SHARE Magazine April 2017 | Page 20

C Jesus, A Life Time Adventure Christ found me on Good Friday afternoon at 2-30pm in 1970. I was a very unhappy lady and emotionally imbalanced because of being involved with the occult. Having been married since 1964 I was still childless and constantly in stress about that fact. It was an issue of unhappiness in our marriage. I had married a man who had no faith in God because of his upbringing he was deeply against religion. I had for some months battled against conviction about the darkness in my life and this was the day that Jesus came to find me as a lost sheep who believed in Him but didn’t know how to live for Him. That afternoon the Jesus film spoke to my heart while I was all alone and I shed buckets of tears as the walk of the Saviour up to Calvary became so very real to me. I just could not bear the heartbreak of it. The more I wept the more I felt clean and light inside, yet since no one had shared the gospel with me I was unaware fully of what was going on in my heart. Suddenly, the tears turned off like a tap and I was at peace with myself as I went through my home drawing all the curtains out of respect for my saviour’s death on the cross. My neighbour was washing and I remember how upset I felt to see it for, I wanted so badly to tell her not to do such a thing on the crucifixion day of the Lord. When my husband Jim arrived home, the first thing I asked him was, if he would take me to Church on Sunday. He felt it strange but out of love he agreed. From then on God began to rearrange our lives for the Church we went to had a born again Vicar and some young couples in it who had passed through similar experiences to me. It would be another year before Jim found Jesus for himself and during that year God used the Vicar to set me gloriously free from a demon that was tormenting me whenever I was in the Church service. I was *anointed by the reverend in his study after confessing all my demonic activity of the past and all my fears also tumbled out. When the mark of the cross was placed on my forehead I felt the heat of it and knew deep inside I was different to when I had entered. The Bible became my constant companion and I spent more than a year repeatedly going 20 | SHARE | MAGAZINE April - June 2017 through Christ’s life in the four gospels. We moved out of the area and the Lord arranged another Church for us to go to with a *saved Vicar so we continued to grow and within two years were baptised in the Holy Spirit and in water. Meanwhile, God taught me how to write devotional poetry. Then God began to speak to me about becoming a preacher and would get me up out of bed to write 500 word sermons. Being filled with the Spirit and getting water baptism it began to be evident that the Church we were in was not meant to be our resting place. We prayed to the Lord about the right time and sure enough the day came when He used a Pentecostal Pastor’s visit to lead us out and into the Full Gospel Church he ran. There I took classes for preaching for three and a half years and God began to use both of us in the *gifts. My poetic ministry also increased until I had books full of poems worshipping and praising the Lord Jesus. God used this period to put us into a faith class for provision and we saw Him wonderfully provide often in astonishing ways. I had at that time also become involved as a Church singer and learned also the importance of intercession for souls. The day came though, when God called us on missions to Scotland, where we took part in open air ministry while living in the beautiful country cottage that the Lord provided, with a job for both of us. More lessons were learnt there, before coming home a year later to Wigan, where once again we had to lean on God for our provision. He didn’t let us down in our desperate moments as we trusted Him. He also used our flat to gather friends together for Saturday night meetings where we saw wondrous things happen by the Holy Spirit moving. He healed me fully of the hurt of childlessness and has used me in many ways, including as part of an evangelistic choir going round both Churches and prisons. I look back on that as a truly great part of my life. Eventually we would move again to Southend on Sea where I became a care assistant in a Care Home. Evangelism had to be part of TE