And they overcame him (satan) by the blood of the Lamb (Jesus is the lamb) and by the word of their "testimony" (the truth about what God did for them); and they loved not their lives unto the death. Revelation 12:11 KJV parentheses mine
"Its not about RELIGION."
"Its about a complete surrender and total immersion into the presence and love relationship with God."
"There is a power and different level of living available to those willing to truly give it all to God."
Lura Lasko
This is My Testimony
My mother told me I was 5 or 6 when I contracted Spinal Meningitis. In the early sixties – this was usually a fatal disease. She said I was lying in the hospital bed when the Doctor came in and slipped his hand under my head. As he lifted my head, my entire body rose with it, I was completely rigid. He looked at my mom and shook his head. It was the middle of the night somewhere in central Florida. My grandmother in the waiting room, got on the phone to a relative who was a member of a tiny Church of God in Chokoloskee, Florida. They had a prayer chain – this prayer chain didn’t read an email and pray when they got around to remembering it. This was power filled – Holy Spirit lead – serious emergency interceders. They believed in the power of God and that God answers prayer. Like a volunteer fire dept., one called another who called two or three and they called three of four – in the middle of the night – all over this little island and into the tiny city of Everglades, people got out of their warm beds and hit their knees for me!!!! As morning came, my mother says, I sat up in bed and asked for something to eat!
Growing up we lived in Florida and we didn't go to church much at all. I married at 18 and when I became pregnant at 26, I wanted to get closer to God – for my child. For the first time as an adult, I started going to church regularly. I thought I was doing everything right. I was a faithful wife, attentive and loving mother and contributing to our success by working really hard to achieve an Executive Management position at a Macy's like department store chain. However all of that, including a 12 year marriage, ended when my husband fell into drugs and we lost our home and rehab completely failed to help him break free.
In 1997 – at 41 – I found myself alone, divorced, broke, exhausted and unable to control my now 15 year old son. ….I was going to a Baptist church regularly and even driving the Sunday school bus, and fasting one day a week and calling out to God unceasingly. For about 3 years I had been operating a small country restaurant my mother owned. I had promised her I would take care of it, so she could move my little handicaped sister to a better area to live. I was getting up at 4 am - to get lunch started, shop, wait on tables for breakfast, do the menu, and order food. Everything neccessary to operate the restaurant. I felt we needed to save on overhead, so I stopped taking a paycheck and let go of a cook and I began doing the short order cooking on the grill in a VERY busy little restaurant.
It was into these circumstances that God would place a life changing encounter with Him that I now know was the result of those 3 years of calling out to Him.
One day I was feeling completely exhausted and trapped by my circumstances, when one of the women I knew from the Baptist church came by the restaurant. She said she didn't know why she was there but she felt like she was supposed to come check on me……(this is how God operates within his people) I told her how desparate I was feeling, and that I had no money, and nowhere to go even if I could leave!
(GOD STEPPED IN) - She prayed with me, and left. I got up from the table we had been sitting at, walked into the kitchen and put my hands on a counter and bowed my head in despair, and I heard in my head --- "you can leave." I heard it clear – I heard it not as a "thought" I heard it like someone said it to me. " You can leave" – I lifted my head – and my face changed to like when you first saw a Ferris wheel at a fair, and it was like a light came on somewhere in my head and I knew – I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt ---- I CAN LEAVE!!!
this part is very important --The MOMENT I actually started to physically move in the direction I had been given.....the path was just plain opened up before me.....
Up until that moment, in my mind I had been certain that only I could do the job I was doing but with the new SIGHT God had just given me all that changed instantly!
1) I had someone to take my place that I could "see" now. My youngest sister had been working with me and IMMEDIATELY I went and found her and said, "can you run this place without me?" she looked at me and said – "yes." I said – "I'm leaving."
2) I had a place to go
I called my brother in New Jersey and asked him if he had room. He said he would talk to his wife and call me back. He called me and said yes.
3) I had money!
I told one person I was leaving, a friend of mine. I told him I had no money but I was going and somehow I would get to New Jersey where my brother was. The next morning when I came out to get in my car to go to work, there was an envelope on the windshield with $2,000 dollars cash in it, and card from my friend saying goodbye.
Within two weeks I had taken care of everything I needed to – packed up my car and was on the road to New Jersey. I found a Christian Radio station and listened to Christian music all the way.
I got there and started looking for work. I had a lot of management experience but I didn't have a degree. In Florida, a degree wasn't that neccessary for executive positions but this was the North East a highly competitive job environment. I left one interview realizing this and I was praying and I suddenly was certain I didn't want just a job or even a "career." – I prayed --- * "God, I just want to be surrounded by your people for a while."
My brother was on staff at an Assembly of God Church in New Jersey that had a small Christian School about 200 children. The senior pastor's wife was the principal of the school and she just happened to be looking for a secretary…….A week after I prayed that prayer she contacted me and asked me to come in for an interview. She hired me.
* I had a job working for the church, my boss was a pastors wife and the school was physically part of the Church bldg.
A couple weeks later a building on church property became empty, and my brother (who I was living with) was given the opportunity to move into it
* I was LIVING NEXT DOOR TO THE CHURCH - on Church property!
There I was, COMPLETELY surrounded by Gods people.
For the next 2 years - I worked as the secretary for a Christian School, my office was just off the sanctuary of the main Church. I actually had to walk through the Church several times a day to get to places I needed to go and I lived 40 steps away on Church property. I attended every service and the women's Bible studies. I lived, worked and socialized with ONLY Gods people for 2 years!!!!! mmmm I had prayed "God, I just want to be surrounded by your people for a while."
As the second school year was coming to an end, I began to feel that maybe I was supposed to continue my education. I still had no money and my nephew mentioned that I might qualify for a Pell grant and some other funds. Well I had never thought about that, so I went ahead and applied to 4 or 5 Christian Colleges and for a Pell grant. I got the grant and Southwestern Assemblies of God University SAGU in Waxahachie, Texas welcomed me with open arms…..I went with my mom to see the campus, and enrolled for the fall of that year. I was one of 5 adult students on campus over 40 years old. I was a C student in High School and was afraid I wasn't smart enough for College, but I believed I was doing what God wanted me to do – and the Bible says to do everything as unto the Lord, so I worked really hard with that in my head. My first test was an A, I was off the chart elated! I ran to a pay phone and called my mom! (it was 1999, I didn’t have a cell phone). This was to be something I did every time I got an A.
For two years I pulled a full class load and worked two part time jobs and studied hard. I hadn't dated for 4 years I had come to a place - with tears, that I was completely resigned to - living the rest of my life alone, UNLESS God clearly brought me someone. For those reasons, and with only graduating in my mind, God in His mercy brought me the man He had chosen for me.......The school requires students to attend Church on Sunday. I was a little shy so I only knew a few people in the Church I had chosen to attend. There was one couple in the Sunday School class that I talked to. One Sunday morning I had decided NOT to go to Church. I needed to study for a Monday morning test. I was kicked out of the dorm to go to Church so I had dressed for Church and went to McDonalds to study for my test! I got through studying much quicker than I thought and saw that I had missed Sunday School but would be just in time for the Service. As I stepped into the entrance of the Church, my Sunday School friend approached me and said, there's someone here I want you to meet. (My friends childhood friend who lived in Arizona was visiting him and had come to church that morning with him.) People were always trying to fix me up but I had set my focus on God and school and none of those attempts brought anyone I was even slightly attracted to, so I reluctantly said okay……My friend pulled over his friend to introduce me to. I was dumb struck! He was actually good looking! He had these beautiful brown eyes and he was tall and very handsome. We began a long distance relationship and married a year later. SAGU had recently started a Distance Learning program, and my new husband made sure I was able to devote my days to school work so I was able to finish my degree from Arizona. I graduated in four years - Summa Cum Laude (a 4.0 gpa) with a Bachelors degree in Business Administration …..SAGU requires 30 hours of Biblical Studies for their graduates and all of my instructors were Pastors or people who had been missionaries or Christian speakers. It was an amazing experience; they have chapel once a day at about 11:00 a.m. where close to 1,000 students at the time sing Praise and Worship songs to God. It was fantastic!
–I have never – never regretted walking away from my life in Florida. I left all my friends, most of my family, everything I had ever known.
God has a promise for those who leave everything behind to follow him. Luke 18:29 & 30 Jesus said to them, " no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and , in the age to come, eternal life." (NIV)
God has blessed us and blessed my son and my family. He has opened my eyes to understanding that the walk with Him has NOTHING to do with religion and that there is a power and different level of living available to those willing to give it all. Most importantly He has taught me – that if I will trust Him to be in control, He will answer and does answer EVERY PRAYER.
