Testimony 4 A summary (Claudette Howell)
A Summary of my Testimony – Claudette Howell
The purpose of testing is to have a testimony, which is a story to tell of the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. I am alive because of my Living God. May my testimony bring the reality of God alive within the lives of those who hear it and in those who need to be encouraged to keep trusting and believing our Father God for His promises in their lives. Keep trusting God. Keep walking by faith and not by sight. Never mind the facts. Focus on the Truth!!! Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is our ‘Way Maker, Miracle Worker and Light in the darkness’.
Jesus said: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” John 14 v 6
I BELIEVE HIM!!!
TESTIMONY (11.11.19)
Jesus the same, yesterday, today, and forever. I know this truth for myself. A person with a testimony is never at the mercy of a person with a mere argument. I know in whom I have believed, do believe, and will continue to believe. So far, this year I have been on an incredibly exciting journey of faith with my Father God in the Valley of Blessing (2 Chronicles 20 v 26). Everyday my confidence, my trust, my joy, and my faith in our Father God just gets sweeter than the day before. It just gets stronger and stronger.
Why? I keep confessing over my life that “The joy of the Lord is my strength” Nehemiah 8 v 10.
Last December (2018) the first doctor told me I had strained muscles in my back. I knew he was wrong because it was not getting any better, even though I was praying with my prayer partners. We are a three stranded chord.
“A three stranded chord is not easily broken.” Ecclesiastes 4 v 12
I kept saying it was not a strain and that we should keep praying. A second opinion from a different doctor in the middle of January 2019 confirmed that my spine was fractured. I gave our Father God thanks because now I knew why my back was in excruciating pain and why I was struggling to walk – but that was not the answer either.
Through very, dramatic events of the day, I was admitted to Queens Medical Centre hospital on 3rd February 2019. I was so ill from the cocktail of medication that I had been prescribed for the pain in my back. I was even vomiting up water. I was totally dehydrated.
Diagnosis? AKF! Acute kidney failure!
They say that it always comes in twos and threes. So that’s a fractured back and acute kidney failure. We were still praying but I knew it was not any of those. I was still waiting for an answer.
On 4th February 2019 I was moved to a different ward and told I had cancer. I gave my Father God thanks because I knew that He had finally answered my prayers. Always, always, always stay persistent in prayer until you know that Father God has answered your prayers. I now knew the area of my health I needed to pray about and stand firm in my confidence and trust Him who is the same yesterday, today and forever.
I was not angry or frightened about the situation. I have never asked “Why me?” I asked Father God that if He did not heal me instantly that He would walk with me through this time of testing and this valley experience so that His Name would be glorified. I also asked Father God to keep ‘Job’s friends’ (Job 4 – 23) from my bed and the threshold of my home. I asked Father God to bring me a small circle of people with unshakable faith who would stand with me in faith no matter what their eyes were telling them. God heard my prayers. It has given me such pleasure to know that my testimony is already their testimony as we walked this journey together. It has been a privilege to see Him powerfully impact so many lives (including my own) on this journey through the Valley of Blessing (2 Chronicles 20 v 26).
I made Father God my focus, not cancer! God never lost His position of FIRST!
My small group prayed that God would send me the best transport. He did!! An ambulance plastered with the word ELITE was waiting me.
On 4th February 2019 I was transferred to Haematology – City Hospital. I was able to witness to the two man crew as we travelled and before they left my ward I held out my hands as I laid in my bed not knowing the future but feeling very confident about it anyway. They each placed a hand in mine, and I prayed for them and blessed them in the Name of Jesus. I had never done anything like it before and there was a most profound and powerful move of the Holy Spirit. It was then that I had a remarkable revelation. When would I ever get an opportunity to share the Gospel or a word of encouragement with staff that work within the emergency services? Never! Because they are working! I knew then that God had already began answering my prayer and that all the glory and all the honour would return to Him. When you ask God for opportunities, He opens doors for opportunities to happen.
As soon as my prayer partners - Doreen and Shirley, came to see me. I told them “Nothing’s changed. We keep praying.”
Up until the middle of January (due to the growing pain and disability in my fractured spine) I would join my prayer partners walking Trent Bridge, the Embankment and further afield praying for the City, for the country and for revival on a weekly and bi-weekly basis. “A three stranded chord is not easily broken” – Ecclesiastes 4 v 12. I was not about to let cancer get in the way of our assignment of prayer or to fracture our unity. “Nothing’s changed. We keep praying”. Doreen and Shirley would continue to walk and pray, and I would lie in my hospital bed and pray.
When I asked the consultants for my prognosis, they did not look like they wanted to tell me. When you tell me what I need to know I will not be ignorant. I will be informed and equipped in what I pray and how I pray. I was told among many things that my Myeloma protein level was 62. When I asked what would be typical, I was told 11. I will be honest. I did do a silent gulp and then committed my deliverance to the Lord. NOTHING is impossible with God! With Doreen and Shirley by my side I said that we would pray and that it would go down the next day. It had dropped more than 20 points the next day.
Throughout my treatment I have continued to pray with and for so many people at home and abroad. God has faithfully allowed us to have seen and heard some miraculous testimonies of healings and of people growing in faith. Throughout my treatment so many people have prayed for me locally, nationally, and internationally. I particularly want to thank a group of children in a small church in Melton Mowbray whom I have never met for steadfastly praying for me. Thank you, Father God, and bless those children.
In one of his Psalms, King David said: “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life…” Psalm 23 v 6
What did that verse mean to me?
Surely – without question, without a doubt, its guaranteed because God said it.
Goodness and mercy – like two angels bring God’s favour and grace.
Will follow me – will pursue me, chase after me, hunt me down to bless me.
ALL the days of my life – waking up to God’s gift of His breath in my lungs.
I truly, believe daily confessing “The joy of the Lord is my strength” (Nehemiah 8 v 10) kept me cheerful and kept me strong.
I was also believing and confessing with my own mouth over my life:
“I will not die but live and tell what the Lord has done.” Psalm 118 v 17
Months before there were issues with my back, I was confessing that scripture over myself. I did not know why. I see now that our Father God was preparing me for a journey – a journey to the Valley of Blessing. (2 Chronicles 20 v 26) Also, our Father God gave Doreen a prophetic word which was not connected to our conversations or prayers one morning, as were out walking and praying. The word hit me like a bolt of lightning. “This sickness is not unto death!” The three of us were baffled. Even before we started the journey our Father God was sending His Holy Spirit ahead to prepare everything we would need. What a mighty God we serve.
I had my stem cell transplant in September 2019 (which was physically demanding) and I came home to recuperate sooner that I was originally told I would be leaving isolation. Other than no hair, you would not know that I have been on a journey. I did not want my hair to fall out, but I was looking forward to my new locks. The apostle Mark said:
“No one pours new wine into old wineskins.” Mark 2 v 22
The consultants continue to be amazed and I continue to give our Father God all the praise. Today my Myeloma protein levels are down from 62 to 3.
Who but God?
Who but God?
Thank you, Jesus! May all the praise, all the glory and all the honour be yours forevermore.
TESTIMONY 11.02.20
My testimony of what our Father God has done for me just gets more and more exciting with each visit to the Haematology Department. Yesterday the consultant described my paraprotein level in one word – UNQUANITIFIABLE!!!
Praise God from whom all blessing flow. The Collins Dictionary defines ‘unquantifiable’ as not capable of being quantified i.e. too small to be measured. While a consultant described me as an enigma, I know that I am a blessed child of God. My God has been faithful to me. I have been on an incredible journey with our Father God and with those who walked the journey with me. Through the power of the Holy Spirit I have felt another level of empowerment in my body. I have consistently felt it through the many prayers for me over the past year.
07.03.21
It is over two years since I began this journey. God heard and answered my prayers:
“I asked Father God that if He did not heal me instantly that He would walk with me through this time of testing and this valley experience so that His Name would be glorified. I also asked Father God to keep ‘Job’s friends’ (Job 4 – 23) from my bed and the threshold of my home. I asked Father God to bring me a small circle of people with unshakable faith who would stand with me in faith no matter what their eyes were telling them.”
Every day as I report for duty, I thank our Father God for His gift of life. I am celebrating life and I have a very thick mass of black hair.
I continue to confidently say that I know in whom I have believed, do believe, and will continue to believe. What our Father God has done for me He can and will do for anyone who believes.
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29 v 11 – 13
Amen xxx