TESTIMONY: How my life changed after God rescued me in a dream

Johan Nothnagel of Randburg, Johannesburg sent Gateway News this testimony of how God plucked him out of a dark place in a dream — and placed him on His path of light in real life

My life before I followed God

I have always believed in God. My mother told me about God and every Sunday I attended church and Sunday school. 

Although I knew about God and believed in Him, I had never been really close to Him. My life was all about me and what I desired. 

I started drinking and smoking during high school. I hung out in clubs and made friends with the worng people and followed my own rules. I was not obedient to my parents at all and I did not have a relationship with God during my high school years.

After school I immediately started working and meeting new people. My life improved but I still did not move closer to God. I then met a lady, Marize, who I married in 2010. At first our marriage went well. But after our first child was born in 2011, things started to go wrong again. For the first year and a few months of my daughter’s life I was an absent father. I committed adultery and Marize and I separated.

We started divorce proceedings but then I realised I had made a mistake and I didn’t want a divorce. My wife gave me a second chance and after that things started to look positive again. But there were still struggles

I encounter God

I still remember it like it was yesterday. One night I had a terrifying dream. I was trapped in a pitch black room where I was being squeezed and it felt like I couldn’t breathe. I tried to break free from the grip but could not. I started to suffocate and that’s when I asked God for help. I screamed: ” Lord help me, Lord help me, Lord help me!”

I wanted the Lord to save — and He did. In the blink of an eye I found myself on an illuminated road flanked by trees and grass. God took me out of the pitch-dark room and put me on his brightly-lit path.

I woke up, startled and dripping with perspiration. I went outside and sat down on the stoep to cool off and come to terms with what, exactly, had just happened. Sitting there, I began to feel as if a great burden had been lifted off my shoulders.

I discussed the dream with my father-in-law and we realised that God was calling me to come closer to Him. I felt that God had told me that my wandering away from him was over.

Life with God at the helm

Less than two weeks after my dream, a scammer gained access to my bank account and emptied it, leaving me without funds. The next day I went to the bank to collect my new bank card and on the way home, a man rammed his vehicle into my car.

I felt so discouraged and asked God why He was letting these bad things happen to me. A few days later I realised that it was not God but Satan who was attacking me because I had begun to follow God. I left everything in God’s hands and then things began to come right.

God is now number one in my and my family’s life. I am a new person and it is the most wonderful place to be. Everything I do now is for God. I took control of my family and I am now a better father and husband than I used to be.

I had tried to become a better person on my own but I failed. Then I got to a point where I realised that I couldn’t change on my own, and needed God in my life. He saved me!

I am now the man I never was to my wife before I met God. I asked for our family to be baptised. And on June 18 last year, I shared my testimony with our congregation and we were baptised. Our family life is healthy now and God blesses us every day.

The path God placed me on is the one I walk now.

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