AMAZING STORY
Sharon Pate-Bell: A New Creation
By Audra Smith
The 700 Club
CBN.com -“Cursing was my best friend, and I had a lot of friends who cursed. That was the language we used. I learned how to intimidate people by my mouth.”
In 1998 Sharon Pate-Bell's heroin addicted husband was found shot to death in the New Orleans housing projects.
“I just got a phone call one day that he had been killed, and I was just devastated. I just felt my whole world come down. I was left to raise our son by myself, and the only way I could deal with it was to drink because it would really numb the pain.”
Sharon's drinking went on for years. She became a full-blown alcoholic.
“I went to the club right on, in the worst part of town and drank everyday till I would just be drunk. I’d wake up in the morning even sometimes without eating and that would be the first thing I would want is a drink. Before long my body would need a drink. I didn’t want to be that way, but I just didn’t know how to change.”
In 2005 Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Sharon and her young son relocated to Baton Rouge where she rented a small house.
“I had a chance to sober up and I would just pray and hope that God would help me because, remember now, I lost everything I had, I had nothing.”
She started reading the Bible and watching The 700 Club everyday on TV.
“One particular day there was this story about this man who had a drinking problem and how God had healed him. All I remember was, my hands were up and I was asking God to touch me and to heal me. I felt the presence of God come into the room and I knew then that it was over. I felt the freedom and I felt God when he entered my heart and the desire to drink just left.”
Sharon gave her life to Jesus and was instantly set free from her addiction to alcohol. She didn’t even realize it until a few weeks later.
“Somebody offered me a drink and before I knew it I said, ‘Oh I don’t drink.’ And then when I said it, it came out so quickly I was like ‘Yea, that’s right I don’t drink and I don’t want to drink.’ And I never think about drinking I can walk down the store down the aisle and see liquor and it doesn’t even cross my mind. It’s like it never happened, complete total healing.”
Sharon went back to college and graduated with honors. Her son just graduated from High School, also with honors. Her life is brand new and so is her mouth.
"My mouth is to bless, my mouth is to praise, my mouth is used for worship, I thank God for healing me, I thank God for delivering me, I thank God for cleaning up my life, but most of all just giving me back my mind and he said if I keep my mind on him he’ll keep me in perfect peace."
Sharon continues, "the kind of peace I have today is not the kind of peace the world has. This is a peace in the midst of the storm, I still can trust God, and I still can believe God. And today he’s turned my whole life around."
Sharon encourages people who are addicted, to put their trust in God.
“It doesn’t matter if your husband is a junkie, it doesn’t matter if you’re an alcoholic, it doesn’t matter if even you’re struggling with drugs. God can deliver you in the midst of it. He can touch your heart; he can change your taste buds. Once you get into the presence of God, it does things that no one else can do for you. You can have a different life.”
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