Oabona was bound to chains of excruciating pain which spiralled into a terrible addiction to painkillers, marijuana and alcohol - all in an attempt to 'manage' it. Be inspired as you hear her moving testimony - how in just one supernatural moment she was set free from decades of addiction, after receiving prayer from Brother Chris in the mighty name of Jesus Christ!
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00:00I'm addicted to painkillers. I'm addicted to smoking marijuana. I'm addicted to drinking alcohol.
00:07At 3 a.m. I'll be with my torch in a dirty bin just digging it out.
00:15And then sometimes I'll be so desperate I'll just look on the streets where it is rubbish looking for that.
00:21In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, you spirit of addiction, out!
00:30I've got backpents for 15 years. I'm addicted to painkillers. I'm addicted to smoking marijuana.
00:43I'm addicted to drinking alcohol excessively.
00:46Okay, don't worry. Your time of freedom has come. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, you spirit of addiction, out!
00:55Whatever is the cause of that pain, out!
01:00Thank you Jesus Christ.
01:02Out!
01:03Thank you Jesus Christ.
01:06Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus Christ.
01:11Wherever that pain is located, be free in Jesus' name.
01:19Be free in Jesus' name.
01:23Jesus' name.
01:24Thank you your free sister.
01:41Thank you Jesus.
01:42Thank you Jesus.
01:43Thank you Jesus.
01:45My name is Swabona Matlape. I live in Poole, in England.
01:52It all started in 2008.
01:54I just wake up one morning and I felt some pain.
01:59I thought at the time maybe I didn't sleep well.
02:03The pain continued for years and years.
02:05I went to the doctors and they couldn't see what was wrong with me until a few years ago they said the pain was caused by inflammation and they gave me tablets and everything.
02:21Nothing worked and this problem really affected me on daily, on daily basis.
02:27I would swell up, my booty would swell up even from the top of my head.
02:32I couldn't do most things that I wanted to do.
02:35If I had to bend down to do something, it would take me quite a while to stagger my back very slowly so I couldn't just bend down and up again.
02:50And then at night I wouldn't sleep, I would be waking up with pain, I wake up in the morning with a low mood which, you know, became a depression in itself because of lack of sleep.
03:04This problem continued, I went to physiotherapies, I went everywhere, I even went to traditional doctors, no cure.
03:15And then the problem of back pain gave birth to me taking tablets, painkillers from the doctor.
03:22And the doctors prescribed the medication, the subscription for many years.
03:29This started in 2008, so I was on prescription, they got stronger and stronger.
03:36And also, I also thought maybe I could help the medication with some other, you know, substances like marijuana and alcohol and other painkillers that I bought from pharmacies myself.
03:52I used to call it concoction. So the main reason was for me not to feel the pain and for me to be able to sleep.
04:00But still, I'll wake up at 3 a.m. to take those again. So it's not like it solved any problem at all.
04:09When I started, I didn't have any spiritual life. I was just in the world.
04:14And somebody actually introduced me to it, said it would be better to take the marijuana instead of the medication.
04:24As they said, maybe it's natural. And then I remember somebody said, oh, the plants are made from God.
04:31So you shouldn't feel bad. You can just take it. But it was not the case.
04:37So I was not working to start with. And then when I started working, I would use my money to buy it.
04:44And it affected me so much that, you know, every day I have to take it like three times a day.
04:49So there is a lot of money and time as well, because most of the time I have to isolate myself from people to be able to do all these things.
05:00Because, you know, it's illegal, first of all, in most countries and it smells.
05:05So I cannot just go and smoke and come back. So I have to go and wash, brush my teeth and spray some perfume or something.
05:14And coming back, I wouldn't be confident enough to face anybody like my customers or my family.
05:22I would be feeling guilty. I would be feeling timid. I would be feeling all kinds of guilty and just dirty.
05:31To be honest, I tried. I tried to stop by myself because I knew it was not normal.
05:38And at the same time, I always felt like it was not part of me. I always felt like somebody else was doing it.
05:45So I tried to stop by trying to stop. I'll throw it away in the bin.
05:51And then at 3 a.m. I'll be with my torch in a dirty bin, just digging it out.
05:59And then sometimes I'll be so desperate. I'll just look on the streets where there's rubbish, looking for that.
06:06Sometimes I'll have the grace of God to maybe stop for a week or a month, and then something will happen.
06:15Something bad or something good, and then I'll go back.
06:19Something will tell me, okay, you know you can stop, so just have one more.
06:24And then that one more, it will be seven times more than before.
06:28I remember one time I visited one of the Arab countries called Omang.
06:33I thought, okay, I don't know anybody in Muscat, and I don't think that kind of stuff is available there.
06:40And I don't know how, but I found myself in the company of somebody.
06:46He actually approached me. I was just on the beach, and he asked me for marijuana.
06:51I said, I don't have marijuana. And he said, do you want some?
06:55I was like, yeah. And then he just gave it for free for two weeks.
06:59So I didn't have time to quit because I thought if I went there for two weeks,
07:04maybe I wouldn't have any connection from the people that I used to get it from.
07:09And the other thing that also affected me, I would have some relations with these people who supplied me,
07:16which is something that I regret every time it happened.
07:20It wasn't the kind of people that I wanted to be involved with.
07:24The physical pain was still there. It got worse as time went on.
07:29And before I got to know about God, I went all over seeking for solutions.
07:36You know, the doctors, sometimes even when I go to a different country,
07:40I'll go and see different physios thinking, okay, maybe this country is better.
07:45But at the end, they told me there's actually nothing they can do for me.
07:50A friend of mine introduced me to traditional doctors.
07:54I remember I was so hesitant to start with because I never, I never believed it.
08:00I never believed it's something that can help me.
08:03But my friend said, you need to stop acting like European.
08:08You are African. That's witchcraft.
08:10So this must be witchcraft.
08:11So you have to solve it by going to the witch doctors.
08:15So I'll go to the witch doctors.
08:18Some will tell me I don't have a problem.
08:21Some will not be welcoming to me at all.
08:24And also when I went there, I will look around and I will see this is not where my help is going to come from.
08:32Just the environment was not conducive.
08:35And then the last one, I think I remember, he called himself a prophet.
08:41I was like, okay, this must be, you know, where the help is going to come from.
08:45Because, you know, he will be, there'll be a Bible open when I go to his place.
08:50So I thought, okay, maybe, you know, there'll be a solution.
08:54Shortly after, after the last witch doctor, a friend of mine told me about Emanuel TV scone in Nigeria.
09:03She told me that her mother went there for incurable disease and she was cured.
09:09I remember thinking, okay, if God can cure that disease, my big pain is, is nothing.
09:16So I, I watched Emanuel TV, it was not life.
09:20So I was skeptical.
09:22I was like, oh, look at these people acting.
09:24What are they doing?
09:25And then, and then by the grace of God, I switched on TV the following day.
09:30It was on a Thursday, it was life.
09:32Oh my God.
09:33And then I started seeing my own life through the testimonies of other people.
09:38So that's when I got encouraged to, to seek the face of God with my big pains.
09:44With brother Chris, I used to have dreams when he was still at service at, at school.
09:50I was born.
09:51I didn't know his name, but now and then I will have a dream about this man.
09:56The dream will just keep coming.
09:59And I remember one time asking God, who is this man?
10:03Until recently, about a few years ago, a friend of mine told me that I can send a prayer request to God has TV here in England.
10:14That's when I started joining on the social media on, on Facebook and other medias.
10:21When I saw the advertisement for the Birmingham meeting, Let's House Arise.
10:25Immediately, I think within four minutes, it was posted four minutes.
10:29I clicked the button.
10:31I was so excited to participate and I got a response to, to invite me.
10:38I couldn't believe it.
10:39I had to read it like a few times.
10:41And I think that's when my healing started because I was so excited.
10:46You know, it felt like, you know, my life will never be the same again.
10:50I have to read the email again every time I open it with the logo.
10:53It was so good.
10:55It was so good.
10:57Yeah.
10:58Thank God.
10:59So I, I got there to be interviewed before the prayer and the sister who was interviewing me when I narrated the back pain.
11:06And then when I mentioned the addiction to marijuana, she mentioned that she also had the same issue before she was delivered.
11:15I was so overwhelmed with joy.
11:18I felt like my case is over because of her testimony.
11:24So that encouraged me so much.
11:26I started just crying and crying in trouble.
11:29And she said, no, it's okay to cry.
11:31It's okay, my sister.
11:32And she actually encouraged me to, to shame the devil and, and save my problem.
11:37Because before I would say, okay, back pains and then I'll hide the addiction.
11:42And then I went down to sit down to wait for the, for the prayer.
11:47And I remember very well, while I was sitting down, I had this very sharp pain that I've never felt before.
11:54It was as if somebody just put a sharp object and it was like twisting down my shoulder.
12:00And something said to me, you know, you can leave this place and go and have a, have a smoke, have a, have a tablets.
12:09We'll be fine.
12:10I was thinking about it.
12:11I was even thinking, oh, the bus stop is just near.
12:14I wouldn't have to go far, but the grace of God kept me.
12:18And I said to myself, okay, if this pain is going to kill me today, because I thought it was just too much, I would rather I die here.
12:28So I stayed.
12:29And, um, the time came and God prayed for, I felt as if I was in somewhere else, I didn't see anybody.
12:39I didn't feel anything.
12:41What I could feel was, um, something as if something is uprooted from my feet and I fell on my back.
12:51And then from then, that's when I knew I was free.
12:54I went back to my hotel the same night and I slept like a baby.
13:00I didn't have to take anything at all.
13:04And then I went back to Poole where I live two days after I'd been prayed for, because I always used to have stacks and stacks of marijuana and pills and everything.
13:16But the pills, when I got there straight away, I just flushed them.
13:21I was like, I'm no longer connected to this.
13:24And then I wanted to test myself because something was like asking me, are you, are you delivered or is it, is it all in your head?
13:33So I tried to smoke.
13:35It was horrible.
13:37So I have to throw it away.
13:39And I've never went back.
13:41And the other thing that happened is, um, I used to have like text messages from all the suppliers telling me almost every Friday.
13:50And I realized that they never texted me after the prayer until three or four weeks.
13:58I posted something on my WhatsApp and one of them viewed it and I could see they watched it.
14:05And then that's when I remembered that, oh, I have these people's numbers.
14:09Oh, I blocked and deleted that number.
14:12I disconnected myself from them.
14:14And I tried alcohol.
14:16I couldn't sleep the whole night.
14:18I was so sick as if, as if I was drinking excessively, but it was just in moderate, like one glass.
14:28When I go on the streets, even smell of cigarettes or anything, I just feel like wearing a mask just to protect myself from that.
14:37And now I can move my body nicely.
14:40I can bend without any problem.
14:42So I'm healed in Jesus name.
14:45And is there anything else that was going on with your body physically that you received healing from?
14:52Yes.
14:53Before I got prayed for, I was diagnosed with fibroids in 2022.
14:59And I had an operation from the fibroids.
15:04And a year later, I just experienced this terrible stomach pains where I would end up in accident and emergency.
15:13And for a few months, I couldn't understand what the problem was.
15:18It was so frequent, I would just feel like my life is going to end.
15:23And they later found that I had a blockage due to the operation.
15:30I never used to go to the toilet regularly.
15:33So that was what was causing the problem.
15:36So I, after the prayer, I'm able to go regularly, nicely.
15:42Sometimes twice a day, it's all good.
15:45And I must say, when I was going through the pain, one thing that I forgot to mention is,
15:51at some point, I was at the very, very low, like the lowest low of my life,
15:57where I thought maybe if I wasn't alive or if I wasn't breathing, I wouldn't feel the pain.
16:03So I had suicidal thoughts.
16:06But ever since the prayer, I feel free.
16:09I look forward to what else God is going to do in my life.
16:13And I thank God.
16:15My spiritual life is 10 times better than it was before.
16:20I know Jehovah Rapha, the one who healed me.
16:23I have that confirmation.
16:26Nobody can tell me otherwise.
16:28So my Lord is my healer.
16:31I know that.
16:32So I wake up in the morning.
16:33I want to read Bible.
16:34I can relate to the things that happen in the Bible.
16:39The story of the woman with the issue of the blood.
16:42She inspires me because I can imagine, you know, going through that.
16:47And she had faith to just touch the hem.
16:50So I always go by, you know what, if God can do that for her, my case also is resolved.
16:59Is there any advice that you would like to give to people who are listening at this point in time?
17:05My advice is from my own experience.
17:09I realized that my pain was to lead me to God, which is the greatest gift for me.
17:17So your pain, your situation is not meant to kill you.
17:22It's meant to keep you in God.
17:25And my other advice is from Psalm 27 verse 14.
17:30Wait in the Lord, be strong, take heart and wait in the Lord.
17:39I had judgment.
17:44I did quite a lot.
17:45Alright, but not.
17:47I testoster felt the right word again.
17:48I have to leave before you.
17:49Anyway, lookin' and leave my concluding that you may be ready of.
17:51Let me tell you in this period.
17:53I had the Bible, don't lie.
17:54I need for you in this, but I want me to wait until it works.
17:56I finally tell you.
17:58But, we knew you amonthly blossoming fat and all that, okay.
