From Out Of The Darkness Into His Marvelous Light

By Renea Jefferson

From Out of darkness into His Marvelous Light is my bout with a health issue, which was misdiagnosed as a mental illness. My life was bleak during this time, and things were dark for me. That darkness lingered for quite some time, but one day, it became clear and I was myself again. In an instance God showed up and I was in his marvelous light. I was set free! During my seven years of unemployment, the challenges I faced were astronomical. Having no income made life very hard. I had to trust and believe that God would be there to see me through it all. I maintained my faith, and God did see me through this very dark part of my life. It is true that God will be with you and see you through anything and he is always on time. God truly makes a difference.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9781641406567

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Out of

Darkness

into His Marvelous

Light

From

Renea W. Jefferson

ISBN 978-1-64140-655-0 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64140-656-7 (digital)

Copyright © 2018 by Renea W. Jefferson

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, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

—Ephesians 6:12, King James Version

In the midst of chaos and desperation, I encountered the darkness firsthand.

One evening while sleeping in a dream, I was standing tall like a giant over all types of snakes, and I proceeded to stomp them on their heads, destroying them. The dream only occurred once, but I believed that it was a sign of something that would occur in the future. What was strange to me is that, being one who is afraid of snakes, there was no display of fear in my reaction to their presence.

The experience puzzled me, so I referenced the incident of Moses and Aaron with the rod that was cast down and became a serpent. Pharaoh’s wise men and sorcerers did the same, but Aaron’s rod devoured them all. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods (Ex 7:12 KJV). This really did not provide any insight on the meaning of my dream but could reference the existence of snakes that were used here for territorial illustration. My belief was that the snakes were enemies that I would encounter but the end result was that I would be victorious over them all.

In the spring of 2009, that darkness permeated all around me and consisted of evil encounters on the phone while utilizing the Internet at home and in person while outside in my neighborhood. The phone encounters were my interactions during consumer purchases and with a bill collector, health care providers, possible employers, and my graduate school.

My dealings with a particular bank were not pleasant, and they would call very early in the morning and again in the later part of the day. My past history of being a consistent-paying customer had no bearing on my current inability to pay the required amount on time. My strategy to decrease the phone calls was to write the company, providing an alternative payment amount that could be made monthly. Nevertheless, the debt collector for the bank continued to call because the amount initially agreed upon would only suffice. This left me feeling powerless and overcome with anxiety. My goal was to give the amount that could be paid monthly and eventually pay off the debt completely. My phone conversations with the debt collector were extremely annoying, and it was always a hassle for me. My dealings with them were not always pleasant either because of my mood swings and short temper which came with being menopausal at that time. I tried my best to behave as a Christian, but at times I was not the best person that I could be with the individuals that contacted me with respect to the bill. The calls were constant, and no matter what was stated, the bottom line was when I could pay the remaining balance to bring my account current, which would ease the influx of calls.

It was advantageous to me that prior to my dire situation of unemployment, I was able to pay off my other credit cards and only one was outstanding during my downtime. My desire to be debt-free was the best thing I did because it took a great deal of anxiety off my shoulders with only having to deal with one credit card company, which was being handled by that particular bank.

Another debtor that remained in the forefront was the federal government student loan department. During phone conversations, the federal government student loan representative would provide the amount owed and the expectation of payment to be made once I became gainfully employed again. They expected to be informed of my continued efforts in finding employment as well. Written communications with documentation that specified my current financial status was reported regularly. The federal government student loan department informed me through written correspondence my responsibility and that I must regularly keep them abreast of any new developments in my financial situation. Since I now owe them for the assistance that was provided to me while I was in school, they were entitled to know exactly what I was doing in order to pay back the loans.

Second, my dealings with their customer support line were extremely frustrating. With prepaid coverage, a SIM card was provided to initiate their phone service. There were times when the SIM card did not work and I had to physically return to a phone service provider for assistance, resulting in the replacement of the SIM card. This was a nuisance since I had gotten the SIM card that did not work initially from them. There were incidents where the call-forwarding function would occur during my phone conversations too. Ironically, in one incident, any phone call that was made went directly to 911, and that was not beneficial either. This was a definite problem which required immediate remediation. Going back and forth for a SIM card was not only a nuisance but was costly as well. My cell phone would have distortions, drop calls, and mute itself during some of my phone conversations.

Upon calling the technical assistance hotline, the representatives were not helpful. The calls would get dropped, and I would have to call them right back. This went on constantly. Assistance with the problems of my phone calls was limited. There were times that the assistance from the technical department surely was not helpful at all. It was a constant battle to get the proper assistance for telephone service during that time. It was not until I reached out to someone of higher authority in the company’s management that my ongoing problems