By: Colonie Hughes, Executive Women’s Program Director / Co-Founder
I started shooting dope when I was 13 years old. I wanted to get high every day, and when I got high enough that I thought I might die, that was my idea of a good time. If anyone tried to take me to church or sow the Word into me, I wasn’t having it. My heart was hard.
As the years progressed, my heart got harder. I had to protect myself from feeling anything. Several years into my addiction, I decided to steal my dad’s car and head to Las Vegas. The car broke down in Nebraska, so I ended up staying there for a year, living in shelters and doing drugs.
Breakthrough: A Divine Encounter
Meanwhile, my family was praying for me, and I experienced a divine encounter with God himself. I pleaded for him to rescue me, and that’s what he did. The veil was removed from my eyes, and I could finally see. I got into detox, and for the next three months, God spoke to me every single day. He broke through that hard heart of mine.
Over the next few years, I made mistakes and fell back into old habits, but the difference this time was that I knew who God was. He had planted a seed in me. I got into a recovery program, which was like a greenhouse where my seed could grow, protected from the elements.
God isn’t choosy when he scatters the seed. Each of our hearts is in a different place, but he lets the seed land right where we are. Then he takes that little seedling and transplants it where the roots can go down deep, sheltered from the enemy. From that one small seed, he can bring forth a great harvest.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more encouraging messages, testimonials from men and women who’ve received life-changing recovery ministry through 7 Springs Ministries, and much more!
The Parable of the Sower
“That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
– Matthew 13:1-9
