Peace in Adversity

God’s power possesses supernatural strength that brings hope, love, gratitude, and comfort in times we need it most. I am living proof that turning to God in faith during times of intense adversity will bring you strength, peace, joy, hope, love, and comfort. I was diagnosed with advanced stage cancer at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, after several surgeries and conventional treatments, I was in a panic, thinking the treatments were not going to work for me. I understood that I could not make it by the power of my own strength or wisdom. I had to surrender completely to God.

This revelation came to me in my first Freedom Prayer session at CrossBridge Community Church on November 7, 2022. I was at my lowest point. This prayer session crucified my old self and the spiritual lies I had been believing, and it resurrected me a new creation. I was no longer controlled by fear, anxiety, and anger because I completely surrendered everything to God. To trust God with everything, that is a path to experiencing God’s power. 

God Works through People 

The cancer treatments took a major toll on my gastrointestinal tract. In February of 2023, the immunotherapies caused an autoimmune disease called ulcerative colitis. I began to experience unbelievable pain, which lasted about eight weeks. My excruciating pain was from a gigantic duodenum ulcer caused by Cabometyx. The pain was so intense that it would radiate in my shoulder blades and chest. I was in so much pain I was pacing up and down the hallway of our house all day and night. My suffering was intense, but I was doing my best to put up a strong front for my family and friends. Then, I broke. 

On Thursday, March 23, 2023, I prayed desperately to God. I was angry with Him, and I let Him have it. “What the hell is this all about, God?” “What are you trying to teach me in all this suffering?” I curled up in a ball on my bed and cried out in surrender to God. I confessed that I couldn’t take the pain anymore; I couldn’t keep living in misery.

I shouted at God and demanded answers. He usually responds quickly, but this time, my mind’s eye was completely dark; my inner voice was completely silent. Then, about 18 hours later, I started vomiting large amounts of blood, and my wife called an ambulance. I was admitted to the hospital, and my initial endoscopy revealed the ulcer in my duodenum. 

While I was in the hospital, I remembered that God had spoken to me about stopping the chemo pill weeks ago, but I didn’t obey. As I lay in the hospital bed waiting for my procedure to stop the internal bleeding, I continued to wrestle with my failure to place my trust in God. I had many visitors spend time with me, including my friends Hans Huberland and Darrell Geisendorff. Immediately after they walked into the hospital room, Dr Rodriguez showed up.

Darrell and Hans left the room so I could talk with him, and he told me we had to stop chemo. We talked about a few other things, and then Dr. Rodriguez left. Darrell and Hans came back into the room, and I told them what the oncologist had just said to me. Darrell started to get choked up, and he pulled out his phone and called his wife, Courtney Darrell put the phone on speaker and asked her to tell me what God had shared with him as they were on a walk earlier that week.

Courtney said, “The Holy Spirit put it on Darrell’s heart that Justin needs to stop taking the chemo pill.” Darrell thanked her and hung up the phone, and then he confessed to me that when the Holy Spirit gave him that message, he asked God or a doctor to deliver it. Darrell told God it was not his place to deliver this kind of message.

And sure enough, at the exact time Darrell and Hans showed up to visit me in the hospital, Dr. Rodriguez arrived and delivered the news that Darrell asked God to deliver me. Dr. Rodriguez told me I had to stop taking the chemo for at least five weeks, and possibly forever. This was a convicting moment for me, but it encouraged me to simply pray and obey, and to expect for God’s power to be present in my life when I stay true to that simple formula. 

Randy Robinson also came to visit. Randy noticed when I was sharing my story about what brought me to the hospital, Jeanette (one of my nurses) was shaken. Randy asked Jeanette if there was anything we could pray for in her life. Jeanette began to cry and share with us that she lost her sister to internal bleeding when she was just a child.

Jeanette shared how she was carrying guilt from not being able to save her sister when she began to vomit blood. She also told us about having tension with her family because of it. Randy prayed for her, she began to cry, and a peace came over her. Jeanette exchanged guilt for spiritual truth from the God of goodness.

She left feeling proud of how she was living out her sister’s legacy. Jeanette shared with us how much better she felt after Randy prayed for her. It was truly an amazing experience to watch the power of God at work from my hospital bed—the Holy Spirit used Randy to heal Jeanette from what appeared to be years of spiritual and emotional trauma. 

The Holy Spirit Heals 

God’s power after a few days of waiting in the hospital, I was scheduled for the procedure to stop the internal bleeding. It took place on March 28, 2023. In this procedure, the doctor hit a main artery. This is when I had the near-death experience that I described in the near death experience blog. After all the dust settled, I was alive and stable in ICU.

Berphy later shared with me a prophetic image that she was given while I was in the critical stages of the emergency. It was an image of Jesus standing over my body and using his hands to apply pressure and stop the bleeding. While I was in recovery in ICU, my friend Duane Schlottke came by to visit and pray with me.

He shared a prophetic vision the Holy Spirit had given him. Duane saw Jesus take me from death to life, and he felt the emotions of everyone that was in the room saving my life. Duane teared up as he explained what the Holy Spirit had revealed to him. This prophetic ministry brought me strength, comfort, and encouragement when I needed it most. 

On March 31, 2023, the Holy Spirit led my friend Hans Huberland to share a Scripture with Berphy and me. It was the story of the woman with the bleeding issue in Mark 5. Like me, she had been seen by many doctors who could not heal her, and she had suffered greatly. She was healed the instant she touched Jesus’s clothes.

Jesus told her that it was her faith that healed her, to go in peace, and to have no fear. Hans encouraged me to continue to expect for God’s power to be present in my life. 

As I was confined to the hospital bed with a breathing tube down my throat, I was encouraged to obey God like never before. I spent much of this time praying for the same power that raised Christ from the dead to be present in my life. I closed my eyes and asked God to show me how He saw me. Then, I waited for Him to give me something. He gave me a vision. I saw myself walking out of the hospital, playing baseball with my boys, and taking a stroll with Blake and Berphy.

I envisioned myself living the healthy life that I was praying for. This stirred my heart with gratitude and courage. I was discharged from the hospital on April 2nd, and I embraced life with a much deeper passion. 

Faith Brings Supernatural Strength

Two months after my discharge from the hospital, the cancer came back again.  Before I discovered Freedom Prayer, I struggled a lot when receiving bad news regarding my health. After I discovered Freedom Prayer, I learned that I could meet with the God who holds the entire Universe in perfect harmony, I also learned that I could access God’s power any time I choose. I learned that those meetings are where God’s power will give your heart everything it needs to face whatever is in front of you.

When Dr. Rodriguez called me to deliver the news, I couldn’t believe that I was five times sicker than I ever had been. However, I was not consumed with fear, anxiety, or hopelessness.

Freedom Prayer had taught me how to cut through all the darkness and maintain a strong connection with God’s power. After Dr. Rodriguez called to deliver this news, I hung up the phone and went into my room. I closed the door and sat in silence just meeting with God. I asked Him to reveal Himself to me.

I closed my eyes and waited on Him to communicate something to me. He gave me an image of Jesus holding me like a loving father holds His precious child. It was filled with an “I’ve got this” kind of a feeling that comforted my heart and mind. God assured me that He was in control, that all I needed to do was pray, wait for Him to speak, and then obey. 

Freedom Prayer freed me from the boundaries of the flesh, and it allowed me to experience the power of God in the form of supernatural strength. As I prayed, I asked God to show me what he wanted me to know. God gave me an image of Jesus and I strolling down a trail together at my aunt and uncle’s ranch.

We were smiling and laughing, just strolling along talking and not worrying about anything. It reminded me that my strength comes from trusting Him, faith in God’s power is a path to the power of God. 

Freedom Prayer has the power to breath the power of God’s power back into American culture. 

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After my near-death experience, I found myself alone in my hospital bed, intubated with a breathing tube. This is when I learned that the mind and heart are some of the greatest tools that God created for our communication with Him. I realized that God had given me spiritual eyes, my mind’s eye—what I see when I close my eyes in meditation. I found that the enemy had interfered with God’s communication with me and often disguised himself to make it difficult for me to know who was speaking to me.

There are dark energies that hate God and humanity. Some religious traditions know these dark energies as dark energy or demons. I call this dark energy the enemy, the evil assaults against us are real and intentional. The enemy intends to disconnect us from God’s goodness living within us. As I learned how to meditate, it became important that I learned to recognize the voice of my Creator, the God of goodness, the Being that created the entire Universe, and then reject whatever isn’t coming from God. 

I realized that evil does not have the power to flawlessly create a peaceful and harmonious existence. The enemy twists and distorts God’s perfect Creation. My struggle with cancer revealed to me that one of the enemy’s favorite tricks was to fool me into thinking he is God, and that is why he hacked into the same means that God used to communicate with me. The enemy tried to get into my mind and heart to plant a lie that led me towards inner darkness. 

Can you imagine how the cultural landscape in America could transform if people developed the capacity to recognize what is coming from the essence of God and the rejected whatever isn’t coming from Him? I have found the best way to learn this discipline is to study Scripture and understand the character of God.

Scripture tells us His love for us is like that of a perfect, loving father. God’s communication is always life giving, consistent with Scripture, and aligned with God’s character. When we experience feelings or thoughts in our hearts or minds that conflict with God’s word and character, then we can be assured it is not God who is communicating with us, and we should reject the message. 

My own inner voice sometimes compromised my ability to recognize God’s voice in meditation. My personal will can overshadow what God is trying to show me. That is why it became important for me to ask God out loud to speak over the noise of my inner voice, to verbally surrender my will, and ask God to show me what He has for me, God spoke to me powerfully through Freedom Prayer. 

Remaining in the Holy Spirit of God

Freedom Prayer entails asking God in meditation to exchange a lie for spiritual truth. Freedom Prayer is designed to help us to forgive others, which brings healing to our inner wounds. This type of prayer guides us in confessing our own sins to God and repenting from them in a lasting way. Freedom Prayer has helped me find inner freedom and wellness in times of intense adversity. This type of connection with the Holy Spirit is a compass of joy, but it is completely ignored in American culture. 

A healthy relationship with God requires spending time and meditating with His Holy Spirit. While I was battling cancer, I saw anger present in my life. Freedom Prayer helped me see that I was believing a lie from the enemy: I believed that God had abandoned me and left me out to dry. I believed I needed to have control of my cancer situation. After my third surgery, I was in complete remission for nine months. So, my wife and I made plans to spend some time in the Florida Keys.

Immediately after we booked the trip, doctors discovered that there was new evidence of disease, and in several different places this time. I had been doing everything right—I was eating healthy, exercising, and working hard on my inner wellness. The recurrence was devastating news. Several major surgeries helped me discover that I had no control over my life, which made me very angry.

When I asked God to show me the truth about the same old lies—that God had abandoned me, I was on my own, and I must regain control—God gave me an image in my mind’s eye of Jesus holding me when I was a baby, He was holding me in His arms and rocking me like a loving parent. Father God reminded me that I was His precious child. He had always been in control, and He will always be with me. He revealed that I am a part of Him, and nothing can diminish His love for me. He taught me that I must place all my trust in Him. 

Freedom Prayer meditation helped me identify lies from the enemy and replace them with the truth from God. Freedom Prayer ministry calls this activity “Doing Kingdom Business.” When I made this spiritual exercise central to my everyday life, my anger began to fade because I addressed the problem at its roots. I still struggle with anger, but Freedom Prayer has empowered me to confront it in an effective way. 

Freedom Prayer Meditation

Many churches offer Freedom Prayer sessions for anyone seeking to go to God and discover inner freedom. In this setting the person seeking Freedom Prayer is accompanied by three prayer leaders. One person is responsible for helping the person ask God about what is bothering them and helping the person pray for freedom, the second person takes notes to give them after the session concludes, the third person is there to silently pray the enemy away and clear a path for the person to hear from God. 

Freedom Prayer Ministry sessions are strictly confidential. The prayer leaders do not talk with anyone about what comes out in a session; they promise not to even tell their spouses. The sessions are face-to-face, loving, and relational. People exercise their voice by telling their stories. Freedom Prayer leaders ask permission to touch your shoulder if they would like to pray healing over you, or to lead in prayer. Sometimes in an informal home-ministry setting, a prayer leader will even pause and make popcorn. Prayer leaders take time to stop and laugh. They understand that the person is never the problem. 

The United Creed exists to generate a movement that will clear the path for our country to cultivate a strong connection with the Holy Spirit of God. We believe this is what makes it natural for people to Be Golden (treat others the way they expect to be treated themselves). The United Creed believes Freedom Prayer should be a foundational element in the inner wellness education. I have tasted and seen that Freedom Prayer has the power to heal a person from the inside out, and I am confident that it can heal America, one person at a time. 

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Inner wellness is becoming increasingly hard for our generation to experience. The rapid rise in mental illness is a clear indicator. This article is intended to help you discover the tools you need to face lifes every day challenges. Freedom Prayer helped my wife and I discover inner peace and wellness in the face of extreme adversity. This article illustrates how Freedom Prayer leaders lead us to undo bad deals we have made and agree with God about better things: to forgive those who have sinned against us, to ask for forgiveness as we confess and repent of our own sins, to renounce lies we are believing that perpetuate inner darkness. My personal story demonstrates how we can approach each other as we help one another discover inner freedom. 

I’m just an everyday knucklehead who was born in San Angelo, Texas, in 1986, but I grew up in a small town in the Texas Hill Country called Bulverde. My parents are the backbone of who I am. They raised me in a friendly neighborhood. My brother and I spent a lot of our childhood playing with our friends out in the creek behind our house. We would build forts and paintball courses, and we played every sport imaginable. I also have many great memories about my aunt and uncle’s ranch just outside of Blanco, Texas, where we would hunt, fish, camp, and celebrate holidays. I grew up in a very loving family and community. 

Freedom From Ungodly Beliefs  

As a child and young adult, I was very focused on achievement, and I kept trying to prove myself. I believed I needed to earn love through the approval of other people. This attitude interrupted my connection with God the Father. I was much like the older brother in Jesus’s parable of the Prodigal Son as told in the Gospel of Luke 15:25-32. The older brother was convinced that he was the perfect son. He did everything “right” and believed his commitment to follow his father’s rules made him perfect. In reality, the older brother’s pride disconnected him from his father because he did not understand the nature of his father’s love. The older brother believed lies about how fathers are supposed to love their children. The older brother became jealous and angry, believing he deserved his father’s love more than his rebellious younger brother who returned home after squandering his inheritance. The father in the parable tells the older brother, “Son, you have always been with me, all that is mine is yours, but we must celebrate your brother’s return, he was lost, and now he is home.” He invites the older brother to commune with him and celebrate the return of his rebellious brother. This story is a great example for how we can approach one another as we struggle to recognize how no one can earn God’s love:  I couldn’t, the older brother couldn’t, and you can’t, either. We are all unique children of God and He loves us all the same, infinitely. 

Freedom From Entanglement

When I turned 18, I made the decision to be baptized. I was fascinated that Jesus did everything He did so that I could be free from the curse of sin and death. In high school, I was a three-sport letterman, a captain on football and basketball teams, and homecoming prince. My biceps were nice and big from patting myself on the back all the time. After graduating high school, I went to college to study business. While in college, I played rhythm guitar in a rock band with my cousins called Seventh Addition. We enjoyed some success writing songs, recording music, and playing shows around Texas. Some of our music still lives on iTunes and Spotify. We thought we were some cool dudes back in those days, but as so many of us do in college, I wasn’t participating in a Bible Study, and I wasn’t waking up for too many Sunday services. I lived a rockstar lifestyle and drifted away from God in that season of my life. 

Like the lost sheep in Luke 15:4-7, I had wandered away from the flock, perhaps through a combination of ignorance, naïve rebellion, and curiosity. I was lost and struggled to find my way back. I believed a lot of lies about myself and God. But Jesus, as the Good Shepherd, knows when a sheep is missing, and all His sheep are of great value. When one wanders off, Jesus leaves the rest and searches for the lost one, places it on His shoulders, and rejoices over it. This story is a great example of how we can approach one another as we wonder out and get entangled in shame. 

Freedom From Shame

After completing my bachelor’s in business, I dove into my career. By age 24, I had worked myself into a corporate management position. I believed that my worth was determined by my performance. I achieved my professional goals, and I was ready to start scratching off my personal goals like getting married, building my dream house, and starting a family. I was certain these achievements would increase my sense of worth. I surged forward and made sure I achieved all of it, and I was happy to brag about all I had achieved. I needed a piece of humble pie, and I was given a huge slice over the years that followed. 

God gave me my oldest son in this season of my life. I have to say becoming a father was one of the most profound experiences of my life. However, when Hudson was born, I immediately realized that I had neglected my responsibility to get right with God and myself before I got married. I had rushed it, and I wasn’t moving at God’s speed and letting the Holy Spirit guide me. I was forcing life to go the way I thought it was supposed to go. I wasn’t praying and obeying God. The marriage and divorce opened me up to some deep wounds that I would carry for years. I experienced intense pain, anger, shame, and guilt. I was trapped in a cycle of self-destruction. I would get so hurt and angry that I would intentionally try and offend my ex-wife just to get even. It is only by the power of God that Ashley and I have a healthy parenting relationship today. But during this season of life, I was recklessly pursuing pleasure. I was falling short of God’s best for me. Just like the prodigal son Character found in the Book of Luke, who had wondered off and slandered his father’s inheritance, when I turned back towards God, He came running towards me to celebrate my return and He invited me to remain in his love again. There is nothing we can do that will make God love us any less, He just asks for our heart’s resolve to be getting back to remaining in His love. This story is a great way approach one another as we help each other to get back into abiding in God’s love.

Freedom From Inner Wounding

Immediately after the divorce, I tragically and unexpectedly lost my father to suicide. I was blindsided and deeply wounded. I closely related to the parable of the lost coin in Luke 15:8-10. 

In the parable, a coin was lost through no fault of its own. The feeling of being lost was traumatic for me, and it left a wound. Lost coins end up being found in dark places. People meandered past, unwilling to pick me up. The coin in the parable must have had value, even though it was lost. It was worth something to its owner who missed it while it was gone. The owner of the coin did not toss it away because she did not love it. She lit a lamp, swept the house clean, and did not stop searching until she found the coin. She even rejoiced over it with friends and neighbors. This story is a great example for how we can approach one another with inner wounding. 

The enemy had used my inner wounds to try and make me believe that God didn’t miss me, and that the divorce happened because something was wrong with me, and that I was not worthy of God’s love. I ended up believing that I deserved to be miserable. I learned the hard way how destructive dysfunctional beliefs can be. Later in life, Freedom Prayer helped connect me to God so that He could give me exactly what my heart needed to heal what was wounded within me. In my case, I needed to work through forgiveness with my dad and my ex-wife. I needed to turn towards God and let Him bring the good out of the awful wounds that I was carrying. 

When I lost my dad, I was met with a mountain of emotions. I felt abandoned, angry, and sad. As I worked through forgiving my dad, I was overcome with empathy for the American families being impacted by the recent rise in mental illness. Freedom Prayer Ministry taught me that there is a reason for everything. Pain, sin, or demonic torment in a person’s life always has a source. It may not have been the person’s doing at all, but rather something that was done to them by someone else. Freedom Prayer is designed to get to the bad roots that continue to churn out inner darkness in our lives. Genuine forgiveness is how we experience freedom from inner trauma that was the my someone elses sin.  

There are only two causes of inner trauma. The first is damage that is inflicted onto someone by another person. These are captives who have been captured by evil forces through no fault of their own. They remain in darkness due to wounding and the resulting dysfunctional beliefs. The second cause of inner trauma is our own sin. We can be trapped in a self-made prison, believing we are doomed to repeat sinful actions, condemned by our own unforgiving hearts. I became determined to understand why my dad fell prisoner to shame. He had a great heart; he was Christ-like in so many ways. The experience of losing him left me with some big questions. Looking back, I can say the forgiveness process with my dad and my ex-wife is when I started to allow God to take his passing and my divorce and leverage these adversities toward my recovery. I began to listen for God’s calling for my life. 

Redemption

After the tragic loss of my father, God brought my wife into my life. Berphy Grisell Olvera was born and raised in Mexico. She had been a synchronized swimmer for the Mexican national team. After finishing her career as a world-class athlete, she practiced physical therapy in Guadalajara, specializing in children with special needs. She was naturalized in 2016, just months before we had our first date. She has a huge heart for people. God brought us together, and His timing was impeccable. This when I really started to understand God can use others to redeem us from darkness. I was in a dark place when Berphy found me, just like lost coin in Jesus’s parable. She cleaned me up and helped me find myself. She helped me work through forgiveness that healed my inner wounds. Forgiveness is the key to healing inner wounds. It didn’t take long for me to understand she was the person God wanted my son and I to spend our lives with. A wonderful illustration of how we can approach one another in helping each other find freedom from inner wounding. 

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Berphy and I married, bought a house, and welcomed our son Eli and our daughter Blake into the world. Just after Eli was born, I was diagnosed with advanced stage kidney cancer and given a very unfavorable prognosis. Initially, the diagnosis was collecting duct carcinoma (CDC). Almost everyone diagnosed with this cancer does not survive two years. A second opinion from one of the world’s leading cancer centers said it was not CDC; it was just something they had never seen before. I endured five major surgeries. The third surgery came weeks after our daughter Blake was born, and the fourth surgery came just before Blake turned one year old. I lost a kidney, thirty-two lymph nodes, 15% of my liver, 75% of the right side of my diaphragm, a section of my abdomen wall, a section of my large intestine, and my gallbladder. 

Berphy was very supportive. Her intuition and knowledge of medicine has been a tremendous advantage for us in our battle against cancer. However, while I was in the hospital recovering from my cancer surgeries, I had to spend much of that time in isolation due to COVID-19 restrictions. I was weak and vulnerable, and the enemy came knocking. I began to get serious about spending time with Jesus, learning the Scriptures so that I could effectively resist the lies the enemy was using to destroy me. 

Demonic energies prey upon the vulnerable. As I lay awake at night alone in the hospital, toxic thoughts would swirl in my mind: I hope my children will remember me when I am gone. I hope they will understand how much I love them. I hope my wife will be able to support them when I am gone. Dark energies are like swarming flies, but they usually leave when the trash is hauled off. 

I would close my eyes and remember Philippians 2:10, which reminds us that evil must bow down to the God of goodness. I would ask God to show me the lies I was believing. He gave me an image of me walking on the water with Jesus, and then falling under water as I lost my trust in Him. Then, He reached down to pull me out of water and bring me to safety, just as Jesus did with Peter. It was a wonderful reminder to place my trust in God, to grab hold of His hand and never let go. I had been deceived into thinking that I couldn’t trust God with my life and with my family’s lives. When God replaced that lie with the truth through the image of walking on water, my fear was replaced with faith in God. God hauled off the trash that was present in my mind. Dark energies started to lose their grip on me. 

Partners with God

I have learned God doesn’t want us to try and bear the trials of the world on our own. When life gives us way more than we feel we can handle, God wants us to turn to Him, and He will give our hearts exactly what they need to overcome the darkness. The truth is, God will often allow way more than you want to handle to come into your life. Overwhelming suffering doesn’t ask if you’re ready. It may come slow, or it may come with a vengeance. It doesn’t ask permission, and it doesn’t care about convenience. There is never a good time for your life to be wrecked, the important thing to remember is to resist turning inward, trying to carry the weight of it all on your own. The entire Bible and Freedom Prayer Ministry points us Godward, to the only place that our hearts can receive exactly what we need to overcome whatever our fallen world throws our way. 

God doesn’t cause bad things to happen to us. Overwhelming suffering will come our way because we live in a broken, fallen world filled with broken and hurting people. However, God can use these hard times and struggles for good. God is fully aware of our suffering. He sees us, He loves us, and He’s waiting for us to call on His name. That is what Freedom Prayer is designed to do, to get you to God. And I promise you this, if you do turn to God, you will come out on the other side of your adversity way better than you went in. When our strength fails under the crushing weight of our suffering, our salvation does not depend on our ability to handle the situation. We must have faith in God. Isaiah 40:29 says, “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.” Our power to thrive in adversity comes from God, and it comes to those who have faith in Him. 

Trials come in all shapes and sizes, but they don’t come to show us how much we can take on our own. They don’t come to show us that we have it all together. When hard times come, it is important to recognize that we don’t have what it takes to endure great suffering. God will allow us to go through more than we want to handle. But our suffering is never more than He can handle. Our strength comes from our faith in Him. 

Draw Near to God and He will Draw Near to You

It is important that we recognize that God will often allow us to experience overwhelming situations. But the purpose is for us to get closer to Him. The closer we get to God, the more we will become like Him. The purpose of pain is to shape us into who God created us to be. If life were always perfect, there would be no need for us to seek God. We would have no need for a relationship with Him. We are partners with God. That doesn’t mean that we don’t have to study, work, pray and think hard. But it does mean that, in the end, our resilience comes down to trusting in God and going to Him to receive precisely what our heart needs to face whatever is in front of us. 

After much time in prayer, I have concluded that God is not responsible for my misery. He is always with me to guide me towards restoration. Freedom Prayer Ministry taught me God is good. If something in life feels abundant and free, then it is probably God’s will. If something feels like stealing, killing, or destroying, it is probably from Satan. Satan has free will, and he uses it to do evil, but it is God that brings out the good in the bad choices that resulted from our freedom to choose.

I began to trust God to work through my adversity, and I gave Him my undivided attention. I would ask Him questions and then wait for Him to speak truth to the deepest part of myself. I learned that our faith in God will feed us supernatural strength to overcome any trials this fallen world may throw our way. We all struggle with our own unique adversities. Most of the time, they are hidden deep down inside, and when exposed, God unravels the darkness quickly. It is our responsibility to work with God to pull the loose thread of what is binding each of us. Freedom Prayer showed me how God can take one seemingly random loose thread and unravel a lifetime of hurts and pain.

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Raymond Moody is a physician, philosopher, psychologist, and author known for his books about life after death and near-death experiences. He is the thinker who coined the phrase “near-death experience.” In his bestselling book Life after Life (1975), Moody describes the near-death experience as a feeling of one’s soul leaving the body, experiencing the spiritual realm, and then returning to the body.

According to Dr. Moody, near-death experiences have a common pattern that have been described by people all over the world. A person undergoing serious trauma may hear someone tell them they are dead. This is a surprise to them because they’ve never felt more alive than when they hear someone tell them that their physical body is dead. From their point of view, they feel they have distanced themselves from their body, and they may even observe medical professionals trying to save their life, typically from a point of view above it. As the experience progresses, they eventually realize that they may have died. Many recall traveling through a passageway into a beautiful light; they feel comfort, peace, and joy. They may meet relatives and friends that have died. Then, everything they have done may be displayed all around them in a sort of holographic three-dimensional panorama. 

Healing American Culture

These experiences typically give people a new perspective on life. They may become deeply committed to learning how to live with love and compassion. They also say they no longer have a fear of death because they now understand that death is just a transition into some other desirable reality. 

Near-death experiences transcend culture. People in India that practice Hinduism have similar experiences as people in America who are Christian or Jewish. Dr Moody’s research suggests that religion does not characterize the near-death experience. People who go through a near-death experience generally do not describe an encounter with a hostile and domineering God; they report being in the presence of compassion and love. After a near-death experience, people say they understand that humans have a personal relationship with a higher power that is rooted in unconditional love. The strength of that Being’s love is so powerful that nothing can change it, and it is so profound that our human brains cannot even comprehend it. 

I was seconds away from dying on the operating table on March 28, 2023. I had gone in for a procedure to stop internal bleeding that my cancer treatment had caused. During the procedure, the doctor nicked a main artery. I began to hemorrhage at an uncontrollable rate. Before the crisis was over, I had been given three units of blood in the two days before my surgery, and I needed eight more units of blood for an emergency mass transfusion. My blood pressure dropped to 50/20, and I was seconds away from flatlining. The doctor told my family that there was nothing he could do for me and that I was being rushed to another area of the hospital for emergency intervention. While I did not have an out of body experience like some do when they come this close to death, my near-death experience deepened my spiritual awareness. I came away from the experience with a more profound, intimate encounter with God’s unconditional love. I can absolutely relate to that aspect of the classic near-death experience. After this experience, I feel a deeper to connection with God and receive abundant faith, hope, strength, and love from Him. I don’t encourage you to try and provoke a near death experience, but I do encourage to establish an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit. 

The Holy Spirit Unites

Dr. Moody’s work with near-death experiences demonstrates that human beings are spiritual creatures. Our spiritual nature is the only part of us that has the power to unite us. It stretches across all races, cultures, classes, ages, genders, and sexualities. Be Golden has the power to tear down the walls that have been embedded into American culture.

I was diagnosed with stage 3 kidney cancer in June of 2020. In May of 2021, it showed up on my liver. The oncologist told me it was stage 4 and very serious. In August of 2022, it appeared in several other places. My faith was shaken, and I started to consider the legacy that I would leave behind for my children. However, God brought me faith, hope, strength, and love that helped me thrive in the face of great adversity. A strong connection with God saved me from my darkest days, and the power of God has provided me with exactly what I needed to overcome the darkness. As I drew near to God, He drew near to me. 

Before my near-death experience, I believed that my illness had made me a burden to the world. I asked God in prayer to show me the truth about my illness. I asked God to show me how He sees me. He gave me an image of a deer, which symbolized my innocence. He also gave me an image of Him holding me as a toddler; He was playfully tossing me in the air just like I do with my children. The Holy Spirit reminded me of His control of the situation and reminded me that I can place all my trust in Him. I have discovered that God wants to connect with all of us at this level, but American culture has completely moved away from His desires. After my near-death experience, God showed me that praying with all my heart and mind is one of the most powerful weapons I possess in my battle against the evils of my illness and America’s political disunity.

Supernatural Strength 

In my suffering, I turned to God, and I found the faith, hope, strength, and love that I desperately needed. A strong connection with God, the essence of good, is a necessity for cultural healing, and prayer is the most effective way for us to communicate with the God of goodness. The good news is this: we all can receive Supernatural hope, love, and strength from the Being that holds the Universe in perfect harmony. The Holy Spirit is constantly trying to communicate with us through our hearts and minds. We are connected to Him through these channels, all of us are. We must take the time to listen to God. In fact, it is our responsibility. 

Help us heal American culture by reaching 100,000 members. Share Creed party on all your socials and with all your friends and family to help us reach out goal. 100,000 members is where we believe we need to be in order to effectively create the level of content needed to heal American culture from the inside out, one person at a time.

Believe it or not, God will use your adversities to bring you closer to Him. I was diagnosed with advanced stage cancer in the summer of 2020. Endured 5 major surgeries, I lost a kidney, 32 lymph nodes, 75% of my right diaphragm, 15% of my liver, a section of my large intestine, my gallbladder, and a section of my abdomen wall. I turned towards God in the midst of this adversity and came out the other side of it a far better person than I was when I went into it. As I drew near to God, He drew near to me. Two morning devotions have empowered me to thrive in the face of adversity.

Attend to God’s Words

I am inspired by Proverbs 4:20. God said, “attend to my words,” which means put God’s word first. Read it, study it, learn it, meditate on it, and act on it. That is exactly what God wants me to do! He wants me to shut out everything around me and give my undivided attention to what His word is saying to me. A Discovery Bible Study (DBS) is a great way to focus on God. DBS was developed by David L. Watson and Paul D. Watson and is used around the world. It is the most effective tool I have found to discover what the Bible is saying to me. 

I begin every day with a 15 to 30-minute Discovery Bible Study. I go to the bible study page on the CrossBridge website and read the Bible passage for the day, and then I meditate on six questions: 

What is going on in this passage? 

What does this passage say about God? 

What does it say about people? 

What is its good news? 

How would life change if people followed these teachings? 

What should I do (or avoid doing) to apply it to my life? 

After I meditate on each one of these questions, I then journal the answers that God gave me. I open my daily DBS time with a prayer like this: 

Father, guide me as I read and reflect on Your word today. I want to discern Your voice from the voice that comes from evil. Father, I acknowledge that the Holy Spirit never speaks to me in a way that contradicts the Holy Bible. I proclaim that I will reject what is coming from the enemy and that I will only receive and obey what is from You. Father, I welcome your Holy Spirit, speak to me as I study Your word today, I pray all these things in Jesus’s name, Amen. 

DBS is a critical part of my relationship with God. Understanding the word of God empowers me to reject.

Listen to God’s Sayings

God has taught me to listen to what He is saying. I don’t understand how it works, but God doesn’t require me to understand how it works. All He asks me to do is believe. I don’t understand how a lot of things work, but I know what makes it work. Faith in what God is saying makes it work. I open my ears to the word of God and turn off everything else so that my undivided attention is on what He has to say. That is where my victory lives. When I close my ears to outside things and keep my ears open to God, I close my ears to fear, doubt, and unbelief. When the word of God and what He communicates to me in my prayer time gains entrance into my heart and spirit, faith will be there. 

My faith in God’s word is the secret that unlocks the door to supernatural strength, hope, love, and comfort. We must learn to listen to what God has to say about every situation. We shouldn’t listen to what everyone else is saying, because sometimes their message can weaken us spiritually

Let God’s Word Not Depart from Your Eyes

I am to look as well as listen. When I am facing cancer, I look to the promises of God instead of looking at the circumstances.

When I consider my experience with cancer, I feel the presence of that condition. But I don’t respond to it. Instead, I look to what God has promised in Scripture. We need to respond to His word no matter what kind of circumstances we may be facing. Unfortunately, most people don’t want to respond to His word if it means they must live according to Scripture. They don’t want to take responsibility for changing their lifestyle. But there is great power in being faithful to God’s word: faithfulness in the good times prepares us to turn to God when times are hard. Don’t let God’s promises depart from before your eyes. They will give you life! 

After my DBS, I set aside another 15 minutes for Freedom Prayer. This time in meditation energizes me with unwavering faith. I cannot guide my boat by myself. I step inside the Ark; God wants to seal me inside it like Noah. I do my best to obey everything He places on my heart, and I rely completely on Him to guide me. I start with a prayer like this to help me focus: 

Father, You are the God of goodness, and I pray that You pour Your goodness over me today. Father, I admit that I am a sinner, and I tune my heart’s resolve to Your song. I want to live the way You say is best for me. Father, include me in the work You are doing today. I want to share Your goodness with others. I give You this time today because I love You, and I want to have a meaningful relationship with You. Father, show me what You want me to focus on, fill me with Your Holy Spirit, and guide me through this day. I rely completely on You. Please show me the way.

After I repeat this prayer a few times, I silently wait for God to speak to me in meditation. I ask Him to give me an image of Jesus to warm up my mind’s eye and prepare me for what He wants to share with me. I ask God the following questions: 

• Father, what about me delights You? 
• What is something I did this week that You are celebrating? 
• In what ways am I seeking to earn Your favor rather than living by grace? 
• What does my heart need to hear most right now? 
• Is there something specific You want me to do today? 
• Is there someone You would like to bless through me today? 

I never get an answer to all my questions, but I give Him time to speak to each one. My struggle with cancer does not define my entire experience with God. Sometimes, God gives me an image of a friend or family member that needs support, or He encourages me to be bold in loving my neighbor. Sometimes, God speaks through my inner voice with something to contemplate or consider, and sometimes He gives me a specific memory or song lyrics. The Holy Spirit communicates with me when I give Him my time and focus. When I start my day with God, I am prepared to experience hope, peace, joy, and comfort, and I give thanks for God’s promises. This practice has a profound impact on the rest of my day. 

Conclusion 

The solution to many of our problems is simple, but achieving it isn’t easy. The world has become an increasingly busy place, full of distractions designed to consume as much of our attention as possible. This has proven to pull society in a direction that neglects our responsibility to remain in a healthy relationship with God. It’s time we take responsibility for making our relationship with God our top priority each day. 

Help us heal American culture by reaching 100,000 members. Share Creed party on all your socials and with all your friends and family to help us reach out goal. 100,000 members is where we believe we need to be in order to effectively create the level of content needed to heal American culture from the inside out, one person at a time.