A combination of God’s healing grace and Presence, liberating truth from God’s Word, sun and warmth for the bbq breakfast on the beach, warm fellowship and excellent hospitality meant we were truly blessed at our Encounter Weekend in September, at Nicholaston House. God met with us!
We thought, taught, talked and prayed about how shame affects our lives and ties us into false identities of who we are, masking or stripping away the person God created us to be. As we confronted these difficult issues, God broke through , healing years even decades of emotional and mental pain for some folk. Some experienced it at the weekend. Others realised the extent of what God had healed and the freedom He has released them into, only after they returned to their everyday routines.
Some testimonies show what God was up to!
K: Straight after we did all those prayers, Jesus walked with me through my life as a child. He was with me and I saw him with me in every incident where I felt totally rejected, unaccepted, unwanted, ridiculed and unloved. There were so many of them, it becomes a state of being, so that everything is always coloured in that way…even times when it was never mean to be. But this time, as Jesus and I went through my childhood, I felt loved and accepted and it was beautiful. Jesus rewrote my whole history for me – with me – as accepted and loved, in every single moment with every member of my family and moment of my childhood. It was very lovely. … I’ve always felt like my skin was being whipped when people accused me, criticised me or said evil things against me. Now I know that I don’t have to take the whipping. Jesus took it for me. (Jesus was whipped by Pontius Pilate before being crucified. The prophet Isaiah, 600 years earlier said, “by his stripes we are healed”).
D: It has been a weekend of tears and laughter and God has done some amazing things. I’m going home feeling free and excited about what God is going to do with me next.
H spoke of God rolling away years of isolation and bitterness and being reconnected into His love.
Others found beauty, refreshing, strengthening and fresh hope as God met with us.
Thank you to everyone who joined us and made this such a special time. Thank you to the Lord for His Presence, that made ALL the difference!
Breakfast on the Beach Diary 