Addiction, Loss, and a Life Redeemed | You Are Loved Podcast

stories in the hopes of encouraging you to keep going no matter how hard it is and to show you how loved you are by your heavenly father. This week I have the honor of sharing with you Jacob's story. Drugs had been a part of Jacob's life since he was a young teenager. When both of his brothers passed away from overdoses, within just a few months of each other, Jacob wanted to give up the drugs. He couldn't, so instead he decided to take his own life. For 30 days straight, he intentionally overdosed, but no matter how hard he tried, he kept waking up the next day. Clearly, God had a plan for Jacob's life. Watch to see where he is today. So tell me a little bit about yourself. Well, I'm Jacob Bernat and I'm from Madisonville, Tennessee. I'm 26 years old. Tell me a little bit, Jacob, about your life. Well, when I was about 13, 14, I started experimenting with drugs and it carried on into my young adult years like my early 20s, but it was always a social thing. I never got into heavy addiction until my early 20s when actually I lost a girlfriend that I was with for three years. I lost her to an overdose in my early 20s. And you know, as a young man, I really didn't know how to deal with that. And so what I found out is by doing the drugs, I can learn myself to not deal with it. And that's what I carried on doing. And for a few years, I got into heavy, heavy addiction. Everything that I had worked for is going, you know, and just going in and out of jail. And eventually, the lifestyle led me to prison, Northwest Ben-Tetri. And I did a while there. And I was able to stay clean by going to see orange stuff after prison. But then I ended up losing both and both of my brothers within 60 days of each other, younger and older brother. And I still didn't know how to deal with it. But I knew that I didn't want to do drugs anymore. You know, did you lose them to addiction? Yes, I lost them both to overdoses. But I knew that drugs wasn't an answer. And honestly, it remained me not want to live anymore. So I actually thought of the last dose that I did enact an addiction. And I went and done it because I figured that it would take me out of this world because I was really just sick of it. But I woke up the next day in my own vomit and stuff in the floor. And I was really mad. And I actually remember I had an argument with Guffin. I was like, "Guffin, I just want

to be out of here." Because my whole entire life, it's been chaos. And I'm tired of dealing with it. I'm tired of going back to the same thing. I refuse to go back to the same thing. So just let me end my life, you know. And for 30 days straight, I offered us 30 talents. Repeatedly trying to take a lot for 30 days. But on the 31st day, I had a phone call with Willie Letterman from Burbas. And in that phone call, he asked me to come let them help me through. So I decided to do it. You know, I just took a step of faith. And I realized that God wasn't just going to let me out. Clearly, that's something. His son, I haven't let you go through all this, just to waste it, you know. And I with on a completely different level, we were able to work through all the stuff that was in the soil, all the deep roots, we were able to dig all that out and face it together. And that was actually my coach for Stephen Deese, and he really helped me identify and helped me find my identity. But while I was there, I actually had a experience with the Lord wellzer, and during that experience, he was teaching class, and he was doing a tabernacle class, and he did a prayer call at the end of it, and he said, "Somebody needs prayer, they need to come up here, somebody needs prayer." And I'm just sitting there, like always, I've always felt like whenever I felt like I needed to go up for prayer or something, I'd always find it, because I don't want these people to think that I've got something going on, I don't want to be this tough guy, but I opened my Bible, and the first thing that I read was in the red letters, and it said do not be afraid to disbelieve, so I went up there, and what I prayed for was exactly what was bothering me, and it was, you know, I was still hung up on getting over everything with my brothers, and he prayed for healing, and I just, all that I did was simply what the scripture said, and that was not to be afraid and just believe, and I believed that I was willing to get that healing, and today I'm no longer bothered, but, you know, it's really been an experience that they really do this. Wow, how long ago was that? How long have you been in the program? Nine months.

Nine months. Radical life changed in less than nine months. That's amazing. Tell me a little bit about how God's using you today and what you're doing, how life is different now. Life is, like, I'm doing things today that I never really thought that I could do, like it was always his dreams, you know, and the Lord has taken care of me in a lot of ways. He's taken care of me financially. He, through my proving of integrity and honesty and just living out the characteristics that he gave us examples of through trust, through practicing my identity. He has blessed me with certain things, you know, like I'm a mitigation manager for Reading Now Restoration, and I've never been at a job that I love so much that it doesn't feel like word, but every area of my life, I've got complete peace in. All the bridges that I've burned with my family have been restored. I've got a great relationship with my daughter and nothing can be better for me. I'm so glad to see such a radical change that's amazing. So there's a lot of people that are dealing with a lot of heaviness, a lot of brokenness in this world. And so overcoming the trauma that people go through is really hard, right? And so you had to overcome a lot. I mean, three of the closest people to you passing is not something that most people could continue on after going through. What advice would you give them? What could you share with them that would have helped you to know during that time? um, throughout the cycle of all those events, I would stop and try to get hell multiple times, but I would find myself in reoccurring where he lapses. And that's because I couldn't figure out, I couldn't figure out what could help me. Like it, the enemy would tell me that there wasn't any hell, you know, but there is help and there's a lot of people that will help. Um, I'd like to say, don't give up. It's not how many times you fall down. It's how many times you get back up. And the biggest thing for me was a prop, you

know, I felt like I didn't need hell sometimes. And it would stop the work from being able to help me and learning your identity. Cause once you have a hold on your identity, there's nothing, there's, it actually says that no work, no weapon formed against seashell prosper. Once you know your identity as a son, as a daughter, then no weapon that is formed against you will prosper. There's nothing that the enemy can do to coming between that relationship. Cause it's served forever and it's a turtle. And I like about that verse, there will be weapons formed against us, right? Because the world will come against us. The enemy will attack or bad things will happen. But when you know who you are, right? Yeah. Yeah. Once you know your identity, you learn how to identify. Yes. You know, and it's best, like, like giving me today, I still old friends that I had, I let them come to me. I don't go out because and I especially don't go out without accountability. You know, and even if they come to me, there's accountability because you're the only one that can give the enemy authority in your life. You're the only one that can put yourself in a situation to fall. Um, you just have to learn how to identify and learn boundaries. Boundaries is a big time. That's good. That's good advice. Thank you for that. I want to ask one more question about love. I know you said when you were stuck in that cycle, you felt like nobody cared that nobody could help. And so I think that we like to talk about love because the world has a twisted understanding of what love is and what love looks like and what our expectations are with love. And so I'm curious if you can talk for a minute about in your previous life, um, what love looks like what you thought it meant when you said, I love you when someone said that to you versus today, what love looks like now that you've experienced a different kind of love. Okay. Well, love to me was what you can do for me. Yeah. All right. That's as blunt as I can put it in that lifestyle or even before that lifestyle, even as a kid, it was what can you do for me? What can you get me? What no toy? Can you get me? What no PlayStation? Um, it was so materialistic. And I believe that is one of the twisted views that the world has on it because it's not what can you do for me? But what can I sacrifice for you? You know, best true love whenever you're willing to give stuff up for somebody. Um, since I've experienced God's love, he's he's really gave me great revelation in his love. And I really recommend everybody to read every official of John. You know, it was a possible John really had a bell.

Um, he actually tells us, if you say you hate your brother, you can see, but say that Jesus came and gave us an example all throughout the gospel. And it's literally so simple, but people get it so complicated. It's just no matter what anybody does, we're supposed to love them. And practicing that shows you his love for us. And then we're able to carry out one of the last commandments that he gave us and asked to love each other as he loved us. And I'm grateful for how much he does love me. You know, the things that I've done, the things, it shouldn't be forgivable, but he forgives me for every one of them. And that's how we're supposed to be with each other. It's literally so much easier to forgive others when you realize what we've been forgiven of. It's really fun. Jacob, is there anything else that you wanted to add and that I didn't ask you, or you wanted to say about anything we talked about today? Well, I'm just glad that I could share a little bit of my story, and I'm a bit helped somebody find some hope. I have no doubt that your story is going to bring a lot of people hope. It's going to help them keep going when they feel like giving up, and that it's going to remind them that it's never too late, that they're deeply loved, it doesn't matter how many times they found. Thank you for being willing to open up and share that with us today. Yeah, yeah, all the sudden, you're saying it doesn't matter how many times I fell, it actually says that a righteous man falls down seven times, but he gets back in seven times. So it's actually spiritual. Yes, yes, it's awesome. Thank you. I appreciate them. Thank you for ending them.

Isn't that story amazing? Restoration is possible. Like Jacob said, don't be afraid. You too can find healing. It starts with learning your identity in Christ. Friends, if you are struggling with addiction or want to help others who are, I encourage you to check out the organization he talked about, which is called True Purpose. They do an incredible job of helping men and women not only lead lives of sobriety, but also find their God-given purpose. Join us next week to hear another encouraging story, and be sure to subscribe or follow so you never miss an episode. Most importantly, I pray you know that no matter how far you or someone you love have run from God, it is never too late. There is always hope because you are loved. [BLANK_AUDIO]