Personal Testimony

‘Eretz zavat chalav u’ dvash’ (Hebrew)

‘A land flowing with Milk and Honey'
“God takes us into deep waters not to drown us but to clean us.”

In the year 1990, at the age of twelve, I accepted Christ as my Lord and Saviour. God in His great love and grace, brought me into His Kingdom and baptised me with the Holy Spirit so that I knew His presence and joy in my life. However, Satan – who always seeks to pull down what God wants to build – robbed me of my peace and joy because he attacked my family and caused rifts, division and separation from the fellowship. My father died in 1984 and I had often seen my mother in tears and struggling with our relatives. However she became ill with a heart condition and was diabetic. In 2001 she died and left my sister and me, but she went to be with the Lord because she was a Christian.

Although in my heart I loved Jesus, my faith was not very strong and I slipped away from His presence. I felt pressurised by the world because life had brought me many difficulties, and that led me into anxiety and depression. I forgot what true love and happiness meant. Everywhere there seemed to be shadows and darkness, and these harsh life experiences felt like grave clothes around me. I had been blessed by having good education (MBA with majors in banking & Finance, Sales & Marketing) and I had a solid professional background as a banker with a garments manufacturing business; but I didn’t have God’s grace, love, joy and peace. In my prayers I wept and cried out to the Lord to deliver me from these problems because I felt tired and wanted a rest. However every new day I found that I was faced with another new problem; and also I had to work more than fifteen to sixteen hours each day to make ends meet. This was Satan’s strategy! He loves to get us involved in the world that we forget the rights that we have as sons and daughters in the Kingdom of God.

A time of change and transformation started in my life on November 1st 2003 when I lost my job at Bank Alfalah. This brought me into a transitional period where, because of trials and difficulties, I had to surrender everything to Jesus. He allowed me to experience a period of brokenness in order to bring wholeness into my life. Like a potter working on the clay Jesus wanted to take the hard bits from my life and reshape me. He was working out His divine purpose for my life. He had chosen me when I was twelve years old and now He wanted to use me for His glory. He removed all the things that caused me to slip away from Him. He separated me from those people who were leading me in the wrong way, and from the members of my family who were involved with the occult. He showed me that instead of relying on sleeping pills and other drugs I had to rely on Him, because He was my Lord and He could give me unspeakable peace and joy. Jesus brought me to this point by allowing me to become diabetic. When this happened I realized that enough was enough and I had to look to Jesus for deliverance. The Bible says, “Your word is a lamp to guide me and a light for my path.” The Bible also says, “There is no weapon formed against you that will prosper.” In Luke 10:19 Jesus says, “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.” Amen.

I faced a spiritual battle for forty days. In that time period Jesus gave me victory over the Satanic forces, generational curses, spells, undue links and soul ties; genetic hand-on, familiar, oppressive and repressive spirits. He removed the evil barriers that had been used to hinder me, and enabled me to have the blessings of the Kingdom of God. The tender hands of Jesus held me and lifted me up from the sinking sand because He is my fortress and my refuge. He delivered me from diabetes and healed me, for by His stripes I am healed. He delivered me from generational curses. He also took away all the anxiety and loneliness that had been in my life and gave me His Agape love, His everlasting joy and His overflowing peace. I found comfort in His world because it is the truth that I need in my life. He lifted me up when the world had forsaken me. I had been lost but that Good Shepherd had been searching for me and He had found the wondering sheep. My Pastor in Pakistan was always ready to open his door to me whenever I needed prayer. I then joined the Bible Institute at my local church – Grace Trinity College. I learned that Jesus is my Lord and that I am accountable to Him for all that I do. I belong to His Kingdom and want to work for His Kingdom. I have finally found the purpose for which Jesus saved me. Jesus also turned around my financial situation and blessed me with a new and a better job at Muslim Commercial bank (Pakistan). When I gave Him all my burdens, He with His amazing love and grace opened all the doors that the enemy had shut in my life. The Word of God says, that “What He opens no one can shut and what He shuts no one can open.” Isaiah 22:22

It took me fourteen years to come back to Jesus. God allowed me all of the testing, but Satan was not allowed to steal me away because Jesus had already paid the highest ransom at Calvary. He was crucified to atone for my sins and to redeem me. Jesus allowed this wilderness period in my life so that I would be washed and cleansed. He wanted me to follow Him as the sheep follow the shepherd. He opened the gates of Heaven in my life and brought me into a Land of Green Pastures. He made it possible for me to attend the ‘Learning to lead God’s people’ Leadership training programme held in North Devon, U.K. This course gave me an insight into my spiritual life and taught me to be accountable, correctable and teachable; to let God work in me and through me so that I become a true disciple of Jesus and can fulfil the Great Commission. This amazing transformation has enabled me to surrender my ambitions, hopes and plans so that He can change them into His ambitions, His thoughts and His plans. Amen.

Trials, tribulations, suffering, rejections and problems come in life whenever God wants to strengthen His people for His purpose. Like after every dark night there is a bright morning, similarly after difficult times there is abundance, acceptance, restoration and wholeness. Learn to receive His wholeness in such situations. He wants to add perseverance, patience in our lives. Remember, God is a consuming fire; a jealous God (Deuteronomy 04:24). He is our fortress and refuge (Psalm 91: 02). His Divine Will is to save us from the fowler’s snare. Yet, He makes us strong to stand on firm ground, build our house on a rock and dwell in His Trinity. He wants to write on us, His new name (Revelations 03: 12). The requirement for the above is to be firm and persistent. Once made pure as Gold we are capable to fulfil His Will.

Jesus wants all of us to live in abundance in our Promised Land where there is love, peace and joy (Galatians 5:22-23). He wants us to live in His grace and to enjoy the position we have in His Kingdom. When we seek His Kingdom first then He will bless us in ways that our beyond our imagination.