Continue reading Yosef's story which began yesterday. This is the eleventh post for our Write 31 Days series 31 Days of Miracles: Who is Our God
(Day 10, Hope in Darkness.)
(Day 10, Hope in Darkness.)
I finally got into
a Christian Rehab, a place of safety where I found my Saviour Jesus the
Messiah. It was here that I learned about His love for me and how He died to
set me free. I remember the day I asked Him to come live in my heart as if it
was yesterday. My life was forever changed and I never looked back. Never again
did I pick up a cigarette or ever return to drugs. I was changed but I still
walked a long road to learn about His grace for me and about His father heart.
Recovering from the wound of fatherlessness takes time and it has taken me
years to go there with God and to allow Him to access that place and bring
healing, I am still learning.
Yet in all this, my
problems were not yet over. Due to my previous lifestyle choices, I had many
criminal convictions and warrants of arrest still hanging over my head. I
remember how I prayed and asked the Father to help me to know what to do and
how to go about getting things resolved. I remember speaking to the pastor of
the rehabilitation centre and how we should pray about it, yet he said we
should wait before we did anything else.
One Friday
afternoon the police finally arrived at the centre with a warrant for my
arrest. I was scared, yet I had peace at the same time. I remember going in to
the holding cells and knowing that it was okay, God was with me. I knew that I
was saved, yet I had to face the magistrate knowing that I was guilty of the
things I had done. I remember praying and asking Jesus to save me from the hell
of prison, if it was His will. The grace of Jesus is something that we will
never truly understand. I came to know the meaning of having faith that day
like I have never before. Every single charge that was issued against me was
dropped and my slate was clean, it was a miracle, everyone knew it and I was
given a new life and a second chance. Two years later after completing my
program and serving as a staff member helping other drug addicts, I felt God
call me to bible school to become a pastor and teach people about His amazing
grace. It was there in my first year as a seminary student, where I met my
wife. A woman who loved God and radiated His beauty.
Today together with
her, we serve the body of Messiah as ministers of reconciliation. I have come
to see the power and love of the Father in ways that I cannot explain. He saved
my life and set me free from the bad choices I had made. There is hope for you
too, if you are willing to admit you have a problem and need help. Being an ex
-addict and a criminal, as well as a gangster in prison, was not enough to
separate me from the Love of Jesus, nothing can and I know that there is no
freedom without Him. You might say that is your opinion but no friend, it’s the fact. I have seen it all and I know that once you go down the road of heroin abuse, there is no return. Jesus restores every part of your life if you will let him and I pray that whatever you are facing today, that you will know how much God loves you, how He died for you and how nothing can ever separate you from His deep love, nothing.
Josef Beukman
His life once buried beneath a blanket of hurt and drug addiction, Yosef was powerfully set free by the God of the Universe, a God whose word He a has a passion to proclaim. He is an ordained minister and in full time ministry where He teaches, preaches and has found his passion for video production and editing. He makes his home in South Africa and teaches over at
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