Tiferet Yeshua Congregation
Tel Aviv
I was 10 years old when the harsh reality of life hit me full force. That’s when my very best friend died from a malignant brain tumor. I was already abused at home and had no way to cope with this great loss. I endured severe physical and emotional abuse throughout my entire childhood. Among other things, my mother would extinguish cigarettes on my skin. I was sent to a boarding school for troubled teens, but my life didn’t improve. By age 19, I was using hard-core drugs and hallucinogens like LSD.
Then at age 25, the sky fell in on me. After medicating my pain for years, one day I got up and didn’t recognize myself in the mirror. I didn’t remember my name. I didn’t know my family. I experienced a complete blackout, a complete disconnect from reality. Standing on the edge of insanity was a terrifying experience. I was faced with two options: either commit suicide or fight for my life.
I chose the hard battle for my life and sanity, and I somehow knew that there was Someone on the other side as I cried out, “If you can hear me, I am begging for help! Save me because I am in complete darkness!”
In response God sent help. Over the years as I struggled back to life, three different people came to me with the Isaiah 53 prophecy about the Messiah. I rejected them and said, “Guys, this just isn’t the direction.” The one thing that I did know is that God speaks in the language of love and light. I searched everywhere for these. My search led to an ultra-Orthodox Yeshiva, then to Buddhism. You name it, I tried it.
The 4th emissary: One morning while waiting for a bus, I was approached by a woman who started sharing the gospel. She was an “energy bomb for Yeshua.” My reaction was: “Wait a minute. Slow down because you’re coming on really strong here.” I rebuffed her, but also realized that this was the 4th time someone shared Isaiah 53 with me.
God ambushes me: God heard me when I cried out to Him at age 25, and continued pursuing me with the answer. Not long after this “pushy” woman, Adriana from the bus stop, tried to share about Yeshua, I started a new job at a special education facility. On one of the first days on the job, I suddenly heard a loud, familiar voice saying, “Shalom, good morning everyone!” I turned around to find Adriana. “What are you doing here?” we asked each other in amused surprise. “I think God is planning something here!” she told me.
I finally read Isaiah 53 for the first time and prayed, “I don’t know who you are, who this Yeshua is, but I’m asking You, God, please, I need an answer.” I felt as if two hands were physically holding my own, and I began trembling all over. Then I started reading the New Testament and discovered Yeshua was the love and the light I had always been searching for. At Tiferet Yeshua while singing “How good is your lovingkindness to me, O God of my salvation,” suddenly I was standing in a waterfall of love. I began weeping like a baby. I had come home, and I gave my life to Yeshua.
Since then Yeshua has been performing miracles in my life. He has taught me to open up the darkest places to His love. After 12 years of not talking with my family, I got back in touch with them. I had cut the ties and blamed them for everything. I couldn’t have imagined it in my wildest dreams, but now our broken relationship has been redeemed and restored.
