Brodie C in Western Australia

 My mates introduced me to Meth and I found myself doing heaps of crime thinking I was invincible. Violent assaults and grand theft auto landed me in prison for a short time.

Knowing some of the fellas inside made it easier than I had expected.

I wanted to change my life but I didn’t know how to do it.

The pain from not being able to see my son caused a lot of depression and increased my anxiety.

My drug use got worse on release until it ruined my relationship with my parents, and my siblings.

All the bad things in life made me try to commit suicide, and one day my dad found me hanging in my room and saved my life.

I ended up losing everything and everyone I had ever cared about. I was living on the street with no money for food or anything.

 I called my mom and asked for her help and she picked me up and took me home. I took advantage of her kindness and that was the last straw. She told me that I needed to change and if I didn’t, they would move away to a place I would never know.

I rang Peter (Peter Lyndon-James at Shalom House drug rehabilitation centre in Western Australia) and the next day I went into a meeting. He took me in as I was, and led me to the Lord. That very day I began to turn my life around.

Since being in Shalom, I have developed a relationship with Jesus, that has helped me work through my anger, resentment and unforgiveness issues. My tolerance levels of others and level of genuine joy has increased more than I could ever imagine. I have restored my family relationships, and am making progress to see my son for the first time in over 3 years!

I’ve found that humbling myself and submitting control over to Peter has been the hardest thing I have had to do. But I know that anything worth something doesn’t come easy.

I’m on my way to becoming an apprentice Boiler Maker Welder and am positive about the direction that my life is headed.”

            Brodie’s testimony shows that:

1. God is front and centre for drug addicts who are genuinely wanting to be free from their addictions, and who turn to Him with a deep determination to be delivered and free.
2. God is concerned about who we are and how we develop on ‘playpen earth’. Life is serious business that prepares us for the many things that lie ahead. This makes it vitally important that the addict puts right all the relationships and misbehaviours he or she did during their addiction phase, and begins a new and positive direction in life.

3. God rescues addicts who are serious about following Him. For example, Teen Challenge centres around the world published success rates of above 70% for rescuing addicts over a 3-year follow-up while the national average success rate of rehabilitation centres using secular wisdom varied from 1% to 15%. When asked what made the difference, David Wilkerson responded “The Holy Spirit”. Of course, reversion to drugs is always possible because God never takes away our free will.

Dexter Froud from interview in Toowoomba Queensland

Dexter had been a hopeless alcoholic before being rescued during a dramatic intervention in a hotel room when God appeared in the form of pure light. Many other alcoholics have recorded similar rescues, including Bill Wilson, who initiated Alcoholics Anonymous. Dexter was told during his encounter with God that he must preach the gospel.

Next morning, overjoyed with new freedom from addiction and now with a purpose in life, Dexter went and bought a big black Bible.

Back in his hotel room, he asked God: “Lord, you know I can’t even read the newspaper, but how can I preach if I can’t read the Bible?” Dexter was functionally illiterate. Somehow, deep inside him, he knew that God would help.

He opened his new Bible and stared blankly at the unintelligible words, feeling terrible inadequate and fearful of slipping back to booze.

Then an amazing thing happened – he saw quite clearly in his mind a picture of what the words meant. For example, suppose Dexter was looking at Luke 5:42 “At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them.” Dexter would see these events enacted clearly in his mind and God’s voice would slowly and patiently read out the words one by one for Dexter to follow as his finger moved word by word across the text. Dexter would repeat the same words aloud.

In Dexter’s own words: “This went on for several months until I learned to read, not fluently, but read, and so I have never had any trouble believing the Bible because God read it out to me.”

Once Dexter had learnt to read, the visions ceased – and so did the voice of God reading to him.

            Dexter’s testimony shows that:

1. God can be a gentle teacher, tailoring His approach to an illiterate pupil.

2. God deals with us as individuals, because He has designed us as unique and likes us that way.

3. God has made us such that we all can perceive spiritual things, not as a function of intelligence, but of our spirit being helped by the Holy Spirit. In fact, many who have not achieved much academically have made some of the most spiritually effective disciples with deep perceptive insights. Think of Peter and the other disciples.

4. God nurtures us as his children adopted into His family at conversion, but expects us to progressively stand on our own two feet, growing in faith, hope and love. As we develop, His direct intervention in our lives diminishes.

5. God takes the trouble to communicate with us, seldom by voice but more often using other means, such as making a Bible verse “come alive”, or through inspired teaching, or insight given by the Holy Spirit through the Gifts of the Spirit, or simply a feeling inside of our spirit what should be done or believed.

6. God communicates – and so should we in return: through prayer, or even just “chats” in our thought life.