Acts 26:18 – “..to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.”
The following is the testimony of Mrs Murielle Marie Wright , London, England of how Almighty God worked in her life by His grace to bring her ‘from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that [she]..receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith’ in Lord Yeshua the Messiah, Son of the living God.
Murielle, how long have you been saved?
Although raised in a Christian home, had the knowledge of God, Lord Yeshua and knew the Gospel, I believe I was saved at the age of 24, almost ten years ago.
In your own words, what does “saved” mean and where in the Scriptures do you derive your understanding?
I derive my understanding from John chapter 3 where Yeshua was speaking to Nicodemus. John 3:1-5 says this: ‘There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
To me therefore, salvation means being born-again. As human beings, we are all born sinners because Adam and Eve sinned – and since we are all children of Adam and Eve we are therefore sinners from conception. Sin bought death to us as human beings and therefore being “born-again” is to get back that freedom from death, from ‘the wages of sin’ (see Romans 6:23) and the curse of sin upon us. This is, of course, through Yeshua the Messiah by His blood. It is the only way.
Murielle’s background
Can you share with us about your family background?
Although I am from Niger, I was born in Ethiopia, as my family were living there at that time. I have one older brother, two younger brothers and one younger sister. As mentioned above, I was born into a Christian home with a mum and dad who had a strong understanding of salvation and sanctification and so my siblings and I were brought up with the knowledge of the Bible from childhood. I learned from my mum mostly because she was the one who was at home the most and would teach us the Bible. Her first bible had so many annotations that it became much larger than its original size with all her notes inserted into the pages! She was also a woman of prayer. We would have a family time of prayer every day when my dad would come home from work. So I grew in a home where the knowledge of God and the importance of faith in Him was always shared and my siblings and I attended Sunday school regularly as my parents always attended church.
Having been born and raised in a Christian family, clearly you knew there was a God. What were your thoughts and feelings as a child when you thought about God?
I always thought about God growing up as a child – it was unavoidable! As far back as I can remember I always had a conscious awareness of God. My mum would always teach us the bible and she also taught us to read the Bible for ourselves. I can recall reading the Bible from the age of 5 years old. I also had a special encounter with God through a dream at that same age. In the dream, my siblings and I were just doing normal everyday activities quite peacefully but there was chaos and destruction raging all around us, approaching us. I can remember that when the chaos was about to reach us I heard a strong voice coming from Heaven saying ‘no, those are My children’ and that is when the dream ended. It is a dream that I have never forgotten and which struck me from that time as being something so real and unlike any other dreams I had then or since. So there was no way I could deny the existence of God.
The things of God always felt personal to me from childhood because in everything we did as family the knowledge of God played a key role – even in the games which my siblings and I played as children. I can remember my sister and I singing songs learned at church for hours as we played together.
Nevertheless, although I had a tender conscious awareness of God from childhood, in my teens I experienced challenges with my relationship with God. Despite this, I still grew in the knowledge I had of God and His word began to make more of an impact upon me practically. For example, I recall a particular verse which struck me more deeply than other Bible verses being Galatians 6:7, which says ‘Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.’ I’m not really sure why this particular verse struck me, only that I couldn’t forget it and it seemed to hover over every action I did. I became very conscious in particular that whatever I would do that was not good, I would reap!
I also loved reading and I read the Bible from beginning to end when I was 14. I can’t remember how long it took me but I would read several chapters each night.
When did you become conscious of the Gospel of Lord Yeshua, that Messiah died for your sins, personally?
Despite hearing the Gospel from childhood, I was around the age of thirteen or fourteen when I personally became deeply conscious that Christ died for my sins. I recall a particular conversation my mother had with all my siblings and I one day. She insisted on the importance for us to be saved because she had taught us the Gospel, about the coming of the Lord and the things accompanying the end of the world – the Great Tribulation, the judgment and hell – and stressed she would not be able to carry us to be with her if we are unsaved. Following that conversation it became very important for me personally to become saved.
The Journey to Faith
What was your journey to saving faith from then on? How did God work in your life to bring you from head knowledge to the light of the saving knowledge and salvation of Lord Yeshua the Messiah?
The journey from having that head knowledge that I needed to be saved to truly being ‘born again’ was not a straight one. Even though I had the level of head knowledge that I had, I do not think I had a full understanding of what the Christian life was really about. At the age of fifteen I returned back to Niger from where our family were based for high school and the society which had been very restricted to our immediate family circle before then became much wider for me. We had lots of relatives and friends in Niger from various background and as I started hanging about with my peers, I gradually came to want to resemble them. Some of my female friends had boyfriends and so I also wanted to have a boyfriend too. Even though I was convicted that those things I started doing were wrong, I didn’t know how to restrain myself from them. From then on I fell into a pattern of running into worldly ways; being convicted by the Spirit; running back to God, yet running back into the world again; being convicted; running back to God! This went on until I left Niger to attend University in France at the age of 18. By this point I was very far from God and at Uni I came under a deep conviction that my lifestyle was leading me to hell! I was into wrong relationships with men, which resulted in me having an abortion on two separate occasions because I wouldn’t let my family or Christians’ friends know the kind of life I was living.
Such was that sense of living my life in the wrong way I began to tell myself from time to time, ‘if you die today you are going to hell.’ Despite being under conviction of sin however, I didn’t know how to stop myself and continued to follow an ungodly lifestyle. I wasn’t attending a church fellowship during my years of Uni in Bordeaux, France and therefore I didn’t have nor did I want people to monitor me, as I had when I was living in Africa. I also stopped praying and reading my Bible. It was only on holidays back to Africa that I would “pray”, “repent” and say to God that when I returned to France I would remain with Him – but this was just lip-service. As soon as I returned to France I would not continue praying, nor would I attend church and would end up going back to my own ways which were increasingly sinful and ungodly!
This cycle went on until I reach 24 when I grew really tired of the back and forth, up and down cycle of repenting then going back to my own ways. One day, while in Africa, I came to a conscious definite decision that this time around I would not go back to my own ways. I repented and told God of that decision not to go back and when I returned to France on that occasion, I began to make changes to my life. I got away from friends who I knew were a bad influence on me and linked virtually every Sunday to my childhood church. I also made sure that I kept on reading my Bible, continued praying and seeking the Lord particularly about living a life pleasing to Him. From then on I began being built up in faith in Lord Jesus. I began to grow in knowledge about sanctification at that time and began to be enabled more and more, by God’s grace, to begin living the life of consecration, which I had not being doing before.
When did the assurance of salvation come? When did you know you were saved? Can you describe how that felt?
I can still recall the moment, I believe, I became truly born-again and received assurance of salvation. I was on holiday from Uni and in Africa at the time, in church one Sunday. I can remember praying to God and experiencing such a sense of joy and peace and a freeness in my mind. Prior to this, I was troubled with a conviction deep down that if I died, I would go to hell but at that time when praying, I received the conviction that everything was settled with God and that if I die, I will see Him. I had such a peace within my spirit that every sin had been forgiven and I knew I was saved. I had the assurance of salvation.
In your own words what is repentance and its connection with salvation?
For me repentance is when you come to the acknowledgement that the way you are living your life is sinful, that there is no way that by your own efforts – no matter how much you try – to reform yourself to the degree to enable you to see God. It is to acknowledge your sinful state, to then acknowledge this to God and make a conscience decision to choose Christ and reject your own lifestyle. Essentially, you are deciding to submit your life – your will – to God.
The connection of repentance with salvation is this: without repentance, you will not receive the gift of salvation. Obviously in repenting, you first have to believe that Lord Jesus came to die for your sins. Without that belief in the first place, you will not be able to understand your sinful state and the fact that Jesus paid the price for you. Moreover, you would not be able to receive the spiritual understanding that it is only through that price the Lord Jesus paid through His death and resurrection that you can receive redemption from your sins. It is when you understand that He died for you, that you cannot achieve holiness by your own effort, that you need Christ to make you holy, and in the light of this you repent of your sinful life – however you have been living without God – and choose to live the way that is pleasing to God. You ask God to help you in all this because you cannot do it by yourself – you ask Christ to come into your life to help you to now live the right way. To me, that is the connection between repentance and salvation.
From then to now
Since then, can you share a little bit about how the Lord Yeshua has worked in your life?
Since Uni, the Lord has worked so much in my life. Previously, when I was following my own wrong choices in a sinful lifestyle at university, it adversely impacted my studies. I had lost the focus I should have had at Uni and this led to me losing two years of my academic studies. After I was saved, the Lord gave me that focus I needed and enabled me to become diligent with my studies, enabling me to complete a master’s degree in geotechnical engineering. The Lord also enabled me to experience His guidance through His word as I kept on reading the Bible and began applying what I read to my life. I remember being particularly governed by the Scripture at Proverbs 3:5 ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding.’
In everything I was doing therefore, I was always seeking guidance from the Lord Jesus in prayer, asking the Lord whether He wanted me to do this or that. He always guided my path – in my career, in my choice of which country I would work, in my choice of life partner, and in everything whether small and large. It was the Lord Jesus who enabled me to develop the habit of seeking Him in prayer for the direction of my life and who enabled me to become sensitive to His guidance.
After Uni, I remained in France, completing an internship and working in a temporary job for about six months. Towards the end of that six-month period, I had a strong sense in my spirit that the temporary job would not be extended further. Even though living in France was not a terrible experience, I had never had the sense of feeling comfortable living there. My siblings, who had also moved to France, seemed to enjoy their lives there however, for me, there was always a sense of not being where I was supposed to be. When my work contract ended I therefore sought the Lord in prayer about where I was to apply for work. Although my siblings live in Paris, France I did not feel drawn there but at the same time, I did not really want to remain in Bordeaux alone. Church fellowship was also a big factor in my considerations, particularly as I had a real desire to serve the Lord in my ministry. Despite living in Bordeaux, I had travelled every fortnight to Paris to attend the church I was raised in. Although I visited other churches whilst in Bordeaux, I had chosen to remain in my childhood church fellowship because I was familiar with our teachings and started serving in the choir. Having congregations internationally, it also had local fellowships in Paris and London, England.
As I prayed and sought the Lord’s guidance it came upon my heart to move to London, even though I didn’t know anyone there. Shortly after this, while at a concert in the Paris branch of my church fellowship I met a believer from London whose family I had known in Africa. Through our conversations when he learned I was considering a move there he offered to assist. He and his wife offered me a room in their home while I visited London for about a month during which time I realised I really liked it and wanted to live and work there. Even though at that time I had no permanent work or job offer in London, I returned to France to settle my affairs and moved to the UK. Initially, I found a temporary job in child-care whilst seeking a permanent job in my own field, and by God’s grace, found the job I’m currently still at now (Laboratory Technician) within a month of moving. I began attending the London branch of my church fellowship and continued serving in the choir, which I had been a part of in France, and went on to serve in the youth ministry. I also served as an interpreter whenever French church members visited London.
Since the age of 24, after being saved, I had also begun thinking about marriage. It turned out to be a very long and twisted journey! When still in France, I did have some proposals from men who claimed to be interested in marriage but there were many issues. One of these was that I was very conscious of having previously lived a sinful lifestyle and messed up my life through my ungodly choices. As a result, gaining a real understanding of who was truly the will of God for my marriage was a bit of a struggle. Although I knew I was meant to pray about marriage, when proposals to embark on a relationship of courtship came, initially I did not know really whether my answer should be ‘yes’ or ‘no’. What happened therefore was that to some proposals I said ‘no’ simply on the basis of not having any feelings for the person whilst others I accepted having marriage as the aim. Through it all, I prayed for guidance not to make a wrong choice of partner and regret it later in marriage. One of my prayers was that if I was not with the right person, that God would stop me – even if that was on the day of the wedding! That was a constant prayer and I do believe that God has been very faithful in answering that prayer. He always revealed to me that marriage would not work with the person I was with.
By the time I moved to London, I was more mature in these matters and found myself spending more time in prayer about it and being in less haste to get married over the years. At 28 although not wanting to be in a relationship just for the sake of being in a relationship the path to marriage was not, for me, one without further mistakes! I somehow ended up in a long-distance relationship with a believer living in the Ivory Coast which went horribly wrong and actually led to me becoming depressed. It was not easy to have to learn that this person was not the right person for me – we couldn’t even understand each other and in the end, I just couldn’t be in a relationship which led to me being that depressed!
That experience had a significant impact on me and shortly after this, it came on my heart to write my testimony in the form of a book. I wrote of my experiences of going so far from the will of God as a teenager after being raised by godly parents in a Christian home and the gracious restoration by God of me to Himself. I intended it to be completely frank and thought that if any man would still be willing to marry me after reading it, I would be open to this. It so happened that it was as I took the decision to write the book in September 2018 that I met the man who would later become my husband.
The relationship with this brother in the Faith began with platonic friendship and was also long-distance as he is from Nigeria. Initially, I thought he was just the same as others who initially would show interest and then things would not work out, so I made every effort to put him off. I shared with him the truth of my previous life, of my sinful lifestyle choices and the situations it had led me into, hoping to chase him away. I was very straight with him, letting him know that I was not a virgin, I had slept with more than one man so if he had in mind a chaste virgin for a wife, that was not me. This is something that, in our church fellowship, is a big deal! Others whom I had been honest with had not been able to deal with this truth and would therefore not want to pursue a relationship with me. He was different. He stayed – as my friend. He was actually touched with my honesty and we had a real friendship. It was a very gradual recognition which came in time that that this friend was the type of man I would love to have as a husband, nevertheless I still was quite reluctant to pursue the idea in my thoughts. I ended up seeking God in prayer about my feelings and told the Lord Jesus that if these feelings were not coming from Him, to not let me deceive myself about this. However, he also began to develop feelings towards me and we both gradually came to realise we were more than friends. We then prayed about this and about three months later we decided to embark on a relationship with the understanding of marriage being the intention.
Even then, it was not a straightforward journey to our wedding day It was a long-distance relationship with him living in Nigeria, West Africa and me living in London, England. The church leadership were concerned about the idea of marriage because of the long-distance issue, so this presented another layer of challenges for us. I, however, believed that God confirmed to me throughout the difficulties – by the way we were able to talk things through, support and understand one another – that he truly was the right person for me. Continuously praying together through all the delays, we were finally married in 2021 and are currently waiting on the Lord to sort out where we will live out our married life together.
You mentioned above about serving in your church. Can you tell me about the ministry you serve in, what it is and how you came to know the Lord was calling you into this ministry?
Although I’m still serving in the Choir, I consider my main ministry to be serving young people in the church. I have a deep burden for young people because of my own experiences. The moment I came back to God, although I recognised my personal responsibility for my own mistakes, I also came to believe that some of those were made because I did not have people to mentor and guide me. By the time I was a young teen, my big brother had left Africa for France and I was without the type of peers who could perhaps have influenced me away from my wrong choices. Even though my parents were there, I didn’t really want to listen to them. As is common with many teens, I thought I didn’t need their advice anymore and was old enough to choose for myself. I strongly believe the wise counsel of an older brother or sister at that crucial point in my life would have been a form of restraint upon my wrong choices at that time. Consequently, it lay heavily upon my heart that perhaps my life story might be used by God to change a young person’s life – this was the reason I wanted to write the book. [Ed. Murielle’s book is called, ‘My Second Chance because He Loves Me’ under the name Murielle Marie Wright and is available on Amazon – https://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Second-Chance-Because-Loves/1]. I believe that burden upon my heart was the Lord Jesus calling me into ministry among young people. The key point for me was that my life could be used by God to impact young people in my church fellowship and elsewhere to dissuade them from making similar wrong choices I made as a teen and young person. The Lord Jesus has given me such a love for His truth – the Bible – and knowledge of Scriptures through obedience to God with the sense that this gift is to be used to serve the youth, helping them find answers to their questions of life through the grace of God.
What is your heart’s desire for this ministry?
My desire is to see the youth built up spiritually in the faith of Lord Jesus, in obedience to God.
Do you have any particular hopes for the future that you can share with us?
I firmly believe we are in the last days of this present world and I see that the world is entering into The Church, bringing in a lot of wrong practices. As a result of this, I believe we really need more committed labourers in The Church – more pastors, prayer warriors, leaders – who choose to stand for God in this time. In particular, I see the need for people who will pray. These days we are all very busy with life – even with serving in ministry – but we seem to have forgotten the importance of praying, especially for the children living in this generation.
On a personal note, my husband and I are working on how to live out our married life in the will of God, seeking Him for what the future holds for us and so my hopes include the grace to be a godly wife and, if it’s the Lord’s will, to be a godly mother.
Last words
Can you share a Scripture passage through which the Holy Spirit has really encouraged, strengthened or instructed you in your walk of faith in Lord Yeshua?
‘But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint’ (Isaiah 40:31). There are many Scriptures but I choose this one because I am a very strong -headed and sometimes impatient type of person. It’s not easy for me to sit back and wait on God. Additionally, although I have faced many challenges, the Holy Spirit always reminds me through this verse that if I wait upon the Lord He will take care of all the challenges I am facing.
Finally, how can sisters in the faith of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah pray for you?
Please pray that the Lord God would keep me strong in the faith, help me be a good example of faith and help me be a good wife to my husband.
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