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Carol Balizet
A Short Biography
This isn't going to be the kind of biography which begins, "I was born of poor but honest parents in Dalton, Georgia, in the fall of 1933", although that's true. No, this biography will focus more on my spiritual life,which is of course the important part. It's the eternal part, where the action is.
I'll begin with a word about birthday celebrations. I don't like them. There are only two recorded in Scripture: parties for Pharaoh and for Herod. And these two guys were not put in the Bible as role models. I'm not sure they had the cake offering and the burning of candles as we do today, but I know they had gifts and a party; and in both cases some one was beheaded.
But even if I don't like parties, I'm always aware when another year has slipped away, and among my sixty-odd birthdays, four have been especially significant. These four actually constitute a kind of mini-biography in themselves. They are:
- Thirteen: "I'm a teenager now! Whee! Nobody knows more than I do about anything, and I am fully able to run my own life!"
- Twenty-one: "I'm an adult now! Whee! I can vote and drink and I can eat a whole handful of Oreos right before supper if I want to! Nobody knows more than I do about anything, and I am fully able to run my own life!"
- Forty: "My life is half over, and it's a shambles! What did I do wrong? I need a drink!"
- Sixty: "I am not my own, I am bought with a price, and I know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified!" Now is that progress or what?
I surrendered my life to the Lord at the age of forty. It was on Lincoln's birthday in 1974. (We can't seem to get away from birthdays, can we? Nice coincidence that I was set free from Satan on the birthday of the man known as one who set slaves free.)
I was in an absolutely desperate situation, and everything else I'd tried had failed. I was twice married and divorced, an alcoholic, a single mother of four daughters, constantly broke and in debt, an unsaved Roman Catholic, helpless and hopeless. I finally surrendered the chaotic mess of my life to Jesus, and He has eternally altered not just my situation, but also me!
God has given me a remarkable life; I've had some fascinating experiences in these 23 years.
I was led slowly but sovereignly by God out of my profession in the medical system. After thirty years in its service, God allowed me to lay it down. I dropped that thing with joy, and never for one nanosecond have I missed it.
I've written three fictional novels for the mainstream Christian press, and that was a real learning (and dying) experience.
God led me into a new, exciting, demanding, glorious ministry: home childbirth. For about nineteen years, I helped Christian couples have babies at home, depending only on God. I experienced it and observed it, then wrote books about it and now I travel all over the country talking about it.
Because I've walked outside the medical system for my healing for about 25 years - I quit using it long before I quit working in it - I also wrote books about healing, and now I travel to talk about that, too. I meet a lot of marvelous people. Since my ministry involves fellowship with people who walk in profound obedience and great faith, I've seen many miracles. As the Bible tells us, signs and wonders follow such people. I have a wealth of experience - my own and others' - with a God who delights to move supernaturally in response to faith.
In addition, I have been blessed to walk through a little tribulation. I have been hauled before magistrates (I was arrested in conjunction with the home birth ministry). I have been cast out of synagogues (church leaders said; "We think you'll be happier if you go where they believe like you do"). I've been investigated by HRS; I've been audited by IRS. I have been slandered and cursed and insulted and you know what? It’s all worked for my good.
My life has taught me one thing: our God can do anything! He is the Lord, the God of all flesh, and there is nothing too difficult for Him.
- Can He deliver a baby? Of course.
- Heal? Yes, that too.
- Protect? Well, if He can't, nobody can.
- Provide? A piece of cake!
- Can we trust Him? If we can't trust Him, then we're really in trouble. And if not Him, who can we trust? Other people? Our own opinions and abilities? I don't think so.
I truly believe the hardest thing God has to do is to persuade us to give Him a chance. The biggest hinderance to His activity on our behalf is us. We stick the arm of flesh in between us and Him, we let other people get in there, we hurry to find some sight-realm solution instead of waiting on God. And the result is - He is limited. Not because He's unable, or unwilling, or too busy, or mean; but because we don't release control and faith and prayer to allow Him to act.
You can see that I really fulfill the old adage: "Life begins at forty". I was gloriously saved and I have gloriously lived. I have failed and disobeyed and lost heart and made grievous mistakes, but He just keeps on keeping on, and every time He brings me back to Himself. It has been an excellent adventure, and I can't wait to see what's going to happen next.
Personal Testimony
The final straw in the chaos of my life prior to salvation, the thing that finally brought me to my knees in utter despair was this: one of my daughters was diagnosed as a manic-depressive psychotic and admitted for treatment to a mental hospital.
At that stage of my life, I was like most people: when I had a problem I couldn't solve, I went to the human experts. In this case, it was psychiatrists - but they couldn't solve the problem either. They had no answer, no means of defeating this enemy who had my child in bondage. After six months of hospitalization, drug therapy, group therapy, psychotherapy, she was no better. They finally admitted failure, and planned to commit her permanently to the Florida State Hospital for the Insane in Chattahoochie.
I was devastated. We had followed the route of the lady in Scripture who quote;..."had; suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse..." (Mark 5:26) I couldn't keep her at home (they'd told me she would kill herself if I did that) and I couldn't stand the thought of surrendering her to the forces which control mental hospitals. Between a rock and a hard place.
Like that woman in Mark 5, we needed to touch Him, the hem of His garment. But also like her, we had many "throngs" between us and Him: psychiatrists, social workers, unbelieving Christian leaders. We had been conditioned to think that Jesus worked only through people. I didn't know then that we can cut out all the middle men! If we have the courage, or the desperation, we can remove the throng of humans who keep us from touching Him!
But God was able! Despite my ignorance and lack of faith, He saved her. Three days before she was scheduled to leave home - probably forever - my sister had the bright idea that we try deliverance. (We didn't even know that word, then. We still thought of it as "exorcism".) And in answer it her suggestion, out of my inexpressible grief and my utter desperation, I complied. We'd had absolutely no teaching in this realm, no experience, and as far as I could tell no faith in its efficacy. But I laid my hand on my daughter and said: "I command you in the name of Jesus to come out of my daughter now." And it did!
She jumped up from the chair and danced around shouting, "He's gone!. He's gone!" And my sister and I watched in astonishment. God had become not just bigger, but enormous in our eyes. My daughter was transformed, set free.
As an added benefit, her teeth were miraculously straightened!
I celebrated for a few days, then just a whisper of annoyance filtered in. "Why didn't anybody ever tell us this?" I asked. As we considered this, I got more upset. We'd been sitting in churches all our lives and nobody ever told us about demonic activity, and about our weapons against it. It was not too long afterwards that we began to realize why they didn't tell us. It was because they didn't know.
So we began to wonder, "What else can the Lord do that nobody's told us about?" And without ever discussing it much, or making a conscious decision about it, we began looking directly to God for our information. Not that we didn't read other people's books, or listen to sermons and teachings and tapes, but we knew from personal experience that He's a lot bigger and better than most of what's being taught about Him. And that realization, that we're probably not going to get the whole truth if we simply depend on others, has flavored how we've walked with the Lord.
They told us Christians can't have demons; we knew they were wrong. They told us God no longer heals; we discovered they were wrong. They told us we need a man to stand between us and God because we can't hear from God for ourselves; that's wrong too. Maybe that's how they choose to believe and walk, but we wanted more.
For this reason, it has become habitual for us to question what man says. A person may be right or may be wrong; we need to seek God for confirmation. I don't mean to imply that we're the pattern you should follow, but I give you the benefit of my experience: a lot of what's taught is religious tradition, not the word of God. And if we believe it, it will produce at least deception.
Maybe even death.
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