My Journey To The Cross
There are times in your life that there seems to be milestones, moments that are etched in your mind and hold an abundance of meanings. For me that time was 2002 when I walked through Elizabeth Baptist Church (EBC) doors. I had just relocated to Atlanta and was honestly spiritually homeless and barren but God sent me to a church that would challenge who I thought I was and placed me in the direction of where I needed to go. The word that is taught at EBC has inspired my soul, cultivated my spirit and freed me from the bondage I was in.
When I was first asked to write about my testimony I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to share. This invitation came after God had already prepared me through my Spiritual Formation class at church. Our instructor asked us to lead a devotional with a scripture that changed our lives and mine was Leviticus 18:22. As I sat there talking to God hoping that he would allow me to use something else…anything else HIS response was NO this is what I need you to share. I went to the bathroom and cried knowing in my spirit that this was the last aspect of my conversion that I wanted to share with a room of my ministry family and members of the church (EBC) yet, I told Him I will obey. With tears in my eyes I opened up and laid my heart, soul, and my burden down and as God would have it there was a classmate in the room dealing with the demon of Homosexuality in her family. She needed to hear that there can be a change when someone is in that lifestyle and that there is hope for her family member. My Pastor (Craig L. Oliver Sr.) always says “you have to be careful who you show your wounds too” but that night I shared and cried my wounds away with some of the most wonderful people. I thank God for them because in my time of weakness their warmth and respect lifted me.
While living in the world the devil had a field day with my mind, my spirit and my soul. I was so spiritually lost that I couldn’t tell you what the bible said on any life altering matters. I would always defend that old lifestyle by saying “God never said homosexuality was wrong”. This statement coming from a “worldly person” who at no point in her life ever fully read the bible yet one day God put his word in my face loud and clear when I read Leviticus 18:22 “Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.” God’s words can’t get any clearer than that it was like Him putting a mirror to my face and asking me what I was going to do now. As we in the Body of Christ know His word is sharper than any double edge sword splitting bone and marrow. That day He split me in two and today I am so thankful that He did. Now I am strong enough to tell people that “you can’t be ashamed of where you came from because that molded you into who you are, and made you stronger so that you can assume who He has birthed you to be”.
I thank God for Pastor Oliver because he gave me a new hope and planted a seed that only God could grow…he changed a life that was destined for HELL. Now, I can say that I live among the redeemed and will continue to fight the good fight until I breathe my last. To my body of Christ family and those on the road to finding out WHO GOD REALLY is…though the path is narrow there is always room. Continue to be Prayed Up, Blessed and Highly favored.
In His Service,
Kai
