Chalisa’s Story of Healing
Well in 2013, I was diagnosed with stage IV Ovarian Cancer and I was told that I would not live past 18 months. But once I got over the shock, what was said may have been the facts but, I refused to accept that as the truth. In Revival Fellowship Church we are taught to have Faith in God. At that point I had been under Pastor Troy’s teaching for about 4 years and I absolutely knew that if I trusted my loving heavenly Father, he would heal me.
I did not want others to display pity for me so Jamar and I only confided in the Pastors. Jamar and I fasted, prayed and sowed seed and our Pastors held us up interceding for our physical and spiritual weaknesses. We did as we were trained at our church and found comfort and faith through the Word of God like never before. Six (6) months after my diagnosis and with absolutely no conventional treatment at all, my doctors where unable to find any trace of cancer in my body and I was healed!! All glory belongs to our loving heavenly father. When I received the results from my doctor, I cried and shared it with Jamar. His response was, “We already knew that you were healed!”
Since coming into this loving intimate relationship with God through his son Jesus Christ as a part of Revival Fellowship Church, we are continuously amazed by God’s grace, love, and forgiveness. We are more and more excited each day as he continues to lead and guide us towards what he considers “true success”. We are learning daily, how to live the only life that really satisfies—— a life that is covered by the blood of Jesus!
Their Stories of Salvation
As long as I can remember, God was there—in some way. I recall my grandmother and my aunt went to church faithfully and my husband Jamar—-he grew up in church.
Because examples of others were in our forefront, and these people were there for us spiritually, as well, we both believed, “Hey, we were “good” people. To those who knew us, we were helpful, joyful and definitely accomplished! I truly enjoyed the attention, the praise and the appearance of success that I publicly portrayed and embodied. Yet those feelings of happiness and satisfaction never lasted behind closed doors. My husband Jamar can openly tell you that he too was a deeply private person who in direct contrast to myself, rarely sought out any kind of attention because of his sins, flaws and weaknesses (imperfection in the face of “religion”) .
For both of us, despite how many material things we had, regardless of how many people called us friend or how many outward achievements we had accomplished, there always seemed to be a deep-seated emptiness and rather hollow feeling inside that we just could not fill no matter what we did. (We now understand that all people have this feeling without God but we keep doing and running and hiding to avoid giving attention to it). Of course Jamar’s mother was always telling him about ‘church’ and ‘Jesus’ trying to help him to realize that he needed God. That is how you may be. You think I know about that already and we don’t really take God seriously.
Some of us who grew up in church take God for granted when we really don’t even have a real relationship with him. We think we know when we really don’t know anything! Yet, life was not working and we did not want to take forever to figure that out. As Jamar was watching the lack of ‘real joy’ in others lives… including people that he knew, friends that he knew as well as his own, he begin to realize that Jesus and ‘knowing God’ was in fact, the missing link in his life!! As we begin to come to Revival Fellowship Church and listen to our Pastors, we begin to ‘come to our senses.’ What an “aha” moment and turning point for the better for him as well as myself.
Subsequently, Jamar and I were in conversation and he invited me to come to Revival Fellowship Church. Pastor Troy’s message felt like it was just for me. I wondered, how could this man know these things about me, he’s not in my house or in my heart for that matter. Later I came to understand that God knows us and knows what we need to hear to help us along the way. The messages you hear when you come to Revival Fellowship Church (RFC) are inspired by God and not some written concoction of man’s opinions and emotionally charged ideas. I was listening and I allowed God to deal with my heart.
I felt compiled to accept Jesus Christ into my heart ‘for real’ and as I was discipled and mentored, I got to know him more and more. We have learned that when God is speaking to your heart—flow with him. He loves us. In RFC we are not ashamed or prideful to allow any person or other’s cause us to miss God’s goodness in our lives! Jamar also rededicated his life ‘for real’ to God as well. We have come to know and are still learning at RFC what it really means to be ‘truly satisfied’. We are developing intimacy with God through Jesus Christ. It is ‘real’! I would never tell anyone that this transformation was overnight or that there weren’t some tough days. Yet during those times, we found strength through being a part of our church community at Revival Fellowship Church. Also, the pastors treated us like their own children, and the members welcomed us in as if we had always been. We instantly became a part of our church family. The love and encouragement was genuine.
Both Jamar and I know that it was not until we came to know Christ intimately that we begin to feel fulfilled and to grow to really enjoy life. We now have a great sense of purpose and significance that is bigger and greater then we could have ever imagined on our own. In 2014 Jamar and I married and God being a part of our relationship has made all the difference to having a loving and purpose driven family.