Awaken Your Desire for God and Develop Strong Faith

By Jabu Gwala

Jabu Gwala has been a born-again Christian since 2009, but it took her 11 years to reach true faith and the profound relationship with God that comes from that. Her own experience prompted her to wonder how many other Christians are out there, who have been saved for a number of years but are not yet enjoying the fullness of their salvation in Christ Jesus.

Divinely guided into being, this book aims to help many Christians come into alignment with how God intended them to live from day to day within their faith. God did not create man and woman to suffer and yet the people of God are suffering, due to a lack of knowledge. God created mankind to be a reflection of Himself. We are the only beings amongst all creation to whom God gave dominion over everything on the Earth and as such, we must learn to honour Him.

Awaken your desire for God and develop strong faith will show you the path to a true and lasting relationship with God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jabu Gwala
• Release date: Sep 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005311858

Book preview

Testimonial

The transformation of my life – sometimes life has its own way of pushing you toward your divine destiny. But with all I have been through, I have managed to find my true identity. I found who I am after 36 years living in this world not knowing that the life I lived was a lie. I thought I had it all together, I thought I was living the life God wanted me to live and the life I really wanted to live. But all was a lie. How do I know it was a lie? At one point in life, I had a good paying job and my little good-looking, happy family. Married to the love of my life. Everything seemed to be going so fine, all I could say is that it looked so perfect in my eyes and in the eyes of man. Maybe - who knows - many people look at other people’s lives and they wish to be them. I could not wait to go out or to go to church on Sundays and take pictures and post on my Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Every time I posted, I would wait for comments and all things seemed to be going my way. Until life showed me another side.

My husband resigned from his work so that he could invest in a company which was paying unbelievable returns. He invested in this company for over a year, and everything seemed okay, and he was getting his returns on time. We had such a good income; we could pay all our bills and be able to save money. In the very good job that I was doing, I was reporting under a very mean boss, which lead me to want to resign as well. The decision was made – I resigned, and we decided to start a business, but that did not work out. So, we lived on the investment that my husband was getting while trying to find jobs in other companies, but neither of us found jobs because we had a fear of what would happen after the end of the investment term. And we had a big project that we were busy with; we were building a home for our family and it was unfished, but all things were still okay until the investment company started not to pay at all. We made several calls to the company until we decided to drive and go there.

When we got there, we found the company was still there and we asked them about our payment, and the answer was, We are making payment but very slowly this month due to the volume of investors. There had been many new investors, so they now had to push our date to be a little bit further than what it was. We agreed because we saw the files and we were hearing that many people had resigned from their workplaces and were joining this investment company. But we then explained our story, that we rely on this income and need ours to be paid on time. They said okay, and they requested our contract numbers that were written in our investment contract, and we gave it to them. While we were sitting there, there were many people walking in and out, wanting to know the same thing that we wanted to know. Elders and young people were walking in and out. But all were attended by their consultants. While looking at that, we saw a message in my husband’s cell phone that they had made his payment immediately. And our consultant came and said to us that our payment was made into our bank account. Then we left the building; to go there was a two-hour drive and to come back was also two hours’ drive. We got home late at night and our children were there waiting for us to come home.

The following month was worse. Before it even ended, we received emails that were telling us that we would only be paid 50% of what we were supposed to be paid. Life began to be difficult; we could not pay our bills, we were unable to put the food on the table for our children, we felt like we had failed them. We felt so stupid, our ex-colleagues were calling us wanting to know what happened, how we were surviving. And our relatives were doing the same thing, calling us now and again. We came to the decision that we would take our children and go to live with my in-laws. So, we stayed with my mother-in-law and her maid, who happened to leave because there was now my family in their home so there was not enough space. By the way, my husband and I are blessed with two girls; at that time, our first child was seven years old and our last born was five years old. The maid left and we stayed with my mother-in-law, but every morning I would wake up at 5am, prepare my children for school, and take them there. And my husband would stay at home unless he went to apply for work or to an interview somewhere.

When I took my kids to school, I used to park in a car park and jog around the area because it was a small town, and when I was done, I would go to the library and read books if I have to apply for something, and also read the Bible, Joel Osteen’s book and Joyce Meyer’s book. While I was sitting in a library, I would download Bill Winston’s preaching messages and Joel Osteen and Sarah Jakes Robert messages. Some days I would skip jogging and go and park in the grounds under a tree and read the Word of God and play these sermons and listen to them over and over again. And I tell you what, it was 2020, during the pandemic when we could not go to church and at our church, we did not have the online sermons during lockdown; we had to find ways to get the Word of God or read it on our own. But through the online sermons of the above-mentioned apostles of God, I found what I needed all along. I found joy, I found comfort, I found peace, love, and happiness. I was able to forgive myself and my husband for the decision we made. Not only that, forgave everyone who had ever done me wrong. I found healing while I was in a battle to find a job and I found the purpose for my life. And now I can peruse my purpose with confidence. Not to say I have confidence in me, but I have confidence in Him who began the good work in my life, that He will carry it all to completion.

I started by meditating the Word of God. In the beginning I felt like I was not doing anything, and every time I heard that voice, I would hear Pastor Joel Osteen saying, You may feel like nothing is happening. You may see that nothing changing. Keep believing, keep praying, something is happening behind the scenes. God is working on your situation, don’t give up. He would relate to Paul when he was in prison, that he would have stopped praying but the Bible says in the middle of the night they got up and praised God. They did not look at the situation that they were in. Instead of crying and asking God why He would allow this to happen to them, they knew who they served; that the God that they served is all powerful, he would redeem them. The scripture says they woke up in the middle of the night and began to praise the Lord. And every time I heard that still, small voice I pressed on towards the mark. I did not give up. I will remember the verses that are found in Hebrews 12:1-2 that says we all have a race, and we must run this race with endurance. And the scripture found in Philippians 3 verse 13, NIV, reads:

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining myself towards what is ahead.

This was Apostle Paul speaking, and I did the same, forgetting what is behind and straining myself towards what is ahead of me. And Isaiah 45 verse 15, MSG, says:

Clearly, you are God who works behind the scenes, God of Israel, Saviour God.

I had faith that God was working behind the scenes, he told me to always pray. And God said if I pray, he will answer; if I have faith as a grain of master seed, I will say to this mountain be removed and be cast into the sea and it will obey me. And he promised anything I pray for in the name of Jesus will be given to me. During that season, God became my source