The Godly and Their Stories / Featuring Yony

Monday, September 9

Today I'm bringing you another radical story of transformation from a young man named Yony. The Gospel of reconciliation in Christ is powerful, and his story of redemption is moving.


Born into a Christian family, I was raised like any other Christian child would be raised. I loved going to church and singing songs about Jesus, but the religious spirit was very strong in my home and distorted my view of the Lord. I was taught that I must obey God if I wanted to go to Heaven, I must love others, and I must stay pure. Through these “must’s,” I began to see God as a distant, non-loving, and even mean Creator. I didn’t want to disobey Him for fear of going to Hell. I remember seeing angels and things in the Spirit at a young age but would be told that I was lying and it was all in my imagination, so I began to suppress my gifts.

When I moved to the United States at the age of six, I began to see how easily it was to “bend” the rules. I witnessed many other kids breaking these rules, and it seemed like they were having “fun”. Through my adolescent/pre-teen years, I began to envy these kids because of the freedom they had; they seemed to be happy, when they broke the rules.

The enemy lied to me constantly about my identity. From a young age, I struggled with feeling accepted, due to the fact that my father moved to the United States when I was born to support my family (five years later my mother and I moved to the U.S. to be with him). I felt abandoned and struggled with trusting men and was bitter against my father. I struggled with same sex attraction, but I didn’t really understand it or act on it till my senior year in high school. The enemy attacked my identity the hardest that year and I fell away from the church completely. I dated my best guy friend at the time from January 2011-July 2011.

In the end of June of 2011 the Lord began to woo my heart. Even as I’m writing this right now I’m weeping just remembering the way He began showing me His love. To this day, when I look back on that glorious day, when this Man from Nazareth came and set me free, I burn with love and adoration. I was driving to my partners house to live out the passions of my flesh as I had been doing for the past month, but something happened that morning on that last week of June two years ago that changed everything. A Man clothed in a white robe, appeared in my truck in the passenger’s seat. I knew immediately who it was, because my heart began to burn and I couldn't look at Him. He was holy and I was not, He was beautiful and righteous and I was depraved and wicked. I arrived at my boyfriend’s house and something was different. I couldn't be with him. I became confused and distraught. Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, would show up with His tangible presence every day, at random times, and shower me with love. I was so confused and broken. I could not understand how this perfect Man would want me and desire me. I thought He would never want me because of my struggles. I broke things off with the guy I had been dating. I secluded myself from most of my friends. I could not handle it. There was a war going on in my soul. Jesus began to show me that He was the only one that could satisfy my heart. He told me in one of the encounters that we had together, “I am the only man that will have your heart.” He was so tender with me and so loving, it broke me. I began college and got plugged into the most loving and encouraging community. This Man from Nazareth began to woo and draw my heart with His loving, kindness unto repentance, and I placed my faith in Him. I can't lie to you and tell you that I became straight and left this lifestyle I had been in bondage to for years in a day. But I can tell you that in a moment Jesus loved me more than any other lover could in a lifetime.

In a moment I was forever changed. I was blind, but now I see. So this is my story. The Lamb of God has conquered over sin and death. Through His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus Christ made a way for me; He became my righteousness, He became my King.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. -Romans 3:23-26

Indeed I now count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Hallelujah, the Lamb has loved me.


1 comments:

  1. This is a beautiful testimony! Praise the Lord for his great power and love.

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