Road To Redemption
Road To Redemption
Rachael Cannon's Journey of Redemption and Faith
Can a single testimony change your entire life? Join us on this episode of Road to Redemption as we welcome the incredibly courageous Rachael Cannon. Rachael shares her harrowing yet inspiring journey of overcoming a 25-year drug addiction and a 30-year identity crisis. Raised in a pastor's home, her struggles with anger towards God led her down dark paths. Hear her gripping story of discovering unconditional love and redemption from her Abba Father.
Rachael also discusses her latest book, "The Heart of the Lily," released in two volumes, which chronicles her transformative experiences. Learn how an unexpected woman's testimony at a gathering reignited Rachael's hope and led her to a miraculous recovery through faith and community support. Her journey, marked by resilience and unwavering faith, offers a powerful message of hope and inspiration to anyone facing their own challenges. Tune in to hear Rachael's profound transformation to finding true joy and freedom through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
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rtrdestiny@gmail.com
Welcome to Road to Redemption, a show sharing powerful life testimonies, giving hope to those on their own road to redemption.
Speaker 2:All right, Welcome to Road to Redemption. This is Valerie Peterson. I have John Martin here in the studio. I have Drew Powell. We're doing a team thing this morning, which is wonderful because we have an amazing guest and I can call her my friend. She's just, she's been a blessing to me. She her name is, and I want to welcome you is Rachel Cannon. Welcome, Rachel, Thank you so much.
Speaker 3:It's such a pleasure to be with y'all this morning.
Speaker 4:Welcome.
Speaker 2:Would you be willing just to announce your brand new book? This woman has this is her fourth book, folks. Would you be willing just to announce your brand new book? This woman has it. This is her fourth book, folks.
Speaker 3:So would you announce your latest book? I would love to Thank you so much. Yeah, the name of my book. The fourth book, is called the Heart of the Lily and it was 470 pages long, so my publisher and I decided to release it in two volumes. So they're both available on Amazon right now the Heart of the Lily, volume 1, the Heart of the Lily, volume 2. And it is loaded with the love of Abba. It is loaded, packed, loaded, jammed with unconditional love and just our union with God.
Speaker 2:I love it. Can you I do my favorite. I've got to be honest with you. It was your first book and can you talk a little bit about the Woman at the Well and that you did that book because of your doctorate thesis?
Speaker 3:correct. That is correct. I had to do a 150-page dissertation for my doctorate in theology and I actually turned that into a book and the book is called Drink Deep and it's the whole story of the woman at the well in John, chapter 4. And I broke it down verse by verse. But her name is Fotini P-H-O-T-I-N-I and she's known as the enlightened one and supposedly there was so much transformation that took place between her and Jesus at the well, so much transformation on her face, that when she went back into town the townspeople followed her because there was an aura about her and she literally glowed. The enlightened one.
Speaker 3:She glowed with a light which I think that you guys are glowing in here today, right.
Speaker 2:Yes, well, you know, I look at you. You've been transformed, literally. Rachel and you, wherever you go, you share the love of Jesus and I would love for you. Would you tell us what you've been set free from?
Speaker 3:I would love to. It's my favorite thing to talk about.
Speaker 3:really, I might get a little emotional because it's so new to me still even though it's been eight years that the Lord redeemed my life, even though it's been eight years that the Lord redeemed my life, it's just still so new and so fresh to me. This relationship with the Lord is everything to me and it's deeply relational. Oh man, I just love the Lord so much. So, yeah, I was a drug addict for 25 years and for 13 of those years I woke up every single morning having withdrawals from either drugs or alcohol, and for those of you who don't know what withdrawals are, it feels like flu-like symptoms, like I would wake up sick. I was so sick and I had to have a fix in order to start my day. I had to have drugs or alcohol just to start my day for 13 years of my life. And my dad is a pastor. He's a local pastor here at Destin Methodist, where I'm a member now, and I always believed in God. I always felt like I kind of knew God, maybe a different version of God than I know. Now I'm also a super happy Christian. I know what it was like to be dead or feel like I was living in hell, and so I have a lot of joy and I say I'm chronically joyful now. I have chronic joy.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, so I got set free from drugs and also, while I was a drug addict, I had a serious identity crisis and so I had turned to the homosexual lifestyle, the gay lifestyle, same sex attraction. I identified as a lesbian and I lived as a lesbian for probably 30 years of my life and, oh man, there was so much confusion, so much disorientation, so much distortion. I was living in a bankrupt identity, looking for love in all the wrong places, basically walking around saying will you love me? Will you love me? And the first person who loved me I would cling on to them. You know, just looking for love.
Speaker 3:But the whole time I believed in God. I was angry with God, I was. I got really, really mad at him after a while because I I started to figure out why isn't he listening to me, why isn't he helping me? And so, um, like Job, you know, I, since I knew the Bible, I went to Christian school. I even went to Christian college for a little bit, raised on the front row of church. I knew the Bible. And so, like Job, I had heard that if you you know how Job's wife was, like Job, you should just cuss God out and you'll die.
Speaker 3:So I did that I tried over and over again. I would lay in bed at night and I would just cuss God out. I was so angry and would just cuss God out. I was so angry and years later one of my friends said you know, rachel, even when you cussed God out, you were believing in him, even that was belief.
Speaker 3:And I thought, man, he listened to every single thing that I said and he still loved me unconditionally. He loved me and I could hear him sometimes and he would tell me, even in my darkest night he would tell me you're going to be okay. I got you, you're going to be okay. And somehow I made it through my addiction and made it through the gay lifestyle, along with a lot of other things. You know I ended up going to jail a lot. I was incarcerated about eight different times, charged with eight different felonies. I know I can hardly believe this old life that I lived and I'm here to tell about it, you know. But I got set free. I met Jesus Christ almost eight and a half years ago, can?
Speaker 2:you tell us how you met Jesus?
Speaker 3:Oh man, I would love to. So I'd been to rehab about four or five different times faith-based rehabs and I thought, man, I'm just never going back to church again and I'm never going to rehab again. It's just not working for me. And a guy in Birmingham, alabama, where I'm from, he said, rachel, you should come and listen to this lady who's coming to speak at a local church. She's going to give her testimony. And I literally said why in the hell would I go back to church? I was done, I was so done with it and I ended up going.
Speaker 3:It was a miracle, just a miracle of me being in church was. That was a miracle in itself. And I was sitting there and this woman got up to give her testimony. She's filled. I could just feel the glory of God. I could feel love pulling me in again, love saying just believe in me one more time. I'm not afraid to earn your trust. Just believe in me one more time. And so she gets up, she tells her story. And I say, after she told her story, I had something that I didn't have in a while and it was a hopeful feeling. I had hope again. And I met her that night and come to find out she had a women's home.
Speaker 3:And the next morning I text the guy who invited me to go here and I said I got to have what she's got and I'll do whatever it takes. And he said Rachel, I'm sitting across my dining room table with Dawn right now. And she said that if you would like to be a daughter in her home, that pack your bags and you can go back to her women's home with her. And I said I'll go, I'll go. And that began my whole life change. I got in the car with Dawn three days later and I said I'm going to be really sick. I've had withdrawals for 13 years. I know what it's like. And it was like I was ready to white knuckle it. I was ready to buck up and do it myself and take the punishment that I deserved. And you know what she said to me. I said I'm going to be sick and she said, rachel, she said you don't have to suffer because Jesus Christ already suffered for you.
Speaker 3:And it was in that moment that I got radically set free from all addiction and set free from homosexuality. Although I didn't know it at that moment about the homosexuality part, I could feel myself come in alive. I never had one single withdrawal. I expected the withdrawals. I never had one. An hour would go by and I'd say I feel pretty darn good. One an hour would go by and I'd say I feel pretty darn good. And so that was a miracle in itself, you know.
Speaker 3:But I met the Lord. We would have time in the morning where we would just get down and encounter the Lord and his presence with worship music. And this one morning I just had this picture of God holding me as a little baby and he leaned down and he kissed me on the forehead and I knew it was God, but it looked like a father, kissed me right on the nose and then kissed me right on the lips and he said you don't kiss other people's babies on the lips, you are mine. And that changed my life. I knew I'd never be the same again. I knew it. And then it was just. You know the journey of discovering who I am in Christ, and the more I'm alive, the more I just fall in love with him. I told my sister yesterday. I said I'm really starting to believe. I see what God loves about me so much now.
Speaker 4:Oh.
Speaker 2:I love it. Would you be willing to talk a little bit about how you had I can't remember like you saw a vision you were in a white dress. I think that's so significant.
Speaker 3:Yes. So you know the rehab that I went to. I honestly just thought if I could just get off of drugs my life would be a lot better. I wasn't really ready to yield my whole life to the Lord. You know I didn't have an issue with being gay. Other people had an issue with me being gay. I didn't have the issue with it, although I was miserable.
Speaker 4:You know everybody was trying to tell me something different.
Speaker 3:And I'm like no, I'm good with it, but I had no joy. My smile was gone and I did not like myself, and this is my own experience. But one day, during worship, I was having this encounter with the Lord and in my mind I call it like a flash vision, and I just had a picture and I was a bride. And I was standing in a flash vision and I just had a picture and I was a. I was a bride and I was standing in a white dress. You know, and you probably heard the story a lot with people, but it happened to me. And, um, I looked down the aisle, at the end of the aisle, and there was Jesus Christ standing down at the end of the aisle and the love that I felt from his eyes. I knew that I wasn't gay. It was the love.
Speaker 3:Nobody had to tell me. Nobody had to tell me anything, even Dawn in the women's home. She didn't. When I got down to the home, I was dressing like a teenage boy, you know, and she didn't say oh, change your clothes. Now that you're here, you're going to put on a dress. She really, let the Lord lead me into that. Now that you're here, you're going to put on a dress. She really let the Lord lead me into that and all of a sudden I didn't want to wear cargo shorts anymore or camouflage. I was like, well, this is interesting, I like the color pink. Now, that's crazy. And then it was little things like this that the Lord would just continue to speak to me. I'll never forget I was in Walmart one day and the like the hygiene section or the beauty section, and I just heard the Holy Spirit and he said, why don't you buy some Dove body wash today?
Speaker 3:And I thought me, lord, dove body wash. I use Irish spring. And slowly he was bringing out my true self, my femininity, and I'm like, oh my gosh, man, it was all these little whispers. I'll never forget the day that he said to me baby, why don't you just go get a manicure today? And I thought me Lord, a manicure. I've never had a manicure before.
Speaker 3:And it was these little. We're just walking, step and step and step and step and I'm starting to see what the fuss is all about. It's. He's crazy about us human beings. He is madly in love with humanity. He longs for us to know his love and he has stopped at nothing to prove himself to us over and over again. He has gone to every length imaginable and even in my darkest night he was right there with me, holding me from the inside out, telling me I love you. Wait till you see what all the fuss is about. It's you, it's you. The fuss is about us human beings, and this relationship is my life. I can't tell you enough. I'm starting to see what the fuss is all about.
Speaker 2:I'm starting to believe that god really loves me I love it and I you know, as I'm sitting listening to you. I've known you what for seven years. Yeah, yep, that's right. And we started on a radio talk show.
Speaker 2:We did, and I think her dad got in touch with me and said hey my daughter's here from Birmingham and I mean I just look at you and I'm amazed at what you're doing in this region and beyond to touch lives. Will you share with our listening audience what you're doing? I mean it's amazing, I would love to.
Speaker 3:It's my joy. I started a ministry called Greenhouse Lilies about seven years ago and it is a jail and prison charity nonprofit. And so right now I'm going into five county jails in the Florida Panhandle. I go in on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis to teach a class or a chapel, and I go in and remind hopeless daughters that it's not too late for them, that they're never too far gone. I go to remind them what love believes about them and to tell them how valued they are, that they're precious, that they're priceless and that they haven't blown it. Amen.
Speaker 2:You know, I look at how. What was your vulnerability, what was your pain, has become your platform. That God has opened these doors to go into five different I mean. I know it's. I've heard from different friends. It's sometimes hard to get in, get your foot in the door into the different jails and prisons, and look at you, you're in five.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Wow and.
Speaker 3:I love it. You know I'm going today. I'll be in Okaloosa County today and I just I'm falling in love with the ladies in there. I'm like, when you get out, call me, let's go have coffee. I just want to be a part of your life. I don't want to be your mentor or anything like that. We're on the same level. We're equal in Christ. We're all one. What Christ Jesus has done, by seating us at the right hand of the Father, is he has taken away all hierarchy and made us one. We're level with each other because of Christ Jesus. And so I'm like man, I just want to walk with you through life, and if you don't have anybody who believes in you, I do, and I'll never forget that about you, valerie Peterson. I do and I'll never forget that about you.
Speaker 3:Valerie Peterson, you believed in me when not a whole lot of people did. A lot of people were looking at me eight years ago saying, oh, this girl, she just got out of drugs. This is just a. It could even just be jailhouse religion for her. She'll probably go back, and not you. You looked at me in the eye and you saw me eye to eye as a friend. You did, and that is crucial for the people who are coming out of darkness and into the light, that they feel like they're co-equals with us Do you know what I'm saying? And that we believe in them. One thing I realized is that there is nothing like having people endorsing you, supporting you, promoting you, being for you 24-7 and not reminding you of sin that's already been paid for.
Speaker 2:That's good, that is so good. You know, as you're talking, I'm thinking of the verses in Psalm 40. I waited patiently for the Lord. He turned to me and heard my cry. He took me up out of that mud and mire and he put my foot on a new foundation and I have a new praise in my mouth. That's you, rachel, I mean. He literally pulled you up and out, but he was with you in the pit. He was, you know, he was right there with you. You know, if someone's listening today, you know I think of prescribed drug addiction, which you shared, you have struggled with. If someone's listening and is right now struggling with that, what would you say to them?
Speaker 3:It's not too late. It's not too late. Don't give up hope. Freedom is just around the bend for you. Today could be your day of freedom. Do something different. Don't be afraid to try the rehab again. Don't be afraid to reach out to somebody again. God's perfect plan is just now about to unravel for your life. Probably. You know, I find that sometimes being miserable isn't the worst thing. Sometimes it can be the best thing. Being miserable, the way that you are, I mean it, made me say, okay, I'll try it again.
Speaker 2:Love it.
Speaker 3:I'll try the rehab again.
Speaker 2:Love it. You know I always say pain in our lives is the greatest motivator for change. We don't do much changing, you know, until we're in enough pain. As believers, we just and like you're saying, we've got to look at, can we embrace where we're at, and if we're walking through a painful time, let it draw you to your heavenly father, not away, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I'm a super happy Christian Most mornings when I wake up, I am just so thankful to be alive, that I made it, through the struggle of addiction and disorientation and confusion. I wake up and I'm like number one I can't believe that I'm alive, that I made it and number two, that I have this treasure on the inside of me, that Christ Jesus. I'm like, how did you get in my body, Really in my temple? My temple is the most beautiful shrine in the whole universe. I'm you know, our bodies are more beautiful than the Vatican because we have Christ in us, we have the Holy Spirit, God Father, living inside of our temple bodies and I'm just, I mean, that gives me so much joy. I'm like and I feel like that's what happened with Paul. He's like, guys, guess what he writes in Philippians? Guess what? I'm in prison again.
Speaker 1:The guards think they got me this time guys.
Speaker 3:But guess what? I'm really enclosed in Christ and I couldn't be happier.
Speaker 2:Wow, you know, as you were talking, I was thinking of the verse in Matthew 11, 28. Come to me and I think someone needs to hear this today Come to me, all of you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. My yoke is easy and my burden is light For someone listening in. Don't do this on your own Right. That's right. You had accountability right.
Speaker 2:You had someone that you know, dawn believed in you and said come with me, tell one person. Would you tell someone? Someone that that is trying to do this white, knuckling it on their own? Yep, find somebody that you can be honest with right.
Speaker 3:Reach out, reach out again. Don't be afraid, don't be embarrassed. There's nothing to be embarrassed about. Reach out again to somebody who you know cares about you and give it a whirl. Try the rehab one more time and just see what happens. Just try it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yep, love it, love it. John, do you have anything that you'd like to add?
Speaker 4:I do, you know.
Speaker 4:I was just thinking too about the body of Christ and the church and how and how can we best witness to people that are in homosexual lifestyles and things like that, where I just find in the culture a lot of people it seems like that are in that lifestyle.
Speaker 4:Honestly, they go to certain churches because they've and those have kind of almost become to be known the gay churches, you know, because they feel accepted there. And you know, like when I listened to Beckett Cook, someone that everyone should hear about, you know, he was in that lifestyle and he was in a coffee shop in West Hollywood and had been in a gay lifestyle for many years and some, some, uh, folks were doing a Bible study in there and he just started asking them about it and said what do y'all think of about us? And they said or your God? And they said our God loves you. He loves you so much he wants to know you. You know, but it is a sin we have to tell you. So it's kind of like that line of how does the body of Christ best witness to people that are living in lifestyles that may not be aligned? Do you have any advice on that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, my go-to verse really is that God is love and love is God. So what does it look like to love each other honestly and to love each other authentically? And to me it looks like endorsing identity, endorsing who the person truly is, whether they can see it or not. Yet it's telling them who they truly are, because I remember feeling like in my own skin, I'm not me right now. Will somebody tell me who I am?
Speaker 3:I'm not me, and then I would hear all these other people tell me who they thought I was. But really it was Christ in me, trying to tell me who I was, but I don't know. I feel like I don't know if there's a generic, one response to that question, because everybody's journey is going to be unique and individual. I do feel like the church could be more loving I'm not saying accepting, but definitely more loving Because sometimes it seems like Christians are some of the meanest people on the planet sometimes and they'll be so judgmental to what they don't understand. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 4:I do and I think what a lot of it is is it's perception. Perception becomes people's reality Because the reality is that most Christ-centered churches are very loving, they love everyone, but the perception often is that maybe those people are not accepted or not loved. So I think the body of Christ, the church, maybe needs to do a little better job of how they communicate it or it's perceived, maybe, because perception is everything. It's good, it is.
Speaker 3:And Jesus was the friend of sinners. He was God in the flesh, right In the incarnation. He was God in flesh, right In the incarnation. He was God in the flesh. And here he is hanging out with sinners, baffling the religious people, and the religious people are like he hangs out with sinners and they mocked him and scorned him and really they killed him because of that. And so sometimes I wonder what was he doing with them that made them feel so darn loved? They were irresistibly attracted to Jesus.
Speaker 3:The sinners wanted to hang out with him more than the religious folks did, and I'm like man, what was it about him? And I feel like he didn't. He had a way of calling them out on their stuff, but what he did more was he reminded them who they truly were to him. Wow, and I don't know that. He got in, you know, with all the so-called sinners and tax collectors and said man, you guys are the worst bunch of sinners I've ever met. Do you understand what I'm saying? So I want to know. I believe that we're supposed to walk and talk like Jesus did, right? And so I'm like, I'm not afraid to hang. In fact, I still have a lot of gay friends on Facebook too. And I'm like man. I just love you guys so much, and sometimes they ask me what happened to you.
Speaker 3:I'm like man, I'm so glad you asked that I'd love to tell you, but I definitely think that we could. I think the answer for and I know this is cliche, but I believe it because it happened to me the answer for everything is love. Love changed my behavior. See the look of love in the eyes of Jesus, who is God, changed my whole life. Nobody had to tell me take off the cargo shorts, girl. Love told me let me show you who you truly are. And so what if, just by loving people sincerely and genuinely and not pointing out where they're missing the mark, so to speak, or where they have disorientation, disfiguration, where they have a blurry self-image, they're not looking in the mirror clearly and seeing the very image and likeness of God in their own human faces? Do you see what I'm saying? What if, by reminding them, dude, you're made in the image and likeness of love, you're made in the image and likeness of God, instead of pointing out all their failures or their flaws? Does that make sense.
Speaker 4:That was great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, and I'm thinking of Galatians 2.20. It's no longer I, but it's Christ who lives within me. As you were talking, I'm thinking we have the Holy Spirit to help us to speak in a way that people will have ears to hear us. Does that make sense If we ask them what to say, maybe what not to say, in given situations, to draw people to him, because our words are powerful. Do you know how often I hear in private practice people say that coach that said this to me back when I was in high school, it totally has changed my life negatively. Or my parent that said this when I was five years old. It's amazing.
Speaker 2:Words, life and death are in the power of the tongue. Choose life. As believers, can we rely on the Holy Spirit to help us to choose life, to speak into other people, to draw them to our heavenly Father? Well, in closing today, gosh, I want to say to people and I wonder if you all will add this also say yeah, yeah, yeah is find a good church. There's something about that corporate anointing, that being together. I know when I sometimes I don't know if this happens to you, rachel, but I'll walk into church and I'll just be feeling kind of heavy or whatever, carrying burdens. There I walk out different. There's something about being together with believers in praise and worship, hearing the word of God, that you walk out differently. Get involved in a small group. There's, you know, here at Destiny Worship Center. There are amazing small groups. Check it out here. If you're somewhere else or in another church, check out their small group, because there's something about community, right, rachel?
Speaker 4:Fellowship.
Speaker 2:Fellowship yes, it's important. And lastly and I love this thing check out the Disciple Me app. It's amazing. Pastor Stephen has different books of the Bible, that he goes chapter by chapter. I've learned so much through the Disciple Me app, so check that out online, and we are just honored to have you here with us today.
Speaker 3:Thank you all so much. I've just loved being with y'all. Thank you, thank you for coming.
Speaker 2:John, will you close us out in prayer?
Speaker 4:Yes, well, heavenly Father, thank you so much for this conversation. What a blessing. Your light has been shining throughout this conversation and we just ask, lord, that you just touch people and people come to know you through the truth of the gospel, and we just thank you, jesus, amen.
Speaker 1:Amen. You've been listening to Road to Redemption, sharing powerful life testimonies, giving hope to those on their own road to redemption. If you have any comments or questions, we would love to connect with you. You can reach out to us at destinyradiolive. Thank you for listening and we'll see you next week on Road to Redemption.