God came after me – a testimony by Joshua Samuel

I was born in India in a God fearing home. My family went to church every Sunday and had family prayer almost everyday.

When I was a baby, I had an accident and developed a blood clot in my head which put me in a critical state that required immediate surgery. In the process of running several scans prior to the surgery, my father had an encounter with Jesus and a vision, where he saw Jesus come and heal me.

Right before the surgery, to the doctors’ surprise, the blood clot had vanished and I was miraculously healed.

Ever since then, I’ve always been remembered as the ‘miracle baby’.

In the fourth grade, I fell terribly ill with dengue fever. The doctors lost hope and I was only on supportive treatment with no cure, losing immense amounts of blood. But through the prayers of my family and several church members, I was healed yet again. Growing up through these difficult circumstances, I realized God’s protective hand was always on me.

I prayed now and then, but only to fall into a religious system of trying to please God, not realizing the truth of grace.

I suffered rejection in the early years of my school due to the color of my skin, and I started to put on many masks to gain acceptance.

But I felt empty inside and lost myself into a lifestyle of seeking love. I thought I found love when I met my ‘soul mate’ who I believed I was going to marry. But six years later, I found that it had only been a relationship of lies.

I fell into a cycle of depression, accompanied by suicidal tendencies.

But God – He came after me like never before.

I knew I had replaced Him and was lost in a cultural society who taught me that God didn’t really matter. But I remember in that moment, I had an encounter with the love of God, in-spite of me treating Him like an ATM cash out blessing machine.

This is when I surrendered control to Jesus and said I’m all in. I grew closer to Him and He planted a desire within me to serve Him as a friend. Through prophetic words, Jesus opened doors for me to come to the United States with a full paid scholarship. I found myself growing closer to him than ever before.

It was grace that got me far and grace that will lead me home to Him. I now walk with the Lord, knowing my identity in Him, and nothing can take that from me.