Lucija is following Yeshua in a Hebrew way! Here's her story.

I am originally from Croatia (now living and working in Vancouver, BC) and like 90+ % of Croatians I was raised Catholic. When I was a child, I loved reading the Scriptures and I remember when I would come to the part with the 10 Commandments; I would ask myself this question: “God clearly says that His set apart day is Shabbat (in Croatian = Subota), so why do we observe Sunday?”
Looking back now I can say that the truth is so simple a child can understand it. This is why our Savior said that unless we enter the Kingdom of God like little children, we shall by no means enter in! It is adults that like to complicate things, the truth is however simple: Hear and obey and don’t argue with God. He is the Boss, we are not! He makes the rules!

I grew up always believing there was a God, but thought that I was too bad of a sinner for ever making it into His Kingdom. That was, until 6 years ago when He straightened me up! It was a period in my life when I was suffering from mild depression and spent much time pondering about the meaning of life. I am a scientist and at that time I was living and working in North Queensland Australia. Throughout my science career I was taught that we evolved over billions of years, from a chemical soup. If you believe in evolution then your outlook on life can be rather grim. So I thought, what is the point of life? We live, we die and are no more. Let us party, have fun while we can. And that is the kind of lifestyle I then espoused and lived, but thank God He went and sought out that which was lost! So it came to pass, that I met some Christians and one of them emailed me a link to online sermons by Calvary Chapel and I started watching one every day (rather strange for a person who in those days used to party and get drunk almost every weekend). One day, whilst watching another sermon, I recited the sinners’ prayer when the pastor gave the altar call. I meant it with all my heart. I did not know what was going to happen, but in the course of time I realized God answered! I lost all desire to party and drink and shop for clothes (my 2nd favorite “time killer” at the time). I threw away all my collection of secular music (I started finding it exceedingly abominable!). From that time on, I would spent every free minute of my time reading the Bible. I went from Genesis to Revelation (it made sense to go from the start, rather than from the Gospel of Matthew!).

When I got to the point of reading about Abraham and Moses I asked God if He had any personal message for me and if He is the One Who in times past spoke with individuals; I asked Him: “Would you speak to me, is there any message You, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob have for me?”

Now at that time I still believed the lie of evolution. Then it happened that one morning, maybe a day or 2 after I asked God to speak to me, I got myself ready for work, I jumped on my bike and I forgot my water bottle that day. Where I worked back then was tropical Queensland Australia. You don’t go anywhere out there without water!

As I started riding, a voice came to me and the voice said, “I want you to ride up Mt Stuart.”

Mt Stuart was a mountain I used to ride up for training quite regularly. It took ~ 1 hr 30 min from where I was to get to the top of it, 50+ min of which was a slow steep and pretty much continuous incline. To ride it in the morning without water was insanity.

I tried to explain this to the voice and thus replied in my mind (after all, if He is God then He knows my thoughts even before they are formed!): “I cannot go, I have no water.”

He said: “You are going in My strength.”

I said: “I have to go to work!”

He said: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and everything else shall be given to you.”

I said: “What is going on, am I going crazy, I am hearing voices in my head?!!!!”

He said: “Remember what you prayed for!”

I thought, OK, I do remember, well I guess I better go and ride up the mountain!

And so I went. I didn’t die from dehydration and when I reached the top I thought, OK, big deal, I made it, but is that all there is to it? Perhaps expecting something more (a burning bush???!!)

I left my bike at the lookout and took a little walk and no more than 10 minutes later, as I came back to the lookout, I saw 2 people standing there (a couple in their 50ies). They drove up the bitumen road and were quite obviously surprised to see that someone was crazy enough to ride up the mountain on a bike so they asked me why did I do it?
I thought, oh great (remembering how God hates lying lips) and said to them: Because God told me this morning to ride up this mountain!

They both smiled and said: “Really, well we are Christians and we are on a road trip.”
The wife then said: “I noticed you didn’t carry any water, would you like some, we have a portable fridge full of cold water in our car!”
I laughed at that, as I figured out the first lesson that God taught me that day: Where He guides, He provides!

Then the lady asked: “So what do you do?”
I said: “I am a medical research scientist working at James Cook University.”
Then she said: “Really? We are retired medical research scientists and our son, he has a PhD in physics and through his research he concluded that evolution is a flawed theory. There is actually much scientific evidence to support the Creation account!”

At this I was dumbfounded.

This was the first time in my life that I ever heard a scientist claiming there is actual scientific evidence for the Genesis 1 account! Prior to that I thought that only uneducated “religious” people who never sat 1 hr in a science class could hold on to such “outdated doctrines from the dark ages” !

And God knew this.
He knew I would not listen to anyone with a dissenting opinion on this topic other than a scientist as previously in my past I actually used to argue in quite an arrogant manner with people who had no science background and who claimed Genesis 1 was literal and true (so He met me exactly where I was in my point in faith).

God also knew that my belief in evolution was the single biggest stumbling block in our further relationship as it meant I really did not believe His Word was true.

That was a turning point in my life, I not only found out that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was real, but also, that He also speaks to nobodies like me!!! I was ASTOUNDED and then had an even bigger flame in my heart to know my Savior and my God and His rules for conduct.

The next big thing He taught me by His Ruach haKodesh was the truth about the rest of His Appointed Times. It came as a shock to me that my Savior was not born on Christmas and that Jeremiah 10 gives a rather good description of how NOT to worship God (cutting and decorating a tree!!!).

God's Appointed times are all rehearsals that teach us spiritual realities; and in the same manner, He often uses physical things to teach us spiritual principles. I often pray to Him to speak to me in a way that I can understand, and He is always faithful to answer. Here is a recent example that is very dear to me, it happened this years’ Passover. The day before Passover, I put my tzit-tzit to washing (I started wearing them this year and how that came about is a story on its own (perhaps for another occasion ☺).

When I removed them from the washing machine I was devastated! Even though I put them in a pocket of the shirt, the tzit-tzit got out during the washing and the strings of were all intertwined in a BIG bundle!
I thought, it is mission impossible! I will never be able to separate them and un-bundle them!

But God spoke to me saying: “You will, only be patient and gentle.”

So I got to work. 4 tzit-tzit with 8 strings each, all horribly intertwined!!!
And so I started gently separating them and un-bundling them, string by string, and God kept encouraging me to be patient and gentle (I had the urge to be the opposite!! But then He reminded me that gentle is the way that He prefers dealing with us! - Be ye not as the horse or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in subjection with bit and bridle, or they will not come near unto thee – Ps 32:9). I then actually started having fun in the process and thought: This is it, I am getting by the grace of God slowly disentangled from the system of Babylon (=confusion)!!

And lo and behold, I succeeded to disentangle the tzit-tzit!!! And then again I heard God say, by that still small voice that I was like that bundle! But that He will straighten me out with patience and gentleness and that contrary to my own thinking, I am not mission impossible!! (I am my own worst critic, if I was to make a joke I would say that the Adversary does not have to try hard on me because I am my own worst accuser).
I was so overjoyed by this wonderful Passover message at which God also reminded me of:
Because I trust concerning this, that he who has begun good work in you will accomplish that until the day of our Lord Yeshua The Messiah - Philippians 1:6
I praise God that He is and that He didn’t leave humanity without hope. Rather, He paid the redemption price which we could have never paid by ourselves, He provided The Way of Salvation, and, as a Good Shepherd, went after the lost sheep to bring us out of darkness and into His marvelous Light. From the time He first called me to ride up the mountain, and showed me the lie of evolution, all I ever wanted is to know Him for all that He is and to learn His Ways. I realized soon enough that this would be impossible without knowing the language He chose for His Word to be penned down. I got tired of reading translations and translator’s interpretation’s that go along with it. I also started learning the basics of Hebrew through other teachers, but I yearned for a structured course that was affordable to me. And this is how I got here, to the Holy Language Institute. Directed by the Ruach haKodesh, Who will give us the desires of our hearts which are according to His will! HalleluYAH!

Lucija
Ps. I can be reached @ lucijat77@gmail.com