Testimony: The Beauty of God's Surprising Gifts
God has a beautiful way of surprising us with His gifts. He knows the deep things in our hearts, even the things we struggle to put into words. Sometimes He asks us to wait, and in that waiting He is quietly preparing something far greater than we imagined.
For years, I prayed and asked the Lord to show me what He had placed inside me. I wanted to serve Him and honour Him, but I honestly did not know what gifts He had given me. I kept asking, seeking, and crying out to Him, but for a long time it felt as though God was silent.
Then in 2008, I started a season, one that I can only describe as a desert journey. It was a hard and painful time, and in that place I cried out to God more deeply than ever before. I asked Him again to show me His will for my life and to reveal the gifts He had placed in me. I even remember praying something quite bold: "Lord, I do not want something ordinary, something everyone else has. I want what You have chosen for me specifically - something unique".
It was during that time that something began to stir in me when I heard piano music. I cannot really explain it. Every time I heard gentle piano music, I would be moved to tears. Something inside me got stirred. It felt like the Lord was touching a place in my heart that I was not even aware of.
One day, there was a knock at my door. When I opened it, I recognised the man standing there. I had met him briefly a couple of weeks earlier at a client's workplace. He had happened to drive past our house, seen that we were building, and stopped in to tell us about his new glass supply business. He had no idea that I lived there and at first could not quite place where he knew me from. As we spoke, he mentioned that he had left the company where we had met and was now building his own business, while also continuing with his piano career.
Before he left, he gave me a CD of his own piano music. It may have seemed like a small and ordinary moment, but to me it was so much more. I knew in my heart that the Lord was speaking to me through that unexpected visit. Today, he and his beautiful wife are dear friends, which makes that memory even more special.
As I held that CD in my hands, I felt in my heart that one day I would have my own piano.
Not long after that, I was driving to a work event I had organised for one of my clients when I noticed a sign with the number 37. That number was very significant to me because of something the Lord had impressed on my heart earlier that year, and it also happened to be my age at the time. The sign was for a guest house called Manna and a conference centre called Eden. Later that evening I looked up the meaning of Manna and Delight - Manna means"unexpected gift" and Eden means "delight". That felt significant! I knew God was confirming that He was about to do something unexpected and beautiful in my life. I had no idea what but I was excited!
One morning, while I was getting ready for the day, I heard soft, beautiful piano music playing on the TV in the lounge. Once again, I found myself in tears. My husband walked in, saw me crying, and asked what was wrong. I told him how deeply stirred I had been lately whenever I heard piano music. To my surprise, he suggested that we look for a second-hand piano, and he set a budget of R5,000.
Even though I was grateful, I did not think we would find anything within that budget. But the Lord already had a plan. A friend told me about a neighbour who was selling a beautiful piano for R15,000. It was far beyond what we could afford, but something in me wanted to ask anyway. So I did. I asked if they would consider an offer of R5,000.
To my amazement, they came back and said they would let it go for R7,000.
I knew we still did not have enough, and I hesitated. But I felt such a strong sense that I should not let it go. I decided to approach my parents to help with the extra R2,000. I was in their home and while I was asking, my husband walked in and said he would cover the full amount. It was such a precious moment of God's provision! He made a way where there seemed to be no way.
In February 2009, we wentt to pick up the piano. She was beautiful! An upright that had been well loved and carefully looked after by her previous owners.
When I first sat down to play, I felt discouraged. What came from my hands sounded clumsy, and nothing seemed to flow. It was not as though I could really play anything. I was simply trying to work out a little tune I remembered from childhood. I started to doubt and even thought, Oh dear, did we make a mistake buying this piano?
But then the Lord brought to mind dreams I had had over a number of years. I had never really stopped to think much about them before. At the time, they had simply seemed like lovely dreams. In those recurring dreams, I would walk into a large room filled with all kinds of pianos. Each time, I would sit down at one of them, any one I chose, and the music would just flow through my fingers. As I remembered those dreams, I closed my eyes and said, "Okay, Holy Spirit, let my fingers move."
And they did!
What came out was not something I had learned. It was not something I had been taught. A melody began to flow through my hands, and I knew it was from the Lord. I cannot explain it any other way. It was a gift from Him!
I was completely amazed. I remember thinking, how on earth was I going to explain to anyone what had just happened!? I kept playing the tune over and over until it was complete. All the while, I was wondering how I was going to tell my husband and my family what had just taken place.
Later, one of my friends suggested that I ask God for the name of the piece. So I did. In my heart, I felt the title was to be "No More Tears". And that was the very first piece of music God gave me.
That same year (2009), the Lord gave me seven pieces of music. The next year, He gave me seven more. I began to notice that things seemed to come in twos for me. In 2010 God also sent me to Israel for ministry work twice. I enquired of God about that at the time. One morning as I oponed my Bible, I openend it on the scripture on Genesis 41:32 (NKJV) -
"And the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass".
Just as Pharaoh was given two dreams to establish what God was saying, I felt the Lord was confirming and establishing things in my life.
Proverbs 4:26 says, "Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established".
Looking back now, I can see that God was establishing my steps. He was laying a foundation long before I understood what He was doing. Over time, I began to realise that these melodies were not just piano songs. They carried something of His heart. The Lord was using them to bring peace, healing, comfort, and restoration. In the same way David played and Saul found relief, I have seen God use music to touch people in places where words cannot reach.
Through this journey I have witnessed things I never could have imagined. I have seen healing. I have seen deliverance. I have seen the presence of God move as music was played. I have no formal training, and many times I have felt unqualified, but God has chosen to work through my weakness. That has kept me humble and deeply aware that this gift does not come from me. It comes from Him.
I believe God has a purpose for sound. He can use music to reach the deepest places of the heart - almost like performing surgery. He can bring peace where there is turmoil, healing where there is pain, and hope where there is despair. When we quiet ourselves before Him, He can minister in ways beyond words.
I carry this gift with gratitude and with reverence, because it belongs to the Lord.
"I have set those in this earth, those who are My psalmists, and they shall establish a flow, a flow of My river among My people, a flow that will help My people come higher, a flow of My presence. Because their songs come from heaven and their songs are anointed, they shall indeed impact you and bring you into what I am doing. So when you hear the sound of heaven impacting your heart and when you hear the sound of heaven coming upon you embrace it and let it do its work. Let it bring peace to your soul, let it bring joy to your heart and let it bring healing to your body. Let the Spirit of the Lord flow in the sound that I am bringing forth as promised. For such a time as this embrace My sound, says the Lord Most Holy."
~ Faith Tabernacle, The Trumpet by Bill Burns, 15 October 2012
A Song to the Lord Who Preserves and Prospers His People A Psalm of David.
Blessed be the Lord my Rock, Who trains my hands for war, And my fingers for battle.
~ Psalm 144:1
All glory to God!