Restoring Lives International. What was that again? A friend of mine mentioned that she was coming to Dayton for a conference … a healing conference. I was a “healer” … a new-age, esoteric, hands-on healer myself. I thought I’d like to go; might pick up a few pointers, from a “Christian-point-of-view”. I’d been stumbling around in New Age churches, finally finding Unity Church, which seemed to be a good fit considering my passion for hands-on healing and bringing comfort to the hurting. I was going through the motions of living … day, after day, continuing to wait for my life to begin, my ship to come in, my knight to rescue me. I attracted unkind, selfish, mean men who were just as confused as I was about life. I not only attracted them, I felt totally lost without them. I was addicted to love … alas, addictions are all the same. They grab hold of you, and make you think that they have the answer, that they ARE the answer. Each day becomes a quest for tomorrow. Hoping, waiting, panting for more of what you are addicted to… whatever it may be. I asked myself, when will my tomorrow stop tormenting my present?
I walked in to the Restoring Lives International conference expecting to hear how “Jesus did it” – how He healed, what His techniques were, and how to bring my techniques into focus through knowing His. I was just sitting there, thinking about how much I wanted to learn from what The Master did, and knew, and suddenly, I was awakened by the reality of Who the Master WAS, and what He meant to me and to the whole world. Then, something Bryn said made me really listen (with the ears of the Holy Spirit, I was soon to learn). Her words stopped me cold in my tracks. She was explaining what Jesus did for us … for all of us. That he died on the cross, taking the pain and punishment for ALL of our sins, and taking our REASONS … the NEED for us to sin with Him. Taking the “evil spirit” right out of our natures, if we would just believe it … believe on Him. Suddenly, the need to pursue the addiction ceased. The drive, the will to pursue it, it all just went away!
I realized that I had been deceived, all along. I thought I had it “covered” – the whole “living” thing. I was an astrologer – I read charts. I was a tarot card reader – I knew what I didn’t have any reasons to “know”; all I had to do was ask the cards, ask the charts, and “through someone / somehow” I knew what to say. I was good at it, too!! I didn’t know why everyone in the “established world” didn’t get this “esoteric secret” that all of us in the New Age lane were so smugly mastering. Suddenly, that mask of illusion was torn in two – ripped right down the center, like the Wizard’s curtain in Dorothy’s dream. What I gradually realized, over time, as the Lord presented information to me, was that the astrology was the very thing that was keeping me fully in the clutches of the evil one.
It was like the lights came on all at once … I was encountering the glory of truth, shining brilliant, incredible truth, and it came over me like a loving force that moved me from passive observer to passionate participant. Suddenly, it was like I was being bathed in hope, in love, in faith, in tenderness and in pure, exultant glory of living in God’s presence. I felt like Jesus was saying “you can leave all that behind. Just follow Me. I love you already. You don’t need sin and death and destructive behaviors to live; you just need Me. “ Yes, it took a long, long time to finally exhaust all of my driven, fleshly behaviors, however, after hearing what Bryn & Michael had to say, I really HEARD Jesus talking. He took everything that I had all twisted up, and laid it out like a beautiful picture. I had been playing with some kind of a jigsaw puzzle, which had lots of missing pieces. He gave me the tapestry of life, with every answer filled in, and every gap closed.
I am so thankful to my experience at RLI, which changed my life! Ever since that first experience, that first exposure to truth, real, solid, verifiable, no-kidding truth, about life, about God, about Jesus, about Holy Spirit, it’s been a journey without end and it satisfies me during every waking moment. I want to ALWAYS remember the truth, and like everyone else, when I hear the truth, I recognize the truth, ….and Bryn, Mike, and the other RLI speakers are all speaking the TRUTH !