The Rewrite: God Knew the Purpose for My Pain

By Nicole Johnson

We identify with our environment as children conforming to our parents' beliefs, to the world, or to another person to identify who we are only to find deception and emptiness. In her book, The Rewrite, Nicole Johnson shares her personal journey that exposes the real enemy and the truth of where our real identity is found. She sheds light on how we can be delivered from bondage and be set free to walk in God's grace, forgiveness, and abundant life. She shares her brokenness from abuse, trauma, anger, defeats, and failures that lead her to a life of homelessness. Her remarkable journey will offer a powerful and unique program to help other women that have walked in the same shoes, to be empowered and set free. This book is for the outcast, the abused, the broken, and the homeless, as one woman shares the journey of God "rewriting" her destiny. She shares the purpose for her pain, as she surrendered to God and continues to overcome the deceptions of the enemy, finding her true identity in Christ.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9798885409568

Book preview

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The Rewrite

God Knew the Purpose for My Pain

Nicole Johnson

ISBN 979-8-88540-955-1 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88540-956-8 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by Nicole Johnson

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Foreword

Have You Ever Been Lost?

Undeniable Grace

The Divine Appointment

The Season of Pruning

The Commitment

Begin Again

Surviving

The Call

Grace for Purpose

Walking in Destiny

Trust and Wait

About the Author

To my savior Jesus Christ who leads me to the living water and allows the miracles and divine appointments in this foreign land that I now call my temporary home.

I want to thank my spiritual father, Pastor Charles Moore; my spiritual mother, Linda Kaye Johnson (Mama Kaye); Pastor Mark T. Barclay; and the fivefold ministry.

To my three beautiful children, Xavier, Andre Jr., and Ta'ja, may this book be a light to them, to answer so many unanswered questions.

To all the amazing women who feel like an outcast, those I have met and those I haven't yet, who battle with their identity. May you find it in Christ.

Foreword

I met Nicole while she was working at Applebee's. My wife Lori and I would often go to Applebee's on our date night. When we met Nicole, our experience with her was very positive, and she was very good at her job and extremely interesting to talk to, so we would ask to be seated in her section when we were there for dinner. Over the next few months, we got to know Nicole pretty well and the subject of God in church came up. She was looking for a church, so we invited her to the church where I pastored; however, at this point, Nicole had no idea that I was the pastor of the church. She visited the church for the first time and was surprised to find out that I was the pastor, we got a good laugh, and she and her son AJ have been with us ever since. I knew some of Nicole's story from interacting with her at Applebee's but more unfolded after she began attending our church and her story is amazing! Whenever we read a book which contains stories about lives of people, they are just stories to us. What I mean is that they may impact us, provoke change in us, inspire us, etcetera, but they are stories we read about people we do not know.

I know Nicole. I have watched her live much of what you will read in this book. I have seen her fight mental, physical, and spiritual warfare, and she is one tough lady. There is simply no quit in her. I've seen Nicole weeping at the altar during church only to see her after church smiling, greeting, and loving on people. Her life is a powerful testimony of what God can do with someone who is broken, hurting, alone, and facing challenges that caused many people to stay in bed in the morning. When Lori and I met Nicole, she was wrapping up school, and we learned that her desire was to help other women who have dealt with some of the same issues in life that she has conquered. It was her dream to lead women out of terrible situations and walk with them through the conflicts, battles, and challenges of rebuilding lives that were saturated with pain and uncertainty.

Today, she is living that dream; she is leading the ministry that helped see her through warfare she faced and is walking other ladies through the complexities of rebuilding their lives. As you read this book, I am sure you will be inspired, challenged, and encouraged. May Nicole's story inspire you to drive the quit out of your life and chase your dream. May Nicole's story point you to the living Christ who has a wonderful destiny for your life and the power to take the life you surrender to him, regardless of how broken it may be, and make something victorious and beautiful.

It can happen if you would do your part, get out of God's way, and let him do his part. It will happen!

I call you blessed!

—Pastor Charles D. Moore

Chapter 1

Have You Ever Been Lost?

Have you ever been in the middle of a life's circumstances that have caused you to be struck by fear that is so gripping that it shakes the core of your entire being, your soul, your very existence? Have you ever been lost without directions? It's one thing to be without a plan or a destination, and you look around at your life and realize you don't even know where you are in this very moment of time. Have you ever been in the middle of a life situation and lost, questioning your internal GPS and how you ended up here? Have you ever been so lost in despair and grief and question yourself when did I take the wrong turn? Have you ever searched for love which led you into the arms of someone who didn't have the best intentions in mind? Have you ever been lost in deception, clouded by lust, macerating as love and giving yourself to someone who didn't value you or honor you? Have you allowed yourself to make choices that allowed sin to seep into your life that caused you to be misguided, misdirected?

Have you had that whisper in your ear that told you not to go in that direction of life and you ignored it and chose your own way? Now, you're lost and stuck in a place that causes you to live in fear, always looking over your shoulder. Your peace is lost, your hope is lost, your joy is extinguished, and you are so overwhelmed with paralyzing emotions and feelings that have you running, running for your life, your very breath. The oxygen that fills your lungs is being restricted because of your blindness. Your body is tingling and going numb as it begins to respond to shock and trauma and shut down. Hands are around your neck that were supposed to hold you, not choke you. As your body goes limp and you are unable to fight, punches in your face cause your eyes to water. You become lost in this moment, awe-structured of how you arrived here. As I tried and pulled my arms around my stomach to protect my unborn child, the blow to the ribs took the very breath out of my lungs.

Lost and under attack, my life and my unborn child were moments away from death. In a short moment of strength, I was able to get loose from his grip and grab my four-year-old daughter and run. As I knocked on the neighbor's door and it opened, everything went black.

The enemy wanted to take me out, take out the child in my womb. He wanted to break me, destroy me, and kill my legacy. There are some things in life that seem almost impossible to recover from—ambushed, taken over by the wrong turn, the wrong choices, the wrong direction, and the wrong relationship.

Three days later, January 24, 2007, I woke up out of a medically induced comma to be instructed by the doctor that they needed to get me prepped for a cesarean delivery now that they had stabilized me and my unborn son. As