Here is Copeland Lanzillotti's God Story...
April 28th will be one year since God turned my world upside down! This is a copy of a letter I sent to my family last May.
Let me tell you what happened. They say the Lord works in mysterious ways..well, not always. Around the end of February I decided I wanted to get to know my pastor better so I asked him to meet me for lunch. After our meeting I knew that God wanted me to do something. Well, a few weeks went by and things for me seemed to be getting harder personally. I knew that Satan was panicking because he could see me pulling away so he was throwing a lot at me. I decided to get more involved in church and decided I would try to cut out some things that I knew I shouldn't be doing...well, easier said than done.
On Friday the 27th of April I was on my way home from work and decided I needed to have a long talk with God. Basically, what I said was, I have been trying for years to do what I know I am supposed to do and I have prayed a thousand prayers for help and for forgiveness and I can't change my ways. Let me say that I have had some heart to heart talks with God before and always felt better and that I would go forward from that day and really change.....well, it didn't work. Don't get me wrong - some things changed for a while, and I know now he heard me; it just was working in his time, not mine. So anyway, this prayer was mostly the same except I asked for something. Basically I said I need a push, a sign - something. I think in retrospect I was asking for proof.
The next morning I got up and my neighbor called asking if I could give him a hand digging holes for his new horse pen. I jumped on the four wheeler with my son Luke and took off. We had dug all the holes and were down to the last one. We had been using a tractor with an auger on the back and I was guiding the auger with my hands to make sure the holes were straight. This hole was almost finished when BAM - I got shocked. Now, we have all been shocked before and I know what it feels like. This was more like I just got hit by a linebacker at full speed; the power traveled through my right arm across my chest and out my left arm (which was holding a steel digging bar) and back into the ground. I will spare all the details and get to the point: the line was a 14,400 volt primary power line for our power grid. It killed power to about 30 homes, blew a 1-1/2" power cable apart and burnt the bottom of the steel auger....but didn't harm a hair on my head. I have since talked to power company people and doctors who say that this just does not happen. Typically that many amps will stop your heart immediately and the voltage...well, it cooks you. By that I mean you become a welding rod. Long story short - you die and it ain't pretty.
So since that day God has changed me. I have been able to put away the things I have struggled with. I still struggle with some things but this time I am winning daily instead of falling down every hour or minute of the day; now I stumble sometimes often through the day sometimes only once or twice a day and sometimes I fall right on my face but the point is with God I have beaten these demons and they have left me! Sure, I see them around and sometimes they get a grip on me but when I feel that grip tighten instead of me "tapping out" and giving in, Jesus steps in and I am able to pick that evil up and slam it flat on the ground... and walk away! I know I will always have this fight but it gets easier and easier by the day.
I will tell you all and anyone who gives me a chance that GOD IS REAL. He is and has been always there and is in my corner 1,000 % and He is in your corner too, but... you have to throw the towel in and admit defeat before He will step in and show you how to win. He is my rock and my stronghold, and nothing - I mean nothing - can stand in his way. If you read this and feel that funny feeling in your stomach and up your spine, that's Him.... and if you could see the look on the devil's face as you read this, it's the same look he had when Jesus stood up and walked out of that tomb. I believe it would be a look of fear and anguish because he knows that he has lost again. I want to stand in front of God's throne on judgment day and look down the line and see your smiling face because you and I know that we are getting ready to go home.
Today is April 17th 2008: This letter was written almost a year ago today. Wow - what a year a difference in my faith has made, what a year God has made! Has it been all fuzzy and happy? Not even close, but joyful and eye opening - absolutely!!!! Have the demons left me alone? Well, not exactly. You see, the enemy spends all the years that he has control over you and weaves a web. Through God's mercy and his strength I am still climbing through that web. The longer we stay away from God, the more ammo we give the enemy. And he will use it when we least expect it but I will say that with God that ammo has a bite....a painfull bite... but it is only temporary. He will run out and I will still be here protected by God and fully healed! I still have a lifetime of learning but one thing is sure - God will restore the broken years to us. AMEN!
Psalms 86:13 For great is thy mercy toward me, for thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.
April 28th will be one year since God turned my world upside down! This is a copy of a letter I sent to my family last May.
Let me tell you what happened. They say the Lord works in mysterious ways..well, not always. Around the end of February I decided I wanted to get to know my pastor better so I asked him to meet me for lunch. After our meeting I knew that God wanted me to do something. Well, a few weeks went by and things for me seemed to be getting harder personally. I knew that Satan was panicking because he could see me pulling away so he was throwing a lot at me. I decided to get more involved in church and decided I would try to cut out some things that I knew I shouldn't be doing...well, easier said than done.
On Friday the 27th of April I was on my way home from work and decided I needed to have a long talk with God. Basically, what I said was, I have been trying for years to do what I know I am supposed to do and I have prayed a thousand prayers for help and for forgiveness and I can't change my ways. Let me say that I have had some heart to heart talks with God before and always felt better and that I would go forward from that day and really change.....well, it didn't work. Don't get me wrong - some things changed for a while, and I know now he heard me; it just was working in his time, not mine. So anyway, this prayer was mostly the same except I asked for something. Basically I said I need a push, a sign - something. I think in retrospect I was asking for proof.
The next morning I got up and my neighbor called asking if I could give him a hand digging holes for his new horse pen. I jumped on the four wheeler with my son Luke and took off. We had dug all the holes and were down to the last one. We had been using a tractor with an auger on the back and I was guiding the auger with my hands to make sure the holes were straight. This hole was almost finished when BAM - I got shocked. Now, we have all been shocked before and I know what it feels like. This was more like I just got hit by a linebacker at full speed; the power traveled through my right arm across my chest and out my left arm (which was holding a steel digging bar) and back into the ground. I will spare all the details and get to the point: the line was a 14,400 volt primary power line for our power grid. It killed power to about 30 homes, blew a 1-1/2" power cable apart and burnt the bottom of the steel auger....but didn't harm a hair on my head. I have since talked to power company people and doctors who say that this just does not happen. Typically that many amps will stop your heart immediately and the voltage...well, it cooks you. By that I mean you become a welding rod. Long story short - you die and it ain't pretty.
So since that day God has changed me. I have been able to put away the things I have struggled with. I still struggle with some things but this time I am winning daily instead of falling down every hour or minute of the day; now I stumble sometimes often through the day sometimes only once or twice a day and sometimes I fall right on my face but the point is with God I have beaten these demons and they have left me! Sure, I see them around and sometimes they get a grip on me but when I feel that grip tighten instead of me "tapping out" and giving in, Jesus steps in and I am able to pick that evil up and slam it flat on the ground... and walk away! I know I will always have this fight but it gets easier and easier by the day.
I will tell you all and anyone who gives me a chance that GOD IS REAL. He is and has been always there and is in my corner 1,000 % and He is in your corner too, but... you have to throw the towel in and admit defeat before He will step in and show you how to win. He is my rock and my stronghold, and nothing - I mean nothing - can stand in his way. If you read this and feel that funny feeling in your stomach and up your spine, that's Him.... and if you could see the look on the devil's face as you read this, it's the same look he had when Jesus stood up and walked out of that tomb. I believe it would be a look of fear and anguish because he knows that he has lost again. I want to stand in front of God's throne on judgment day and look down the line and see your smiling face because you and I know that we are getting ready to go home.
Today is April 17th 2008: This letter was written almost a year ago today. Wow - what a year a difference in my faith has made, what a year God has made! Has it been all fuzzy and happy? Not even close, but joyful and eye opening - absolutely!!!! Have the demons left me alone? Well, not exactly. You see, the enemy spends all the years that he has control over you and weaves a web. Through God's mercy and his strength I am still climbing through that web. The longer we stay away from God, the more ammo we give the enemy. And he will use it when we least expect it but I will say that with God that ammo has a bite....a painfull bite... but it is only temporary. He will run out and I will still be here protected by God and fully healed! I still have a lifetime of learning but one thing is sure - God will restore the broken years to us. AMEN!
Psalms 86:13 For great is thy mercy toward me, for thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.
2 comments:
Thank you Copeland for sharing this. I know it is not always easy to share personal experiences with strangers.. but it is God Stories like yours that make a difference in so many people's lives! God is working through you; thank you for allowing Him!
Angela
Copeland, I love your testimony. It really touched my heart. I have known your Mom since high school and I know she is so very proud of you. My husband, daughter and her family, as well as myself are Christians. But I have a son that says he was saved when he was 13 but he doesn't walk in God's ways. He is a wonderful person and has a big heart but we know that won't get him to heaven. Please pray that he will come to know the Lord before it is too late. That has been our prayer for years. Thank you for sharing your testimony with us. It is a beautiful humbling experience.
Ellen
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