Former Class Participant

It was one of the most impactful classes if not the most impactful class.

Former Class Participant

For over 30 years I have suffered from an addiction to pornography. I knew it was unhealthy and had tried many times to overcome it.

I thought my own strength and will power would be sufficient. I would throw the magazines in the trash, only to retrieve them. Then came the Internet, no more need for magazines. I disconnected my home Internet service, only to find myself "surfing" at work. This habit has humiliated me, and even contributed to the end of my marriage.

[This class] showed me another way. I prayed and God showed me that the root cause of my addiction was lust of the Flesh. I prayed more and God showed me the defining event in my past that started everything. I prayed still more, repenting of that past event and asking God to take back the ground I had given up to Satan.

God did! Halleluiah! I am FREE of my addiction. The Bible verse that helped me with this victory is 2 Timothy 2:26 "and that they will come to their senses and escape the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will" For me, coming to my senses feels like a fog has lifted, and I can see clearly how I have been under the control of the evil one. I trusted in God's awesome power to set me free, and as he promised, he delivered, "The one who calls you is faithful, and He will do it" 1 Thessalonians 5:24.    

(used with permission)

Former Class Participant

From early childhood through adolescence I was exposed to a lot of evil. My method of survival was fantasizing that it wasn't real. When I was old enough I removed myself from the situation and avoided anything that would prompt recalling those events. This meant I distanced myself from family and prided myself in independence. Scripture says where sin increases, God's grace abounds. By avoiding the reality of the evil I had experienced, I also rejected the grace God had provided. My methods of coping resulted in a prideful, unforgiving and calloused heart. I destroyed relationships unnecessarily and allowed other, abusive relationships to develop. My methods of coping resulted in a period of depression and eventually addiction to alcohol.

Before [this class] started I had come to know Jesus and he had healed much of my brokenness. He had given me a new heart. Many relationships had been reconciled and I was free from alcohol. I still actively resisted any specific recall of childhood events out of fear.

Psalm 112 says that the person who trusts in the Lord with a steadfast heart will have no fear of bad news. Participating in [this class] has required me to look back. In doing so I now am able to see God’s grace in my early life where I could only see evil.  I’m grateful to Pastor Randy and to all of the course participants for helping me to gain this freedom in Christ.

(used with permission)

Someone receiving counsel

I lost a twin sister when I was 9 years old, and I witnessed the horrible event.

We were to be cleaning upstairs.  Well I was cleaning my mom’s room and something told me to see what my sister was up to.  She was in my brother’s room behind a mattress against the wall.  Here she was playing with matches and had one lit.  She must have felt it on her finger and flung it and it caught the mattress on fire.

She ran into our room and hid under the bed, and I couldn’t get her out.  So I went downstairs and told my older sister what happened and she couldn’t get up there to her either.  We went outside, and I could see her in the window.  She couldn’t reach the lock.

I saw her when they brought her through the window.  She was wrapped in a blanket. For a long time I blamed myself for what happened to her.

Recently the church prayed in a particular way for me that I would hear the truth from the Lord about this event.  During the prayer time, God spoke to me in two different ways. He let me know that He was the one who told me to go see what she was up to.

Regarding my sister’s death, God told me “It was her time.”  From that point on, I have had total peace and calm, and I know I will see my sister again in heaven with Jesus and all of my loved ones.

(used with permission)

Someone receiving counsel

One man was very suicidal. He grew up in a very abusive household. His psychiatrist gave him so many pills to take on a daily basis that all the pill bottles standing upright and stacked side-by-side filled one-half of a dresser drawer. After another fitful moment to end his life he finally decided to seek the Lord in the right way to resolve matters. In less than 20 minutes God spoke truth to him and he felt greatly relieved. Two months later his psychiatrist took him off all the medications.

Former Class Participant

For many years I have tried unsuccessfully to conquer anger. Anger was definitely a problem for me. Peace and serenity were feelings that other people were able to enjoy but not myself. Instead I had turmoil, chaos - pretty much on a daily basis. It was not uncommon for me to grab an ashtray and throw it at my husband. It's been said that the only difference between a contentious woman and a pit bull is lip stick, and I was that woman up until recently. I tried several things on my own to deal with this problem. Education was one way I tried to address this. Self-help books were another way, but neither universities, nor self-help books had the answers. Education only further clarified what I already knew - that I had a problem with anger.

I tried the medical community for assistance. Basically, they gave me psychiatric medication. And they pretty much slowed my anger response, but it didn't deal with it totally. I blamed other people. I justified my actions. Actually, I thought it was normal behavior at one time, because I come from a family of people that are all very angry.

The consequences in not applying God's principles to solve my anger resulted in years of pain, misery and broken relationship. The anger just got worse.

 Psalm 61:9 states, "Save me, of O God, the waters have come up to my neck" (NKJV). This was about where I was at with my anger. At this time my husband and I had received an invitation to participate in a [course] dealing with past hurts. And true to form, I took the attitude that I really didn't need it, I already knew all the stuff that they had to share. It probably wouldn't help, but I thought I would go just to see what would happen.

What took place in the presence of six other adults has changed my life. I learned God's solution and how to apply it to my life. What I learned was strongholds could be in three different areas. Lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. The strongholds for me were under the category of the pride of life. Having identified my strongholds, I then confessed what my root sin was. I claimed the victory that was already won, and I asked God to take back surrendered ground.

A second Scripture that really held a lot of meaning for me and to help clarify things was from Deuteronomy 5:8 for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, I corrected some problems back in September of last year regarding my own deep and personal involvement in the occult, but I hadn't really addressed the issue of a generation curse. So having learned the scripture, this really opened up my eyes — and it really made sense, because what many of you don't know about me — I’m the third generation recipient of one of these curses. And I have a grandmother that has been involved in the occult for most of her life. My uncle and my mother, which are the second generation, are very much involved with my uncle being a spirit channeler and a psychic; and I myself, under my grandmother's teaching and direction, at the age of seven studied to take her place as an astrologer and psychic, and to be part of a world-wide group. My grandmother had always said, of all her grandchildren I was like that really special someone and that somehow I was chosen for this. So now having this in perspective, I then had to pray to ask God to break this curse and to break it with me.

Well, the results are I am no longer that contentious woman that I was a few weeks ago. The serenity and peace are a reality for me now.

(used with permission)

[With a master’s degree she was the head of a psychiatric ward, yet suffered from being “manic-depressive,” now known as “bi-polar.” Her personal psychiatrist said she was incurable, yet the biblical principles set her free and her husband states in the years following she has not had any more outbursts of anger!]

Someone receiving counsel

One man had been on the run since a teenager. He climbed the ranks of crime so far that when he was arrested by the federal marshals they begged him to reveal the names of the national leaders in his network and promised he would get a lighter sentence. He knew the power of his “bosses,” and he knew they would kill him, so he kept quiet.

One day God orchestrated an encounter with me, and the man said he was willing to put an end to his emotional hurts. The approach presented in the second half of the course was used, and afterwards he said, “I need to see my dad.” God was the one who spoke to him  directly, and after he submitted to God’s advice, the application of the truth set him free.

Many other details about this story

are truly miraculous, but for his safety

and because I failed to get permission

to tell his story, those details will not be given.

Someone receiving counsel

Samantha (not her real name) was very upset when an angry woman yelled at her. Afterwards, no matter what Samantha did she could not get over being upset. A day or two later she opened up to a minister about her hysteria. Among other things, the minister said the angry woman was projecting what she believed about herself, not about the people to whom she was angry. As soon as this reality sank in, Samantha was no longer upset. Instead she began to cry saying, “I now feel sorry for that woman.”

Someone receiving counsel

We all want a father who loves us and nurtures us. One who takes an interest in our future. As a little girl, I believe I had that. But then for some reason around the time I became a teenager things changed. I don't know why.

I almost felt that my dad quit loving me altogether. No matter what I did it was all wrong. I developed a plan with my friend. Every day I would go to my dad and kiss him on the cheek and tell him I loved him. He never responded but I continued. He always turned his cheek to me.

My mom took me to church most of the years when I was in school and I learned about Jesus and His love in Sunday school. Eventually I went through classes to join the church and was ready to be confirmed as a member. The Sunday of the confirmation, a reception was set up after the ceremony to “celebrate” the new members. My dad attended the confirmation with my mother, which was surprising in itself, since his church attendance as I knew it was limited to that day. After feeling so proud and excited to have both parents with me, my world fell when my dad announced that we couldn’t stay because he had a golf date and couldn’t miss it. That put a great void in my life of hurt, pain and abandonment. My dad died when I was in my 40's without ever returning a hug, kiss or an "I love you." I've been looking for the love of a Father ever since. 

Feeling so very unloved from my teen years, my life became dark and the choices I made were very unwise for a very long time. I latched on to any male that I thought showed any interest in me. At 18 I finally married. The man was not a Christian. We had 3 children. I had no idea what I was doing as far as cleaning, how to be a wife or a mother. My husband drank and sometimes I would become so frustrated that I would drink till I got really drunk trying to get attention. Wrong move. But I did continue to binge not knowing what else to do. Then I decided to work very hard to learn how to clean and I even set up a schedule. That wasn't good enough. I left. It didn't matter to him so I went back home. Eventually my husband was caught with a prostitute. I hit the bottle again thinking that would give me courage, and I threw him out of the house. But having the kids, and no where to go, I let him come back. Trust was gone.

Now at age 40, I vowed to change my life around. I quit smoking. I decided to exercise regularly again. Then the bomb hit. I found out that I had a serious disease. I fought that for 10 years. My husband rejected me. Then at that very low point in my life when my marriage crumbled, I tried to save the marriage by going to a marriage counselor who told me that I needed to learn to be more lovable, but never gave me any tools to know how to do that. I filed for divorce. I was so alone. My children didn't have much to do with me because they had witnessed all of this and didn't understand why I really hated all men now.

After the divorce, I met [my new husband]. We moved to [another state] to start a new life, got married and things seemed to be coming together. During that time we began studying the Bible devotedly, praying, still the blessing that I searched for seemed out of reach. There were still hurts and deception. But God blessed us and found the money for us to get back to [our home state]. Yet, how could I fully trust God? My biological father, turned away from me, so why would I think God would stick around?

After all this and still feeling if God could not love me because I was not worthy, how would it be possible for anyone else to love me?

Did you ever try to really talk to God and get His answer right away? Well, Pastor asked me to do just that. Something was hindering me from hearing what God was saying so Pastor and I just talked about my family past. Out of the blue Pastor asked if I had asked forgiveness for one of the things that had occurred that I knew was not right. In my teens, we had access to a Ouiji board and I used it for a very short time. I had not asked God to forgive me for that. So of course, I immediately asked for forgiveness for this and asked God to separate me from all lingering consequences. I felt God’s acceptance of me, While I was praying I heard God tell me You are worthy, You are my child and I will always love you.

The next few days were incredible. The feeling that came over me was something I had never felt before and could not explain to myself. Once again, right between the eyes. God gave me that peace that passes all understanding. Full trust, full obedience and praise to Him. What an awesome God we serve. I didn't have a loving father when I was growing up, but I know I have a spiritual Father who will never leave me and always love me. I wouldn't trade this for all the riches of this world.

(Used with permission)