Cheryl Parrott

Although I believed in God, and sometimes talked with him while camping out in the bush I was not a Christian, Jesus was not Lord of my life. I had not asked him into my life. However at the age of 44 that was to change. I met a lady on the train station and we subsequently became friends. She was a very strong Christian. She invited me to a revival meeting but I refused, she persisted to the point of being intimidating and I kept refusing, in the end (to get her off the phone) I told her I would think  about it. When I hung up the phone and started to walk across the room an audible voice said "Go to the meeting." I was really
spooked because I was the only one in the house! All the hairs on the back of my head stood up! But at the same time a deep peace fell upon me and I knew in my heart I was going to the meeting!

At the meeting the presence of the Holy Spirit was very strong (although I didn't know what it was) They sang worship for the whole night, at one point about half way through the night I walked up the back of the hall and all of a sudden I was caught in a beam of light and "frozen" mid stride I couldn't move.(Like a "beam me up Scotty movie!!) I looked around me and above me to see where the light was coming from but it wasn't coming from anywhere but when I looked down I could see the circle of light around me. I was definitely NOT caught in a spot light or any down lighting and of course the other weird thing was that I was "frozen" to the spot mid stride. As I stood there looking around wondering if others could see all of this and would notice I felt the most incredible sensation. I felt like I was standing under a shower but instead of water, love was being poured upon me, as it touched my head it actually went through my head all the way through my body to my feet and this continued the whole time I was "frozen" in the beam of light.

Then as suddenly as it came it went and I continued walking as if I hadn't even stopped. I knew my life had been changed in that moment of time, but I didn't know how. I didn't tell anyone! (Would you?) But from that moment I was focused on God in a new way. All of a sudden I wanted a Bible and went to purchase one. I found I deep need to find a spiritual home and found the church that God wanted me to grow up in. But I still hadn't given my life to Jesus, I still hadn't asked Him to be Lord of my life.

To be honest I didn't want to be a Christian. The Christians I had had contact with seemed to me to be boring and dull and I thought I had an interesting life and I didn't want to give it up! God had other ideas.  He took me to a business conference in Hawaii and there I met a lady from Alaska (as you know I am from Australia) so he brought this lady from the other side of the world, just to speak to me.

As we talked she said "God has brought you to this place because he is happy with what you are doing. But I can tell you, if he changes your life, it will be even better". This is exactly what I wanted to hear, even though I didn't know it at the time.

I went back to my hotel room and in the dark I silently gave my life completely over to Jesus. I said "OK Jesus, you can have my life, whatever you want to do is OK with me" - Real spiritual stuff! Nothing seemed to change. I woke up feeling exactly the same. But when I got back home - WOW!

From then on the Lord has worked powerfully in my life with visions and prophetic words for people but I want to share the most dramatic one with you.

During this time my daughter who was 16 was estranged from the family.  She was on the streets and on drugs and we didn't know where she was. We had combed the streets many times looking for her but to no avail. She would have no contact with us. Once when she was in hospital and I found out and rang the hospital they refused to allow me to see her or even give me any information about her on her request. So we were in a painful place as a family.

One morning in desperation I cried out to God. "Lord you know where she is, I don't. You can look after her, I can't. I give her to you Lord, she is yours" WELL the very next day she came home and walked into the house and announced that she was giving up drugs. I give Jesus all the glory, all the praise and all the honour. She is 20 now and is drug free, has a good job and has gone to college at night to get a degree in graphic design. Praise Jesus.

The Lord also told me "You have lost your daughter, but I am going to give you back a loving adult" He told me this about 3 years ago and I have clung to His promise. He is fulfilling this slowly in many ways. And being the gracious God and Father that He is, He has given me many many other daughters to love and mentor in the meantime. I believe that God will fulfil His promise to me and that one day we will be united in a deep and loving way as mother and daughter.

I might add that my life has completely changed. There is no resemblance of my old life and that lady from Alaska was right! My new life in Christ is infinitely better than anything I could have imagined and far more exciting than my old life ever was.

Michael I could tell you many other stories of miracles God has produced in my life. Miracles of producing money in an empty purse and miracles of healing in me and my son. God is real. He is faithful and He is glorious and I am so very grateful that He called me and that I responded.

Cheryl
cparrott@ihug.com.au
 

Copyright: Copyright (c) 1996-2005 Michael Fackerell · · Generator: TopicTree 0.8 · Generated: 03 Dec 2008, 07:03 pm AEST · Last modified: 2005-05-22 08:08:02 · 60 ms · The best thing since <blink>...