The Power of Jesus' Shed Blood
Ann gave permission to use her testimony of God's deliverance from an impure lifestyle. "In 2006, I re-entered the gay lifestyle. What irony! Gay is supposed to mean happy, but I was miserable. I knew better, I knew this is not what God intended for my life, but I was beyond frustrated. I had suffered from depression for years, but this was the darkest and lowest I had ever reached.
"I remember going to work one morning and saw signs posted all over the city lying about homosexuality, trying to say that it was okay. In my spirit, I was grieved deeply but I couldn't figure out why. I was living the gay lifestyle and trying to justify it, and yet, I knew it was wrong.
"I scratched down the verses I heard quoted with the intention of later going to my Bible and disproving them, if to no one else, but myself.
"The next morning, I awoke with the words, 'Why put a question mark where God put a period?' going through my mind. I was amazed since I had pushed God away for months.
"I got up and went to my Bible and there "happened" to be a pen in 1 Corinthians and these verses were highlighted!
"'Don't you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don't fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people - none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ."
It was in that moment in 2007 that I finally died to me. God is redeeming me daily, loving me daily. There is no greater love - no greater joy than this! I was bought with a price, the ultimate sacrifice, the blood of Jesus Christ.
"How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!" (Hebrews 9:14).
