Living by Faith in Jesus Christ

By Mirela Gergely Bundoo

'For I know the thoughts I think towards you says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.' Jeremiah 29:11

From a young chi

• Language: English
• Publisher: Maurice Wylie Media
• Release date: Dec 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9781838483890

Mirela Gergely Bundoo

Mirela Gergely Bundoo was born and raised in Romania and in hearing the call of God, she moved to Ireland, where she lives with her husband. Being a Bible teacher and a missionary, she has ministered in many countries and seeks to lead others into who Jesus can be in their lives.

Book preview

Introduction

Regardless of where you feel you are at spiritually; this book has been written for you. As the Lord took me on a journey of discovering who He is, I am believing that, as you read this book, the glory of our God will reveal Himself to you.

It is the intention of these writings that in sharing my testimonies and experiences, God will strengthen you in your faith and give you an even greater desire to serve Him more.

If you are yet to commit your life to God; I pray that by reading this book, God will search your heart and give you the desire to discover Him. Or perhaps, being His child, for one reason or another you have lost your way and have departed from Him. If this is where you are, I pray to the Lord that through reading this book, you will discover through His Grace and faith in Him, direction to return to the right path.

I was going through so much pain and, not knowing any better, I allowed satan to lie to me, to tie me up with thoughts, and hold me in bondage for more than 20 years. But by the grace of God, I was released, and came into a whole new understanding of His love for me. My faith started to grow, and I found myself being placed into situations and coming alongside people who helped me and contributed to my spiritual growth.

As I grew in faith, I developed a strong relationship with God; with that, I discovered more and more about His love and His character. I learned how to trust and depend totally on Him. Through learning how to trust in Him, slowly I discovered my calling and my desire to be a worker in His Kingdom. Full of happiness and grateful for what God was doing in my life, I reached the point when I was so overwhelmed by His goodness that I couldn’t stop my tears of joy. I asked God to tell me what I could do to thank Him for what He had done for me. Just at that moment, He answered me by telling me to write a book. He told me to share everything that I was going through and what He had taught me during this time, about all my testimonies and the miraculous way He was working in my life. He lovingly reassured me that when people would read it, they would be encouraged, and would listen no more to the lies of the enemy. Instead, they would learn how to develop a relationship with their heavenly Father.

The moment I heard this; I was confused. I said aloud that I didn’t know how to write a book, but He assured me that He would help me. Just then, He showed me a vision of a book with my picture in the corner. The title was ‘LIVING BY FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST.’ But how do I start, how do I find a publisher? God led me to Maurice Wylie Media, who guided me through all the steps of publishing, even to the point… when the founder, Maurice Wylie, produced the cover, I broke down and cried. I’m not sure what he thought seeing me crying? Did he think I was disappointed or what? But what he presented was the exact design I had been given in a dream by God – surely God was going before me as tears of happiness flowed.

It has taken me years to trust fully in God regarding this matter, as I wasn’t confident that I had the ability to write; but as we know from the Bible, ‘With God, all things are possible.’

Now, by God’s grace, it is happening, and you now have the book that He spoke to me about in your hand! Glory be to our God!

This in itself has been a huge learning curve for me as it has taught me that God’s Word is true; He never lies. Even though the timing doesn’t make sense to us, and not everything happens instantly, if He speaks to you and tells you something is going to happen – you can rest assured that it will!

Despite how incredulous you may find my strong faith in God’s interaction in my life, or how impossible the events may seem; as it says in Ezekiel 12:25, ‘For I am the LORD. I speak, and the word which I speak will come to pass.’

Chapter One

Finding the One

Growing up in Romania, my life with Jesus began when my mother dedicated me in our local church. My mother was a Christian when I was born, so I grew up being taught the Scriptures and being told that God loved me. She was very dedicated to her faith and often said to me when I was a child, that she felt I was so special she had given me to God. At that time, I did not fully understand what she was saying to me but I could see she really meant it.

Something I did understand though at that time was the overwhelming fear I had of the dark. That, I still can recall to this day. When I was very little, in Romania during Ceausescu’s time, (Roman communist and leader) the electricity was turned off every night from 7 pm to 8 pm. It was very frightening to me as a child.

I remember that when this happened each night, my mother gathered me and my brothers and sisters all around her and we sang Christian songs. We would huddle together in the darkness and sing until the power was restored.

My father didn’t join in every night because he worked hard to make sure we had all we needed. He provided all the necessities for us as there were seven children in our family, so a lot of mouths to feed. My father had two main attributes: he was hard-working and had a kind heart. I remember going to church sometimes with him; he was always telling the people present that I would work for God. Listening to him, I imagined then that I would grow up and go to school, to theology university and eventually go on missionary trips all over the world. Many missionaries came to Romania, so I imagined I would be like them. In seeing what they had done and lives being changed, a desire to work for God grew in me.

In the evenings I would ask my parents to tell me more about God. Listening to the stories from the Scriptures, it would amaze me who this loving Jesus was. At times my dad would come home early from his work and participate in our non-electricity evenings, gathering us around and telling us stories from the Bible. Even though over a period of time we would get to hear the same story from each of them, somehow, the story would be just that little bit more alive, because they told it through their character with expression. My mother once told us about Samuel;¹ how he was given to God by his mother, Hannah. She then explained to me exactly how she dedicated me to God when I was little, and also to the work of the Lord. She explained, Mirela, God loves you more than I can ever love you. He cares for you more than I can ever care for you. I can only be with you sometimes, but God will be with you all the time. He is with you everywhere: at school, playing, when you sleep; Mirela, everywhere!

Somewhere in the back of my thoughts I always imagined God was like an old man sitting with a white beard, a little like Santa Claus only not as glamorous. Little did I know then, the majority of Christians think like this!

My nephew, who was just exactly three weeks older than me, came to live in the same apartment block as us. In fact, it was the apartment in front of ours on the fourth floor. One day we were climbing together on a chair on the balcony and I could see the sky and so I started talking to God.

As I chatted to Him, this bright light appeared and shone as if directly upon us. It was at that moment I was no longer afraid of the dark. My mother noted something had happened to us when we went back into the apartment and asked… What has happened to you? I told her what took place and that I was no longer afraid of the dark as I knew God was with me all the time.

Following that day, almost every night I had this dream…

I would stop people in their cars and ask them to take me on a journey so I could meet God. I didn’t know exactly where I was going, but I wanted to seek God. Then I would reach a very large golden gate. There was an angel at the gate, and I told him I wanted to talk to God. The angel opened the gate and I went through it. I began walking down a long street made out of precious stones that shone so bright, I was in awe! Then, I would hear, Mirela, wake up, it’s school time! I would awake with tears as my dream of meeting God faded into unreality. Sometimes I would try to go back for a few minutes hoping that I would still dream, but I never saw the end. For many years, I had this same dream; but my mother woke me up at exactly the same point in the dream each time. When complaining to my mother about this, she just told me not to worry, because one day I would meet with God and I would be able to talk to Him.

Even though I was too young at the time to understand spiritual things, God was at work in my family. While I was still young, my father had been diagnosed with liver cancer. It was aggressive; he was in the last stages and was taking morphine to make him sleep and to ease the severe pain he was in. Understanding how poor we were, doctors told my mum that she could take him home because he would die in a few days and it would be very difficult to get him home if he died in the hospital. My mum told me that she couldn’t accept that my father was going to die and leave her alone with seven children. She started praying to God to spare my father’s life and to heal him.

The next day she found out that in a small town around 250km from where we lived, was a man of God; a prophet who prayed for sick people. She went to see him, full of faith that on that very day, my father would be completely healed. When the prayer time started, the prophet came over to my mum and told her that by the time she had returned home, she would see my father healed. He didn’t even pray for her or for my father, but my mum felt this knowing within her spirit that God had answered her prayers. When my mum arrived home, just as the prophet had said - my father looked like every pain was away, new life was in him and a smile was on