Run to Jesus - Allison Shaw

Welcome to This Week's podcast by Celebration Church Lalatona.

We believe this message will empower and equip you to live a life of breakthrough.

Thanks for joining us.

Morning, Church.

So good to be here.

I just feel so privileged to be here with you and to be able to testify to the goodness of God.

And I feel so um just want to just feel honored to be here with in this house with what God's doing.

It's just so many exciting things happening.

What a great church to be a part of.

And and just you're so blessed having Jonathan and Natasha as your pastors.

There are awesome men, a man and woman of faith.

Just we we so appreciate them.

We've been through some um battles, like Jonathan said, we've known each other for nearly 30 years.

And you know, when you're doing ministry, family, you go through some battles.

And when we've gone through some really intense battles, it's been Jonathan and Natasha that have really stood with us, stood with us in faith, and we are so grateful.

It's so awesome to have a brother and a sister who just stand with you, and you know that they'll be there, really are just 100% standing with you in faith.

And it's oh, it's just the greatest blessing.

Actually, the last time they stood with us in a in a big battle was just um just over a year ago.

We had um our youngest daughter, she um had an eptopic pregnancy, which was heartbreaking for her.

They'd been so excited about um getting you know getting married and starting their family, and and then she had an eptopic, and that that was difficult, but then it was um not just a normal leptopic, it was a corneal eptopic.

So um where they couldn't just sort of like remove the tube, it wasn't that simple.

So they wanted to do chemotherapy on her, um, and she they really didn't want that option.

Um, so they said, well, we need to take the tube and a lot of the uterus, and they certainly didn't want that option because they really wanted to start a family.

Um, so it it was um an awful time for for us.

I mean, the doctors and the nurses, we knew that the baby um was gone, but then the doctors and nurses, they're trying desperately to save our daughter's life.

You know, that's that's their job.

And topic pregnancies are serious.

And so they were doing um tests every day, they were doing blood tests and doing scans, and she wasn't allowed to go far away from the hospital because they just said, Look, we're not feeling she's not in any pain.

Can we just hold off?

And the the doctors and the surgeons, the specialists, they were they'd met with them, and and everybody in the hospital knew Esther, but knew the name of Esther because if she was to turn up an emergency, they knew it was immediately emergency surgery.

Because when things go bad in a situation like this, they go really bad really quickly.

So she had to have the tests, the scans, um, and not go further than 10 minutes away from the hospital.

The poor doctors they they said they sat them down, they said, You don't want the surgery, you don't want the chemotherapy, what do you want?

You know, like there wasn't anything else they could do.

And my son-in-law said, We want a miracle.

And I just thought that was that was awesome.

But they, you know, they kept doing the scans and they kept seeing the mass there, and they saw it, they felt it was growing, and and it just got to the stage where it was just too risky, really.

So um, and I I just I was on the phone to them, and they were just I saw them, Esther was crying, you know, Mom, we've got to go in for the surgery, you know.

They they packed their bags, and it looked like you know, her tube was gonna go in a lot of her uterus.

And um, I just booked my ticket, so I wanted to hurry up and get there and and be with her for that season.

But they got to the hospital and just before they went into theater, they did one more scan.

And the doc, this the specialist, whoever it was, felt that she didn't actually need the surgery.

They've yeah, amazing, amazing.

They felt that you know it it was a fibroid that you was was what they were seeing.

Since then, they've said, you know, no, that that person got it wrong, but whether they got it wrong or not, I don't know, God intervened.

And I've just come back from Perth.

She has had a gorgeous little girl born two months ago, and she is pure delight, just so delightful.

And I yeah, just so grateful for um Jonathan and Tasha standing with us in that battle, and yeah, it's so good.

It's so good when we have answers to prayer.

God, our our Lord is so wonderful.

Um, belong, what a neat name, you know.

What a neat we're bel we belong, we belong to him.

1 Peter 2, 9.

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

We belong to him.

We belong to him.

We're his sons, we're his daughters.

He's purchased us with his precious blood.

In Titus 2, it says, He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself, for himself, his own special people.

Isn't that beautiful?

Zealous for good works.

We belong to him.

We've been purchased by his precious blood.

We're his own special people.

This news is the best news we will ever hear.

The good news of the gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ, what he has done for us.

It's the best news we'll ever hear in our lifetime.

Um, Mike often comes up to me and says, Um, you want to hear some good news?

Straight away he's got my attention because I'm always up for good news.

And um, and usually it's an answer to prayer.

Um, which good news is is fantastic.

But the gospel, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is the best news.

The best news that we will, it's it of eternity, you know, like the the blessing to us coming in to a personal relationship with God is just so incredible.

But then eternity, you know, it's it goes way, way beyond.

It's just so amazing.

You know, Matthew 16, um, 26, it said Jesus said, What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?

You know, life puts life life in perspective, eh?

Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

Um I'm doing a course at the moment.

Um, it's a course on ministering to the dying.

Um, I've had um several people passed, and I've act I've actually just had the the privilege, I'd say, of being with them while they're past.

Fortunately, they they knew the Lord, so it was actually a beautiful thing to see them just slip out of this tent and and go to be with the Lord.

Um, one was last year.

Um the principal of our school, when school opened 40 years ago, she was the founding principal, so she'd taught our children.

We'd she'd become a real like a real cloth really close to us as a family.

She'd actually lived with us on a couple of occasions.

But um the time came and she knew it was her last day.

And all she wanted was her grandson on one side and me on the other of her bed, lifting up her hands so she could be praising the Lord on her last day as she was leaving.

Isn't that beautiful?

It's so amazing.

There was another lady this year, another older lady in the congregation, and um, she'd had a surgery, she was she was in her 70s, um, and things were looking like they were going quite well, but then things took a turn, and we found out that there wasn't any more that they could do.

We'd prayed, but it was obviously just her time, and she's a woman that had had a lot of grief, she'd had a lot of rejection, um, a lot of hurt and pain in her life.

But when she would come to a woman's encounter and the spirit of God would get on her, she would giggle, and it was like God just healing, healing all the hurt, healing all the rejection, healing all the trauma.

And you know, she'd never had children, um, you know, just there were whole lots of whole lot of things went on for her.

But um, when I got the call from her brother that that she was, that it today was basically the day, um, she was a bit of a away from me.

So all over the on the phone, all through the night, I was just praying with her.

Um, and and you know, just as I'd pray, Holy Spirit, touch her, you know, she'd be giggling.

And I thought, how amazing is that?

You know, I just kept praying, yeah.

Lord, touch her, comfort her, and she's giggling, you know, she's heading from you know, leaving this world, and she's giggling as the Holy Spirit's touching her.

Isn't that just beautiful?

So yeah, anyway, I I think it's I I just so I wanted to to do this, do this course.

Um because it just um I guess I've always been interested in life after death.

I've always been interested in heaven, very interested in heaven, eternal life.

These things have been really important to me from a young age.

My mum died when she was 26 years old.

She just went out one night.

Um, and um I was very young, but I remember clearly my dad coming into my room the next morning to tell me that she'd died.

And she went out perfectly healthy, perfectly happy, and then didn't come home.

And I had so many questions.

I'd never known anybody to die.

I'd never even had a pet that had died.

So the whole concept of death, what no, what I had, yeah, just just lots of questions.

And when I try and talk to my dad, I could see how upset he would get.

So I sort of avoided it because it was I could just see, you know, even from a young age, I could see the pain when I when I would talk about it.

So but I think just going through that gave me uh um just a curiosity about heaven from a young age, a curiosity about life after death, what happens, you know, when we do pass.

And um I we went to a traditional church growing up, and um I never ever heard that I could be born again.

I never heard that I could have a personal relationship with God, I never had ever had assurance that one day I would go to heaven.

It was just tradition, um, just just religious, really.

And then one day a lady, a lady who was full of the Holy Spirit, loved the Lord, she'd got born again and she started sharing with me.

And when she shared the gospel with me, she opened up the scriptures to me, she answered my questions, and I just saw in her just such a love for the Lord, such a love for his word, and such a love for life.

She had such assurance of where she was going, such assurance of eternity, of heaven, but she also had an incredible love for life.

She she experienced um miracles in her marriage.

Her marriage was violent and um and difficult, and she got saved, her husband's husband got saved, and their marriage was restored.

Um, she experienced healing in her body.

She got breast cancer, and her twin sister, her identical twin sister, died of it.

Her mother died of it, her grandmother died of it.

She was healed.

It was just, I could see the reality, she wasn't just talk.

What she had, the joy that she had, the excitement that she had about the Lord, I wanted that.

I wanted what she had, I wanted that kind of relationship with the Lord.

And she took me to a meeting one night, you know, a meeting like this.

Um, and at the end of the meeting, um, I had the opportunity to get out of my seat, to come forward and to receive Christ as my Lord and my Saviour.

Now I didn't understand what the preacher was talking about much, but because of what she'd shared with me and because of what I'd seen in her life, I basically went to that meeting already determined that I wanted what she had, I wanted to become a Christian.

So the fact that I didn't understand what Bill Sabritsky was saying was irrelevant.

When the opportunity came, I raced forward and said that, was led in that prayer, and I felt the peace of God.

I felt the love of God.

And then he said, if you want to be born again, come down here.

And if you want to be filled with baptized with the Holy Spirit, come down this aisle.

So I came down here and received the Lord and then raced around the back and went down this side and got baptized in the Holy Spirit.

I was given a Bible, and boy, the the joy that I felt was indescribable.

The peace that I felt just being belonging, just had I just knew, I knew, I knew I was saved.

I knew the Lord was with me.

I just felt his love, felt his presence, never to be the same again.

And oh, God is so good.

He is so wonderful.

And I praise God for that woman who shared with me because I was hungry, I was searching, I wanted answers.

You know, there's lots of people out there that are that are are searching and and looking.

I remember trying to talk to some people, and I I just couldn't.

They were trying to answer my questions, but I think I was just frustrating them.

They just get agitated.

Um, you know, just and but she she didn't because she had a she had the real thing.

She opened the word of God and she showed me, you know, she she gave me the answers.

Life just started to make sense, it all just started to to fall into place.

So that that was the best day of my life.

I was I would have been 16 years old.

Um, and yeah, it was just the most amazing, amazing thing ever.

Um, but anyway, I was telling you that I'm doing this course about ministering to people who are dying, um, which I am really enjoying.

Um, and the main objective, of course, is to lead people to Christ, because you know, you think of the thief on the cross, you know, right at that, right at that moment, you know, some you can be talking to people and sometimes they don't seem that worried about eternity.

They don't they don't seem that they're they're just worried about the here and the no.

And um it sort of surprises me because it's gonna come to us all.

Every single one of us are gonna slip out of these suits one day and be face to face before God.

Every single one of them.

I could understand, you know, if it wasn't gonna happen to some people, you know, their sort of blase attitude, but it's gonna happen to all of us.

Every single, every single one of us, none of us are gonna miss out.

Um, so it sort of just surprises me.

Um, but when somebody is faced with uh a life-threatening illness, sometimes their perspective changes and a door opens, and I'm keen for every door open, every opportunity I can get to share with people.

Um I want to.

So I thought I I want to do this course.

So I'm doing this course.

Um, and it's these people have had a lot more experience, you know, that than the um of ministering to the dying and being with the dying than I have, and I'm learning a lot from them because there's some really tough conversations that that people have to have, you know.

Um these and if and when they don't know the Lord, it's it's so frightening for them, you know.

So, how do we get what they're saying and um turn those conversations towards Jesus to open the door to be able to share the love of God with them and to share the gospel with them?

So I'm learning all these things and I'm really enjoying my course.

Um, so this is two weeks ago, and then Mike comes and knocks on the door and he says, Look, um, we've got a situation, the the neighbors are having a domestic, and and I just you know, I really want to just do my course.

Um, you know, they just have to stop what I'm doing.

This is important stuff, um, you know, and just because the neighbors are fighting.

Anyway, I come out to the kitchen and um there's this lady at my table, my neighbor, gasping for air, like gasping for air.

Um, the the partner's out by the pool talking to Mike, he's trying to diffuse the situation.

And I just, you know, it was you sort of didn't worry about whatever the domestic situation was, didn't matter.

I just had to get her to the doctor.

I thought she's she is just struggling so much to breathe.

So I got her to the doctors, and um, they put her on nebulizers, gave her steroids, tried oxygen, um, and they kept testing her.

Her oxygen levels weren't going up, nothing was increasing.

Um, they tried it again.

Um, so they said, look, she's she's got to get to the hospital in a hurry.

And it was quicker for me to get her there than wait for the ambulance to come to get her there.

So I'm driving her and she's in to the um nearest hospital.

She's so um anxious, just I can't breathe.

I guess she just keeps, you know, she's panicking, she can't breathe.

I'm praying, and I'm I just think the irony of it, you know, I was annoyed at being interrupted from my course, ministering to the dying, and then there's this woman beside me in the car, and I'm thinking, are we gonna make it?

Are we gonna make it?

Oh Lord, please, can we make it?

But anyway, we we get to the hospital, and and um I just have all these opportunities to be there with her and put all my course into practice, all the things that I've been learning.

It was quite good.

I'm there with her, and they're having the conversations, you know, those tough conversations, because they're kept, you know, she's got oxygen, she's got nebulizers, she's got drip, they're doing everything that they can, and they're doing scans, um, and they had to come back and tell her, look, we cannot do any more for you.

Your lungs are just the the condition of your lungs is this is you're not gonna get better.

And she doesn't read, she doesn't write.

Um, she's from a big family, but she didn't want any of them there.

A really dysfunctional family, mostly to because of alcoholism.

And I just felt really quite privileged to be there with her.

You know, she just she just kept saying to the doctors, just talk to her, just tell her.

Just I can't read or write, just tell her.

So basically, I'm there just with my neighbor as her next of kin, which is amazing, eh?

Like a big family.

But when there's a lot of dysfunction, a lot of abuse, a lot of alcohol, all that sort of stuff, when the rubber hits the road, who do you really need?

You know, you really need somebody who loves the Lord, and or she only wanted um, she didn't want her partner to be involved.

You know, it's my number down.

They they'd had the domestic, you know, that caused her to end up on my in um at my kitchen table in the first place.

She didn't even, she didn't want him having a bar of it.

So I'm there having these um just being present while the doctors are having these really difficult conversations.

So she's my age, she's um smoked since she was 10 years old.

So the um the condition of her lungs is just yeah, it's it was it's just serious.

And they also just explain because of her heart, her heart's in not in a good condition, and her heart, she's just yeah, basically they're saying it could just stop beating at any moment.

That's that's the condition that you're in, and she's crying, and and they're saying, and we can't do compressions, you know, she's little, she's tiny, she's she's just frail.

And they said that'll it'll break your ribs and it won't work.

You know, that we we need to to make sure you know this.

And and just being there to be able to to um to just share the love of Jesus.

With her was just such a privilege.

She um because she doesn't read and and and write, there was a lot of things that they were saying that she just couldn't quite understand.

So when I was sort of clarifying for her what they were saying, it just the reality of what she was dealing with really hit her.

We'd shared with her before about Jesus, but she wasn't really ready.

She wasn't really at that place wanting to turn from the alcohol, wanting to turn and submit and surrender to Christ.

She just wasn't there yet.

So she had a little bit of an understanding of the gospel, but things were different.

I know, very different.

Using the wordless book.

If you're a um if you're a children's worker, so I turn up and I come to see her and I've got this big Bible.

I said, I've got some really good news to tell you.

And she's struggling to breathe.

And she looks at the big Bible in my hands and she says, You remember I can't read.

You know, she's breathless, but you remember I can't read.

I said, Yeah, it's all good, it's all good.

This, there's no words.

There's no words, what I'm gonna tell you.

And if you're a children's worker or you've done children's ministry, you'd be really familiar with this.

But it's just the wordless book.

And um, I started to tell her that gold, this gold reminds us of heaven.

And I told her what heaven was like, what the Bible says has a lot to say about heaven.

In heaven, there's streets of gold, in heaven's where God is.

In heaven, there is no sickness, there's no sadness, there's no pain, there's no death, there's no suffering.

And I'm starting to tell her, now, this is a woman who's close to going there, remember?

So her eyes, you know, she is really interested now in hearing about heaven.

Um, so I'm telling her the things that the scriptures say about heaven and our and the Lord being our creator and how he loves us so much.

And you know, he's he was made away, he wants us to be in heaven with him.

So I'm telling her there's one thing that cannot be in heaven, and I said, the darkness reminds us of sin, you know, and her face dropped, and she said, That's me.

That's me.

She said, I've done a lot of bad things.

And I said to her, we've all done a lot of bad things.

The Bible says that every single one of us are sinners, and then she started, you know, I got her attention again.

And none of us, none of us can earn our salvation, none of us could ever be good enough.

Every single one of us are in this condition, every single one of us separated from God.

But God had a wonderful plan and he has made the way.

And then started talking to her about the cross, about what Jesus did, about how blood had to be shed.

Jesus died on that cross, he paid the price.

I talked to her about that um it's all of our sin being put on Jesus when he was on the cross.

He's made the way, he's paid the price, he's he's for everything that we've done, thought, said, every everything that we've done.

He's he's made the way, he's paid the price.

And she's listening intently.

And then I said to her, he offers us a free gift, he offers us salvation, he offers us um that opportunity to be completely washed clean, to come into his family, to not be separated from him, so that we can know for sure that we're going to heaven.

He takes all of that sin and when we ask him.

I said, we've got to ask him.

The Bible says to those who believe, to those who receive, he gives gives the right to become children of God.

We don't automatically become children of God.

It's a gift, it's a free gift.

You can't do anything to earn it or deserve it, but you can receive it.

And she said, I want it, I want it.

And it was just beautiful.

So I'm there, and and I we just I just held her hands and and she just prayed the most sincere prayer, asking the Lord to come into her life, to forgive her sin, to wash her clean, just to become part of his family.

It was just a really, really beautiful moment.

Um, and then talking about, you know, we we when we receive the Lord from there on in, it's a growing journey.

We're growing in him, we're getting to know him more.

The grass, like the grass keeps growing, we're getting to know him, um, and learn more about his love.

And we do that by um fellowshipping with others, you know, getting into church and and praying, talking to him, and um, and just talk to her about you know um growing in your faith.

But it was just so beautiful to see her, just to see somebody receive Christ who you know that they could be in heaven today or tomorrow.

It was quite amazing.

It was it was really beautiful.

On Sunday, she came to church, she discharged herself from hospital, much to the doctor's disgust.

Um, but she turned up at she came to church on Sunday, she's still struggling to breathe.

Um not nearly as bad, but she's still struggling to breathe.

And Mike's talking about um that we go from sinner to saint when we receive Christ.

And she she said, That's me, that's me.

I did that on the 20th of August, 2026.

I did that, I received Jesus.

You know, she's really, really got it.

You know, she knows that she's in the family, she knows she belongs.

And oh man, it was so good.

I I felt so excited.

And um, the best part is the day before I left, she came over to visit, and she wasn't struggling to breathe.

Yeah, and I just I thought that's that's so awesome, and she was so excited, but she didn't even mention that she wasn't struggling to breathe.

What she was really excited about was somebody had visited her, taken her fishing, an old friend, and she didn't drink with them, like it's a first, and she's telling them, no, I don't do that stuff anymore, and she's telling them about what God's done in her life, and it just, oh man, it's just so exciting.

Isn't God good?

Yeah, he's so good, he is so good.

I just yeah, I just thought that was that was wonderful.

You know, it's just the greatest privilege, the greatest, um, the greatest privilege to see somebody reconciled to God, and it's the ministry that we all have, every single one of us.

And you know, it's just so beautiful to to um share the love of God with somebody um and see them going from a place of absolute brokenness to and and hopelessness to a place of peace, joy, and belonging.

So beautiful.

Yeah, he is he is so awesome, he's so good.

He saves us, he heals us.

Psalms 143, he um 147 verse 3, he heals the brokenhearted and he binds up their wounds.

You know, I I love that.

I love seeing people come into the kingdom getting saved, but I love to see people getting that emotional healing.

You know, what the the stuff, oh, it's just so good, you know, and I've seen so many people, like with all the years that we've been in in Kaikoi, man, the the things, the miracles that I've seen, people healed on the inside from incredible trauma.

I'm talking about like sexual abuse from a father, from all your brothers, um, a life growing up like that, just you know, just horrible neglect, abuse.

Um, and you see these women of God now, and you there is not a trace of that brokenness within them.

They are healed, they are whole, they are beautiful, strong woman of God.

And I think that is so exciting.

Our Lord heals, he is just so wonderful, he's so beautiful.

And I've just been thinking about you know, the broken hearted this week, and I was reminded, just been meditating on Peter actually, and I, you know, think of how Jesus prophesied to Peter, you know, just before Jesus went to the cross, he prophesied, and it's in all four Gospels that he prophesied that that Peter would betray him.

And you know, we know Peter said, you know, I'm ready, I'll never do that, I'm ready to die for you, and um, and and that he never would.

And even on the third time, um, he swore, he was so adamant that he would never um turn and deny the Lord, and he swore.

But then we know when that rooster crowed, um, he just went away weeping bitterly, you know, just so brokenhearted.

And you the, you know, there's so much around the cross and and and the crucifix.

I'm just sort of surprised at how much it's mentioned, you know.

It's mentioned in all four gospels, you know, that the prophecy that he would betray him, him be him actually betraying Jesus, but also the restoration afterwards.

You know, there's a lot in there about the restoration afterwards.

In Mark 16, verse 17, it says, When the woman went to the tomb, first thing on Sunday morning, the angel told them, Go tell the disciples and Peter.

Mark 16:17

Like, make sure Peter knows too.

I mean, that that would have been that that previous day would have been the worst day of his life.

You know, there would have been, you know, the the the hopelessness, the despair, the grief that they were all feeling because Jesus, you know, of what they'd seen, Jesus die on that cross.

But for Peter, I reckon it would have been magnified because of that deep regret that he would have felt having denied the Lord that he loves so much.

And so when the the next day comes and the um that there he gets that news, boy, that must have been so, so exciting for him.

You know, make sure that Peter knows too.

Um, I love it, I love it.

And in Luke 24, it says, when the woman came to the apostles with the news that Jesus had ridden from the dead, they didn't believe them.

But um, but Peter jumped up and he ran to the tomb.

You know, he he jumped up and ran.

Oh, I I just I love I love it.

I just think and then when he was out fishing and he realized that it was Jesus um on the shore, he wasn't he didn't stand the boat with the others, he jumped out, he swam to him.

And I was just thinking, you know, just thinking about that, um, you know, how we can just feel so um heartbroken and running to Jesus.

You know, he ran to him, he swam to him, and he was restored.

You know, whatever we're dealing with, um wherever there's just been brokenness, you know, pain, hurt, um, the answer is always running to Jesus.

He's a God who restores, he restores.

It doesn't matter um what we've done in that sense, there's forgiveness because of the resurrection.

The resurrection changes everything.

Everything.

We the incredible hope that we have in the Lord because of the resurrection, the forgiveness, the healing, the um the healing of the brokenhearted, the healing of um of our minds, our emotions, the healing in our bodies, um, not to mention salvation, salvation, you know, what's of eternal consequence, and just that that we can receive him and and just have such an awareness of his presence with us, knowing that we belong to him, knowing that we're his son, knowing that we're his daughter, having that access right in to his presence continually, knowing that he'll never leave us, never forsake us.

It's the best news ever.

It's just so awesome.

He is he is so wonderful.

Um, but I did just because I, you know, I said about um two things that really excite me.

Um, one is you know, people coming into the kingdom, and at the second is um a healing, healing of the broken hearted.

I love how Holy Spirit ministers so powerfully, so personally into our lives.

And um I um I had a one probably the time that I was the most heartbroken in my life, Holy Spirit ministered to me.

I had it was about 16 years ago, and I'd lost a grandson, and it was yeah, like it was just like unbelievably painful, you know.

Things like this, never we have seven children.

We had we'd always been the family that experienced the miracles, the healings.

Um, we had the battles and and we won them.

You know, this is the first, this was a this was new territory for us.

And it was heartbreaking, you know, like you you have the grief of losing a grandchild, but you have the grief of of just seeing the pain that your child is going through and and the other children.

Oh, it's just like magnified, multiplied.

It was just so painful.

And I remember being at the front of a church service and we're worshiping God.

And and sort of in those moments, I felt like that closeness to heaven.

You know, it felt like heaven and earth connecting.

I felt that that closeness, it was yeah, it's a beautiful thing.

You know, whatever we're going through, the answer is always running to him, not running from him, always running to him.

And I remember being over on the side of the church, and I'm I'm praising God, and the tears are just streaming.

And the Lord gave me this vision, a vision of a little girl, a little dot running up and putting her arms up to me and me picking her up and us worshiping together.

And you know, it's amazing because like you can never have one child replace another.

But that vision meant so much to me, you know, like a a picture pants a thousand words.

That that just I was so surprised by that vision.

Um it was there was a bit more involved because that my grand my um daughter-in-law, um, we nearly lost her the next month, you know, so it was like a real assault um on our family.

Um, so that that vision sort of just gave me incredible hope that there is gonna be healing, there is gonna be restoration, you there is a future, there is a hope.

Um, you know, that this this season isn't gonna last, just all sorts of things, and it and it just so administered to me.

Now there was a quite a period of time, and then they had the next child, and it was a little boy, and I was so surprised because I was expecting a little girl.

But um, six months later, my daughter had a had a little girl, and she went back teaching into our in our school after a year of um maternity leave, and that little one ended up traveling around with Nan and Cordor everywhere.

She was um she was with us, and she just just she was so so cruzy, she's just such a delightful little girl.

So, whatever you did in ministry, she could just come along.

It was beautiful.

And because she was with me every day, um, we so enjoyed her.

Um every Sunday morning, as soon as she came into the house, she would run up the front and put her arms up to me and um and and cuddle me, and I'd hold her during the worship.

And it was just like the Lord just so every week, week after week, week after week, I saw that vision fulfilled that the Lord gave me and really comforted me in my moment of um of just of heartache.

And you know, there was a delay, of course, but it gave me such um hope for the future.

And and he he he does, he he heals us and he and he gives us hope.

It's so beautiful.

Um another time, um I I just want to share one other testimony with you, and oh, I'll tell you about Pitope.

Yeah, Pitope before I share that other testimony.

Pitope, so if you were here last night, um Pitope, his son had that um serious bike accident two weeks ago.

So Pitope is a new Christian, um, so full of excitement about the Lord, so so just absolutely blown away with what God has done in his life.

He is just like su he is like a such a different person.

But tragically, his son had a serious uh motorbike accident in Australia two weeks ago.

And um the uh he's they did a lot of tests.

He's had to be in an induced coma because of the swelling in the brain.

They've had to um put a drain in to release the pressure.

They're saying that the brain's not uh firing up as it should when they do the tests.

Um they're saying there's clots on his brain and they can't give him any band clots on his lungs.

He's got pneumonia and they can't give him any blood thinners because um he'll bleed out basically because of the um the strain that they've put in.

Um and the pneumonia that he's got is really resistant to antibiotics.

So there's some desperate warfare going on for this young man because everything in the natural is looking absolutely hopeless.

But he is standing strong, he is standing in faith, like that this young Christian.

You hear his messages, and he is just so full of faith for miracles, and he's just so encouraged with the way that he's handling the situation because he says the old Pitope would just everything would be wild and crazy for everybody if it was still the old Pitope facing this, but he's bringing his family together, they're praying over there, over there.

Boy and the church family are praying.

And I got a report yesterday that um his fingers are moving, his feet are moving.

When he um they tell him to open his eyes, he's opening his eyes.

Um, and he said, tell um if you're if you're in discomfort, give us a thumbs up, and he's giving out he's giving them the thumbs up.

And and there's and the um the they were able to remove the the drain, so they were able to um administer blood thinners, the clots are being removed, his bloods are coming back good from the um the antibiotics.

So I mean it's still a journey, but we are celebrating every step of the way like it's every day, is like a miracle, and it's it's so exciting to see this new Christian just just witnessing the miracle that God's doing day by day.

He's just absolutely blown away.

So, yeah, young Zion.

So we're still praying for complete, total restoration for Zion.

No brain damage, total restoration, but most importantly, this young man's salvation.

Most importantly.

Yeah.

Um, I said I was gonna just share one more one testimony, one more testimony with you quickly.

And um just of healing of the healing of the broken hearted and um just before COVID we got um news that our son had um bowel cancer.

And that was that was um awful news to hear, of course.

He's got a young family, he's he's got um four sons, one daughter, and he's he's only he would have been 35, I think, at the time.

So very young.

Um and I remember crying out to God, just absolutely, we were in a prayer meeting, um, and I was crying out to God.

We've never had anybody in our family have cancer.

It was, you know, this this was um a huge battle.

And I remember praying and feeling to open my eyes, and on the back wall, we have um our kitchen area in that corner too.

I saw one word, the Lord gave me one word, and it was in it was like it was like it came up in lights.

It it was just one word, and it was written in cursive, in cursive writing.

And it and that one word was just an incredible promise for me.

It was it the word was benign.

And that so he went for the tests and it came back malignant, and I hung on to benign because I They went for the test, he went for the um the other tests, and they were so um the growth was so bad, they could hardly get um the camera very far.

This it was like critical emergency.

Um and he the him actually getting treated so quickly was a miracle because he looked so healthy, he was young, he didn't um otherwise healthy, but anyway, he got um radiation to shrink it, um, and then they had to have surgery to remove it, then he had to have the bag for um a year, and then they had to do the reconnection, so it was a long journey, and I remember all through that time I never cried once because I got my word.

I got my word from the Lord, and that carried me.

I that so carried me.

Um, years later, when they do the follow-up test, there was something there, and they did another test and it came back benign.

Yes! My answer, my answer.

You know, sometimes we we can when we we just the things that we go through, running to God, running to God is always the answer.

And I just love, you know, when we have Holy Spirit, the way that He ministers so personally to each one of us, you know, whether you run into His presence with what it is that that's um that's weighing heavy on you, whether He gives you a verse, whether He gives you a um a picture, whether He gives you an impression, um, you know, whatever.

But He's a God who speaks to us.

We're in relationship, we're not in religion, you know, relationship, we talk to each other, and He talks to us.

And I feel like He wants to so much more us to communicate so much more with us for us to be listening more.

I feel like there's so much more comfort and miracles and and help and just all those things that we need just available to us if we'll just push in that little bit more and wait.

Wait on Him to speak to us and then when He does, hold on to that word.

You know, I've got a battle that I'm in at the moment for we've got seven, like seven children, so there's you know, often we've got five that are really going on strong for God.

All of our grandchildren are in the house.

We've got so much to be praising God for, but um, I've got one situation that I am um still battling at the moment, but the Lord's given me one word, one word, and I'm gonna hold on to that one word, and you know, he's he's just he's so faithful, he's so wonderful.

I um I wanna that oh when during that I wanted to share this verse too, you know, because the Lord comforted me some when we're that first testimony I shared when we lost our um our grandson, I got Romans 8, 38 and 39, and it just brought me so much comfort.

It says, For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.

The nothing, nothing that we're going through can separate us from the love of God.

We just run in to his presence.

We run to him with every every need we have, every every struggle, every every disappointment.

The answer's always running to him.

There's always restoration because of the resurrection.

Praise you, Jesus.

Praise you, Jesus.

And I I I wanted to um to sort of share those two things, um, those last two testimonies, because both of my um the picture that the Lord gave me and the vision that the Lord gave me both happened in a setting like this.

I think that corporate anointing is beautiful.

Um, you know, God speaks to us when we're on Iran too, but sometimes in this setting, um, there's just a beautiful anointing to really um just to just get exactly what you need from the Lord.

And I just want to allow some time this morning.

Um could I have my big brother?

Um I have some keys.

Thank you.

I um so I'd love to just allow a little bit of time for us.

First of all, if you have never um really received the Lord, you you don't know that you are you have that absolute assurance of salvation, like my um like my neighbor had.

You know, do you have that absolute, absolute assurance?

I love that scripture in 1 John 5.13, and it says, these things, these things are written that we may know we have eternal life.

You know, we don't need to go through our life hoping, we go through our life knowing, knowing we're his, knowing we belong, knowing our um our future, and we we walk in relationship with him all along the way.

And but you know, for me, you know, having gone to a religious church, going to church week after week, I'd it was not until I had that opportunity to actually receive him as my Lord and Savior that that night that I went to a meeting like this and had the opportunity to respond.

And I received his free gift of salvation.

I knew my name was written in heaven.

I knew that I was saved, I felt the love of God, I felt his peace, I felt his presence.

I was never the same again.

And if you haven't experienced that, today's an opportunity to.

So, you know, when we stand, if you haven't experienced that and you would like to today, the invitation is there.

Um, please come forward and we would just love to pray for you.

But I'd also just really like to allow some time.

If if there's things that you're carrying, things um hurts, any sort of heartache, stuff that's just been difficult, thing is that you really you know that you really need some more healing.

You need a touch from God, you need him to speak to you, you need him to touch you in a personal way.

Because we've got um people need to see the reality of the Lord.

You know, when I went, that woman shared with me, um, I saw the reality of God because of the healings, because of what God had done in her life, in her marriage, um, in her body, um, and the excitement and the passion that she had for God.

It was undeniable that what she had was real, alive, living, you know, that relationship with the Lord.

And it's so important that we have um that we all have that, that vibrancy.

Um, you know, so when there's things that that come up in our life, we need to run, run to Him, get the healing, get the help, you know, not carry things.

We don't, we don't, we we're not people who need to carry things, you know, there's healing.

And it doesn't matter how desperate it might be, you know, like for me, having that just seems so hopeless.

Um, having lost that that grandbaby, you know, what I'd gone through.

But in that moment, he comforted me, he ministered to me, and a healing came.

And he's just so wonderful, so beautiful.

And we need to go to him, run to him with anything that we're carrying, anything that's weighing us down, everything, anything that's a heavy, um, weighing heavy on our heart.

We need to come to him, get the comfort, get the healing, get the help that's available to us.

Because we need to be going out, not um, not struggling.

You know, he says he binds up, he binds up the wounds.

He heals the brokenhearted and he binds up their wounds.

We need to be going out and and sharing the reality of God, the the reality of that he does heal.

We are in his family and sure we go through stuff.

We're not exempt, you know, from from pain and suffering.

Things still happen that we have to face and deal with, but the difference is that we run to him.

We get the help, we get the healing, we get the strength to move on.

That faith rises up and a new hope comes.

And he he is just so wonderful, so so wonderful.

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