
in order to make a point that you
will have the same kind of fire.
You will have the same kind of
tests. It may not be exactly what
Joseph went through but you will
have a test that God brings to
you and probably many of them
as you grow spiritually.
Growth doesn’t happen over
night and if it did and God gave
us what we he said right away,
we would not be ready. Just like
in 2010, God told Sandy and I
that we would be speaking and
telling our story on stages to help
other marriages that have addictions. I went through 19 years of
addictions until almost 9 years
ago on Dec. 26, 2007 when God
healed me from them.
There are several parts to this
story where we had to be pa-

tient even when it was hard. The
first was that my wife had to deal
with my addictions the first 5
years of our marriage. She went
through hell doing it. She loved
me through them while praying
to God each night to change and
heal my heart. She felt like God
was going to change me so she
stood by me even when others
would not.
She went year after year until
that day came when I pleaded
with God to please heal me and
take that stupid desire away
so that I could be the husband
that he wanted me to be for my
amazing wife. God used her to
heal me because she loved me
so much that I had no choice to
change. Her love softened my
heart enough to come back to
God.
The second part started in 2010
when God gave us that vision
of a speaking marriage ministry to tell our story. We thought
that would happen overnight and
here we are 6 years later still
working on this. In fact, I have my
first speaking engagement to tell
my story in December. We didn’t
think it would take that long. Not
only did he tell us we would be
doing this, but he gave me the
name “Inspired Marriage” for this
ministry.

mediately because we felt this
was still the vision for our life.
I also started a small video message ministry back around Easter that has helped me speak.
Yes, there is no audience but the
more you speak the better you
get. In my first few video s I was
scared to death. In fact, God told
me to start those videos over a
year ago but I never did because
I felt like people would judge me.
I was so scared to do that. Yeah
and I am supposed to speak
right?
I did my first one back on Easter
weekend and now I have created over 80 short videos. Some
are 5-15 minutes long. I also did
a 35 minute one telling my story
which is helping me get ready for
what God wants us to do.
All of this has been a training
ground for where God is leading
us. If most people looked at us,
they would not see anything yet
because the promise of God has
not been fulfilled in their eyes
but we know that it is being fulfilled before our very eyes. We
are growing and we are seeing
doors open up for us so that we
can move forward.

I will talk about one last thing
and this will be about how my
first speaking engagement came
I locked in that domain name about. God will open doors when
back in 2010 and after a few there are none. Hurricane Matyears we almost gave up on this thew was coming toward Savanvision so we let that domain go nah so this Christian business
and someone else bought it. group that meets for breakfast
Well, this year 2016 we felt like once a month had to move their
God was nudging us again to meeting time to the next week
pull this all back together. The because of that. The speaker
crazy thing is, that domain was could not make it the following
back available! I locked it in im- week so the person in charge