My name is April and I am from North Carolina. I want to share my testimony in order to help encourage others who might need encouragement. I have been married for eight years and was trying to conceive for seven of those years. Throughout all of those years, doctors couldn't tell me why I couldn't conceive. I have always had irregular cycles since I was 13 years old, but could never understand why. When I was 15 years old, my pediatrician told my mom that I would never have children, and if I did, I would have difficulty. (Always remember there is life and death in the power of your tongue). So not only was I fighting against the curse, I was fighting against the confusion in my head as to why I couldn't have a baby.
I felt horrible, sad, less of a woman and felt like I had let my husband down. I would celebrate everyone else's pregnancy outwardly, but inwardly I would cry and ask God, "What about me?" My husband and I had so much love to give and we wanted to have a baby so we could share that love. I felt like I was being punished. We would receive prophesy after prophesy, but still no baby. I was over the prophesies...lol. But then I found Nerida Walker online and started reading through her website and book, "God's Plan for Pregnancy". We took scriptures from her site and posted them in our bathroom.
One of the scriptures was Exodus 23:25-26 which states, "Worship the Lord your God, and his blessings will be on your food and water. I will take sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span."
Every morning, we would meditate and read out loud faithfully God's Promises and we would declare healing over my body. In October 2011, we went to a conception specialist and the doctor diagnosed me with PCOS. The doctor also diagnosed my husband with low sperm count. The doctor stated this the PCOS and low sperm count were the reasons we couldn't conceive. The doctor offered ways to conceive and procedures we could get done. After receiving all of that information, my husband and I decided that we were just going to rest and wait on God. We put our faith in God's healing and continued to read out loud, in faith, scriptures daily.
On Christmas Eve 2011, I was feeling very weird and decided to take a test, and low and behold it was POSITIVE! My husband and I now have a beautiful baby girl named Lydia who just turned one! I pray this testimony will encourage those who believe God for their own family.
---April
I love this testimony for so many reasons! April struggled with the "why's" that so many of us ask ourselves and ask God every day. "Why her?" "Why not me?" But she didn't let her doubts, fears, and worries stop her from believing that God wanted her healed and to be fruitful.
Hebrews 4:14 and Hebrews 10:23 both state that we must hold fast (or firmly) to the confession of our faith in Jesus. When we hold fast (or firmly) to something, it indicates that something or someone is trying to take it away from us. Satan will try to steal the confession of your faith by putting wrong thoughts in your mind, hoping the thoughts will produce wrong words that will come out of your mouth. He is also wanting to poke out your "spiritual eyes" so that all you can see is your natural circumstances. But 2 Corinthians 4:18 says that we must "fix our eyes on not what is seen, but what is unseen." The devil knows that if he can get you to focus only on your natural circumstances then you will let go of your faith and therefore not live a victorious life and see what you are hoping for manifest.
But how do you "hold fast the confession of your faith" when we live in a world that lives by our five natural senses (see, hear, taste, touch and smell)?
1. You ignore (not to confused with deny)
Your mind empowers what it focuses on.
To ignore something means you REFUSE to regard something or someone as important or you refuse to pay attention to.
April ignored the facts and the doctors diagnosis. She didn't deny them but she ignored them. She didn't focus on the facts of the situation...she didn't give them more attention than what they deserved.
Jesus even shows us in the Bible the importance of ignoring the facts of our situation in order to overcome doubt and unbelief. In Mark 5 starting in verse 21 it tells of the story where Jesus heals a bleeding woman and restores a young girl back to life. Jarius, a synagogue ruler found Jesus and fell at his feet telling him that his daughter was dying. He asked that Jesus come with him and lay hands on her so that she may be healed. Jesus agreed and while on the way to Jarius' house, a woman with the issue of blood touched His cloak and she was healed immediately. Jesus stopped to talk to this woman but while he was talking to her, some men came out of Jarius' house and said to Jarius, "Your daughter is dead. Why bother the teacher any more?" Verse 36 then goes on to say, "Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, "Don't be afraid (don''t doubt); just believe."
As you can see, even Jesus ignored the news of the little girl dying. Jesus did not give any attention to the news and He instructed Jarius to also ignore and "just believe". Jesus knew that if He or Jarius gave attention or focused on the facts of the situation then the thoughts and feelings would take over. Jesus needed Jarius to "see the unseen" and not was staring at him in the natural. Miracles take place in the "unseen" world before you ever see them in the "seen" world.
I believe that sometimes, "less is more". The more facts you know, the more tests you have done, and the more you know about a situation, then the more you will reason why God's Word will not work or how your circumstances will be "too hard" to overcome.
2. You fix your eyes on Jesus
Whenever Satan is trying to get you to let go of your faith you must always fix your eyes on Jesus because he is the author and perfecter of your faith. Remind yourself what Jesus said on the cross, "It is finished!" He has taken all your sins and healed you of all your sickness and diseases now.
Also, forget His unfailing love for you.
3. You embrace and attach yourself to God's Promises
When you embrace or attach yourself to something or someone you hold onto them tight! You are close and there is little room for anything else to creep in. Fear, worry, anxiety, doubt, and confusion can not wiggle their way in between and pull you from the promises of God if you embrace/attach yourself to them.
April embraced and attached herself to the promises of God. She started out believing in God and Satan got nervous, so he started trying to poke out her "spiritual eyes" by showing her "evidence" from the doctor's report as to why she couldn't have children. But she didn't let her circumstances cause her to waver or let go of her embrace or attachment to the promises of God.
My pastor once said in a sermon, "You don't try faith. You attach yourself to it and you don't let go!" I encourage you today to embrace and attach yourself to the promises of God. Don't let go when Satan parades the "evidence" in front of you. Hold firmly and remember that God is faithful and all of His promises are "yes" and "amen". Keep holding on!
4. You speak God's Word in faith
2 Corinthians 4:13 says, "For it is written; "I believed; therefore I have spoken." God's Word is alive, active and POWERFUL and when you believe it, without doubting that it is truth, it can change any circumstance that you face today. But the key is you must believe His Word and promises are 100% truth. You can't just know the word and speak the word and then expect to see results. You must mix the word with your faith. For example, you can't just take seeds and throw them up in the air and hope that they will produce a good crop. This same principal applies to speaking the Word of God. You can't just take scripture and throw it at your circumstance without faith and expect to see the results that you are hoping for. Faith believes before it receives. You must believe that what you are speaking is 100% truth.
April believed in God's Word and put her faith into action by speaking it out loud daily. She took God's Word and applied it to her situation on a daily basis just like a person would take medicine on a daily basis to get well. Proverbs 4:20-22 says, "My son, pay attention to what I say, listen closely to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to a man's whole body."
When you speak God's Word, it becomes a two-edged sword. One edge defeats the enemy (cuts his guts out) and the other edge opens the blessings of heaven. Speaking God's Word also keeps your mind on God--therefore keeping your embrace on His goodness and His promises.
5. You have discipline
We all LOVE the promises but we hate the process. Renewing your mind in order to not let your natural circumstances dictate your beliefs and let go of your faith can be work. We live in a world where we go by our five senses. But you must be diligent and disciplined to keep renewing your mind daily and getting rid of every thought and word that is not of God.
Joshua 1:8 says, "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful."
April was faithful to speak and think about God's goodness and His promises daily...it was her medicine for infertility. If a doctor told you to take medicine every day until you were healed you would take it right? The Bible says that God's Word will bring health (medicine) to a man's whole body. So why do we find ourselves putting more trust in man than we do God? Putting your trust in God will bring blessings upon blessings. Just look at the verse below...
Jeremiah 17:5-8 says, "This is what the Lord says, "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; it's leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."
I encourage you to mediate (think, ponder, speak) on this scripture.
Getting past your natural circumstances and solely believing in God's Word takes time because when you first learn the truths of your circumstance based upon God's Word, the truths can seem much smaller than the facts in the natural realm.
God's Word is seed and when you first plant that seed in your heart it is smaller than all of the other seeds that Satan has planted (your negative thoughts, diagnosis, symptoms, etc). If you want to see God's Word have power in your life then you will have to pay special attention to it in the beginning stages in order to keep it from being snatched away by Satan or dying from your own lack of care. You must nurture it, feed it, and focus on it until it matures. It takes WORK and it takes TIME. But it is worth it in the end!
When i first planted my begonias in the flower pots in May I had to water them twice a day, pull the weeds, and clean off the brown leaves daily. It was time consuming and sometimes I flat out did not want to do it. But as they got bigger and matured, I noticed there were fewer weeds and I was able to stand back and enjoy how big and beautiful they had become. This is the same with God's Word. When you first plant them into your heart you MUST pay special attention to them but once they become bigger than the weeds that Satan planted then you wont have to guard them and nurture them as much. You can then just start enjoying the fruits :)
Matthew 7:24 -27 says, "Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had it's foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
Notice that the storm came to both of the men but the difference was however, the man who had built his house on the rock, who listened to God's Word, and put it into practice was the one whose house was still standing after the storm had passed. You must be disciplined to put God's Word in your heart so that when the storms of life come, you wont be shaken to let go of your faith.
April spoke God's Word daily and so must you. Speaking it "every once in a while" won't give you victory. But when you are relentless and speak the word faithfully, then you will see amazing results in due time. Don't merely do what is right for a short while and then give up if you don't see a quick result. Remember, faith believes before it receives. Do what is right over and over again, believing that your healing has manifested in the "unseen" (spiritual realm) and soon you will see your healing manifest in the natural.
I hope this has encouraged you to "hold fast (firmly) to the confession of you faith" and not let Satan poke out your "spiritual" eyes when he parades your "evidence" in front of you. It is imperative that you focus on God and not on the your problems. Be diligent and discipline yourself to speak God's Word over your life every day just like you would take medicine each morning. Renew your mind daily with scriptures related to your situation until the truths of God's Word are much bigger than the facts in your life.
If you need scriptures related to ANY problem or circumstance you are facing today, let me know and I will help you in this area.
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