When I was a child, I used to ask many questions about God, and every night I would remind my mom that when she tucked me in, it was time to pray. As I grew older, my heart for God did not change, but my actions certainly did. My parents were very strict with us when we were younger, but as my parents divorced and separated, our household got to a point where we no longer had any rules.
As we grew older, our decisions became very irresponsible, and as a family, our unity was no longer there. Eventually, because of lifestyle decisions and continual bad habits, one of my brothers became very ill. I did not know what to do, so I did what I used to do when I was younger, and I poured my heart out and prayed to God. I did not receive an instant answer, but over time, I saw that God certainly was leading me down the path that I needed to go.
I went to many different churches with my friends and cousins. However, as my actions improved, my household got worse and worse. So a neighbor opened up her house to me, and as I would stay at her house, she would share God’s Word with me and listen to me patiently as I would talk for hours. On Sunday mornings, I would race over to her house to go with her to Sunday morning fellowship—she was a Way believer. It took me only a few weeks before I signed up for the Foundational Class. From there, I continued on to take each class as it became available. In a few short years, my mind was no longer full of the world’s negatives, but was flooded by God’s joy and peace.
The Word says in Acts 16:31, “…Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” For me, it wasn’t enough that I was healed and believing God’s Word. For my more abundant life, I needed my family to believe God’s Word and be healed. So as I progressed in my understanding, I always made a point to share with members of my family what I was learning that week.
My brother that fell ill became worse over time and at one point was hospitalized. My oldest sibling and I were both taking ministry classes and were searching for answers and ways to get him healed. We prayed and continually spoke the Word to our brother that was ill, but it got to a point where he no longer desired to live. At what felt like the lowest point, my older brother and I went to our first Advanced Class where we were greatly energized and enlightened to come back with God’s delivering love and power. Again, it was not an immediate healing, but things did improve greatly as the weeks progressed.
Being in the Word has not only saved my life, but it has done so much for my family as well. Each member in my immediate family is now standing in the ministry and thriving in their believing. My brother that fell ill was healed completely—unrecognizable! He loves God’s Word and has graduated from The Way of Abundance and Power class series and is living a victorious life.