My Testimony
I‘ve always called my testimony – ”a testimony of one of the 99”. Now don’t get me wrong, I love to hear the testimonies about the person(s) who were traveling 90 mph in the wrong direction and then, BOOM! They get spun around like they swallowed a minnow with a hook in it and Holy Spirit draws them in. My story is different, however. I didn’t run from the Lord. Sure, I’ve had my doubts and have, at times, questioned him like Job, but I’ve never tuned from him for periods of my life which is why I refer to my story as one for the 99. The 99 sheep in scripture remained with the good shepherd and did not wander, but even so, each has a testimony worth hearing because the Lord shapes and molds us all, no matter where we are currently being used.
I came to faith as a child of 10, but I did not truly understand what it meant to be a disciple of Christ Jesus. For acknowledging and saying that one follows Christ is one thing, for salvation is a free gift of God, but to truly become a disciple of Christ, to go all in for the King of kings, well, that will cost you everything. The price here is the daily death of oneself so that Christ may reign in me. This daily “taking up of my cross” to follow Christ was not fully comprehended until I was 18 years old and a freshman in college. So I refer to that as my discipleship point.
I was married at 20, a father at 21 and a graduate at 22. I didn’t even go to graduation. I had to get to work and support my family. We returned to my hometown because business there was booming. We returned to our old church, and I started teaching the youth and established a local ministry. I ran a lawn ministry that served widows and the injured in our community. It was almost always me and a handful of teenagers every weekend – a great time to pour into their lives the values of hard work, treating your neighbor as yourself, praying for those in need and sometimes, just sometimes, all someone needs to brighten their day is to talk to you just a bit or have their cold lemonade accepted with a great big smile and a “thank you ma’am”!
We ended up moving once I landed a job that would build into a career. I found not a single soul in the church willing to take over the ministry so it closed. My heart broke for those that I had to abandon to find other help. A new town and a new church. My wife and I decided to foster kiddos and did that for a good number of years until my pain became too great and the stress of the ministry was too much. You see at this point I had been suffering from chronic & crippling bi-lateral testicular pain for 15 or so years (since just before I turned 16 yo). It took 20 years before we finally found out it was from chronic Lymes Disease. The Lyme Disease was treated, but the pain remained as the nerve damage could not be reversed. After almost 30 years of having chronic Lymes Disease, the treatment of the disease alone took another 3 years and by the time it was done the pain had become so bad that I was in-and-out of a wheelchair for over a year. At this point no pain meds could touch the pain. Not even the maximum dose of fentanyl. I averaged just under 2 hours of sleep per night. My sleeping patterns usually consisted of 2 nights of sleeplessness and then I would finally pass out the third night for about 6 hours. The physical, mental and emotional stress finally made its way to my heart and it began to fail. My blood pressure was so bad that I would get migraine headaches, and I never got headaches. I could no longer keep a constant train of thought going, no matter how many walls I erected to keep the pain at bay. I developed a brain fog and a loss of short-term memory. In the end, I lost my career and all the savings that I had put away. I ended up housebound and broke with my wife, my rock, who put up with it all, now supporting the family. Praise the Lord that I was allowed to keep the two things that are most important through all this mess, my faith and my family.
It ended up being 30 years exactly, from summer to summer, before the Lord saw fit to release me from that prison of crippling pain. Praise be his name!!! And then, just 3 months after being released from what I now call my “Job moment”, the doctors found two masses in my right lung. I was not bitter at all because the Lord had begun to instruct me regularly after unshackling me. He gave me understanding and revelation on the purpose of those 30 years – which, in Hebrew, is exactly what Solomon requested of the Lord when he was placed in the leadership mantle of King. He has given me work to do while I am in a state of rest, awaiting his timing to take the next step. Oh, the lumps in my lung… they were also healed. When I went back after 3 months to see if they had grown, there was no sign of them at all. Praise his Holy Name!
Now, my friends, I am starting a business that was inspired by seeking to heal myself and my family of our ailments through herbal and holistic means instead of western medicine, which in our experience only masks the symptoms of the problems, and of course prayer because the Lord has shown me over and over how his children can be set free through prayer. My prayer life has deepened so that I have become a prayer warrior. I honestly didn’t know that this was even possible before – to be an intercessor for so many. It seems there are healings, miracles and answered prayers on a monthly basis, if not weekly. There is more for me to do here. So much for which I am thankful. God is good, all the time, even in those dark and solitary moments when you cannot hear his voice… he is there.
All that said, being one of the 99 can be a rough ride. However, the Lord has shown me that it was necessary. This ‘Job moment’ has prepared me for the journey ahead. And I am just giddy to see how his hand will manifest next.
May the Lord’s blessing be upon you!
Thomas Storey