At 17, just before my senior year in high school, I began to experience extreme fatigue, severe rheumatism in my joints, and a butterfly rash across the bridge of my nose—certain indicators of an autoimmune disease called lupus. I was given medication, and it worked at the time. So I went on with my life—ignoring it. Because the medication seemed to be working, I truly didn’t have to confront it. I just took the medication as needed.
Everything changed in 2005, the year I got married. The very first morning of our honeymoon, I couldn’t even get out of the bed I was so exhausted. I hadn’t shown any signs lupus for 6 months, but now something was severely wrong! We cut our honeymoon short, and the symptoms worsened until I was completely debilitated. My body was shutting down. I experienced everything from heart and kidney failure to the inability to eat, sleep, breathe, or go to the bathroom.
I had 106 degree fevers, extreme night sweats, a severe case of shingles and numerous other infectious diseases from a weakened immune system. The round of chemotherapy I went through severely damaged my kidneys and joints. Having grown up in a Christian, Word of Faith. home, I thought I knew what to do—confession, tithing, meditation, etc. What I didn’t know was how much God loved me.Â
After a 3-week ICU stay, my husband and I began listening to Andrew Wommack, and we just had to have more! We needed to be drenched in the revelation that he was teaching. So we moved to Colorado and purposed to saturate ourselves in God’s love for us and the finished work of Jesus. Though we were only able to complete one semester of school when we arrived, we continued to stay close to the AWM family and feed on the glorious Gospel of grace!
One by one, things improved for us!
My ability to eat resumed, and I gained weight and strength—physically and spiritually. The infections stopped, and the symptoms began to fall away, one by one! My lab results continue to improve and I’m down to two medications! The Word that I learned here at Charis washed away all the self-effort. Now my confessions are from a place of victory, instead of trying to get victory! In a nutshell, I’ve come to a place of rest in the finished work of Christ.
Today, I’m healed and whole. I went through the fire but I’m showing no signs of smelling like smoke! God has shown Himself strong, and my life will never be the same after having received this revelation.
We’re now finishing our 2nd year at Charis. Our marriage is stronger than ever, our finances are multiplying like never before, and God is using us and our testimony in ways we couldn’t have even imagined.