One of the Cloud Series: “Letters from Prison, Part 1”

The next member of the Cloud writes to us from prison. Most of the New Testament of the Bible is a collection of letters written by Apostle Paul, imprisoned for telling people about Jesus. This letter, however, is written by a brother who found his way to Jesus while in prison. My husband and I knew and loved him B.C. (before Christ). Whenever the subject of God came up in conversation, so did his walls of hostility, so we committed to loving him and praying God would open up his heart. We never could have imagined how God would answer those prayers.

Now that he’s our forever brother, the love between us is even stronger. Although he will not be out for a while yet, we keep up through letters. And what letters they are! He is building our faith as we read about his progress in the Lord. 

I asked him recently if he would tell me what happened those months he was away from us. What finally took down his armor? The next three posts are excerpts from his fourteen-page testimony. His story is nothing short of amazing.

“Hello My Friends,

“You are always welcome to share anything I write – as long as it glorifies God! To be honest with you – it seems like I’ve been under attack since I began this project. I hope there is something in here Satan doesn’t like!

“You are so right. I do walk in freedom – praise Him! Every day is cool – with the exceptional moments when I try to drive!

“In April of 2012 I found myself in another jail cell, in another state, looking at another prison sentence. Being ‘on the run’ for the last six months, the lifestyle associated with my ‘nothing to lose’ mind set, the trauma of my most recent experiences. Fear, heavy drug use, and my crushed spirit had left me in a serious mental health crisis - in a psychosis, partially drug induced, completely separated from any sense of reality. I recognize this as the moment my spirit began crying out to God.

“That is exactly where I [was]. Rock Bottom. I think I [had] actually been there for a short while. Running from my own shadow. Unable to drown out the voices in my head or sleep at all, having little to no regard for anyone or anything, including myself; challenging the police to shoot me (thank you Father for bailing me out of that one!). [I was] strapped to a restraining device call ‘the chair’ made for violent or out of control individuals, groaning (that is really the only word for the sounds I [was] using to drown out the voices), refusing to eat, and planning my own death by hanging. Going as far as making sure I could get the sheets tied right to do the job. (I was stopped by an officer making her rounds and then an unexpected but timely cell search. (Thank you again Jesus!)

“A significant change had begun in me. Even in the twisted state I was in I recognized power at work, and maybe even some of its potential. The problem lay in the fact that I didn’t recognize that power as His power. I began thinking this power was within me. That I only had to learn how to use, channel, and exercise ‘my power,’ and I could control not only my own destiny, but also many significant circumstances around me.

“But this set me off in search - in search of wisdom, in search of truth, and eventually He allowed me to see it!”

#foundGodinprison #fromhostilitytopraise #myspiritcriedouttoGod #rockbottom #savedfromsuicide