Road To Redemption
Road To Redemption
Victoria Jones Journey from Darkness to Freedom.
Victoria Jones shares the powerful story of how she went from planning suicide to finding freedom and abundant life in Christ after a divine encounter with a stranger who gave her a Bible.
• Grew up with unhealthy performance-based coping mechanisms.
• Performance addiction led to depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts in college.
• Maintained a perfect social media image while inwardly planning to end her life.
• Encountered a stranger named Martha Jackson who gave her a Bible with Psalm 55 highlighted.
“Let death take my enemies by surprise; let them go down alive to the realm of the dead, for evil finds lodging among them. As for me, I call to God, and the Lord saves me. Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice. He rescues me unharmed from the battle waged against me, even though many oppose me. God, who is enthroned from of old, who does not change— he will hear them and humble them, because they have no fear of God.” Psalms 55:15-19 NIV
• Martha's simple act of obedience saved Victoria's life that day.
• Years later, joined a freedom group at Destiny Church where she truly met Jesus.
• Learned about forgiveness and developed a personal relationship with God.
• Marriage and family healed through submission to Christ and serving each other.
• Faith journey has broken generational patterns, allowing her son to grow up knowing God.
• Encourages others struggling with mental health to get connected to God's Word and community.
If you're battling suicidal thoughts, depression or anxiety, please know that Jesus loves you and died to give you abundant life. Get connected to a Bible-believing church, join a small group, and surround yourself with people who care about your spiritual wellbeing.
For more information contact us at
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:Welcome to Road to Redemption. I'm John Martin, your host, and we have an exciting show today to good friends Victoria and Garrett Jones. How are y'all?
Speaker 3:Good morning. We're great Doing well, thank you. Oh, so good are y'all Good morning.
Speaker 2:We're great Doing well. Thank you, oh, so good Y'all could come in. I know we're going to have a great show. First off, talk to us a little bit about how did y'all get to this area. How did y'all find us in Florida?
Speaker 3:How did we get to this area?
Speaker 4:Well, we were.
Speaker 4:We uh the Holy we had just come um from, uh joined a new church in uh Biloxi uh the church of the King campus there and as we grew there we uh got more touch with like the Holy spirit and we kind of knew that some changes were happening in our lives and we were being called somewhere else. And then, about six months before we moved here, her sister moved out here. And you know family is very important to us and we wanted our kids to kind of grow up together, you know, to play together and have those relationships really strengthened. And so that spring, when she moved out here, we started looking at listing our house and, you know, got open doors and we were able to move here pretty quickly, okay.
Speaker 3:Funny thing is Garrett said he would never live in Florida and we moved here as a trial basis. We thought let's rent for a year, see how we like it. Three months in we got connected at the Freeport campus for Destiny and immediately we just knew that we were going to be planted here for some time.
Speaker 2:Amen.
Speaker 3:It's been what? Three years now.
Speaker 4:Going on four.
Speaker 2:Well, Victoria, we talked a little bit before the show about testimonies and we decided today we're going to hear your story, so tell us a little bit about your journey.
Speaker 3:Yeah, my journey has been a whole life journey with Jesus. I shared with you a little bit this morning that I was a child growing up in church and really took it at face value that Jesus loves us. He died for our sins and I just believed with my whole heart that I was going to heaven, and still do. I didn't understand what it meant to have abundant life in Jesus. I didn't know what it meant to walk with him or to be a friend of God until much later in life and we actually moved here. I joined a freedom group, met the Holy Spirit and kind of looked back on my life and things were illuminated, all these places along the way where God really was just pursuing my heart for quite some time Wow yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, talk to us a little bit about some of the trials and things you've had to maybe go through in your walk.
Speaker 3:that's kind of brought you along in your faith riddled with fear, anxiety and a desire to perform and achieve At home. That was very tumultuous and what I kind of figured out is, if I made the good grades, did the good things, got the marks, met the goals, that that would kind of temper things down for a moment. So I developed this habit of self-reliance, of performance and using that really as a method of of controlling my environment at home. If I did that, mom and dad would be happy and and they wouldn't fight and I wouldn't, you know, be in harm's way. Um and so, yeah, after after years of doing that, I went off to college and just was not able to uphold that level of performance. I started to struggle in school.
Speaker 3:Depression, anxiety were really strong and, yeah, this kind of pressure really just took a toll on me and I've really started to be tormented and kind of give myself over to just partying things that aren't great and and it led to thoughts of thoughts of suicide, to ending my life, and because I just thought, okay, well, if I cannot perform, if I can't make the grades, if I can't be who people think I am, then who am I? And it's just better if, if I'm not here, which sounds so odd. I know now that it was truly a spiritual battle and that it was this kind of lie that I'd been believing since the time I was a child. Yeah, I grew up in a home that was very violent, very abusive in a lot of and again, just performing was my way out. It was just kind of this escape and went off to college, really thought I was starting over in life and I think the toll of everything kind of just came down on me with contemplating suicide.
Speaker 3:Nobody would have known it because I was in a sorority living, you know, posting on Instagram like everything was great and fine and but deep inside I was just so sad, I was so tormented and I had a struggle with really bad PTSD from just growing up in a harmful home. I would wake up in the middle of the night just fearful screaming and I was just so tired. I can't. I can't tell you if I actually actively wanted to die or if I just was really exhausted and wanted to just rest. I didn't want people to know. So I would go. You know I would. I was so withdrawn but I knew people would get worried or people would think something was up if I disconnected altogether. So I would go to a social, take a picture, picture leave, I would go, and, and so it looked one way, but I was suffering silently.
Speaker 3:I mean, maybe you know you could see the straight A student was getting B's and C's now who? But that wouldn't have been the tell. They didn't know, like, what was happening in here. And so I even remember telling the story to some people afterwards and they're like we just didn't, are sure you didn't know because we saw this. You just become so disconnected. I feel like it wasn't even a huge dramatic decision, it was just this moment of I'm just so tired and the world is going to be okay, but I need rest.
Speaker 3:And so I thought, okay, I'm going to end my life. I had it planned out and was going to Detroit, Michigan, where my parents had moved, because I knew that if I went there, my dad would be the one to find me, and I just thought that would be easiest for everyone. And so I was very calm, calculated and just on the way to do that. When we landed in Detroit, I met a woman named Martha Jackson. For about five minutes, as I was charging my phone, Martha Jackson sat next to me and gave me her Bible. She talked to me about her family. She talked to me about where she was going. It was a very brief conversation and ultimately she left and she said I just really want you to have this.
Speaker 3:Well, when I opened the Bible, I thought, okay, this is a sign, I should read it. I opened the Bible and it was on Psalm 55 and there was a prayer put in there, and on Psalm 55, what was highlighted was let death take my enemies by surprise. Let them go down alive to the grave for evil finds lodging among them, and the prayer that was bookmarking the book said Come, Holy Spirit of the living God move upon the waters of my soul when love is lost in a flood of love, when there is no hopes in hope. And I just continue to pray that over many years I didn't obviously in my life that day, but I can't say that I started to follow Jesus at that moment either. I just kind of hung to that verse and clung to that poem, kind of as this little life raft when things were rough. But I just think about that lady because I wasn't visibly in distress and I know God was speaking to her and her obedience because this Bible was, this was her war Bible.
Speaker 3:I mean prayers notes. She was an older black woman and she just you know that this was her war Bible, I mean prayers notes. She was an older black woman and she just you know that this was hers and I think. What would I have thought if God said give that girl your Bible? Maybe she was obviously more mature, but my initial thoughts at that time would have been well, it's mine. And what if she thinks I'm weird and am?
Speaker 2:I really hearing this Can.
Speaker 3:I take my notes out first. And she just did it. She didn't even ask, she didn't know. She'll know in heaven. Maybe the Holy Spirit really did tell her. But I think too of that obedience of you. Could say, people say if you don't, someone else will, but that's not always true. Someone else didn't have her Bible with that prayer and that scripture.
Speaker 3:I had a verse and clung to that poem, kind of as this little life raft when things were rough, ultimately later got plugged into church here at Destiny, joined a freedom group where I learned about forgiveness. I learned about Jesus and how his love is so personal that he's not a distant father but he is someone who died for me and what that means in terms of how I can now live and forgive and be forgiven, and I think that's what really changed things.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's awesome and you know. I'm so glad you shared that because so many folks are going through depression and suicide. It's a big deal and, honestly, the world of social media has made it worse. Everybody has these lives that aren't real. They put it out on social media. So what do you have to say to anybody out there that might be struggling with suicidal thoughts?
Speaker 3:That you are so loved and there is a savior who died for your sins, who died to give you abundant life and who wants to give you hope and who has hope in a future for you, and that, if you are struggling with thoughts of suicide, don't listen to those lies. Those are lies from the enemy, and I just believe that there's better for you. Don't listen to those lies. Those are lies from the enemy, and, um, I just believe that there's better for you and I believe that there's hope for you. Just ask Jesus into your heart, ask him to give you hope, ask the Holy spirit to guide you, and you will be blown away by what he shows you and the love that will come.
Speaker 2:That's great. Well, victoria, you and Garrett I see you now You're living a blessed life, you have joy, you have freedom. I know you all have problems, like everybody. Talk to us a little bit about how is that happening? I mean, how has your life turned to where you're living in freedom now? How did that occur?
Speaker 4:I would say submission, daily submission, because the enemy tries the same tactics and the same attacks all the time, and so it's one of the things of like we just have to. When we start to feel those attacks, when we start to feel that pressure, we have to kind of hold each other accountable and stop like have you prayed today? Have you gotten to the word? You know, we kind of look at our lives. What can we do to get closer to God in those moments?
Speaker 3:Because they, you know, the attacks, are real and they're heavy sometimes. Well, I'll say this that, um, man, when I was depressed, when I was suicidal, I went through so much therapy. I wasn't just, you know, wallowing in it. I, I wasn't just, you know, wallowing in it. I was reading the books, I was looking at the blogs, I was doing the yoga, the meditation, looking to everything except for Jesus, and it wasn't, I mean, until I called on him and was delivered from tormenting spirits, that things changed. I mean, in an instant. It wasn't any, um, any of the other things that I had tried. It was the name of Jesus that gave me rest, that I was looking for. Um, I think that's what changed is learning and being surrounded by people who, um, taught me how to pray in authority and in Jesus, and then, obviously, being in a marriage, um, that will lead me that way as well. Things were not always great for us.
Speaker 4:Garrett was agnostic for some time, and so it wasn't until I submitted to God, until I accepted Jesus into our life, that we were able to really start living a healthy marriage and a healthy life, to where I could be the husband she needed me to be when she had those moments and attacks. When you know when I went through those attacks, you know, you know to rest on God and put my trust and faith in him.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I just remember being so. You know, I hadn't obviously ended my life but and I'd been saved I knew Jesus, but things just still weren't going well. I had so much anger, so much frustration, so much hurt that I still needed to work through. I know now the terms, for that was justified, but there's still sanctification that I'm walking out and was. And I remember, before all this happened, our three-year-old he was three at the time, going on four, and he just looked at me and said what felt so profound. He said, mommy, I remember when I was little and you were so mad and it broke my heart.
Speaker 3:He said but I believe you're going to build my heart back, mommy. And I just remember tears just falling down my face and I didn't know what God was going to do at the time. I mean, since then we've joined a church, we've gotten into small groups and we have started to believe what Jesus says and things have changed and it's so cool to know that we can raise our child in a home or he, um, he just has that from the start, the things have broken off of our family and he knows God.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's awesome. Why'd I ask Victoria, is there anything else from your story you'd want to share? Uh, to anyone that needing hope, that's kind of really lost hope and just anything else you might say.
Speaker 3:I'm trying to think of what I would have wanted to hear in that moment, of what would have helped, but I know it was the word. It was the word of God that changed it. I had no idea when I was reading that scripture that I was battling in the spirit, that the sword of the spirit is a real thing and that the word of God is alive and that it has power, that we don't wrestle, you know, against flesh and blood, that we're not in this. It's so much deeper there is a spiritual battle happening and that we can have authority through Jesus that if we just ask him into our heart, things start to change. I would say get surrounded by people that didn't know how to follow God. Get surrounded by people in a small group. Get plugged into a spiritual community. I would say get people who can help you and who love you. It's amazing that there are people who actually care about your soul and spirit. It's funny so I didn't tell you this part the way we even got into Destiny Church.
Speaker 3:A woman was cutting my hair and we were coming in and she would ask us every time do you have a church? And we'd say no, we're watching online. And she said you need to go to Destiny, you need to go. And we thought, well, this lady's kind of pushy, she told me that I was doing my kid a disservice, and um, so she just started to invite us and I we didn't go. So when she couldn't get through to us, she started working on our three-year-old grant and she would say tell your mommy and daddy to bring you to church. They need to go. Just ask him, it's right by your house. So grant eventually just started begging us to go to church and that's how we got plugged into destiny.
Speaker 3:I didn't know until later, when I became friends with her, that every time I sat in her chair she was praying for me, she was anointing me and praying for me that I would just give my heart over to Jesus and start to follow him and go to church. Um, and I know that now because we're friends. But I think what I would say to you if you're hopeless, there are people who care and are um, praying for you that you just don't even know that there's. There's actually a loving community of people who want to accept you, that when Jesus died for us, that he gave us a new name, and maybe, maybe you don't have a family. Maybe you don't have, or you feel like you don't have friends, or you feel like you're alone. But there are people who want to be around you, who want to love you and who are inviting you into that because Jesus loved them first.
Speaker 2:And we were talking about marriage earlier and I know we said we might have y'all come on some other time to share your marriage testimony, but there are a lot of marriages struggling as well. Is there any? If there's one piece of advice you might have to share with anybody that their marriage is really on the rocks and they're feeling hopeless anything you would say to them.
Speaker 4:I would say, especially for men, get connected with other men. Look at men who have strong marriages. What you're struggling with is not a burden to them, is not a burden to them, you know, like it's they want. You know, godly men want you to have a godly marriage and they want to be able to share what their failures are, what their successes are with you, so that way you can learn from them and have a godly marriage as well. And so I would say, get connected. Like small groups are always, you know, a great option, but if you just have that one person that you just feel the Holy Spirit kind of pushing you to talk to, to confide in, go up and talk to them about that, ask them for help and advice.
Speaker 3:And out-serve each other is something that we're told a lot. I think one of the things that has helped Garrett is just so wonderful at setting the example in our home of service and just loving me first, even when I am kind of prickly or he just always moves toward me in love and that really has captured, you know, my heart to move back toward him. That, like we talked about earlier, there was so much pain I had to work through. But knowing that he is just so loyal and dedicated and was just willing to listen and work through it with me and that there's unconditional love there, I think has been so helpful. But he's taught me to just serve in a way that I wasn't willing to before because of how he served me first. So whether you're the wife or the husband, I would say just serve each other.
Speaker 2:Well, and that kind of comes to. Y'all have been really saying throughout the whole show our three key pillars of Road to Redemption, which is we really encourage folks first to read the Word of God, and I really feel like the Word of God is a big piece of what saved your life. You know that lady giving you that scripture that spoke to you, that kept you to hang on, you know, and to not go through with it, and you know, we know, it was God's plan for you, not and it's his plan for everyone to not ever, ever in their life.
Speaker 2:So we just encourage those listening to pick up the Bible. Pick it up right now and just start reading it. Just open it and I just promise God's going to take you to the one scripture that's going to start speaking to you.
Speaker 2:And if you don't have a Bible there, pick up your phone and you can get the YouVersion app. You can get the Destiny's Disciple Me app and you can get the YouVersion app. You can get the Destiny's Disciple Me app and you can just start reading the Bible. We encourage you to do it now. And then the second is to get into a Christ-centered church and just go. Don't watch it online. You need to go in person.
Speaker 2:Fellowship, fellowship Just go and you know, give it one year of your life is what we say. We promise it'll transform you, but just start going. And then the last thing is to get into a group, a small group, a group you do life with and you can make yourself vulnerable, and those other believers are going to pour into you and really help strengthen you in your walk with Jesus. So that's what we do, and y'all were saying that through your whole story. So it's really cool. But I think, before we go, what I would like to do is just pray for anyone that's listening that might be going through mental attacks, even suicidal thoughts, which is something that is very common, but nobody knows. People don't put that out on their social media that they're thinking about taking their life right.
Speaker 2:That's something they don't put out there, but it's common. People are thinking about it and it's from the enemy, it's from from Satan, it's. It's not God. So we, just we're going to come and pray right now. Um, heavenly father, lord Jesus, thank you for Victoria and Garrett coming on and sharing their powerful testimony. Garrett coming on and sharing their powerful testimony. And, lord, we, just we come right now.
Speaker 2:We pray for anyone listening that is having these thoughts suicidal thoughts, depression, anxiety, any of these thoughts and we just say, by the authority of Jesus, these thoughts are not from you, they're from the enemy. And we just say, by the authority of Jesus, they must leave now to never return again. And we say that these folks that are listening, that they come into agreement that Jesus wants them to live and have a long life with Him. And we just pray that they will take that step to reach out, to start reading God's Word and to get into a church and into a small group. And we just pray for them right now. And we just pray for them right now. We believe that they are being released from these thoughts and that they are coming into faith and just a blessed long life by you, lord Jesus, and we give thanks for all those that heard this prayer and that these prayers have been answered. Thank you, lord, amen.
Speaker 3:Amen.
Speaker 1: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.