A vessel that begins to shine

July 19, 2023

"In the past, I used alcohol and drugs to try to fill the emptiness in my heart, but I was never satisfied." Kyle from the United States said to a group of high school students in the school auditorium.

"For the past twenty-seven years, I have been a living dead, born in sin, dead in sin, became a slave to sin, completely powerless to save myself..." Kyle recalled the ridiculous years in the past. "Not only that, I even became someone I didn't even know myself; stealing, lying, and being a homeless person, all my family and friends abandoned me, and I became homeless on the streets that no one would even care about me dying!" He said while chewing gum, trying to hide the tension in his heart.

"I was born in North Carolina, the United States, and I was the only child in my family. I have a father who had been working hard. I know my parents loved me very much. They helped me pay all my school fees, but I was more eager to get their attention and approval." Kyle shared that he came from a happy and well-resourced family. "My father often traveled on business trips because of work. When I was growing up as a teenager, in order to gain the approval of my peers, I started smoking marijuana. Therefore, I was in a state of anxiety for a long time. The doctor had to prescribe me anti-anxiety and drugs to overcome insomnia." He recalled the initial moments when he first consumed drugs and medicine, "After a car accident, I began to fall into opium, heroin...all kinds of drugs. Drugs can allow me to escape the reality that I need to face in the plight of life, but the deeper and deeper I fell into drugs, my heart constantly desires to seek the exit of my life!" The students of Samoa High School in the audience listened intently with widened eyes.

"After a serious incident of conflict with my parents, I was kicked out of the house, and my life began to move to different friends' houses one after another, and even ended up being kicked out by my friend's family, and I couldn't find a place to stay." Kyle was in such a helpless situation. "Finally, I called my aunt, and she asked the pastor to drive me to a drug rehab center. At that time, the pastor didn't specifically preach the gospel to me. His great care for me at that time made me think that one day I would also like to give my life to Jesus as he did." A warm smile appeared on Kyle's face.

"I was in rehab for two days, and after I left, I bought more drugs instead." The prison of sin still gripped his life tightly. "For several months, I slept in the car and took drugs day and night. At that time, I didn't care about anyone or anything. My only desire was to take more drugs..." But in order to get more drugs, Kyle needed more money, so he decided to use the trick of "baptism" to make his parents feel at ease and willing to let him go home so that he can get money from his house…

"I was bound by drugs, and I couldn't extricate myself!" Kyle said that he was so helpless at that time. Was that "baptism" really useful to let him get more money to buy drugs? Or could a miracle really happen?

"I didn't expect that after being baptized, for the first time in my life, I felt my emotions that had been numb by drugs and was awakened by the Holy Spirit!" Kyle was overwhelmed by unprecedented guilt, and he shouted to God: "God! If You can save me and deliver me from these troubles, I will serve You with all my heart for the rest of my life."

At that moment, the heavy chains on Kyle's life that had been bound by drugs for a long time, God came personally to loosen for him.

He eventually moved back home to live with his parents and began to work seriously, spending a year and a half in a recovery center for drug treatment, keeping Kyle completely out of the confines of drugs. However, Satan's claws have not let him go since then, and the emptiness in his heart was captured by another "success of life" religion.

Although Kyle had already believed in the Lord, he hadn't started to study the Bible seriously at that time, and he hadn't really established a real relationship with God. He only wants to create his own success to make up for the failure of the past period of time. Kyle began to read a lot of books on success and making money and unknowingly fell into another new snare set by Satan.

"I have already started to go to church, but I want to make money to become a successful person. I started to read a lot of books in the "new age movement "，hoping to help me earn the money I desire, which is mammon." Kyle continued.

"I watched all kinds of TV shows about witch hunting, meditation, supernatural powers, etc., but I didn't expect these shows to cause me insomnia, and the stress of life and work made me feel anxious. One day, a strange thing happened in my apartment." A chilling look ran across his face.

"A 1.5-meter-high evil spirit wearing a cloak and holding a sickle appeared beside my bed, pointing at me with its teeth and claws. I was really frightened for a moment..." Kyle reproduced the scene he saw with his eyes at that time, and many people were frightened by the realistic scene...

"The first reaction at the time was to buy a lot of crosses and place them in every corner of the room. I thought it was a way to protect me." Kyle thought of using crosses to protect him after facing evil spirits. "After I calmed down, I thought in my heart that if evil spirits really exist, then angels must also be real, and God must be real!" After thinking about this, he immediately turned on his phone to search for churches nearby, and it happened that there is a church not far from the apartment. "I showed up at that church that week and started attending its services. I tried to focus and participated in the whole worship process, but I couldn't adapt easily at the time. In fact, I still haven't started reading the Bible, nor have I established a personal intimate relationship with God." Kyle's eyes with a little remorse in his heart, he truly realized that if the emptiness in life is not satisfied by God, it is really easy for people to be plundered by Satan.

"God's word is alive and effective." The preaching pastor said that on the pulpit that day. When I got home at night, I wanted to test whether what the pastor said was true and found the Bible that had been at home for a long time, covered in dust. The Bible belonged to my grandfather. I told God if what the pastor said is true, wherever I point my finger is what He wants to say to me. Open the Bible, and the first scripture that I saw - "Jesus said to them: Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." (Mark 1:17)

"God's words completely captured my heart. I don't quite remember what scriptures I read at that time. I only remembered that I was reading the Bible and crying constantly that night. What I read that night was the truth that I have been looking for for a long time. Since then, my life began to turn around." Kyle looked for the source of light, and finally walked out of the long dark cave, and saw the new world that God promised him, and he became a vessel that God began to use.

The full name of the protagonist in this story is Robert Kyle Nelson, who is now the Crossroads leader of the Kona base of the YWAM (Youth With A Mission), and he is also the leader of the Samoa short-term missions team. In the journey of ministry in the face of global missions, he began to become a vessel used by God.

Send a email to Pastor Patricia Wu If you are having problems in your life.>>>patriciawu3927@gmail.com