All of Me: My Journey to Yes

By Charlyce Simmons

Charlyce Simmons is a grateful young woman bursting with life everyday. She resides in Orlando, Fl with her husband, Alonzo Simmons and their dog, Sandy. Her early life was filled with joy, but suddenly this anointed vessel had a price to pay for the great anointing on her life.

Charlyce takes you on her journey to “Yes” starting at birth until present. She details the life changing events she had to go through to get her to completely surrender to Christ. Although she received Christ at an early age, she still had not totally surrendered all of herself. Throughout her journey she never gave up on God and his promises for her life.

She details the ups and downs, pain and growth of 3 separate health issues, which could have resulted in death. She trusted God and He showed up and turned her life around for His glory. God not only granted her a miracle, but he allowed her to get up and be a Miracle. She now knows her Purpose and is concerned only with loving people and fulfilling God’s plans for her life.

Charlyce is a well respected artist in Orlando, and can be found on many projects with artists such as: Larue Howard, Madelyn Berry, Meka King, Matt Shenk, C.Lajuan Adams, and many more.

“We all have a story to tell and a different road to travel, so share your story with someone and encourage them today.” – Charlyce

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Sep 29, 2014
• ISBN: 9781495135316

Book preview

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PREFACE

Genesis 1:1 and 2:7 says, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth…. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breathe of life, and man became a living soul.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. God created man and knew every single intimate detail about who man was supposed to be and what he was supposed to do. God gave us dominion over the fish of the seas. The Bible tells us that before we were formed in our mother’s belly, God knew us, for we were with God.

Through all the struggles in my life, I’ve always known that God knew me because I am an intricate and original design of his. He knew the specific days and years I would face my biggest obstacles. He had already mapped out every day of my life. A lot of times I see people trying so hard to figure out what’s going on, what they should be doing, or making comments like, I’m not supposed to be here right now in my life, a conclusion I was famous for drawing, as well. That use to be my favorite line -- yes, me of all people.

It’s funny that people really think they control their own lives and destinies. Yes, God gives us free will, but some things he predestined, and he knows every right or wrong decision we will make before we even make it. That’s how we get to where we are, which he also foreknew. I often tell my husband, We are right where God knew we would be right now. It’s not a surprise to him, and he doesn’t need our help orchestrating our lives. It’s already done! Just walk in obedience. That is often the problem -- we are not walking in obedience to God – not always. So instead of surrendering to God, we run and have to do things the hard way...we’ll, at least I know I did. God always has a way of getting our attention.

I am writing this book to encourage and strengthen someone. It is my personal testimony, a detailed biography of my life thus far, and how God has kept me, through dangers seen and unseen. I haven’t always done what God wanted me to do, but he has always given me other chances to be obedient. Don’t get me wrong; not everything we go through is because of disobedience, for it is the test and trials of life that make us strong so God can prepare us for ministry. But a lot of my trials were, in fact, because of my disobedience, so I wanted to let people know that there is a much simpler way to arrive at your destiny -- simply to yield and surrender all of yourself to God. It took me so long to understand that because we can surrender some, but not all. Once you stop fighting and saying No to God, you realize by his grace you are still alive and have another chance to say Yes to his will.

God planned every step of our lives before he formed us in our mother’s bellies. Do you understand we were with God, and he sanctified us (made us clean) and ordained us as prophets…

My INTRODUCTION INTO GOD’S CREATION

Jeremiah 1:4-6

Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak; for I am a child.

Listening to my family and friends tell stories about my infancy, I quickly learned I was often a noisy baby. They tell of a beautiful baby girl with not much hair, beautiful hands, and a screeching high-pitched cry, which at the time they attributed to my being able to sing. At birth or soon after, however, my parents discovered I had a double hernia, which must have been quite painful for me to scream and cry as much as I did on a regular basis, unlike other babies. Months after endless crying, I underwent surgery for the hernia, and obviously felt much better.

Along with this story were more bothersome stories of my legs being extremely bowlegged. Recently I did some research and found the condition was called Genu Varum, which is normal in toddlers. Most doctors insist that children will grow out of it by the age of three, and they are often right (which is probably why they are doctors and I am not). My mother still did not like the fact that I was bowlegged, however. Although the doctor assured her that children usually grow out of it, she still got braces for my legs so they would grow straight. Eventually my legs straightened, and I went on to live a normal childhood. As I reflect on that memory, it was a lot for a toddler to go through, but there are so many others babies, toddlers, and children who have experienced much more horrible, and even life-threatening conditions. I’m so glad to know that God knew me, he knew you, and he already knew the plans he set for our lives.

God planned every step of our lives before he formed us in our mother’s bellies. Do you understand we were with God, and he sanctified us (made us clean) and ordained us as prophets, which means to proclaim the things of God unto all nations? He knew what was in store for our lives next, and most of the time, we would never imagine in a million years what’s ahead. If God told us everything, I’m sure most of us would choose unwisely the things we think we would definitely enjoy and disregard the things that we don’t like to go through for our own good. But thank God, he absolutely knows what’s best for us, and our thoughts are not his thoughts. Think about it. Who knows someone or something better than the one who created him, her, or it? So when you have problems, go to the Creator first - he knows exactly how to solve it.

During my years of adolescence, I had a pretty nice life. I grew up in Orlando, Florida (the city beautiful) with my mom and dad, and I had six brothers and three sisters at the time. I was the seventh child in my family, born in 1979, and by the time 1989 came around, our family had grown to 10 children altogether. My father was the Associate Pastor at Gorman Memorial Church in Orlando. My mom, who had been a member since she was born, is now the piano player at the church. So I grew up in the church, and every time the doors opened, my family was there.

By the time I reached the age of three, my parents realized I could sing, and not just sing, but in the right pitch, and in harmony, which was astounding for a three-year-old. So my mom entered me into a talent show, which I remember very well; dressed me in Army fatigues from head to toe; and I sang I’m Going to the Enemy’s Camp to Take Back What He Took from Me. Wow! What a statement, right? Of course I thought I was just singing a song, but looking back sometimes I think that maybe the enemy got a little annoyed and took me seriously. But then I think, Umm…probably not because God is always in control, and he knows me. Well, I won the contest.

All my brothers and sisters were talented, as well. They all played instruments, sang, or both. I continue to sing to this day. I know it is part of my purpose here on earth, for I am a prophet of God. So that means I am to proclaim what God says unto his people through music. That is the gift he gave me, and I intend to use it to the fullest.

By the time I reached six years of age, I attended Hiawassee Elementary School on the west side of Orlando in Pine Hills. Later I attended a private school my church started, called El Bethel Christian Academy from second to eighth grade. When I was around nine or ten, I started a group named Destiny, in the bathroom of our church, El Bethel Temple, with my god-sister, Kynthia Arrington, and my good friend, Catherine Etoria Tori Wesley. I was singing Amazing Grace, and they started harmonizing with me, and my ear is so keen that I immediately did not want to dismiss the special blend we had from the start. It was truly unique. So we started practicing every day, and we would sing special selections in our chapel service in school. Later I added another good friend of mine, DeAngela Roberson–Morant to the group because she also blended well with us.

We were an a capella group until middle school when a young lady named Sue Love came to our school and became the piano teacher. By this time, Destiny had started rehearsing in the sanctuary, and one day on her way to get a piano student, Ms. Love heard us practicing and couldn’t believe her ears. She immediately wanted to start working with us. So she played for us for a couple of years, as she taught all of us piano. Over time, through her hard work, we developed our God-given talent and our sound exploded with added instruments. She also added a couple of guys to the group. So, by this time, Reshard Battle was playing the piano, Stephen Thomas was on the bass, and Tony Galloway learned to play drums with the help of David Thomas and Ms. Love. So we were one big happy group, and sang all over Florida, through our middle school years.

During this time of my life, I suffered terrible stomach aches, which the doctor attributed to horrible viruses that would always come at least once or twice a year. There was nothing much he could do, other than let it run its course. Nothing would stay down, and the worst part was the pain. Ugh! I get chills just thinking about it, but oddly enough, none of my brothers and sisters got sick at all. I remember praying and asking God to just take the pain away! I just couldn’t take it!

From age nine to thirty, I had to go through monthly purification cycles, and they were absolutely terrible. I would flow so heavily and cramp so badly, passing blood clots larger than a quarter for seven days straight. It was unbelievable! Around the seventh or eighth grade, I occasionally began experiencing lightheadedness and dizziness. When I got up to lead praise and worship on Sunday mornings, I was spinning so badly I even hated getting out of bed. Soon I would discover it was one of the side effects of the thing that would shock us all.

Moving forward to the ninth grade in 1994, I attended West Orange High School in Winter Garden,