24/09/2024
I just want to share a testimony that is very dear to my heart, regarding this date - 24th of September 1994.
31 years ago, God gave me a very specific word about this date! This date is in the Bible and was given to me as a prophetic word from God through my friend who led me to Christ. She was told at 11 pm at night, while she was very tired and ready to jump into bed, to come to my home (we lived in the same block of units) and give me a section of the Bible as a word from God. Thank you Marina Ionescu for being obedient to God even though you were working and studying and you were very tired. This word from God sustained me through difficult times in our relationship over the years and your obedience to God did me a lot of good.
The word said:
"On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came ... from this day on I will bless you" (Haggai 2:10-19) - referring to how I had lack and poverty and how I would enter into blessing.
This word was given to me around June-July 1994. I looked at it and thought - 24th day of the 9th month - that is 24th of September, so I thought something great will happen that year on the 24th of September. I waited eagerly but nothing happened! I was a little disappointed. Since I did not know what to do with it, I left it and moved on but 2 days later I met Michael. I showed up at the church Michael planted after they were praying for a good partner for Michael for a while, and there were other prophecies and people feeling that I was one God sent as answer to the prayers. I also prayed and fasted for God to show me his will and He gave me a dream during that fast that confirmed our relationship.
We got engaged next January through pastor Daniel Matei from Timisoara, and decided to plan our wedding at a time when Michael's parents could come from Australia (we were pastoring a newly planted church in Romania and we could not leave). (30 years later and we are now again pastoring a newly planted church, lol).
Michael's father was a university professor and could only take holidays in August/September. They could only arrive in the first week of September.
Then it dawned on me. I looked again more carefully at the verse I received from God. I realized I left our - the second year part. It was 24th of September, the second year of the king (I missed that part when I first read it)! This was the second year. I quickly checked the calendar to see if 24th of September was a Saturday, when weddings normally happen in Romania. It was a Saturday!
Then I realized what kind of blessing God was promising me - it will be that I will get married on that day. And from that day, I will not have lack and poverty, I will be blessed. I can testify 30 years later that God was faithful to His promise, I never lacked or lived in poverty. I might have had some lower times and some really rich times, but I never went without the basics, never. Before that, I suffered poverty and lack. Today we have a house paid off (another miraculous gift from God).
So, we got married on the 24th of September 1994! On my wedding day, I felt so surreal that I was living a date promised by God very specifically and from the Bible, that I thought: I don't care this is my wedding day, I will spend time first reading this portion of the Bible God gave me, Haggai 2. I realized as I did that for that whole year, I never read to the end of that chapter. I always stopped at:
"From this day I will bless you" cause that felt so good and I never read further.
So on my wedding day I decided to read further. To my shock, this section of the Bible was about how God came a second time with a word from God ON the 24th day of the 9th month. I thought: Wow, He just came now to me, again, on the actual wedding day with a word! I was in awe! I was stunned by how God orchestrated and controlled the events so I would not read it till ON the day itself.
It read like this:
And again the word of the Lord came to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying, “Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying:
‘I will shake heaven and earth.
I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms;
I will destroy the strength of the Gentile kingdoms.
I will overthrow the chariots
And those who ride in them;
The horses and their riders shall come down,
Every one by the sword of his brother.
‘In that day,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘I will take you, Zerubbabel My servant, the son of Shealtiel,’ says the Lord, ‘and will make you like a signet ring; for I have chosen you,’ says the Lord of hosts.”
Now, this Scripture told me how God will use me as a signet ring, which was a ring put by a King on a governor's finger, representing giving him the King's authority to execute tasks on the King's behalf. He said I will receive this authority when there will be great trouble on the earth. It seems like that time is approaching fast and already part of it is fulfilled. The strength of some Gentile nations in the Middle East has been destroyed. Shaking of the earth has been happening in many forms. Kingdoms have and are been overthrown, the same nation will have brother fighting against brother, which is partly happening already.
Looking forward to what He has in store and truly humbled by the love and faithfulness of God.
We have no doubt that our marriage was God's will, it pretty much would be impossible to doubt, thank you God for such an assurance!
Soon before we were to be married, Michael felt a bit scared, what if he is making a mistake to marry the wrong person and that will cost him his whole life and ministry (common fear of men of God in ministry before getting married as I found out later). He pretty much was talking to me like we should just trust that God will lead us our separate way, so I gave him the engagement ring back! I tend to be a 100% or nothing person.
That evening I went to God and with my 100% or nothing attitude I said: God, I thought you told me this is from You through various prophecies and confirmations and that word from the Bible. But I am not sure anymore. I need you to confirm this to me and make it beyond any shadow of a doubt. Here I have a one page per day diary of this year. I will pray that You will guide my hand and I will open it suddenly and without trying to manipulate anything. If you make it open on the 24th of September, then I will keep fighting for this, but if not. I will go tomorrow and permanently break with Michael and never ever look back. And I was dead serious, God knew I 100% meant it and though I would not recommend to people to do this as a way of hearing from God, I was immature at that time and I was after a sign and pretty much told God how I want the sign to be or else! I think God in His humility knew He was dealing with a crazy one who would act on what she determined, so He let it be as I wanted it to be. I prayed for my hands to be guided and quickly and randomly opened that diary and it opened on 24th of September! I was in shock. I then wrote there on that page as a faith confession that today we are broken up by by faith I believe we will get married on this date.
The following night my father died. Now I was 19 and without any parents (my mother died when I was 8 of cancer), yet God felt very real and close during that time so I was strong enough to not just do all the burial preparation, but also witness to all my non-Christian friends about being ready for death through Jesus. They came to comfort me but they were in shock I was so strong. My relatives wanted the orthodox priest to do the burial and I thought, let them, it's not going to make any difference, my father received Jesus a month ago and God assured me he was with Him when I asked Him to show me where he is through a verse in the Bible. I opened the Bible after prayer to be guided and to my shock I put my eyes on: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints! (Ps116:15) - could not have been clearer! When the orthodox priest came, he asked for money to perform the burial and I rebuked him, showed him how wrong it is to take money from orphans and how Jesus was rebuking the pharisees for this. I also did not have any money at that time! He happened to be the same priest who came when my mother died and I never forgot that he came partially drunk at my mother's burial so I told him how much he hurt me with that when I was 8 years old and rebuked him for not being a good example as a representative of God. Death around you can turn you even more into a person who doesn't put up with nonsense. I told him I forgave him but he left a bad memory with me, he seemed to be quite affected.
Michael was also shocked how strong I was in the face of this trial. He reconsidered our relationship and asked his father what to do. He said: No Michael, you must go ahead, this is the right person for you. Considering that his father never met me and only heard about me through letters, that was significant for Michael. He listened to his father and 3 days letter asked me to marry him again. I specifically asked his father to lay his hands on us at our wedding and pray a father's blessing, because I knew what it was to be without a father and wanted this and knew the power of a father's blessing, though mine was not a Christian until 1 month before he died, when he was the first to respond to an evangelistic message Michael gave in Cismigiu park in Bucharest. I believe our marriage was able to weather all the storms it encountered partly due to that laying on of hands from Michael's father imparting a father's blessing. Today he is no longer with us, but the power of that blessing continues to work in our life. Looking forward to more of His grace and power at work for the years to come!
