Oh! The earthly battle that is faced when a soul is trying to follow the Lord! Satan is always searching for those who desire a new life in Christ. Just when we think we are on the path to recovery, we can easily get taken down again if we aren’t careful. Standing strong against the devil is most difficult unless we are fighting in Christ’s strength. 

For Ilya, in the story below, he allowed the lusts of this world to pull him back, after repenting of those sins years before. It’s those momentary thoughts that we have to take control of and allow God to help us gain victory. We see this in the following statement, “but only till the moment, when Ilya began to feel the lust to his previous sins.” 

Thankfully, in Ilya’s story, God is leading him down a different path now. Although the church was praying, nobody thought Ilya would return to the Father. But all things are possible with God! Please pray for all of the “unworthy” people that God continues to save on a daily basis. 

The following is a testimony from our ministry to people who have drifted-away.

All of us know, that there are different people in the church. Not all of us can boast of having a blameless reputation of sinless people. There are always those, who want to repeat the fate of the Prodigal son and eat husks, like in the Parable. I want to tell you shortly about such a family.

Ilya repented 10 years ago. He used for a long time. All his friends already died long ago, because of overdose or blood poisoning. God gave him mercy. When he recovered, he returned to a normal life, healthy life without poison, and began to coordinate the ministry to drug addicts in our church. The ministry was successful but only till the moment when Ilya began to feel the lust for his previous sins of the flesh. His fall was loud and, dramatic, and we thought he would never come back to a normal life again. We disciplined him according to the biblical frameworks. He was getting down more and more. He was on the edge of death several times. But the church continued to pray for him, and a few years later he received a new birth. To be frank, we could hardly believe he would revive after all that had happened to him. But everything is possible for the Lord.

Jesus loves to give mercy to unworthy people. God raised him for a new life. He trimmed his lamp, renewed his repentance and came back to the church. Now he lives in another town and thanks his Christian friends for prayers. He helps drug addicts to find Jesus.